After suffering the polar opposite of a good night's rest at the hands of nonstop metallic banging, my first thought was to see how old Lonni boy was resting up after finally turning in a few hours into his ear shattering midnight project. To my surprise, he was already occupied, talking with the new girl Cassi.
"So you said you were in the army? You must have a lot of crazy war stories?" She said with an uncharacteristically high pitched giggle. I just don't know what it is, but normal human emotion just didn't make sense on her face. She's pretty for sure, arguably gorgeous so, it's not some intrinsic sexism or something. She just had a warrior's expression to me. Anyways, Lonni face was pinker than water is wet, fumbling as he tried to respond. Seeing him drowning, I introduced myself to give him a little gasp for air.
"Hey y'all! How we doing this fine tutorial morning?" I asked enthusiastically. Lonni sighed like I just took an anvil off his chest.
"Oh you know, getting to know Lonni here after I gave him the lowdown on our conquest plans. Korbin gave them to you already, right?"
"…you know it's sunrise right?" I answered.
"Ah, well you'll get them soon, I'm sure." She said with a shit-eating grin as she strutted away. Turning around, she gave a bending index finger wave to Lonni.
"Bye Lonni."
"B-yeah heh, bye." Lonni muttered, sheepishly waving back.
"You know you might be a little smoother if you weren't up all night banging on your toys like a toddler without a bedtime." I sneered after his new crush finally got out of earshot.
"Hey, Korbin woke me up and told me to make you those fuckin' sheathes last night. Said you were too scary to people around here or something, paid me good too." He said, rubbing some crust from his eye.
"Then why'd he ask me to tell you to do it today?" I asked, mostly to myself aloud. Lonni shrugged.
"Maybe in case I didn't start on it? Who knows, that guy's doing shit 24/7. Just today, by the time I woke up? He had been strolling in with a group of 4 other new settlers, and another fellow who looked decently well kept for being in the tutorial. Not sure where someone gets hair gel anymore though." Lonni added.
It was entirely possible my friend was slowly turning scatterbrained with all the shit he piled on his plate, making me hopeful he'd accompany me on this conquest of ours. It would do him some good to do something physical and simple, like combat. It'd be cool to see him fighting out there too, as I'd only seen him in action for a brief moment do so from a distance on day 1. It was odd considering the frequency I used to have to defend his attacks, let alone go without seeing them.
"Well, did you finish 'em yet?" I asked, curious now at a new accessory.
"No, I can't get any metals to form hollow to fit your blades. Not yet anyway, all my casings and shaping skills are pretty niche. With any luck, I'll have it tomorrow morning before everyone ships off for continental domination." Lonni said, effectively deflating my excitement.
"Oh, well let me know then. Make them cool too, not just big metal pool noodles, yeah?" I asked, my back already turned to walk away.
"For sure, not like I'm struggling to make them in the first place or nothin'." He retorted sarcastically. Seeing no reason to fuck around too much since we were both grumpy this morning, I headed for Ben's shack on the docks to allocate some sea friends to his cause.
The ship he'd been working on yesterday was docked and floating freely, along with two other replicas of the vessel. Ben was working vigorously on the beginnings of another when he spotted me.
"Tom!! Hey buddy, what do you think?" He said, smiling ear to ear as he turned toward his finished vessels, pride gleaming off his face.
"Looks like you figured it out after all, my guy. What's your secret?" I asked teasingly.
"I won't lie, that meditation shit seemed way too 'voodoo magic' for my taste. Instead, I just sat down and pondered the feelings that came up whenever I tried to attune the thing, and eventually figured out where I was messing up...I was too nervous!" He explained, while fully explaining the process of meditation. All good, if it works for him, I he can call it whatever he likes.
"To each his own, I can't deny the results, my man." I said, gesturing to his boats.
