«Yami»

“Are you perhaps, resisting?” I felt threatened...

What did he even mean by ‘resisting’? I simply said what in a clearly altered tone. I did not work 6 hours for nothing you know! Was this person joking with me? No, that’s a distasteful joke, this elf was evil just like all the other ones.

“Are all elves evil?” I decided to finally ask.

His fake smile flinched for a bit. “Do all humans think like you? Of course they do, I am simply doing my job.”

“Ha?” Was he seriously going to complain about racism? I mean, I am just making an assumption based of my sole experience with them, I guess it kind of is, but it’s justified you know?

“All the elves I’ve met are just like you, nothing but a pain in the back!” I roared at him in frustration. Last time Aizen wiped the elf’s memory because she simply could not be bothered. “Preposterous! I am simply following the rules!”

“Oh yeah… I met this elf teacher once… He quite liked being aggressive with kids. Although I don’t know what happened to him…”

The elf was trembling. “I-I… Did not… come here… for you to mock my race!” The veins on his forehead were visible and his brows were curling in.

“Ehh… I was just saying you know. No need to be so mad about it, I just thought it was worth mentioning.” The elf accommodated his glasses and tried to be serious once again.

“Hmph. Well, regardless I will be taking the armor.”

“Who said you could take it?” I wasn’t one to start a conflict, but if they were going to take something I worked so hard on, then…

“So, you are resisting?”

“Hmmm, that depends. What happens if I am?” I could probably bite the bullet here if it was worth it. I wasn’t going to let my stuff be unfairly taken away.

He smirked. “Well, perhaps you will become an enemy of king Gazel,” I didn’t really like him, so… I mean, that sounded kind of fine for the time being. “Your life or your creation.”

“You know, I value metals more than my life at times you know?” Was I supposed to make a decision there or something?

He clicked his tongue. “So? What will it be?”

The crowd started to bicker and chatter started to feel the venue. A knight rushed into our little confrontation, he was visibly sweating. He approached the elf who was just as confused and whispered into his ear. His eyes went wide.

“What?”

“There is a necromancer in town!”

People started to panic, and push each other around. I took my chance and touched all of the armors on the ground and placed them in my inventory.

“Are you opposing?!” The elf unexpectedly yelled.

“Hey, Ari. Do you care about what happens?” She looked surprised for a second but ultimately shrugged. I guess it didn’t really matter, necromancer or not. But first, maybe I could buy some time to make things easier.

“Elf, I am curious. Who is the necromancer the guard speaks of? The last thing I want is for them to take such an expensive item!” I decided to simply play along. I gestured Jer to come towards me as the Elf demanded explanations from the guard.

Jer hurried in spite of his rather bad state. “What is that you n⁠— “ I interrupted his speech by giving him the new chest piece, well it was an abdominal piece if one wanted to be specific about it.

“Put it on.” He decisively nodded.

“What do you think you are doing MIssy?!” The elf exclaimed in rage. “Your tactics won’t work on me, give it back!” He lunged himself at Jer. He was frozen in shock, the elf landed right on top of him, toppling him to the ground and making a horrible crack sound.

“”Oh no…”” Ari and I said in unison.

“Aha!” The elf declared victory. “I will be taking this along with the other pieces as well!” I guess he was pretty frustrated with the whole race conversation.

Jer gave me a helpless glance on the ground, we all knew what had happened. I simply nodded at him and made an Aizen-esque grin. It was time.

“Eeeeek!” I screeched, albeit it came out as a poor shout. “An undead!” I pointed at Jer.

“IT’S AN UNDEAD!” Ari also shouted, she also came out as funny. “Please protect me Dark Shadow!” She hid behind me as Jer’s body crackled.

“What are you two saying ⁠— oh, I get it. Losing that armor must be quite harsh for both of you. I get it…” The elf sighed as he removed himself from Jer. “Sorry about tha⁠—

He froze as he saw all the bone splinters on the ground, the empty abdomen on the armor. Jer groaned like a true undead and looked at the elf with a vengeful stare. I saw a red glint run across his visor for a second, a true slayer.

“YOU DARE ATTACK THE HERO?!” His inhumane voice made everyone panic. His armor rattled around and his torso separated from his legs. His body was vibrating as he shakily walked towards the elf with nothing but his arms.

The elf was frozen in place.

