In the imperial palace of the Vualdulin Empire, Gabriel stood before several ministers and the emperor himself. The ministers were arguing over what they heard about his report of the avatar of the Demon-Lord that attacked a temple and him.
“We need to increase security at our temples!” One minister cried.
“Are you mad?! Only heroes can stand up to the Demon-Lord, and ours was cursed!” Another retorted.
With a single raise of his hand, all the ministers stopped speaking with the emperor’s action.
“You never mentioned what the curse was.” The emperor said.
“It’s not a terrible curse. It will not affect me in battle.” Gabriel replied, wanting to avoid saying it publicly.
One minister stepped forward. He was an old man, but his body was tempered to that of a seasoned general. “Your grace.”
Gabriel hated the man. He was one of the nobles constantly against him and calling for his punishment.
“Grand Duke Lorenze.” The emperor motioned for the man to continue.
“It is as the ‘hero’ stated. It will not get in the way of fighting the Demon-Lord. Though we should be able to avoid any further incidents like the one that was reported.” The Grand Duke said with a sly smile.
A few ministers snickered while others seemed confused.
News of his curse had made it to the capital. “Damn you Temerilla…” He quietly muttered to himself.
“Hero Gabriel.” The emperor spoke. “It has been discussed with the other nations. You will be joined by the other heroes, as we do not know when he will strike again. I also heard that one just unlocked the Saintess class. Her power may be able to deal with your… unfortunate issue.” The emperor smirked at him.
Gabriel was dismissed, and he returned to his personal quarters. “FUCK!” He shouted.
Grabbing a nearby stand, he threw it against the far wall, reducing it to splinters against the protective enchantment of the walls.
He walked over to the statue of Sylfaerune. “Come on, answer me!” He shouted at the idol.
The idol began to glow. “Yes? I am quite busy at the moment. Please make it short.” The goddess’ voice echoed through the idol.
“Help. Me.” Gabriel ordered.
“I can only do so much from my end. I have also heard of your actions! I looked into it as well! How many women have your forced yourself on?!” Sylfaerune’s idol shook in anger.
“You told me this place would be my playground! I was a hero! Someone everyone would treat as a god-like being!”
“Even playgrounds have rules,” Sylfaerune replied. “The other heroes seem to not be having as much trouble.” She sighed. “Dammit. At this point, the other guy would have been a better choice.”
“Other guy? What the hell are you talking about?! You summoned someone else?!” Something within his mind was cracking.
“That is none of your concern. Needless to say, both of you have become a thorn in my side. Either shape up your actions and begin acting like a hero, or you will disgrace us both.” She ordered.
“DAMN, YOU!” Gabriel threw the idol across the room.
“Be mindful of what you do, mortal. If I so desired, I could easily pull my support. A hero being forsaken by their god?” She laughed. “Might be a fate worse than a Demon-Lord.” Sylfaerune cut off the call.
“Damn gods. If I find a way to get back at them… I will.” The barrier within his mind shattered, and a new voice began to whisper to him.
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Caeldaemos’ group stayed in Hallibrush for an additional day, celebrating with the townspeople. They were now on their way to the Philbra Barony to see Yanni. They were making good time with him shifting the whole carriage, with Lord of Darkness, here and there to cut down the time a bit.
Caledaemos was driving the large carriage in human form, as the day was quite hot, and he had the A/C system running. Joining him in the front were Lily and Mari. The three wives argued about who got to be with him, and he chose to spend time with Lily and Mari instead.
“My lord, what is Baron Yanni like?” Mari asked.
“You would like him, Mari. He is friendly without a single racist bone in his body. When I first met him on the road, he was a part of the Philbra Merchant Group. He bought a noble’s trunk from me for a lot of Tress. That’s how I got many of my clothes, the storage ring I loaned to Hallibrush, and my magic cycle.”
“I hope Orelia isn’t sad,” Lily said.
“She’s fine.” Caeldaemos ruffled her hair. “She wanted to stay behind and… start a religion….” He sighed heavily.
Caeldaemos was against it when Orelia broached the subject, but Sophia also supported it. Orelia was welcomed into the Temple of Io, where Orelia would begin her sermons. Most of them would be stories of Caeldaemos and the feats he had performed. Her goal was to bring more faithful to his flock. He already had a few with the humans he had saved from the goblin nest. Sophia promised to work with Mayor Toto to keep the fact Caeldaemos now had Demon-Lord worshippers a secret.
They arrived at the first town on their trip.
“Welcome to Yule. What business do you have today?” The gate guard asked.