"How about we get them babies a little security while I'm here?" I continued, focusing mentally to ping a handful of my tamed beasts in the vicinity. After a few pings back of acknowledgment, I relaxed and waited. A few minutes later, two giant great white sharks with crystalline fins and teeth arrived, accompanied by a marlin that could shoot its sword nose out like a harpoon.
Ben recoiled in shock at the site of my large aquatic friends, visibly quivering as he stared at them in silent terror.
"Relax Ben, these will be your prized creations' best friends, I assure you." I said with a smile.
"Alright guys, each of you are responsible for these ships doing their jobs. Once they finish their assignment, you're to find me and report you've done so. Expect a new mission, or stay ready until further notice. We good?" I said mentally to my little pod of beasts. They all agreed, and swam idly awaiting the ship's voyage.
Feeling satisfied with my contribution, I strolled back to the training area to get a warm up going before hopefully a solid hunting session. Heading around the building in front of the training area from the east side of the settlement, the same students from yesterday were outside sparring with Cassi watching on with crossed arms. One of the students slipped and crashed to floor throwing a leg kick. Cassi quickly came over to collect them from the ground.
Cassi was walking the younger looking trainee through the correct form when my clapping footsteps seemed to catch her attention. She smiled, then gestured her student to continue himself mumbling something I was still too far to hear before approaching me.
"Welcome back, Tom. I take it you're over your little 'issues' from yesterday being back around." She said with a sly smirk.
"With who? I don't recall having any issues with anyone here at the moment, do you?" I asked in a false inquisitive tone. Her smirk evolved to laughter before she patted my shoulder.
"It's good to see you. I'd offer another spar but, I got to train my profession levels here while I can." Cassi said, pointing over to the group of trainees.
"Wait, your professions to train them? Damn, that was fast. What's it called?" I asked, having yet to hear of this sort of profession. Granted, I hadn't done a whole lot of digging around through the options now that the Pylon's marketplace has expanded more since I last checked, but still. That sounded a tad unorthodox.
"Well, it's currently labeled as 'instructor', but I'm hoping that'll change into a title better suited to me. It levels by just teaching most things, however the skills I've been offered thus far have been around teaching and buffing fighters in combat. I'm hoping that means my experience played a role in my future selection, and will continue to do so." She expertly surmised. I couldn't help but feel like it would've taken me failing numerous times at leveling that profession before I would've gleaned any of that. Even then, it took my gut steering my thoughts during deep meditation just to guide me to the conclusion anyways.
"Well, I'm glad you figured that out so quickly. How did you even get that profession?" I asked.
"Oh, Korbin made a contract for it. I guess it's the type of profession you're not supposed to be able to achieve until you're a little stronger than we are. However, any profession's attainable if you lack one. Whether you're good at it enough to accrue levels, well, that's a different story." Cassi explained thoroughly. Shaking my head at the capabilities of those literally damned contract, I continued the conversation forward.
"Of course. Makes sense I suppose. Anyways, I'm gonna steal one of the training pods off you since you're not using them right now. Let me know if you need any help with training or whatever, both your students and for you as well." I offered over my shoulder, already walking toward the pod. Steve likely wouldn't be in our area until the afternoon, which was my semi-free time scheduled as well approved by Korbin himself. I didn't intend on wasting my day chatting too much.
My goal was to get to level 5 across the board before this little conquest. Though, I've had more experience passively accruing the last two days straight that I could've imagined. Luckily you can silence certain notifications, such as kill notifications by your beast companion. Realizing I sent numerous beasts to protect a few vessels along their passages brought the terrible epiphany of how many new beast notifications will be pinging in my head sooner than later. My spine shuddered in discomfort at the idea.
My training session was fairly simple. Same sentient mannequin, only I exclusively used Flow Strikes. This time around my twinblade was in play as well, knowing I'd need to marry the two concepts at some point. Besides, better to mess it up now than randomly in real combat, where you can die for it.
Of course, I'd never know, because it was a seamless transition using Flow Strike while armed. Nothing too extraordinary about doing what you already do with an extension of yourself after a level of familiarity I suppose, and the evolved twinblade skill I'd attained slammed my brain with intrinsic knowledge over techniques and their nuanced components.
