I turned around to find a petite Asian woman. Tan skin and blond hair that was surprisingly golden. No dark roots so it was an exceptional dye job, or real. She wore a gold chain link bikini that even though it covered her still showed skin. Black pasties and a thong protecting her modesty, and probably from some devastating pinches. She was frantically looking around an empty server tray in her hands. A thought and I had her name.

* Eliza Wu

Str 14

Dex 16

"Hey, can I help you find something?" I asked, pulling a small streamlight flashlight from my pocket.

"No, someone. I need to go clock out but my friend was here and now she isn't. No she isn't in the bathroom or dancing." She said real worry in her voice and tense body language.

"Ok. What does she look like?" I asked.

"Red hair, blue green eyes, real short like four eleven. Blue top and black pants, please her name is Kate." Eliza pleaded.

I cast my gaze around. Using my considerable height advantage. I saw a petite red haired female being herded out towards the back room by a group of four men all wearing similar clothing.

"Looks like some guys in black vests are taking her towards that back room." I said gesturing with my half drunk coffee.

"No, no, no" Eliza said. Holding her empty tray to her forehead "they are going to take her!" She said, dropping her tray and hurrying in that direction.

I followed close behind. Discreetly casting chill weapon on the Boker knife in my pocket. A cool rush filled my amethyst glowing hand and i pinched the edge of the blade between thumb and forefinger at the hilt dragging it up the edge to the drop point tip leaving it trailed in frost and glowing a cold blue.

Chill weapons succeeded. Target weapon will inflict extra cold damage on targets struck for the next three successful blows.

We followed the group of four men and the obviously terrified young woman. Into an employee lounge heading toward an emergency exit.

"Hey dickheads, let her go!" Yelled the now obviously pissed Eliza. Her hands glowing in a marbled white gold color.

Neat i thought. She had high strength and dexterity so I figured she could handle herself. But four on one is never great. Plus if they were trying to force a girl to do anything, I wanted a piece of at least one of the bastards.

Their names were hidden from whatever the source did to help identify them. Simply floating boxes with question marks. I realized then that the security guys hadn't given any boxes at all.

A question for later. Dickheads to deal with now.

"What are you going to do little demi god?" The biggest of the four goons asked. "Turn into a statue on us? The girl has an affinity for life magic. She is coming to work for us, you think this fancy dressed fuck boy is gonna help." He asked gesturing at me with a large cleaver shaped knife.

"I just came to watch her kick your ass. Would you like some help Liz? Kate?" I asked.

"No!" liz said.

At the same time kate whimpered. "Yes."

Kate shot a pleading look at the stern asian woman. Who looked at me.

"What do you want? To take her yourself now you know what her affinity is?" She said vehemently.

"Look" I sighed. I've been part of this mythical bullshit ass backward place, literally since breakfast and I'm sick of all this vehemence towards me. I was Mortal this morning and I protected people, it's what I do. That won't change now. If she wants a job she can have one. Healers are valuable, you can come with her. But i'm not forcing anyone to do anything. Except making them let her go. You can fuck off after that."

Not waiting, pointing at the biggest of the idiots "You goon number one. I challenge you to a duel for Kate's freedom, its a serious party foul to assault women dude." I demanded.

"I accept,'' he said boldly "im going to fuck you up. Then im going to fuck her up. More ways than one too"

A glowing blue line rippled out from behind both of us connecting in a perfect circle surrounding us. Almost as soon as it was complete the man raised a black glowing hand and cut himself with his own cleaver like blade, then cast out his blood in an arc three globs of blood falling into the ground. Three ghostly skeletons rising from the ground, solidifying as he finished his spell.

"You have no idea who you are fucking with. I'm a tier two in necromantic magic. My skeletons will rip you limb from limb." He sneered at me from across the way. Holding his black glowing hand aloft.

"First of all there are tiers?" I asked, looking at the petite asian woman eyebrows raised. "You guys need to make user manuals or something." "Second, necromancy huh. That probably took a bit of health as well as mana. Bummer dude!" I said, looking sadly at the man.

