Zeth stared at the flood of notifications as they came in, the several repeated messages each combining together.
[Otherworldly Excellence’s Rank has increased three times to 5.
+15 Dexterity. You have 35 Dexterity.
+3 Skill Points. You have 9 Skill Points.]
[Empowerment Ritual’s Rank has increased to 6.
+1 Skill Point. You have 10 Skill Points.]
[Blood Magus’...
2024-10-18 14:55:34 +0000 UTC View PostZeth knelt over Garon, the options fighting each other in his mind to either slaughter him right now or to continue interrogating him for any information he could ask about.
“The Blood Mage who was meant to claim that ritual was the owner of the entire guild?” he asked. “Wait, so this whole guild is just a front for a Blood Mage cabal?”
“...Yes? You didn’t know?”
“Where is Otis?”
“I-I don’t know. There are guild branches in plenty of different tow...
2024-10-17 15:53:10 +0000 UTC View PostZeth faced off against his foes, the five of them charging at him at once. It seemed like Garon was determined to keep Zeth from reaching him. But Zeth wasn’t about to turn around and run just because he was outnumbered.
Pulling a ritual cloth out from his pocket, he uncorked a bottle of blood and splashed it across the circle, arming it in an instant as he sprinted forward to meet the group. With the extra Dexterity he’d gotten these past couple days, he felt faster and more maneuv...
2024-10-16 15:26:19 +0000 UTC View PostZeth strode toward Garon, his enemy backing fearfully away from him.
“C’mon,” Zeth called out to him, “aren’t you confident in yourself? Can’t you beat me? Come at me—show off some of your Blood Mage powers.”
Astrys stood by him, ready to fend off any attackers. But none had come so far. The sound of footsteps had begun echoing out from deeper in the tunnels ever since Garon had broken that crystal around his neck and all the lights turned red, but nothing else hap...
2024-10-15 16:22:07 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Zeth looked at the portion of the tunnel that went upward into Garon’s house, he found a simple wooden chute with a ladder going up through it and a trapdoor handle at the top. All-in-all, it looked like a completely mundane structure.
Or, it would have, if not for the ritual circles lining the edges.
The interior walls had large circles going from one side to the next drawn across them, each one glowing with life. There were several on each wall, popping up once every few ...
2024-10-14 15:47:42 +0000 UTC View PostFrom the edge of the treeline, Zeth pointed out Garon’s house. “See that one?”
The demon next to him nodded.
“Right. That’s our target. Just follow me, and I’ll give you instructions as events occur.”
“You do not have any standing orders for me?”
“Well, I already gave you most of them. Don’t kill anyone, don’t draw attention to yourself, if it looks like anyone’s going to hurt me, stop them from doing that. If my life is at stake, you’re all...
2024-10-13 14:16:32 +0000 UTC View Post“Allow me to stay here for as long as the time limit allows,” the demon begged, “and I will do whatever you ask.”
Zeth stared at her, still lying back at the edge of the ritual circle, his heart pounding so hard he felt it may snap his ribs in two. “What are you talking about?”
She looked up, meeting his eyes. To Zeth’s fear-addled mind, the wide-eyed, intense stare almost looked as if it contained the souls of thousands of tortured men, screaming for him to run. But...
2024-10-12 15:16:53 +0000 UTC View PostBack in his base, Zeth lay on the floor and tried to get some sleep. It was already late at night—enough so that if he spent four hours conducting Demonic Covenant, he’d barely have any time left in the dark to hunt Garon down. So whether he summoned one now or later, he’d have to wait until tomorrow night before he took any action. And he wasn’t about to go to sleep with a demon sitting around in his base.
Despite the fact that his Poise Stat helped him fall asleep when he wish...
2024-10-11 15:09:22 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time night began to fall, Zeth had prepared five Hellfire Ritual circles for use. He didn’t anticipate using all of them, but it was better to have too many than too little.
He could feel the effects of his newly-Evolved Skill, Ritual Nexus Mastery, kick in as he worked, primarily enhancing his two highest Stats—Endurance and Shaping—to keep him feeling both physically and mentally spry even after the hours of work he’d just performed.
And he was going to need that ...
2024-10-10 14:35:21 +0000 UTC View PostGaron’s words echoed through the crowd of citizens, silencing them.
Zeth’s mind, however, was all but silent.
What?! he thought, unable to comprehend what had just happened. In a single announcement, with no prior notice to the town, the mayor had been replaced. Just like that. And by Garon, no less. There was obviously something going on behind the scenes here.