Honestly, the blades were a bit freaky. There were often times wielding it that I felt a genuine kinship flowering for it, one involuntary that felt pure in nature. The problem was, it's a cursed item that's also soulbound to me. From what I learned from Korbin's messages on the Pylon marketplace, these items are bound to you indefinitely. Meaning, if they are left behind or out of reach, a mere consideration will bring them to you, and will automatically appear to you after a time depending on your 'bond'.
However, building a kinship meant bonding your already bound spirit with an item and its characteristics. In my circumstance, an evolving cursed item bent on stealing its foe's power had attached itself to my spirit, and I reciprocated willingly. Basically, my willpower would be the only divider between allowing it to affect me on a fundamental level or not. My profession boosted willpower per level luckily, so as long as I kept that stat high enough, hypothetically it's just a really good weapon.
Anyways, I made an effort to monitor the time during this sparring session, and ended a couple hours into the afternoon feeling sufficiently loose enough for some oceanic experience farming. Heading to the docks, nearly 10 new ships all lined the edges, including two docked in on either side of my meditation spot. That's a huge fucking no-no for me, but not something I hadn't expected to eventually happen. Korbin will just have to figure out a meditation station for me seeing as there's no world where I could argue my meditation was more important to the settlement than a fucking ship. At the very least he could loan his favorite 'shock trooper' some TP to get it myself.
Strolling to the edge of the docks, I called on the nearest beasts under my command, with 8 pings echoing back immediately after. One being the main serpent Steve himself. After a few minutes, the other 7 showed up eager to work. I assigned them all either protection protocol or assistance in moving the damn boats before Steve finally moseyed onto shore further down the docks behind me, his pace as casual as ever.
"What's up Steve? Didn't think you were coming." I snickered mentally.
"I nearly didn't, I just killed a massive squid a level above me. But, he was terribly feeble to lightning, making my bites absolutely deadly to the poor critter. I can feel my next level up inching closer with Passing each hunt." The snake proclaimed, his eyes narrowing determination with as he lifted his chin with pride.
I fucking love Steve.
"It's a damn shame we couldn't have been friend's sooner, Steve. Well hey we're going to be shipping out on a little conquest to lay claim across the lands later, wanted to see if you're trying to run a hunt beforehand?" I proposed.
"Yeah, we leave tomorrow. I'm going with you Tom, did you really not know?" Steve asked through a mental chuckle.
"What? How in the fuck would Korbin inform you of anything?" I asked, incredibly confused.
"I can read, Tom. He sent a message through the contract link. Honestly it's really smart, but I couldn't respond back to him with it." He answered matter of factly. Kind of weird he tells my snake through a rather creative mode of communication admittedly before telling me shit. We live like, 60 feet away from each other…whatever.
"So, you're saying no hunt today?" I asked frustratedly.
"Not for you, at least not out here. I got business with the water druids, which is what they're officially going by now I guess. They set up at that Pylon Korbin moved for you, and have been struggling to defend it. That's where free levels from a minor system event for me come in. It's my last solo hunt for a while, I'm sure you understand." He gloated with pride. I let him bask in himself before bursting his privileged bubble.
"You do realize if you level out there I'm still getting my profession leveled right? You have no choice but to help me grind, even if I'm marooned on my own beach." I snickered maintaining firm eye contact with the giant serpent. It's my snake, after all.
He was amused by my comment, even if he appeared a little less jolly.
"Fair enough, Master-Tom." He sneered.
"Noooo don't start with that bullshit! I said we're friends, asshole." I yelled mentally.
"What friend wouldn't make you feel like shit for legally owning him according to the mysterious omniscient powers that be?" He retorted.
I had no rebuttal to that one.
