For the next few days, Alice and I were busy helping Duke Burch and his knight order clean up the rest of Blanken Company. Just because we revealed their not so legal business practices, doesn’t mean that it would be everything. The Blanken Trading Company was quite the large company, so Duke Burch couldn’t just axe it, without there being supply problems.
Because of that, Alice and I agreed to help in whatever way we could. It was kind of our fault that the company was collapsing, so it was the least we could do. What we did was help them ‘screen’ the employees, so we would know who was in on the illegal slave trade. At least that was officially what we did.
What we really did was that we, well Alice really, was reading the thoughts of the people we were ‘screening’, using her unique-racial skill. Our goal was finding everyone who knew about the illegal slave mark and how it worked. It is Alice’s System mission to do so after all. Then we could use Mind Crush to erase all knowledge about that subject in their minds, effectively achieving Alice’s mission without having to actually kill anyone.
Spoiler [collapse]
The people wouldn’t forget about them using it, but they would forget how it is used/transferred/drawn. That way, I could still leave their legal punishment to the Duke, without having to worry about them being punished, while they have no idea why they are punished.
As for the Duke himself. He was quite the cool guy. At least that was my impression of him.
He was in his early forties, had two beautiful wives, as well as a few mistresses, but we don’t talk about them. Still, interesting to see a real harem man, as he is the first harem master I’ve met. … well, I guess other than me, but his is larger. Not that it is a competition or something.
Anyway. I did feel a bit bad about him having this work on him, but at the same time, how on earth, wait this planet isn’t called earth. … How on this System filled planet are you so bad at auditing a business that they get away with bringing in tons of illegal slaves into the country?
Well, hopefully he will fix his mistakes and it will work out well.
Now one more thing about Alice. Thanks to her mission and raining in this group of people using the illegal slave mark, she got the Erasure Magic. And her System Support, aka Kekri, was upgraded from Basic to Standard.
There was an interesting quirk about the skill, as it couldn’t currently be leveled up with Level Up!. Apparently the Goddess, or some other System Agent, had set some lock on it, until Alice finds more people using the illegal slave mark, so for now, that skill was going to be LV.1. Well, she could still improve it naturally, it just cannot be leveled up with Level Up!
I almost feel like the Goddess is just done with my BS cards, because they break the System. And now she is ‘punishing’ us, because she struggles to come up with rewards for all these missions we are doing. But maybe that is just me.
Oh, and because Alice got a new skill, here is her current status.
Spoiler| Name: Alice Mana Watchman |
| Race: Magical Girl ! |
| Level: 99 |
| HP: 2000 |
| Mana: 5080 |
| Strength: 1204 |
| Defense: 1514 |
| Magic: 3658 |
| Skills: |
| Magical Girl (unique-racial) LV.2 |
| Card Summoner LV.3 (extra) |
| Magician’s Power LV.5 (extra) |
| Erasure Magic LV.1 (extra) |
| Multicasting LV.5 (extra) |
| Mana Flight LV.5 (extra) |
| Telekinesis LV.5 (extra) |
| Giant Slayer LV.2 (extra) |
| Dark Magic LV.10 |
| Fire Magic LV.3 |
| Mana Control LV.10 |
| Magic Boost LV.7 |
| Quick Cast LV.8 |
| Instant Cast LV.3 |
| Fast Mana Recovery LV.10 |
| Magic resistance LV.5 |
| Polearm Technique LV.2 |
| Staff Technique LV.4 |
| One with two Souls |
| One who defeated the Impossible |
| Storage Access (Brian Wood) |
Now as for the other part of this operation, the slaves. What happened to them?
Well, in all simplicity, I let Alice clean the slave marks away using Harpie’s Feather Duster. She probably could have used Erasure Magic, but she just got the skill and isn’t really familiar with it at all.
Spoiler [collapse]Oh, and to answer another question you might have. Why didn’t Tray’s order ever reach the slaves? Well, I blocked it of course. With Remove Brainwashing to be exact. While the card cannot remove the slave mark permanently like Feather Duster can, it will temporarily block any effect the slave mark would have. Including the deadly parts.
Spoiler [collapse]So yeah. The slaves were now free. And because they were, I wasn’t aiming to take them. I would, if they wanted to, but my main goal was returning them home. As long as that was possible.
And for some of them, it was. The three elves were especially happy to head home, as they had been captured and then turned into slaves by slave hunters.
For the beastfolk, few of them were illegally captured and wanted to return home, but a few of them were also just sold, so they couldn’t go back home. Well they could, but they would just be sold again.
