Nerfed 5
I sat up with a low yawn as the early morning light filled the room. I rolled off the bean bag to my feet stretching my back before
Gamer's Body kicked in to remove any stiffness. I reached down and inventoried the bean bag and swapped my outfits from the sleepwear to something a bit more… business casual. A dark gray button up shirt, slacks, black doc martins and a checkered blue green tie, and then a few minutes messing with my hair so it was combed out of my eyes and I looked rather professional. I looked in my inventory I was missing something…. Ah, there we go.
I pulled out my horn rimmed glasses and ran a hand down the sides. I focused and a small bone shard came from the tip of my nail, and I used it to inscribe a series of anchoring runes into the frame of the glasses. I slid them on and triggered two glamours, one overlaying the same image of my unmodified dark blue eyes, another a reflective surface in front of me. I spent a moment making sure it synced properly with my eye movement and when blinking, before biting my middle finger and running the blood along the runes. A few seconds later, my glasses shimmered bright green before fading to normal. Testing that, I triggered my eyes of the occult and was happy to note that the change in eye color was unseen. I pulled off my glasses and my eyes flickered green as the illusion dropped before the bright purple and gold glow appeared once more.
Satisfied, I slid my glasses back on and reached into my inventory for a black leather messenger bag.
I looked around the house, it had been two days since the Dean had given me the house, and I spent most of that time fixing the place up. Thankfully it had gotten to the point where it was comfortable if not done. The building now had unpainted drywall up, and the floors were finished and stained a nice reddish brown. The roof sealed with both tar and resin. I had gotten the electrical and water working, but still needed to finish the kitchen and reconnect the gas main.
I stepped into the hall and glanced in an actual mirror I had salvaged earlier, to make sure my glamour was indeed in place, before nodding. I looked sharp enough to pass for someone in his young twenties. I made sure I had
Corexia wrapped around my right wrist, and my shield ring on my left hand. Satisfied, stepped out and locked the door before I pulled out a simple digital wristwatch and glanced at the time. I had about 45 minutes to make my way cross campus to the dean's office for my first day as his
office bitch administrative assistant. I pulled on the watch and began to jog, before building up to a run. I kept my speed down though, to human averages. A fast human, but human nonetheless. As I ran, I eventually turned into a road and ended up running with a virtual horde of teenagers, though I noticed in this direction that it was mostly girls, most of the boys turning off to head to the East, while the road started turning West.
Soon enough it was mostly just young girls and me running down the street. It took only a minute for the gossip to start. I didn't focus on it but I got the general gist of the topics just from proximity.
Unsurprisingly, I was one of the topics; namely, who was I? A few others were about the light show during the black out, and more were about the vampire attacks from last week. I kept my speed slightly faster than the students around me, barely feeling any stress or exertion from moving at what for me now felt like a brisk walk. I kept a face of simple interest on and as I moved I let my eyes rove. I took in a good dozen of the students, and let myself relax. Meditation kicking in as I changed my body language. Soon I felt relaxed, and my run smoothed out slightly, my motions becoming more fluid. I flashed a grin at the girls, and saw blushes appear on a few who were looking my way, before I finally reach the school grounds. I turned off from the main group and headed around the side of the building. I know from exploring the map of the area a bit that the fastest way to the dean's office is actually the side door, and then following that stairwell up.
I glanced up and looked at the outsides of the school, considering making a more… extravagant entrance… but I'm not feeling it.
I slipped in through the door, turned and took the stairs two at a time, and in under a minute I was walking towards the dean's office. Coming to a stop, I knock on the door.
"Enter."
I open the door and step inside, grinning lightly. "Morning boss. What do you have for me today?" I catch the look of amusement from the old man, as he realizes how I'm going to be.
"Well, William-san, I have updated rule books for the teachers, and a stack of papers to deliver to the same. I was meaning to deliver these a few days ago, but they both got delayed at the printers. If you would be so kind? Oh, and take one set for yourself if you would." he gestures at a desk to the side of his office, far smaller than his, but perfect for an assistant. I step over and find the stack of over three dozen thin hardbound books with 'School Procedures' printed as the title. Next to them is an equally large stack of paper packets, a sort of inner school newsletter for the teachers. On top of both was a list of teachers and classroom to deliver to.
"Sure." I grabbed the papers and books and slid them into my bag, which had auto-linked to my inventory. I looked at the dean and he grinned. I slid the classroom list into my shirt pocket, though with a touch of
Acceleration, I had already read the list.
