Fortune Favors (QQ) Chapter 21

"Sooo... uh..." I begin quietly. 

"How did your talk go?" Tsukasa questions. 

"I... might have inadvertently set her on a path that involves her challenging you for the right to date me." I admit quietly. 

She lets out a long groan, rubbing her temples. "Fuck." 

"What do we do?" I question. 

A sole huff leaves her mouth. 

"Bothersome." 

"What the hell do you mean by that?!" I question. "I expected something like 'How dare she?!' Or 'Never!' not just 'damn. That's annoying.'!" 

"Well, to be fair, my dear... in Gensokyo... one hundred percent of the leaders are female. Be it the Great Tengus. The vampire siblings. The beast spirits. Even the boundary youkai herself." The girl begins. "As you grow stronger, it is merely a matter of time before you catch the interest of someone. It isn't a matter of if... only when." 

"That being said I will be fighting tooth and nail to keep you mine. But you know what they say, Youkai take what they want~" The corners of her mouth turn downwards slightly. "I'll let that little girl try and gather as much power as she can. I'm not one to so ruthlessly smush such a naive little girl." 

"And then I'll adopt her!" The fox beams abruptly, clasping her hands together with a bright smile. 

"Uh... wouldn't her feelings for me sort of make that a bit awkward?" I point out. 

"Oh, what sort of person hasn't had feelings for their parental figures~" the girl hums. 

"..." 

"Me." I deadpan. "I haven't." 

"..." 

"..." 

"Tsukasa. I'm going to say it. I understand that you want children... and I don't know what sort of life you lived before this, but, I seriously feel like I'm not being respected in this relationship. I say I'm not ready for children, and you adopt one and plan to adopt another." I begin quietly. "Even moreso... I'm feeling neglected. I'm aware I'm not here very often, but I have needs as well.' 

With that I turn and walk away, planning on doing what I normally do when I find problems that are incredibly difficult and I have no way real way of fixing... 

Ignoring it and hoping that it gets better! 

[Split] 

Tsukasa finds me quickly. I had gone to another room of our house in Aincrad to read. 

"Listen... Argo." Tsukasa sighs as she takes a seat next to me. "I'm sorry." 

"I guess I have been neglecting you a little bit... Shiro is just so... broken." She whispers. "But taking a moment to step back I can see that pampering her so much like that has just made it so she is reliant on me... and that's not good. I've begun to try and fix her anxiety, but it's... a work in progress." 

"What can I do?" She asks. "I know I've been distant... and how I haven't taken care of your physical needs in a little while... so... I'm asking. What do you want? What do you need? What can I do to help make this work?" 

She... actually means that. I can feel a tingling comfort and seriousness gently come through our empathic link. 

"I don't know." I admit after a long moment, a breath leaving my lips. "I've never dated before... like at all. Yet... we jumped right into the deep end. Sex before kissing or even embracing... sex before introduction and now we've adopted a child. I just... I have no idea what to do. How to progress." 

"Shiro is a nice girl and I want to be in her life... but I also want to be strong enough to defend myself. I need to be strong enough to help those people... those children trapped in Aincrad. I need to go out and find items that allow me to trade for things we need... or things that might save even a single person... and that... well... I feel like I'm overly stressed, stretched thin, and have so many expectations and pressure on me." 

The fox hugs me gently, her lips pressing against my cheek. "I'm sorry... as your second half, I should shoulder these burdens... and all I've been doing is taking care of Shiro." 

"No. That's enough, really." I begin quietly. 

"Its not." The woman shakes her head. "You are currently being pulled between three separate universes... with more soon to follow. I know exactly how I am going to ease this burden... I can takeover Sword Art Online." 

"Huh?" 

"Shiro doesn't do well without contact with me for anything longer than a few seconds and she cannot leave Sword Art Online as we don't know if such an action would kill her real body. So. Reasonably. I must stay in sword art online to take care of her... thus, out of all these worlds, it is the one that I can take care of. Tell me what you are doing. What you are planning. And I will take care of it. You have my word." 

There's a determined expression on her face. 

"Alright." I whisper. "So... the first of many plans if to take Lisbeth with us to Gensokyo. However there are many hurdles we will likely face, the first of which being her humanity... which is why we need Argo- the girl- to master her alchemy so we can get a race-change potion. But just taking her with us is probably a bad play as Sword Art seems to install interesting skills into her... so before we take her with us, we are letting her raise her talents as high as they can possibly go so she can have a better future out here... her current focus is Blacksmithing, but I plan to also get her into enchanting." 