"Either way, please I hate those jokes." I said verbally this time, allowing my face to express my genuine plea. It was terrible enough I had such leverage over him, considering I really considered him an equal. In the water, a genuine threat to anyone I knew. The snake appeared surprised at my genuine approach, relaxing his posture.
"Alright, alright. Jeez, don't be so soft, it implies you actually think you're my master." He pointed out.
"You're the second person to say the opposite of my intentions were portrayed. Should I try being an ass?"
"…maybe?"
"I get to hate stuff. I hate that 'master' shit. Don't do that." I said, sternly.
"Okay fine, killjoy. I'm gonna go hunt stuff now in the name of the Water Druid Clan, later Tom." Steve said as he took off.
Harsh or not, I'm no slaver. Either fight or leave me be if we aren't allies, forcing the weak to bend to your whim was an exhibition of weakness itself. You're basically admitting you're incapable of achieving your own greatness, whether it be by your hand or a byproduct of your influence. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to go absolutely out of your way to take control over others lives like that. Just a waste if you asked me, especially in this new world of seemingly unlimited potential and possibilities.
With nothing left on my agenda for the day now, I had one simple task in mind since there was no water warring to be done today; bugging the shit out of Korbin until he gets me a meditation station.
He hadn't been at his office unfortunately, and the nasty little thing he loved so dearly looked pissed when I came around, so I did a little searching through town. Barring an overly nice wave from Terra, and a surplus of new townsfolk lined up at the professions tower, there wasn't a whole lot going on.
Almost on queue, Korbin came strutting through the front gates, a merchant and a few new settlers following behind. He shook the man's hand accompanied by a brief pause between them. The merchant turned back towards the gate exit wordlessly, venturing back out into the world. Korbin began walking to the Pylon building when I intercepted him along the way.
"H-hey! How's my favorite Pylon leader doing?" I asked excitedly.
"Considering you're a Pylon leader that's…that's sad, Tom. What do you need?" Korbin responded sounding oddly melancholy. Even sympathetic, a word I swear he removed from his vocabulary for me.
Okay then.
"Well, that Ben guy got real good at making boats, and he also mentioned I'd helped him by showing a form of meditation to pinpoint his error." I began, trying to build my rapport.
"Good, I'm glad you're helpin' the hired help do their jobs. That's still not telling me why you were waiting for me to get back." He said plainly.
"Okay okay, fine. Point is, he got his boats all blocking my meditation spot. I need a new one." I finally admitted, my pseudo-jubilant energy dropped.
"You want me to get you a new meditation spot. Don't you have a home, Tom?" He asked, slightly annoyed.
"Korbin, almost all of my developed skills have come from quality meditation. I even got a new meditation skill immediately after earning the regular one. It's already proven essential to my path at this point." I admitted, maybe too honestly. I couldn't trust anyone more than my childhood friend, but that didn't mean anyone's infallible, and the wrong people knowing my path route felt dangerous. Not sure why, my gut just felt tight after I overshared.
"I…didn't even know there was a meditation skill if I'm being totally transparent." Korbin uttered, his dismissive tone replaced with genuine consideration.
"…okay, I got it. I'll have Ben cook up a little platform, you have some sea-life set up supports connecting to the docs for it not to float away. A few of the builder profession guys I brought in today will make a clear dome for protection from waves, but maybe not beast attacks." He offered, the three step plan schemed in under three minutes.
"A Meditation Pod…can the bottom be clear too?" I pleaded, like a child picking his ice cream flavors seeking sole sprinkles. Korbin sighed before thinking aloud.
"Yeah, I mean hypothetically, we'd skip the Ben idea and go straight to the builders making more of a hamster do-…you know what, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it." Korbin said seeing me struggle to follow his train of thought. Having zero context on his doings only sucked when planning shit, but boy did it make me useless when it did.
"Sounds good, oh hey when are we going over our conquest plans by the way? It feels like everyone but me knows it already." I asked, a tinge of annoyance now boiling in my chest after remembering everyone mentioning the plan already.