"Still got plenty and you have no chance of beating those skeletons to get to me anyway. You have no weapons, probably little to no magic." He said through gritted teeth.

I had plenty of options. I don't want him to know that though, the more his goons saw, the more they could report after i made an example of him. Shadow teleport behind him shank him in the neck. Command his skeletons back at him. Hell, pretty sure Titan would make chew toys out of the skeletons. I settled on taking my twenty six inch baton from my shadow storage, flicking out it's full length with a practiced snap of my wrist.

I moved to the far left of the dueling circle so that the three skeletons shambling at me could only approach one at a time. And cast my next few spells in quick succession.

* Earth disk.

A small compact disk of earth shoots out from the ground where you stomp, seeking out a target you can see deals a light amount of damage.

* Bone shield

Conjure a shield of bone. Will absorb a moderate amount of damage before dispersing. Weapon mastery bonus- shield bash for light damage and chance to disorient the stricken foe.

* Flame weapon

Temporarily Enchant a weapon to have flame damage for three strikes, adding moderate flame damage to your blows. Chance to cause burns.

The compact earthen disk flew out from where I stomped the ground. It flew out to the side and came flying back like a frisbee to strike the second skeleton at the knee joint. It stumbled, slowing it and the third skeleton. Perfect. I put the large bone white shield made up of what appeared to be a rib cage that was magically attached to my left wrist up, setting my shoulder and charging the first skeleton. In line. Baton up and ready to strike in my right, glowing a vicious molten red.

The shield smashed into the first skeleton. Then through it. I had misjudged my new strength. I had been really strong in my mortal life. Bench pressing three hundred pounds, squatting four hundred. Hell, I still held my gym record for deadlift at six eighty. But now reborn in a world of werewolves and necromancy I could probably do moderate workouts with those weights for a few hours, rather than four, or five reps.

I scattered all three of the skeletons. Fuck it i guess. Keeping the charge going the fifty or so paces to the Goon still holding his glowing hand aloft. His eyes wide in terror. I did something that I never done in my other life life. Hell, I'd trained not to do it.

I brought my glowing red baton around in a vicious side swipe. Striking the goon right in the temple. I could feel the bone there crumble a red flash of light, leaving a smoldering cauterized crater of flesh. The goon dropped instantly to the floor. The cut puppet string way that I was sadly all too familiar with.

I sighed at the glowing circle the source had provided to keep up visible but separate from the other parties in the room. Then surprisingly the body of the goon glowed with a sickly green light and began to turn into ash that was quickly absorbed into the earth. Leaving behind a money clip with a couple hundred bucks in twenties. The cleaver like black knife in a black scout style sheath. And a ring that had the same black fire skull symbol the goons vest had marked on it.

Congratulations

You have won the duel. Dale Necrosis was defeated and slain. You gain experience and have received the following rewards.

* Ring of the Necrosis clan. Reduces damage done to self for necromancy spell fuel by five percent without reducing effectiveness

* Ritual knife. When used to damage self to power fuel necromancy spells adds time to the duration.

* One hundred and eighty dollars American.

I picked up the ring and looked over to the other goons, throwing it at the closest one. "Anyone else I asked?" My tone and face and eyes hard.

The closet goon caught the ring. Looked down and swallowed hard. "No sir." He muttered.

"He killed my brother!" The middle remaining goon screamed "fuck that no duels rush him!" Looking to the others to wait for one of them to attack first. Coward. I thought

I raised my eyebrow and tilted my head. "In my old life I called people like you chihuahua men. All bark and no bite, or very little, make a better decision than your brother." I said simply still in a fighting stance, shield at the ready, baton up and over my shoulder glowing ominously.

The other goons walked away dragging their friend with them. He sputtered and raged but didn't fight against them as they dragged him back.

