Going on a journey because a magical artifact chose you as it's receptacle was kind of fun in an epic sort of way. It was also an epic pain in the ass, but she was working on it.
"And don't come back." She said, an air of pure cold permeating those that stood before her and let them see just how worthless their lives truly were.
Crying as they ran, the bandits didn't look back, their battered and bruised forms an obvious reminder of her dominance over them.
In a much different way, the people of the village cried over her victory, their voices screaming 'Mia!Mia!...', her new pseudonym gaining one more following as she was again forced to act upon the ugliness of the world.
Through trauma. 'So that they may repent while admiring the memory of your Beauty.'
Truth be told, she would have probably interceded on some occasions where things were bad. As an almost adept, few bandits or common beasts could hope to actually defeat her after all, and she'd remiss to just up and ignore those in clear need of help too, but she wasn't some fairy tale hero and didn't have the will to go around killing and beating up everyone even slightly evil.
Rose however, for all that she was a cold hearted spirit artifact, would absolutely not shut up about her skipping out on quests for no reason, repeating 'QWEST!QWEST!QWEST!' with an adorable voice which would echoe through her head, not letting her pee, eat or even sleep until she beat up some other enemies or helped some rando with their chores.
At some point she had found out that she was allowed to run away upon failure, though that would make her training be increased as a kind of punishment.
After months of this behavior, she was half sure her companion just wanted to see her suffer or exercise, because despite the constant claims that it made them stronger, she never actually saw any such benefits. Sure, some of it was good practice, especially when she had to perform like she'd just did, but most of the time she could very well just sit back on the money she made as an adventurer and train her body and growing mana pool and enjoy a greater effect.
On the flip side, she was indeed growing more familiar with using her Beauty in unconventional ways. Different from what she had first assumed, not only was it good for getting her way without violence, it actually helped her keep herself going during long fights, semi-randomly made her finishing strikes gain more power, allowed for an easier time distracting an enemy in a one on one and sometimes even made it so there was some kind of stage effect around her, where things literally fell into place so she could be more beautiful.
Her idea of what Beauty actually is was expanding at a rather prodigious rate, and that seemed to allow Rose a better access to her mana pool and channels, which she had been surprised to learn were actually a thing despite her never having displayed talent for spellcasting.
Casting spells herself involved a surprising little amount of math and geometry like the demons said and also a lot less coercing the wild environment to follow her will. Rather, it was more like sending her mana an impression of what she needed at the moment and shining her beauty through the situation like a prism to create a new effect.
Admittedly she was absolutely unable to use any big spells and her utility wasn’t very good overall, but she could use it to help her track, read people, clean herself, and other very useful things for a young woman traveling around on her own.
Especially since she did not know when she would be stopping. As it stood she simply kept going further and further south-west, in her convoluted route of zig zags and circular detours of quests and training as she tried to avoid not only the attention of the government, but also that of overly powerful individuals capable of making her life hell and making it their personal mission to have her.
Not only was she not emotionally ready to see the plains again, there is also simply no way she would survive the ones who’d hunted down her tribe were she to return as she was now. Perhaps if she reached peak adept and gained herself some allies with these quests she could maybe establish a fighting chance, but otherwise there was little point in handing herself over like that.
She didn’t just want revenge, and as it turns out, it was much easier to remember that when Mina looked upon the people celebrating the fall of their oppressor, a feast being made in her honor, where people crowded over her and talked to her like they would be happy to accept them into their little community.
And maybe one day she actually would. Probably not this one in specific, but she could see herself making a new nest, a new family.
If she ever managed to actually settle down and open herself up again after she went through this 'adventure'. Oh, and whatever partner she chose needed to be okay with sharing her with an obnoxious cursed jewel that wouldn't stop talking about beauty and could not be removed.
Yeah…
Despite seeing plenty of bad and some good on her travels, and whatever effect that ended up having on her and her views of the world, Mina felt she would likely never actually be able to get rid of Rose. She could even see herself truly learning to not want to either.