"Tonight, we'll review the plotted course. Most of the guys Cassi is training will be coming, along with herself and Lonni. Steve will be your responsibility but, he'll be coming as well. The others at this point will be a drag so, we'll leave them to defend the waves will Randy." Korbin explained rather quickly.
"Oh, alright. And is that what you're going to be wearing for the trip?" I asked, looking up his formal suit jacket and dress pants. He wore a dress shirt as well, which complimented his fit nicely. The combo looked good, resembling some olden regal character. Absolutely nothing fitting for fighting multiple pylons of people for their land to the death. Korbin laughed before responding.
"Hells no, I got a full armor set bookmarked in the Pylon marketplace. Hoping the legendary set will be available after todays upgrade however, we'll see." He said, now looking up and down at my gear.
"That's a lot of under-rare gear you got there. Is that what you'll be wearing for the conquest?" He returned my question with a sarcastic smirk. Issue was, this is exactly what I intended to wear.
"Actually yeah, it's pretty sick though isn't it?" I said showing the accidentally well matching light gear.
"Sure, if you're trying to look good when you die. Why don't you get more shit?" He asked, curiously.
"I'm rather broke in all honesty. If I could get a loan from the city treasury though that sure would be nice." I answered, my eyes like a begging child's.
"…5,000 TP, and you're going to try to be civil before we start killing during the conquest, are we crystal fucking clear?" Korbin said, seriously. He'd already transferred the funds over to me before I answered, an odd display of trust over loans from him I'm not accustomed to.
"Like an open window, loud and clear."
"Th-, that's doesn't make se-"
"Welp, I better go start weighing out my armor options, I'll catch you later boss man." I interrupted, snapping my fingers and pointing before quickly walking away toward the Pylon stone located in its rather impressively crafted designated building. Being friends with head honcho meant free reigns to going in there freely, and its marketplace was the easiest way to find good shit so far.
Having beat Korbin here hearing him open the door downstairs, the marketplace screen filled my vision quickly with my hand placed on our Pylon stone. As I scrolled through all options other than headwear and weapons, I noticed a strange shape in the jewelry section. Highlighting its title revealed a full on grappling hook that was described to attach on top of one's forearm. It counted as jewelry apparently, alluding that it can fit atop bracers or gauntlets. Scrolling down, I read the perks and…it was pretty sweet.
Galentheos' Grapple (rare) - The history behind this weapon is one riddled in both beauty and abomination, crafted along a path that sought to bring tranquility across the multiverse by any means. Its reach once immeasurable, now shrouded by its own predecessors passing. With this relic, one may experience the wave of euphoria that is the calm before and after the storm.
Grapples reach and speed of travel dependent on agility + endurance
cooldown based on endurance
mana cost per grapple fired dependent on wisdom + willpower
+10 agility, +5 endurance
Woah woah, there's NO fucking way this is only a rare?!
It was priced at a whopping 5,000 TP, the exact loan that had just been processed in my notifications from Korbin. This thing had a higher boost per stat than my epic evolving cursed twinblade, at two-thirds the fucking price. There had to be a reason for this, other than the possibility the system swindled me?!
Dissecting the prompt page, my eyes traveled to the top right of the description tab, where a 'item level' category was written in small print. Next to it, the grappling hook appeared to be at class level 4 for use. The jewelry section was mostly devoid of anything useful the last I'd checked, making the entire category negligible. However, this time around there was the full range of rarities available.
Checking my gear, almost all of it only had a level 1 or 2 requirement, including my weapon. Still, a 2-3 level gap to reach such a jump in boosts felt insane. Then again, me versus a level 2 Tom with no profession would be an absolute joke based on stats alone, not even mentioning skills or giant snake companions.
