"We can't let you in, Nine-tails! Like I said, even if you have permission to learn some of the techniques, there is a formal process that has to be done in order to-"
Lone interrupted the short High Elven man that was explaining things to him and said, "I know that, and I'm sorry for being so brash, but I really do need to check them out right now. I can compensate in gold for the disturbance."
'For all I know, there's a technique in there that will help me avoid killing off Scratchy. I understand that rules have to be followed, but sheesh, can't these guys loosen up just a little bit?' Lone thought to himself with a bit of frustration.
If he really was denied entry, Lone would be forced to try his second solution, which would be very costly. He couldn't afford to kill the soul inside the Homunculus since he didn't want to accidentally enrage Ythmagobla in case she was important to the Ancient-level Darkness Dragon.
Just as the Foxkin was losing hope, a powerful and slightly annoyed voice spoke. "Nine-tails, why must you always try to bend the rules to suit yourself?"
"Your Majesty!" The Grand Technique Hall guards and bookkeepers that had been arguing with Lone, bowed their heads in greeting towards King Ele'hunda.
"King Ele'hunda?" Lone turned around and saw the imposing and muscled High Elf looking down at him with a bit of a scowl. Lone smiled wryly.
"I'm kind of desperately in need of a particular type of skill and I was hoping to find it here. I do still have my chances to learn four of the techniques from this place, after all," Lone explained in a polite tone.
"Can it not wait until the morning? There is an official procedure for this that requires many checks and a few contracts to be magically signed. Surely The Eight-tails told you this after she selected her technique, no?" King Ele'hunda just wanted to go back to sleep so he could properly rest before he was flooded with more paperwork tomorrow and he was greatly hoping that Lone would comply.
"Well, I guess I needed to tell you at some point..." Lone mumbled. "King Ele'hunda, can we speak in private?" Lone asked as he gestured to the nearby Elves.
The King raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Do you have the time to come back to my palace, or is it more urgent than that?"
"Sure, we have enough time for that," Lone agreed. 'It shouldn't take me too long to learn any suitable skills if there they have them, and if not, then plan B should still be doable within ten hours.'
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Now in the private study of the King's, Ele'hunda pressed Lone for answers. "Tell me, what exactly was so important that you had to cause a disturbance this late in the evening?"
'No power in his voice? So that's a toggleable thing, huh? I wonder how strong you have to be to do that? It's pretty cool,' Lone thought a bit absentmindedly.
"Well?" Ele'hunda pushed.
Lone regained his focus and sat down. "It's related to Ythmagobla."
King Ele'hunda's eyes violently widened. "I beg your pardon? I didn't mishear you, did I?"
"Nope," Lone sighed. "You know the top scoring participant from this morning's keeper tests, Scratchy?"
"Yes, the Unhcegila Descendant? She appeared to be powerful enough to put you to shame considering her young age," the King noted.
"Well, she's currently lying on the floor of my bedroom and is paralysed after attacking me," Lone claimed with a shrug.
"What on Altros does that have to do with Ythmagobla? You should know that we allow outsiders to fight in order to air out their grievances." King Ele'hunda was beginning to doubt Lone's words and was getting a bit angry.
Had The Nine-tails really just demanded to get access to the techniques in these ungodly hours solely so he could better prepare for a future attack from his fellow outsider keeper? The King thought that this was very petty.
"Hey, what the fuck are you thinking about?" Lone frowned. "After I interrogated her, I found out that she's a subordinate of Ythmagobla and that her body is actually a Homunculus that's just housing her soul," Lone announced.
"That's a very serious claim, Nine-tails, not to mention, an impossible one. Do you have any conclusive proof?" King Ele'hunda questioned with a very serious look on his face.
"She has more than a million points of the darkness stat," Lone answered.
King Ele'hunda frowned. "Did she tell you that herself? I doubt a follower of a Darkness Dragon would reveal such sensitive information."
'Ah, fuck. I forgot, people can't usually see each other's statuses... what do I do now?' Lone was smart, but he wasn't omniscient.
"Can you please just take my word for it? I don't have a reason to lie, do I?" Lone asked sincerely.
"I always take matters this potentially harmful to the world tree seriously, Nine-tails. From my point of view, you could just be envious of her trumping your test records, and you might be trying to frame her out of spite." King Ele'hunda's attitude was obviously tired and unmoving, and there wasn't any room for Lone to change that.
Stolen story; please report.
"You know what, fine. Act like I never said anything. I'll deal with it myself," Lone said before he stood up and briskly left the room.
King Ele'hunda watched him leave without moving and he closed his eyes as soon as Lone had left the room. "What a foolish boy. Ha-ah... I suppose I'll have to investigate the girl tomorrow morning, but really... could it be possible that Shan'len's situation is far more serious than we had first thought? I hope this is all just made-up... Movement from Ythmagobla is the last thing that we need right now."
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Lone stormed back to the outsider manor and practically threw himself onto a sofa in the living room before summoning Sophie and cuddling her tightly.
The small girl's face lit up like a Christmas tree at the affection, but she could tell that Lone was simply trying to relieve his anger by squeezing his favourite stress-ball. She grabbed a few of his tails and enjoyed herself as Lone hugged her.
A few minutes passed by like that, and as soon as Lone's grasp loosened slightly, Sophie asked a question. "What are you gonna do now, Lone?"
