Chapter 7: Assistance isn't free._Reincarnated as a Betrayed Prince: Hero.

As the group went back to the city of Argeares, Kanbe and Caroline had to explain the entire situation to the guards.

Sumeragi had left the corpses back in the dungeon, but Caroline covered it up by explaining that the archlich had left a few traps in the storage room, as Kieli got wiped out by a combination of a few slashing traps and a faulty mana cannon that exploded on her face.

The guards believed the archbishop easily, which sped up the entire process, while the adventurer guild sent a group of Gold Rank adventurers to recover the corpses before the mana in the cave mutated them.

Corpses, when they absorb enough mana, could mutate in a sort of undead monster known as ghoul. Ghouls were trouble even for Silver Rank adventurers, as they were extremely resistant to cut attacks and could use the skills the corpses had (most of them had their brains so degraded that it was impossible to correctly use them), but enough Gold Rank adventurers could deal with it.

Mia went with the Gold Rank adventurer group, as her fire magic proved effective against ghouls, and she had to handle a penalty due to failing her quest of protecting Kieli and Raham. But nonetheless, this ended up being more positive for the young mage as for what happened during that penalty quest.

During all that process, Kanbe recovered from his wounds and had to return the equipment he had used. The equipment he had used was used as proof in the case, to explain why the archlich was felled without an exorcist, alongside the fact that Sumeragi had become an enemy of the state due to his fight with the Barbarian Hero and a supposed incident with Prince David.

This made Kanbe’s stay in the city four times the amount of time it had to be, as he had been interrogated while being healed by countless priests and clerics, which was a good time for him to see what he had acquired.

Thanks to the shared EXP feature that happened in the dungeon, no one ever managed to ascertain why it happened like that and decided to just blame it on the archlich, Kanbe had acquired barely enough experience to reach level 5 instead of level 20.

But as a side effect of using Heavenly Defiant attacks so much, he had acquired the Warrior skill tree without any cost, and the hero became so much more proficient with the usage of spells and mana (the Heavenly Defiant attacks also assisted in that).

Everyone who heard the news of the newly acquired skill tree of the hero were glad for the hero, as acquiring a skill tree without using skill points required a massive amount of training, and rejoiced in the good fortune of the hero.

But for Kanbe, it felt like an empty reward. He couldn’t have saved Kieli nor Raham, and if it wasn’t for Caroline and Mia… Probably he would have been another corpse in that cave.

After four days of resting, and training his body with simple exercises like pushups, Kanbe was going to leave Argeares. Or so was the plan that Caroline had prepared, until a massive fish monster was found in the river by the Barbarian Hero.

And so Kanbe had to wait one more day to have the guards and some adventurers check the entirety of the river, which should have meant one more day of training for Kanbe. But as Kanbe was getting up from resting in the infirmary bed, as he had no room for now, he sensed something odd.

Ever since the fight with the archlich, Kanbe had acquired a massive sensitivity to mana. He was able to detect sources of mana of the people, and more or less gauge the amount of magic power the source had, as he was also able to detect his own.

Caroline explained calmly that it was due to him using Heavenly Defiance attacks, as he had become one with mana twice already, which had opened his mind and body to the sensation of mana.

But now, he was feeling an absolutely abnormal mana source. Caroline’s felt like a calm river, but slightly unnerving as if she controlled it fully, but this one felt like a dam. It didn't leak out at all, and it was extremely concentrated, as if someone didn't want to let it loose.

As Kanbe was getting ready to attack, thinking it was a monster like the archlich, a short woman walked inside the infirmary. This woman had shoulder-length black hair, snow-white skin, purple eyes, a womanly and voluptuous body, glossy bright red lips thanks to lipstick, and a gear tattoo on her neck.

Kanbe quickly checked her outfit, a black and very tight sleeveless tube dress that reached to her knees, a black pantyhose, black opera gloves, and black stiletto heels of a length of three inches. Alongside a pair of cat eyeglasses, which did surprise Kanbe as he considered glasses as too modern for a medieval world.

“Kanbe Tokugawa, I suppose. I will have to add into the profile data that you sleep without a shirt. Good abs though. You could grind meat in that rugged countenance.” The woman who walked inside without even knocking said, as she pushed up her glasses slightly. ‘Oh gods above, he is hot. An ikemen! He is an ikemen, and of the same nationality! Lucky!’ The woman thought to herself, as her eyes focused on Kanbe's upper body, while stealing glances to the area of the hips.

“Y-Yes, that's me.” Kanbe could only say, as he quickly put on a black shirt he had in his inventory, while blushing a bit. ‘Who is this woman? She doesn't seem like an enemy, but her mana is only comparable to Caroline’s.’ Kanbe thought to himself, clearly flustered by the woman.

“Good. I am Misaki Rita. An agent of the Magic Corp. I have come here to introduce myself and the corporation to the hero.” Misaki said, while trying to control herself, because showing her interest in the hero too early could end up being detrimental in her attempt of flirting. ‘He is so cute and hot, a perfect combination!’ Misaki thought to herself, already imagining her future with the hero.

“I see. But I fail to see what has to do with me exactly. Shouldn’t you wait until I am a bit more accomplished?” Kanbe said, as he scratched his neck awkwardly. ‘What is she trying? If it’s some sort of political mess, I might need Caroline’s assistance…’ Kanbe thought to himself while glancing at the agent.

“Oh, but it has a lot to do with you, sir hero! I came here to deliver to you a very important thing. A catalog of the many things we sell, which may be a good thing for you. As we are a good coalition of companies, a keiretsu, who is deeply concerned about the safety of the world. And, as the hero, you may require our assistance in your endeavors to defeat the dark lord.” Misaki said, as she gave a massive catalog to Kanbe, while smiling with a perfect smile and a perfect 90º bow. ‘He won’t be able to avoid looking at my chest with this bow! Perfect first bait, Misaki! I can see my golden future like any decent prophet!’ Misaki thought to herself.