The dwarf on the other hand was an actual criminal. Not like a big time crook or something, but he apparently had some sort of a criminal record for trying to steal someone’s work or something. Or at least that was the official reason. He himself told us that he was just trying to take back a blade that he had made, that was then stolen and finished by another dwarf. But because the blade didn’t have his signature, but did have the other dwarf’s, the other guy was the one that was believed. Because of that, Karl, the dwarf in question, was turned into a slave and then sold.
That definitely does give Alice another lead. If he was immediately marked with the illegal mark, we need to look into the person who originally marked him.
But yeah. For those that wanted to return home, I was more than happy to give them a ride in one of my B.E.S. monsters. It would just be a few more days until everything is figured out, and then I’ll take them there. And as a bonus, I get to see the places where they live. Until then, they would be under the care of Duke Burch.
As for any that had no home to return to, I offered them a job. Out of the nine with no home to return to, the dwarf Karl, the horsefolk girls Cina and Molly, as well as one catgirl named Maya agreed to come work for me. Cina’s full name was actually Cinnamon, but she went by Cina.
As for the others that had no home, they wanted to test their luck doing other things, like adventuring, finding work in Burch city, or taking a job offer given to them by Duke Burch.
“... what kind of a place is this?” Karl was the first to ask a question, as we got off of B.E.S. Big Core and landed within on HomeBase.
“My Home.” I answered. “And for now, your workplace.”
I had brought the four that agreed to work for me to … well, to HomeBase. Sure this might be a bit fast, but at the same time, better now than later. This place will never be less surprising. At least I think so.
And this also gets them introduced to everyone here. Well, almost, as Lua hasn't come back from her dayshift as a teacher yet. But Alice, Ria, Agunan, Wilma, Einar and Eline are all here, so that is good.
“Maya?” Eline asked the catgirl I brought with me.
Unlike Einar and Eline, who were somewhere around 13, maybe 14 in age, Maya was a bit older, probably 20 or so.
“Eline? Einar? Is that really you?” Maya asked them, with genuine care in her voice. Did they know each other previously? If they did, I wish Einar and Eline had told me about this Maya girl, so I could have acted faster to get her out.
“Maya!” Einar called out, as he rushed towards the newcomer catfolk, with Eline just a step behind.
The three then gave each other a deep embrace. I have to say, I didn’t expect something like this, but it does make me happy.
I later learned that the reason Eline and Einar knew Maya was that they were on the same slave carriage as they were brought into the country. But from there, the Blanken Company took in Maya, while Einar and Eline were sold by the person who owned the carriage. We really need to find that guy, and also look into the guards that are letting these people into the country.
There were no other big reveals, like Karl knowing Wilma or something, so we could quickly move on to showing the new people around. And assigning them rooms.
Maya got a room right next to Einar and Eline, while the two horsefolk wanted rooms closer to the outside area. I got them some of the servants' rooms I had planned for gardeners, which had direct access to the outside grasslands and the garden.
As for Karl, he was quite close to the workshop/forge area, but not quite next to Wilma or anything. The Citadel didn’t actually have any female/male splits in the rooms, but some of the communal areas did have that split. There were two public bathing facilities, two saunas and so on, so you could say there also was separation. But if this trend keeps going, HomeBase will have a lot more girls than boys, so the ladies might have to invade the areas closer to the male bathing facilities.
“It is good to see you again, Holder Alice Mana, Holder Brian.” An older gentleman welcomed us. We were once again in a familiar parlor room, being guided to sit by the circular table.
“It is good to see you as well, Aulis. It has been a while.” I greeted him as well, as I pulled Alice’s seat out for her, before taking a seat as well.
“It really has.” Alice agreed. “So, is this something good or bad?” She quickly asked.
“I have good news and bad news. I’ll go over the good first.” Aulis said, before I had the time to ask for the bad news first. “The good news is that I called you here to thank Holder Alice Mana for her services in looking into the slave mark problem. Agent Joan is pleased with your work.”
“It was no trouble.” Alice said, but I could see her blushing a bit, so she might have enjoyed the praise.
“... and the bad news?” I asked after a bit.
“It is nothing much. It is simply the next spot where a Dimensional Fissure will appear.” Aulis calmly stated. “While we don’t know yet when, it is likely going to burst within the next week. Holder Brian, would you please go there before that, cause the fissure to open and fix it?”
“Oh? It's just that.” I said, honestly being almost disappointed. I was expecting something a lot worse than a dimensional fissure. “Sure. Just send Laura the location data with a mission and I’ll take care of it.”
“Yes, I shall. Just please be careful, as the location is quite close to a densely populated area.” Aulis warned me. “Holder Alice Mana. What of your mission to look into a spell that could close dimensional fissures?”
