Black Kingdom Rising - Anime Villain Quest [CK2 Quest]

Wishes

"Every new recruit is granted a wish as long as it doesn't involve world destruction, world domination or resurrecting the dead, or anything that would affect the world on a global or national level. In exchange for this wish, they must fight Wraith not only to protect people but to also sustain their mental stability."
That's the rough description of our prestigious careers.
Get a wish that doesn't fuck people over and in exchange become a monster hunter. Easy, simple.
If only.
There's one problem that's not really discussed with us girls.
It's not exactly tragic, but it does make people squirm a bit.

Still with me?
Wishes.
Yeah, wishes. Funny, isn't it? One thing that got us all here, one good thing anyway.
Thing about them is- they can go wrong very fast.
'But' you might want to say 'Company screens against dangerous wishes'.
And yes, you are right. It's easier living through another day knowing that someone won't wish for your hair to be made of spiders, or for apple jucie to taste like licorice.
Doesn't mean a damn when results get weird.
Take Sally, for example.
Sweet girl, went to elementary with her.
Her wish? "I want to finally deal with my depression."
'Great', you may think. 'She'll finally be able to live a normal live' for whatever normality remains for us.
Yeah, if only.

No no, the wish did deal with that problem.
The problem is it went to the other extreme.
Ever heard of bipolar disorder? One time you are all super duper happy, other you are depressed.
Well, it's kinda like that for her, except it's the first all the time.
Don't see the problem yet? Let me tell you an example of how she acts.
Wednesday night, heavy rain. Especially vicious wraith KO-d half of our team, with rest of us wounded.
We were close to retreating, or calling for backup or something, don't remember frankly.
Then, right in front of us, stood our sniper. She just stood there, grinning, aiming her gun at it's oversized, plush head.
If not Amy and her motherly instincts, that girl would be a bloody plaster on the wall.
Don't get me wrong. Sally is a good soldier...
It's just... whenever shit gets bad, she goes all "Oh, it's not a big problem. Here! Let me show you!".
It's infuriating at times.

Ever since that idiot got herself brainwashed, we got a specialized department for wishes.
Nothing but people writing down wishes and their consequences, what makes wishes go bad.
Now every new girl has to go through a two day course just on making good, safe wishes, that won't turn your brain to jelly.
And even with all that we get nutty results like her.
And don't even get me started on how bad it can go.
Believe me, you'll have easier time falling asleep.
Or eating, for that matter...

One piece of advice? Don't wish for anything involving yourself. Wish for a pony, or one million dollars.
Heck, wish for a cheesecake! Make it a very good cheesecake.
You might regret wasting a wish, but at least you'll be able to move on, unlike some of us.

Still... as far as actually living is concerned, she's the happiest of us all.
Guess her wish worked after all, huh?

Week 4 Results

Cost: 450

Ebon Power Remaining: 840

$0 Funds remaining.

Martial: After an action-filled weekend, you're just itching for some more violence and fighting. Of course, the sensible idea would be to continue staying low and find more ways to build up your forces but your engine been revved up and ready to roll. Still, you do have some ideas that you have been wanting to try out and there's also the fact that you've got a small army of mooks that's just asking to have something done with them. Decision, decisions. (Choose 1)

[X] More Than Just Meets The Eye: In consideration of Fury's request, you've decided to see what you can do to make your Golems stronger. You have several ideas of how to go about doing this such as giving them an alternate battle capable form, enchanting them to have super strength and the likes, and even just given them the ability to evolve somehow. This will takes some major experimenting. Cost: 200 EP. Chance of Success: 70% Reward: Minion Type - Golem Rank Up. All existing Golems gains upgrade.

Roll: 18 + 10 + 5(Ebon Engineering): 33: Success

It had seemed like an easy thing to do. It was simply the matter of applying a new set of enchantments on your Golems to reinforce their physical attributes and giving them a boost of Ebon Power to bolster their existence as intelligent life-forms. It didn't take you long to create an intellectification upgrade macro that you could use to achieve your goals.

However, in your haste to get this done so that you could work on other stuff, you fail to account for a minor feedback loop in a couple of enchantments.