“Just for that? You could have sent it to the church. It would have been easier.” Kanbe said, while looking at Misaki’s smile as his eyes gravitated towards her chest. ‘She’s doing this on purpose. There’s no way she’s not aware of the angle. Yep, hero luck I suppose. I feared this.’ Kanbe thought to himself, noticing that being a hero would mean dealing with a lot of interested individuals sending princesses and the like to seduce him.

“The church and the corporation I am part of… Well, they don’t cooperate well between each other. That’s the issue of dealing with a godslayer corporation, I fear. Since we are already scorned by the church of Zerax, either we make ourselves scarce or have to go to these lengths to just deliver a good catalog. Of course, the company would be glad to even send an expert to your party… As assisting you would be an honor.” Misaki said, as she kept her perfect smile.

“Well, thanks. I will remember these words. That said, you are in the church’s building. Wouldn’t this end up in troubles for your superiors?” Kanbe said, concerned about what sort of chaos might happen after the visit.

“Oh, well, don’t worry. I am sure that we knocked out all the individuals who were going to be trouble.” Misaki said, with her smile intact, as she looked at the hero in the eyes.

“I think you are deeply wrong. There’s a source of mana that I don’t like at all going towards this room.” Kanbe said, noticing a wild source of mana rushing towards the room. ‘I don’t recognize this source of mana, but I certainly don’t like the intensity that source of mana is giving. Nor their speed.’ Kanbe thought, assessing the situation at hand.

As Kanbe had sensed already, the Barbarian Hero entered inside the room while smirking. It was clear that he was seeking Kanbe, but no one knew exactly why, which made the young hero quite worried about why that man was going to such lengths to visit him.

Misaki, on the other side, clearly looked at the man and blushed brightly at what she was seeing. But also, she was ready to fight as her mana seemed to fluctuate strongly to her arms.

“Oh, silent treatment. Eh, I expected this seeing the archbishop clearly deciding that first you meet the king, later she tells you what happens this time with the dark lord.” The Barbarian Hero said, while scratching his neck.

“Well, I guess you are here to tell me about what the archbishop is keeping quiet. Right?” Kanbe said, while glaring at the Barbarian Hero.

“Okay, yes. Quick on the uptake. Look, Zerax never does make more than one hero. Well, until this time. This time, the prophets have warned Zerax. One hero ain’t going to cut it. There’s no way that any hero can defeat and seal the Dark Lord. So… Yeah, he made the different hero types of skill trees. I am Leshelle, one of the assistant heroes.” Leshelle said, while looking at Kanbe.

“Well, that means we are in a mess.” Kanbe said, clearly worried by what he had heard. ‘If a Dark Lord is so powerful that it forces the one who deals with the hero creation to do this… That means I am fucked. There’s no way around it.’ Kanbe thought to himself.

Leshelle nodded, as he smirked, while Misaki looked at both with a surprised face. Which made Kanbe look at Misaki, and then ponder whether the news were told to the populace or it was a secret of the state. The second option clearly sounded more natural, seeing how important it was to avoid a panic due to a prophecy that could be wrong.

“W-Well, even in such event: The Magic Corp will pull their weight to assist the hero!” Misaki exclaimed

“Thanks for the assistance, then. But you know it won’t be easy at all now.” Leshelle said, while he smirked.

“Yeah, but nothing in life ever is.” Misaki retorted, while glaring at Leshelle.

“Either way, the more we know about the situation… The more prepared we shall be.” Kanbe said as he smirked.

“Good words, boy. What you need to do is level up and train. Don't waste time. We have a bit more than four years to get ready, and all the assistant heroes that have been found are at level 60. You need to meet them, prepare your own team, and become stronger.” Leshelle said, as he patted the hero's back strongly, while smiling.

“So how many assistant heroes there are?” Kanbe asked, curious about the assistant heroes.

“We have found five. But Zerax said there are seven. We found the Thug Hero, the Murim Hero, the Arcane Hero, the Archer Hero, and then me. So we still have to look out for those two, but well… Probably they are going to be ready before the destined day.” Leshelle replied, while smiling, as he looked at Kanbe.

“Well, that’s a good start, but probably not enough for now. I got to level 5 already.” Kanbe said as he scratched his chin.

“Good, if you keep leveling up at this pace, you will reach level 60 before long. But I feel like the king will have you doing quests, and wasting your time, as he doesn’t believe that a Dark Lord is coming. After all, the chapel of Namika is losing followers each day. Namika is the goddess of darkness and the one who makes Dark Lords.” Leshelle said, while smirking, as he looked at Misaki.

“And that should be the logic, but who knows if she is pulling some sort of plan to make it better.” Misaki added, clearly glaring at Leshelle, as she seemed worried.

“It’s a sound idea to prepare, one way or another. But I feel like that will be hard to deal with.” Kanbe said.

“Because it is. Nonetheless, we have to do this. Either way, further than that, you should also know that the elves are up to no good. I don’t know exactly what they are pulling, but something is going on in their almost immortal minds.” Leshelle said seriously.

“Oh, well. I still have to meet one of them, so I don’t know much about them.” Kanbe said, while looking clearly worried about what Leshelle said.

“I don’t know exactly what, but it seems like they aim to make you indebted to them. Could be the typical princess play, or something worse. If it gets dangerous for your quest, warn me. I will punch the head of any elf who dares to become a problem.” Leshelle said, with a confident smirk.

“Oh, thanks. I will remember that. Once I get strong enough to help you, count with me.” Kanbe said with a wide smile.

