I woke up in a white room. Am I dead? Is this heaven? I looked to the side and saw Iron Wall.
Padet, tve mrit etam. I covered my mouth. I tried to find the Kaledonian words for what I wanted to say. I counted 21 lives, I’m not quite dead yet. My tails are gone, I assume they disappeared when I zapped myself. My mind was full with the primal language that apparently is called Protia. Its full name is Pronam Astentia and It means something similar to the original or the first language. I also seem to know all the runes now. I guess getting possessed by a strong demon had its merits… I finally found the Kaledonian words.
I see, so you died too.
“Ugh, don't kill me off yet!”
I wanted to say something again but only the Protia words came to mind. I decided to shut up because the pronunciation of the words I wanted to say were quite easy and it might have some unintended effects. The better I pronounce this the stronger its effects are but depending on the situation it might just be a spoken language, to truly bring out its power it needed to be accompanied by the corresponding runes. I inspected my body which was bandaged up and still very much covered in scratches with [Spite]. I drew 2 runes on myself and I redrew it multiple times.
These runes with living beings as material are insanely difficult to draw especially since I fall in an ‘Immortal’ category. This demon knew how to draw runes on 63 different materials so I know that too now. I did a self-diagnosis and I’m 100% myself. 0% demon. I probably died, rendering him useless, and then he got zapped and my order for him to die went through and I assume I died many times after that. 0/10 would recommend doing that again. I finally managed to get the correct runes after 10 minutes.
Chinare-Saroti All my wounds healed and it didn't care about [Spite], I still had [Spite] on me though… I then spent half an hour getting the runes correctly for Iron Wall and healed him.
Ugh… this… is a pain in the ass. I sat down in a corner as I slowly regained my ability to talk in Kaledonian. I checked the date and my birthday was almost over. What a day… I spent my whole birthday knocked out and injured… 0/10 would recommend this again.
“Huh, I’m healed? How?!” Iron Wall got up and danced around. I still had a headache but besides that I was fine. My diagnosis seemed to have many asterisks though. A lot of uncertainties. Hmm, my soul might be a bit damaged but it has no adverse effects? What does that even mean? More prone to possession? Sensitive to demonic presence? Did I inherit more than just this language and some memories from this demon? The only memories I got from him were how he got sealed and terrorized cities before he got caught, a lot of violence, and nothing else of substance.
Demons are known to exist but have never been spotted. Some ancient technology hints to their existence so the conclusion is that they ran around before the Great Eraser. Where they are now was unknown. Are they all sealed away like this guy or are they in the underworld? Spirit Isi told us that there is a Basement and that's where the demons and devils live. I don’t know what the difference is between those 2 but it's probably important.
The door flung open.
“You're alright!” Golden angel flew into the arms of Iron Wall.
“And you! Wait you’re moving and even healed?! The doctors said that you might never wake up again and possibly die! What happened?!” I got lucky. I am not wrong though, I got lucky that I was born a 9t else I’d have been dead a long time ago.
“I don’t think luck can even describe this, what even happened down there, the whole floor collapsed. Luckily, we take pride in the sturdiness of our buildings but to destroy a whole room… that demon must have been something else.” The dwarf seemed very curious about what happened.
“It took us 4 hours to dig you out, we were surprised that you were even alive. And Karina even confirmed that you weren't possessed anymore, so you must have fought the demon and won right?! Also, we got a very strange blackout.” Uhh, well I self-destructed and it paid off and I got lucky to survive.
“I’m sorry! I feel so useless! I was there but I couldn't do anything for you or Ned!" Quah is Ned, I mean who is Ned?
“Ah right, you were mumbling some gibberish in your sleep are you alright? This is Ned.” Golden Angel pointed at Iron Wall. Ah, that makes sense, did you guys dig up parts of that building?
“Are you serious? We were too busy trying to find you to bother! But I gotta say, you have spirit! I knew you were a C-rank adventurer but to think you could fight off a demon and you even managed to destroy our highly rated materials you must be truly the next Beatrice Manarune!” The dwarf was boasting about me as if I were his son. Right, I know this might sound ungrateful, but can I leave, I want to find a good restaurant before the day ends.