"Oh, and be sure to introduce yourself to those teachers, it's likely you'll be running into them rather often. And be quick! Class starts soon."
I grinned and waved to the dean.
"Back soon Boss."
And with that, I was off.
I looked at the next class on my list with a mix of curiosity and trepidation. This was it. This was where the butterfly's truly started. Class 2-A, homeroom, and English, lead by Negi Springfield...
I stepped up and politely knocked on the door when I heard a lull in the classroom noise.
"Ah, Come in!" came a rather young voice, masculine yes, but definitely young. Yep this is the class.
Putting on my 'Friendly college student/assistant' expression I slid open the door, with an expression that hinted at nervousness. "Ah, hello. I have a quick delivery for a Negi Springfield?"
"That's me." I met the young man's eyes, and grinned, pulling out a book and packet I swapped to English for a moment, feeling he would appreciate it. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Springfield. The Dean asked me to deliver these. I'm William Corvus, the Deans new assistant." I held out a hand and we shook in greeting. He seemed off guard by the English for a second before he brightened considerably.
"Oh, you speak English! Judging by the accent you're... American?" he inquired, taking the book and packet from me.
"Indeed I am, mid-western through and through... and judging by your accent I'm going to say you're Welsh, right?" I said with a grin, trying to ignore the sudden silence coming from what I know is suppose to be one of the loudest classes on campus.
Negi got this massive grin and nodded. "Yep! Grew up in the back hills of Wales, then lived at Oxford while getting my degree."
"Very nice. I grew up in Utah, all mountains or deserts, but snow during the winter. Then I moved here about a week ago for the chance to work for Boss Konoemon. Anyway, I should probably head out. You were my last stop before I head back up to the boss for my next errand. See you around Springfield." I looked up at the class and noticed how they were all now staring at me and Negi. I kicked on Acceleration to get the most out of this moment of observation.
About a half-dozen students are looking at me and Negi blankly, likely having not understood a word of what we said. I recognize at least two of these are Ku Fei, which considering I think she's learning Japanese as well is understandable, and Asuna, who I know has issues with English at this point. I also recognize both twins and Makie are not understanding what we're saying. Though the twins look like they're puzzling it out.
The really interesting are those who were following along with unusual interest. I recognized Kazumi Asakura based on her hair style and camera, eyeing me like a piece of meat. Probably wants to interview me at some point or her newspaper, if I had to guess. I then flicked my eyes over to see Chachamaru, who seemed to be analyzing me with some sort of scanner, if her intense gaze and glowing green eyes were any reference. I flitted through the other intense students. Haruna, who I remember being a gossiper and artist, Setsuna, recognizable due to her hairstyle and sword, who's assessing me as a threat, Mana and Kaede, both assessing me as a likely opponent, though Kaede seems to be frowning slightly and Mana's eyes are narrowed. My eyes, still moving slow to my accelerated perception quickly focus on Evangeline whose sharp eyes seem focused on my head and whose eyes seem to be slowly widening, which, shit, means, she senses something about my magic. That's gonna be a thing for later.
Finally, I focus on the last two that catch my eye, Zazie, the quiet performer, whose eyes are focused directly on me and who I catch a sense of curiosity and danger flashing through my aura, something I've only felt in the presence of the most dangerous enemies.
Finally, I let my gaze rest on who I currently consider the biggest person of interest in the room.
Chao Lingshen.
I see her eyes wide and her mind rapidly focusing and can practically see in her posture and expression her mind running through her knowledge of how the timelines suppose to be. I meet her eyes for a split second longer than any others, before I look away towards Negi again, slowly let acceleration fade back and deactivate, bring my senses and speed back to normal.
I switch back to Japanese. "Ah, apologies Springfield-san, we seem to have confused a few of your students by using English." I chuckled and turned back to the class at large. "As mentioned to Springfield-san, I am Corvus William, Dean Konoe's new personal assistant. A pleasure to meet you all. Now I apologize for being brief, but I really must be heading out."
I glanced back to Negi and nodded with a smile. "See you around Springfield-san."
As I shook his hand one last time and started leaving, I glanced back to Chao Bao, and let the faintest hint of a knowing smirk cross my face, and saw her eyes narrow in focus.
And then I was out the door, and behind me, I heard the room erupt into chatter.
As I walked back towards the dean's office, I focused on what I had decided to do about the canon story-line. I didn't want to just sit by the sidelines and watches, that honestly just wasn't my style. I'm far too chaotic good to simply act like a nobody. I thought about what I could do, and isolated the biggest issues for my time here.
