Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Something changed. 

The malice and violence of humanity that birthed me still burned through my mind and my unquenchable rage was still not extinguished. But, as my physical body crashed to the ground, besides one of the innumerable monster villages that I destroyed, I felt blazing hot. It seems the blue haired dragon in human form can surpass my [Magic Jamming] skill and magically ignite my body. 

An explosion echoed through the forest as a huge crater formed under my gigantic draconic body, though I’ve heard some lesser monsters calling me more of a shark. 

While trying futilely to regenerate my body with my almost exhausted magicule reserves, I stress my mind to think harder about this weird change. Looking back, I remember years of destruction of diverse monsters and humans and nothing else. The entirety of my existence has been indiscriminate violence fueled by fiery rage. 

“Oh…”. A sound comes out of my mouth as I realize what is different. I’m thinking . That hasn’t happened before. Also, my perpetual rage has turned cold. It hasn’t disappeared, simply becoming more controlled.

“ Booom ” Another gigantic fireball impacted my back and while [Pain Nullification] removes any pain I might otherwise feel, I understand that if I don’t remove myself from this fight and run away from the scary dragon lady immediately, my physical existence will cease to exist. 

I can’t let that happen now. Feeling weaker and weaker, my resolve for survival strengthens and I start shrinking myself, trying to achieve a smaller form, like the one of my flying attacker. 

At the same time, I use [Monster Summon] to summon a copy of myself so I can escape aided by the fire’s smoke and the confusion my ‘clone’ would create. 

The monster that penetrated the smoke, rushing in the direction of the confused lady in the sky is abysmally smaller than my draconic form, but it will serve its purpose, since my transformation is now complete.

I immediately start running without looking back. Behind me, I hear another explosion, as the ‘Megalodon’, as I now know is what it’s called, was completely annihilated in one hit, severing our connection.

After what felt like hours running, I found myself surrounded by trees. Looking around, I spotted a small clearing with a lake of pristine water. With nothing better to do with my newfound sentience, I calmly marched to the lake, no longer feeling the oppressive dragon aura from the earlier fight. I might have gotten a little bit too far east, where a gigantic human population lives but I obviously wouldn’t dare to intrude in a true dragon’s territory. 

Although the great forest of Jura is currently claimed by the storm dragon Veldora, his magicules feel somewhat familiar and there's even a connection of similar nature in my soul, connecting me to a being in the west. I suspect it’s Veldora himself, and if so, it would make some of the rumblings and shouts I heard during my massacres about me being his daughter make sense.

I stopped at the edge of the lake, looking into it, and found a tan skinned girl staring back. Her hair was dark purple at the top, changing slightly to a dark blue in a gradient. The one big pale blue eye almost shined in the middle of her head, looking at me in confusion with a furrowed dark blue brow. 

There were zigzagging purple lines coming horizontally from her eye. The half open mouth showed a serrated set of teeth, perfect for a meat eating predator. She was wearing extremely simple clothing that hugged her vast chest tightly. A blue long sleeved shirt and black pants. 

Behind her back, at the base of her spine, grew a thick tail, bifurcating at the end, colored similarly to her hair, ending with two dark purple prongs that resembled her tail in draconic form.

This is me. 

knowing the vile emotions of the humans, never had I ever thought of looking like one. But I also understand the need to have a form similar to most life in the world. 

It seems that the humanoid form is the end point of natural evolution since so many creatures ended up with it. Also, I'm excited to see and explore whatever marvels the different societies I’ve been trying to destroy my whole life have created and built.

Looking up, there's a relatively small cave that could probably house my real body and not much else. It was wide, but not very deep. It looked comfortable. 

As I started walking in the direction of the cave, I sensed a few presences behind me and froze. They were incredibly weak, like the rabble I used to destroy with the utmost ease. I turned around and waited for them to show up. They were still deep in the forest after all. 

I crossed my arms, mimicking one of the heroes that I remember slaying me once, many years ago, in a stance that commanded the utmost respect. Or at least that was what I was trying to achieve. I glared at the peacefully swaying trees, waiting for the inferior beings to arrive.

A group of five terrified human sized snakes appeared. They had humanoid arms and were standing upright, but otherwise, their form was that of a snake, as colorful scales covered their entire bodies. They were serpentfolk. The one in the front, the only white snake, held a weird sectioned longsword that looked to be made from a sharp spine from some monster in her shaking hands. 

Her jagged snake hood flared up as if she was trying to appear bigger. Her white and light lilac scales glistened in the light. They were wearing almost nothing, except a few simple cloths around the upper part of their serpentine body. The one in the front had a ruby necklace around her ‘neck’ that complemented her red eyes, focused solely on me. 

One of the snakes behind her, a red colored one, was wearing a bulky metal glove in her right hand, that lightly shone a hot orange in a few weird patterns, barely visible in the daylight, her palm open towards me.

After some tense minutes of staring, the apparent leader of the snake group finally spoke, her voice somewhat calm, in contrast to her quivering body. “Oh, powerful being. May we inquire as to your presence in our forest?”. 

I ignored her question completely and said in a firm tone. “What is that glove your minion is wearing?”. I was curious after all. I’ve never seen someone fight with a glove. They stared, confused. Looked at each other, and when the representative looked back at me she flinched at my displeased scowl for having been ignored. 

“I… I am so sorry…” She bowed slightly, her eyes never leaving my form. “Of course… It’s a runetech device. By channeling magicules through the runes, they enhance the wearer's abilities or create specific magic phenomena.”. That is fascinating. 

I would love to learn more about such devices. “Interesting. Well, going back to your question. I decided that ‘ your ’ forest is now my property. I’m claiming it.”. 

They all looked at me bemused. After a few seconds of silence, that the snake figurehead used to think, ‘like she had some kind of choice’, I scoffed in my mind, she reluctantly said, ”Then, since you are claiming the domain where we, like many other monsters live, would you be willing to offer us your protection? The Ameld wars between east and west Jura have been hard for all of us.”

My eye glowed red as I almost blew them to dust with a [Wicked Light Ray] for the mere suggestion of me participating in some petty inferior’s fight. However, thinking slightly deeper about my situation, I decided that adopting these weaker beings could be beneficial in a few ways. 

For example, I can’t protect my new territory when exploring the rest of the world, but that also goes for the weaklings in front of me. If this curious ‘runetech’ that I’ve never heard of, could be used to highly empower the puny monsters living in my domain, its research would not only satiate my curiosity, but also protect my lands. 

Maybe I could even use them to get more territory if I ever feel the need to. However, I don’t want to invade the western side of the Jura forest, as that is where the storm dragon is most active, and the east side of the Ameld river is very close to the biggest human nation. Therefore, if I don’t approach this with caution, me and my future minions could be completely obliterated. In the end, I decided to try this protection thing out, while keeping my sentience secret from the rest of the world.

After a few minutes of silence from all of us, I said. “I will put all villages east of the Ameld under my protection, as long as all of them pay me the tribute I deserve. What I want is the research and development of new forms of ‘runetech’. I want all the knowledge you have now, and will have in the future, compiled for me to learn. If for some reason, any of the villages is a disappointment, and cannot pay me in rune knowledge, I’ll also accept gold...”. 

For some reason, just the thought of sleeping in a pile of shiny gold makes me smile, “magic tomes and other artifacts. If even with those generous options they remain useless, I will put them to use in a different way.” Of course, with this, I meant to put them to physical work like building a shrine to me or something equivalent so I didn’t understand why they gulped as if I would eat them should they fail. Why would I want to destroy my resources? I decided to wait for their response.

After a few long moments of hushed hisses, which I didn’t bother focusing on to translate it for me, the white snake stated. “We will serve under you, oh powerful being, pay the tributes we rightfully owe and notify all other villages known to us. How should we refer to you as, great lady?” 

They expect me to be named? I suppose that’s understandable. As I thought about my own name, a weird sensation echoed deep within my being that told me my name was the same as what all the fodder used to call me during my past rampages. “My name is Charybdis.” 

Their mouths hang open in shock, their bodies frozen as if I had hit them with an [Ice Blizzard]. I figure that talking to a monster they believed to be a mindless destroyer that also threatened the forest several times in the past to be a bit surprising.

They looked absolutely terrified, the runetech glove shining brighter, but with a lighter orange than before, apparently ready to attack and bolt at the slightest move from me. I grinned at them, still a bit annoyed at the long silence they seemed to revel in but finding some entertainment in their frightened faces. After a few more minutes, they finally closed their mouths and the snake in front spoke. 

“Lady Charybdis, we vow to serve you and are grateful for the protection provided by your greatness.”. Then, after a deep breath, she calmed down and worriedly spoke. “My lady, forgive my insolence, but your impressive aura is incredibly strong and oppressive. We, normal monsters, can barely stand in your presence.”. 

I have never needed to conceal my aura, so I never saw it as a problem. Uncrossing my arms, I strained all my muscles, painfully absorbing my own aura. After a few minutes, realizing I reached my maximum, my emitted aura was reduced to twenty percent what it was before. Still several times that of the monsters around me, but at least now, they looked much more relaxed in my presence.

If I am to rule this part of the forest, I should probably name a subordinate so they can speak for me. I suppose the snake’s presence right now is convenient. 

“I decided to give you a name white snake. Be grateful.” Her beautiful red eyes widened like she could not believe what was happening. “I give you the name ‘Naga’.” Her entire body shone for a second, and then she bowed deeply. 

“I appreciate and accept the name you have given me Lady Charybdis. I can already feel my magicules soaring”. I looked each of them in the eyes. Any hostility they might have had for me had disappeared. 

They were now looking at Naga with barely disguised envy which made me smirk slightly. 

“Now leave me. I need to rest and recover from my last battle. I want my tribute delivered to this cave where I'm currently taking residence.” 

They nodded and left just as I said. I entered the little cave, transformed into my draconic form, deactivating the new skill I gained, [Human Form], and released all of my aura. My wings and scorched scales were reforming slowly and my gigantic eye closed as I slumbered.

Chapter Text

I woke up. Beyond the entrance of the cave the peaceful lake remained as I left it several days ago. 

Thinking about it, even though my form seems most compatible with water, I’ve never even touched it. I started floating towards it, and not sensing anyone around, most likely because of my unrestrained aura scaring them all, I transformed into my humanoid form, and dismissed my clothes. 

They were technically a part of me, so I could remove and put them on with a simple thought. Now at the edge of the lake, I touched the surface with a single toe. It is cold. Undeterred I jumped in with a splash. 

While swimming, I could use my tail to go even faster under water. The speed at which I was going was so fast, that big waves started forming at the surface of the lake. I immediately stopped, even though I was having fun, because I didn’t want to ruin my lake. Then I heard the same voice that announced my acquisition of the [Human Form] skill.

<Common skill [Torpedo] has been acquired>

I can feel the skill and what it does deep in my core. Apparently, it creates or enhances the explosions resulting from my body’s impact on an object. It’s most effective under water. 

While I relaxed, suspended underwater in the middle of the lake, I started thinking of where to explore next. 

First of all, no human nations. Not only because of my hatred for them, but also because I can’t disguise myself as an actual human, and even if I could, my aura, even only twenty percent, would give me away. 

As for the monster nations, the only one that isn’t race exclusionary is the Beast Kingdom Eurazania but from what I have seen, when passing close by in the sky, their nation consists of basically vast crop fields and nothing else. Not very interesting. 

The Sorcerous Dynasty of Sarion would probably have a lot of the knowledge I seek, on both runes and magic, but they wouldn’t let me in. Even if they did, they would never let me learn much from them. The last option is to visit the little people up in the northern mountains. From what I’ve seen, they allow anyone, so I suppose that’s where I’m going.

Breaking the surface tension of the water, I leave the lake, completely drenched. Using Aspectual Ice Magic, I channel my magicules and imagine all the water clinging to my body losing heat. Now being frozen instead of soaked, I hit myself in the stomach with my right hand and all of the ice shattered to a fine dust, which was carried by the wind. Now that I’m clean and dry, I summoned my casual clothes and transformed back to my draconic form, flying to the sky, in the direction of the Ameld.

During my flight, I looked down and found the terrified faces of many different monsters, in different primitive villages of different races. The one thing in common between them was the look of despair they all shared. 

Their expressions turned confused as I ignored them, and continued my journey to the southwest, where the Ameld river flowed to the domain of Demon Lord Milim Nava. I obviously would never even think of entering the dragonoid’s lands. I still remember, maybe a thousand years ago, how she completely obliterated me in a single laser beam. 

Hovering a few hundred meters above the river, I looked into the north. I saw various villages surrounding the river on both sides. Apparently there has been a war between east and west Jura for quite a few years. I don’t know much about it, as I was dead and elsewhere when it started, but I believe the west started the conflict, trying to conquer the lands to the east. 

It’s mostly the lizardmen from the Shisu Lake, controlling various villages worth of goblins to attack the dwindling population of serpentfolk who had to ally with the other races of the east.

Since that is now my territory, I have to send a message that it’s no longer acceptable to attack the lands past the Ameld. I charge my [Wicked Light Ray], my eye starts shining bright red and I aim at the closest enemy village. 