“Oh right, I almost forgot, it’s your birthday! How about I treat you? I will make today worth it, I promise, or my name isn't Barusu Onyxbeard! Hahaha! JEREMIAH WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?! WE HAVE A BIRTHDAY TO PLAN!” The dwarf stormed off while shouting through the building.
“Oh, it's your birthday? I’m sorry for almost getting you killed on your birthday and happy birthday! How old did you get?” You mean how old I almost didn't get?
“Hey come on Agnis, we tried our best even though it was lacking…” As of today, I’m 17 years old, and no need to apologize you did what you could… I think…
The dwarf returned with Jerry and dragged me onto a private floating platform and brought me, the two adventurers, Jerry, and some stockholders to a fancy restaurant.
“I apologize but I did some digging, it seems you love fish, is that correct?” Itm! I mean yes!
Jerry raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re alright? You seem weirder than before and tell us how you healed up after dinner I’m interested.”
“Oh yea! I want to know too! I did my best to dispel that [Spite] but I just couldn't manage! How did you get rid of it?” The Golden Angel said while she checked my status.
Uhh, bad news, the [Spite] is still there…
Jerry put his hand on his forehead. “Right, I forgot, you never made any sense, why would you suddenly start to make sense…”
We entered the extravagant restaurant and the dwarf, who apparently was called Barusu, told us to order anything we wanted. This restaurant's specialty was seafood but it also had other things. Jerry and I were crazy about salmon so we kept ordering anything that had it in the menu. Barusu just ordered almost any alcoholic beverage on the menu. Does this guy not need to eat? Can dwarves live off alcohol alone?
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“Uhh, our excuses dear customers, we ran out of salmon.” Boo!
“Boo!”
“Hey, Jeremiah, I think you had too much to drink, you're starting to act like Agnis.” Just bring us any other fish! Hey guys want to see something cool?!
“Yes!” Only Jerry seemed excited but he was hammered. Golden Angel and Iron Wall were keeping it down and were acting odd. Hey, are you 2 perhaps a couple? Their reaction confirmed it.
“Boo! No couples!” Whoa, Jerry, you're starting to sound like my friend Raishin now!
“My name isn't Ttterryyy it's Zheremiyaaa.”
“Here is the full lightning cod buffet.” Alright nobody touch the fish, look at this!
I drew a rune on the fish, I only had to redraw them once. Salmo! All the fish obeyed and turned into salmon.
How about that! Infinite salmon! Jerry cheered and we started to eat again. I answered their question about the healing and this party trick and told them about this pain-in-the-ass language that has a slightly different symbol for different materials, at least the pronunciation is consistent. I had a short but still great birthday. Barusu made a photograph to commemorate the occasion even though it was my birthday. He also fixed a nice room for me in the Yttroz Industries Headquarters.
It seems they had everything in that building, it was like an Adventurers Association but bigger and more complete. He says he only gets out of the building if he really needs to, like today. I got an enormous luxurious room. What am I supposed to do with all this space? This room is bigger than small houses! It had had a bath that produced bubbles. I relaxed in this bath and practiced writing the Protia runes. I’m not a big fan of this name, I will just call them primal runes. Sounds way cooler! I got out, dried myself, and brushed my tails.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Earlier this year I had 45 lives now I have 21. I should try to poke my nose into less stuff. And I was doing so well after the escape from Boshi Town.
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The sky was red, there was fire everywhere, people were screaming everywhere. I saw a man stuck under rubble. I walked toward him, pulled him out of the rubble while he was screaming and entered his body through his mouth. I got up sweating. I looked around. All I could see was the super luxurious room. Another nightmare, this time it came from the memory of that demon.
I tried to calm myself. I drank some Mango Punch and brushed my tails again. Maybe I should practice writing these runes again, they are a pain in the ass to draw. I drew the runes on the wrong materials so that I could practice but make sure they wouldn't linger. I dug into the memories I got from the demon that was related to this language. This language only seems to work directly on demons, against other creatures a combination of runes and the spoken word is needed. Also, this isn't the demon's native language, they had to learn this language to counter its effects. The demon couldn't remember who they were supposed to counter. Did their enemies disappear?