“Honey, isn’t that your old boss?” Zeth’s mom asked, leaning over to talk to hi...
2024-10-09 20:09:38 +0000 UTC View PostZeth awoke around noon—not that he had any proof of that, considering the fact that he was sleeping underground, but he could still tell. He’d found during recent nights that he had a sort of subconscious understanding of time as it passed; he couldn’t tell exactly what time it was, but he normally had a general idea. Whether it was from the few points of Awareness he’d gotten from Leveling up, or from his practice working with exact times from all the ritual circles he’d drawn, the...
2024-10-09 14:36:25 +0000 UTC View PostIt was gonna take almost eleven more hours to draw his next Empowerment Ritual—pretty much the entire rest of the evening, and then most of that night. But Zeth was determined to push through and do it.
He was well aware at this point that ever since he’d come out of that cave, he hadn’t taken even a single minute to just slow down and live his life. He was aware of the toll it’d been taking on him. The lessening hours of sleep, even if he technically had enough points in Endura...
2024-10-08 14:35:38 +0000 UTC View PostIn the depths of his base, Zeth sat on the ground, mulling over his options for which Stat to pick for Otherworldly Excellence.
In total, there were seven different Stats. That meant seven options:
[STATS
Strength: 3
Endurance: 24
Dexterity: 0
Awareness: 6
Poise: 12
Influence: 0
Shaping: 42]
Enduranc...
2024-10-07 14:16:40 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Zeth returned home, he was greeted by the mercenaries his mother had hired. It was a relatively small group—just a handful of individuals—none of them too high in Level, and considering she was paying for discounted services, they didn’t seem to ever take their jobs too seriously. Out in front of the house, he saw them playing cards at a table they’d brought with them. They nodded to him as he passed.
Despite how minor their protection was, he had to admit that he did 2024-10-06 14:46:40 +0000 UTC View Post
In order to get his money from Erza, Zeth had to go to the tax office and report his income, paying them a portion of the coin he received the moment he got it. It was an annoying and cumbersome system, and one of the reasons many people preferred to work under the guild, where they didn’t have to deal with it. If you didn’t report your income, it was considered a particularly punishable crime; and the government had magical means of tracking the currency they controlled, so there wasn’...
2024-10-06 03:40:32 +0000 UTC View PostZeth stood in the middle of the roped-off medical area, staring down Erza, Rosalie, and Alfon. His muscles tensed, ready to spring into action the moment they moved against him.
His mind went to the three ritual circles stowed within his pockets. A second to withdraw them, and a couple seconds to arm them, then a couple more seconds to reach his enemies…He wasn’t sure if he could do all that in less time than it’d take for them to kill him.
They hadn’t attacked yet, though...
2024-10-05 14:35:51 +0000 UTC View PostZeth continued patching up the holes in his Hellfire Ritual, moving all across the area of the mana field, until he eventually finished. And when he finished that one, he simply moved on to drawing another. If Erza told Rosalie and Alfon about his theory, those two would be an issue as well, and he needed to be prepared. So, in total, he’d need three circles.
As he continued to work, the demon that had started all of this finished his allotted work time, and picked out one of the pris...
2024-10-04 14:27:19 +0000 UTC View PostRosalie stared at the cloaked individual as their fingers tightened around the cloth. She was too far away to make it out, but it almost looked like something was written on it. It couldn’t have been a ritual circle, but there was certainly something special about the seemingly mundane object.
The mannitor quickly closed the distance between itself and the mystery person, Rosalie watching intently. Just as it reached them, stomping down to trample over their body, they j...
2024-10-04 01:34:33 +0000 UTC View PostZeth stood in the middle of a town as it was under attack, gigantic monsters rampaging all around him, staring at a demon and a man who wanted to kill him.
“Y-you summoned a…?!” Erza exclaimed, unable to even finish his sentence. In one hand, he held a book that was chained to his belt, and in the other, one of the mana bombs from earlier.
As Erza continued to back away, staring at the demon in terror, Zeth turned to look at his summoned help. “Disable him. Your priority s...
2024-10-03 15:03:53 +0000 UTC View PostAs he watched the herd of Mannitors stampeding at them, the mixture of the beasts’ stomps and people’s screams ringing in his ears, Zeth shouted back at Erza, “Got any magic items that can handle this many of them?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, Blood Mage?” he replied as he glanced back and dug through his pile of equipment. “Why don’t you go and draw out a ritual circle to deal with the things?”
Zeth groaned. The monsters were drawing close, and he had no idea ...
2024-10-02 15:08:00 +0000 UTC View PostZeth stood in the middle of the storage shed, facing Erza, who stood between him and the exit.