Leshelle smiled widely, as he left the area, while looking around the area. As Leshelle left, Misaki took a deep breath while Kanbe just put on a white shirt to cover his torso.

“Okay, if the Magic Corp wants to help me… Could you help me with equipment? My old equipment is gone, so I need a new set of equipment.” Kanbe said, as he stretched his body a bit.

“Oh, of course! But I’ll require some specifications. What do you need in specific?” Misaki said, while she clearly looked slightly sad because she couldn’t keep looking at Kanbe’s countenance. ‘Hmph! Well, at least, we are getting a commission from the hero. That means a lot of money coming to our hands.’ Misaki thought to herself.

“Oh, well, I require a sturdy armor. Metallic, if possible, but with the capacity to use spells unimpeded. Also, if it’s possible, a great resistance to all sorts of attacks and self-repairing attributes. I don’t know much of this world, but I need to be ready as much as possible.” Kanbe said, as he scratched his chin. ‘It’s quite the crazy equipment I am asking, probably, but if Leshelle wasn’t lying… I require something of that caliber. As soon as possible.’ Kanbe thought to himself.

“It’s not impossible, but the only one who could make an item this powerful… That’s executive Veltian. He’s our best blacksmith. And I will ask also to add an amulet that protects from poison and charming abilities, seeing how dangerous the situation seems to be. If it is coming from the hero, I suppose that even the executives should assist.” Misaki said. ‘If the executive is in a good mood, he can make it. But I don’t think he’ll like making armors for a man.’ Misaki thought to herself.

“I think that I should ask him then. If I go to your facilities one day, should that be easier?” Kanbe said, knowing he was proposing something crazy.

“Oh? Oh!? Really!? That’d be amazing! I can see the PR group cheering upon that proposal! And executive Veltian can be quite… Eccentric. But I am sure you can convince him!” Misaki said, as she smiled widely. Clearly the first time she smiled like that in front of Kanbe, but she didn’t worry about any consequence now. ‘Got him! If the hero visits the corp, he may even accept a good contract! Fuck the elves, fuck Elstivia, and fuck the dwarves! We may get dibs on him!’ Misaki thought to herself, as she was celebrating over this golden chance she had.

“Well, that’s good and all…” Kanbe said, clearly surprised by Misaki’s reaction, while not noticing the intent of Misaki.

“I will be reporting this quickly, but do tell to Caroline to give you a teleorb, so you can call me!” Misaki said, using her inventory to give a business card to Kanbe, before leaving quickly the room.

The business card was a blue plastic card with a few white lines going from the corners of the card towards the center as if it was a processor. In the middle of the card it said: ‘Misaki Agamoto, superior agent. Magic Corp special member.’, and it showed a number similar to a phone number.

‘Well, I got information and a contact for free. But if the situation is as Leshelle said, I will need to prepare fast. And expect some sort of opposition from the king.’ Kanbe thought to himself, while finishing his stretching, as he left the business card in his inventory.

And so, Kanbe went to train himself as he went to the outskirts of the city and started running laps around the city while eliminating each of the monsters he found along the way. As much as he didn’t want to kill monsters that weren’t causing a problem, most of them would cause trouble as soon as they could, it was a sort of risk prevention duty which also gave Kanbe some fighting experience and experience he could use to level up.

***

Misaki was happily walking outside the town, while using a pure white orb made of quartz to call to the HQ of the Magic Corp, to inform the corporation about the arrangement she had made with the hero.

This orb made of quartz was a mana core made of a mana quartz, one of the best mana ores one could find for items like a teleorb as their affinity towards telepathy was incredibly high, but it seemed like it was unresponsive right now.

“Why is this not working?” Misaki asked, as she was pouring mana into it, looking clearly worried. ‘If it’s broken, goodbye to my paycheck! These cost a fortune!’ Misaki thought to herself.

“Oh, don’t worry. I just hacked it.” A feminine voice said, from a few meters away from Misaki.

Misaki quickly turned to the source of that voice, which came from one of the wheat fields, from which came out a woman, who seemed to be a cat beastkin due to her cat tail coming out of her pants. This woman had white skin, red eyes, and was clearly smirking at Misaki, as she was wearing a purple hoodie, which covered her ears even if it was clear that she was a cat beastkin, blue shorts, white ankle socks, and blue trainers.

“W-Who are you!? No one should be able to hack into the Magic Corp items!” Misaki said, clearly scared of the woman approaching her.

“My name is Nigredo. Nigredo Vi Argentum. One of the retainers of lady Grandine. And that of being impossible to hack… Yeah, no. All executives and managers know that I can do this. Even if it’s modular, you only need to know how the connection works to tamper with the connection. I lagged the teleorb, to the point in which it’s in a state of ‘Out of Order’, to ensure that you don’t call anyone who could have a trauma with me.” Nigredo said, introducing herself to the agent, as she smirked at Misaki.

“A-A Sun-Sunken Guardian!? Why are you here!?” Misaki asked, clearly scared of Nigredo, while trying to get ready for a fight.

“Oh, no. Don’t get rowdy, girl. I am here to dole out a warning, nothing more. If you mess with Grandine’s plans too much, she might get sad… And if she gets sad, you know what will happen… No?” Nigredo said, as she had the smuggest smirk anyone could have, while looking at Misaki.

“In what form of way I am interfering with her plans?” Misaki asked with a worried look.

“Oh, well… You are helping the elf king, for starters. I believe that your bosses should have chosen to leave him after Legadonia’s death. But I have to admit that moving away from Rivialt is bad, even if your corp is connected to Straka more than Rivialt, and that’s why we decided to ignore the corp’s actions. But even us have a limit, so I am here to deliver a warning: Stop putting your head in things you shouldn’t be putting it in.” Nigredo said, as she approached Misaki and grabbed her by the throat quickly, while keeping her smug smirk.