What else? Effectiveness depends on how well the rune is drawn and how good the pronunciation is? I already knew that. Different materials need different runes, I also knew that. According to this demon, its most potent phrase is ”Quim asti?” which means ‘Who are you?’ Why is this so potent? He did repeat this question and it was also his first question. Why is knowing who I am so important, what would he learn if he knew my name?
Golden Angel did say her name and race, maybe he was after my race? But I looked like a human, why would he want to know my race if I’m a human? Is it because I know this language? Maybe the identity of someone is important for the demons. He did want to possess me, maybe he needs to know so he knows who to possess. But he never asked Iron Wall but he possessed him too. I couldn't find the answer so I tried to sleep again but failed to. I looked outside. Another full moon. Was it me or did it seem to always be a full moon when I looked up at the night sky. I felt a very strong tug towards the moon this time. What is happening to me? I tried to look away but it was as if I was hypnotized.
I woke up. I don't remember when I fell asleep. I noticed that my tails were out and that they were silver. When did I drop my cosmetic illusions? I reapplied them and hid my tails and stretched some and went outside to find a spot to practice some more leyline movements. I found a park 3 blocks south and practiced there. All types of people from different races and walks of life passed by the park. A small girl from the cat beast kin looked at me in awe. I wondered where her mother was. Minutes later her mother found her. She watched me move the water around for a bit and then left with her kid. I tried to draw some runes in my techniques while performing them but this failed miserably.
I’m still relatively new to these leyline movements and super new to these runes, there is no way I can effectively pull that off at this point. I’m wondering if I'm taking too much on my plate. Getting better at assassination techniques was on the menu for the next year. I’m interested in the weird things Esher tried. For the rest I just need to polish my skills. I won't have to start from 0 like I had to with leyline energy so this should be easier. The year after I would focus on improving my blacksmithing skills and make cool weapons and become less shit in using swords. I haven't held a sword or hammer in such a long time. It feels weird.
I hope I didn't forget how to do all that stuff. The last time I crafted something was when I was 14… No point in worrying about that now. I have to survive the upcoming year. Someone contacted me and told me that Barusu had recovered the pieces of the ancient building. Barusu had arranged for it to be reconstructed in an empty room but this time with preventive measures. How fast can these people build?
I stepped into the large room and met Jerry again. "Nothing seems off with this building now but you can't be sure…"
Barusu was surrounded by guards and even some adventurers. "Oh, you guys are finally here, ugh give a dwarf some space, I'm not the one that almost died, go guard him!" It seems he had problems with the extra security trying to keep him safe. "Oh, by the way Agnis, a healer wants to see you, he said you've met before in Fernys."
Oh, shit that guy, tell him I'm out of town! A familiar face appeared from the crowd of people and smiled at me.
"Nice try, this is the reason I decided to come and take a look." Ugh, what is he doing here?!
"I'm here to take a look at this infamous [Spite] that even my daughter can't dispel." Ugh, what a small world, how did you even get here so fast?
"Agnis, you're an adventurer…" Yes, Jerry I know, what does that have to do with anything?
"Don't you know that Golden Angels can use the teleport gate for free?" Hmm, that makes sense, wait I totally forgot that most Adventurer’s Associations have teleport gates.
"Anyways I'm also here to thank you for saving my daughter and Sylvana but that can come later." Healerguy said and continued doing healer things.
I approached the reconstructed building. Someone even put down a meat line. Everything seemed safe. I saw Barusu throw some meat into the entrance. "Yup seems fine, we had some concerns when it glowed after we reconstructed it."
He went inside and I followed. "So, this is where the demon was sealed, it looks a bit… normal." The seal is gone so it should be a normal room now.
The text on the walls described the violence this demon committed. This text had some words that weren't in my vocabulary but they were not that hard to learn. The rune counterparts for other materials would be an issue but I have a good idea how the runes tend to vary between different materials so I should be able to figure them out if I put my tails to work. Nothing interesting was written in this building. Some parts were missing because the reconstruction didn't restore everything but I doubt it would have any importance. I explained what was written to Barusu.
"Hmm we're lucky that this thing didn't get unleashed into the world" Yeah, If it wasn't obsessed with possessing others It might have been able to escape and nothing we could have done about it.