I relish in the desperation carved on the lizardmen’s faces, understanding their death sentence, and release the destructive beam. A loud “ zoom ” sound echoed through the forest and plains, as my red laser blew up more than half of each village I passed through on my way to the north, in the direction of the Armed Nation of Dwargon. The perpetual sound of explosions at the end of the crimson ray was music to my ears. 

Unfortunately, the villages up north have mostly been evacuated already, so, when I finished my destruction, one of the things I do best, I land next to the mountains. 

After verifying with [Magic Sense] that no one was snooping around, my body transformed back to its humanoid variant. I was still quite far from the entrance, but I wasn’t taking any chances at being discovered. My appearance was already suspect enough. I have never seen any other monster or demi-human with a single eye.

At the entrance of Dwargon, a big white stone fortress, with hanging yellow and red banners, was a line of people of various different races, mainly humans, dwarves, goblins, wolves and some ogres, leading to a set of large wooden double doors where they spoke to the dwarven guards and entered. 

For some odd reason, there were a lot of dwarves gathering on the outside. Most were wearing armor, and others wore robes. I recognized that iconic clothing as what those who manipulate magic often wear when uselessly flinging spells at me. I thought Dwargon was more of a pacifist nation, but they appear to be preparing for some kind of conflict? It is none of my business, so I continue on my way to the line.

I feel various gazes on me. It could be my unique race characteristics, or the fact that my reduced aura was still at least three times that of each of them but the prospect of being discovered was still uncomfortable. 

I know I am strong enough to easily annihilate everyone around me in around four seconds, but I’m not delusional enough to believe myself invincible after dying so many times, sentient or not. 

Since the line was not overly long, I got in line, behind a few goblins who immediately straightened up, shivering and didn’t dare to say a word in my presence. After a few minutes, the goblins entered and the guards blocked my path. 

The one on the right, a small dark haired dwarf, spoke first. “Hello there, ma'am. I apologize but because you are a powerful individual, you’ll have to show a Dwargon ID to enter or wear one of our monitoring bracelets.”.

I suppose that makes sense. I wouldn’t want someone as powerful as I am causing problems in my own territory. “I don’t know what a Dwargon ID or a monitoring bracelet is.” was what I said, which was met with some confused looks, but nonetheless, the fat dwarf on the left answered. 

“Well… an ID is a small rectangle card that proves who you are and this…” he reaches to a wooden box and pulls a thin gray metal strip in the form of a circle, with a rune, two concentric circles with a dot in the middle, etched on it, surrounded by lines connecting to it. “... is a monitoring bracelet. You put it on your wrist…” he put it on, “... it glows and then starts sending your location continuously to Dwargon Law Enforcement HQ. If you break it or remove it, they will be notified and you will be pursued and arrested.”. 

I hummed. If he put it on, that means it’s unlikely to be dangerous, and him warning me against destroying it means it can be destroyed easily. “Okay. I suppose I’ll have to take one. Where can I get this ‘identification’?”. 

The answer came from the right. “You can get a Dwargon ID by living here for five years, work directly for the king for one year or pay 10 gold coins. To request one, you need to go to the Citizens Requests building.” He handed me the bracelet and I put it on my left wrist.

After answering a few more inconsequential questions, I entered the dwarven city. 

While looking around, finding all kinds of fascinating stores, selling everything, from clothing, to weapons, I had my mind occupied with what gold coins were worth. I’ve seen other monsters bartering without the use of coins so I understand the concept of trade, but I have no idea what ten gold coins can buy. I also don’t know how I’m going to get any. 

I approached a smithy, more specifically ‘Kolin’s Smithy’ as it was written on a plaque above the door, displaying various armors and swords. 

Thinking maybe I could trade some of my scales, my only resource at the moment, for these coins, I entered the establishment.

A dwarf, presumably Kolin, came out of the door at the back, after the chime my opening of the door made and stared at my one eye with a quirked eyebrow. I’ve gotten many of these looks today, mostly at my eye, but also at my sizable tail. 

He cleared his throat. “What can I do for you ma’am?” He asked in a gravelly voice. 

“How much does a scale of Charybdis cost?” I asked. His eyebrow shot up again, but before laughing it off, he paused and mused. Most likely because of the pressure I couldn’t help but exude. 

“Well… I don’t have any, but nowadays they go for around 20 gold coins per scale. It’s an incredibly lightweight and sturdy material. Amazing for both weapons and armor. I have only seen one personally years ago, but because charybdis has revived recently, I guess the scales are gonna appear on the market again and they’re going to get cheaper. Why are you asking? You don’t look like a blacksmith.”

‘Do all blacksmiths look like small humans?’, I thought, while I opened my mouth and said something different. “I happened to find a few scales while wandering around the forest. How much would you buy them for?”. 

I pulled three of my scales from my ‘pocket’ and showed them to him. For a few seconds his eyes widened, focused solely on the ‘treasure’ in my hands. He coughed. “Well, you see… 20 gold coins is what I would sell them for, but I need to make a profit. And considering that charybdis revived recently, the price is definitely going to go down. How about… 12 gold coins each?” 

I crossed my arms. I don’t know anything about money. Would 36 gold coins be a big or small amount of coins? My silent musing was interrupted by the dwarfs' voice. “Yes, you are right. 12 is way too little. I’ll buy them for 15 gold coins maximum.” I think he misunderstood my silence but since 15 is bigger than 12, I’m not going to correct him.

Having left the blacksmith, 45 gold coins richer, I continued walking around, looking for the Citizens Requests building. When I asked the dwarf in the smithy, he told me that its main purpose was to receive complaints and suggestions from the population, but it had many other uses, like issuing IDs for example. 

Before I found it, my eyes caught sight of a peculiar store. Above the door was a sign saying ‘Butterflies of the Night’ and a pair of slightly open lips. Considering the sign, I assumed that it was some kind of eatery. 

When I looked through the window, I saw a group of dwarfs drinking from foamy cups, surrounded by extremely attractive elves, which confirmed my suspicion. This store sold drinks. My legs took me to the front door, which I opened. I was confused by my own decision of walking into this store, as I didn’t really need to eat or drink to maintain my body.

Almost everyone in the store looked at me with bewildered faces, mirroring my own expression. A few seconds of silence pass, until one of the blonde elfs runs up to me. She was a head smaller than me, but knowing I’m almost as tall as the door, she was still one of the biggest inside the store. Big in all the good places, as she hugs my arm with her vast mounds and brings me further in. My face heated up for some weird reason.

“You are so beautiful” the blonde elf said to me with a smile and after looking at my face she smirked. “So it wasn’t a coincidence you came here was it?”. 

I confusedly asked her what she meant by that, but she simply told me to forget about it and guided me to one of the smaller round tables to the right. I sat down, the elven beauty still clinging to my left arm and an elf with a darker complexion than mine sat to my right. I didn’t know where to look, but I couldn’t properly concentrate with so many soft curves around me.

“Wow. I love your eye and your tail looks so smooth! I’ve never seen someone of your species before. If it's not rude, could I ask what it is?”. The clingy elf asked excitedly. I don’t think there are others of my race, so it only makes sense she’s never seen someone like me. 

I spotted another pretty elf walking in our direction with a tray carrying a single tall glass, forming an upside down cone on top of a little pillar. Inside the cone was a purple drink. 

I gave the subject of my kin a bit of thought. There is no name for it, so I should probably come up with one. Combining the megalodons that are miniature versions of myself and dragons, which I technically am, I came up with a new term.

“The reason why you haven’t seen someone like me, is because our species is extremely rare…” It’s true, even if I’m the only one to have ever lived, “... and we are called Drakolodons.”. Her eyes fill with wonder and a big smile appears in her face as she stares at my eye. 

The Voice of the World sounds inside my head yet again. <Acknowledged. Unnamed species has been named Drakolodon by the individual named Charybdis.>. It’s fascinating that the world itself would recognize my decision in naming my race.

The cone glass I saw before was placed in front of me and the purple drink inside almost seemed to shine. “This is a brandy made from Tyriana Manaberry. Unfortunately, because of its enormous magicule concentration, it’s incredibly toxic to all beings with small magicule reserves. We would like to give you one glass for free, since almost no visitors can enjoy the rich flavor. Should you want more after, keep in mind that it’s a very expensive drink at 23 silver coins per glass.”. I thanked the elf, she smiled at me, turned around and returned to her position behind the counter where she was in before.

I picked up the glass and moved it close to my nose to smell the curious aroma of the purple manaberry drink. I was starting to get annoyed by my lack of knowledge about the value of coins, so I decided to ask the beautiful elves to either side of me. 

“Believe it or not, I’m not from around here. Could you tell me the value of the coins you use for trading here?”. Both of them smiled and the dark elf was the one to answer my question.

“That’s interesting. You come from so far away that you don’t know the currency that almost the whole continent uses? Anyways, it’s very simple. 100 bronze coins equal one silver coin and 100 silver coins equal one gold coin. 

As for their purchasing power, you can buy a loaf of bread for around five bronze coins, a full meal at a restaurant would be something like one silver coin and an inn would cost two silver coins per night. On the more expensive side of things we have good quality armaments, ranging from dozens of silver coins to maybe even one or two gold coins and for the truly rich, there are unique-grade weapons or armor worth hundreds of gold coins. But since you’re obviously a princess from a faraway land, you have enough to pay for drinks for all of us, am I right?”

The scent of the brandy in my hand was sweet and fruity. It reminded me of my forest clearing, where a few fruit trees live. I started drinking it during her explanation and the rich berry flavor hit me almost as hard as Milim’s laser did all those years ago as it burned hard in my throat. 

It tasted amazing and I felt revitalized like when healing my body after a fight. It also seemed to be affecting my mind very slightly as I felt a bit less on guard or tense. The blonde elf hugging my arm suddenly yelped quietly and deepened her hug as if someone pushed her against me. 

“Well of course girls. Feel free to order whatever you want to drink.”. The dark elf pouted slightly looking at her friend who I now realized I had wrapped my tail around and pulled closer to me. She was blushing slightly, but I thought releasing her now would be even more awkward so I let her enjoy being closer to a superior being such as myself.

A few hours later, I left the amazing ‘eatery’ one gold coin and a half lighter. In my bag, I had 43 gold and 50 silver coins. I don’t think they believed the stories about my fights against heroes, but we all had a lot of fun anyways. 

The Tyriana brandy was one of the best things I have ever consumed. It is of the highest urgency that I acquire the trees from which the berries sprout so that I can drink them whenever I want. 

Unlike all of the drunken dwarves that left the ‘Butterflies’, I could still walk mostly straight, so I headed to the citizens requests building with the directions the smith gave me. 

The building itself was different from all the other stone brick buildings, only because it was much bigger and had big double doors, to allow anyone from any species to enter. 

Outside of Dwargon it was nighttime, but that didn’t seem to matter, as most stores were still open at night, and so were important buildings like the one in front of me.

The doors were already open, so I entered and found a counter at the back with various labeled sections. There was ‘Identification’, ‘Requests’, ‘Disputes’ and a few others. 

Manning the counter were small female dwarfs, wearing a red and yellow uniform. The room itself was full of seats, for the people waiting their turn. 

At this time, there weren’t many people present so I didn’t even have to wait, as an annoyed human left the ‘Identification’ section muttering under his breath. Leave it to the pathetic humans to get so easily angry over such simple matters. Seeing no one else going up to the ‘Identification’ counter, I strode forth.

“Hello, I’d like a Dwargon ID please.”. The black haired dwarf didn’t even look at me as she said in a bored voice. “Next time take a number from the roll. It’s common sense really.” Then she looked up and flinched, surprised by my appearance. 

After a few seconds, she cleared her throat, gave me a painfully obvious fake smile and said in a more friendly tone of voice. “Do you have proof of residency, an employment certificate, or are you paying 10 gold coins?” 

A second passed as she remembered she was talking to a monster and clarified in a hurried voice. “Oh… also, unnamed monsters can’t register, so if you have a name, please enunciate it when using the ID Orb. All you have to do is put your palm on it. Pay the fee first and then we can proceed.”

I am indeed named, but I don’t think it would be wise to just announce to everyone that I’m the uncontrollable murderous monster that I used to be. So I need to say a different name, and hope that whatever makes the ID can’t somehow find my real name. 

What should my fake name be? The connection I feel to somewhere in the west of the Jura forest has been getting stronger and the being I feel on the other side is definitely way stronger than me and seems draconic in nature. It must be a true dragon, and for one of them to be in the Storm Dragon’s domain, it is definitely Veldora.

Normally, the parent would be the one to give a name to their progeny, but that didn’t happen with me. I don’t even know if my father knows or cares that I exist. Anyways, it could have been my pettiness, ‘gifted’ to me by humanity’s malice that I was created from, but I decided to simply steal part of his name. 

I put 10 shiny coins on the counter, and the woman rapidly took them. Without another word, she pulled a big light blue orb the diameter of my forearm, with exquisitely intricate carvings of what I assumed to be runes, and put it on a support on top of the counter. 

Heeding her instructions, I placed my hand on it. It emitted a blue light through my whole body and then it stopped as if waiting for me to tell it my name. “My name is ‘Vel’.”

The dwarf carved my fake name, in an ornate, beautiful font using a special stick, at the top of a red and yellow metal card and then inserted it onto the orb as I took my hand off. The inside of the orb made some mechanical noises and then the card popped back out through the same opening it went in. 