“I-I can’t do much about that!” Misaki said, trying to breathe, as she squirmed from Nigredo’s grasp.

“You can be the messenger or the message. Deliver the message to the corp. One way or another, you shall do so. Don’t make me snap your neck, though, I recently have gotten my claws done.” Nigredo said smugly.

“Even if I deliver the message, the executives may not heed my words!” Misaki said, clearly scared due to the strength Nigredo had.

“Well, if they don’t, I have a pretty good memory. Twice as good as your own brain. So, don’t worry, if I confirm you did it… You are to be spared, unless you attack us. Only you, though! The rest will have to get their own safety line!” Nigredo cheerfully said.

“O-Okay. But antagonizing the corporation is a bad idea! They have all sorts of tech-” Misaki said, trying to prevent the fight between Nigredo and the corp.

“I know. But if they start it, I think it’s not in my place to not retaliate.” Nigredo said, as she tightened her grasp.

“Okay, got it! Just let me go!” Misaki exclaimed, as she tried to break free.

Nigredo just chuckled and dropped Misaki, while starting to walk away, as she didn’t have any other reason to go after Misaki. This made Misaki grasp her neck, as it had a vast mark of claws on it, while she tried to control her breathing in order to calm down.

‘That was a rough girl… I better inform my superiors about her. But her grasp was so strong… Wasn’t she considered a support? What sort of inhumanely strong individuals are the Sunken Guardians?’ Misaki thought to herself while she tried to recover her breathing.

As Misaki coughed a bit, and tried to grab the teleorb, she heard an androgynous voice come out of the teleorb. It was Veltian, an executive of the corporation, and he sounded quite worried about Misaki.

“Misaki, are you okay!?” Veltian’s voice came out of the teleorb.

“Y-Yeah. I have two good news and a bad one.” Misaki said, grabbing the orb, as she made sure to clean her outfit a bit.

“Oh, that’s great. I suppose the bad one is the reason behind the interrupted call from your teleorb. But do give me the good ones first!” Veltian said, clearly less worried now after hearing Misaki’s voice.

“The first good one: The hero may come to visit in our elven branch.” Misaki said quietly, as her voice started giving out.

“Oh, good. Is a girl or a boy!?” Veltian said excitedly.

“A boy, and he wants some unique equipment. I think that it would be beneficial if you made it.” Misaki said, as her voice returned slowly with every breath she took, with a coarse tone.

“Uuuuh… I don’t like boys. I don’t wanna deal with boys!” Veltian said, with a slightly scared tone.

“But you are the best blacksmith amongst all the corporation. And he needs the best armor. This time, the dark lord may be someone terrible for us all.” Misaki said, with a worried tone.

“Yeah… But I just feel so small and weak when boys come visit…” Veltian said, clearly scared of a visit from Kanbe.

“Your trauma with Evan is still alive, even after a decade? It’s not like he’ll come back!” Misaki said, with an upbeat tone, as she tried to calm her boss.

“True… But I can’t help it… Boys look so strong and scary now…” Veltian said.

“Well, we can talk about it later. But he needs you. Second good new: I survived an encounter with a Sunken Guardian.” Misaki said calmly. ‘Best to work it up slowly, I hope I don’t get fired for being like this with my boss… But it’s the only option. Especially if we have people like Nigredo around.’ Misaki thought to herself.

“A Sunken Guardian!? Which!?” Veltian asked, with a scared tone, as he seemed clearly worried.

“Nigredo Vi Argentum. And if she’s a support, I don’t want to see a dealer Sunken Guardian.” Misaki said calmly.

“Ooof, trust me, that’s easy. Prometheus was so much rougher… I still get worked up each time I remember that! I don’t want to see boys due to Evan and Prometheus!” Veltian said, relieved that his subordinate didn’t meet Prometheus.

“She left a message, which is the bad new information. We need to stop putting our heads in things we shouldn’t be putting them. They understood our needs, but it seems like they can’t wait any longer. And one of those things is working with Katas.” Misaki said, ready for Veltian to clearly judge her for what she had said.

“I-I understand fully their words. I will deliver them to the other executives, but who knows how will they take it. I know how it feels to be warned by a Sunken Guardian, fully well.” Veltian calmly said, even if his voice quivered, as he tried to not cry.

“Could you tell me what happened with Evan and Prometheus, back when you were warned?” Misaki asked, worried if her question would be too much.

“Of course, it’s the minimum you need to know if you dealt with them.” Veltian replied, as his voice quivered a lot, while trying to not cry.

And so Veltian started explained to Misaki all what had transpired back when he was warned, in the era of the godslayers, with a freightened voice.

***

700 years ago, back in an area where there was no Dark Lord nor Hero, in a massive forge built way above the clouds on a floating island. A building focused on making all sorts of equipment, which was a massive cube-shaped building, used by the Magic Corp as a shop to sell all the unique equipments they sold.

One agent, wearing a mechanical armor that covered all the body which made them resemble a humanoid robot with silver skin and six eyes on their face, managed to come back from Neradath, the never-dying city, carrying a small purple teddy bear.

It seemed nonsensical, but the teddy bear had unique materials embedded onto it: Two mana cores of the highest grade as eyes, enchanted to be easy to track and capable of recording everything they saw, and the pelt of an Abyss Bear which was known to be immune to all sorts of spells, enchanted to withstand also all sorts of physical attacks.

It was a miracle, any thief who tried to steal from Neradath found themselves a quick death, as that place was a death trap for those who didn’t live there. Especially from where the agent took the teddy bear, as they had taken it from Bloodsin Castle.

