Waking up early, I carefully get out of bed without disturbing Alice and head downstairs as usual. Coffee joined me as I made breakfast for everyone. Today I’d be going to see Getsuna to do a request for him and I felt rather nervous. What could a Demigod need me for?
Alice came running down the stairs and with Coffee they went to go play. Yesterday we had gone to a medical facility and she had levelled up, but nothing had happened. She remained the same Alice as before, except now she needed two million experience, a massive amount but thankfully she still gained experience from absorbing dark magic from others.
Serving breakfast for the three of us, once we were done I dragged a screaming Alice to bathe and get dressed. Xia was currently waiting for Olivia to finish with her Shrine Master as she should be out in the next few days, meaning it was just me and Alice. Elizabeth had found a new house some time ago and moved in and we would be moving to our new house in the next few days.
Walking to the Guild while holding Alice’s hand, Coffee had entered my mana realm, I had planned to leave Alice with Elise for today. Elise mentioned she may have another way for Alice to earn experience which involved absorbing darkness from weapons and items that had been corrupted by darkness, making them nearly useless. Since the Guild had no use for them, they were usually disposed of, but Elise had managed to secure some to see if Alice could gain experience.
After leaving Alice with Elise, I grabbed the token for the request as well as another token that would be used at a teleport hub to arrive at Getsuna’s location. This had been arranged to avoid being seen in the noble section, which while it wasn’t a problem for adventurers to be in the nobles section I was currently wanted by two families and their allies.
Showing this token to a guard at the teleport hub, he escorted me to a room and opened the door. As I stepped onto the teleport circle, the token flashed as my surroundings warped. Arriving in a similar room, I saw the door already open and I walked out to see Getsuna standing there.
“Good, you’re here. Follow me.” Getsuna leads me through the corridor and through a few doors before arriving at a large door. “I hope you’re ready.” Not giving me time to swallow the nerves I had, Getsuna pushed open the door to reveal a large room, rows of desks occupied with children entered my sight, a podium in front of them with a board of some type behind that. The children turn to us and excitedly start talking in whispers. Blinking in surprise, I wondered if we had arrived in the wrong room.
“Orphaned children, their parents lost their lives in the service of Vale or as adventurers. Today you’ll be telling stories of your time as an adventurer with these children.” Getsuna leads me to the podium as the children started talking loudly.
“Mr Getsuna.” A young girl raised her hand. “Is she the one you told us about?”
“Yes, this is Alisha ‘Starcaller’ Nocturne, otherwise known as the hero of the slums. Today she will be telling you all stories about her time as an adventurer as your reward for your hard work.” Getsuna turned to me and gave me a nod as I looked over the crowd of children who looked excited.
I hadn’t expected this in the slightest and looking around I tried to think of what to tell them. A story came to mind, one Getsuna had reminded me of. Taking a breath, I started telling the children about the time at the orphanage, when I faced the heavily wounded bear.
***
“Good work. I will contact Alex when I am ready for the half-day training.”
“T-Thank you.” Taking the token back that he handed me, Getsuna nodded. We were still in the classroom but the children had departed after I had told them stories all day. The sun had set some time ago and I felt mentally drained.
“If you are interested you are welcome to return to tell more stories, or to assist in training if you’d like. You’ll be appropriately rewarded.” Getsuna didn’t really show any expressions but I had noticed when he was looking at the children earlier his eyes had softened somewhat.
Thinking about it, I didn’t have any particular problems with coming back every now and then. “Sure, I enjoyed it today.”
The entire class had been enthusiastic about my stories and had asked too many questions for me to have kept count. Getsuna leads me to the teleport circle and after he tells me that I just needed to inform Alex of when I’d like to come again, I stepped once more unto the teleport circle and arrived back at the hub.
Handing the tokens back to the guild, I was then led to a large storage room and opening the door I found Elise and Alice.
“Mummy!” Alice jumped and hugged me while I smiled.
“Ah, you’ve returned. Alice has been able to absorb the darkness of everything we have given her, did it work?”
“Mm, I’ve been receiving notifications all day.” She had been gaining anywhere from 5,000 to 30,000 experience per item from what the System had told me and currently Alice had gained about 250,000 experience today.
“Good. How did your request go today?”
Telling Elise about the request she smiled. “I had thought you would be off on some dangerous mission, to think it was storytelling. Your popularity has quite the reach it seems.”
“Popularity?” Tilting my head at Elise, she shook her head.
“You know, you should be more aware of it. You’re very well known and popular amongst most of the Gold Grades and lower. Your bravery with saving those of the orphanage that day made you very popular with the Royal Guard and your exploits recently has made you the hot topic here. Be careful though, there are those that act in greed, jealousy and hatred that believe it should be them in the spotlight…even though you’re not even around enough to be in it.”