The results were…

*BOOOM*

Explosive.

"Boss. Despite how much I enjoy a good explosion as well as how willingly all of us would give up our lives for the cause, GIVING US THE ABILITY TO EXPLODE WITH LETHAL FORCE IS NOT MY IDEA OF AN UPGRADE!" Fury screamed in your face before slapping you a couple of times for good measure. "YOU ARE GOING TO FIX THIS OR ELSE!"

After one of the more impulsive Golems had tried to push their enhanced abilities to the limits, it had exploded violently.

You with the rest of the Ebon Power you put aside for this project, you manage to rewire the enchantments so that they wouldn't cause a Golem to explode when they used their personal abilities too much. Not only that, they could overclock themselves now to gain immense power temporarily at the risk of exploding though.

Not quite what you had in mind when you decided to upgrade the Golems. Fury grudgingly admits that being able to power-up and go for a kamikaze attack and take out your enemy with your life was better than nothing. He still wants you to eventually get around to upgrading Golem so that such measure won't be needed save as the ultimate last resort.

Reward: All Golems gain ability: Bomber High – After channelling essence for three seconds, explode with lethal force. Power and size of the explosion increase with the size of the Golem. All Golems gain Ability: Berserk Bomb - Greatly increase all physical capabilities temporarily. Forcing longer duration risks chance of self-destructing and exploding. Fury is annoyed.

Stewardship: You frankly don't have energy problems since you have a steady source of Ebon Power but your bank account is now empty from paying the rent on the caravan and lot which acts as the entrance to your secret base. You need to come up with either money or find some other way to continue staying here. You don't want the landlord sniffing around and finding things he shouldn't after all. (Choose 1)

[X] Ebon Jeweller: It costs you about ten units of Ebon Power to create a hundred grams of any mundane substance regardless of what it is. A hundred gram gold bar is easily worth around four thousand dollars and the value of an uncut diamond weighing a hundred grams goes beyond what you handle or hide at the moment. Since you don't want to attract attention just yet, you'll have to practice to make some decent jewellery that won't make people question where you got them or faint at the sheer value. Cost: 100 EP. Chance of Success: 60% Reward: 5000+ Funds.

Roll: 93 + 10: 103: Critical Roll: 39

The power of the Ebon Emperor worked in strange ways.

After doing some research, you opted to simply just create a hundred grams worth of jewellery out of Ebon Power. It takes awhile for you to properly recreate the right purity of gold as well as make diamonds and other valuable gemstones that would be able to withstand the appraisal of an expert. Due to the size of the items, it was thanks to your enhanced dexterity and vision that you were able to successfully make some fairly nice pieces of jewellery without much trouble.

The hard part was figuring out how to sell them without drawing attention to either Ebon or Jacob. Going to a pawnshop as Ebon would probably be a very bad idea while going as Jacob would risk people asking questions that you had no desire to answer. After spotting a familiar name in the list of pawn shops and jewellers in the city, you decide to pay a visit to the place that gave you your first hint about the secret world of magic, spirits, demons and hunters.

"Welco – Oh you've got to be – Is there something I can help you with…sir." As expected, the moment Christoph Atticus spotted you walking in through the doors of his shop he knew that something was up with you. "Just so you know, I don't deal in cursed artifacts, love potions, or anything related to the forbidden arts that don't involve breaking and removing them. And you also look like an idiot in that getup."

Thanks to your glamour, you were able to hide your surprise at being called an idiot for your appearance. You might have been used to people judging you by your appearance as Jacob but this is the first time someone thought your dark mysterious stranger look was stupid. You quickly compose yourself and fold your arms and snort in contempt causing the old man to slightly narrow his eyes at you, "Hmph, my appearance is no concern to you, Christoph Maddigan Atticus."

"Well, be that as it may, I still hold the right to kick idiot teenagers who think they're hot stuff and go around pretending to be dark mages out of my shop. You've got ten seconds to tell me what you want or else I'm teleporting you to the middle of the lake." Atticus wasn't amused by your sass and you felt a build up of magical power gather within him. Looks like he's serious.