Of course, she had been watching everything that he'd done from within the summoning room and she knew that he wouldn't have backed down so easily if he didn't have another solution. One way or another, Lone always got his way. That was something that Sophie had learned during their time in Milindo.
"I'm gonna move her soul," Lone said with a low voice before he kissed Sophie's head.
Lone always had temper issues, this was true even back on Earth. Thankfully, now he owned a powerful body that allowed him to physically vent, or, he had his alternative, the living stress-ball, Sophie Vladimirovich.
Trying to not get delirious from the joy she felt after Lone's kiss, Sophie replied, "H-How? I thought you only learned the soul binding skill thingy from that Dragonkin and no other soul skills."
"I'm gonna make an object and then practice a bit before I move her soul," Lone explained.
"Is it even possible to practice something like that?" Sophie didn't doubt Lone's ability, but if he had no basis, how was he going to learn a completely new skill?
Lone gently picked Sophie up and turned her around so she was now facing him. "Are you kidding me? That's the easy part. I've just gotta grab some wildlife and experiment with their souls a bit. What I'm really annoyed about, is that I'm going to have to use a fuckton of the mana orbs we've built up over the past four months. I have no idea what a vessel designed to contain a soul as powerful as hers is made of."
"Potty mouth," Sophie frowned before she leaned up and pressed her lips against his gently. "Why do you want to avoid killing her so much anyway?" She pouted and jealous thoughts began to swim in her head.
"I know that look. Stop being an idiot," Lone said with a light laugh as he flicked Sophie's forehead.
"Muuuu..." The small girl puffed her cheeks out in defiance.
"I want her alive so we don't accidentally draw in the attention of an Ancient-level being. As fun as that sounds, I'd rather not have a repeat of Clicker," Lone joked lightly.
Sophie's face paled and she nodded very quickly before she nuzzled her head into Lone's chest. "You're right. I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Lone said with a smile as he stroked Sophie's hair softly. "I feel way better now. I should start working. I'd rather get this over with sooner rather than later. Scratchy'll be hard to control once she's free from my skill's effects, after all."
Sophie obviously agreed with him. "Do you mind if me and Kyuubi watch you? I'm kinda curious about what you're gonna build."
Lone grinned at her and replied, "Sure. I could use the company."
He then summoned Kyuubi and moved away from the mother and daughter pair while he prepared sixty mana orbs. Currently, he had just over a hundred of them, and he was really hoping that the soul vessel wouldn't need too many. He had plans to consume them on Swind's tail and on a few new weapons for his party, but, unfortunately, this was more important right now.
Lone imagined a small sphere that was similar to his mana orbs, but instead of being able to contain MP, this magical ball would be designed to hold a single soul.
He made sure that the item could store upwards of a Divine-level being's soul. Lone knew that this would require a lot of MP to make possible, but he wasn't sure exactly how strong Scratchy actually was, so he couldn't take any chances. He wasn't willing to waste so much mana for nothing. It would all be pointless if the item couldn't even contain her soul.
Lone added a few final details to the creation. Namely, only he could control it and any soul trapped within would never degrade.
With all of this in mind, Lone steeled himself and used his Creation Magic.
Item does not exist in Altros, however, there is a single item similar to it. 5,000,000 MP has been consumed to compensate for the difference.
The host has a little bit of understanding of the item but does not know anything regarding its construction nor its magical requirements. 1,000,000 base MP cost. 4,000,000 additional MP has been consumed to compensate for the lack of knowledge.
The host possesses insufficient MP. The stored MP from 50 of the host's [Mana Orbs] has been consumed to compensate for the needed MP.
10,000,000 total MP has been consumed to create the item: Divine Soul Prison.
Congratulations! The host's skill [Mental Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 9.
Lone held his head as a mild migraine took over him. It never felt good to have all of his MP drained all at once, that was for sure.
Sophie crept up behind Lone and wrapped her arms around his shoulders while Kyuubi lay on the floor and was presumably sleeping. "Yay, you didn't use all of the orbs. That's good, right?"
Both she and Eolande would donate their MP along with Rachel whenever they had any to spare, so even if she didn't understand their significance, Sophie was still pleased that Lone didn't have to use all of them on this strange woman.
Lone nodded and tilted his head back to look at Sophie. "Yup, I'm pretty surprised, actually. I guess it cost less because I know exactly how a mana orb is created, and that's what I used as the base for this," he said as he gestured to the small palm-sized ball that was held in his hand.
It looked very ordinary except for the small fox head that had nine tails wrapping around it which seemed to be carved into the crystal's surface. Sophie looked at that and cocked her head in confusion. "What's that?"
"Oh, that. It's an insignia. I figured I should start marking my creations. It might make us more famous if we're known for our amazing weapons and tools, right?" Lone said with a prideful tone in his voice.
Sophie smiled and kissed his forehead. "Yeah, it's a good idea. I wonder what rank it is? Do you think it's mythic like Swind's sword?"
"I fucking hope so, I spent more than enough MP on it," Lone angrily scoffed. He'd be very disappointed if this orb wasn't a mythic-rated item. Even if he still didn't know the significance of the ranks, it would hurt his confidence as a creator if so much mana couldn't always produce the best items on the continent.
"Potty mouth..." Sophie's lips curled into a smirk before both she and Lone used Clicker's power on the item.