“... I can’t. I have no idea how it would work.” Alice admitted.
“Please take your time. It isn’t something you have to rush into, as we know it is quite impossible.” Aulis said to reassure her.
“... thanks. I’ll do my best.”
After just a bit more chit chat, I asked Aulis a few questions.
“Aulis, do you think Alice and Lua could get the Language Comprehension (humanoid) title? Or was it a skill? I’m a bit iffy on that?”
“They are considered titles.” Aulis answered. “While they can have skill-like effects, they never have levels and don’t give any status points like skills do. The original name for them was title-skills, but just titles will do. As for letting Holder Lucia and Holder Alice Mana get it, I do not see why not. I shall add it as a reward for Holder Lucia’s mission on teaching True Blood Magic, and I will send Holder Alice Mana a new mission to assist you, Holder Brian, with the dimensional fissure. Is this acceptable?”
“Yeah. That sounds fine to me. What do you think, Alice?”
“I think I don’t have a card that can fight an SS-rank monster.” She responded.
“... true. You might not. Dark Paladin can probably, if there are enough dragons in the GY, but other than that.”
“Excuse me, but please talk about your battle plan a bit later.” Aulis reminded us.
“Oh. Of course.”
“I have nothing more for you tonight, so if you two don’t have any questions…”
“I have one more.” I quickly spoke up. “... It is regarding the Chaos God Core. Mainly, am I allowed to talk about it? To people other than the group that was there when HomeBase was founded? And what about the Chaos God Dimension? Is its existence a secret?”
After a bit, Aulis answered.
“...The answer to all your questions is a yes. Yes, you are allowed to talk about it, but we would prefer you to not do that. But I know you are asking this because of your meeting with the dragon Ami Janina, so if you only wish to talk to her about it, you are allowed to. Just please don’t make it public information. That goes for your HomeBase being a Chaos God Dungeon, as well as the existence of the Chaos God Cores, Chaos God Dungeons and the Chaos God Dimension.”
“... alright. That is fine by me.”
Well, at least it isn’t a complete secret, so if I accidentally let something slip, it won’t be a major problem. And I don’t know why Aulis would assume I’d share something like this to the wider public. That would just cause mass panic. I probably would cause some sort of anti-magic cult to pop up if I told the world that the same energy that supplies mana to the world also causes monsters to appear. And no one wants that, right?
For the next few days, Alice and I were busy helping Duke Burch and his knight order clean up the rest of Blanken Company. Just because we revealed their not so legal business practices, doesn’t mean that it would be everything. The Blanken Trading Company was quite the large company, so Duke Burch couldn’t just axe it, without there being supply problems.
Because of that, Alice and I agreed to help in whatever way we could. It was kind of our fault that the company was collapsing, so it was the least we could do. What we did was help them ‘screen’ the employees, so we would know who was in on the illegal slave trade. At least that was officially what we did.
What we really did was that we, well Alice really, was reading the thoughts of the people we were ‘screening’, using her unique-racial skill. Our goal was finding everyone who knew about the illegal slave mark and how it worked. It is Alice’s System mission to do so after all. Then we could use Mind Crush to erase all knowledge about that subject in their minds, effectively achieving Alice’s mission without having to actually kill anyone.
Spoiler [collapse]
The people wouldn’t forget about them using it, but they would forget how it is used/transferred/drawn. That way, I could still leave their legal punishment to the Duke, without having to worry about them being punished, while they have no idea why they are punished.
As for the Duke himself. He was quite the cool guy. At least that was my impression of him.
He was in his early forties, had two beautiful wives, as well as a few mistresses, but we don’t talk about them. Still, interesting to see a real harem man, as he is the first harem master I’ve met. … well, I guess other than me, but his is larger. Not that it is a competition or something.
Anyway. I did feel a bit bad about him having this work on him, but at the same time, how on earth, wait this planet isn’t called earth. … How on this System filled planet are you so bad at auditing a business that they get away with bringing in tons of illegal slaves into the country?
Well, hopefully he will fix his mistakes and it will work out well.
Now one more thing about Alice. Thanks to her mission and raining in this group of people using the illegal slave mark, she got the Erasure Magic. And her System Support, aka Kekri, was upgraded from Basic to Standard.
There was an interesting quirk about the skill, as it couldn’t currently be leveled up with Level Up!. Apparently the Goddess, or some other System Agent, had set some lock on it, until Alice finds more people using the illegal slave mark, so for now, that skill was going to be LV.1. Well, she could still improve it naturally, it just cannot be leveled up with Level Up!
I almost feel like the Goddess is just done with my BS cards, because they break the System. And now she is ‘punishing’ us, because she struggles to come up with rewards for all these missions we are doing. But maybe that is just me.