She handed it to me and told me. “The process is finished. Now you can access various facilities that require an ID, for example, the other sections of this building, the church’s healing stations, the Dwarven Public Library, etcetera. There are also some jobs that require ID and most types of land ownership are also barred to ‘non-identifiable people’..

I nodded and looked down at the card in my hand, which displayed written information and a little image of me.

Armed Nation of Dwargon ID

Name: Vel

Species: Drakolodon

Age: ~2500

Gender: Female

PN: 314159265

I thanked her and left the building. From what I’ve seen, Dwargon is the leader in technology, at least in the west, so I’m curious what kind of knowledge, mainly about runes and runetech, I can gather from the public library the little dwarf mentioned. 

I was so excited that I almost added a skip to my step. Almost.

Chapter Text

{POV: Naga / A few days earlier}

As we slithered away from the clearing, our lady’s aura was once again fully released. While my companions were still shivering like they were part of some warm blooded race and it was winter, I didn’t have time to be scared, for I had to gather and hold a conference with all the village heads to properly explain our situation. 

If Lady Charybdis’s words are to be believed, and I somehow feel we can trust her, she has claimed the east Jura forest, and in doing so, also gave us, the residents, her protection. I’ll still try to come up with a way to miraculously defend from the west’s 3 to 1 number advantage, but I don’t think it will be needed.

As the last of the pale family, I am ashamed of how our race has been almost extinguished in the past 250 years of war. Currently we number 20, spread thin over the dozens of villages of Goblins, the rabid humanoid hyenas, the Gnolls, the puny little bearded Gnomes and the giant foxes, the Volpins. 

We all had no choice but to work with one another for the survival of the east Jura species. We, the serpentfolk, were appointed as the alliance leaders, for being the most powerful and reasonably long lived. The gnomes did live longer, but no other species would tolerate being ruled by the little guys.

The war started when the colorful horned humans, the orcs, wanted to expand their territories over the river, so they employed the help of the lizards, the lizardmen and enslaved countless goblin tribes and direwolves to attack us. The only reason we managed to survive all these years despite our number difference is the ‘neutral’ third party. The fish men, the merfolk, lived and protected the Great Ameld River, and therefore, made it much more difficult to invade our side of the forest.

Finally arriving at our village, entering through the wooden gate that made an opening in the spiky wooden palisade, I assembled the whole village to make an announcement. I looked at the hopeful faces of everyone from the different races that represented east Jura. 

The black furred hyenas just looked hungry, with their tongues hanging out and dripping saliva. The small gnomes just looked at me attentively, as if their lives depended on whatever came out of my mouth. 

Knowing that, in combat, all they could do was support magic, their concerns might just be valid. The bright orange foxes lay on the ground, their long pointy ears unflinching as they waited for the sound of my voice. I smiled, cleared my throat and started my speech.

“As all of you remember, earlier today we all felt a terrifying aura wash over the forest. When it didn’t disappear, I felt it was my responsibility to investigate the appearance of such a powerful being, so close to our settlements. So, I gathered a team of our strongest warriors and we slithered our way to the origin of the aura.”

I paused for a second. “Now, before I continue, I assume all present know who Charybdis is correct?”. 

Everyone in the crowd gave a tense nod at the same time. It was kind of humorous how in synchrony it was. “We believed that the Child of Veldora was a mindless monster, incapable of anything but destruction, reviving at least every couple hundred years to continue enacting her wrath. We even experienced it ourselves just a couple of days ago, even if, for some reason, she only attacked in retaliation to our attacks and seemed more preoccupied in arriving quickly at a different target. I would assume we are not powerful enough to be worth her effort.” I paused to give a dramatic effect.

“The monster we found was from a species I’ve never seen or read about before. Her form was humanoid, she only had one big blue eye, and had a shark tail on her back. While it should have been obvious who was in front of me, considering her physical features, I would never have guessed who she was, had she not called herself Charybdis.” 

Almost every jaw in the crowd figuratively smashed the floor and wide eyes, almost as big as the singular eye of my lady, stared at me disbelievingly. Before they could recover from their shock, I continued in a strong voice.

“But never fear my friends, for lady Charybdis has claimed the Jura forest, east of the Great Ameld river where we live and granted us, insignificant, lesser monsters her protection. Not only that, but she has also gifted me with the highest of honors for a monster.”, I smiled proudly.

“From today forth, you shall refer to me by my name and not only by my position as the last of the pale family, the leader of the East Jura Alliance and head of this village. My name is ‘Naga’ and we shall no longer struggle against the unrelenting assault of the west!” A loud cheer echoed through the settlement as I slid down from the small wooden podium I used to speak to the villagers.

Before going inside my house to prepare my tribute, I called for two of the fastest of our messenger units, consisting of rare light blue volpin twins carrying some gnome riders. They were so fast, they could deliver a message all the way to the north or southmost areas occupied by us, along the coast of the Ameld river in around two and a half days. 

I ordered them to deliver an urgent message to all other alliance village chiefs to unite here in the ‘capital’ village, in seven days for the most important meeting since the conception of the EJA. Each fox departed immediately, in opposite directions, one to the north and the other to the south. I turned around and slithered to the building I slept in.

Like almost all other buildings in the village, my home was constructed with wood, and even though it was sturdier than the others, given my station, it was not saying much. 

The only thing of value inside, except the whip-sword left to me by my father, hanging from where my waist would be if I was human, and the ruby necklace around my ‘neck’, was the single bookshelf, filled with books detailing our ancestors history and knowledge left by my great-grandfather who worked for the dwarven king Guran Dwargo around 500 years ago. 

Those used to be useless to us, as I couldn't understand the complicated language detailing the intricacies of runes and runetech. Now though, since lady Charybdis has shown such interest in the subject, they might just be the most valuable thing our village owns.

The sun had already been replaced by the moon in the sky, so I decided to take a book titled ‘The Remote Synchronization of Mana Frequencies in Runes of Different Natures’ from the bookshelf and laid in my long bed. 

Just trying to understand the title almost gave me a headache, but reading the odd words from the book made me sleepier and sleepier. In a few minutes, my fleeting conscience abandoned my body as I fell asleep with a heavy book on my face.

<Conditions necessary for evolution confirmed.>

<Beginning the evolution process from ‘Serpentfolk’ to ‘Lamia’>

<Individual’s physical constitution will be rebuilt>

<Reacquiring existing intrinsic skills>

<Skill [Slithering] confirmed>

<Skill [Poison Touch] confirmed>

< Reacquiring existing resistances>

<Resistance [Cold Resistance] confirmed>

<Resistance [Poison Resistance] confirmed>

<Acquiring new ‘Lamia’ intrinsic skills>

<Skill [Charm] acquired>

<Acquiring new skills according to the will of the individual and the power of the connected name giver.>

<Extra skill [Magic Jamming] acquired>

<Extra skill [Magic Sense] acquired>

<Extra skill [Self-Regeneration] acquired>

<Extra skill [Water Manipulation] acquired>

<Common skill [Water Ray] acquired>

<Evolution completed successfully>

The light rays that seeped through the seams on the walls hit my face and woke me up, this time not blocked by a book, like in the day after my evolution. It’s been seven days since then, and I’m incredibly thankful to my lady Charybdis for giving me such power. 

My body changed a lot. My upper half is now humanoid, I grew long light purple hair that reaches to the wide hips that my body now has. I still had slitted red eyes, and a long forked tongue, except they now rested in a face resembling that of the human or demi-human races. My new ears were straight on the top, round under and ended in two pointy ends. 

In my chest were two big lumps of meat that are seemingly useless. I believe they are used in child rearing for mammals, like the orcs of the west, and I’ve seen it’s a part of the body they always cover, even when wearing minimal armor or clothing. Must be a particularly fragile body part, so when I noticed them I immediately covered them with a white piece of cloth, tightening it around my body with rope.

My serpent body now started at the hips and had grown two more meters from what it was before. My scales were still a shiny white and the smooth underside was a slightly hotter shade of purple than the lilac it was before, the same shade of my hair.

I was also much stronger and faster now. Using [slithering] before, I could quickly change directions while moving, but now it’s almost instantaneous and completely disregards previous momentum. 

I can now use [Charm] to control very weak beings and alter their memories. I haven’t tested it yet, but apparently, I can regenerate even lost limbs with [Self-Regeneration]. 

I am even able to manipulate water and create streams from my hands. I finally have something to combat the strange fire affinity some orcs demonstrate on the front lines, that killed so many of my kin.

But the most important skill I received is lady Charybdis’s famous [Magic Jamming] that gave so much trouble to mages trying to fight against her. While it’s true that it is also an intrinsic skill to harpies, they don’t use it to its fullest extent. They mostly use it to negate the flying ability of their enemies, while the most excellent Charybdis becomes almost invulnerable to magic attacks.

The various leaders of the alliance have gathered in our village, and in a few minutes, we are going to hold a conference to explain the next course of action regarding the war, and the tributes we have to pay to lady Charybdis. 

Unlike what one would expect from such a powerful monster, the tributes she requires aren’t sacrifices, or some kind of torture for her entertainment. She expects something much more civilized and refined, like knowledge. 

Even the ungrateful villages who won’t or can’t share knowledge, can just research and develop new ones, like she asked. We just have to put our blacksmiths to work. There’s no excuse for those who don’t deliver and inevitably get eaten in the end. They might benefit more as ‘sustenance’ to Charybdis than as dead weights consuming the forest’s resources.

Sliding out of my house, I saw all the EJA heads in a circle, discussing something, as the two new arrivals looked at me with wide eyes, in surprise. The same reaction had been occurring for a few days, as the representatives from the other fortress villages arrived. 

I just shrugged and promised to explain everything in the meeting. Just as everyone was preparing to enter the circular reunion building, the strong aura that had been a constant in the distance, shifted, and everyone froze as it got closer and closer. In the sky, there was the majestic form of Charybdis, in her full draconic glory, flying southwest.

Everyone in the village wore an expression of horror, as if waiting for their eradication, that would soon befall them. Except we were all ignored, as I knew we would be, and after a few minutes, the sounds of massive explosions echoed across the forest as the west of the river was completely obliterated by great Charybdis’ [Wicked Light Ray]. 

All of us watched in awe as the villages housing the enemies we had been fighting for hundreds of years were mostly destroyed. Apparently, her goal was not total destruction, but sending the message that the east was now claimed and they should stop their invasion or risk annihilation. After the display of might, she landed and disappeared from our sight. We all stayed silent for a moment.

“Our meeting today relates to lady Charybdis and the end of our war with the west. If you would please follow me inside to start the meeting.” I finally said, and after a few confused stares, everyone followed me inside and sat at the round table. 

There were seven, including me. One for each major fortress village participating in the war. One old goblin, one taller than average gnome, two gnolls, both heavily scarred, but the shorter one sported a huge scar across his closed right eye and three serpentfolk, me, now a lamia, a friend of mine that had a black and orange coloration, her dark gray eyes sparkled at me with curiosity, and a fully green snake. 

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we gather for the 34th, and hopefully the last east-west Jura War meeting. For the sake of brevity, I will start immediately with the version of events I told the subjects of this village…”. 

They all listened attentively, disbelieving expressions on their faces, except for the gnome, who simply held a focused, pensive expression with a hand holding his chin, covering his mouth. 

When I finished, the gnome asked in a sagely voice. “If you felt the need to differentiate between a version you would tell your people, and one held private, then that must mean that the public account of events is either wrong or missing some important information.”. 

As always, despite being a part of the weakest race among us, except for their supportive skills and magic, he always was one of the wisest ones between us. I smirked at him before giving him my answer.

“Everything I said to them was the truth. I simply withheld information on the tributes she requires from us…”. The table shook, as a loud thud echoed the walls of the building, interrupting me. The one eyed gnoll had smashed his fist on the table and was now yelling. 

“So we are finally free from this oppressive war and become enslaved to some mindless beast? I will not stand for this. We must fight and slay this beast before we starve to death, dancing on its strings…”. He stopped squealing, pathetically shrinking on his chair as my anger boiled over and my restrained aura came out, engulfing everyone inside. The goblin shivered slightly but he was not even in my vision, as I tunnel visioned on the gnoll in front of me.

“You will not insult our savior and protector you pathetic weakling.”, I said in a voice so cold, that it felt as if the room's temperature had decreased several degrees. Restraining my aura, I continued in a slightly warmer tone of voice. 

“To clarify, Charybdis is not a mindless beast, as was believed before. She is also not requesting sacrifice, killings or torture. All she wants is any and all knowledge in runes, magic, or its associated devices or artifacts. If you don’t have any of those, you can research and develop, and for that I’m willing to let some of our runesmiths teach some of your artisans the basics.”

In a disappointed tone of voice I continued. “Unfortunately, we can’t yet create new devices, so we simply maintain the currently crafted ones, left to us by our ancestors, like the [Snake’s Right Hand]. If nothing comes out of it, there’s still gold that she can be appeased with, but in case your village cannot pay, in her own words, she will ‘put you to use in a different way’.” They all shuddered, as they should, and the graying goblin opened his mouth and spoke in a shaky voice.