“Just staying for the day.” Caeldaemos handed down his ID.
The guard took a look at it. “An All-Rounder merc? Not too many like you.” He handed the ID back. “Hauling anything?”
“Just my party in the back,” Caeldaemos answered with a smile.
“Alright. Do you have any questions?”
“A good inn?”
The guard laughed. “The Bernice Inn. The lady there knows all about the town. Just don’t let her gruff attitude fool you. She’s soft as pudding.”
Caeldaemos thanked the guard, and they pulled into the city.
“Um, Dad? You handed him your ID? Doesn’t that have your picture on it?” Lily asked.
He smiled and handed her his ID.
The picture was now of a smiling human version, and the name read ‘Michael.’
“How did you do that, my lord?” Mari was surprised.
“Glamour Domain. It adjusts the way things look on the ID to what I want. The painful part was getting my image right.”
“How many times do I have to say it? You are thinking too small when it comes to domains.” Geon complained.
“I’m trying, Geon. The biggest one I did was the protective barrier around Lady Temerilla’s place. The most complex is the mobile bath.”
“With your power, you could build your own dungeon if you wanted. Especially now that you are building divine power.” Geon huffed in frustration.
“Geon…” Caeldaemos looked at her floating image. “Why have you been pushing so much for me to improve my domain?”
“Because I like-!” She stopped herself and turned away. “I just feel like you could do great things. If you master Domain, no one will be able to harm you.”
Caeldaemos smiled warmly at her slip-up. Like the others, Geon wanted him to be safe. He pulled up the core and gave it a kiss.
“W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Geon shouted.
He smiled at her. “I like you too, Geon.”
Geon’s face turned a glowing red before diving into the depths of the core.
Lily and Mari giggled at Geon’s reaction.
They pulled up to the Bernice Inn, and Caeldaemos stored the carriage away, impressing many of the people around them. Back in Hallibrush, he formed a duplicate of his storage ring and domain enchanted it to store a vast number of items. But in reality, he didn’t have anything inside the ring storage. It was to be more of a bait in case someone wanted to pickpocket them.
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“Hm?” A large woman turned to them with a stern look on her face. “What do you want?”
“We’re looking for some rooms. Also, would you happen to know of a good restaurant here?” Caeldaemos asked.
“Hmph. How many rooms?” The woman reached under her counter and pulled out a town map.
Lily smelled the air. “Mmm! What is that smell! It is so nice!”
The woman looked down at the expectant Lily, and a slight blush came to her cheeks. “It’s a soap produced locally.”
“Really?! Dad! Can we get some, please?” Lily rubbed her head into his chest.
Caeldaemos laughed. “Where could we purchase some?” He also liked the scent.
It was a soft, calming, and tender smell. It was not overpowering in the least bit.
The blush on the woman’s face deepened a little more. “You can buy it here. I make it.”
“Really! That’s amazing!” Lily cheered.
It was apparent that what the guard said earlier was accurate about the innkeeper.
After negotiating a price, Caeldaemos paid for a few rooms and enough bars of soap to last them for a bit.
“Now, for restaurants. Go here. The pricing, food, and service are good. Tell them Bernice sent you. Also, places for your little girl to avoid, here, here, and here. Don’t go anywhere around these, you hear me?” Bernice sternly told Lily.
“Okay!” Lily cheerily responded.
Caeldaemos glanced over to Rana, who nodded her head. She headed outside to deploy her golem mice to investigate.
After getting their room keycards, they headed out to explore the town.
The town was larger than Hallibrush and had quite a few shops. Rana stayed behind at the inn to continue her investigation. Liara and Listamati went to the mercenary guild office to check into any rumors. Mari went about to collect information about the town.
Only Lily was with Caeldaemos as they checked about the shops. They entered a weapons shop to see what kind of things they had.
Lily checked the daggers while Caeldaemos took time to closely study the weapons his party used.
“Anything you fancy, sir?” The owner asked.
Caeldaemos could see that there were some basic magic circuits installed in the sword.
“This sword has circuits in it?” He asked.
The owner smiled widely. “Yes! Most other smiths don’t bother installing them on weapons and primarily work with enchantment. I, on the other hand, desire to integrate circuits into weapons!”
“Michael.” Caeldaemos held out his hand.
“Richard. A pleasure Mr. Michael.” Richard shook his hand.
“So, what is the function of this sword?”
“Would you like to try it out?” Richard asked, motioning toward a back door.
“Oh! Let me!” Lily came over after hearing what they said.
