B5 C50: Demonic Aftermath

Cooking has reached level 25! As advertised, the very first thing we did on returning to the prairie was celebrate. With how long I’d been g

Cooking has reached level 25!

As advertised, the very first thing we did on returning to the prairie was celebrate. With how long I’d been gone, it had been well over a month since anyone had visited Arbor, and a quick visit replenished our grossly depleted larder. 

Given our recent successes on the food-finding front, it was disappointing that the demon region had no new ingredients to give us, but that didn’t keep us from eating well. Deprived of creature comforts for so long, I found myself gravitating towards lots of oils and starches. With only one trip to Arbor, I wasn’t able to stock up on too many mana-enriched ingredients, but I still made a mundane version of the yuca fries and fried garlic noodles from our cooking extravaganza day.

Some other fan favorites made a reappearance, including our tea-leaf salad, the gazpacho, and -- to my dismay -- Verin’s liver and onions. Some other dishes, I decided to play with, transforming our original rabbit ragu into a ravioli form instead. 

Unwilling to only cook our standard fare, I made sure to branch out as well. Without butter, the dough never turned out quite right, but I decided to try some pies, both sweet and savory. I’d forged a few quick pie tins right before I’d been captured, but I’d never had the time to use them until now.

If not the best thing I’d ever made, both the mixed berry pie and the spicy spinach, pepper, gryphon pie turned out passably. At least, they certainly weren’t the worst thing I made. That honor went to a scorpion dish I tried to braise with some herbs from the darkness portion of our garden. Not only did the result look horribly unappetizing, but it also stained our teeth pitch black.

Despite being the one to cause the issue, much to the consternation of the others, I was not forced to deal with the results. A quick dash of light mana summoned a lesser-used variant of my Arcane Choker, and after a while, I grinned with a set of pearly white teeth as I pulled up the skill’s description.

Dazzling Tongue 

Allows the wearer to obfuscate their voice by pitching it upwards. Passively brightens the user’s teeth. Grants a slight Charisma boost while speaking.

Only during all the cooking did I realize just how much I’d missed my kitchen, and more than that, how much I’d missed cooking alongside Verin. It was strange how much this place had truly begun to feel like home, and I was already growing sad thinking about having to leave it behind eventually.

Aside from a few black teeth and melancholy thoughts, though, our feast was a rousing success. As for afterwards, if perhaps I imbibed more than I should after my unplanned prolonged sobriety in the demon region, then who could blame me? Deciding I’d had enough of being cooped up recently, I forced us to move our gathering outside, and we continued to drink under the patchwork sky. I took the opportunity to properly survey our surroundings.

For all that I’d been gone for quite some time, not much had changed in my absence. With her usual fastidiousness, Verin had taken care of the garden while I was away, and it was thriving. The only exception was the patch of dark plants, all of which were looking worse for wear without the Sightless Eye to cloak them in darkness. Thankfully, Verin had kept the gem tightly clutched in her hand during our hasty egress, and the treasure hadn’t blown up in the explosion. That meant we were able to return the Epic artifact to its rightful place as a gardening aid.

And it was good that she’d managed to bring it along, because after seeing the aftermath of that explosion, I doubted it would have survived. The entirety of the temple had been reduced to rubble, including the summoning room. Of Cezerra and the drudges, there wasn’t even a trace.

With my essentially eidetic memory, I was fairly certain I could recreate the summoning circle if I needed to, although for all I knew, the dungeon had done something to make the ritual room work better. Still, there wasn’t much of a reason to. The drudges would die fairly quickly outside the demonic region, and besides, the one time I’d brought it up, Cal had shot me down. Seeing she was the only one who could control them, I dropped it.

Because, right. Apparently Cal was a demon now.

I wanted to say that in hindsight, I should have figured it out, but that wasn’t fair. I hadn’t really known anything about demons in the first place until recently. In fact, there were probably a thousand more likely answers for Cal’s strange eating and sleeping habits than “my friend is half demon,” but alas.

Especially once we plied her with some booze, we eventually got her to open up a bit, and I got to hear the story of what Hex had done to bring out her demonic bloodline. I was also not overly shocked to learn that the demon half came from her mother. I’d already proven that I wasn’t the best at telling, but having met Cal’s father, I would have been shocked to learn that the brash and overbearing king was secretly a demon.

We got some of the details about the bonuses she got, and sure, that was a bit of a shock, but at the same time, I was a Protagonist. It kind of… just didn’t matter that much? We were all entitled to our secrets, but I left the discussion thinking she could have just told us years ago. It was novel, and I was curious about her mother, but it was nothing that really changed our day-to-day lives. Cal was still Cal.

With food and drink and conversation out of the way, we eventually reached the part that everyone was most excited for. A quick check of our notifications detailed the demons we’d defeated, but that wasn’t the only message we’d received.

Quest Completed: Demonic Outbreak

Choosing to vanquish the boss rather than allow her to sweep through the dungeon, rising to the Baroness rank, you have completed your quest. 

