08 – Just some normal adventuring please

Earlier.

“You’re different when you are around him.” Melina said.

“I do not know what you are talking about.” Lisette stated in her usual deadpan, almost emotionless voice.

“You look… human. You know?”

Lisette turned to stare at the foxgirl.

Melina was three full tiers above Lisette in power, and yet when she looked into Lisette’s eyes, she didn’t see what she usually saw whenever someone looked at her. She only saw defiance, steadfastness, a will of iron. Lisette was not one to bend to power, it seemed. Especially not to hers, she thought as she looked back into those deep red eyes. She felt intimidated, even. A feeling she hadn’t felt in long years, made even more strange by the fact that, she reminded herself for the second time in a few seconds, Lisette was a full three tiers weaker than she was.

“I’m not saying that you don’t look human now… just… how do I put it… you don’t really act like you have emotions other than rage and anger.” Melina said.

“I do not.”

“You mean that you don’t have them, or you don’t agree that you act like that?”

“I do not have them. Positive emotions are a distraction.” Lisette said.

Melina hummed pensively. “I see, I see. Sorry I asked.”

“It is not a problem. You did not distress me.”

Melina was about to ask something else, to give voice to a thought that had crossed her mind, when suddenly she turned around. They were right outside of the city, they had left not ten minutes ago, and yet something was happening at the Guild already. Lisette too was looking around, and even though it took her a couple seconds longer, she too homed her gaze in on the Guild. They both disappeared but Lisette was faster. She reached the entrance to the guild in less than ten seconds, and there she saw the scene that was about to happen. Her first thought was murder. Melina only arrived after the fact, and her first thought was how to avoid disaster. Liù was about to blow up, and she needed to do something quick!

“What the,” Ishrin muttered.

Then he looked at Liù. She was burning brighter than ever, about to level the whole building with was surely going to be the most powerful blast she had ever produced.

***

I admit that a lot of thoughts crossed my mind at that very moment, and that most of them were curses. This was quite removed from the nice slow life I had imagined when I arrived at the outskirts of Noctis. I have to say, up until this very moment I still thought my dream was achievable. True, the start had been rough with the monsters and whatnot, but they were monsters! The bunny, by comparison, scarred me psychologically.

Anyway, none of the thoughts were productive or helpful towards avoiding catastrophe. I was going to feel bad for months if all these people here died because I didn’t handle the Goddard situation better. Fortunately, Melina was now here. She just approached Liù, looking right at the blinding light, and she sang. She sang and stroked the little pixie’s hair, whispering comforting words in her ear.

“It’s all going to be okay,” she said. Liù’s light dimmed slightly. “Your master is safe.”

I could somehow feel Liù turn to look at me even if all I could see was a nova of light. She just took off and slammed into my face, nuzzling against my cheeks as the world turned dark for one moment. By the time my eyes adjusted, the little creature was already in one of my trousers’ pockets, snoozing.

“That must have taken a lot out of her,” Melina said. “You’re lucky to have a spirit that loves you that much, you know that right?”

I nodded. I knew it very well, although… not all if it was due to sheer luck. There was also skill involved, but I didn’t say it.

Lisette shook the blood off her arm and turned to stare at the others, mainly at the group of people Goddard usually drank with. They were all standing, hands to their weapons, but none of them had dared to move an inch.

“Do not cross me or my friends ever again.” she said.

I saw Melina sigh and then look at the smoke in the distant sky. The cloud now took up a good portion of the horizon, and it was expanding. She sighed again when she looked at the dead man on the ground and shook her head.

“Well, I guess I will have to sort this mess out now.” She said. “You will have to go alone.”

Lisette nodded solemnly. “I will carry out the mission.”

She left without a word. Again.

I held up a finger. “If I can offer my help…”

Melina turned around, brows furrowed and mouth so tight that her teeth were showing. She blinked, twice, and then her face cleared.

“Go on,” she said after clearing her voice.

“I know I caused this incident. I won’t blame it on him, I know I didn’t handle it well. And I’m sorry. It reminded me of some rather unpleasant past experiences.”

“It’s okay Ishrin. Nobody is blaming you. I just…”

“No, what I mean is,” I continued. “I ca fix this. I can bring him back. He’s just, you know. He’s only been dead a couple of minutes.”

“You can bring dead people back to life?” she asked.

The crowd all around was watching very intently.

“I can. So long as they have only been dead for a few minutes.” Sadly, I wanted to say, but didn’t.

You are reading story Isekai of the Ultimate Ritualist at novel35.com

“Okay, what do you need?”

“Space. Just space. I already have the ingredients to do the ritual. I will need a room, and privacy. A big room.”

“Done. Follow me.” she said. She straightened her back and walked towards the back of the guild, where she intercepted a guild staffer. “You, take the body and follow us.”

She took me to one of the rooms in the back, accessible only to her and a handful of people. I recognized it: it was the one I had been granted special access to thanks to my S Tier token. It was the room with the Mirror Orb.