Bloodsin Castle was the house of the Von Aegilard family, the house of the Black Flame Devil himself, and it was known to be impossible to raid without at least a team of 4000 rankers. And even if you had the team, most of it would die just before reaching the second floor, which made it a terrifying base for anyone as it had an impeccable record.

Only two times anyone managed to get something from Bloodsin Castle, the first one being the vandalization and burning of Evan’s 1-meter tall portrait and this one being the second.

But soon enough, the Magic Corp would learn what it meant to steal from the Von Aegilards, and they would regret their folly.

As the thief walked towards a massive forge filled with lava, where molten steel was dropped to help the blacksmiths build their most basic gear, he found a young boy with short pink hair who was wearing a rather feminine blue armor with wedge heels attached onto the boots. This boy had fair skin, elongated ears as he was an elf, blue eyes, a bit of makeup to make himself cuter, an androgynous body that made him look like a female, and a small gear tattoo below his left eye.

“I brought you the materials. Now you can make me that mana sensing artifact resistant to even the strongest fire, right?” The armored thief asked the boy, who was Veltian.

“Yeah, but from where you got it in this form?” Veltian asked, as he tilted his head while watching the teddy bear. ‘Maybe I should keep the bear, and get an agent to get me the materials. It’s cute, after all.’ Veltian thought to himself.

Before the thief could answer, Veltian and the thief heard a massive explosion on the entrance of the building. Usually they wouldn’t worry about it, but then they started hearing crunching noises and screams. It was either a big battle, due to a powerful enemy storming in, or a bloodbath of two different groups.

But it was none of them, as Veltian soon learned, as Grandine’s father blasted open the door that separated the room from the rest of the building. This man was accompanied by a massive male with two meters of height at least, tanned skin, with red spiky hair, red bloodshot eyes, who was wearing a crimson armor with blue and golden gems attached on the torso and the gauntlets, and pure white fur covering the neck area of the armor.

“Prometheus, catch the thief. And make sure I hear his bones crack. His insolence has been allowed too much.” Grandine’s father said to the man accompanying him.

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“Hm, okay, my lord. I’ll be careful.” Prometheus said, before rushing to the thief.

The thief tried to escape, but he wasn’t enough fast to avoid the charging Sunken Guardian, and the rest could see how Prometheus ran over the thief while covered in flames. A few crunching noises could be heard, and Grandine’s father smiled like a demon.

“Ah! My legs!” The thief exclaimed, as his legs had been both burned and crushed due to Prometheus’s charge. A charge which was equal to a train filled with trucks hitting you, clearly more than enough to kill a normal human a few times and reincarnate them a few times more.

“E-Evan! What a nice surprise!” Veltian said with a slightly surprised tone, which was replied by Evan simply sighing to Veltian.

“You should know better than poking me, Veltian. I upheld the deal we worked out. You don’t mess with me, I don’t mess with you. If you pay me, I can lend you some of my research. But why do you want Grandine’s teddy bear? Are you this much of a trap that your thoughts are going into that dumpster? How disappointing.” Evan calmly said, as he flicked his fingers.

Prometheus quickly understood what Evan was indicating with that flick of his fingers, and quickly grabbed Veltian to push him near the molten steel pool. As Veltian’s skin felt the heat, the young elf was scared and also oddly excited about the situation. Enough scared to drop the teddy bear, which fell to the ground, and Prometheus smiled as he saw the teddy falling to a safe spot of the area.

“Let me give you one more warning, for the sake of our old friendship. Dare to fuck with me or my family once more, and I will get Prometheus to crush every single bone of your body. Then I will dump you in a pool of lava, with a respawn reset, and leave you there. So don’t make me do that. Grandine is crying, and that means that Rubedo is getting angry. If Rubedo gets angry, he’ll come here and break every single one of your bones. We both don’t want that, right? Then don’t fuck with my family. It’s simple, right? Then fucking do it!” Evan said, with an enraged face, as he walked near Veltian.

“B-But I just asked for the materials, as he wanted an amulet! I didn’t know he got it from your daughter!” Veltian said, clearly scared but also excited about the situation. ‘I don’t know why, but I feel fear and something weird.’ Veltian thought to himself, not understanding fully how he felt at that moment.

“Oh, okay. Then make sure that your clients don’t fuck with me or my family. How you do it, I don’t care. But I don’t want to see my daughter cry, because a thug stole from her teddy bear from her bedroom. Due to you and Jacques messing things near her, she has insomnia. Between Jacques fucking incident, in which he woke up my daughter with his damned alarms, and you steal her teddy bear which helped her with sleeping as it is enchanted to create a soundproof barrier in the night. That was a good way to help her sleep, after Jacques messed up her sleep routine.” Evan calmly said, as he nodded to Prometheus.

Prometheus nodded, and placed Veltian far closer to the lava. To the point in which Veltian could sense the lava bubbles popping and the small drops of lava touched his cheeks. This made Veltian look extremely scared, and worried about his safety.

“O-Okay! I will find a way! Give me some time!” Veltian exclaimed, worried about his safety.

“Good. I don’t want to deal with this once more. So don’t make me come again for this. I will be taking the teddy bear back. Before Rubedo comes here to crush even your smallest bone.” Evan said, while grabbing the teddy bear from the ground.

As Evan said those words, Prometheus pulled Veltian back and threw him to one of the anvils in the area. Veltian just felt the impact, but the anvil was toppled due to the strength of the armor Veltian was wearing.

Evan simply started walking away, followed by Prometheus, until he saw the thief trying to run away. As he saw the thief trying to escape, Evan used mana to create a bullet made of fire and shot it at the head of the thief.

As the thief died due to the lethal damage, Evan calmly used a spell that released a terrifying mana that seeped inside the body. The body degraded quickly, until only remained the equipment he used remained and the bones, and then it got up quickly.

A new skeleton had been made, and one that followed Evan’s orders, which meant that Evan had now a new minion to use.