“That’s MINE!” Jer pointed at the armor as he dragged his sword with his other hand. It was a horror movie scene. The elf shook and dropped the armor on the ground, turning to look at me in a panic.

“Y-You, are also an adventurer right?!” I nodded with confusion. “D-Do something!” Aah, right.

I sighed and started preparing my chant.

“I summon thee, the lonely and miserable salamander! He, who instills fears on others!” A summoning circle started to form on the ground. And along with a cloud of smoke, a gargantuan silhouette appeared.

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING MISERABLE!” Of course, everyone else heard a draconic roar.

“Hello Fifi!” Long time no see my lizard!

“Tch, and here I was in the middle of eating that priest! That mountain has a lot of annoying visitors!” Aha… “So, what is it this time?” Looks like he had time to cool down.

“G-Girl, what is that?!” The elf asked in a panic at the towering figure that raised above the buildings. He was a lot bigger than I remembered him.

“My dragon!” I guess he was my second dragon…

“A…” I broke the elf. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-” He started screaming and trying to run for his life, panic ensued and people around me started to shout.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was Al’s.

“I am sorry about your father…” I could smell him… he reeked of alcohol.

“I-It’s fine…” I got his hand off, it was now or never to get my armor back.

The elf tripped. “You won’t be getting away!” A demonic aura filled the street. It was Jer’s, awa he truly was strong!

“Ah, Fifi. Kill the undead!” He looked at me with perplexion.

“You mean to kill my companion?” I guess he could tell Jer was also a summon.

“Just try to!” The dragon nodded and tried to step on Jer, even though he was nothing but a torso at this point, he was awe-inspiring. The huge claw stepped on him and made a horrible creaking sound.

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO BE KING?!” His powerful voice resonated throughout the entirety of the town. The pressure on the atmosphere increased, Fifi started to shake and got pushed away.

CRASH

“You think I am a pushover?!” Fifi declared as he started to blow fire into Jer, luckily people were already far away from him. However...

“NO!” I shrieked. WHY?! The forge was blown to bits by the retarded lizard’s body. “AGH! Whatever!” I sprinted atop my armor and grabbed Jer’s legs while we were at it. It was quite awkward but in chaos nothing makes sense.

“Yami what now?” Ari asked as the loud voices of agony screamed, there was a fire on some houses for whatever reason. People were fighting, the sky was starting to be filled with ash… What was happening?

“Survive…” I concisely answered. The buildings started to melt due to the dragon’s incandescent breath. Smoke started to rise… “This is the point of no return…” I sighed. “So much for a piece of armor…”

“Yami, how about… we run away?” Ari spontaneously suggested. It was perfect.

I grabbed her hand and looked at my faithful summon. “Fifi, we are leaving!”

“What now?”

“Shut up and lean your head.” The dragon paused and looked at me. “We are leaving right now!”

“Pff, Hahahaha!” He started laughing.

“... Unsummon…”

“No wai⁠— wait⁠— WA⁠—” Fifi disappeared into the circle as the flames started to get out of control.

“IT’S MY TRIUMPH, DRAGON! ELF YOU ARE NE⁠—

“Ah, shut up already! Unsummon!”

“Eh, what is this? Wha⁠— “ Jer also got swallowed by a circle. His legs oddly enough were as well…

“Yami… what do we do?” Ari fearfully looked around, trying to look for a solution. We were in the middle of a cloud of flames and no one to be seen anymore. Al seemed to have run away a while ago.

“Ari look at you, and me. Do you know what we are wearing?”

“Um… expensive items?”

“Very much so! And these expensive items don’t get affected by puny flames!” I WAS BLUFFING.

But we had to get out of here, the situation escalated out of proportion, however… I was unsure how. A part of me told me that going through the flames was feasible, and the other one simply told me to… cry about the metal that was gone in the forge. Both of them were bad, but luckily I had my cloak back from unsummoning Jer.

I put on my cloak yet again, and gave Ari hers’. Weirdly enough the cape was on my hand before I realized it, but it felt natural so I didn’t question it. Ari wore it, and I got wrapped mine around me. Ari soon followed looking at my strategy.

“Okay…” I sighed as I took a look around, once we were out of the flames we would be in the spotlight. We had to get out in a fast manner… fast⁠—

“Hey Yami, look!” Ari pointed at a house, it was partially destroyed. But we noticed the alley that it led through. “Let’s go through there.”