“I’ll give you a whole world. You just bring him back, okay? I will deal with the mess outside.”

I nodded and disappeared into the orb, taking the body with me.

***

I reappeared much, much later. I was looking… not great. Disheveled would be the right word to describe my appearance at that moment. But it didn’t matter. The guild staffer gasped as soon as he saw me: I was holding an unconscious but very much alive Goddard in my arms. Besides, the potion I had drank earlier was already taking effect. It was a top tier mana regen potion that had been sitting in my inventory – and my secret stash back in Eternia before the Keeper transformed it into an inventory – for decades. I had found it in a dungeon back when I still explored them, but it was too weak to be of any use. Now it was almost too strong for me to handle.

“Done. Here, let him rest. Where’s Melina?”

“She had to go,” the man said. “Do you want us to call you when he wakes up?”

“No, I don’t want to hear from him any more. I am going on my silly little quest, and I’m having fun. Bye.”

“How did you even get into that situation?” Melina would ask me much later.

I thought about what to say very carefully. “I’m not used to having someone as… zealous as Liù protecting me. My mistake.”

As soon as I got out of town, I began to reflect on what happened. Apart from the blaring problem that I have procrastinated doing the rituals a bit too long and that I need to get stronger to avoid problems like today, I also came to the conclusion that perhaps there was something more to this little trip to this world than I thought. I needed to work on myself, elaborate my traumas and my preconceptions and put a damn lid on my temper.

Well, I didn’t have enough mana to do anything radical to my own power yet. However, I had a patchwork solution that could help me in the short term. I took out from my inventory a whole set of armor, light and stylish but utterly useful as it was now, gold and metal rings of no value, a sword, a scepter, and a pendant. All unenchanted and with no powers yet. Then I went to work.

Ritual successful: Magic Pebble. This sword is now enchanted and can cast a weak magic projectile.

Ritual successful: Magic Pebble 2.

Ritual successful: Magic Pebble 3.

Ritual successful: Magic Pebble 4.

Ritual successful: Magic Pebble 5.

“Whew, this is tiring.”

This was about as much as I could do before I had to drink a potion to replenish my magic. I sat on a log and pondered, watching the sword glow a faint blue as the magic settled in it. Five whole tiers of magic on it were decent, I thought, even though the magic was only a simple spell like this. The good thing about enchanted items is that they do not require mana to be used. You only need to follow the rules of the enchantment. Magic pebble required me to swing the sword in a wide horizontal arc, and a projectile would be fired from its blade.

The tree I used as test practice exploded in a shower of splinters and wood chippings, utterly obliterated. My arm ached a bit: using the sword was like trying to cut through molasses instead of air. But it was a very good start. Must have been equivalent to Tier 10 at the very least.

I erased the spent magic circle and threw away the charred mounds of ingredients at its edges. Where there was a circle a triangle took its place, with three dotted lines intersecting it made of pulverized silver. Then I drew a complex mandala of gold and crushed diamonds around it, and eventually set the first of many rings down at the center.

Ritual successful: Body of Iron. This ring is now enchanted, granting the wearer increased Strength.

I erased the ritual, flattened the ground, drank another mana potion, and set to work again.

***

It was, sadly already night by the time I was done enchanting all my gear. I could have wandered the forest without much problem and hunted the monsters that I needed for the quest, but the tiresome work of drawing ritual circles, setting the ingredients, performing the rituals, etcetera etcetera over and over again made me very tired. It didn’t feel right to abuse the innkeeper’s hospitality like this, even though at the sight of my S Tier token he was more than happy to provide me with a free room for the night. I made a mental note to pay him back first thing as soon as I had the money.

I also had time to think about the whole ordeal that happened today with Goddard. Not good, of course. I wanted to just chill and relax but the universe seemed to be very much against that idea, and now everybody at the guild knew about me and my power. Any plan I might have had before about taking it slow and enjoying the adventurer life was out the window. I would need to die again to be able to start over, now. What a mess.

Unless…

I could just up and leave. Start again somewhere else. It would be a bit cruel towards Melina and Lisette though. More than a bit.

I had a quest to do first. It didn’t sit well with me to just drop the first quest I ever took in this world, and so I decided that I would make up my mind after completing it first.

When I woke up the next morning, the sun was shining and there were no signs of ominous clouds in the horizon. Melina and Lisette must have done something to quell the anger of the volcano.

“Isn’t it nice?” I told Liù.

She smiled.

The forest was as magical and verdant as it was the day I came to this world. There was a quality to it, something that set it apart from all the forests of Eternia, my old world. I couldn’t quite describe what it was, but I could feel it. The light hit this world in a way that never did where I used to live. All around me were the calls of birds and far away monsters, the squelch of the wet earth beneath my feet and the smell of plants. Before me, an archway of stone was overgrown with vines and colorful flowers, and beyond this natural gate I could see the forest opening up into a small glade in the sunshine. It was rocky and the trees were tall and sparse.