“Urmm… The gnomes have their magic, support it may be, but magic nonetheless. The snakefolk and now plus a powerful lamia, have the runes left from previous generations, and the gnolls, although lacking in the previous requirements, are physically strong, so I’m sure our lady would find a productive use for them. But what about us, the goblins? We are not special in any way! How are we to survive?” His voice became gradually more panicked the more he spoke. 

The black-orange serpent to my left smiled and spoke to the old goblin. “Why do you think the goblins are the dominant species, numerically, in the forest? You adapt to your environment. You are flexible and can endure a lot in order to survive. Obviously, your species' continued existence also has to do with your lightning fast reproduction cycle, but you are old enough to realize that survival is indeed possible.”.

The goblin seemed almost confused at the statement of fact that the snake uttered, so I picked up the conversation to end the meeting.

“The way I am going to handle the teaching situation, is to gather my subjects, and ask for those who wish to learn the art of runes. Those who answer affirmatively, will be put under our smiths to be taught, and those who are not interested will be removed from their intensive wartime warrior training and be moved to more important activities like hunting or gathering. I suggest you do the same and then send the eager to learn to one of the three serpent-dominated villages.”. 

All nodded or made sounds of agreement. “Any other ideas before I finish the meeting?” I asked, not expecting an actual answer, more of a polite way to end it. My question was answered, however, by the wise voice of the little man at the opposite end of the table from me.

“I would also suggest employing the gnomes as magic teachers. While it’s support magic, it is magic, and even though most like to dismiss it, I believe it is incredibly useful. Anyways, if some of the subjects would prefer to learn magic instead of runes, we would welcome them at any gnome-dominated village.”. 

It wasn’t a bad suggestion. I can remember quite a few times where their support gave us the strength to win some apparently unwinnable battles. Now to end the meeting.

“I acknowledge your suggestion, and will incorporate magic into my questionnaire. Now, to end things, please gather your tributes in the central village…”, this one, “... because it is the closest to ‘Charybdis Grotto’ as I’ve named her cave. I will report to her when she comes back and hand her the offerings. I will also ask how often she requires our contributions, but I believe it will be either once a month, or a year.”, I said with a tone of finality and ended the meeting. 

“You should start organizing everything we spoke about as quickly as possible. Thank you for being present for the 34th east-west Jura War meeting, and also the last. You are all dismissed” I hit the small hammer on the table twice and we all left the building.

“You know, I noticed that, though the goblin looked uncomfortable, even after my encouragement, the ones who really came out worse out of this meeting were the gnolls. The only thing they are good at is fighting with their absurd physical strength. That’s also how they managed to get two of the seven seats. They were useful in the war. However, I can’t really see them learning this kind of precise arts, like runes or magic. What do you think will happen to them?” Said the dark serpent in private, having followed me to my house, after all other five alliance seats left the village on their mounts. 

I thought for a moment. “...If I’m being perfectly honest, I’ve never much liked the gnolls. Most of them are bloodthirsty fools who revel in war. I think if it wasn’t so one sided, they would have loved to fight eternally.”. 

I looked outside through a window at all the people from the six different races, celebrating the end of the war. “As for what will happen to them, should they refuse to adapt, only lady Charybdis knows.”

Chapter Text

{POV: Dwarin, Dwargon Minister of Technology}

I was in a small meeting room, with two long couches and a table in the middle separating them. The walls were decorated with paintings depicting the late king, the great Guran Dwargo, fighting different monsters.

I had been called by the Minister of Intelligence to the Law Enforcement HQ for, as he put it, ‘peculiar and suspicious behavior of a foreigner’. Normally this shouldn’t have anything to do with me, the Minister of Technology, but he said it was important for me specifically to come, so here I am.

The white wooden door opened, and Gorrick, one of the rare slim and tall dwarves, entered the room. His dark eyes analyzed my face as he sat opposite to me, taking a sip from one of the tea cups resting on the table.

“Hello minister Dwarin. I apologize for calling you all the way from your department, but this foreigner’s situation is strange.”. His face did not look panicked, so it must not be an urgent threat to the security of the kingdom. “It's no issue, minister Gorrick. Now, if you would, please explain why you have called me here?”.

“Well, you see… ten days ago, a foreigner, of a never before recorded species, with significant strength, according to her aura, appeared at the gates of Dwargon with no ID. On the first day, she basically wandered around, looking like any other monster in a city for the first time, amazed at the sights.”

He took another sip from the green tea in his cup. I mirrored him.

“She entered a few stores, but weirdly enough, she spent most of her time in the ‘Butterflies of the night’.” 

“In case you don’t know, it’s an expensive club with men as their target audience where they sell alcohol, but mainly the companionship of beautiful elven women.“

“After a few hours, she left the establishment and for the first time in decades, she actually bought an ID for 10 gold coins.” My face contorted in shock and my eyebrows almost left my head. 

That’s absurdly expensive for an ID. She must be from an unknown wealthy family from faraway. He continued to elaborate, fishing a piece of paper and showing it to me. It depicted a beautiful single eyed woman with tan skin and striking purple lines diverging from her eye.

“She is a named monster, called ‘Vel’ and she is a ‘Drakolodon’. She is also extremely old, exceeding the limit for precise calculations of the ID orb.” He crossed his legs and crossed his hands after putting down his teacup.

“Anyways. The real ‘problem’ is that, after, she went to the public library and stayed there ever since.” he said as if it wasn’t a ridiculous idea.

I blinked. “Are you saying that she has been there for ten days in a row, not leaving even once? Are you sure that the bracelet isn’t faulty, or that she didn’t remove it?”.

He looked at me offended, and then, with a hand on his chest declared. “We are the intelligence department of the mighty Armed Nation of Dwargon! I obviously sent spies to check on her after her cessation of movement on the second day. She is still there even now, and the reason I called you here is not to discuss bracelets, but because she has read all of the books on rune magic available and is now going through the ones on normal magic.”

It’s highly unlikely that she is a spy. No spy would be unable to hide their own aura. Besides, why would they send such a conspicuous individual with so many distinct and recognizable features? It doesn’t make sense.

“If you are worried that she might be a spy…”, I started, before he interrupted me. “No. If she was, she would be an insult to all competent spies across the world. I’m more worried about her strength and whether she is just waiting for some kind of signal to attack.”. 

Understandable logic. But in consideration, if that were the case, she should still be trying to hide her aura until it was time to attack.

“How about this? I will go speak with her, and knowing of her obvious interest in rune technology, I will offer her a job in my department. This way we can keep an eye on her and if it turns out to be nothing dangerous, I gain a possibly talented employee. It’s a win-win situation.”

“You know. That’s not a bad idea. Just make sure to keep her away from the prince. You know how he has been seen training and asking to be let free in the forest to fight monsters for power and glory.”

“Absolutely. Well, I guess I have an obsessive learner to catch, before she sucks the library dry and leaves.” We both got up, shook hands and left the room.

I wonder what she’s like. At least from her interactions, she seems more civilized than most monsters, but I still need to be careful.

What would a strong monster such as her want, aside from money, in payment to work for someone weaker? I know that monster society works differently than our own. To monsters, might makes right, and most serve the strong.

While the king's lineage contains the strongest dwarves, we don’t serve them because of their strength, but because of their ideals and intelligence to achieve them and move our society forward.

Let’s start with what she enjoys. I don’t have much information, but besides magic and runes, as evidenced by her stay at the library for days on end, she also spent some time wandering the streets on her first day.

First she entered Kolin’s smithy. She is an ancient monster, so she probably recognized the high quality of Dwargon’s best blacksmith. The items must have been too expensive, or she simply didn’t bring enough with her, as she left empty handed.

Next, she spent hours inside the ‘Butterflies’ hostess club, that is mainly frequented by men, attracted to the extreme beauty of the elves. Is she attracted to women? I’ve heard of some alternate lifestyles, like men who are sword swallowers. Could I give her some women as payment?

I shook my head, realizing I was only a few steps away from the library’s door. That 's ridiculous. Even ignoring the fact that Dwargon does not condone slavery of any kind, like some of those degenerate human kingdoms, It’s probably just a misunderstanding. She is probably just friends with the elves.

I opened the door, and her presence was immediately apparent just by the denser magicules inside. It wasn’t enough to harm weaker beings, but it was definitely strong. Rounding a couple bookshelves, I found a dark purple-blue head of hair buried in a mountain of books.

The monster woman was dressed very casually, with light blue clothes, and her deep purple tail was coiled around one of the legs of the chair she was sitting on. Her blue eye went back and forth at a fast pace, not exceeding the human limit, but still impressive.

Her eyebrow scrunched in deep concentration as she read a book with a brown leather cover, presumably on magic. She was currently trying to understand one of the magic formulas drawn on the paper. I cleared my throat, expecting her to stop reading and pay attention to the man in front of her, but her head remained still.

“Excuse me miss. I would like to spea…” Her expression of absolute disgust and annoyance as she looked up, as if I was nothing more than a particularly annoying mosquito that kept stubbornly biting her, quickly disappeared, almost making me believe it had been a trick of the lights.

“Yes? To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?” She replied, in a tone that conveyed her annoyance, betraying her efforts to smooth out her face in a serene expression. I underestimate her love for reading if this is the reaction she shows when interrupted.

“My name is Dwarin, minister of technology here in Dwargon, pleasure to meet you, miss…”. 

I knew her name was supposedly Vel, but it was just good manners to introduce ourselves before a conversation, even more, one as important as a possible position on the rune researcher or developer sections. In Dwargon, both runic and non-magical engineering were the most sought-after positions.

“... My name is Vel.” She replied in a monotone voice with a quirked eyebrow, as if asking me to ‘get to the point’. If it were anyone else, I would have walked away for the blatant disrespect, but I told myself that she was a monster, and so she was unaware of our customs.

“... Well miss Vel. I see you have a deep interest in runes…” I sat down in the chair opposed to her, analyzing her beautiful face. “... and I happen to oversee the department of technology. This means that should you wish to, and prove to be qualified, I could hire you for a job as a runic engineer. Are you interested?”

She thought for a moment. If she doesn’t accept now, it will be hard to keep an eye on her. Our resources aren’t unlimited and we can’t spare spies or guards positioned on a single individual for long.

“That’s certainly an interesting proposal. But what do I gain from working for you?” Her eye now sparkled with curiosity and I could feel her gaze evaluating me, as if calculating the benefits of the position I offered.

“Well, aside from money, that all employees must legally be paid, we could give you priority access to special or even rare level weapons and armor when they are created.” I offered her such, appealing to the first establishment she visited in her stay at Dwargon.

When she stayed silent, I continued quickly and distractedly. “We can’t give you women, but…”

“What?” Her face looked bemused, as if I had completely destroyed her thought process.

“Please excuse me. I was distracted and said something offensive. Forgive me.” I can’t believe I would spout such gibberish at this important time.

“...”

I cleared my throat with a hand over my mouth. “But then, I must ask, what is it that you desire?”

Her blue eye rolled, looking up at the ceiling in thought. After a few seconds I was starting to get worried. Is it possible that Vel doesn’t have any desires to exploit? No. That's preposterous. Everyone, monster, demi-human or human has desires.

“Do you have books on more advanced runic magic and technology? I’ve found that the library is lacking in anything besides the basics.”

So all she wants is more books. What an easy request. I don’t know why I was panicking when all I have to do is hire her normally, since all runic engineers have access to the Advanced Runic Library. If I pretend like I’m doing her a favor, she might even feel in my debt.

“That’s a pretty hard ask to be honest. You know how information is very important and expensive…” she nodded enthusiastically. “... but I can pull a few strings and give you access to the knowledge you wish for.”

She smiled wide, showing her serrated teeth and immediately asked. “What do I have to do?”

“I need to ask you a few questions, to assess your runic skill level and where to assign you once you get the job. First, how would you create a device that makes ice?”. I was not prepared for the amount of information and the speed at which it came out of her mouth next.

“Using a big condensation chamber, where you continuously gather new humid air from outside, through the use a weak air rune, you could inscribe ”

“Using weak ice runes, inscribed in a big chamber, you could cool the water enough for it to condense and drop into another compartment where water will gather. Now, of course, the dry air needs to be replaced, so, create two openings in the condensation chamber, and using one finely attuned wind rune or two more basic ones, regulate the entrance of humid air and exit of dry air.”

“To finish it off, in the freezing chamber, where the condensed water gathers, use one ice rune, tuned to chill only the small chamber and to only seep heat up to the freezing point of water.

“All of this, of course, assumes that the device is to be used in low magicule density environments and supplied only by the ambient magicules. That’s why, compared to the overall size of the machine, the amount of ice it produces is small, but the creation of water through runes costs a big amount of magicules not present in most environments. Ice runes can also be relatively expensive, and so the ones responsible for freezing the water need to work in a small area.”

What the Hell???

That would work, but that’s a much more elaborate answer than what I wanted and expected. I was assuming the existence of unlimited magicules and the best physical environment, in this hypothetical scenario.

A simple water rune and an ice rune would have sufficed, but because I didn’t specify that magicules could be supplied by the device user, she created a whole new device, to use only the ambient magicules. Now that I think about it, after crunching some numbers mentally, it would totally work.

