Chapter 16: Albion

“Ha! That’s the spirit! If you keep thinking like that then you will be a hero in no time!”(Diuscrucis)

Saying that, we walk out of the former cafe and started walking down the crowded street.

“So what exactly am I going to be doing during advance field training?”(Tomo)

“You are going to continue hunting criminals for your bounty hunter profession. I will join you for the first hunt but then you will be on your own for hunting the rest. I will only step in if you are in any real danger, but don’t expect much beyond that. When I say this, I mean I will step in if your soul is about to break. If it’s not then you won't get any help from me. By the way, what’s your level and did you get a profession?”(Diuscrucis)

‘Sigh’ “I am now level 29 and I got the bounty hunterprofession. It is currently my primary profession.”(Tomo)

“Good.”(Diuscrucis)

“Then what are you going to be doing while I send everyone to jail?”(Tomo)

“I’ll be placing bombs in strategic locations to destroy all the criminal activity in west zone.”(Diuscrucis)

‘Confused look’ “How many innocent bystanders would die in those explosions?”(Tomo)

‘Shrug’ “I don’t know. Millions?”(Diuscrucis)

‘Look of shock’ “You can’t do that! They're innocent people!”(Tomo)

“Tomo. I’m fairly certain we could kill some random person’s kid and we would be thanked for it because, that child would have been guilty of rape and or murder.”(Diuscrucis)

“I don’t believe that.”(Tomo)

“Well you better start believing it Tomo. Because west zone is filled with nothing but assholes, rapists, and murderers. Hell! Give it enough time and you will start seeing your own picture being posted on the bounty boards.”(Diuscrucis)

“Why are you so certain?”(Tomo)

“Because west zone is run by Demons and by nature we are dicks.”(Diuscrucis)

To prove my point I started pickpocketing everyone we passed while we continued our conversation.

“Now, are you ready to head back to “Silky Wears”?”(Diuscrucis)

“Isn’t that like an eight hour bus ride away? Why are we traveling so far?”(Tomo)

“It is but we will be teleporting there so it will only take a few seconds. Also, I’m fairly certain we can get a discount there.”(Diuscrucis)

“You can teleport?”(Tomo)

“Yup.”(Diuscrucis)

Saying that I grab her arm and teleport us back to central zone. Letting go of her arm I take a step to the side as she wobbles to regain her footing. While she regained her senses from her first long range teleport, I emptied all the wallets I stole.

“Ok there Tomo?”(Diuscrucis)

“Ya. Just a bit disoriented.”(Tomo)

“You’ll get used to it with a bit more practice. I’ll even show you how to do it later.”(Diuscrucis)

“So why did we teleport all the way here? I’m fairly certain that we could have threatened some random blacksmith if you wanted a discount.”(Tomo)

“It’s less suspicious if we get our goods here and use it in west zone, than it is to get our goods in west zone and use it there.”(Diuscrucis)

“How is that less suspicious?”(Tomo)

“Because only morons make bombs in their homes just to blow up their own city. It is easily traceable. However, if you made the bombs in some abandoned building a few cities away and the sent it to your city through elaborate city to city networks. Even if they find your bombs, it will be difficult for them to trace it back to you.”(Diuscrucis)

“Are all Demons criminals?”(Tomo)

‘Strong nod’ “Yes.”(Diuscrucis)

Saying that I walk inside “Silky Wears” and wave towards Carolina. Smiling she runs towards me shakes my hand.

“I’m glad you came back Diuscrucis! What can I do for you today?”(Carolina)

“I need to use your forge again and I have the credits to pay for it.”(Diuscrucis)

‘Smiling’ “Great timing! I just got new supplies for the forge this morning and there is a discount today so everything is 10% off!”(Carolina)

“Thank you for letting me know. Tomo. Give me your weapon. It’s time for an upgrade.”(Diuscrucis)

After Tomo gave me her sword we went to the forge on the left side of the room. Putting a stool next to the forge, I looked around and examined what’s new. Grabbing some wires, mana stones, and a few sheets of metal I went back to the forge. I think I’ll try something out on her weapon. If it works then I can improve the groundwork for it. If it doesn't then she will be left with a slightly less than perfect weapon and I will need to try this again from scratch. Sitting down I went to work on upgrading Tomo’s weapon. After a few minutes of work I glanced up and spotted Tomo staring at me from her seat on the floor.