I didn’t particularly care for the attention and would rather avoid it. Inviting Elise to dinner when we moved into our new house, she happily accepted, saying it would be good to take some time off.
“Alisha, I wanted to ask you something. You have a skill called ‘Drunken Brawler’ right?”
“Mm, I don’t remember the details about it.”
“Well, as far as I’m aware it should give you strength in return for the drunkenness and is a talent only given to those that had very good potential in fighting while intoxicated. I’ve been thinking that perhaps you should look at finding your tolerance for alcohol and using it in combat.”
Not disliking the idea, I nod and add it to the ever growing list of things I needed to do. Bidding farewell to Elise, I carry Alice and as I walk through the crowd of adventurers I notice that what Elise had said before was true. Most adventurers turned to look at me, giving me a firm nod or a wave. Leaving the Guild, Alice and I made our way home while I tried to teach her some more words. She’d gotten slightly better, instead of calling Xia smelly she had started to call her ‘dumb-dumb’ instead. I hadn’t taught her that word which had left me dumbfounded as to where she was learning these words.
***
A young girl with fox ears and a small raven that sat on her head stumbled around in the darkness, trying to find their way out. They looked afraid, uncertain of everything around them. I didn’t know how long they had been wandering around, but soon they stopped. The young girl then raised her hands in the shape of a circle to her chest as she muttered.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“O Mother Moon, guide me through this darkness, allow your faithful to escape its grasp and once again reunite with my friends.”
As she finished, a trial of stars started to spread from her, showing her a path that she excitedly followed. After following this path for some time, she arrived in a room with a giant monster with blue skin, but the young girl easily defeated it with glowing silver hands. Continuing to follow the stars, she soon reached a pond where a slope led to the outside. Excited, the girl spoke to her raven before stripping down and jumping into the pond.
***
Waking from this dream, I looked at the ceiling and I considered what I had seen. I had been lost in that labyrinth, wondering pathway after pathway with Alice before I had heard a voice. Believing in the voice, I had decided to pray to Celestia and She had shown me the way out, even giving me some power to defeat the Guardian. I see, she had helped me before and I had just forgotten. I wanted to remember more of my memories, to know of my past.
As I sat up, I felt that something was rather strange with this memory, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, even though it had been like the other times. I just felt glad that I had received Her help during those dark times. It has been three days since I completed Getsuna’s request and I had completed a few more requests from the Guild that involved assisting in training the Royal Guard with Xeno two more times, helping locate a missing spirit beast with Summer and helping another orphanage with cooking a feast for them. I had managed to also read the spellcasting books that Ash had left us.
A lot of the knowledge in these books I understood very quickly. I hadn’t touched any of the theory but the knowledge here gave me new ideas on how to utilise magic in various ways. I had become limited with thinking spells had to be big or flashy, and thinking about the rock bullets Elise had used during our duel, I understood I hadn’t actually got any spells that use very little mana except for Astral Ice Spikes.
A lot of what I had read I knew already, but it got detailed. Using mana control to create powerful spells that were strong but not large, or reducing the amount of mana needed for larger spells while keeping the same power. As I read more, I thought of a spell that I could use. A lot of spellcrafting came from understanding the power you used and having a strong visualisation of how you wanted the spell to act, look and the power behind it.
When I had created Night’s Fury, I had done so in rage, visualising dropping a lot of power onto my opponent to erase them. I don’t remember the details because I had been in a blind rage, but once you’ve done it once it’ll become as simple as using it again since your mind would know how to use it. I didn’t understand how, but I came up with a spell I wanted to do.
“Alice, stand here dear. It won’t hurt, ok?”
“Alice ok mum!” Alice smiles as I stand in front of her. I had used her to practise Gravity before, only making her lighter since making her heavier might hurt her. Closing my eyes, I visualised chains of silver, wanting them to wrap around Alice’s arms and legs with minimal power. Opening my eyes, I used Celestial Eclipse mana as a magic circle appeared on each hand of mine, silver chains erupting from them, binding Alice tightly.
I noticed very quickly that though the spell had worked, it wasn’t as strong as I wanted it. Realisation hit me in the next moment.
“Ah, constellations. Now, the constellation that fits binding, imprisoning and etc would be…” Ophiuchus, a constellation that looked like a snake that bound its enemies. Recasting the spell while calling out to Ophiuchus, the chains snaked out from my hands, this time binding Alice tightly, and unlike before she couldn’t move. The strength of the binding was far more powerful than I thought. Nodding, I let the spell go as Alice ran up to me and giggled.
“Again again!”
