Chapter 5: Magic and Pride

How did it become like this…

“”””CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG””””

“Damn, look at them go”

In front of me, Iridia was currently in a drinking competition. Can you imagine it? A blonde beauty chugging through an entire mug of beer the size of her face. Not only that, she didn’t seemed faze as she finished one and quickly grabbed another. Her opponent wasn’t all show either. It was a human beauty who wore, what seemed to be, a noble dress. Yeah, a noble… in a bar. What’s the coincidence of meeting one here?

“You look, hic, a bit topsy, hic. Don’t you, hic, think you should, hic, call it quits”

You should talk! Your face is already red. Not only that, you’re starting to wobble. Her opponent wasn’t in any better shape though.

“Nyot, hic, unwil I, hic, gwet her”

With a determined look, she once again began drinking through the next batch of drinks. With a sneer, Iridia also began going through her next batch. Speaking of which, I think there’s a misunderstanding here… WHY AM I THE PRIZE?

Sadly, no one can hear my internal scream as they continued rooting for the two drinking girls.

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Oye, how long are you going to sleep there?

“Hehehehe… Mwaster”

I nudged the sleeping girl who seemed to be having a good dream. Yep, she’s really out cold. It’s already been a few hours and she was still sleeping on the bed. It sure was a good thing that this bar doubled as a hotel. If it weren’t for that, I’m not sure I would have been able to get Iridia to a bed without transforming back to my original size. I sighed. There’s no way we’ll be able to go to the barracks today. I hope that guy forgives us. Anyway, since I have nothing else to do, might as well practice a bit of magic and look through the ones I haven’t really used yet.

Although Iridia is asleep, I still have control over the spirit library. In other words, I can still access the system without any trouble. I began surfing through the list again. In all honesty, there’s no way I’ll be able to memorize all of these spells. I mean, I’ve been scrolling through them and they seem to be never ending. If I were to guess, there’s about a thousand or more spells here that can actually be used in this world. But although I say they can be used, there usage is pretty high consuming. Not only that, magicians are probably the only people who can even utilize these abilities.  And those types of people are rare.

Well, magicians are rare but mages are plenty. What’s the difference? Mage’s are people who only have the power to use one or two spells. There mana is also pretty low, but with enough training, they can become pretty important in a mercenary party or in the battlefield. A magician, on the other hand, has complete mastery over four or six types of spells. You can say, they are powerhouses with enough mana to single handedly change the outcome of an entire battlefield.

The only reason I know this is because Iridia and I met a magician before we saved the merchant. He was a very nice person who taught us a bit of his magic… not like we needed the teaching in the first place. He was helpful though as he explained the concept of magic and its usage for this world. After that, I’ve had the habit of using my mana sensing spell to look for both magicians and mages. I can also combine it with the map and it tells me the high concentration of mana in each person around me. In this city, there are two people capable of becoming magicians. Aside from that, a high amount of people were either noncombatants, soldiers or mages. Well, putting this topic aside, I began going through the list. I even have a favorites section in the Spirit Library.

Yeah, I can actually favorite the spells I want to use. It’s even saved in a different tab. Spirit Library Op! Anyway, I looked through my list again.

[Shield of Azur]

Energy began forming around me. Yep, if you’ve noticed, this was the first spell I’ve ever learned. It allowed me to form a type of energy power on any part of my body. When this comes into contact with any other person or animal, it immediately drains them of their mana and stamina. You can say, this is a defensive type spell that makes an armor that completely relies on a person’s mana. Since I’m a spirit though, the mana consumption is quite low. Either that or I actually have a lot of mana. I then cancelled it and looked at my other spells.

[Regalios Armus]

Four consecutive spears appeared. They were spears made of blue flames that hovered right above me. Also, all I have to do is think and the spears immediately follow my commands. Not only that, I can focus entirely on any fight since the spear also has an automatic function in their system. In other words, I don’t have to control most of the time. What’s even neater about this spell is… I jumped into the air and grabbed one of the spears with my mouth. Yep, they have a physical form and I can actually grab them. They’re not even burning me which is very convenient. Let’s see, what’s next.

[Mana Exelcius]

As soon as I activated this spell, small blue particles appeared. They then began to gather together forming a small ball in front of me. Basically, this spell summons mana. Yeah, not gather. Summon. You can say, this is a purifying type of magic that purifies the area around you. I touched the center with my mana.

[Expel]

The tiny ball shattered, scattering the particles around us. I felt the cool sensation as the air is purified around me. Ahh… this feels relaxing. But I can’t sleep now. Let’s see… I immediately stop after looking at the end of my favorite list. I then began to smile, but first.

[Teleport]

I felt my vision change as I now saw a desert field. The sky was dark now… well no freaking duh. It’s night so what do I expect. I looked at the moon. It’s not a full moon, but it’ll have to do. I then placed my paw to the ground… not that it wasn’t already on the ground to begin with.

[Summon Guardian]

A white pentagram instantly appeared. It was filled with symbols and words that I’ve never seen before. Not only that, the moon was acting weird. The light seemed to focus on the pentagram. That is really weird. Then, something surprising happened. The once white pentagram soon grew dark. Electricity seemed to come out of it as I felt a powerful force come out.

Then, in a flash, it stopped.

“Like I said father, if we don’t add more residential areas in the common section, it’ll be… wait, what?”