It rather hurt sometimes to think about it, but as of recent times, her closest 'friend' was a fucking cursed rock that was barely intelligent. The little shit was like a little sister she never had, while also incredibly useful and encouraging of her goals, nevermind how she was always a solid company for when she was feeling down.
The whole 'talking with feelings and impressions' was weird, some times disorienting and even painful, but it more than made up for her partner's lacking vocabulary and allowed her to share her admiration and affability. Were she to not know of how touchy Rose felt about not properly understanding 'love', she'd call her a loving puppy.
It was as she had those kind of thoughts that she heard it however. She wasn't even the first, but with the festive atmosphere, the people with more sensitive ears could hardly be blamed for not noticing it immediately.
First to arrive was the sheer noise, but then came the trembling ground, which caused a panic, and she really wanted to stay to help with any possible problems to arrive, but she could also see the great, flaming explosion in the distance. Which was soon enough followed by several more explosions in succession.
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There was no two ways about it. Either this had to do with a beast she could not allow to come closer to this village, or it was a person she would likely need to deal with before they could get better, as they may very well be a danger, especially if these explosions were being made by the fight of two or more people.
Explosions that she knew she'd be hard pressed to cause herself. While she couldn't discard a specialised mage playing around, this was likely not going to be a fight of her level.
Maybe because of her recent fixation on beauty however, she found that she didn't actually have a thought of abandoning the villagers nearby and running away. Maybe it was just because she was being trained to act like this.
Either way, Mina couldn't help but feel that this was the right thing to do.
………………….
After clearing yet another nest of cry babies that wanted to give up on their race's fight against the gods through the path of terrorism, Aki couldn't help but feel like the direction he was going towards to reach their leader was a bit worrying given the current world map he knew of.
All of the triangulated results kept pointing to a general area at the southwest, and that meant that a certain neighbor of the empire was raising trouble.
Wether it was for the stated, obvious reason, or if they had something else in mind, was hard to tell at this point in time since he had only witnessed their work, but as to whether those fuckers were behind it or not was not really in question anymore.
Be it the sudden usage of Bane to injure the demon king despite the general lack of knowledge about it, the convoluted plans within plans or the nature of the propaganda of their terrorist tool, all of it pointed to his not so lovely cousins within Possibility.
Now, he didn't like being racist or specist, but he and his path had several exceptions open to be made for those who were indeed people within his fellow sapient races, and perhaps, perhaps, genocide would be in the table for this cell if they kept at their best impression of the United States.
Sure, he wanted to know what the fuck caused the need for the whole play at maintaining plausible deniability, especially if it was caused by some kind of resource he could point the Empire towards extracting and using, but he had time, and making sure no enemies remained at his back was more important than finding some not so secret power up source.
Besides…
[Name: Aki
Race: Human/carbon based fae (Life level 0)
Level: 10
XP: 109 M
Main class: Novice mage Lv 10
Sub-class:
Stats:
STR 5
DEX 5
END 10
VIT 18
INT 42
WIS 34
CHA 16
LUCK 21
Free points: 1
Talent points: 67
RR: 7*
Legacy: 1
HP: 90/90
SP: 185/185
EP: 1.428/1.428
Traits:
Concentrated fancies: +10% learning and crafting speed to projects which catch your fancy.
Madness of the intermediary human: Grants a varying (between 0.75 to 2) modifier to mental resistance depending on the nature of the check. Grants a varying (between -50 to +200) psychical resistance bonus depending on the nature of the check. Grants a varying (between -50 to +200) aural resistance bonus depending on the nature of the check.
Fae blood: Slight increase in magical affinity. Slight resistance to non-energy infused weaponry. Increased vulnerability to significance fueled damage. Your potential is naturally unlocked.
Faery narrative: Your life, your story, your power. Current benefits: Slight increase in magical affinity, +5 VIT. +15 WIS. +20 LUCK. +10 CHA.
Firebrand: Slight increase in magical affinity. Slight increase to fire affinity. Slight increase in efficiency to burning matter and vitality.