As Prometheus and Evan left, Veltian still kept feeling weird. It had been exciting for him, but he didn’t know why, but from then on… He avoided any situation that would remind him of such situation.

***

As Veltian finished telling his story with Evan to Misaki, she couldn’t believe how cute it was if you didn’t notice the clear menace that Evan was when angered. As the necromancer was a caring father, even after becoming a necromancer, and the fact that Veltian was unable to notice the fact that he liked rough guys.

‘I’ll keep silent about the other part. The girls in the corp would start writing peculiar stories, and Veltian would probably kill them all. But yeah, Evan is a menace when angry. Either way, best to help out Veltian. It’ll help with promotions!’ Misaki thought to herself, as she blushed brightly

“So yeah, best you don’t mess with that psycho. He’s a psycho.” Veltian said.

“Yeah, but being afraid due to one time is not that great. How about you try out to meet guys, and building back that confidence you used to have? We can start with the hero, he’s a nice guy.” Misaki proposed to Veltian.

“I don’t like the idea… But well, I’ll have to meet him one way or another. So might as well try it.” Veltian said, with a worried tone.

“Great! Also, helping the hero might help the corp. So if you feel it’s too much, just think it’s for the corp!” Misaki said excitedly.

“Okay, so we have to choose carefully what to do right now. And the king wants to see the hero. You know that the Elstivian king will try to send the hero into a bogus quest, just to ignore him, right?” Veltian said, clearly worried.

“Well, if he sends him to our elven branch… We can use him. And use the king’s folly to our advantage.” Misaki said, as she pondered what to do.

“Sounds like a solid idea. I’ll run it with the rest of the executives, but Maelis might get angry about it. He’s the kind of individual who dislikes being dragged into things like this. Either way, you were doing your duty… So you are safe. But I have a new quest for you, Misaki.” Veltian said.

“What sort of quest?” Misaki asked, while smiling.

“You need to find Haseya. It turns out she’s the Rebirth Hero. Since you are already close to Kanbe, you are the best for this job. That said, Haseya… She is a weird individual. Thanks to the attributes of Rebirth Hero, it seems his level has reset to level 1 but has kept all his body mods, skill trees, and stats. There has been cases of reincarnated individuals keeping the other two things, but never the body mods. Especially since in her case, she kept them as a passive and can just put new ones.” Veltian replied.

“So she may be uncooperative. I will have to ask for reinforcements, if she has increased levels he may be like a player at level 70 or 80. Or even 120. That means a massive amount of stats and skill trees. She may even have issues with the mortal limit.” Misaki said, worried due to her new mission. ‘I am not a suitable individual for talking with reincarnated ones! I am not a manager!’ Misaki thought to herself, worried about her future.

“I understand, but well… Haseya distrusts most of our agents. So at most I can dispatch a few low rank agents to scout ahead. The problem lies in the fact that it seems she has the Rebirth Hero skills fully unlocked, so she may not care about dying at all. Just like players in Dawn World, or better said… The godslayer era, she can revive at any church he visits.” Veltian explained.

“So we need to convince her. Got it. It’ll be troubling one way or another.” Misaki said.

“Indeed. But good luck. She is in Rivialt, but most of our agents there got wrecked by Haseya. Seems like she clearly distrusts of most of us, probably due to Maelis.” Veltian said.

“Understood. May I use lethal force if I must?” Misaki said, with concern in her voice.

“Absolutely. Do as you must.” Veltian said with a serious tone.

Misaki nodded and finished the call, as she stretched. She felt happy for having a new job soon, as that meant her paycheck would be bigger than usual, but also was scared due to the dangerous individual she was going to face when she got back to the elven country.

Misaki Status:

Race: Augmented Human.

Gender: Female

Age: 18 years old

Height: 1 meter and 60 centimeters.

Three sizes: 92-57-90

Cup size: E

Likes: Big paychecks, looking cute, freedom, ikemen, not having to deal with overtime, boy love stories, loyal people, helping out boys to find out their preferences, godslayers.

Dislikes: Working overtime, Zerax, corruption, hypocritical people, slavers.

Level: 60

STATS:

HP: 30000/30000

MP: 30000/30000

STR: 1

VIT: 200

INT: 400

DEX: 600

AGI: 500

Magic affinity: Water Magic, Basic Magic, Wind Magic, Earth magic.

Skill affinity: Mana operator, Magician, Tech Maker, Merchant, Charmer, Wizard, Geomancer, Gem Wielder, Hex Wielder, Teleporter, Curse Master, Spiritualist, Moon Chaser.

Job: Agent of the Magic Corp.

Special skills:

Mana recovery: Active, 0 MP. The user lowers the cost of all the skills by a 50% for an hour. Only works once every day.

Vitality Augmentation: Due to the biological augmentation done on the user, they have 100 points in Vitality, and 200 points more in both intelligence and dexterity, with no cost.

Processing boost: The user can think faster than usual.

Skills:

Magician (Master):

Magic Knowledge: Passive. Allows the use of magic.

Magician's soul: Passive. All spells cast by the user are a 20% stronger.

Magic control: Passive. All spells are cast 10% faster. Some can even be used without chanting.

Magic modification: Passive. The spells can be modified to give them new effects and change the way they are used.

Chantless: Passive. The minor spells will be automatically cast without even saying the name of the spell and the user only has to think in the spell and the adept spells only will have to be chanted entirely when using magic modification.

Earth Magic (Master):

Earth Golem: Active, 5 MP. The user creates a golem that will follow orders. It can be customized and enhanced, but cannot be healed.

Earth Wall: Active, 5 MP. The user creates a wall of earth to protect himself/herself.