Not missing a beat, I made my purchase and equipped my first ever personally purchased piece of 'jewelry' in my entire life. There was genuinely no good reason to buy any before, having never been the gaudy type. A massive rush of stats washed through my body like a tsunami of ecstasy, feeling notably lighter on my feet immediately. My instinct was to return to the shop page, however the mere 850 TP I had left screamed 'let it go'. Excited, I took a private trip toward the edge of the woodlands west from our settlement. The same woods those spiders had abandoned, past the old pylon location Cassi was rescued before we gave it to the water druids.
Running at maximum speed, my feet glided across the sands, a cloud of sand trailing behind me. The borders between biomes that abruptly switched to grassy woods from the tan sandy beach expanded quickly into vision racing forward at a pace I'd never felt possible for a human being, much less me. Seeing a large tree branch on one of the bordering sequoia trees, I aimed and tried to will my grappling hook to fire out at the tree without thinking.
The hook blasted from atop my forearm like a cannonball, wrapping around the tree branch rapidly and hooking tight in place. There was an inherent intuition I could reel in the hook and high speeds, similar to the knowledge attained from the Twinbladesman skill. Shifting my weight down and jumped upwards. The long blue rope reeled in rapidly pulling up into the air before locking on command. My body swung high up in the air from the momentum shifting momentum, providing a momentary clear view over the towering trees that peppered the forest. I tried to pull the grapple free the same way I'd fired, but it took a moment to unravel from the branch causing me to fall backwards with my arm outstretched behind me.
My spine popped impacting into a large branch scaysing my chest lock up. Luckily, my grapple was finally freed from the far away branch, allowing me to grab onto this one with both arms and legs. With all limbs wrapped around this gigantic branch, I took a second to recap what the fuck just happened. It felt like I could just swing around freely, however the type of knot my hook made around the tree created a delay trying to unravel it.
Of course, this meant in theory the timing of releasing the grapple free was all that separated swinging tree to tree from writhing in pain 60 feet in the air on a tree. Frankly, I'm entirely too sore now to try that shit again. It was only 20 damage, but an extremely unpleasant 20 nonetheless. Making sure my hook was reeled in properly, my body slung around the branch upside down. Letting my legs hang first, I released my hands causing me to plummet straight down toward the forest foliage. After a brief descent, my grappling hook fired out at another tree branch above me. It latched around tightly as it had prior, stopping my fall just 33 feet above the ground.
Willing the grapple rope to lower myself down slowly for a before it reached its maximum extension just 10 feet from the ground. This fall wasn't so bad, but I still didn't like fall damage. My momentum swung back and forth before kicking forward a nearby branch, releasing the grapple two seconds before kicking out. I slipped out from the grip just a moment early, but my hands and feet still hugged around the bark to slow the rest of my 8 foot drop. A long sigh escaped my chest finding solid ground, before heading back to camp with…mixed feelings about my new bling.
By the time I'd returned to the settlement it was already less than an hour until sunset. I stopped in my tracks having seen docks were blocked off with 'caution' tape stretched across the entrance. Rather absurd that's still an option, I'm sure folks who moved here appreciate the familiarity of it. Either way, clearly Korbin had something cooking back there he wanted kept a secret. Hopefully, it's my meditation station.
Heading toward the training area to simulate some combat scenarios with my weapon, Korbin called to me through the Pylon building window upstairs.
"Yo, dumbass!? Come up here, it's strategy time!" He hollered across the city shamelessly. No one was around right now presumably in their respective homes already, thankfully. Accepting his call, I headed for the Pylon and found the staircase. He met me at the top and walked with me back into his office.
"Where did you go? I thought we agreed no real hunti-" his eyes dropped to my grappling hook.
"…what is that?" He asked.
"Oh, this? It's my grappling hook. Rare rarity, super specialized for agility classes that use wisdom and willpower, which is perfect for m-"
"How did you get that, Tom?" He asked, inquisitively.
"Oh, at the Pylon shop? It was like, 5k TP? Gives 10 agility though it's insane." I answered.
"5…5k. 'It was 5k of course', oh what was I thinking?! Of COURSE it was only the exact amount I gave you." He said, his body shaking clearly fighting some demons before me. After a deep breath and me slowly backing away a step, he addressed it again.
