Razana took the news happily. Screaming, she hugged me. “Oh, Your Majesty! I never doubted your greatness!”
The others took it a lot more calmly, and some were very intrigued. Especially Aurelius and William, after learning about my ability to learn all types of magical skills they asked to take me to their workshop. Aurelis set up shop on the main street, and he showed me inside.
They knew of a skill called enchant. “It is a powerful skill that allows a mage to imbue an item with a spell. The item can then use the spell by pouring mana into it. Enchant can also use mana to manipulate how the item works, for example, if you enchanted a carriage, you could make it so that when you poured mana into it it would make the wheels move!” William explained.
Universal Understanding explained it to be the same way. You can make anything do whatever you want with the skill it said.
Then how do I learn it?
Simple, all you have to do is try pouring mana into something. You can naturally acquire this skill, so just attempt to do what the skill does.
Huh, that's simple? I gripped a finished sword that was on a table. I thought of all the cool anime with flaming swords. I decided to pour mana into the sword, but also think of casting a fire wreath (a spell) onto it. Due to my new skill quick chant, I could bypass chanting a spell and simply think of the spell. Multi chant let me cast multiple spells at once and I had practiced enough so I could cast five spells at the same time. This mental strain unlocked a new skill called thought processing. It was a derivative of universal understanding that let my brain work faster, keeping it up with all the spellcasting I was doing.
The sword stayed the same after I cast. I experimentally started to pour mana into it. Suddenly, the sword became wreathed in flames. I jumped back, dropping the sword and cutting off the mana flow.
Aurelius and William stared at the sword for a few seconds. Then William shouted and jumped up in the air. “That’s what enchantment looks like!” He shouted.
I checked my guild card, and a skill called enchant appeared. Wow, it was that easy.
What did I say?
Oh shut up, thanks though.
I am here to serve.
I smiled, grinning. I turned back at them. “This will prove incredibly useful, I’m glad you showed it to me.”
My mind raced with all the possibilities, with this skill you could program things to do things automatically. All it needed was mana, which I now had an almost unlimited supply of.
I could also enchant items to absorb and store mana, and I decided that that was the most overpowered thing ever.
I gave Razana my government work and holed up in the workshop for a few days, studying what my new skill could do. I learned a few other craftsmen-related magical skills, modeling could shape things to my desired forms. I decided to craft a sword for Amber, she did teach me demon eye and help me with some other stuff, so I figured she deserved it. My intrinsic mana manipulation skill let me forgo using a staff, and I could concentrate mana directly. A staff used a magic crystal to concentrate mana, and a person could concentrate mana on their own, but usually using a crystal was preferable. Now that I could concentrate mana perfectly, I was poised to become a real master mage.
I enchant an average-looking sword with several elemental spells. The spells enchanted within an object had to match the aptitude of the user or they wouldn’t work. I made sure to keep it within the four aptitudes that Amber could use. I also enchanted it with durability, it would absorb mana and repair itself constantly, this would also keep it clean and sharp. I put a jewel in the hilt and enchanted that with mana storage, so she could store mana there. After putting the finishing touches, I named it. “Okay, what would be a good name?” I thought for a few seconds, “I decided, it will be named Bataille, the french word for battle.
While crafting, I noticed my hair was changing colors more. Before, only a small streak of my hair was yellow. Now my entire head was yellow. It was a little lighter than Amber’s but, combined with my yellow demon eyes, I definitely looked like demonkin. When I emerged from the workshop afterward, Razana had to do a double-take. Thanks to her the citizens didn’t freak out at my new appearance. My new status as a hero helped relieve them. I didn’t mind spreading the news that I was a hero. Maybe that would help keep other nations from invading us.
Amber was delighted at my appearance, she said, “Oh master! You look like one of my tribesmen now! We totally belong together!”
I silenced her with a chop to a head, “Shut up about that, this whole look is your fault! I look like some edgy anime girl!”
“Whaaa that’s mean! What are you even talking about!” She cried.
“I’m sorry I keep forgetting,” I said, “It's just weird.”