Tsukasa seems content to just listen. 

"Next is Silica. I'll... likely bring her along as well, but at the moment she is something that requires human flesh to survive. Using Argo we'll brew her a perfected version of her medicine which will take away her need to feed. Ask Yui, she saved the steps we'll need. After that-" 

[Split] 

I'm going to be honest... I feel like a wight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now that Tsukasa is managing Sword Art... I feel a little weightless. 

That game took up soooo much of my time. 

Now I can focus on getting stronger bit by bit. 

Now that I have a little more time I can focus on Demon Slayer and Skyrim. 

I have plans for skyrim, but I'd wanted to hire a certain Oni for assistance and the alcohol I have isn't ready yet. 

Now that I've got some more free time I've been preparing a lot more alcohol for my inevitably horde of Oni that I'll probably use to kill some things in Skyrim. 

I'll probably wait a couple more months before I seek out Suika Ibuki. Don't want to grab her with sub-par booze, after all. She might break my kneecaps if I don't have something she likes. 

But what do I do in the meantime? 

What are some things that I really need from Skyrim... 

Materials for sword art. 

I need to learn enchanting for sword art as well. 

Frankly? That should be my priority. Learn Soul Trap. Learn Enchanting. Wander off into the dinosaur land. Create a weapon that can soul trap. 

Yes. A good plan. 

[Split] 

I sit in an illusionary tube, a small frown on my face as I peer outside. 

There are numerous loud thuds as I watch a gigantic reptile slowly wander forwards. 

I finally finished studying some of my surplus of books. Thus, I'm ready to take a look through a certain dinosaur filled landscape. 

It has been about a month since I set the mini punisher off to hassle the player killers of Aincrad, and let me just say... holy. shit. 

It seems that they are realizing shit has gotten bad. Player killing in our server has seen roughly an eighty six percent decrease. Be it because all of the most violent player killers are currently very dead by Silica's hands, or they realized someone was going around killing them and they are now laying low. 

Of course, she always has more work cut out for her as the other servers combine with us, thus bringing in more player killers. 

Anyways, I might just be about to tip the balance of Aincrad even further into our favor. 

Regardless, the raid groups have made their way to floor eighteen. Lisbeth continues to grind her levels in blacksmithing and, the last time I checked, she was sitting at skill level six hundred or something. 

Argo's alchemy skill is also continuing to steadily rise and- 

The absolutely massive bipedal fanged reptile leaps upwards, landing atop a sheer cliff face it jumped to the top of in a single bound. 

"HOLY SHIT!" I shout. 

I cover my mouth as the two-fingered dinosaur lets out a loud growl, peering around. 

That... T-Rex jumped like one hundred fucking feet into the air... 

What the fuck? 

Now that I look closer it's also a little... ah... big. 

A T-Rex is normally like, what, twenty feet tall, forty feet long? This thing is in the classic 'old' dinosaur pose, where their tail drags along the ground, so it is far taller than a standard T-rex merely from posture. 

Then... it appears to be quite a bit longer as well. 

Fifty? No... sixty feet, maybe? 

This beast might be able to give some forms of Godzilla pause. 

For like... 

Maybe a second or two. 

At least until the king of the monsters punts or steps on it. 

That jump was definitely fucking impressive, though. 

I look to a large hunk of crystal, tilting my head slightly. 'I wonder if this will be enough.' 

A grand soul gem. 

I'm about to try and soultrap this big bastard. 

The thing with soul trap is that I'll be forced to kill it. 

How do I plan on doing that, you might ask? 

The Apprentice destruction spell, Ice Spike, mostly. 

Not many things can survive a jagged spike through the eye. 

Especially a spike that's made more powerful as I shrink my little 'domain' which has expanded to around one hundred feet after a lot of passive time and effort. 

After trapping the soul of something... I should be more than ready to try and unlock the Enchanting skill for Aincrad. 

And with that unlocked, that means there will be another 'ultimate' skill in the game. 

One for Lisbeth to learn, of course. 

As for profits... I actually haven't made as much as I probably could have... 

I mean, sure. I've amassed a genuinely startling surplus of goods thanks to Tsukasa and her bullshit 'Gacha' quests, but I haven't really sold anything yet. 