"Tom, I thought you needed armor? Not another weapon."
"It's not a weapon, it's 'jewelry' according to the shop. Instead of replacing armor hard spent TP went into semi-recently, I figured I'd add to it with some good stuff at my level." I responded, feeling resolved in my rationale. Korbin considered my logic, his hand under his chin with the other supporting his elbow.
"…you know what, I'll take that. As long as you feel it makes sense. It's stupid to me, but, I'm not using it. Anyways, come with me. Everyone's waiting." He said before turning down a hallway not leading to his office. Instead, we turned toward the dining area. However, halfway down the hallway Korbin stopped and pressed a piece of stone on the wall causing a click sound.
The entire wall smoothly rose, revealing a staircase illuminated by flickering torches. He gestured to follow as we descended down, a light emerging at the bottom of the spiraling staircase. After finally reaching the exit, a giant table with a map of the areas we've been sat in the center of the room, along with some regions drawn I personally haven't traversed. At our settlements location sat a big castle piece, and a large ship by the water where the docks would be.
Lonni, Cassi, Ben, and Steve all waited around the table in silence as we entered, all peering up with questionable looks on their faces. Like they were afraid of my eye contact for some reason. Besides Steve, of course.
Ah, he must have told them all I was in the dark this whole time by now.
"Hey guys? Good to see you again!" I announced loudly, trying to kill the unfitting tension. I'll learn the plan now, and I didn't much care to make it either. No reason to feel too hurt for missing the boring parts.
"Hey Tom, it's good to finally have you here. You ready to hear how we're gonna run this shit?" Cassi announced, being the first to accept my olive branch of reassurance.
"Easy, we might have strong individuals but we have to do this right if we're going to expand out anywhere meaningfully." Korbin warned stepping in.
"Alright, enough fucking around, it's time to go over the plan."
Korbin's words were often muffled watching his sentient pieces moving as he spoke. Every stage of the scheme Korbin addressed was accompanied by the correlating pieces moving to where they ought to. It was like some magnets were playing a board game.
Of course, that was about the most entertaining part of the entire explanation, after our first targeted Pylon that is. That one will be mine. However that wasn't the whole scheme, and for the next 45 minutes we sat down and tried to help me understand the plan regarding continental conquering, tomorrow.
——————————————————————
…
"He's certainly talented, if not exactly the brightest of the bunch. I am curious as to why you'd give him such a boon with his profession? I didn't take you for an 'animal lover'." The soothing tone of the Devil spoke freely in questioning my judgement. It was annoying, however she was strong enough for me to not bother with punishment.
"Indeed, he's brash, and often reckless. But, what else can one expect from a Chosen of my own?" I answered with a chuckle.
"Oh no of course. Make no mistake, I'm not saying this to imply he does not befit your, well, 'weaker traits'. However his strengths look much like yours in many aspects. But also none at all, at least outside of combat situations." She continued, her tone as pompous as ever.
"I care little how he spends his free time away from training, so long as he continues accruing power. That snake of his will do nicely in that endeavor." I answered with pride for my handy work. It took a lot to get ahold of that damned snakes Goddess. Lesser gods were always busier, trying to build their factions up to expend their influence and therefore power. It's cute to watch, but not when you need to get ahold of one of those slippery bastards.
"Yes but why? I don't understand your reasoning with such boons? Especially when you haven't brought him to o-"
"That is quite ENOUGH questioning my reasons in my own domain. Projection or not, you will know the repercussions if you press further." I bellowed, energy surging all around me, flaring my aura crackling with unstable energy. She will not sway my personal decisions, regardless if I requested her council.
"My apologies, Perunious. Though, I must ask then the nature of your request of me? I am quite busy as you know." She answered in an apologetic tone. I smiled at the question, as I'd hoped her curiosity would've peaked the second she came here, rather than after having to check her limitless hubris.
"Business, I wish to simply speak business."