“Humm. Did I get something wrong? Maybe it’s because I didn’t specify the rune pathways and the different mana frequency interactions between runes, but I don’t have enough knowle…”

“Wait, wait, wait a second.” She looked at me in surprise at being interrupted. I can’t look like an incompetent by admitting that her answer to an elementary question, that she replied to so readily, stumped me for a few moments.

“Your answer was perfect. Exactly what I expected from such a studious person like you.” The tip of her lips curved up. “I am satisfied by your expertise, and would like to hire you as Junior Runic Engineer.”

“You can expect a starting daily wage of 20 silver, and per our deal, access to the Advanced Runic Library. All you have to do is show your ID to the receptionist and he will let you in. Any other issues I should be aware of?”

There was a small pause as she remembered something. “I don’t live in Dwargon, as you probably already know, so I might spend long stretches of time outside. Would this be acceptable?”

Curious, but understandable. I thought she was from very far away, but she might live closer than I actually thought. “Well, as long as you meet the monthly quotas assigned to you or your team, it’s all good.”

“By the way, as a junior engineer, you can join a team lead by a senior or work on your own, however, before being promoted, you can’t head a team. If you feel the need to be away for a whole month and can’t meet the quota, speak to a superior and you’ll be excused for the required amount of time, with no pay of course.”

She got up and extended a hand. “I agree to this arrangement. I believe this is what people do in such situations…” she said, before I accepted the handshake. Her hand was much stronger than she looked, even considering her aura.

Afterwards, I told her to follow me so I could show her the facilities she will be working in for the foreseeable future. It was curious how different her thought progress seemed to be compared to normal people.

We continued to talk about the various different types of runes and their applications on our way. Apparently she really did learn all she could from what the library had to offer.

Which wasn’t much. She knew about the basic runes. Water, wind, earth, fire, ice and communication. What was impressive was the way she used them to solve problems I didn’t know I had.

For example, we are taught to assume that a device is always to be activated and used by a person, the reason being that the ambient magicules in populations devoid of monsters are low. Because of this, it’s hard to create complex machines that work with ambient mana.

Except, she didn’t have this preconception, so she could think of ideas that had ambient mana in mind. Some were even pretty revolutionary, but probably not possible right now for several reasons. Such as resource unavailability or the various chaotic interactions between different runes in complex machines.

We were now inside the technology complex, a big, wide building that housed all our surface level, public technology research and development. This isn’t to say that they’re less useful than the private, secret ones; just that those tend to be related to the military.

“Hello Dwarin. I see that you have quite the interesting lady for company.”, a voice came from behind us and I immediately tensed. It was one of the most recognizable voices in the kingdom.

Me and Vel turned around and I bowed before the prince. He was a tall young dwarf, taller than me by almost two heads and just slightly shorter than Vel. His skin was a slightly darker shade of brown than that of the lady beside me.

His hair was black and his captivating eyes a deep blue. He carried himself with the posture of a king, even though he wasn’t one yet, and hopefully not for a long time.

“Greetings your highness…” I straightened up and continued. “This is a monster, named Vel of the species Drakolodon. Before your highness asks, no, I have never seen one before, nor does the intelligence department have any records of one.”

The prince seemed to think for a second. “Hmmm. Very interesting. My name is Gazel Dwargo and I challenge you, Vel, to a duel. For the security of my kingdom, I will expose your true nature with my sword.” He said, grabbing the sword at his waist.

This is not good. Between the two, both have a powerful aura. Vel’s is probably bigger, but she doesn’t have a weapon, much less a legend-grade sword like the prince’s.

It is also true that Gazel is still very young, at least compared to Vel who is thousands of years old.

“I don’t enjoy fighting weaklings, so why should I fight you? There is nothing for me to gain and all to lose. If you find me to be of a ‘bad’ nature, you’ll kill me or exile me, and if not, nothing changes.”

Oh dear god. Only an uncultured monster would speak this way to royalty. Why am I so unlucky!

Gazel’s face gained a slightly red hue as he clenched his teeth. “I should jail you for insubordination, but I’ll let this one pass as long as you fight me. If I deem you, a monster, to be worthy of Dwargon after the fight, I will let you remain here.” His voice sounded strained through his teeth.

She gave a long sigh. “Well. Gazel Dwargo. I will fight you with the condition that if I win, you give me permission to call you whatever I want from now on.” She replied with a smirk on her face.

This is going in a weird direction, but as long as no one gets too hurt in the duel, what she asked for is not actually that detrimental. It might be humiliating to prince Gazel, but he should take this as a lesson if he loses.

The prince scoffed. “What a ridiculous thought. You might be strong, but you would never win against the might of Dwargon’s legendary sword. I accept your nonsensical condition.”

The drakolodon seemed confused and amused at the same time. I guess she wasn’t expecting a condition like this one to be accepted. But the prince isn’t like most pompous nobles. If he believes he has to do something for the kingdom, he will endure anything.

Or maybe he just got too heated. Who knows?

We arrived at one of the large auditoriums, with a wide empty space in the middle, ment for showing off new large and complex runic devices. The two duelists stood at opposite ends, surrounded by red cushioned chairs.

“Where is your sword?”, the prince asked.

“I have never held a sword, and won’t be needing one to fight in this duel. Minister, you can start the countdown whenever you want.” she called out to me.

His highness was whispering underneath his breath, but didn’t interfere with my countdown.

“Three, Two, One…”

“Duel!”

Gazel shot forward faster than my eyes could see and swung his sword diagonally. The sword only split air as Vel sidestepped to her right, her expression bored, but not distracted. The prince used his momentum to chain a few more attacks together, failing to connect to his target.

Vel’s eye followed the sword through every movement, and she evaded all sword swings with pure speed. She didn’t seem to be very skilled in a sword fight, but her pure speed outclassed the prince’s so much that it didn’t matter.

Suddenly, Gazel rooted his body to the ground, squared his feet and rotated his hips with the sword, using his whole body to swing the most powerful strike yet. A diagonal strike from Vel’s left side. His sword seemed to shine a light blue, illuminating his opponent's face.

Vel’s face looked almost ethereal when illuminated like this, and her previous bored expression now had a small smile.

She quickly raised her left arm, slapping the sword with the back of her hand.

The sword literally exploded, and the force of the explosion made his sword fly out of his hand and embed itself on the ground, leaving a crack and half of the blade covered under the stone ground. The blade stopped shining.

Then, she looked at the prince’s astonished face and concentrated on something. The ground under the prince shattered, creating a small crater as he stumbled forward under the effect of what looked to be heightened gravity. All muscles on his body tensed as he did his best to not fall to the ground or kneel before the powerful monster in front of him.

After a minute, where Gazel tried to move forwards, but could barely stand, he slowly raised his right hand.

“... I admit defeat.”, he said with a heavy voice.

Immediately, the pressure surrounding his highness dissipated and he stood straight. He gazed at her face, probably looking for any hints of mockery in her expression. She was just looking back with an impassive face.

“So, Gazz, is my nature good enough to work for your kingdom?” She said exasperatedly. The prince stiffened at his new nickname and clenched his teeth. He didn’t say anything for a moment.

“I would prefer not to be called such an embarrassing nickname, but I did give my word.” He said begrudgingly. “I give you permission to call me whatever you want. Also, what was that pressure?”.

She thought for a bit. “That was one of my skills, called [Gravity Manipulation].”

“I understand. I cannot delay my journey to the forest any longer. For the security and prosperity of my kingdom I will get stronger and achieve glory.” He said, pumping his fist.

“Thank you for opening my mind to my own incompetence. It was a pleasure to meet you Vel.” He said, before leaving the auditorium, presumably to speak to his father, the king.

We most likely underestimated her strength seeing how easily she beat the prince while knowing almost nothing about sword fighting. But the fact that she isn’t hiding her strength makes her less likely to be hostile to the kingdom.

After the duel I showed her the facilities, which she was pleased with, fiddling with various devices and inspecting the runes present. At the end, I showed her the runic library and her smile was so wide I could almost imagine her squealing in happiness.

Chapter Text

{POV: Charybdis ‘Vel’}

I can’t understand it. 

There’s something missing.

I am so close!

My eye darts around as if paranoid. I can literally feel the ‘bag’ under my eye. The only reason my hair hasn’t started to thin and I’m not currently pulling my hair out with my hands is because of my special constitution.

I’ve been in the library 20 days in a row now, only leaving once to drink some more of that delicacy made with berries. I didn’t go there for any other reason of course. 

Why did I feel the need to clarify that?

Stop! You’re getting distracted once again! I shouted in my mind.

Focusing once again in my third read through this particular book, I still couldn’t make sense of the interactions between every single rune I had studied. Sometimes, they wouldn’t interact, and others, they would either highly lower the efficiency of the runic cluster or just block it altogether.

I finished the page and looked around. The various mountains of books on different runes, basic and advanced versions, rune interactions and rune circuits that I had already read at least twice each seemed to stare back as if mocking my inability to fully grasp the subject.

I know I had already reached the quota for the month, which started around 25 days ago. They asked me to create a device that would be part of a bigger machine, being created by many departments in parallel.

My job was to create a way to transmit magicules over long distances with the least amount of mana leakage to the ambient. I was told this was of utmost importance for the overall efficiency of the machine so I took it very seriously.

In the end, my best attempt resulted in a bulky wide cable the width of a fat dwarf’s arm. It still leaked  a small amount of mana, but according to the researchers that studied my creation, it retained around 80% over 10 meters. They called it revolutionary.

I called it a failure and ‘locked’ myself in the Advanced Runic Library, researching a thought that came to my mind. ‘Runic Clusters’. 

The idea is that by grouping runes together in a cluster, eliminating the runic circuitry that would inevitably radiate precious magicules intracluster and then eliminating the circuits intercluster as well, by repeating the pattern of clusters around the first cluster, the efficiency would be maximized as long as the runes were tuned to receive mana not only through people channeling and circuit connections, but also by reabsorbing the ambient mana they lose through normal operation.

This could theoretically create a thin cable, completely carved in a cluster of rune clusters working at transporting magicules with a near 100% efficiency rate.

To explain the design, on the inside of the hollow cable, another opaque cable exists, made of a magic conducting material. Obviously, the whole reason for this project was to avoid using the expensive magisteel as the conductor, so we have to use the second best. Steel.

A normal steel cable retains 60% per 10 meters, so it’s not ideal.

The hollow cable around it would be carved with a runic clusters cluster, using barrier runes to trap the wasted mana from the cable, and simple one-directional magic manipulation runes, that returned the emitted particles back to the inner cable that is carved with simple absorption runes. At a set distance, in the outer cable, ice runes are included to lower the temperature of the steel.

Every mana conductive metal is more efficient the colder it is.

The problem is, the closeness of the runes, and the frequencies they emit clash with one another and they cease to work efficiently. It’s been plaguing me for days and if I ever needed sleep, I would be losing it over this.

I kept reading. Why? I’m not going to give up. I know the answer exists. It has to be somewhere in the books in front of me, so I WILL find it.

<Confirmed>

<Unique Skill [Innovative Mind] acquired>

(It allows the user to make mental connections between unrelated ideas with extreme ease, allowing for much faster problem solving)

<[Innovative Mind] requests subskills>

<[All of Creation] acquired>

(It allows the user to comprehend anything as long as they have a basic understanding of it and it is perceivable to the user.)

<[Parallel Calculation] acquired>

(It allows the user to carry out multiple thought processes simultaneously. Possible applications include the detachment of analysis of phenomena from the user's regular thoughts, and the preservation of consciousness by using additional thought processes as backups.)

<[Thought Acceleration] acquired>

(It allows the user to greatly increase the speed of their thought process. The user can adjust the level of acceleration as needed, as well as extend the effect to other individuals.)

<[Perfect Recall] acquired>

(It enhances the user’s memory capacity to near-infinite levels, allowing them to retain and retrieve vast amounts of information effortlessly.)

<[Runic Telepathy] acquired>

(It allows the user to interact with carved runes in a spherical area around the user, or with runes anchored to an active communication rune connected to the user.)

Oh my God!

As I heard the monotone voice speak to me in its weird cadence, my eye widened like it wanted to leave its socket. My hands liberated handfuls of hair and both fell limply on the table.

I can remember every detail of every page I have ever read perfectly. Be it the creases on the corners or even the different shades of white and yellow marking its age. I remember every single moment of my life, including those spent aimlessly floating around the material plane while trying to resuscitate.

I can have different lines of thought at the exact same time and accelerate them tens of times.

But what I’m more excited to try, while solving my rune cluster problem in parallel is this [Runic Telepathy].

I quickly leave after returning the books to their place with [Gravity Manipulation], running in the direction of the laboratory I work in, before I’m forced to stop or crash into the small figure who stepped in front of me.

“Hey V. How 's it going? You know, I was getting worried when you stormed off and isolated yourself in the library. I’m so glad you seem happier now. You have to tell me what happened.”, the small long haired female dwarf said in an excited tone.

This annoying runt was the one who collaborated with me on the creation of the 80% Mana Channeling Cable, calculating the best positions for the various runes I had to use when creating that disappointment.

Even though she was annoying, I found it hard to leave the slim young dwarf hanging.