"Surely this was the only one sealed away, right?" An uncomfortable long silence followed. "I guess we need to be careful in unearthing these things, they must be hidden for a reason…" Not all these ancient structures have something sealed within but it's hard to know if you can't read what it says…
"And I assume you're too busy to go about and translate whenever one is found?" Yup, I have my own life to live. I can however give you a small list of symbols that you should look out for. Now I am assuming every ancient structure that has a demon sealed away has these primal runes on them.
I walked toward a chunk of marble. Remember these runes are only valid on marble, you can't copy them on paper or anything else besides marble. If you find a structure that doesn't have writing on marble… I suggest that you abandon it, I'm not going to make 63 lists… The symbols that I would expect to be on those structures got melted into the marble by heating up my finger. I was very careful because it will be hard to redraw these. The most important runes were "Demon", "Danger" and "Warning". This building was very clear in the danger that was within, I would assume the others will too.
"You said you would make a list but these are 5 symbols." I changed my mind, these structures are very clear if there's danger, if you don't see these runes, you will probably be fine. Do note that it needs to be exactly these runes, I made sure to make no mistakes. A lot of runes look similar so make sure that they look exactly like these.
"Thanks, we will attempt to copy these on portable marble slabs with the utmost accuracy and spread these to our excavators. I'm sure our craftsmen will have a blast with these!" I looked at the runes I drew. They were giving off primal energy. I don't know much about how they will get these runes into marble slabs but it is not going to be easy if they are going to carve them. Barusu talked to some important people and tried to shoo some guards and adventurers away. "Get out of my beard! I'm trying to work!"
My work here was done and I tried to leave.
"And where do you think you're going?" Healerguy and his daughter were standing near the exit as if they expected this. Uhm, home?
"Guys, get him, we need to give him a check up, bring him to the Adventurer’s Association." Two adventurers grabbed me and effortlessly carried me to the Adventurer’s Association. Hey, this is abduction, kidnapping, murder!
"So dramatic!"
People looked at me as I was carried into the Adventurer’s Association and brought to the check up room. Only Healerguy and his daughter were in the room. "Let me again thank you for saving my daughter and helping Sylvana. I got a message from her saying that she arrived home safely and that she failed to convince her elders. She told me to send her thanks if I encountered you and also told me to keep an eye on you. Something about you being unable to be careful and stay out of trouble. I see now what she means… Who even gets to find a demon and gains 27 stacks of [Spite]..." Wait [Spite] stacks?
"Normally it doesn't… It is going to take a while but I'm going to get rid of those for you. Karina told me to deal with your [Spite] first because Ned isn't going anywhere and he certainly isn't as reckless as you and number 2 on the high-risk list… I did tell you about that didn’t I?" Uhh, I'm sorry…
"I'm starting to wonder if Sylvana got close to you because you're not a human, she doesn't interact with humans a lot besides me, you fight as if you have nine lives, it surely could explain a lot but the tests in Fernys confirmed that you're a human, a very weird one…" Uhh, yeah, I'm just a very likable human.
"Karina let’s get rid of his [Spite] before he gets impatient and runs off."
"I'll do my best!"
They spent 2 hours getting rid of my [Spite]. Healerguy is extremely skilled. He's a bit annoying but I think I should stay on his good side. Thanks a lot, what do I owe you?
"Stay alive, saving my daughter more than paid for that, if you ever get into trouble, which you will, hop by and I will fix you up free of charge. Gittrian is where I'm based. I also should study a bit… I have the feeling you will have some never-seen-before exotic status effect or curse the next time I see you" Hey! I'm not that reckless!
"[Vica's curse]? 27 stacks of [Spite]? Sure…" I had no counter for that.
They finally released me after checking if something else was wrong with me. They couldn't find anything but they were convinced that something was wrong with me so they checked and rechecked for way too long. Brain damage? Pff how rude. I returned to the fancy room in the Yttroz Industries Headquarters and found a lot of people there. What the?!
"He's here! It's Mr. Hourai!" I saw Jerry doing his best to get these people out.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't keep the press and paparazzi's away…" Oh hell no! I fled the scene avoiding the press and paparazzi's that had invaded the building. My assassin skills came in very handy. They were everywhere. And this is how my night ended in Gittrian on the last day of my first year.