+5000xp

Based on your method of completion, you have been offered additional rewards.

I was glad that Cezerra died when we were outside the temple, as if the dungeon chest had spawned inside, I doubted we’d have any rewards to go through. Thankfully, the chest had popped up by our feet right after the explosion, and it was patiently waiting for us in my storage. 

I summoned it presently, depositing the bulky chest on the ground between us. I might have opened it for us, too, but I was currently sporting a large glass of alcoholic lemonade in one hand and a gryphon rib in the other. Plus, I knew I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t offer it up to the lady of the hour. Pointing with my half-eaten rib, I gestured for Cal to take it away.

Not wasting any time, she practically dove for the chest and wrenched it open, only to let out an underwhelmed huff once she spotted what lay within.

Understandably so, I thought. While the chest was fairly large, its contents were anything but. While there were clearly three objects within, none of them filled more than a tenth of the space.

“Stingy. Could have at least filled the rest with gold or something.” Cal’s complaints didn’t stop her from grabbing our rewards, though, and I quickly set about identifying them.

The first was a ring, black metal bending around to ensconce a glistening ruby. An image of a feather had been carved into the gem, and while it was close enough to Cal’s Chicken Scratch to be recognizable, the dungeon had added its own artistic flair. The blade depicted was both nobler and more savage at once, its shaft curved while the ruby lent the sword a bloody air.

Demonic Signet Ring

+3 Charisma

Enhances the internal effects of demonic mana.

Enhances the strength of demonic aura. Intimidation, awe, and suppressive effects gain a larger boost from Charisma.

This ring can only be worn by a demonic Baron or Baroness.

In this case, it wasn’t too hard to figure out who the ring was meant for, though receiving the ring didn’t stop Cal’s grumbling. Given that she’d relied heavily on her demonic aura during the fight, and we were in the demonic region, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that she would get something that revolved around her newfound powers. Still, it wasn’t overly useful for the rest of the dungeon or even the outside world once we got back.

“Booo. It’s not even my style, either. Way too edgy. And who said that my signet design should be a feather? Just because of my weapon?” As Cal continued to yell at the dungeon, she threw the remaining rewards my way.

The larger of the two was a pair of bracers which I originally figured would be mine. Taking on the thick, reddish black appearance of drudge hide, they were hardly my first choice for armor, which made me feel both guilty and a tad relieved when I realized they weren’t for me.

Bracers of Defensive Drudgery

+2 Constitution

Enhances the toughness and regenerative qualities of your physical defensive skills.

Feeding mana into these bracers will repair them.

Given that Verin was the only one with a defensive skill that could regenerate -- for some loose definition of “regenerate,” at least -- it looked like these were meant to strengthen her Advancing Glacier. When I handed them to her, somehow she seemed… less than thrilled.

That was all the more understandable given the final reward, which admittedly seemed a bit more up her alley. On first glance, I thought it might be a sort of curved, black dagger made from a talon. The tough material had been partially hollowed out, and the sides had been carved into to allow for a comfortable grip. In this case, however, I was wrong on both the material and the purpose.

Summoner’s Stylus

A pen crafted from the hard wing tips of a demon.

+3 to Ritual Magic

+3 to Demonic Summoning

+1 to most written or drawing-based skills

Channeling mana into this stylus allows it to carve directly into stone or tougher ritual mediums, offering enhanced precision while designing rituals. Alternatively, when used to draw, channeling mana into the stylus will refill its inkwell.

Frankly, it felt a bit macabre, and I hoped the dungeon had materialized the rewards out of mana instead of actually chopping off one of Cezerra’s wing tips. Then again, I supposed it would have had to, as I doubted any of Cezerra’s remains were salvageable.

Queasiness and morality aside, it was one of the stranger rewards I’d received, though also hard to argue with. Undoubtedly, most of my time in the region had been spent as a summoner, and the drudges I’d summoned had been pivotal in the final fight. Given that I’d also spent some of my imprisoned free time leveling up Drawing and Architecture, it wasn’t all that shocking that the dungeon had thrown the stylus my way.

If nothing particularly life changing, it was a solid reward, and I’d likely get more use out of it than Cal would out of her ring, at least. Both Cal and Verin spent a bit more time grumbling, but with the chest taken care of, the night continued on. The simple joy of being alive quickly washed away any lingering grievances, and the booze didn’t hurt, either. 

Eventually, inebriated far past the point of good decisions, I managed to stumble inside. For the first time in ages I went to bed in my own room, and I slept like a baby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the wake of our recent victory -- as close as it might have been without Cal’s timely intervention -- by unspoken unanimous consent, we decided to relax for a while. A single night of celebrating was well and good, but none of us were chomping at the bit to rush right back out and clear a new region.

I returned to my forge. Made some rings. Tried (and failed) to shift into making weapons. Concocted some potions. Brewed a decent tooth-whitener to fix the others’ black teeth. Assembled some herb blends that worked as passable tea substitutes. Spent some time enchanting.