“Greetings. I don’t have to tell you anything, but come with me.”. She started following beside me with a wide smile, running to match my long strides. “What do you think of the MCC80?” I asked.

She tilted her head. “Well obviously it was disgustingly inefficient and a complete disappointment, just like you for even taking part in its creation.” she said in an odd biting tone as if she meant the opposite of what she said. Which was weird because I agreed wholeheartedly.

“You are right, and that’s why I had to push myself to find the solution…”, I was interrupted by her voice, but now she was the one that was annoyed.

“Wait. Stop talking. I was being sarcastic. I only said that because you said you believed it was a disappointment and ran away disgusted at yourself 20 days ago…”. We arrived at my door, and I opened it.

We both entered and she continued. “You explained to me your cluster idea, but I have to be honest. I studied runes for four years, and have been working in the department for around 40 years, and all the current knowledge suggests that it is impossible.“

She paused for a second, leaning on the white table in the middle of the room, full of cluster prototypes and damaged MCC80’s. “It was detailed in runic master Rurik’s paper on ‘Interactions Between Runes’, that the interactions are inherently chaotic.”.

I shook my head, disassembling some of the useless contraptions on the table and building something different. “You don’t understand Trygna. They may look random, but there must be some kind of pattern, and now that I’ve reached a breakthrough, I’m gonna prove it…”

The dwarf shook her head and sighed. “Look V. I understand your eagerness in advancing runic technology, after all, when I was young…”

“I’m older than you.”

“... I also dedicated myself to rune advancement, but you are taking it way too far. Sometimes, some things are simply not possible and your attention is more valuable elsewhere.”, she said with a worried expression.

I don’t think I have ever seen someone show worry for me. This is strange.

“Trygna, I acknowledge what you are saying, and I appreciate your concern with me. I think I can trust you somewhat. No one else bothered to relentlessly annoy me when I was obsessed in the library. I want you to put these on.”, I showed her a hastily thrown together prototype.

She looked like she was about to cry. “Oh my god V. That’s so sweet of you!”, and then she analyzed the contraptions in my hands. “... But what are these? You have just slapped some wind runes on two boards and attached a cord. This looks like what a three year old kid would put together in an attempt to fly.”.

My cheeks warmed a bit in embarrassment. “Please trust me and put these on your feet, and then wait over there in the open area.”.

She looked skeptically at me, let a long sigh escape her lips and took the primitive prototypes from my hands. “The only reason I’m doing this is because I also trust you V. Considering what you have achieved with your MCC80, I know about your standards, and you would not make glaring mistakes, even in such rushed work.”. She walked to the middle of the clear test area.

“I need to warn you that, for your safety, you should try to remain straight and not move briskly.” I said before starting a countdown.

She started saying something about that not boosting her confidence, but I was paying more attention to my [Innovative Mind]. I felt every single rune carved in my laboratory and partially in some of my co-workers’.

I focused on the boards the dwarf was wearing. “... two, one, Fly!”.

I willed my magicules to transfer and fuel the wind runes. I felt my reservoir start emptying at a snail’s pace. That wasn’t because wind generation was cheap, but because of my outrageous capacity compared to most everyone else.

And it was only getting more expensive. The amount of wind generation needed to achieve the thrust necessary to lift my little test dummy was very high, and so was the mana cost.

The stacks of paper I had used to write calculations and read rune research were now chaotically flying across the room and some of the lighter machines on the table were getting pushed away from Trygna as she started flying unstably in the middle of the room.

Slightly panicked, but with incredulous eyes, she shouted at me, swaying from side to side as I tried to stabilize her movement, interacting with the runes with my mind. “Woou… What is this?”

Her arms swang in a circular motion, perpendicular to the ground, trying to gain balance in the air, as she tried to understand what was happening.

“Don’t tell me you actually created a Magicule Storing Unit?... Oh… or maybe even a Remote Mana Transmission device?... OOOH!… or maybe even a Magic Generator??? Oh my God, I really shouldn’t have doubted you. You are amazing. Runicol reincarnated even!!! This is revolu…”.

She was getting way too excited. I had to interrupt her hysterical yelling. “I’m sorry to burst your bubble…” I yelled over the wind as my hair flapped about behind me. “... but none of that is true.”.

I stopped transferring magicules to the wind runes and the connection was broken. With the removal of the force holding her up, she fell to the ground with a flip and landed on her feet. 

I continued. “Technically you are right in thinking that it's a form of remote mana transmission, but it’s the result of a skill I have. Unfortunately it is nothing related to runic development. Can you please keep it a secret?”

She looked a little bit disappointed. “Well. It isn’t a breakthrough, but it is still amazing. Of course I will keep it a secret. That’s what friends are for right? They help each other in their times of need.”

Friend huh? I didn’t know we could be considered friends that easily. I guess it won’t hurt to be friends with a mathematical genius like her. She can even help me with any future creations, so at least she’ll be useful.

“So… I’m going drinking for a bit, to relax and clear my mind from trying to solve my cluster problem. After, I’m leaving Dwargon to visit my home for a while. Want to come drink with me?” I decided to ask her for some reason.

About the cluster problem, now that I could recall every book I read perfectly and had processed the information together in parallel, a lot of things became clearer.

A lot of new ideas, mostly about the different ways runes could theoretically be combined to make what in normal magic is called ‘Compound Magic’, and I’ll be calling ‘Compound Runes’, were popping up in my mind. But the main frequency interaction clash problem I had before hasn’t been resolved yet.

She remained silent for a few seconds, thinking. She showed a regretful face. “Unfortunately I can’t come. I’ve got to finish a job that really can’t be delayed…”

She took the flying boards off her feet and placed them on the table. She approached the door, but before opening it, she turned to me.

“Where are you going drinking anyway?”, she asked with a mischievous glint in her eye and a raised eyebrow.

My cheeks heated a little bit and I felt the nonsensical need to hide that I was going to the ‘Butterflies of the Night’. “Umm… in a… drinking store?”

“...”

“...”

She stared at me with a blank face. The heat in my face intensified and I quickly tried to think of an excuse.

I didn’t find one. “Anyways… I’m leaving. Farewell.” I opened the door.

I could hear the mirth in her voice when she said her goodbyes from behind me.

I was walking in the direction of the ‘Butterflies’ when it hit me. I’m an actual idiot. I could have used my mind’s [Thought Acceleration] to come up with an actually believable excuse. Well, what’s done is done. Why did I hide where I was going anyway?

I opened the door. “Hey girls! Vel’s back!” I heard the blonde clingy elf that hugged me on my first time here yell to all the other elves. Just like the first time, she ran at me and I returned her hug with my arms and tail.

The other girls gave some excited cheers as well, and almost immediately, my ‘personal’ table in the right corner had a familiar purple drink.

The night progressed spectacularly. The company and conversation kept me very entertained, but I had to ask a question that had been on my mind since the first day.

“Excuse me, but where do you get the Tyriana manaberries, or the TyriMana Brandy itself from?”

The green eyed, long haired and extremely ‘soft’ blonde elf that always stuck by my side, Elowen, pouted cutely. “Oh… You want to get rid of me already?”, she said with a strange sad voice.

“Wh… What? Of course not. It’s just that it's very expensive and I want to drink it a lot more often.” I said in a slightly panicked voice.

She smiled and snickered. So she was teasing me huh? I need to do something. This transgression cannot go unpunished. “But actually, now that you talk about it, leaving you alone might be for the best. After all, I’m starting to get bored of you.” I said in a monotone voice, putting my elbow on the table and supporting my chin with my hand as if thinking deeply.

Her beautiful green eyes widened in horror and her cute little mouth hung slightly open. “Rea… really?” she exhaled almost imperceptibly, voice wavering.

Now it was my turn to smile widely, looking down at her. Her lovely face was slightly illuminated by a red glow. I laughed loudly, grabbed her with my tail, and pulled her towards me until nothing was in between. I approached my head to her big pointy ear and whispered in a low voice. “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Elowen”.

Her face, now hidden behind her hands, had a rosy tint and when I looked up, everyone in the vicinity was looking at me. Maybe I went too far.

I cleared my throat, drank the rest of my cup and looked at one of the servers. “Excuse me, I have a question. Could you come here?”

She had an amused smile on her face, but answered my question when I asked the same thing. Apparently, the Tyriana Manaberries grow in the Beast Kingdom of Eurazania, sold to Dwargon for processed goods, and then made into brandy here.

Because of its rarity, and very low customer base, due to the toxic effect on weak beings, the amount bought was very small and expensive.

I have a new goal. I’m going to bring my monsters from the east of Jura and make them learn various crafts, like brewing, architecture, blacksmithing, woodworking, weaving and others. If the residents in my territory are skilled enough to build infrastructure like the one in Dwargon, I can live much better than I currently do. This is exciting.

Elowen looked like she had recovered from my teasing and with a strangely happy and determined look continued to converse with me throughout the night.

The next day, feeling refreshed after drinking the whole night, I went into a bookstore, bought a bunch of empty books and some writing utensils and left. Afterwards, I had my bracelet removed and left Dwargon.

Around a month has passed since I left the forest, and I certainly hope they haven’t forgotten to get their tributes ready or there will be hell to pay.

When I was far enough away that no one would see me, I started flying, manipulating gravity to bring the mountain of empty books behind me. I had one in my hands as I zigzagged around trees with one of my thought processes and wrote with another.

The reason I was flying so low was to avoid detection. Afterall, I want to give the impression that ‘Charybdis is dead’ to the rest of the world, except east jura.

I was writing books, because I couldn’t take the important ones out of Dwargon. I wasn’t simply rewriting the books though. With my new abilities, I could write books on rune theory that were hundreds of times more comprehensive and compact, while sharing the same knowledge as the originals. 

I was basically writing a series of books that unified rune theory. Of course, I knew I didn’t know everything. The types of runes I know are as follows: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ice, Barrier, Life, Light, Lightning, Optical, Slowing and Sunlight.

A lot of those are gimmicky, so there aren’t that many useful applications, even though there are so many types.

The more interesting ones that I heard about, mainly from Trygna, like Analysis, Creation, Flight, Gravity, Nuclear, Spatial, Transfer, and Transportation were lost knowledge. At least to the public sector of the dwarves.

So the books I was writing were for example, ‘Fire and Ice: Heat Manipulation’, ‘Water and Wind: Generating Elements’, ‘Earth and its Manipulation’, ‘Runic Barriers, and its Unlimited Applications’, ‘Basic Runic Theory’, etcetera.

It is weird how you can generate and manipulate water and wind, but you can’t generate earth, only manipulate it.

Anyways, these books should be enough to teach most of the basics of runes to the monsters.

On the way, I felt a familiar presence. Gazel Dwargo really was in the forest, though he just seemed to be wondering about. Interesting.

An hour later, I could see the destroyed villages on the border of the Ameld river had mostly been abandoned, so I summoned one megalodon, and ordered it to attack the few that were in the process of rebuilding.

I kept flying, until I reached my clearing where I noticed the various bushes that were there before, but hadn’t started growing fruit. There were various different colored berries, but unfortunately, none of them were the striking Tyriana Manaberry.

I landed in the cave, but before I could do anything, I noticed a big black bear had taken my place. This is unacceptable…

Who would dare try to steal my cave.

When it noticed me, it started running in my direction, with its jaws open as if to crush me with its teeth. This pest can’t be serious can it?

As it reached me, I used enhancement magic on my arms and legs, even though I most likely didn’t need it, and grabbed its jaws. Throwing it to the air, I jumped, flipped in the air and torpedo kicked him with an explosion.

Its body made a crater on the ground where he hit and he started moving to get up. As if I would let him.

I flew and lightly stomped its head under my foot, just enough so that he couldn’t get up. Hh started whining and pointed its rear up to the sky in the universal sign of animal submission.

As I continued adding pressure, he started painfully roaring and thrashing around with its limbs. “No one steals from me ”, I said coldly, as my eye stared at his deforming head.

‘ Spruush ’. Its head exploded, eyes having been launched a few meters out of their sockets. I used life magic to wipe my ‘clothes’, turned around and headed to my cave.

I could have ended the fight in a second with [Wicked Light Ray], but it would have heavily damaged my cave.

I used earth magic and raised a crude stone platform and a table in front of it. I sat, placed all my books down on the side, and on the table, the one I was currently writing.

I relaxed, released my aura and felt better than I ever had. It was like having every single muscle in my body tense for years, and then relaxing them all at once. It felt liberating.

I continued writing and waited for Naga to inevitably arrive.

Chapter Text

{POV: Charybdis ‘Vel’}

I felt Naga in the forest, moving slowly through the forest with a few other serpents. Her presence felt much different since a month ago when I left. My naming her must have evolved her to a less pathetic race.

Coincidentally, I just finished writing the book, ‘Basic Rune Circuit Theory’ so I signed it as ‘C.Vel’, like the others and added it to the pile.

I stood up, used earth magic and made my stone chair and table return to the ground. I turned, and was stunned by the lamia’s figure.

It wasn’t a problem before, but the ragged cloths they used for clothing really left nothing to the imagination. Serpents didn’t have breasts, but apparently, lamias do. And big ones.