Oh... I have been experimenting with some wine. 

I grabbed a few fruit of evolution and decided to make a nice grape wine and toss them into it. 

My brewery extraction innate ability should have that wine be strong enough to kill normal humans within a month! 

But. With the endlessly improving alcohol content and flavor... it also extracts and constantly empowers the traits of the ingredients I use in it. 

Thus, the fruits that originally might have given only a plus one to stats... now might give a plus two... or even a plus three! 

That... Is the thing I'll be using to negotiate with the Oni. 

Regardless, I can go look over all that stuff later. First things first. There's some big game I need to hunt. 

My pipe shoots forwards at high speeds, arcing through the sky. 

Purple energy explodes around my hand as I stick it out of the pipe, towards the lumbering lizard. 

With a flash, an orb of darkness shoots from my hand, crashing into the back of the T-Rex. 

It gains a slightly purple tinge, causing it to let out a snarl, looking around in confusion. 

It begins to sniff the air, gazing around suspiciously. 

But... I am already in position. 

A large spire of ice shoots forwards from my fingertips. My hand is chilled, I cradle it to my chest, trying to fight off any potential forming frostbite. 

I seriously need to find a way to negate the recoil on that. 

Maybe some form of elemental resistance ring? 

Regardless, my attack strikes the target perfectly. A humongous spire of ice piercing through the dinosaur's eye and going deep into its skull. 

It thuds to the ground a moment later as I peer outside. 

All is quiet for a moment... 

Then a torrent of purple rushes for me, being drawn to the crystal in my fist. 

The soul gem gains a bright glow as the purple lightshow eventually fades. 

The corners of my mouth turn upwards 'Fancy.' 

I quickly zoom down to the dead body, a large hacksaw appearing in-hand. "Welp. Let's get some potential alchemy ingredients."  

It takes a lot of effort, but eventually I manage to carve out the large reptile's second eye, the first rendered unusable by my ice spice. 

After that, I pluck the teeth and tongue. Then... I spend the next hour or so pondering how I could retrieve the beast's heart. 

Eventually, I decide 'fuck it'. I don't have the time or patience to carefully carve all the way through the beast's back down to its heart. I already spent far too much time on the teeth and eye, then just return home to take a shower.  

[Split] 

"Mr. Argo! You're back!" The small brown haired girl in front of me beams. 

"Hello Silica." I greet as I turn to look at the girl she was speaking to. "You. Take this." 

I drop a bloody bag in her hands. 

"H-Huh?" Argo blinks. 

She opens the bag. 

"eek-" she lets out a small girlish shriek. "What the hell is this?!" 

Silica leans forwards, gazing into the bag with a slow blink. She tilts her head. 

"What animal is this even from?!" 

"Tyrannosaurus." I answer casually as I turn and walk past the two of them. 

"TYRANNOSAURUS?! HUH?!" She gasps as I walk over to the enchanting table. 

The large fist-sized hunk of glowing crystal is pulled from my pipe. 

"Wait..." Argo whispers. "He- He's at the enchantment table, Silica!" 

"The what?" The demonic girl tilts her head. 

"He brought that in ages ago! He called it the enchantment table, but he was unable to use it... if... if he's using it now... maybe he's about to unlock the enchanting skill!" 

"oooooh." The smaller girl hums as I draw a simple miniature meadow blade. 

I look over it briefly, placing both of my hands on the enchanting table as I loom over it, tail swishing back and forth.  

I let out a low whisper under my breath. "Let's see here..."  

Now... how does one create a soul-trap enchantment? 

With this... Sword Art will be carried into a new age! 

Also, I'll probably force Lizbeth to master this after she finishes blacksmithing... merely so she gets that specialized unique skill for it. 

But. For this to become a crafting skill... I suppose the magically inept Aincrad needs an example! 

So... it falls to me. 

[Split]  

A smile appears on my lips as I lift a knife into view. 

It's shoddy and half-baked, but... 

it works. 

"is... is it done?" I hear Silica whisper to my other observer. 

"I... I don't know..." Girl-Argo whispers. 

"Silica, what time is it?" I question. 

"Uhh..." She brings out the Memento Mortem. "Ten minutes till noon?" 

"I see." I mutter, eyes straying to Argo. "Argo, can you please test this out for me?" 

"What is it?" 

"This is a soul trapping knife. It applies an effect to whatever is cut by it. Should they die in a specific time frame, the creatures soul will be captured in a soul gem - provided you have one large enough-." 