Part of him just wanted to sprint out of there and never look back. But there was no way that would work. Erza knew his face and name—if he spread word about him, Zeth would never know another peaceful day of his life. And, more importantly, it’d become basically impossible to get the drop on Garon or to kill the Blood Mage.
Plus, he had no idea how feasible doing such a thing would ...
2024-10-01 14:07:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe question of whether or not Zeth should bring a Hellfire Ritual circle along with him when he went to meet with Erza had been the subject of endless back-and-forth thought. On one hand, he still wasn’t sure whether or not the man suspected him of being a Blood Mage, and in the case he did know, Zeth would definitely want some sort of protection to fight back against a potential trap. But on the other hand, if Erza didn’t know, bringing a ritual circle along with him was one su...
2024-09-30 14:05:30 +0000 UTC View PostOnce they’d gotten the matter of payment fully settled and some of the other logistical details figured out, Erza asked a question Zeth realized he wasn’t quite ready to answer.
“So, what day will you be ready to work with us?”
“Hm?” he asked.
“I mean, for the first few days, I’m just gonna be getting you used to the equipment and having you help me move some stuff around. So, ultimately, what day you start working is up to you.”
“Uh…” Really, Z...
2024-09-29 14:15:13 +0000 UTC View PostZeth sat at the wooden table, facing the three people who had been trying to kill him just one night ago.
“I’m Rosalie,” the woman in plate armor said.
“Uh, it’s nice to meet you,” he responded.
She stared at him. “...And you are?”
He bit down on the inside of his mouth. Should he give a fake name? Would that even stop them from tracking him down? Surely, giving a fake name would only make them suspect him more, right? He had to respond quickly, so he j...
2024-09-28 14:59:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs the five hours of work Zeth had contracted from the demon came to an end, he asked her to bring the prisoners down into the single-room base underground and pick one out to kill.
Before she did, he tried once again to interrogate this person, but to no avail. This man was much further gone than the woman he’d been able to get some basic information out of before, spouting out insulting gibberish like the others he’d seen. So, after a minute or two of failed conversation, he told ...
2024-09-27 14:06:29 +0000 UTC View PostZeth awoke far too early to Sophie leaping directly onto his face.
“Uhhgh,” he moaned into her stomach.
“Finally you’re up!” she said, climbing off of him and hopping back down to the floor. Then her smiling face shifted to a pout. “You didn’t come back last night.”
“Uh, yeah, sorry.” Zeth groggily rubbed his eyes. “Busy looking for work, you know. I hope I didn’t worry you.”
Her pout shifted right back into a proud smile. “Mom got ...
2024-09-26 19:10:47 +0000 UTC View PostIt had been a very long time since Zeth had last slept, and his body had long since begun feeling the toll. The twenty-four Endurance he’d gotten from Leveling up helped with his exhaustion quite a bit, but not nearly enough to fully counteract the negative effects of not only the sleep deprivation, but also the physical toll of all the running and drawing he’d been doing. Really, in any other situation, he’d have dropped everything and passed out right on the ground.
But he had h...
2024-09-26 14:21:28 +0000 UTC View PostZeth did his best to get back to the clearing as quickly as he possibly could. Not only because he wanted to make sure his pursuers didn’t find him again, but also because he could barely contain his excitement for what was to come next.
Eventually, after sprinting through the forest and leaving himself thoroughly out of breath, he got back to the familiar part of the woods by his house. As he retraced the steps he always took to get there, he suddenly felt a System notification come ...
2024-09-26 06:10:52 +0000 UTC View PostSix armored guards faced off against Zeth and the demon, weapons drawn and at the ready.
Back behind his summoned fighter, Zeth hid in the foliage as the combatants stared each other down. Maybe he’d be capable of fighting these men if he’d had time to prepare—no, he’d be easily able to defeat six people with enough prep time. That was the strength of his Class, after all. Hellfire Ritual was truly a monster of a Skill. But he only had a single circle prepared on a leaf gripped ...
2024-09-26 03:25:57 +0000 UTC View PostZeth stood in the treeline, gazing at the moonlit town. The guard precinct was just barely in view. Next to him, the demon stood, its aura of fear not helping with his nerves.
He did, at least, have one piece of protection. Before they left the clearing, Zeth spent fifty minutes drawing up a Hellfire Ritual on a larger leaf he found that could fit the circle on it. With the reduced diameter requirements shrinking the circle down to just five inches, he just barely managed to squeeze it ...
2024-09-26 00:27:15 +0000 UTC View Post