Behind Naga, some of her servants, riding volpins, were pulling a small platform on wheels carrying what I assumed were my tributes. There were various colorful old books, two magic staves, one big and one small, a small bag and a golden sword.

The fact that one of the seven main villages already had to resort to a gold tribute meant that they were desperate and didn’t have anything else they could give me to my specifications. Also, they could have absolutely carried all of this in their hands or in a bag, but they did their best to make it feel like an official visit to royalty.

They all bowed in front of me, waiting for me to address them.

“Hello Naga. How have the villages reacted to my presence?”

The beautiful lamia straightened. “My lady. I gathered all the seven leaders of the war alliance, including me, and informed them of your claim over the area and the protection you’ve offered us. Everyone complied with your requirements.”

Her mouth twisted in a small scowl, before returning to normal. “We tried to use our rudimentary knowledge in runes to teach more people, so they could create better runic devices for you, but we didn’t get very far.”

She stepped to the side, and gestured to the wooden plank on wheels. “The books are all material in runes from the central village, my village, and the other two serpent centric villages. There are also a few books on magic and the big staff, from the gnome village. The small staff is from the goblin village, the bag that has more capacity than its appearance suggests is an old artifact from the gnolls of the north and the golden sword is from the gnolls of the south…”

She joined her hands behind her back, pushing her chest up, as I scrutinized the items. They gathered everything I asked for, but they most likely won’t have many more of the required items. I have to discard the idea of tributes and teach them the skills needed for them to eventually be useful to me.

“Alright. This is acceptable. I want you to gather the seven leaders in the central village in seven days. I have some orders to give.”

I had a few ideas to incorporate among my subordinates. For example, in ‘honor’ of the seven war leaders, I would give them names, except Naga, who is already named, and then create a tradition where once a year, a tournament would take part to select seven unnamed candidates for me to name.

Naga gave me a small smile. “Oh. The Seven are already at the central village. They stayed after bringing in your tributes out of curiosity to meet you.”, she said in a cheerful voice.

Interesting. That speeds things up. “That’s convenient. Prepare everyone in the central village for an audience with me tomorrow. I have some new rules to announce. Also, take this werebear, and do whatever you want with it.”

Naga bowed once again. “Certainly, my lady. We are thankful for your benevolence.”

I smiled and nodded. She deposited the offerings on the side of the cave, helped the other serpents carry the body of the wolf to the mobile platform and left.

I raised my temporary workstation again, and continued writing my books on basic runes with my right hand, and read the new runic books with my left. These were about unproven theories, basically educated hypotheses about what could be possible in the future. Some serpentfolk must have had a fertile imagination on runes.

The most interesting book detailed interactions between runes in a remote connection, with no circuit. According to all known laws of runeology, there is no way for controlled remote mana transmission to exist, but it was still somewhat interesting and maybe plausible, so I filed the information away for later research in the future.

While I write and read, I’m also thinking through what kinds of rules or laws I should set for my domain. First, to encourage advancement, for the sake of my own comfort, I want to adopt a system where skilled people, and not just strong people are put into higher positions or given more amenities.

Second. No one leaves or enters Jura, east of the Ameld without my express permission. My existence must remain secret to the outside for now. Most human nations and even monster’s would be antagonistic to me, especially with my recent unconscious attacks. For this, I’m going to have to design a complex barrier with optical runes, to confuse and rout any unwanted visitors.

Those are my basic ideas for right now. Maybe to encourage unity, I should give a name to my territory, like the kingdoms do. At least it would be better than always saying ‘east of the Jura Forest’.

What should I call it? It’s not like it’s that important. I can always change it in the future, so I will just simply call it ‘Velest’. Not after my fake name, but after the legendary spear, that also symbolizes wisdom or knowledge, called ‘Vel’.

I looked to the horizon. The sun was rising over the horizon just as I was finishing my last book, titled ‘Communication Runes and its Applications’, and signed it.

All of the empty books were now filled with my basic knowledge on runes, piled in a stack. I floated them behind me and flew in the direction of Naga’s village.

The decrepit wooden houses in the central village really were in stark contrast to the stone buildings in the dwarf nation. Even worse is the fact that this is the most advanced village in Velest. It just goes to show that I need to urgently teach or gain a subordinate with construction skills.

There was a crowd of people from the different east races gathering in front of a small raised wooden platform. Naga was speaking to the villagers in the podium, with two serpentfolk, two gnolls, one goblin and one gnome behind her. I suppose those must be the seven leaders of the alliance.

As I lowered myself to the ground, I heard several gasps from the crowd. I landed on Naga’s right and stood there for a second, waiting to be announced by Naga.

She cleared her throat. “Everyone. This is our new ruler, Lady Charybdis.”, she said in a serious tone of voice.

As I expected, no applause was given to me, like I’ve seen done, as a dead spirit, when kings or just the royal family in general are announced in some other nations. I was no queen after all. I coldly observed them, my single eye sweeping every face in front of me.

They were not very impressive right now, but they would be after a few years, if I had a say in it. And I had, being the leader of the territory these puny monsters lived on.

I adopted the authoritative tone most monarchs used when addressing their subjects. It was important that no dumb individuals got funny ideas of going against me, believing to have some kind of chance.

“Greetings, my subordinates. Things are going to change in the east Jura forest now that all of its territory has been claimed by me. Some of you may be scared of the Storm Dragon, Veldora, but I assure you, he is not going to be a problem. After all, he is my father.” I paused, to let their inferior minds process the information.

The crowd stopped whispering and muttering to each other as I cleared my throat. “The first thing I am going to change is naming my territory for the sake of convenience…”. “From now on, the Great Jura Forest, to the east of the Great Ameld River shall be known as ‘Velest’. My hope is that in the future, it can be recognized as a nation, and become the ‘Kingdom of Velest’, but that is in the future.”

The murmuring got louder, more annoying, and after a long moment, I flared up my aura as a reminder that I could completely destroy this village in a single second if such was my will. They stood in silence yet again.

“Now, I am going to set a few rules for the people living in Velest. Number one, I will reward those under me that show the most ability on a specific craft. This can range from fighting strength, spell crafting, rune engineering, to weaving clothes. Any ability that can be of value to me is recognized under this first law.”

“Also, in honor of the seven main village leaders, I will be naming them, and creating a tournament, which I will call, ‘The Tournament of the Unnamed 7’. At the end of each year, I will name the six people who contributed the most and also the winner of the tournament.” Behind me, I heard six excited gasps.

“Number two. I prohibit anyone from leaving or entering Velest. I don’t need to explain myself, but I will, for the sake of the slowest among you. You were just in a losing war. If we are discovered to be uniting and becoming stronger, an execution force will come from somewhere, or everywhere, to stop the threat that we can represent in the future. Only with my permission will any of you be leaving.”

Some people looked slightly annoyed, but I suppose most of them have never even thought of leaving the forest, so it isn’t that much of an imposition.

“As I look around at the shabby buildings you have erected, I realize the extent of your puny construction expertise. So, I offer an opportunity for you to learn a craft. Form lines from my left to my right in accordance with the order of the crafts you wish to learn. Runes, Magic, Fighting, Masonry, Blacksmithing, Weaving, Woodworking and Cooking.” 

I waited as they organized themselves in the lines I asked for. “Before I start explaining how your teaching is going to work, I will start with the first ‘naming of the seven’.” I announced as I called them by their alliance titles.

“Leader number 2. The orange serpent. Come here to receive your name.”

She looked surprised, for some reason, still not believing this course of events. “Certainly.” she said, excitedly sliding until she reached me.

“Tell me. Except for runes and combat, which of the professions I said interests you?” I asked the black and orange snake.

“... I have sometimes imagined grand structures described in our ancestors' books and how I could design even grander ones, so I guess that would be masonry.”, she said, somewhat shyly.

“Your guess is incorrect. I will name you Raven and you will be taught architecture, the art of designing buildings. Your most important project will be to design a majestic castle for me to eventually live in. You will also teach masonry when you are ready to do so to the villagers that chose it.”.

She smiled. “I accept the name you have given me gratefully.”, she beamed as she shone.

It took me around 20 minutes to name all six individuals. The green snake, Esmeralda, was interested in weaving, the old goblin, Eggcell, was interested in cooking, and the little big gnome, Kolussos, was the best magician in the forest. The gnolls only really liked fighting, but at least the one with two functional eyes, Cackll, was amenable to learn blacksmithing. The other I named Sturbbun, after the word ‘stubborn’, as the one eyed hyena only accepted fighting. Naga chose to learn runes.

Naming was said to be dangerous for the name giver, but this was only if the unnamed was powerful enough. Naming a weakling didn’t drain me much, but if I were to name everyone in the village, I could be permanently damaged. That’s why I decided on seven names a year. If I were to invent a method to store mana, I could perhaps name everyone, but I don’t know if I could do it, or would want to do it.

I turned around to the crowd, slightly annoyed after naming Sturbbun, but not showing anything in my face. “This is how you are going to learn to be useful to me. Through the course of multiple months, I am going to bring the subordinates I have named with me to the Armed Nation of Dwargon. I will pay for their education completely and then, when they come back, they will start working and teaching you all.”

The villagers stared attentively at me as I spoke. “I am going to reiterate that you are free to act according to your will, as long as you follow the rules I have outlined. However, if you don’t work, or don’t show results, I am not going to pay you in any way. Be that food, position, name or power. Think carefully about how much you will apply yourselves to study under the seven. After all, any of you can rise to their position with good results.”

I paused a second, gauging their reactions. They were unsurprisingly positive. I didn’t have to fight for a name, but I imagine that any monster would want one with the power that it represented. “Naga will teach you runes, Raven will teach masonry, Esmeralda will teach weaving, Eggcell will teach cooking, Kolussos will teach magic and Cackll will teach blacksmithing. Warrior training will be handled by Sturbbun.”

“Naga, Kolussos and Sturbbun, don’t need to come to Dwargon, as they will learn from the books I’ve written. Except for Sturbbun who already knows how to fight.”, I floated my books, split them, with the great majority being about runes and so, landed in front of the lamia. The rest floated towards the gnome.

“After the initial learning stage in the central village, we will send teachers to the other villages while we build a bigger settlement, more central to Velest itself and not just close to the Ameld. That will be our capital, where we will prosper and become the best nation in the world!” I proclaimed louder in the end. A rapturous applause and loud cheering echoed through the plains.

I didn’t want to build a kingdom for the comfort of my subjects, but can you imagine the luxuries I could obtain by being the wealthiest queen in the realm? I could taste all kinds of delicacies, maybe even better than Tyrimana Brandy. I could have any amount of gold to thrash around in. The technology would constantly evolve, sating my curiosity of what’s possible and giving me even more comforts. I almost drooled at the thought.

After that whole ordeal, and after telling the seven that tributes were no longer necessary, Naga immediately went home to study my books, and so did Kolussos. Most people returned to everyday life, except the warriors, now training under Sturbbun, probably harder than ever according to their shouting. I decided I would bring two at a time with me to Dwargon to avoid suspicion.

I stayed in Velest a few more days, to study the magic staves gifted to me. Staves were made from a magical material, normally the heart of a monster, and then stabilized with special wood with secret crafting methods. They basically helped control the mana and gave a slight amplification to the power of the spell.

The staves I was inspecting didn’t have any runes, but I could already imagine that if I created one with runes, it could become many times more powerful. Explaining the creation process like this is easy, but actually crafting one is much harder than it looks, because of the magical instability of monster parts.

I also believed that the monster core could be substituted for a magically conducive material, like magisteel, and with the addition of runes, you could create pre-loaded effects or amplify the power of normal spells.

Anyways, I wasn’t much of a fan of staves. They were normally bulky and cumbersome to carry. Plus I didn’t need the small power boost it gave me when I could construct a spell quicker barehanded or just use a skill.

In the end I decided to bring Raven and Esmeralda to Dwargon first, for no particular reason. They needed time to learn, and time was one of the things I had the most of. Raven evolved into a lamia, with skills focused on fire. She now had black hair, orange at the ends, and an attractive body, just like Naga, except she was a bit less gifted in the chest.

Esmeralda was much the same, except her hair was a gradient of dark green to a lighter shade of green. Their tails stayed the same as before.

Gnomes are a very interesting species. Their main method of survival is to ally with someone else, infect them with the spores they can release, and create a symbiotic relationship with them, supporting them with powerful buffing magic, to the benefit of both. 

They also have a way to attack that isn’t very efficient, but can be powerful when combined with the aforementioned ally. They can create a parasitic relationship by infecting the enemy and then weakening them with weak nerfing magic.

Kolussos was a very smart individual, and was one of the few inferior monsters that already possessed a skill prior to naming and evolution. He was very intelligent, perhaps because he had [sage], or perhaps he had [sage] because he was already very clever.

After naming the little man, he evolved into a Deep Gnome. They were given this name because they were mostly found in deep caverns underneath the earth. Deep Gnomes are also known for their affinity to earth magic, so I look forward to seeing what his meager strength will yield.

Contrary to the Lesser Gnomes, which the majority of them were, his beady blue eyes were now a bit bigger, his ears even longer than before in a conical shape, the color of his facial hair transformed from gray to orange, as if he had been rejuvenated from an old man to a young adult. Only his height didn’t change, as he kept being only slightly taller than the others.