"What's a soul gem?" 

"They heart of any enchanted item." I answer. "You see, normally, when a spellcaster wants to make an enchanted item, they will cast a spell called 'soul trap' upon a monster. If the monster dies within a set time-limit, it will fill a soul gem if you have one large enough. What I've done is basically made it so that effect is on the blade. So if you stab something, they will become 'soul trapped' for a time. Now. An enchantment doesn't last forever, it has charges, but you can refill an enchantment by using filled soul gems." 

"Here." I offer the knife to her, a window appears in front of her. "Take this enchanted knife and these three petty soul gems." 

She seems to analyze the soul gems, another window opening up in front of her. 

Soul Trapping Meadow Dagger: 
A weapon made from alchemically altered copper. Its far more durable than bronze and comparable to iron.  
It was created by Player Lisbeth 
It was Enchanted by Argo Naut 
Durability 41/41  

Attributes:  
Base Damage 25  
{Soul Trapping Enchantment} {360/360} 
This weapon allows you to capture the souls of enemies into Soul Gems for your future use, inflicting the 'Soul Trap' debuff for 10 seconds. 

Requirements:  
Dexterity 4 AGI: 10 

"Where do you find soul gems?" She questions. 

"You can typically find them while mining for ore." I answer. 

"And this knife... to be soul trapped do I just hit it once or do I need to kill the monster with this knife?" 

"You just need to hit it once. It doesn't matter what kills the monster as long as you apply the soul-trapping effect to it and kill it in the designated time." 

She seems to get a quest.  

"I see..." The girl whispers. "I'll be right back!"  

I watch her leave out the door, causing my gaze to shift to Silica. "Do you need anything, Silica?" 

"No... I'm just waiting out the sun." She admits. 

"Well... I'm going to do a little reading, then." I admit as I turn around, grab a book from my pipe and sit down. 

It should be about time to check on that alcohol I've been letting age with my bullshit touhou ability. 

Maybe I could grab some Oni minions to go crack open a few of Skyrim's dungeons. 

My eyes stray to the side briefly as Silica sits next to me. Then I go back to reading. 

[Split] 

"Argo. I'm back." Girl-go informs  

She lifts three crystals. "Here's the crystals." 

"Oh good." I note. "That was quite quick... while you were gone I have begun looking over some more enchantments and I believe that I'm ready to try a basic fire enchantment. Could you get me an item you want to be enchanted to deal extra fire damage? However I must warn you. Items can only be enchanted once with only a single effect... or at least that's the case for my skill level. Better enchanters may freely disenchant objects but with my current skill level doing so would destroy the item in question. In addition, better enchanters might even be able to squeeze two or maybe even more enchantments into a weapon." 

The girl's eyes glint slightly, a bright smile on her face. "Here!" 

She offers me a thin dagger, more for stabbing than slashing. It's thick and angular, kind of like a bayonet. 

Black Stiletto +21: 
An assassin's blade pried from the hands of Grushi the Knife-Eared Slasher, the secret boss of the 8th floor. The strange triangle-like profile of the blade creates grievous injuries that are hard to heal 

Enhanced beyond its limits by Player Lisbeth 

Durability: 102/110 

Attributes: 
Base Damage 82* (103) 
Successful attacks inflict 2 Bleed damage for 60 seconds 

Requirements: 
Str 8 
Dex: 24 
Agi: 28 

"Alright." I nod once. "I can work with this, but using a petty soul gem, the enchantment will be quite weak. Are you fine with that?" 

"Yes." Argo-girl nods once. 

"Alright. I'll see what I can do." I nod once. 

[Split] 

I give the blade a simple swing, letting out a low hum. " 

I'd say I didn't do that bad. 

Attributes: 
Base Damage 82* (103+11) 
Successful attacks inflict 2 Bleed damage for 60 seconds 
{Flaming Enchantment} (13/13) 
Fire courses through this weapon, searing an enemy every time it hits something. +11 Fire Damage per successful hit. 

I turn, offering the weapon to the blonde girl. "Here you are." 

"Hmmm? So it'll only last for thirteen hits?" 

"You should understand that I am not the best at this... plus, I was using a Petty soul gem... the weakest of all soul gems. If I had another grand It'd probably last a hundred hits or so. Regardless, a ten percent increase to its overall combat capabilities is pretty decent. I will perhaps teach Lisbeth this art." 