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“Hmhm!” I allowed Ari to take the lead as I looked behind me to be sad about the forge, something so precious gone, why did things need to be like this…

Just imagine all the precious metals that were there, every single smith that worked there, why, why, why… Why did it have to happen in this way? It was my fault, I had destroyed a forge… It was entirely my fault… I could’ve done better… and yet I didn’t… Why did I have to resolve things in such a matter… If it weren’t for the armor… I was selfish. I knew the answer, and yet I won’t admit it… It’s my fa⁠—

“Yami, aren’t you coming?”

“Ah sorry…”

Ari was already on the midway point, and meanwhile, I was standing there lamenting my deeds. With a decisive nod, I started to walk past the rubble and ducking below it, eventually getting to where Ari was.

We continued to weave through it without a problem, albeit I still couldn’t get the sadness out of my head. Something about it was sad. It felt like destroying a part of blacksmithing history, and yet… I was the one that had done it.

Eventually, we found ourselves at an intersection of alleys that were connected with the destroyed house. I could hear the discussions of the people as well as some chanting, probably water for extinguishing the flames or something, I kind of wondered what could we do…

“Let’s just go back to the inn…” I started walking but I felt Ari’s hand on my arm. She was looking at me with confusion and a frown. “What is it?”

“We cannot go back you know?”

“Why?” What was she on about now.

She smirked. “You see, I left a bunch of torn cloth there! We are dead now.” She seemed oddly proud of it, but why did she do that.

“That’s a bad thing no?” I asked the obvious.

“Well, would you rather the elf come to chase you for your talent?” I shook my head instantly. “If it’s known that you can produce that quality they might try to enslave you or something!” Ah… “Therefore we cannot be seen in town anymore.”

“Then what?” She tilted her head.

“Well, I thought you’d have some type of disguise, you had your rings after all…”

“Ah…”

“Ah…”

“I don’t have anything like that.”

“Eh?!” Ari started to panic. “How, can you⁠— no, wait.. No… I though⁠— no…” I didn’t blame her, she didn’t know that much about me in spite of everything.

“Can’t you look at your dungeon rewards or something! I heard about a disguise item coming up in the rewards once!” Ari suggested in a panic but I shrugged.

“There is nothing but gems with energy in there, they are only useful for enchanters… enchanters…”

“Yami, it’s fine… It’s my fault…”

“No… enchanters…”

“Yami… I…”

I looked at her with sparkly eyes. “I have enchanter skill!” Did I ever tell her? I think I didn’t.

“That is?! How?! No… when?!” I didn’t tell her…

“I… I just never used it I suppose…”

“How do you even have that?! It’s a class, not a skill!” Ah…

“I… It happened I guess…” I awkwardly shrugged trying to think of an excuse.

She sighed. “Forget it, nothing ever makes sense when it’s about you…” Sorry…

Ari paused for a second.

“What are you going to do with the gems? I mean, disguise isn’t well… achievable?”

“Hm?” What was she talking about.

“According to a few guidelines and such, there are achievable enchantments and unachievable ones. And well, you can guess where disguise falls…”

“Eh…” Was it always like that? I mean, I recall it being one of those enchants you used for sniping events and such ⁠— one didn’t want to get hunted afterward or it lost the fun.

I shrugged. “We’ll see…” The burden of destroying the forge weighed on me heavily, if it wasn’t possible it simply wasn’t, there was no use in overthinking whether it would work or wouldn’t work. Well first things first, something to enchant, a ring? I mean, I liked the idea of having like three rings per finger each with different passive effects, it sounded cool. But inconvenient.

With a sigh of defeat, I browsed my inventory, so much for collecting stuff and a lot of it was armor sets I did not recognize anymore. I kept looking under different sections, the menu was surprisingly chaotic, but I finally found things under the scrap section.

“Awa…” I froze, it was full of accessories and stuff. Why were they labeled as scrap?! Ahhh, whatever… I pulled out two chainmail collars, or were they chain collars? Well, whatever.

“You are going to enchant those?” Ari asked with curiosity.

“Well… yeah…” Did people do it differently?

“Don’t you like need a special mana condensing room or something? Since they take quite a lot of mana and such?” Oh, so that’s how it was.