"I have come…" You say as you reach within yourself to access your dimensional storage, pulling one of your products, "To get an appraisal and sell my trinkets." A heart-shaped ruby necklace drops down from your hand and swings gently as you hold it out to show the elderly mage.

"Huh." The annoyance of the old man melted away as curiosity bloomed on his face. "Wasn't expecting that." Then with a snap of his fingers, a set of tools appeared on the counter before Atticus. "Alright, pass it here so I can take a closer look."

You comply and wait patiently as the man examines your trinket.

"…Hrmm...Interesting…What's this...How unexpected."

Finally after a few minutes of looking, tapping and scanning, Atticus puts down his tools and gestures you to come over. Upon reaching him, he pulls you close and asks in a quiet voice, "Did you make this?"

You stay silent for a few moments before sighing. Should have known a mage would have seen through to the true origins of the thing. "I suppose selling it is out of the question then?"

"What are you talking about!?" Atticus snaps at you. "What you've made here is the highest quality enchanting material that doesn't involve divine bullshit!"

Eh? Your necklace had only taken you a couple of tries and ten units of Ebon Power to create, was it really that good?

You only came here since you figured selling stuff as Jacob would attract too much attention but doesn't something like creating high-quality enchantment material defeat the purpose of coming here!?

"I tell you what; I'll be willing to buy this pendant right here and now for ten thousand. In cash." At Atticus' offer, all thoughts of withdrawing disappear. The heart-shaped ruby pendant was worth only about three to four hundred dollars by normal standards and the old mage was offering you over a ten times that amount! "You won't find a better deal anywhere else, I can guarantee that. Heck! I'll even trade some of my wares with you if you want!"

You swallow and make to accept the offer when a thought occurs to you. "Mister Atticus, if possible, I would like you to keep my…involvement in the creation of these 'trinket' a secret from anyone who might wish to know. If you promise to do so, I'll be more than willing to sell you…my collection."

Atticus' eyes gleams with joy upon hearing that and a wide grin appears on his bearded face. "Hohoho! You've got a deal, tall dark and mysterious! I, Christoph Maddigan Atticus hereby swore a blood oath to never reveal the origins of this Ruby Pendant and all other like jewellery to anyone else!"

With that, you feel some kind of magical phenomenon occur and let out a sigh of relief. Looks like you won't have to worry about attracting too much attention.

"Now then, shall I go and - " Atticus' eyes widen comically as you bring forth the rest of your creations. "...Oh my."

"Now then, Mister Atticus. Would you like to take a look at the rest of my products?" You ask with a grin.

Half an hour later, you leave the antique shop half fifty thousand dollars richer. Now to go deposit some money and make up some random excuse to your parents about helping a friend out with some money problems.

Reward: $50000 gained. All trinkets made by you are considered the Highest quality enchantment material possible without otherworldly intervention. Atticus Antiques now offers, in exchange for Trinkets, cash and magical items and artifacts.

Diplomacy: The city is home to several different factions and dozens of independent groups. As a new player on the board, you should begin making alliances and forming connections with other groups. You do need some help with your building your own organisation and by playing nice with the other kids in the playground, you might be able to gain some insight on how to go about it. (Choose 1)

[X] Company Collaboration: Right now, you've just been dealing with the Fallout of Aestia's squad but there are at least half a dozen Company squads out there that could probably do with a free Fallout cleansing. See if you can convince Aestia and her friends and Ranbey if you can meet with other Company Magical Girls to help them out and stuff. Cost: 0 EP. Chance of Success: 100% Reward: Company Magical Girls Survival increased. Company relations increased. Increased relations from various Company Magical girls?

Roll: 68 + 10: 78

You spend some time this week, meeting up with Aestia's squad so that they could introduce to you to another squad that sometimes operates in the area that could use your services. While this new squad of magical girls were skeptical of your abilities, they quickly changed their tune after a quick demonstration. This group's assignment familiar was a floating polyhedron with googly eyes named Cubey who was far more forgiving of your Fallout drainage than Ranbey.