Oh, and because Alice got a new skill, here is her current status.
Spoiler| Name: Alice Mana Watchman |
| Race: Magical Girl ! |
| Level: 99 |
| HP: 2000 |
| Mana: 5080 |
| Strength: 1204 |
| Defense: 1514 |
| Magic: 3658 |
| Skills: |
| Magical Girl (unique-racial) LV.2 |
| Card Summoner LV.3 (extra) |
| Magician’s Power LV.5 (extra) |
| Erasure Magic LV.1 (extra) |
| Multicasting LV.5 (extra) |
| Mana Flight LV.5 (extra) |
| Telekinesis LV.5 (extra) |
| Giant Slayer LV.2 (extra) |
| Dark Magic LV.10 |
| Fire Magic LV.3 |
| Mana Control LV.10 |
| Magic Boost LV.7 |
| Quick Cast LV.8 |
| Instant Cast LV.3 |
| Fast Mana Recovery LV.10 |
| Magic resistance LV.5 |
| Polearm Technique LV.2 |
| Staff Technique LV.4 |
| One with two Souls |
| One who defeated the Impossible |
| Storage Access (Brian Wood) |
Now as for the other part of this operation, the slaves. What happened to them?
Well, in all simplicity, I let Alice clean the slave marks away using Harpie’s Feather Duster. She probably could have used Erasure Magic, but she just got the skill and isn’t really familiar with it at all.
Spoiler [collapse]Oh, and to answer another question you might have. Why didn’t Tray’s order ever reach the slaves? Well, I blocked it of course. With Remove Brainwashing to be exact. While the card cannot remove the slave mark permanently like Feather Duster can, it will temporarily block any effect the slave mark would have. Including the deadly parts.
Spoiler [collapse]So yeah. The slaves were now free. And because they were, I wasn’t aiming to take them. I would, if they wanted to, but my main goal was returning them home. As long as that was possible.
And for some of them, it was. The three elves were especially happy to head home, as they had been captured and then turned into slaves by slave hunters.
For the beastfolk, few of them were illegally captured and wanted to return home, but a few of them were also just sold, so they couldn’t go back home. Well they could, but they would just be sold again.
The dwarf on the other hand was an actual criminal. Not like a big time crook or something, but he apparently had some sort of a criminal record for trying to steal someone’s work or something. Or at least that was the official reason. He himself told us that he was just trying to take back a blade that he had made, that was then stolen and finished by another dwarf. But because the blade didn’t have his signature, but did have the other dwarf’s, the other guy was the one that was believed. Because of that, Karl, the dwarf in question, was turned into a slave and then sold.
That definitely does give Alice another lead. If he was immediately marked with the illegal mark, we need to look into the person who originally marked him.
But yeah. For those that wanted to return home, I was more than happy to give them a ride in one of my B.E.S. monsters. It would just be a few more days until everything is figured out, and then I’ll take them there. And as a bonus, I get to see the places where they live. Until then, they would be under the care of Duke Burch.
As for any that had no home to return to, I offered them a job. Out of the nine with no home to return to, the dwarf Karl, the horsefolk girls Cina and Molly, as well as one catgirl named Maya agreed to come work for me. Cina’s full name was actually Cinnamon, but she went by Cina.
As for the others that had no home, they wanted to test their luck doing other things, like adventuring, finding work in Burch city, or taking a job offer given to them by Duke Burch.
“... what kind of a place is this?” Karl was the first to ask a question, as we got off of B.E.S. Big Core and landed within on HomeBase.
“My Home.” I answered. “And for now, your workplace.”
I had brought the four that agreed to work for me to … well, to HomeBase. Sure this might be a bit fast, but at the same time, better now than later. This place will never be less surprising. At least I think so.
And this also gets them introduced to everyone here. Well, almost, as Lua hasn't come back from her dayshift as a teacher yet. But Alice, Ria, Agunan, Wilma, Einar and Eline are all here, so that is good.
“Maya?” Eline asked the catgirl I brought with me.
Unlike Einar and Eline, who were somewhere around 13, maybe 14 in age, Maya was a bit older, probably 20 or so.
“Eline? Einar? Is that really you?” Maya asked them, with genuine care in her voice. Did they know each other previously? If they did, I wish Einar and Eline had told me about this Maya girl, so I could have acted faster to get her out.
“Maya!” Einar called out, as he rushed towards the newcomer catfolk, with Eline just a step behind.
The three then gave each other a deep embrace. I have to say, I didn’t expect something like this, but it does make me happy.