“Sure. Why not.” Caeldaemos handed her the sword.
They went out back, where Richard had a practice straw dummy setup. Caeldaemos noticed that the smith had several others set up at the side.
Richard had Lily stand before the dummy. “Okay, little miss. Charge your mana into the hilt to activate the circuits.”
Lily nodded and did as he said. The circuits on the blade lit up, and the edge of the blade was covered by a blue mana that hummed.
“Whoa!” Lily admired the pretty color.
Caeldaemos felt he might have recognized seeing something like it in movies and shows.
“Is that a vibrating edge?” He asked Richard.
The smith’s expression brightened. “Yes! The mana vibrates and runs along the blade’s edge, creating a sawing action moving at a nearly instantaneous rate!”
Lily lightly swung the blade at one of the dummy arms, and it easily fell off.
She stopped flowing mana through the circuit. “I didn’t feel like I cut anything.”
Richard smiled happily. “Yes! This is why I like the idea of using circuits! The best part about this is that the stronger the mana a person has, the more devastating the edge will be!”
“I see. Circuits are limited by the amount of mana added, while enchantments are per the rank attached.” Caeldaemos stated.
“Correct! I am so glad you understand, sir!” Richard exclaimed.
Caeldaemos took the blade from Lily and flowed his mana into the hilt. The mana edge expanded from the short sword so much that it looked like a massive blade.
“That is amazing!” Richard exclaimed before the mana edge vanished.
“Huh?” Caeldaemos looked at the sword, confused as to what had happened.
“Let me.” Richard took the blade from him and inspected it. “Hah! You overloaded and broke the circuit!” He laughed.
“Oh, sorry about that. I will pay for it.” Caeldaemos felt bad.
“No, no, no. Don’t worry about it. It was a cheap iron sword, and it won’t take me much to repair the circuit. My fault for using copper as a conductor.” Richard smiled.
“Copper?”
“Yes, copper. Circuits work better depending on the metal used. Copper, silver, gold, and platinum. There are other materials that work better but are quite expensive, like dragon scales or fairy steel.” Richard answered.
“What is fairy steel?” Lily asked curiously.
“Heh. It is a difficult process where fairy dust is added to molten steel. I know it sounds simple, but the process is hazardous as the mana within fairy dust can cause a maelstrom of mana to form. The only people who are known to be able to do it are the dwarves of the fae.” Richard explained.
Caeldaemos was in thought about the materials Richard listed off. It made him believe that mana might flow like electricity. Mana circuits could also be a lot like circuit boards. If he could find out more information, he could confirm and be able to create circuits himself.
“Richard, I’m sorry to ask, but could you teach me a bit about circuits?” Caeldaemos asked.
The smith thought for a moment. “Normally, I wouldn’t. But I feel… Come with me.”
Richard brought them into the shop and pulled out a simple diagram.
Caeldaemos’ eyes widened at seeing the paper. It was a basic electrical circuit!
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Caeldaemos picked it up and checked it to ensure he saw it correctly.
“Do you recognize this?” Richard asked.
“Huh?” He snapped out of it. “Uh, yeah. I do. This is a basic circuit.”
“It is more to say that this is the original circuit. It was created by the genius hero Nicola Tesla.”
Caeldaemos could not believe his ears.
“Lord Tesla was truly a genius. He was the first ever Combat Inventor to come into existence. He was of the second group of heroes against the Demon-Lord of War. The advancements in our world are due to his great mind. Researchers are still finding new inventions of Lord Tesla, even to this day.”
“That… is truly amazing.”
In his past world, Caeldaemos worked in I.T. as a hardware specialist. He knew a considerable amount about circuits and how they worked.
“Now, onto the real challenge.” Richard brought out a multilayer drawing. “This is for a magic gun.”
The circuit was quite complex, but he could understand how it worked but did not know its purpose.
“The circuits for guns are highly complex, not anywhere near to a Crys-Link or computer, but complex. This is a diagram of how it works.” Richard brought out another packet of papers.
Looking over them, Caeldaemos understood what the circuit was now. “This is a PLC.”
“PLC?” Richard asked.
“A Programmable Logic Circuit. You set basic parameters for it to fulfill. In the case of a gun: Pull Trigger, it sets off a chain of events. Activate Barrel Reinforcement-> Charge Mana to Combustion Chamber-> Quadruple Compress Mana-> Initiate Micro Explosion in Combustion Chamber. Then if a solid round is in the chamber, it checks the chamber clear before opening the load port. If no solid round is detected, some of the compressed mana acts as the bullet.” Caeldaemos explained.