While chatting with this other group of magical girls, you've learnt a couple things about how the Company operated.

Magical Girls all had some kind of inbuilt Wraith Detector that allowed them to feel the presence of a Wraith the moment it draws in victims into its Haunt. Unfortunately, it required a lot of training and resource to obtain the ability to detect the presence of a Haunt from a distance without waiting for a Wraith to attack someone.

Kinda sucks that Magical Girls can only respond to a Wraith attack only after it has abducted one victim. You also realise that you and your Seekers have the ability to somehow sense these Haunts that Magical girls don't have. After demonstrating your ability to sniff out the location of Haunts without waiting for Wraiths to attack first, the Company contacts you via Ranbey and requests that you assist them with early detection of Wraiths. In exchange, they'll introduce your services to more magical girls.

They still wanted you to refrain from going around and fully absorbing the Fallout in a magical girl's body. At least you now can drain the leftovers of several magical girl squads.

Reward: Increased relations with the Company. Company Magical Girls can now attack Wraith before they begin attacking innocents. Gained a better understanding of the composition of Company Magical Girl forces.

Intrigue: The Seekers have given you much information and information is power. You've obtained the general idea of the various forces that are gathered in your city. Now it's time to truly start acting like a villainous diabolical mastermind who pulls the strings from behind the scenes. Or something along those lines. (Choose 1)

[X] Enter the Vault: You really should check out this Ebon Vault thing. You have access to the Treasure Vault of the Black Kingdom which has all kinds of stuff inside it that would most certainly help your cause greatly. From treasure to weapons, forbidden knowledge to sealed servants of your predecessors. You must know what is in the vault! Cost: 50 EP. Chance of Success: 100% Reward: Funds. Possible Artifacts. Possible Hero Unit.

Roll: 49 + 10: 59

Entering the vault is a simple matter of calling it forth with the key within you and waiting for the distortion in time and space to appear before. From there, you simply walk right in. You aren't sure what you were expecting to find inside the vault. Considering this was the vault of the Black King themselves, you imagined that it would be like some huge labyrinth filled with monsters where all the treasures were hidden and that you had to personally go around searching for yourself.

What you hadn't expected was a gargantuan treasure room filled with mountains of gold coins, artifacts, scrolls, books, and anything that screamed out treasure. You think you can see some kind of ships and even buildings in this place as well. However, whatever excitement you had from dicovering this incredible hoard of treasure disappears when a mound of coins in the distance suddenly rises up and reveals the Guardian of the Black Vault.



It's a dragon. A dragon bigger than a city block. A Dragon whose presence screams power beyond compare, strength beyond imaging, and might beyond all others. A Dragon who is your superior and that makes rankles you for some terrible unknown reason.

It has a body that looks like it was carved out from obsidian and claws that look sharper than Ebon Steel. Its eyes are suns that burn with an undying rage as it gazes upon the world around it with contempt, and its wings block out the sky casting a shadow that covers all that stands before it terrible might.

As your mind try to wrestle between the instinct to run and the instinct to fight, the Dragon focuses its gaze down upon you and makes a strange sound so loud that a normal person's eardrums would have immediately burst. It takes a few seconds for you to realise, to your absolute amazement and confusion, that the Dragon is laughing. Soon though, it calms down before it speaks.

"SO A NEW EBON LORD HAS ARISEN ONCE MORE. WHAT IS YOUR NAME, OH CHOSEN LORD OF THE EBON EMPEROR?" It speaks in a voice that shakes the very air and seems to seep into your entire being as though it was trying to carve its very words into your psyche.

"J-Jacob Anderson" You find yourself replying, trying to figure out what was going on.

"HMMM, WELL THEN LORD JACOB. I AM PADRAIDIS, THE KEEPER OF THE EBON VAULT, THE GUARDIAN OF THE TREASURE REALM OF THE BLACK KING, AND YOU ARE VERY FORTUNATE INDEED."