“Are you just going to stare at me the entire time or are you going to look at the clothes around here?”(Diuscrucis)

“Actually, I want to finish the conversation we were having earlier.”(Tomo)

“That’s fine with me but, you have to start it.”(Diuscrucis)

“Ok….. Is there anything specific I need to know about the different races?”(Tomo)

“Not really. I mean you can think of Demons as really violent mad scientists who you should never let be your lawyer.”(Diuscrucis)

“Why should I never let a demon be my lawyer?”(Tomo)

“If a demon is your lawyer then if you are arrested for smoking next to a bus stop, you wouldn’t get the $200 fine. You would get several hundred years in prison and a death sentence. This is also why Hell has so few laws. No one wants to follow them. Hell, the only reason we have one ruler over the entire realm is because we don’t want several hundred people trying to out do each other in order to do the exact same thing. That is a colossal waste of time.”(Diuscrucis)

“So instead of hundreds of armies or a bunch of people trying to prepare a realm wide party, you have only one person who manages all of that?”(Tomo)

“Exactly. Next we have the Angels. Self-righteous law bringers who will beat you to within an inch of your life and then toss you in prison for breaking any of their laws. Religious or otherwise.”(Diuscrucis)

‘Stare’ “.........”(Tomo)

“You think I’m kidding don’t you? I’m sorry but those guys have a pole so far up their asses that I’m certain it comes out their mouths. It’s actually harder to find an angel who has broken the law than it is to find a demon who hasn’t broken the law in more than three weeks. They also have no central government. Each city has their own sets of rules and are run by a different god. Despite this they all work together really well and never seem to fight. My only real problem with them is that they are so bad at science that the Demons are the ones making most of their inventions because we fear they will make something that could kill literally everyone. They wouldn’t even do it on purpose either. They could be trying to make a new cold medicine and they would end up making a pluege that gave everyone explosive piss.”(Diuscrucis)

“Explosive….. How would that even……. Nevermind...…. So what would happen if multiple Angel groups had to deal with one criminal but, all their laws say to handle it differently?”(Tomo)

“First come first serve.”(Diuscrucis)

“Really?”(Tomo)

“Yup. And if that doesn’t work then they play Rock Paper Scissors.”(Diuscrucis)

“.....Wow. You don’t seem to like Angels vary much do you?”(Tomo)

“I don’t hate them but, I don’t love them either.”(Diuscrucis)

Pulling Tomo’s new weapon out of the fire, I placed it on the anvil and started beating away on it. Looking up at Tomo I motioned her over with my tail while I started melting a few other metals in the forge.

“Tomo, I need you to do something for me.”(Diuscrucis)

“What do you need?”(Tomo)

“I need you to drop some of your blood into this container and then concentrate all your mana on it.”(Diuscrucis)

“Sure thing Sensei.”(Tomo)

Closing her hand into a tight fist, Tomo made her hand bleed and let the blood fall into a container. When it was almost full she force healed her hand with mana and started pouring mana into her blood. Smiling I started re-forging her weapon a bit faster.

“Next are the Elves. I don’t know much about them but I do know this. They are alcoholic tree huggers that put everyone else to shame when it comes to magic and long range combat. They have a type of council that commands their group but that's about it. I don’t really have anything bad to say about them besides the fact they despise war and try to avoid it at almost all costs.”(Diuscrucis)

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“Do they also have long hair regardless of gender, hate conventional rules, and do a lot of drugs?”(Tomo)

“Ya. They also throw amazing parties but, it usually ends with them being arrested.”(Diuscrucis)

“Hippies. Elves are hippies.”(Tomo)

“What are Hippies?”(Diuscrucis)

“Hippies are exactly what you described the Elves as being.”(Tomo)

“I see.”(Diuscrucis)

{That didn’t answer anything.}(Lulu)

{Just let it go girl. It’s probably just another name for them.}(Diuscrucis)

“Last would be the humans. Sadly they are so diverse that the best way to know them is to travel from city to city. Beyond that, I have no real idea. I never actually met that many to be honest.”(Diuscrucis)

“So…..Demons are violent mad scientists. Angels are law extremists. Elves are hippies. And Humans are human.”(Tomo)

“Yup.”(Diuscrucis)

Pulling her weapon from the forge, I put it into a bucket of water to cool down and called out to her.