“Hm, well… I don’t know how much mana does one need for such a thing, but I think I can do it just fine… I think…” I let out an awkward dry laugh as I recalled how I fainted back in the forge.

“Well, I suppose…” She had doubt written on her face, but well… she didn’t question it.

“Alright then…” I tightly held one of the collars and looked at it. “Enchant!” Was it? I remember it being kind of like a voice command.

Attack

Defense

Misc

Useless

Huh, yeah it was still the same. A window with four options, and naturally it would be under the useless category since everything else was battle oriented in some way.

“Y-Yami, what is that floating square?!” She pointed at the window that was in front of my face.

“The enchantment window?” I tilted my head.

“Wait… Hmm… I… I have never seen enchanting in my life. But I did hear enchanters liked being all alone when doing their thing because they could potentially lose concentration, but I always thought that was dumb. I mean, the best blacksmiths always made public feats of precision! So, how come an enchanter couldn’t do it?! Even alchemists could…”

“Maybe because it was that easy…” Ari nodded with visible discontent, but it was not aimed at me. Wa, I wonder if she had something happen with any of them.

Well, onto the window. Did I have to touch it, or think? I tried touching it and… the section lit up and opened a new menu. I started scrolling down the extremely specific things, such as: death effect, destruction effect, particle effects.

Oh, what’s this?!

Item appearance change ⁠— 300MN

That was a new one, appearance change?! This wasn’t disguise, you are telling me I no longer had to wear a skirt? I mean, it was comfortable but I still didn’t like it. Could I finally wear a trench coat and stuff?! No, no Yami. Focus.

There was also one that read item hit sounds, I thought it would be interesting but didn’t look at it.

I continued scrolling down and there it was.

Disguise ⁠— 7000MN Gemstone Required

There was also a lesser version with half the mana cost, but I didn’t think that would be useful.

I sighed and took out a gem from the pouch. And gestured Ari to come near me, she clumsily and awkwardly got close to me, I mean I guess she could see the menu so maybe that was new to her.

“Um, Yami, can you read what the thing says?”

“Hmm?” What was she on about?

“Well, enchanters study linguistics from a young age, it is said the greater they are at it, the more accurate they become with their enchantments…”

“Eh, so like… They can’t guarantee an effect?” She nodded. “So they probably hit the menu randomly and try to notice a pattern…” It sounded like something stupid… and yet it might’ve been possible, well things shall wait until then.

“Well Ari, hold this thing for a second.” It was the cursed gem. “I am wondering if you can purify it or something.”

“I mean if it’s just that…” She held it in her hand. “This will take a bit, why do you want it for that.”

“Well, I figured if the gem was cursed it might give some type of handicap.” She nodded. But I also kind of wondered what would happen if I used a cursed one and wore it for myself. I mean, last I checked curses weren’t that bad…

I grabbed yet another stone. I felt it disappear from my hand and I felt goosebumps all over my body, sweat ran down my cheek. It was weird, I sighed and the menu closed down. Was that it?

I took a look at the collar, it was in a slightly silvery-dark tinge. But it did have the effect no?

[Quicksilver Collar ⁠— Cursed ⁠— Effects: Disguise.

Perhaps it isn’t as mortal as it is said to be, it doesn’t check temperature nor change form. Curse: Prone to failure of effect activation.]

Well, this sure wasn’t very reliable! Also isn't quicksilver... Ah, whatever!

I still put it on my arm and wrapped it like a hairband twice to make it a nice bracelet.

[Title Unlocked: Cursemancer]

Curses are nice when they do nothing but help its user! They have a purpose, but if they can achieve an even greater one through the user, why not help? Evil will help Evil after all.

“Hey!” What was with that description?! Although, if I got it right, it wouldn’t affect me. I inspected it yet again.

[Quicksilver Collar ⁠— Curse Blessed ⁠— Effects: Disguise.]

That was new… Why did it also say blessed?! Well, I guess it meant a good thing, no?

“Hey Yami I am done with the thi⁠— Eh, why are you wearing a cursed item…” She was looking at me with confusion. “I mean, it seems to be stable in a way, but I can still tell it’s cursed, it gives me a bad feeling…”

“Eh?” So it was still bad.