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"IN ACCORDANCE TO THE CONTRACT THAT I MADE WITH YOUR PREDECESSOR, I AM TO ALLOW THE ONE WHO HOLDS THE TITLE OF EBON LORD FREE PASSAGE WITHIN THE VAULT OF THE BLACK KING." Holy crap! That is lucky indeed! All this treasure that you're free to go through and take without fighting the immensely powerful dragon of doom. "I HAVE WATCHED OVER THIS REALM FOR SEVERAL CENTURIES NOW AND THE CONTRACT WILL SOON COME TO A CLOSE."

"Huh, then I better make use of the time left huh." You mutter aloud. Guess you'll spend today searching through all this treasure for stuff that you can use.

"YES, THAT WOULD BE WISE. AFTER ALL, THE CONTRACT ENDS IN FIVE OF YOUR REALM'S MINUTES."

…Eh?

"YOU ARE FREE TO TAKE WHATEVER YOU CAN CARRY ON YOUR PERSON BUT BE CAUTIOUS FOR YOU MUST GO THROUGH THE GATES TO RETURN TO YOUR ORIGINAL REALM."

"WAIT! Hang on! What about the contract?! Can't I make a new one?!"

"ONLY IF YOU BEST ME IN COMBAT LIKE YOUR PREDECESSOR. I LOOK FORWARD TO FIGHTING YOU, JACOB ANDERSON. IT WILL BE A FRESH CHANGE IN ROUTINE. NOW I SUGGEST YOU GO CHOOSE WHAT TO TAKE WITH YOU BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT. AT YOUR CURRENT STRENGTH, IT IS UNLIKELY YOU WOULD SURVIVE FIVE MINUTES AGAINST ME AT FULL POWER BUT IT WILL BE FUN TO FIGHT YOU IN ANY CASE."

….Well shit. You should have come here earlier.

With that in mind, you begin running around, looking for any treasure that you could use as well as these gates that will allow you to leave. You have to also endure the watchful eyes of Padraidis while you search and you can feel his anticipation.

You manage to find the gates after a short while later. However, there is only a minute left before the contract expires and the Guardian of the Vault is free to attack you. You've been picking up random handfuls of coins that look like they came from various different time periods and jewellery as well and throwing them all into your dimensional pocket but nothing that has any value beyond monetary ones.

However, you've managed to spot several different objects that you could easily carry out of here that you can sense will be of great use to you. Unfortunately, they were all spaced out between each other enough that you could only get to one and make it back to the Gate in the time remaining. This place is stupidly huge.

Grabbing one of them object, you rush back to the gate just as time runs out. Immediately you're nearly pushed to the ground by the sheer battle lust that Padraidis exudes and as his first attack against you, he fires a ball of purple fire from his mouth. You could feel the heat the moment it left the Dragon's mouth, even from this far away.

Kicking open the Gate, you leap right through, barely escaping the burning flames of annihilation. As the Gate closes behind you, you hear Padraidis laughing.

"I LOOK FORWARD TO OUR NEXT MEETING, JACOB ANDERSON. I WISH YOU LUCK IN REBUILDING THE BLACK KINGDOM."

Reward: Choose at the bottom of the update. $5000 of various non-magical jewellery and ancient coinage.

Learning: The Power of Ebon does weird things to the laws of physics and normal science, even when you're not using it as a source of magic. The technologically dominated society that you live in is just something that you need to learn how to mess with using the power of Ebon. (Choose 1)

[X] Ebon Power and Electronics: Last week you discovered how to destroy electronic devices with just a touch of Ebon. Now you must learn how not to destroy electronics with Ebon Power and instead learn how to take control of such technology. It's time to become a super magical hacker. Cost: 50 EP. Chance of Success: 80% Reward: Learn how to control electronics with Ebon Power.

Roll: 19 + 10: 29

After last week's failure, you're leery of trying this again. However, you're determined to find a way to mess with technology using the power of Ebon. In order to do so, you have your shadows steal some phones that were left unattended. A cruel but necessary action since you lacked the funds to buy phones at the time.

With a collection of phones that were behind, you try unlocking them one by one.

Almost each and every one of them fails to unlock and they all face destruction from Ebon Overload.