I look at the figure in front of me. It was a young woman with dark hair and piercing red eyes. She was looking around strangely, confused at what just happened.

“Where am I? Why is there a wolf here?”

She immediately began to glare at me.

Are you my summoned guardian?

She jumped back in surprise.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Ehhh? It talks! The wolf talks?”

I’m not talking. I’m using telepathy to talk with you

“Telepathy? How can a mindless creature like you use telepathy? Ah, aside from that, do you know what’s going on?”

 I sighed. I guess that reaction is normal.

I’m not mindless. There is a reason I’m like this. As for what’s going on, I summoned you

She gave me a blank stare. She then began to laugh.

“You, summon me. Hahahaha… no seriously, what’s going on?”

It’s just as I said. I summoned you

“How is that even possible? In my lifetime, no one has been able to summon me for my high consumption of mana. I refuse to believe that a mere wolf summoned me”

She gave me an exasperated look. She sure has pride… wait, depending on what she is, of course she’s going to have pride.

Uh, sorry to be unknowing, but who and what are you

“Foolish, to not even know who I am”

She instantly held out her hand and I felt a bone chilling presence appear. Darkness gathered on her palm and soon formed into a scythe. She spun it above her head before slamming the rear to the ground. The force created tremor on the ground as cracks appeared around it.

“My name is Rina, leader of the Duhallan riders, daughter of the great God Hades, sole inheritor to the kingdom of the dead”

She then pointed her scythe towards me.

“You who have claimed to have summoned me. As much as I do not want to accept it, I feel that what you say is nothing but the truth. But in summoning me, I hope you are prepared for the consequences”

She smiled as I realized what she meant. That means I have to beat her in order to fully summon her. Not only that, I can’t even undo the spell meaning I have no other choice but to beat her. Shit, I didn’t see this coming. Not only that, she’s practically a demigod… A DEMIGOD! Do I actually have a chance against her? Well, I might… but she did say her father’s a god. A demigod is no problem… but a god. Yeah, that’s asking for too much.

“Is that hesitation I see in your eyes? Are you actually… weak? Well, even cowards can do something amazing. So how about this, all you have to do is hit me once. If you can do that, then I’ll consider it a win”

Oh, that seems helpful. Ok, with this I might have a chance… NOT. WHO ARE YOU CALLING WEAK! Even if you’re a demigod, the only reason why I feel unsettled is because their might be repercussions with the gods if I beat her. But her tone and her words. She’s been looking at me as if I’m inferior from the very beginning. As the bandits know, doing that can only lead you nowhere. I gave a smile.

Heh… although I regret summoning you… can I ask, are you sure about that bet?

“What do you mean by that? Are you saying that it is not right to go easy on a weak being?”

Yep, I’m mad. I really want to see her face pale in fear. I want to see that pride shatter into a million pieces. The more pride the person has, the more fun it is to break.

Hades, if you can hear me. You sure have a prideful daughter. I hope you’ll forgive me for breaking her ego a bit

Go ahead. She needs a lesson from time to time

I blinked. Rina also blinked. Did the god of death himself give me permission to break his own daughter's self esteem? Hehehehee… I glared at the girl in front of me.

“Oye, dad. What the hell was that? What do you mean I need a lesson from time to time?”

[Distortion]

She instantly grew wary, but it’s too late. You’ve been caught.

“Ugh… just… just what is this?”

No longer could you see the confident face from before. Instead, a growing fear began to surface.

[Imperial Chains]

Gold chains came out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around her.

“Eh, what? I… I couldn’t even move. YOU! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!”

It’s only a simple spell a weak being like myself used. Distortion basically distorts the world around us making it impossible to see, hear and perceive anything correctly

Fear was instantly on her face. Her voice, quivering.

“H…h…how? You’re…”

Just a wolf. Yes, I am just a wolf. A lowly wolf who shouldn’t be able to do anything right

She gave a slight shriek as I began approaching her. I could tell she’s trying to break the chains as I felt mana gather but simply break. I smiled, and soon sweat was beginning to show on her face.

“Ahhh… you know, what I said earlier. I was just kidding, ya know. Actually, I think you seem very powerful. Yeah, you’re actually very strong. So how bout it, I can serve you faithfully now right”

Seeing as I didn’t show any hint of stopping, she broke down as her eyes were going teary.

“P… p… lease… I’m sorry, I swear I won’t…”

Oh, that won’t do. You seemed like a prideful young girl and since you’re my guardian. Well, I have to make sure that my guardian is submissive to me right? That’s why…

I summoned a small feather. I then manipulated the chains to where she was on a very defenseless pose. Since she was wearing a combat skirt type of armor, I preserved her dignity by making sure that her underwear wasn’t visible. I then took of her boots with the chains exposing her white foot. I lightly brushed the feather on her pale white skin. I could see her shudder from the contact.

Well, the night is young. I do hope you learn your lesson from this

In the middle of the night, laughter can be heard in the city of Trusk. No one knew where this laughter came from but it was so intoxicating that the residents began to laugh themselves. From this day forth, a tradition was started. A tradition that showed the residents cheerful nature to laugh and have fun, not with only friends and families. But as a city. Never did they know that this laugh came from a miserable Dullahan that was being tickled throughout the entire night.

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Author Notes:

So, I fixed my wifi. Troubling little bugger. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

P.S: I’m not sure if I used Pride in the right context. But, you probably understand what I meant lol