I later learned that the reason Eline and Einar knew Maya was that they were on the same slave carriage as they were brought into the country. But from there, the Blanken Company took in Maya, while Einar and Eline were sold by the person who owned the carriage. We really need to find that guy, and also look into the guards that are letting these people into the country.
There were no other big reveals, like Karl knowing Wilma or something, so we could quickly move on to showing the new people around. And assigning them rooms.
Maya got a room right next to Einar and Eline, while the two horsefolk wanted rooms closer to the outside area. I got them some of the servants' rooms I had planned for gardeners, which had direct access to the outside grasslands and the garden.
As for Karl, he was quite close to the workshop/forge area, but not quite next to Wilma or anything. The Citadel didn’t actually have any female/male splits in the rooms, but some of the communal areas did have that split. There were two public bathing facilities, two saunas and so on, so you could say there also was separation. But if this trend keeps going, HomeBase will have a lot more girls than boys, so the ladies might have to invade the areas closer to the male bathing facilities.
“It is good to see you again, Holder Alice Mana, Holder Brian.” An older gentleman welcomed us. We were once again in a familiar parlor room, being guided to sit by the circular table.
“It is good to see you as well, Aulis. It has been a while.” I greeted him as well, as I pulled Alice’s seat out for her, before taking a seat as well.
“It really has.” Alice agreed. “So, is this something good or bad?” She quickly asked.
“I have good news and bad news. I’ll go over the good first.” Aulis said, before I had the time to ask for the bad news first. “The good news is that I called you here to thank Holder Alice Mana for her services in looking into the slave mark problem. Agent Joan is pleased with your work.”
“It was no trouble.” Alice said, but I could see her blushing a bit, so she might have enjoyed the praise.
“... and the bad news?” I asked after a bit.
“It is nothing much. It is simply the next spot where a Dimensional Fissure will appear.” Aulis calmly stated. “While we don’t know yet when, it is likely going to burst within the next week. Holder Brian, would you please go there before that, cause the fissure to open and fix it?”
“Oh? It's just that.” I said, honestly being almost disappointed. I was expecting something a lot worse than a dimensional fissure. “Sure. Just send Laura the location data with a mission and I’ll take care of it.”
“Yes, I shall. Just please be careful, as the location is quite close to a densely populated area.” Aulis warned me. “Holder Alice Mana. What of your mission to look into a spell that could close dimensional fissures?”
“... I can’t. I have no idea how it would work.” Alice admitted.
“Please take your time. It isn’t something you have to rush into, as we know it is quite impossible.” Aulis said to reassure her.
“... thanks. I’ll do my best.”
After just a bit more chit chat, I asked Aulis a few questions.
“Aulis, do you think Alice and Lua could get the Language Comprehension (humanoid) title? Or was it a skill? I’m a bit iffy on that?”
“They are considered titles.” Aulis answered. “While they can have skill-like effects, they never have levels and don’t give any status points like skills do. The original name for them was title-skills, but just titles will do. As for letting Holder Lucia and Holder Alice Mana get it, I do not see why not. I shall add it as a reward for Holder Lucia’s mission on teaching True Blood Magic, and I will send Holder Alice Mana a new mission to assist you, Holder Brian, with the dimensional fissure. Is this acceptable?”
“Yeah. That sounds fine to me. What do you think, Alice?”
“I think I don’t have a card that can fight an SS-rank monster.” She responded.
“... true. You might not. Dark Paladin can probably, if there are enough dragons in the GY, but other than that.”
“Excuse me, but please talk about your battle plan a bit later.” Aulis reminded us.
“Oh. Of course.”
“I have nothing more for you tonight, so if you two don’t have any questions…”
“I have one more.” I quickly spoke up. “... It is regarding the Chaos God Core. Mainly, am I allowed to talk about it? To people other than the group that was there when HomeBase was founded? And what about the Chaos God Dimension? Is its existence a secret?”
After a bit, Aulis answered.
“...The answer to all your questions is a yes. Yes, you are allowed to talk about it, but we would prefer you to not do that. But I know you are asking this because of your meeting with the dragon Ami Janina, so if you only wish to talk to her about it, you are allowed to. Just please don’t make it public information. That goes for your HomeBase being a Chaos God Dungeon, as well as the existence of the Chaos God Cores, Chaos God Dungeons and the Chaos God Dimension.”
“... alright. That is fine by me.”
Well, at least it isn’t a complete secret, so if I accidentally let something slip, it won’t be a major problem. And I don’t know why Aulis would assume I’d share something like this to the wider public. That would just cause mass panic. I probably would cause some sort of anti-magic cult to pop up if I told the world that the same energy that supplies mana to the world also causes monsters to appear. And no one wants that, right?