Earth Shot: Active, 8 MP. The user creates a stone shard that is shot to an enemy. The speed and magnitude of the stone shard depends on INT.

Break Earth: Active, 1 MP. The user can break rocks.

Rock Fall: Active, 10 MP. The user summons a giant rock just above the enemy.

Earth Dome: Active, 25 MP. The user creates a barrier made of rock to protect himself/herself and those who are close to the user.

Concentration of Stones: Active, 40 MP. The user can concentrate shards of stone and put them together. Can be used to repair golems, enhance their abilities with enchanted stones or shot them like a shotgun to the enemy.

Burial: Active, 5 MP. The user can bury anything under the ground.

Earth Binding: Active, 50 MP. The user can bind the enemy with stone hands.

Earth Eruption: Active, 70 MP. The user can make the ground that is below the feet of the target explode.

The Heart of Stone: Pinnacle spell, 100 MP. The user increases his defense and the defense of his golems a 300% but makes them all weaker to wind magic.

Power of Stones: Pinnacle spell, 0MP. The user can add the earth element to any other spell.

Basic Magic (Master):

Minor Analysis: Active, 1 MP. Allows the user to see the stats of the target. It can be tricked with false status skill.

False status: Active, 3 MP. Allows the user to change what others see when they see the status.

Medium analyze: Active, 5 MP. Shows to the user the status and the personal data of the target. It can be tricked.

False data: Active, 15 mp. Allows the user to change what others see when they see the status window and the skill window when they use analyze skills like Greater analyze or medium analyze.

Fly: Active, 8 mp/second. Allows the user to soar through the sky.

Greater analyze: Active, 10 MP. Shows to the user everything of the target. It can be tricked with false self.

Telepathy: Active, 12 mp/second. Allows the user to speak to the mind of the target.

False self: Active, 20 mp. Allows the user to change what others see when they see the status window, the skill window and even the name and gender that appears in the status window when they use analyze skills.

Teleport: Active, 15 mp. The user can make small teleports. Range of 1500 meters.

Full analyze: Active, 20 MP. Shows to the user everything of the target.

City Teleport: Active, 30 mp. The user can teleport to any city that the user has visited.

Water Magic (Master):

Water ball: Active, 2 MP. The user throws a ball made of water.

Water wave: Active, 4 MP. The water rises up and strikes the enemy. Can push an enemy far from the user.

Water Cannon: Active, 20 MP. The user shoots high pressure water from his/her hands.

Water Prison: Active, 25 MP. The user traps the enemy in a water ball that acts as a cage. If not used carefully it can drown the enemy.

Water Tidal wave: Active, 40 MP. The water surrounding the user will rise and spin around the user, cutting anyone who gets close.

Aqua Lair: Active, 50 MP. The water makes a dome that allows the user to defense himself/herself against some attacks or go through water without ending soaked. Also traps air inside.

Downpour: Active, 100 MP. The user can create a cloud that will make a rain all across the area, but the water can be turned into several projectiles while falling. Also, the rain can be used to cast other water spells against the opponent. Pinnacle spell.

Water’s blessing: Pinnacle spell, 0 MP. The user can add the water element to any other spell.

Wind Magic:

Wind bullet: Active, 1 MP. The user shoots a bullet of concentrated wind that can pierce even iron.

Wind twister: Active, 5 MP. The user cast a tornado that sends everyone flying. It is shot from the user's hand.

Wind blade: Active, 10 MP. The user can either create a wind blade to cut the enemy or implant the wind element temporarily in a blade.

Wind improvement: Active, 12 MP. The user temporarily has an extra 30% AGI.

Wind Burst: Active, 15 MP. Makes a burst of wind that can push objects, but also pushes the caster in an opposite direction.

Wind Fang: Active, 20 MP. The caster makes a concentrated blade of wind that has even more cutting power than the wind blade in a sword.

Gale’s wings: Active, 35 MP. Pinnacle spell. Surround the body or an object with wind, allowing the user to control it and use it for other spells without wasting extra mana. Also makes the user a 50% faster.

Wind’s blessing: Pinnacle spell, 0 MP. The user can add the wind element to any other spell.

Teleporter (Master):

Mana Brain: The user acquires the capacity to hold a mana brain. The mana brain is an accumulation of mana that acts as a secondary brain of the size of a pea, that is inside the heart. Damage to the mana brain will cause a state of dizziness to the user, but it’ll nullify all the side effects of the mental fatigue as it runs all the subconscious thought. It’s said that the mana brain allows its users to learn twice as fast as they should be able.

Mana Fatigue Resistance: The user is more resistant to the side effects of using too much mana at once, allowing them to recover twice as fast as they should without this passive.

Spatial Resistance: The user is able to nullify teleports that affect them if they don’t want to be teleported.

Expansive Inventory: The inventory is twice as big as it should be.

Space Distortion: Active, 10 MP. The user can use this to nullify space magic that the user detects, as it distorts the space and nullifies the incoming space magic. It can be only activated as a counter.

Space Jump: Active, 5 MP. The user uses mana to jump at the speed of light to a location in a range of 50 meters.

Space Distortion Aura: Active, 15 MP. The user can create an armor that will send away projectiles, and nullify attempts of using space magic on the armor user, to themselves or an ally. This aura armor can only work for ten minutes, and can only nullify up to two space spells and withstand 300 attacks with projectiles.

Space Transaction: Active, 200 MP. The user can do a transaction between themselves or an ally and any space of similar size they have knowledge of. Fair warning: If the user doesn’t calculate well, the target may end up fused to a wall and unable to escape.

Mass Teleport: Active, 3000 MP. A mass teleportation that takes anything in a range of 100 meters, and sends it to another place. Takes both inanimate objects and people, so it’s way more taxing than any other teleport.