I let my shield and fire spell dissipate. The bone shield turned into white and black motes siphoning off into the ground. I started to walk over to the Auburn haired girl, she was trembling and flinched back from me. I held up my hands, smiled sadly and turned to look at Liz

I turned to find security team members, Charlotte, Kelly, Liz and surprisingly Thalia there. Liz tried to rush over to Kate. Members of my security team held her.

"Let her go." I snapped with more venom than I meant at the guard who flinched and stood straight. Not making eye contact. Charlotte looked pissed, Kelly concerned, Thalia scared.

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"Hey T, T, Thalia." I said with a weak smile on my lips. Mimicking her earlier stuttering at the surprise of my height. "I take it you went and got Charlotte here." I bobbed my head in the mothers direction.

Her dark skin flushed again. But she nodded. Wringing her hands. "I saw you chase after them, I got worried. I'm sorry. I guess you wouldn't be a Chief of security if you couldn't handle yourself. That was amazing by the way."

I walked over to her Holding out the money clip to her. "I am very happy you helped. The situation could have gone sideways and backup would have been appreciated." She took the money and brows furrowed. "Thanks." She said sadly.

"Now that duty is done. May I have a hug? Only if you want, not because of hierarchy nonsense." I asked with a grin on my face.

She looked startled for a moment, a micro expression of fear crossing her face for a second while she searched my face. Then a smile broke out and she hugged me hard for a long moment.

Charlotte coughed into her hand, Thalia broke the hug hurriedly "i gotta get back to my station." and ran off head down.

"Are we done here?" I asked the angry blond woman. We are taking these girls home, I said ,gesturing to the golden and auburn haired duo.

"They are not your responsibility. They are not vassals in our house." She replied through gritted teeth. Face reddening.

I raised my eyebrows. "You get to decide who or what I'm responsible for? Is that our dynamic?" I asked quietly.

"No." She said, Turning and walking to the entrance. "I will, however, find another ride home." She said leaving followed by three of the security detail

Kelly surprisingly didn't follow her mother. Giving me a look somewhere between sad and grudging respect. She walked over to the girls and spoke quietly to them.

Less than thirty minutes later we were on the road. My driver, who I learned was named Peter, a dark haired average looking man, who didn't talk much, carefully pulling out of the parking lot and following the direction of a dash mounted GPS. The ride was uncomfortably quiet.

"What do you want?" The golden haired asian asked. Quiet but stern.

"Nothing." I said quietly. "Nothing at all, not from you anyway." I said unthinkingly thoughts adrift on how fucked this whole hierarchy system was. Thinking how the goons were abducting a crying girl and no one tried to stop them.

"So what you save her now she has to fuck you?, You get off on the white night thing." She said voice dripping venom. Her whole body glowing with the golden white marbled energy.

"Stop." I said evenly and firmly. "I misspoke, I apologize. I want nothing from either of you." "Unless you want jobs. That gold thing is cool. Can she heal?"

"You want us to be your fuck toy concubines." She snarled the glow growing brighter.

"I will." The Auburn girl said quietly drawing the attention of all of the occupants of the car. "Liz i'm tired of hiding and scurrying. Hades is a good lord. We talked about joining him before." She said sadly.

To me she said "I'm sorry. Thank you for helping. Whatever you want I'll do. It can't be worse than the Necrosis gang had planned." She said, shivering.

"I don't think he wants anything like that from you beyond being male." Kelly said. "Lord Guard is new to us from full mortal. He came within minutes of dying protecting a young boy and women who could do nothing for him. It wasn't even his job."

"I mean I was contracted to both properties. I have a bit of a hero complex." I said sheepishly. I hadn't known that stuff was public knowledge.

"As far as i can tell he is a good man." Kelly said sadly. I could sense the apology in her words "i'm sorry for my mom…"

"Stop." I said. "You both, I mean all of you have obviously had some trauma induced by lords, gods, gangs, or what have you. I won't ask you to forget that. Maybe my actions will show you I am different." I said sincerely if a bit angrily.

"They can have jobs without being uh, the fuck toys right?" I asked. Using finger quotes around the fuck toy wording i had taken from liz.