“But I have to say, normally curses give me bad omens, and yet this one is well… Cursed, but it doesn’t feel like it has evil intentions. Like… how to explain it, curses have ill-intent and blessings have good intent, but this curse, while I can tell, is negative, isn’t actively trying to hurt its user like the other ones I have seen… Now that I think about it, when you held the cursed sword it was kind of the same.” Eh… “Well, perhaps death herself gets benefits from curses…”

“Hey! Just because I am unlucky doesn't mean I am death!”

She smiled. “I know. I was just teasing you.” Ha… “Anyway, here is your um… enchanting gem.”

I looked at it, it was pristine and totally clear, it was even shiny for that matter. Weird. I received it from Ari with slight fear, i mean what if I infected it? But that wasn’t all of it, I also had to enchant it… I… I wasn’t ready.

After fearfully holding the gem in my hand for a few seconds I finally gave in, what was the worst that could happen? Well ⁠— everything could go bad! But that wasn’t what I meant. The odd feeling of having my mana taken away was not something I was used to! Also, seven-thousand was quite a lot.

I sighed in defeat, and simply had to do it. While I thought it was a bit extreme the idea of practically vanishing was quite appealing.It was something that had to be done, or at least I thought so.

I sighed and navigated the menu once again.

Disguise ⁠— 7000MN Gemstone Required

There it was… It was quite daunting to be honest, something about it made me hesitate. Was it the horrible feeling of enchanting? It was rather awkward, kind of made me wonder if there was a way to store mana or something, kind of like a mana stone. Hah, well something to ask Ari for later. Now, I have to do this… even if it’s quite extremist.

It was something that had to be done. Defeated once again, I pressed the button. A shiver shot up my spine and I shook for a bit. Ah, that sensation was cursed… Well, was this a backfire for my nonexistent bad actions? I was a demon lord based on reactions of others’. Well, whatever.

I looked at the collar, it was shiny and seemed to actually be enchanted. I honestly thought it would have something that made it look actually enchanted, but now that I thought about things it was simply normal.

I gave Ari her collar, and she wore it as usual.

“Hmm, how do you use disguise?” Ari suddenly asked.

“Don’t you have to think about it?” Well, at least I thought it was like that.

Ari got a pensive look on her face and started muttering things, I guess that was her way of imagining things. Which was fine, everyone had their own way of doing things.

I turned away and started to think I wanted to be unrecognizable!

“Maybe…” Yes, that would be it.

[Disguise limitation— Gender is unchangeable.]

I… I figured… Of course things wouldn’t come so easy! Aaaaah!

“Hey, Yami how do I look?” I turned around to look at Ari.

I paused as I looked at her. She had bangs and was still just as tall. Her short haircut made her cuter, her eyes well… They didn’t change color.

“Don’t you think, you are still well… pretty recognizable?” Her eyes widened.

“I… I mean… Is it bad?” W-Wait! Why was she teary eyed!?

“It’s fine…” I patted her in an attempt to make her feel better.

Upon closer inspection, Ari looked a bit older, and her eyes were kind of droopy. Although that kind of made her even cuter, I wonder if she took the appearance of someone she knew? Oh well, nothing much to think about.

“Hey Yami… About our clothes…” Ah… “I heard there is an enchantment to change an item’s appearance!” Ah⁠— eh?

“Yeah I mean, there is…” But the question was… Would I not faint this time?

I sighed. “Worst case scenario we just wear different cloaks…” She nodded.

Well now onto my appearance I wanted to be as close to my old self, but I suppose female version would do? Well, ahh… I wish I could be male at least one last time, while I can say it’s fun to be a girl… It just… Aaah! How annoying!

After grabbing my head in frustration I finally got to thinking. Long black silky hair, puffy cheeks small nose, dark eyes⁠— Eh? What was this strange feeling?! Akin to something coming out… NO⁠— that sounds wrong. I mean, akin to something… whatever…

“Em, Yami…” Yeah… I already knew what it was. “Your ears.”

“Eh…” I was thinking about my tail, but now that I think about it they were a duo.

I touched the top of my head, and while I couldn't see them, they were slightly shorter than usual and felt pretty soft and fluffy. My tail is well… I couldn’t see it due to the back cloak, but I also felt as if it was shorter. My height was a bit shorter as well, I didn’t think about that one though.

Well, seeing Ari did not say anything about my appearance, I assume it was fine. I sighed and looked at the ground, there was a puddle of water there. I wonder how I would l⁠—

“Eh?” How?!