The blonde information broker is practically salivating over her dagger, gazing at the orange runes that travel down the blade. 

She can likely see the potential in it. 

I just gave her weapon the equivalent of a further plus ten enhancement. 

Even if that only lasts for thirteen hits, that small increase might be enough to kill a tough enemy in a single burst. 

[Split] 

my hair is ruffled as I shoot through a cave at high speeds. I'm not flying as fast as I normally could be- as its dark and I don't want to run face-first into a wall- but I'm still making good time. 

Instead of growing the pipe in a direction and climbing through it, a method that theoretically grants me speed that's only limited by how fast I can grow my illusionary faux conception pipe, I am merely sat in a faux conception pipe, head sticking out, and guiding it around freely. 

With this, at least I can see where I am going. 

I weave through the stalactites, a smile on my face. 

I avoided the jealous guard quite easily, she was too busy watching some Kappa get swept away by the current, biting her thumb, and muttering about how 'lucky' they were to have time to swim. 

I have no doubt that if she saw me she would have picked a fight with me... something I likely wouldn't have survived. So... I'm satisfied with skulking in the shadows until I get to some place more civilized... 

Said location being where I hope I can get some hired muscle. 

You see, there's something I kind of want in Skyrim... something that I want immediately... the thing is, I'll probably need some brutes to help me... acquire... the pieces. 

The cave seems to rapidly widen, the ceiling creeping upwards as the walls expand. 

I stop my flight, eyes widening as I come across... a town. 

Pagoda-like buildings extend in lines, glowing paper lanterns float through the air, illuminating the surroundings. Streamers crisscross between the building's rooftops. 

I can hear the thumps of drums, shouting, and cheering. 

The entire town seems to be amidst a festival of some sort. 

I begin to slip through the town, floating up above the horned men and women walking around, eating food, and drinking... quietly observing while hidden away in my pipe. 

These are the kind of people I was looking for. Some have red skin, some blue, others purple. Some have large curved horns on the sides of their heads, others have tiny nubs on their foreheads. 

Some have just some sole large horn on their forehead. 

Oni... arguably the strongest race in Gensokyo. 

Sure, the Tengu might have something to say about that, but if you're comparing the baseline statistics of random Oni fifty seven to Tengu mook sixty eight, more often than not, the Oni will come out on top due to the sheer brute strength, stamina and overall durability. 

I seem to come to the center of the festival where I can see a woman with a red horn and long blonde hair laughing boisterously, pounding her fist on a metal table that warps and rebounds with every strike. 

In her other hand is a large dish which seems to hold alcohol. 

A Kimono clings loosely to her body, hanging off her shoulders and protecting her modesty through seemingly sheer luck. 

There's a deep yearning in my chest that I quickly shake off. 

She's definitely hot. But. Tsukasa. I have Tsukasa. 

"Little piss boy can't hold his drink!" She cackles. "What? Was that only a barrel? Is that it?" 

She seems to be needling some younger Oni. 

"It was TWO!" The oni protests. He's anywhere from thirteen to sixteen I'd say. Of course, you can never tell with Youkai. He could just be small. 

 "And don't call me that! It's your shaking of the table that made me spill my sake!" 

How do I enter the situation? Do I just appear? 

I've talked to Tsukasa, and from what she told me, the Oni are pretty accepting of other youkai. 

She told me a way to earn their respect would be to join in with their drinking. 

Though she did warn me that I would probably end up in the bed of one of these Oni girls if did so. Which she had a sort of 'whatever' opinion of. 

She might not care that much, but I do. If Tsukasa did that to me I genuinely have no idea what I'd do. 

Tsukasa gave me one sole piece of advice when dealing with Oni... 

Confidence... 

And booze... 

And don't accept if they challenge you to an arm-wrestling match.  

Apparently, she got her arm broken in her younger arrogant years, but... youkai resilience. It barely bothered her for a day. 

"Fuck it." I mutter under my breath. 

I hop out of the tube, landing with a crouch. My entrance isn't that noticeable to eye-catching, there's too much partying going on right now. But. The one who I did want to notice... does so." 

"Hn?" The woman in the kimono hums as she drinks from her massive Sake dish. 

Alright. Confidence. Confidence is key. Don't get drunk. Don't get pulled into bed. Don't accept a challenge of strength or you'll get broken like a toothpick.