Dedicated doctor: When healing, you naturally find calm and focus. During long treatments, you receive a slight increase in mana regeneration.
Chosen enemy - humanoids: When fighting those of human descent, bonus relevant bane essence generation.
Chosen enemy - Elemental: When fighting those risen from pure essence, bonus relevant bane essence generation.
True bane: Whenever your production of bane essence passes a certain threshold, it is naturally integrated into your actions. Increased bane essence generation.
Abilities:
Basic arcane affinity Lv 10: Slight increase in magical affinity.
Infuse Lv 10: Infuse your energy into a target.
Detect magic Lv 10: Focus on the energy around you.
Skills:
Basic power strike Lv 10
Basic enhancement Lv 10
Basic sharpening Lv 10
Basic weight modification Lv 10
Basic imbue fire Lv 10
basic confuse Lv 10
ETC spells
Talents:
Meta: 10 out of 10 (Basic) Lv 7
Essence: 10 out of 10 (Basic) Lv 8
Connection: 10 out of 10 (Basic) Lv 8
As of right now, not only was he close to attaining his next big power up by finally unlocking that damn intermediate Meta talent, but he could feel that the campaign against the nasty buggers would force him to either improve, or die.
Maybe he wouldn't even need to complete a quest to unlock the respective Bane generation trait this time, though it'd be fine if he needed to, as he'd actually gained a quest since his first brush with the End.
Rather, he also gained one for messing with the head agent, apparently helping his wife with her plan by making him paranoid and worsening his prospects, but that one was mostly just a random pop up that might end up being funny in the end, while the overarching quest to deal with the 'Peace' faction was of much more interest to him.
[Quest: Down with peace! For the Empire!
Synopsis: After joining the inner circle of the Empire's forces, you have contract with the Cult of The children of the gods peace, dealing with their heinous actions as you went. Now you have found a way to strike before such evils are commited and even found a hint of a greater master mind before all of this sorrow.
Difficulty: Greater
Requirements: Vanquish the threat of the Cult and their backers.
Objective 1: Root out the presence of the Cult from the empire and stop their resurgence for a period of at least five years.
Objective 2: Guarantee the non-interference of the mastermind fro a period of at least five years.
Rewards: Varying depending on rate of success and method.
Failure condition: The regime of the empire changes to accommodate the Cult or is inadvertently destroyed.
Penalties: Extreme loss. (Reduced to a loss of rewards if at least one objective is completed)
Note: Quests with more than one objective can be turned in as complete so long as at least one object has been completed.]
He could not tell wether the system was underestimating him or simply pointing towards as big event that was going to happen not so far into the future, but it sure made it seem like completely destroying his enemies was indeed his best bet at actually completing the quest with good results.
Which meant running through and destroying everything in his path was actually allowed and encouraged, his contract beaming with happiness at his show of great dedication as he took it upon himself to take down the enemies of the estate by himself.
Not that the royal family found it amusing that he suddenly started running in a direction and wouldn't stop chasing the lead he was onto even as the demon king himself ordered him, quoting that he recognised his order, but given it was a stupid order he would be ignoring it.
He realised what all of this meant for his future, of course, but he was also very excited for the chance.
Not only did he get to emulate great actors and comedians by going through with his own idiot plot, relax with a fun, repetitive activity that also counted as exercise and gain more power, he was also going more than a bit crazy with all the needs and musts of being part of an organisation.
He lived in a fucking palace for months, and yet had managed to not binge eat, roll in bed with a book or even fuck for the same amount of time he'd been there.
All of that because the head enchanters sucked at understanding his explanations, so he had to work sixteen hours at minimum a day to compensate for the lack of personal capable of doing some parts and…
Honestly, it felt good to let loose.
Aki knew himself well enough, had even built his Path to help him stay focused on doing more boring but needed stuff, but in the end, be it from his previous emotional outburst or from the sight of hope for something new, he couldn't hold out.
'Death never bothered me anyway~' He though as he hummed a tune, mind going even faster than his steps as he sighted the next Cult stash and prepared to raid it.