“Ok Tomo. This is the most important part of this weapons creation. I need you to close your eyes and make up an incantation for your new weapon. It can be whatever you want it to be but it needs to end with whatever your weapon’s name is going to be. After saying the incantation in your head, pour your blood on the weapon and say its name out loud.”(Diuscrucis)

“Ok.”(Tomo)

While she was concentrating, Lulu started talking to me in a concerned voice.

{Dad. Are you doing what I think you're doing?}(Lulu)

{Indeed I am.}(Diuscrucis)

{Why? We don’t even know if making a living weapon works. Let alone if it will have any effect on the wielder.}(Lulu)

‘Mental shrug’ {Best case scenario, it doesn't work and she is left with a really heavy sword that can be used as a hammer. Worst case scenario, it tries to take over her mind and we have to destroy it.}(Diuscrucis)

‘Feminine voice’ {She may be our guinea pig but, it is all in the name of progress.}(???)

{Lulu. Did you hear that?}(Diuscrucis)

{Hear what Dad?}(Lulu)

{A woman talking about Tomo.}(Diuscrucis)

{No but, I did hear Carolina say that she would be the one to close up shop today.}(Lulu)

{I see.}(Diuscrucis)

………….Ok. I guess now I’m hearing voices. I so hope I’m not going insane.

“Albion…”(Tomo)

Refocusing on what’s around me, I saw Tomo pour her blood onto the weapon and it changed shapes while glowing brightly. After a few seconds of glowing, it settled into a metallic gold color with the entire weapon being engraved with some kind of battlefield. It had soldiers, weapons, and flags engraved into it. The weapon itself is seven feet long. On one side of the giant metal pole is a curved long blade that acts like a sword. It is a few inches away from the pole so she could grip the weapon from a variety of positions with ease. It Is at least a foot wide and only touched the pole for a few inches at the top. The blade stops a few inches from the bottom of the pole. The other side of her weapon has a flat hammer head on it. It is large and bulked out by a good foot or so. The top of her pole is a glowing yellow spear head. Beyond that, the edges of all the blades are glowing green and have red sparks flying off them. The hammer part of her weapon doesn’t glow but it has visible red sparks coming off of it from time to time. This is her weapon.

{Do you think it worked?}(Lulu)

{No idea but, let’s give it some time and see what happens.}(Diuscrucis)

Giving the spear blade thing to Tomo, I smiled when I saw her blush a little.

“Albion huh. Interesting name. I’ll like to hear the meaning behind it later. For now take these credits and practice with your new weapon. I still have a lot of work to do.”(Diuscrucis)

“Will do Sensei.”(Tomo)

Giving a few thousand credits to Tomo so she could get something to eat for the next few days, I went to work on making my bombs.

_____________________________________________________________________

* Two days later -

{It took two days but I did it.}(Diuscrucis)

{Two days to create and store several million high explosive sticky bombs. That’s a bit slow.}(Lulu)

{Oh, shut it Lulu. Did you finish analyzing the pistol looking weapon?}(Diuscrucis)

{Sure did Dad. It seems to be a magic weapon that uses plasma rounds as ammo. It uses magic as an outer casing for the bullet so that it behaves like magic but still keeps all the properties of plasma. It also gives the bullet an explosive property.”(Lulu)

{I see. Show me what you know and I’ll try to make a working model.}(Diuscrucis)

{Will do Dad.}(Lulu)

Grabbing the piece of paper that was starting to appear in front of me, I looked towards Tomo who was writing some stuff down on a piece of paper while sitting on the floor.