“I think you look awesome!” Traya said.
I smiled, “Thanks I guess, I’ll just have to deal with it, no amount of dye is sticking.”
“That’s a side effect master! Your hair is very resistant, it has a strength of tempered steel!”
I chopped her again, “What’s the use in that! If anything I can’t cut my hair or do anything at all with it!”
“That’s not true! Master! You can unlock demonification’s derivative skills!”
“What might that be?”
Amber smiled, “Kinetic hair!”
“You’re just making things up.”
“No master! It’s a skill that allows you to use your hair like an appendage.”
“...”
Amber then made her hair grow and move. “See?” she said.
I gaped at her. “How did I not notice this before?”
“I never showed you.”
“Why might that be?”
“I don’t know? Master might have freaked out…” She mumbled.
“Argh! Whatever! Is this the only point of this hair?”
“As far as I know.”
“How do I get this skill?”
“Here!”
“Wait! What’re you gonna do! Argh!”
Amber grabbed my hair and tugged it, I expected it to hurt, but it didn’t. I looked at my hair, it had grown a few feet. “What the…” I said.
“See master!” Amber looked at me.
I checked my card, and a new skill called Kinetic hair appeared.
“How do I control it?” I asked.
“Just will it like any other part of your body.”
I willed my hair to come up, and it rose with me. I willed it to extend, it did so. I willed it to shrink, it did so.
“This is creepy…” Traya said.
“Wow, it is. But it can have a few uses I'm sure.”
So I ended up with a new skill. I gave Amber her new sword. She fawned over it immediately. This led to Razana demanding I give her something and Amber and her getting into a fight where Traya had to break it up.
I decided to give Traya a wristband full of mana-absorbing crystals. I gave a special pen to Razana, it wasn’t special, it just looked cool. She treasured it.
After leaving that as it was, I sorted through my mail. Razana pointed at a letter. “This came from an envoy from the port city of Marian. Marian wants to join us after they heard you’re a hero.”
I sighed, “Fine… I expected this at some point. I guess the other letters are from the other municipalities in Garentouress that want to join us?”
Razana nodded, “The entire region is now under your control.”
I hit my head against my desk. “Ahhhh! Fine! I guess we have to extend our policies over there. Can you take care of it?”
“Leave it to me!” Razana said.
I opened a letter that had a strange seal. “What’s this?”
“That’s one that came with the regular mail. It has a unique crest so I set it aside to show you.”
I broke the seal. The contents of the letter made my eyes widen. “It’s from the mass of demons,” I said.
Amber shot up, “What do you mean?”
“I mean that the demonkin are interested in us! They’re asking me to come to visit them to set up normal relations.”
“Which tribe?” Amber asked.
“The Mahillia tribe.”
Amber smiled, “That’s my tribe, master. They must have sensed my coming…”
“They can do that?” I asked.
“Of course, us demons and our tribes have a good relationship. They definitely would have noticed my return!”
“So what do they want from me?”
“If i were to guess, I’m assuming they want to meet you and see your relationship with me.”
“Well then, should we accept?” I asked everyone.
“I mean, you're a hero now… what’s the harm?” Traya said.
“I guess that’s true,” I said. “Razana, I’m leaving you to handle affairs here. I’ll go to this demon tribe’s homeland.”
“Wait, why am I left behind again?”
I ignored her.
The next few weeks involved a lot of work. I organized everything with my new territory, I had the entire region under my control now. The municipalities obviously saw that allying themselves with a hero was incredibly beneficial.
I left everything to Razana after a few weeks and then left for Marian. Marian was the largest city in this nation. It had a population of several hundred thousand. It relied on port trade. Before, it didn’t have much taxing or the like. The citizens had overthrown the corrupt government and that, along with a slave rebellion had led to the city pledging allegiance with us. When I went there, it seems pretty peaceful. I was met with a bunch of cheers and the like. I enacted several policies that freed slaves and set a tax and started other kinds of systems to fund public welfare projects. Those included sewer and aqueduct systems and the like.