"Yes but it's not much safer than what they are doing now. Hades can't protect them personally and you only can if they are with you in person, they could be concubines. A bit safer. There is no rule that they have to be intimate with you, but they could still be stolen away if someone is brave enough. And you are new and untested." She said sadly.

"Well it's better than nothing. I want them on my team for monster hunting, they will be with me most of the time." I said. "Kate is a healer. Liz has some weird glowing fist technique." I said

"Its fucking qi energy you ass. It makes me indestructible as long as I can keep it active, I'm from a line of Chinese demigods of the monkey king." She said, her voice tired, she leaned back in the chair.

"That is dope." I was honestly excited. "No rush,'' I said. Handing them both business cards. "Think it over, call me when you decide, even if you dont come work for me. If you ever need anything, call. I want to help the little people. The forgotten ones."

I leaned back as well. The comfortable seats drawing me into a sleep. I was woken up by Peter having slept through all the drop offs before being taken home, clamoring up the stairs into my huge bed before drifting off to sleep again.

I woke up at around noon the next day. I woke and found Luc waiting for me. "Heard you had fun last night." He said. "Didn't even take any weapons aside from your mortal junk." He gestured to a large ebony set of cabinets in the back of my ridiculously large walk in closet.

I walked over and opened it. It was filled with weapons. Swords of every flavor: spears, clubs, bows, knives. "Would have been good to know about!". I said laughing. "Thank you. I know how to use these somehow."

The big man nodded. "As a grandson of a blessed by Mars you have a basic instinctual knowledge of weapons, Here" he said, holding out a signet ring. "The meeting my wife was in last night was to obtain this from an artificer. It grants a passive armor effect and will have an significantly better activated armor ability"

"Also im sorry about her attitude. She came here…"

"Stop Luc. I can gather what happened between her and Kelly's reactions and body language. No need dragging the story out here. I understand. Its not a problem. She doesn't owe me anything Lord or not." I interrupted

"Understood Lord." He said a small smile on his face.

"Why no guns?" I asked. "I see you carry." Gesturing at the Sig on his hip.

"They dont work well on monsters and most mages have simple spells to protect from them. Arrows just seem to work better on monsters. But its not a terrible idea to carry." He said shrugging his shoulders.

"Cool,'' I said , looking at the ring. "Thanks Luc!"

* Signet Ring of the first lord of the house of the unseen.

Grants a passive armor that reduces medium power attacks to light and light to none.

Can be activated to summon the armor of the lord of the Unseen. Greater protection and has stealth capabilities. Casts a shadow in front of the wearer for use with Dark affinity spells.

"What's on the agenda for the day Luc." I asked

"Nothing for today. Unless something comes up you are free to do as you will, Lord. The companies will run themselves well enough without you." "Vehicles in the garage await your leisure. A cook can be brought from the guest house should you require."

"Thanks i'll head out. It's been a long time since i didn't have a schedule to work around." Thinking I'd have to learn to enjoy the freedom. "Are there places that sell magic? I need to up my game those summoned skeletons were easy but as i understand those were weak member's of Necrosis"

"Indeed. Bottom feeders of a bottom feeding group. Mostly mortal warlocks who swear their souls to some minor golding of death for meager power, when more could have been earned through hard work and dedication." He said distastefully through a sneer.

My phone buzzed a message from T giving me a list of stores and locations. Thanks T i typed out in my phone a simple smiley face emoji returned to me. Heading down to the garage.

My jaw dropped. Apparently Hades shared my love of Dodge vehicles. A veritable car dealership sat before me. A box that took my thumbprint opening the door to a lockbox of keys. I browsed through finding a deep purple Hellcat Challenger.

"Nice" I breathed.

The engine roared to life and I was off. Into the new world of myth and legend in style. A black button up short sleeve shirt over a black under armor sleeveless shirt. Black cargo pants and Danner ankle boots. Gunmetal sunglasses with polarized frames completed the look as I entered the first shop on the list.