Chao's time travel, and her plan to reveal magic to the world.
Fate's plan to destroy the illusionary people of Mundus Magicus to save the 'real' people.
Find and deal with possessed Nagi.
Oh, and somehow fix the gamer system enough to try and head back to my dimension…
Preferably With an element of time travel so I can find a way to deal with the
Sinners.
That last one's the biggest issue personally, but the other three are going to be more important for now.
I had spent some time chatting with
Veritas, and he had admitted that he wasn't entirely sure how to achieve a reconnection. Which I guess meant that I had to figure this out on my own then.
Joy.
However the really annoying part was when I tried to look at the readouts and data that Veritas had provided to even fix my Instant Dungeons, as the easiest of my gamer powers to fix, I had nearly blacked out, and then gotten a notification that I needed Lvl 100 in
Dimensional Engineering,
Magical Theory, and
Quantum Theory, before I could make any headway.
Those skills were only at 21, 19, and 16 respectively.
This was gonna take a while. At the very least, I could probably get magical Theory up there based on what the main cast runs across, but the other two were going to be a pain in the ass.
Setting aside my plans for fixing my powers, I refocused on the other three projects. I planned to let Chao continue mostly as she is, but the fact that she seemed to be unaware of my existence prior to this means that my theory of her time travel making dimensional parallels was probably correct. If I slowly convinced her of that, then it's entirely possible I could convince her to stay around post festival to help me out. She could join me for a while and help me fix my powers, and I could see about fixing her 'Magia Erebea' issues. If I could do that, I would be much happier about my impact on the world.
As for Fate… I sort of want to leave him to Negi, though I plan to back him up and hopefully provide a few hints to get things on the rails to a better world a tad faster than canon. After all, how difficult is it to swap gears from 'Kill off a ton of sentient creatures to save the rest' to 'hey why not try and fix the world beneath the illusion'. I swear goddamn magic users and their flare for the dramatic. So many problems in the story could be solved with far easier methods.
And as for Nagi… that's gonna be a thing, with the whole Mage of the Beginning chaos.
I finally reached the dean's office, and knocked on the door, before stepping in. Back to work.
I stretched as I walked off campus at the end of the day, flipping through my copy of the rule book. All in all, it was pretty standard stuff, though I did notice it was a bit looser when it came to dress code then what I expected. Honestly not very much that caught my eye. The packet was also pretty standard. Though it did mention the Kyoto trip was next week, which means that today…
That's why I saw Negi heading to the office when I left! He just got his quest to the other magic association!
I slid my hands into my pockets as I turned back onto the street heading towards my place. I knew there was a hardware store down this way somewhere, I saw it on my way to the school this morning. I had put in the drywall and stained the floor yesterday. But now I needed paint and some rollers. I was thinking blue and green accent walls for various rooms. Yeah, that sounds right.
I bought the supplies I wanted, thanking the fact that
Veritas could convert my internal currency to the yen I needed. Stepping out with the supplies, I took a few seconds on my way home to step in an alley and inventory it, before heading down the street.
Soon enough, I reached the house and let myself in, tapping a mana infused finger on the trigger rune near the door, to activate the lights I had put in. Across the ceiling, a half dozen small circles of runes I had written in sharpie light up with a warm golden glow, before the illusion of them being recessed lights also kicked in.
And then I felt my instincts
scream and I dove forwards, dodging the large red spike that would have speared through my chest. I immediately performed a second jump, dodging the second spike that embedded in the floor where I had landed. I let my second landing turn into a roll, and mentally swapped my outfit to my combat attire, my clothes shifting in a burst of green sparks.
And then I felt it, the oh so familiar feeling of an illusion barrier forming around my house. As I pushed myself to my feet, I drew my handgun in one hand and my larger blade in the other, reflexively hitting observe on the misshapen mass of red and black that had been pressed around the top of the door frame.
Revenant Vice
Hunters of Chaos
LVL:61
Like many creatures borne of the Dimensional Void, a Revenant Vice hunts to fulfill its eternal hunger for energy. Its body is a mass of fluid liquid, controlled by instinct. This Vice, in particular, has been drawn by an abundance of dimensional energy to this plane of existence.
Emotions: Hungry.
The shape seemed to drip and ooze into a sort of misshapen many-legged wolf as it fell from the ceiling and landed, the spears of red retracting back into its mass.
"Well. Shit."
And then It lunged at me jaws wide.