Shaking my head, I used it again to get used to the spell as Alice giggled. I knew she found this to be fun because to her I was playing with her, and since we hadn’t had time alone like this, I tried the spell a few more times before playing with her.
Celestial Imprisonment.
Use the power of the constellation of Ophiuchus to bind your opponent with powerful chains. If empowered will weaken your enemies.
Fox of the Night Sky: At night these chains will drain mana from those who are bound.
As we play, I hear the door open and after a moment, Xia and Olivia walk in and both look confused. I couldn’t blame them though, I was bound by a talon while Alice was pinned to a wall with silver chains.
“Ah, hey Xia and Olivia.” Smiling as I exert some strength and destroy the shadow talon as I dismissed the chains.
“D-did we interrupt you two playing?” Tilting her head, Olivia looked between me, and Alice, both of us grinning while Alice giggled.
“Yea, we got a bit carried away.” Looking around, the living room had kind of been destroyed, the couches were ruined and there were some holes in the walls.
“Madam, I believe the training room in the new house will be suitable to play in next time.” Xia said with a small smile. “Olivia and I visited the Winter’s Rest courthouse and everything is ready. We have picked up the keys.”
“Ah, it’s just been over two weeks. We’ll get packing and move over tonight. Olivia, how was the Shrine Master?”
“Mm, he was kind. I’ve become a Marksman Healer, I can shoot healing spells at people now and my archery can deal lethal damage much more effectively.”
Looking her over, she seemed a bit more confident which made me smile. “That sounds amazing. Let's have some lunch while you tell us everything.”
***
Visiting the Evernight Courthouse, we turned over the keys to the house and the token and explained the damage to the living room, which knocked off a bit from the total we were selling it for. Before it would’ve been 10 Platinum coins and it sold for 8 Platinum coins. We weren’t too bothered, after all we were earning Mithril coins now. The modifications to the backyard and additions we made did add value as well.
Everything we had had been stored into a house sized dimensional bag, since we didn’t really have much in the first place. I easily carried it while Alice rode my shoulders while playing with my ears. Olivia and Xia walked beside me while we talked along the way. Olivia had received her new weapon before going to the Shrine Master and it had turned out excellent. A light amber bow with a very thin string, it had an elegant design and could shoot either arrows or mana arrows. It was a soulbound weapon as well and would continue to grow with her for a while.
After a short climb, we arrived at what had been a large plot of land and now laid our new home, surrounded by a large wall and gate. Pushing the gate open, we found a beautiful sight. A path ran along to a massive house with two stories. Along the path were hedges of flowers and trees that resided behind them, with a field of grass underneath. The pathway was lit up with soft glowing blue gems and as we walked down it I couldn’t believe that this had been just a plot of dirt before.
Entering the house we found ourselves in a large lobby, a corridor at the other end with doorways to the left and right that led to the various rooms here. The corridor would lead to our rooms, while the other doorways would go to the rooms we had requested to be built. We went through the house to explore the rooms and felt satisfied with how everything had turned out.
I stood in the backyard admiring the very large garden we had built. There stood a storage shed in the middle of the garden that had the master control of the magic circles in the garden along with holding various tools. The backyard itself was fantastic, along with the large bath there was also a dining area where we could eat outside as well as the various trees and flower beds.
We went to our bedrooms and began unpacking the little we had, and after placing The Blade’s duplicate sword, swearing to replace it with his head one day, I felt satisfied. Sitting down, I took out an item I had forgotten about, that I had received two of.
The Wish Box of Need sat before me, with the other still in a bag. I had already thought of what I needed, which is a way to recover my memories, and with this box I could possibly get it. Xia was currently setting up the storage and library while Olivia and Alice were down in the training hall. Coffee still rested in my mana realm, while I still needed to prepare the kitchen. Since that wouldn’t take long, I decided to open this box.
Opening the box, I found a strange obsidian key at the bottom of it, about the size of my hand. A bit confused, I picked the key up out of the box and felt more confused as I read what the System told me.
Key to the Underworld Trial.
Recommended Level: 80
A key to the Underworld, where you will be given a trial. Upon completion of this trial you will be rewarded.
“The Underworld? What is that?” Tilting my head as I look at the key, I shake my head with a bit of a smile. “Well, if this is something I need, I should do it when I can. It might give me more memories. I have the other trial keys too, but before I knew it I’ve overleveled them.” Sighing, I made plans to sell the three keys I had thought of trying before. Planning to try this trial once we’ve settled and had everyone around for dinner, I set the key aside and move to the kitchen.
Setting up the kitchen and storing the food we had left over, I made a quick meal for everyone and after eating I went out to the garden with all of the seeds I had collected and imbued with my mana and set to work planting all of them.