It was only on the last one that you make a breakthrough...sort of. You manage to not accidentally destroy the phone and you get an impression of how it works through your powers. However, it goes beyond your comprehension and you're forced to put the phone down as you deal with a migraine from trying to understand the computer science behind the damn thing.

Despite this setback, however, you soon realise that you could now mess with simpler electronics such as electronic locks and the likes without much problem and without destroying them.

It's a start you guess. You're gonna have to figure out how to bypass having to understand the system or you'll be stuck here for a while.

Reward: You can now hack simple electronics. More complex ones like a phone give you a headache when you try.

Piety: Magic is a force that you understand very little. It doesn't help that there are many different kinds of magic, not to mention whatever the fuck that Magical Girl uses. Still, you now have an excuse for everything that goes horribly wrong. (Choose 1)

[X] I Believe I Can Fly: You saw Aestia flying before she had been blown up. Aestia explains that she just flies without thinking about it too much. You had assumed that you would have to factor in stuff like aerodynamics, air resistance, and a whole bunch of science stuff. Can it really be as simple as believing you can fly? Time to find out. Cost: 50EP. Chance of Success: 75% Reward: Gain the ability to move through the air under your own power.

Roll: 39 + 10: 49

Flying using magic takes some effort to pull off. You have to keep telling yourself to forget stuff like aerodynamics, thrust, air resistance and everything that science has taught you about the requirements of flight. You have to resort to self-hypnosis which works long enough for you to actually float off the ground without thinking about it.

After that, you memorise the feeling and begin making headway into the magic of flight. By the middle of the week, you manage to actually move slowly through the air through the power of your thoughts. When Aestia comes over for her check up, you get Aestia to teach you how to actually fly. Aestia's lessons make sense half the time but eventually, you manage to get the hang of things.

By the end of the week, you're flying about as fast as a hundred-twenty kilometre per hour. Faster than most cars in the city but still slow by magical girl standards. You're gonna have to practice in order to get faster but you're happy since you get to see the city from above and it is quite the view.

Reward: Gain Trait [Flight - Rank 1: You can now fly at 120 kilometres per hour. +20 to evasion]

Personal: You're attending school again but with the huge gains in Ebon Power, you've been getting all kinds of stuff done in record time thus gaining free time like usual. Maybe you should use this time to do more stuff or something. (Choose 1 or Extra Action)

[X] Aestia's Check Up: Aestia Creed has an arm that can turn into Ebon Steel. Who knows what strange and weird abilities that it can give the Magical Girl or whether it is safe to have at all!? You need to contact her and ask if she can come in for a quick check and maybe see how things are going with her. Cost: 0. Chance of Success: 100% Reward: Increased Relations with Aestia Creed. Aestia Creed gains new trait.

Roll: 17 + 10: 27

Aestia actually came by a couple of times this week before you did the check up. Part of it was to help introduce you to other Magical Girl groups and other times was to help you learn to fly. She's much happier now that she's no longer worrying her teammates. However, she still has concerns about her arm so that's where you come in.

During the check up, you discovered something very interesting about Aestia's new arm. It turns out that Aestia now has a limited version of your conversion ability. She's able to create Ebon Power like yourself by converting other types of energy. However, she instantaneously converts that Ebon Power into the energy that she needs. It also doesn't convert energy as fast as you but you think it can get faster if she trains it up a bit. She can't drain energy but you don't think she would have wanted that kind of power in the first place.

In short, Aestia is now able to manage her own Fallout and boost her life force and magic power whenever she wants, preferably out of combat since combat usage easily outpaces energy conversion rate. She hasn't told her friends about her arm's alternate state just yet and she's afraid of what the Company might do if they found out.

For now, the true nature of her arm will be a secret between the both of you.

Reward: Increased Relations with Aestia Creed. Aestia Creed gains trait [Ebon Convertor: With the power of Ebon by your side, you can control the energy pools within the body. +3 to Martial. +3 to Piety.]

…

When you returned from the Vault, what was it that you brought back with you?


[ ] A curved knife brimming with power.


[ ] A beautiful sleeping doll.


[ ] A mysterious black helmet.


[ ] A scroll in a box with an oriental design.