Essentially, all the usual suspects. 

As I worked, my mind often drifted back to my recent stint in the demonic region, and more and more, I kept thinking about Cezerra.

Not from a sense of guilt, or anything. I did feel at least a little bad for how things had ended, but only the tiniest bit. Maybe there was a more diplomatic way to end things, but I was hardly the same person I’d been years ago. True, I could still count on one hand the number of rational, sentient beings I’d killed, and I hadn’t grown inured to death yet, but Cezerra had signed her own death warrant when she tried to keep me as a captive for multiple centuries.

No, more than anything else, I thought about what she’d been after. With how dangerous the hells apparently were, all she really wanted was a space to herself. Somewhere safe, free from any outside forces over level 25.

Sure, our goals pretty heavily diverged after that, but I could at least sympathize. I would hardly call the dungeon a utopia, but for where I was in life, it was pretty nice, right? No antagonists. A big, swanky house. Perfect leveling opportunities.

At the very least, I could see why some fancy-pants emperor would send his descendants here.

I did my best to banish the idle thoughts, instead throwing myself deeper into every low-stress hobby I had. After all, we only had so much time before we inevitably decided to dive back into the thick of it. 

But at the same time…

Maybe we don’t have to.

My recent advances in Spatial Magic were still fresh on my mind, and while I had no desire to send the three of us to hell, if I was strong enough to break the dungeon’s spatial barrier, who was to say I couldn’t send us back home instead?

It wasn’t that simple, I knew. I had no idea how to construct a ritual that would do the job. As much as I wished it was, it wasn’t as straightforward as activating a recall gem and pumping some spatial mana in. But for the first time, it wasn’t my power that was holding back, it was just a little bit of know-how.

And I have a pretty good idea of how to fix that, too.

With the second collection crystal down, we were all due a visit to Sett. With any luck, I’d be able to nab some new spells from him, and hopefully I could pick his brain about spatial rituals at the same time.

The visit hadn’t felt particularly urgent, by any means, but after a few days of settling back in, I figured it was time to pay the demon a visit. As terrifying as he could be, I strongly preferred him to the last demon I’d met.

I offered to let the others join me, but they declined. Neither were hoping to avail Sett of his ability to teach new spells, and both agreed the grand magus wasn’t the most scintillating conversationalist. With no pressing reason to visit, they left me to check on him alone.

Down the spiraling tunnels I descended until I was spit out into the massive chamber that served as both a prison and a generator. Curiously enough, I found myself having an easier time taking in the imprisonment spell diagram now that I’d gained a few levels in Ritual Magic. It still gave me a pulsing headache that threatened to evolve into something stronger if I kept staring, but the broad picture of the ritual almost made sense to me.

For once, when I moved to wake the mage, he awoke as chipper as could be, devoid of his usual grumpiness.

“Ah! My grand disciple. You got the second crystal! Truthfully, with how long it’s been since the last one, I thought you might have given up. At this rate, you might actually do it! I knew I was right not to kill you three when I met you.”

High praise. In fairness, I did try to live my life in such a way that made people happy to not kill me. I suppose I was succeeding. Admittedly, Cezerra, Warram, and Ephesis might feel differently, but that was a separate matter.

It looked like Sett was in even a better mood than I’d imagined, because as I opened my mouth with a request, he cut me off before I even had to ask.

“Yes, yes. You want things. Spells, right? Won’t even argue. The first crystal’s removal felt nice, but this feels comparatively divine. I have plenty of mana to bandy around right now, and both my mind and soul are in rare form. Come. Tell me what you want.”

Huh. For an ancient demon who’d been imprisoned for slaughtering the rulers of various nations, he could really be a stand-up guy sometimes.

Sadly, as we’d long-since established, directly forcing spells into my head got trickier the higher tier the spell. That was doubly true for advanced magics. I’d been hoping to round out some of my Apprentice-ranked magics, especially now that I’d grabbed Weapon to Wand to enhance my attack spells, but a single Adept-ranked spatial spell would be my limit for now.

Given that Spatial Magic was no longer class-aligned, I didn’t actually have a class quest to raise it to level 50. For a second, I considered just abandoning it for now, but as soon as we began to look at my options, I backtracked immediately. Compared to the rest of my spells, the Adept-ranked options were in a league of their own. And what was the point of having such a high skill level if I couldn’t even make use of it?

“A good choice. It wouldn’t have saved you from getting trapped here, but I suspect you’d have had a much easier time getting home had you learned this beforehand.” Approving of my new spell, Sett placed his hand against my head, and a new flood of information crashed into my head, noticeably stronger than any other transfer we’d done before. 

You have learned a new spell…

I could already tell that the grand magus wouldn’t be able to teach me anything past the Adept rank, but then again, I doubted he would need to.

As excited as I was to rush back up and start playing with my new spell, that hadn’t been my whole purpose for coming down here. Donning a more serious expression, I broached the real topic of interest.

“So, there’s just one more thing…”