Mass Space Transaction: Active, 5000 MP. A mass version of Space Transaction. Exchanges a space of a size equal to a range between 50 meters and 300 meters with another location. Takes everything. Pinnacle skill.

Charmer (Master):

Increased Charm: People of the opposite sex or those of the same sex interested in the same sex will be more attracted to the user.

Charmed Trust: Those who are charmed by the user will trust him/her totally.

Charming negotiations: The negotiations with the ones who can be charmed will be easier.

Irresistible: Those who may be interested in the user will lose any kind of restraint when they see him/her.

Mana Operator (Master):

Mana Sense: Allows the user to sense better the mana in the area, and so they can control it better.

Tech Link: The user is able to connect with machinery, and to fully control them once they have overtaken the machine.

Mana Link: The user can connect with others using mana, and do a telepathic communication line between the people near them as long as they are 10 meters near the user

Basic Mana Operation: Active, 4 MP. The user can use the mana operation computer (MOC) to use the mana in the air that can’t be normally used to power the mana operation subcomputer and allow them to do certain things.

Basic mana operations are: Mana floating disc (which makes a floating disc above the subunits the user wants to use for it), mana laser (the subunits shoot lasers made of pure mana), mana shift (makes an item or person shift their position), trendy shift (makes people focus on something and leave the rest on their own or viceversa), analysis (allows the user to analyze someone status and skills {Does not help with items, skills, or spells that hide them}), record (allows someone to do photos or record stuff with the subunits), and mana shield (a shield of mana to defend people or other subunits).

Mana engraving: Active, 1 MP and one mana source. The user can engrave a mana mark or a mana tattoo in people and items that can store mana that the one who has the marks or tattoos can use when required.

Adept Mana Operation: Active, 12 MP. The user can make special mana operations that are more difficult that the basic ones.

Adept mana operations are: Counter force prism (A prism surrounds the target, which counters the physical attacks with an impact of the same magnitude sent towards the item that does the attack), mana dispersion prism (A prism surrounds the target and disperses all magical attacks sent towards the target), massive mana shield (a bigger shield of mana to defend people or other subunits), long range tech link (allows the user to link with tech from lange range using subunits), and the and warp mana operation (uses mana to warp someone to a better location).

Mana hacking: Actives, 25 MP. The user can hack into any system that uses mana as a power source and manipulate it (success rate depends on the MOC and the MOSCs used for this skill).

Master Mana operation: Active, 30 MP. The user can make the highest grade mana operations, which only a handful can truly use.

Master Mana operations are: Absolute Regeneration (the subunits can regenerate limbs lost by people, unless the wounds are cursed), massive warp mana operation (uses mana to warp all that is in 100 meters of range to a different position), mana tinkering (which allows fixing machines using mana), body analysis (allows the user to see all the sizes of the body), and photo modification (allows the user to modify photos).

Veltian Status

Race: Augmented Human.

Gender: Male

Age: 20 years old

Height: 1 meter and 50 centimeters.

Likes: Taking care of his missions, good deals, looking feminine (secretly), freedom, loyal people, godslayers, being with his comrades, being assisted by powerful men (unaware).

Dislikes: Bad deals, Moriarty, corruption, slavers, having to deal with the other executives, Zerax’s church, messy missions.

Level: 60

STATS:

HP: 50000/50000

MP: 40000/40000

STR: 100

VIT: 400

INT: 600

DEX: 600

AGI: 400

Magic affinity: Earth, Water, Wind, Basic.

Skill affinity: Hex Wielder, Trickster, Blacksmith, Magician, Merchant, Wizard, Energy Curse Master, Teleporter.

Job: Executive of the Magic Corp.

Special skills:

Vitality Augmentation: Due to the biological augmentation done on the user, they have 100 points in Vitality, and 200 points more in both intelligence and dexterity, with no cost.

Strength Augmentation: Due to the biological augmentation done on the user, they have 100 extra points in Strength, and 200 extra points in Vitality and Agility.

Augmented Body: At the cost of having an androgynous body, the user has 100 points more in Agility.

Mana resupply: Active, 0 MP. The user recovers an 80% of the total mana the user has used in the last hour. Only works once every day.

Skills:

Magician (Master):

Magic Knowledge: Passive. Allows the use of magic.

Magician's soul: Passive. All spells cast by the user are a 20% stronger.

Magic control: Passive. All spells are cast 10% faster. Some can even be used without chanting.

Magic modification: Passive. The spells can be modified to give them new effects and change the way they are used.

Earth Magic (Master):

Earth Golem: Active, 5 MP. The user creates a golem that will follow orders. It can be customized and enhanced, but cannot be healed.

Earth Wall: Active, 5 MP. The user creates a wall of earth to protect himself/herself.

Earth Shot: Active, 8 MP. The user creates a stone shard that is shot to an enemy. The speed and magnitude of the stone shard depends on INT.

Break Earth: Active, 1 MP. The user can break rocks.

Rock Fall: Active, 10 MP. The user summons a giant rock just above the enemy.

Earth Dome: Active, 25 MP. The user creates a barrier made of rock to protect himself/herself and those who are close to the user.

Burial: Active, 5 MP. The user can bury anything under the ground.

Earth Binding: Active, 50 MP. The user can bind the enemy with stone hands.

Earth Eruption: Active, 70 MP. The user can make the ground that is below the feet of the target explode.

The Heart of Stone: Pinnacle spell, 100 MP. The user increases his defense and the defense of his golems a 300% but makes them all weaker to wind magic.

Power of Stones: Pinnacle spell, 0MP. The user can add the earth element to any other spell.

Basic Magic (Master):

Minor Analysis: Active, 1 MP. Allows the user to see the stats of the target. It can be tricked with false status skill.

False status: Active, 3 MP. Allows the user to change what others see when they see the status