"Oh a Lord who has an affinity for abjuration. What a surprise." A voice said immediately after I entered. A man with a balding head of brown hair. Curly tufts sticking out over each ear. Incredibly short and small.

"Uh what?" I said eloquently.

"I can see you can use all types of magic." He said pointing to a monocle with a glowing blue sense "but conjuration, and Abjuration are your highest affinities."

"I thought my affinities were Earth…". I started but he stopped me. "Yes, yes, but these are your magical type affinities. Evocation is straight up battle magic, fireballs and ice spears. Conjuration in making stuff. Alteration is changing things. You get the idea. you sir, only can't use alteration and divination. You will get bonuses for Conjuration and Abjuration. Abjuration is casting protective spells like shields and wards. Its very uncommon to have as an affinity as most people in our hidden little world only think of killing."

"Thanks for the info i guess. No one told me all that before. Any dark of earth conjuration or abjuration? Also any healing spells?"

The man pulled out a small binder filled with what looked like trading cards. He flipped through in a fast pace that indicated familiarity with it.

He pulled out a few cards. "Shadow bind, ground, shield, counter in tier one and two, summon shade, summon wisp, life sense, lesser heal, Heal over time, remove poison." He listed while looking at me.

"Ok cool. Anything for a Qi user?" I asked

"Hmmm." He said slowly. He said rubbing his pointy bearded chin. "I have a skill card that would allow a Qi user to move faster by expending Qi." He said shrugging "it's a rarer art."

"Ok summons are different from a familiar?" I asked

"Conjured summons are not permanent and provide no bonuses" he said. "Once they come close to death they dissipate back to where they are from" " soul familiars like yours are permanent and give you bonuses. They form a bond, give bonuses and can't die while they are bound to a living companion. bound familiars. Meaning they are defeated, or agree to be bound are like employees. They can leave taking bonuses with them. You need a pact scroll to bind them."

"Got any of those?" I asked hopefully?

"Yeah they aren't rare. Bonded familiars aren't used often because people generally treat them bad and they leave, a waste of money for most."

"I'll take it." I said pulling out my as yet unused debit card.

"Which one" he asked.

"All of it" I said evenly.

"All…" he said.

"Yup." I said.

"My lord this is several thousands of dollars,'' he said with a pained look.

"I'm not trying to rob you man, swipe the card.". I gestured with the card marked with cerberus.

"A lord of the unseen one's house!" He exclaimed "when?" He asked the monocle falling from his eyes.

"Yesterday I said evenly." Then a bit harder. "And no one else knows yet. I'd like to keep it that way."

"Of Course my lord. No one shall know of our business on this day." He said solemnly, hand over heart.

Fred Sprocket has sworn an oath to you. Should he break it his mana pool, and regen will suffer negatives until he seeks your forgiveness and receives it.

"Thank you Fred." I said storing the small card shaped objects as they appeared from various shelves in my shadow space. "How do i use this?" I asked holding up the shadow bind card, it was made of some kind of paper, like a playing card, but thicker and covered in small runic script.

"Simple enough lord. Just hold the card to your forehead. Will the idea of knowing the spell into it. Just be carefull, too many direct downloads, used too close together will scar you brain." He explained happily.

Suddenly the card got hot against my forehead. My mind blinked and a circle of flowing shadowy script formed, then it heated flashing brightly and seering into my grey matter.

Congratulations new spell learned.

* Shadow bind.

A tendril of shadow from a shadowpool in your line of sight snakes out to entangle the target. More tendrils can be summoned at the cost of more mana. Tendrils can individually lift one third of your strength value or work together to lift an object or person at the cost of mana.

"Nice" i thought to myself. The applications of such a useful spell coming to mind.

I visited a few other stores picking up some more magical equipment. Trinkets and such. I was sure the House could provide more and better magical gear than anything bought at stores available to the public.

A few rocks that made light, some that made shadow. Grappling hooks but magic like. A few other minor items. To complete my batman vibe.