{So what has Tomo bean doing all day?}(Diuscrucis)

{Don’t know. She's been reading a book and taking notes for the last few hours.}(Lulu)

{Maybe I should make her a flip phone. Then she could just take notes directly on there instead of having lots of papers lying around.}(Diuscrucis)

{Sounds good to me}(Lulu)

Putting the piece of paper away, I took out my phone and started taking it apart. After a few seconds it was in many, many small pieces. It then took me a minute or so to put it back together.

{This is actually a lot simpler than I thought it was going to be.}(Diuscrucis)

{Then let's start.}(Lulu)

Taking some red metal from the store’s storage, I created a much more sturdy version of the flip phone that I have. After putting my number in it, I threw it at Tomo. She responded by leaning her back on the floor and grabbing the phone in the air as it passed her face. Getting off the floor she looked at me with a face that screamed “What the hell man?!”

“Nice reaction speed and I figured you could use a phone. It’s at least better than what you're currently using.”(Diuscrucis)

‘Heavy sigh’ “Thanks.”(Tomo)

“No problem.”(Diuscrucis)

Pulling the paper out of my pocket, I started working on the pistol. After about six hours of work, I was finished.

{It looks like a silver eagle pistol but with blue dragon engravings on it.}(Lulu)

{It may look that way but it does everything it’s suppose to do. I don’t have everything I need to make an exact model so this is close enough.}(Diuscrucis)

{Ya. It seems we needed some blood and scales from things I have no knowledge of.}(Lulu)

{We will figure it out. For now, let's go.}(Diuscrucis)

Stepping away from the forge, I started stretching while I was walking toward the door.

‘Yawn’ “I need a nap. Two days of nonstop work really takes it out of you. Tomo, Let’s head back.”(Diuscrucis)

“Coming Sensei.”(Tomo)

Saying that she put her phone in her pocket and walked over to join me.

“Carolina. How much for everything I used and how much I owe you?”(Diuscrucis)

“550,000 credits but after the discount it will be 495,000.”(Carolina)

I am so happy I robbed a few dozen people before coming here. If not then I wouldn’t have enough to pay. Taking out almost all my credits, I placed them on the closest shelf and walked away.

“Be seeing you around Carolina.”(Diuscrucis)

“Bye Carolina! Thank you for the advice earlier.”(Tomo)

“Bye you two. Good luck in your endeavors.”(Carolina)

Saying our goodbyes, we walked out of “Silky Wears” and started walking down the street.

“So what have you been taking notes on?”(Diuscrucis)

“Different evolutions for myself. I think I found the one I want but I don’t meet the criteria for it yet.”(Tomo)

“You will get there eventually. For now, let’s head back to the castle.”(Diuscrucis)

Grabbing her arm I teleported us to the “Scarlet Mansion.” Looking around the area, both Tomo and I stopped to stare at a large black castle.

“What the hell happened here?”(Diuscrucis)

“My contractor got so excited about finally being able to work on the “Scarlet Mansion” that they ended up tearing it down and creating a new castle all together. They went so over the top that the place is completely furnished and has the official name of “The Black Castle.”(Death)

Stepping out from behind a nearby tree, Death was messing with his phone.

“That is a stupid name.”(Tomo)

“It’s not as bad as calling a red castle the “Scarlet Mansion.”(Death)

“Oh god! Am I going to have to pay for all this?! Also, here is your credits Death. I now owe you nothing.”(Diuscrucis)

Taking out 700 credits, I toss them at Death.

“You don’t have to pay for the new castle. My contractor payed for everything out of their own pocket. They also say thank you for claiming this house.”(Death)

“Only been gone a few weeks and you do all this. Thanks for everything Death.”(Diuscrucis)

“No problem. Now if you excuse me, I need to get back to work.”(Death)

Saying that, Death disappeared in a ball of smoke.

“Now then Tomo, let's teach you how to teleport.”(Diuscrucis)

“I’m looking forward to it.”(Tomo)

Saying that, Tomo took a few steps away from me and looked at me with a look of confusion when she saw me create a shovel out of shadows.

“Why do you have a shovel?”(Tomo)

“Because I am certain that I will need to dig out your body more than once.”(Diuscrucis)

‘Look of disappointment’ “Ahhh.”(Tomo)

Pointing the shovel at Tomo, I started the lesson.

“We start the teleportation training now.”(Diuscrucis)