Lily watched how happy he looked, wholly lost about what he was talking about.
Richard, though, had a bright expression on his face. “You understand! Were you pulling my leg about not knowing?”
“No! I didn’t realize this was related to something else I had seen before. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.” He apologized.
“So, I have been stuck at the ‘PLC’ part. Could you help me?” Richard asked.
“Could I take pictures of the gun circuits and ladder logic?” Caeldaemos asked.
Richard laughed. “If you help me well enough, I’ll give them to you. If not, you will be welcome to take pictures.”
Caeldaemos smiled and began drawing on paper and explained what he knew. About two hours into their conversation, Caeldaemos’ Crys-Link rang.
“Sorry, it’s my wife.” Caeldaemos turned away and answered the call.
“Yes, Rana?”
“Hey, I made some disturbing findings about the town. Is Lily with you?” She asked, sounding worried.
He looked over to see Richard trying to explain what he learned to a confused young lady.
“Yeah, she’s here with me. What’s up?”
“I’ll explain later. I made a reservation at a restaurant for all of us. Liara and Listamati also heard some things. We will get together in an hour.” Rana informed him of the restaurant’s name and location.
“Alright, see you all there.” Caeldaemos hung up and headed back over to them.
“Ah, Mr. Michael. Thank you so much for teaching me. I promise I will make some great advancements in circuit-type weapons. I won’t disappoint you!” Richard exclaimed.
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“You’ve disappointed us, Cael.” Liara looked at him with a disappointed look.
The large man shrunk in his seat while unable to meet their eyes. They were in a private room, and only they were present.
“Why would you give him the ability to make advanced weapons!? What if they fall into the hands of the heroes? You remember them, right? The ones whose job is to murder you!” Liara was getting upset.
Lily stood up. “Please stop!” She looked down at her feet. “If you saw how happy he was talking about it, you wouldn’t care!”
Liara was taken aback by the conviction in Lily’s voice. The foxy woman looked at her big doofus. Seeing him so downtrodden made her feel guilty.
She sighed. “I’m… sorry. I’m just worried.”
“No, you’re right. I should have been more careful, but I wanted to get the diagrams for a gun circuit. I’ve upgraded all of your weapons, with the exception of Lista’s. Now that I understand how the circuits work, I assure you no one will be able to build a better circuit than me. Well, unless Nicola Tesla is still alive somehow. With my knowledge, I should be able to further improve our weapons and armor. Hmm? Hold on.” Caeldaemos used Create Item to begin forming a simple dagger.
As the dagger was forming, he installed a PLC circuit into it and began programming something similar to the mana edge that Richard had done. Upon completion, he created and programmed a domain and infused it into the dagger.
“Alright.” Holding the dagger in his hand, he channeled his mana into the hilt. The humming blue edge flared up and looked more like a short sword.
“Cael, what are you doing?” Liara asked.
“Looks like it works.” He handed the dagger to Lily.
He turned to all of them. “When I learned a bit about Crys-Links, it turns out that attaching both a circuit and enchant on a single device is near impossible. But I just learned that my domain infusion does not follow that. There is no backlash or incompatibility.”
“That means the heroes would not be able to have weapons as strong as ours.” Rana bounced in her seat happily.
Liara gave a resigned sigh. “Alright. I was wrong. I will be sure to apologize properly later tonight.” A seductive light flashed in her eyes.
Caeldaemos sighed while shaking his head. “Now that that is over. What is the big news you all found?”
Rana went first. “My mice found the remains of an illegal slave trade branch here in town. Knights were around the location, going through an investigation into its roots. From what I overheard, there are still some remnants here in town. They have been targeting young girls mostly.”
“We found out the same. Only some of the kidnapped people were found and returned to their families. The knights are searching desperately for the registry. If they had that, they could track down the enslaved girls and the people participating in the disgusting practice.” Listamati added.
Caeldaemos turned to Lily. “Lily. I know you’re strong, but don’t go out alone for a bit. Okay?”
She turned away, pouting. “I would be fine… but okay.”
He patted her head while smiling.
“Rana, if you turn up anything, like the registry, let us know. Might as well do something good in Yanni’s domain.”
She smiled at him. “Of course.”
“Also, speaking of enslavement, we still need to get those collars off you two.” Caeldaemos said to Mari and Listamati.
After dinner, they stopped by the temple to see if the priest could perform the ritual. The priest apologized, informing them they would have to go to the main city temple. The priest was kind enough to provide a letter to make things easier for them when they arrived.