Ch 2: How to kill a Demon Queen/the old woman

“Alright, what are we actually trying to do?”

“Do you yet know this world?”

“No.”

“You will need to.”

“I’ll explain it. So, we are in The Capital. Most people are. The Capital is at the center of The Continent, and The Continent is split into five Sections. First, to the south east, the Windswept Plains, the Stormy Hills, and the Green World Vent. To the east-north east, the Stone Ridges, JaggedJaw mountains, and Blue World Vents. To the north, the Azure Tundra, Frosted Wastes, and Yellow World Vent. To the west-north west, the Painted Canyons, Verdant Desert, and the Red World Vent. Finally, to the south east, the Darkened Forest, the Twisted Jungle, and the Purple World Vent.”

“I assume the Vents align with the Aspects?”

“{Correct.}”

“Those biomes sound… hostile.”

“They are designed to keep people away from the extremely dangerous World Vents.”

“What’s to stop people from sailing around?”

“Hostile Waters. A Biome that gets worse as you get further from the angle ports and closer to the Points.”

“Is The Continent shaped like a star?”

“Yes.”

“Interesting. Is there no water trade?”

“Only along the rivers.”

“Alright. I’ve often read books that had systems, and skills almost always give bonuses. However, none of mine do. Why?”

“Save for The Hero’s sword skill, none of the skills show or give anything besides the capability to do the thing and the skill with which you do it. Max skill level is 100.”

“Alright. Now, we already gave our goals during introductions, but I want more details. I’ll go first. I am a Captain of the United States Marines, the greatest amphibious military in the world. I was taken to this world without consent, and I want to get back to my wife. To do that, Malfoy told me that I would have to kill the Demon Queen.”

“I am cursed to walk the path of destruction, so long as I remain with my family. I wish to kill the Blue Demon General to dispel this curse.”

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“I need to get to the fae realm to save my captain. Therefore, I need to reinforce myself at each World Vent. Might as well defeat the Demon Queen while I’m there.”

“{The Red General destroyed the town that my master and I suffered in for years. She is also hot. If I’m lucky, which I very much intend to be, it has been proven possible before that Generals can be decorrupted and return to being sentient races.}”

“You like the woman that killed your mentor?”

“{Old Age killed my mentor, about two years before the general destroyed the town.}”

“That makes sense.”

“I wish to avenge myself and reclaim my pack. If rumors are true, then the one who stole it from me is currently the Green General.”

“Cool. How do we accomplish these things?”

“Well, for me and you, defeating the Queen requires we go to the Ascended Realm, which requires all five reinforcements and Platinum 100. Axle needs to go to the Fae realm, which requires Blue reinforcement as well as two others. That leaves Decorrupting the Red General and Killing the Green one. But first, we need equipment.”

…

Next up was buying appropriate gear. Eric needed light metal armor, Wildwind’s leather was old, deteriorating, and overall poor. Eich needed heavy plate made of highly enchantable material as well as good enchanting tools, and Noah needed enchanted cloth. Finally, Axle needed new rapiers that meshed better with his hemokinesis. Thankfully, the king had opened his treasury so that the party could get geared up.

For Eric, it was decided that they would start with steel scale mail. It would be harder to enchant, each scale would need to be individually inscribed, but that didn’t matter until he was stone core, and his soul could actually handle the weight of external magicks. For now, steel scale would do.

Eich, being a backline purple, naturally wore the heaviest plate he could. Since he only used magic outside of battle - a neat trick involving force and proximity triggers - and he had already made a bomb launcher, he did best with the most protection possible. Steel plate was the go-to.

Wildwind used leather because his combat style was based on being fast and using blessings. Can’t use blessings or go fast and wear armor heavier than ultra-light at the same time. For him, tough leather with embedded chan mail.

Axle had plenty of defense with his sanguine trench coat, so all they had to get him was a blood-iron pair of rapiers for better conductivity.

Noah already had his cloak, so he had good enough armor for now. The real kicker was getting a good piton focus.

“I can do it if I have a week and the appropriate materials and funding,” the smith said, “But to make one that has good damage will require a lot of research. If you haven’t done that already, it’ll add at least a month of craft time, and you don’t have that long.”

“I have a few theories, made with the aid of my artificer, but I don’t know which ones will work. So far, our best theories are frosteel with cranberry, iron with mandrake, lead with cockatrice feather and fang, and opal with firestone.”

“The frosteel will most likely work, but I’ll need an artificer to stabilize it.”

“{I’m an artificer.}”

“Fair enough.”

After they commissioned Noah’s piton, they wandered around for a while. They didn’t need any special gear to foray into the Windswept Plains or the Stormy Hills, so they went window shopping for good items.

The mercantile area of the capital was a wondrous place. There were storefronts and stands everywhere Eric looked, and every other alley (which were already branching mazes) dissolved into a maze of narrow walkways between stalls. It was in one of these stalls, at the end of a particularly long and narrow alley, that the party found an old woman peddling strange wares.

“Hello young men,” she said. “Might I interest you in some of my wares?”

“Are they cursed?”

“Some of them, probably! I don’t know myself.” She replied.

"What's this one?"

Eric was pointing at a small disk inscribed with blue runes.

"You think I know?"

Eich examined the object.

"{I can't tell precisley, but there are portaling, anchoring, duplicating, and expansion runes. My best guess? A a small pocket dimension. If I can dissect it, and make more, I can give us a portal to and from the capital at all times.}"

"That sounds like a good thing. How much does this cost?"

"Twenty gold!" she screeched, suddenly overprotective of her wares.

"Deal."

Eric presented the treasury seal, and they were on their way.

“Fair enough, but do remember to come back!”

After they were back on the street, Noah spoke up.

“Are we all in agreement that she was absolutely at least gold core?”

A chorus of “yes”es was his response.