Now that I went back, I was greeted with a clean, healthy, lively city compared to a terrible, dirty, and poor city that existed before.
The city was loveable, and I enjoyed staying there. To streamline our trip to the demon continent, I decided to enchant a ship. I made the ship out of hard planks and enchanted the sails with a wind spell that would make it so that wind would constantly push the sails. I also put a weight-reducing spell on the ship’s hull and made a better steering system. The new and improved ship soon grew the eyes of investors, who all asked me to make ships like this. They offered plenty of money for one, but I decided not to take them up on the offer. I was about to leave and didn’t want to deal with it then and there.
To explain what Amber meant by ‘her’ tribe, we must go back in time. A long, long, long time ago, the demon continent was inhabited by humans. These humans were part of tribal communities and had distinct ethnic boundaries. When the people from the mass of man came to the demon continent, they saw the humans there as inferior and as they do, they decided to enslave them. But the humans there were adept at magic, so calling their most powerful dark mages, each of the tribes summoned a demon. These were the aboriginal demons. Each tribe sacrifices many of their own to attract the demons to them. Upon coming to the physical realm, the demons took control of a human body and helped expel the invading humans. Demons normally have to find a vessel for themselves, usually a body.
The reason why Amber didn’t need a vessel was because of the unique magic circle I had drawn. The circle was the work of the dark mage that wrote my book. It found out that the previous summoning circles used for demon summoning were inferior, and due to their faults, the demon required a vessel. By drawing a refined circle, a demon can directly connect to the soul of the master, establishing a ‘soul corridor’ and linking the two beings. As long as the master is alive, the soul corridor allows the demon to coexist. This goes both ways, as long as the demon is alive, the master can extend their lifespan. The only difference is that if a demon dies in the real world, the master can still live, their lifespan (that would have been extended by the demon) would just revert to normal. But if a master dies, the demon dies and is sent back to the demonic realm.
Anyway, after the demons of the tribes had extinguished the invaders, they lived a life in the tribe, mating with their fellow members. The ‘mating’ established half demon-human hybrids. These were the first demonkin. Due to the demon’s blood in them, they were extremely adept at magic, (as demons were the most magical of the three holy entities) they also inherited demonifiction (the skill) and looked demonlike. Over time, these demonkin outnumbered the humans in the tribe, and as the aboriginal demons wasted away, back into the realm of the demons, the humans were completely transformed into demonkin. Nowadays, each of the 16 tribes who each summoned one of the 16 aboriginal demons lived as clans. They had extended lifespans and higher magical power than any other race. But they never attempted to invade anywhere. Each of the tribes has a patron aboriginal demon, the Mahillia tribe was the tribe that originally summoned Amber. They had yellow hair and eyes, as well as pale skin. I looked a lot like one of them.
Amber was looking forward to traveling there and told me I would fit in just fine. Every demonkin had the intrinsic skill Demonification so basically, I was demonkin now. Even my race was shown as demon-human on my guild card. I was definitely different from the girl who lived on earth.
Standing starboard on my new ship, which I called the Dawn Treader (after the ship from you know what) I looked at the sunset. With my automated capabilities, we’d get to the demon continent in a few days. Normally it took a month, with no guarantees. It was nice being the hero of magic. Traya starred with me, admiring the view.
“Are you excited?” I asked her.
“Sure thing, it's only a few times when an outsider gets to come into the demon’s continent.”
I smiled. “By the way, you’re part elf, right? How does it work in the elven kingdom?”
“I’ve never been, but based on what my family told me, it's very xenophobic. Elves are a self-righteous race, or at least, the high elves are. We don’t like outsiders. But I’m different, I’ve never been to the kingdom of Elves, so I don’t know exactly.”
“Do you wanna go?” I asked.
“Maybe, just once, just to see what it's like. But other than that, no. I like it in Tephit, I like it with you.”
I blushed, “Thanks.”
She smiled, “No problem.”
We watched the sun until it disappeared down the horizon.267Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhe1a7PorKA