Eggcell, the old goblin, was also looking much younger and bigger than before. He had evolved into a hobgoblin. Basically just a big goblin with muscles. A human with green skin and small pointy ears.

Cackll and Sturbbun had grown a bit, standing now clearly taller than me by at least two heads. Their fur had shortened, but their hides were noticeably tougher and their muscles more defined.

Looking at all of them, it became clear that our monster congregation needed a skilled weaver. The clothes everyone was wearing almost only covered their private parts and were in terrible condition, ripped and full of holes. I wouldn’t even call them clothes.

I also wanted some good clothes for myself. The current ones, besides not being ‘real’, offered no protection and weren’t very stylish for a monster leader.

My reflection only made my decision of starting with Esmeralda seem more justified, and so, at the end of the day, me, Emeralda and Raven were flying in the direction of the Armed Nation of Dwargon.

Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t fly, so I was manipulating the gravity for all three of us on our quick journey. I left Naga in charge, because my books were easy to learn from, so that would relieve her teaching duties and give more time for village administration. We were already planning and designing the future capital of Velest, a very time expensive endeavor in which the seven and myself would work on for the next few years.

Before arriving in Dwargon I felt Gazel Dwargo’s aura again, in the middle of the forest. I suppose he must really be taking his training seriously.

When we arrived, the army that had departed around a month ago, when I first arrived, was returning with a giant fish. A lot of them were injured and that was not even speaking of those not present. If I strained my senses, I could ‘hear’ parts of what they were saying.

My aura almost exploded out of me, completely losing control, when I heard one of the pathetically weak and inferior dwarf soldiers say that they had slain Charybdis itself. How could someone even so much as compare this mere Megalodon with my majestic self.

The only reason why I walked past without exploding his head off was the mental image of the humanoid fire dragon that almost killed me before I became self-aware. If not her, then any number of other heroes could appear. I hadn’t heard of the demise of demon lord Milim Nava for example. She had killed me once, and having not been killed yet, she would live forever.

Upon entry, Esmeralda and Raven had to put the bronze colored bracelets on because of a lack of ID. The color was different from the one I had previously but their purpose was the same. Perhaps they were a weaker version meant for the more frail monsters.

I couldn’t pay for their ID, or to the local artisans to teach their valuable skills to random monsters, so that meant I had to make some money.

I thought about selling my scales once again, but that would be suspicious, as even the army only found the lone megalodon in the forest. I heard that books could give a pretty big profit, by selling publishing rights to a publisher, they would sell the book to a wide audience and take a share of the profits in return.

For educational or scientific books, there was a clause on the law that gave them priority, as long as they were found to be accurate and useful by a qualified evaluator. The better the book the better the initial pay, and most likely, the higher the overall profits as well.

While I waited for the evaluation of my mountain of books, which should take a few days if what the publisher told me was right, I gave a gold coin to each of my subordinates, for food and a bed, and went to the advanced library to further my understanding of runes. Particularly, the barrier, light and optical runes, for my project of a repelling barrier to erect around Velest.

My books on the basics of runes were approved after a few days, and I got a massive deal. They called my books masterpieces and offered three gold coins upfront, per book, and 35% royalties, for a contractual period of ten years. With the little research I had done, this was an insane amount of money and royalties to be offering, and the only difference to more traditional contracts, was the period, which was on average three to five years.

Leaving the publisher building almost 30 gold coins heavier, totaling at 38 with the few I had saved, a big smile on my face, I immediately spent half on IDs for my little snakes and then a bit more to secure some famous artisans, known for clothes weaving and grand architecture, to teach them. It wasn’t cheap, but with the stream of money that would now pour in from my books, I wasn’t much concerned.

The last absolutely necessary thing to do was visiting the ‘biggest’ ‘Butterfly’ and drinking through the night.

Chapter Text

{POV: Elowen}

It’s been nine days since Vel departed. After our last encounter, I decided to ask for a demotion from the boss. It was awkward. Apparently I’m the first employee ever to ask for a demotion instead of a promotion.

I simply couldn’t stand to entertain any other customers when my heart had settled on a special person. It was weird that it was a female. I had been taught that it only worked between opposite sexes, but I couldn’t ignore my heart anymore. Clearly she also liked me, I think, or she wouldn’t keep coming back. Right?

So I was now on bartending duty. I was wearing a black dress with a wide, knee length skirt, over a frilly white shirt. A dark green bowtie sat under my neck. When I looked in the mirror, I knew I was still very attractive. The uniform did not hide the curves in my body, but it did hide the skin. I just hope she likes it.

When I appeared at work the day after, all my colleagues gave me weird looks. A uniform was not required, and it was actively encouraged that we wore the most attractive clothing possible, but I didn’t want others to ‘see’ me now. Only one person should see.

When I think of Vel and take into consideration her mannerisms and cadence, it reminds me of a member of an old royal family. Even if she isn’t that high up, she is definitely a noble. Her simple clothes, that are probably a disguise, would never fool me. They were too high quality to belong to a normal person.

Her ancestry just gave me even more anxiety than being the same sex as her did. Not only would she have to be attracted to women, she would also have to choose me, an uneducated plebeian compared to her. And even worse, she was much more powerful than me, meaning she might not be interested in someone who can’t even compare to her.

That’s why I have been reading books on history and magic. History, to discover where a one eyed, shark-tailed species might come from and magic because elves are supposed to have big mana reserves compared to other species, and I need to become stronger to at least be worthy of her company.

I didn’t find a single mention of her species, the drakolodon, in the books I read. Besides Veldora’s rampages, or a big elven kingdom being destroyed overnight, there weren’t many interesting situations in the books.

The books on magic didn’t make much sense. The wording was confusing, the circles drawn didn’t seem to work well and the incantations were a bit ridiculous. I mean, what’s the point of casting magic, if your opponent could close the distance while you chanted? Overall, the methods as written in the book were highly convoluted, and hindered the learning experience.

With those I would probably need 2 years to decently learn a single spell, and 100 to 500 years to do the same with a whole category of spells. While I was relatively young for an elf, being 56 this year, I didn’t have 100 years to waste. Vel would definitely forget me if I stayed weak for so long.

Fortunately, when I visited the library yesterday, trying to find a more comprehensive magic book to borrow, there was a gathering of intellectual looking people around a shiny bookshelf, lined with golden brass, probably made to look like gold, without costing the same as gold. The bookshelf was beautiful, with very interesting designs carved around it.

There was a slot for a plaque on the top, but the plaque was missing, leaving me to guess what the books were about. I decided to approach the intellectuals, excitingly discussing some kind of intricacies on runic magic.

When they noticed me, one of them apologized and they moved to the side, revealing the books for me to see.

There were tens of copies of the same nine books filling the bookshelf. That was weird, because normally the library only carried one or maybe two copies of each book. Six of the books were on magical runes, which was not what I was looking for. The other three covered ‘Aspectual Magic’.

I took one of the copies of ‘Essentials of Aspectual Magic’, and opened it. My eyes started widening further and further as I read the long book. It was surprisingly easy to understand. I was expecting something even harder than the others, considering the people gathering around this shelf, but I was totally blown away by the simplicity of the book.

Which was not to say the book didn’t go in depth. It covered the basic elements, Earth, Water, Wind, Fire and Ice, and described in minute detail everything that was needed to cast each type of magic.

Feeling extremely excited and with a smile on my face, I used the mental image detailed in the page I was in, and used the mana invocation method present at the beginning of the book.

I was almost blown out of my feet by the strong wind current that generated from my left palm that was directed to my face in an attempt to feel a light current of air on my cheek. My hair flapped about with the force of the wind. When it stopped, I felt a bit tired. I must have forgotten to control the output of my mana.

The book was so amazing, I immediately borrowed it for a slightly higher fee than normal and went home, ignoring the looks from the researchers that were talking before.

I read until I collapsed with my face on the book. I woke up and read until it was time to work. I read when there were quiet periods in the ‘Butterflies of the Night’. I was so fascinated by the magic I had done yesterday that literally nothing could distract me from the book.

It was now night-time, not that that changed that much underground, but still. I am curious. The other books had a completely different writing style, almost seeming pretentious. Did someone famous write this one? I flipped to the end of the book to check.

‘C.Vel’

My mind was blank for a second. This is probably just an enormous coincidence right? Besides, ‘my’ Vel doesn’t have two names. Unless she was from the nobility as I thought, and only gave me her last name. That would indeed make sense. But then, that would mean that her first name starts with ‘C’. She must not be comfortable with sharing her first name.

The door opened with a chime, and when I looked up from the book, I saw the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen. Her single eye seemed pleased with my presence, thankfully, and her tail trembled very slightly like it normally does when I hug her.

With a smile, I point her to her usual table and turn to Lorelai, the other bartender and whisper. “You wouldn’t mind manning the bar alone for a few hours, would you?”.

She smiled knowingly and I felt my cheeks warm up. “Of course not. Now I see why you would want to be demoted to a less conspicuous position.”, she whispers back in a playful voice.

I wanted to retort, but I didn’t have time to waste on such insignificant matters, so I quickly prepared two drinks, one TyriMana brandy, just like Vel loves it, and a red cocktail for me. I brought them to the table and sat down. She gave me a smile and wrapped her tail around me, as always.

“Hello Elowen. You seem different today. Care to tell me what changed?”, she asked me in a cheerful voice. Something good must have happened for her to be so happy.

The smooth scales of her tail, that turned from extremely hard to soft when it embraced me, reminded me of what she said last time. ‘You won’t get rid of me that easily, Elowen’. The way her eye shone red as she said my name in that husky voice so close to my ear… Just remembering it makes me feel hot.

“I decided that I didn’t want to entertain customers anymore, so I changed to bartending.” I said thoughtlessly.

She looked at me skeptically. “Hmm… But aren’t you tending to me and not the bar right now?”, she said with perfect logic.

I’m so stupid. Why did I say that? Now I need a believable excuse.

Having difficulty finding one, I went for the second best strategy, behind lying. Avoiding the issue entirely. “Ahm… I… Well, anyways, I was wondering if you liked writing books?”. She looked at me like my weak deflection was ridiculous, which it was, but ignored it and answered me.

“It can be somewhat pleasurable to write, and especially to be recognized. But I suppose when my books are so clearly superior to all the others, it is to be expected.”, she said in a smug voice.

The pride she held for herself and the tone of voice she used when speaking were enchanting, and every time I spoke to her, I just felt myself falling deeper and deeper.

Also, for her to speak so highly of her own work means that she must have a lot of experience. The chances of her being ‘C.Vel’ are now extremely high in my opinion. I guess I should ask her personally, since she is right beside me.

“I just ask because I found this amazing book on magic, and the author is one ‘C.Vel’.” I said.

I felt her tail tense around me for a second, and she clicked her tongue, looking annoyed. I must have messed up by confronting her about her hidden identity. 

“... I forgot I signed it like that. I wasn’t thinking of publishing them when I wrote them…”, she murmured to herself in a quiet voice I could only barely hear.

That confirms it. She really is ‘C.Vel’. I’m not gonna pry into her secret right now, but I hope she can one day tell me her secrets. 

She composed herself and looked at me. “I didn’t know you were interested in magic.”, she stated, obviously trying to change subjects.

I decided to not press her on this, just like she did to me less than a minute ago. “Well, you see. I believe I’m too weak. I need to get stronger in order to achieve my goals.”, I said, determined to improve.

“I agree with you. I have seen a few elves wandering around Dwargon, but never did I feel one that was even close to the strength they displayed thousands of years ago.”, she said.

That stung a bit. I guess either we have devolved, or we simply don’t need to be as strong as we needed to before, and therefore, we don’t work hard at obtaining strength. I have to work much harder than I ever have, to meet her expectations of what an elf is truly capable of, and to stand by her side as an equal.

“You seem very determined to achieve this goal you have set for yourself. I admire your determination. If you want, and promise not to waste my precious time, I can agree to train you on magic when we are both free.”, she said with a curious glint in her eye.

Oh my god. She is willing to waste her time on someone like me? I really can’t disappoint her now. “If you are okay with it, I will give it my all to not disappoint you.”, I said, looking at her, giving her my most determined look.

She smiled. “Very well then. I will make sure to have time available for you.”, she said happily.

Her smile lit up her face in a beautiful way. The only time her face was even prettier than right now, was when she smiled sadistically with a red shiny eye at me and told me I wouldn’t be rid of her any time soon.

One of the only other places my eyes would rather roam, than her face, was her chest. It was a bit smaller than mine, but that was perfect. Their category was ‘Big Medium’, according to the ‘Interspecies Breast Size Category Committee’, and as I heard some vulgar men saying, ‘medium is premium’. They were perfect, according to the proportions of her curvy body.

My eyes must have wandered with my mind, as I was taken back to reality by her voice.

“Are you alright? Why are you looking down?”. Concern present in her voice.

I looked up and smiled. ”Everything is better than fine. Would you like to play another game of chess and look at the new dresses in ‘Fashion Weekly’?”

She smiled competitively down at me. “For sure, and this time I will win. The trap you set last time was definitely devious, but I’ve gone through it several times in my mind and I will never fall for it again.”

Vel improves extremely quickly, and I know she will eventually surpass me in chess. But not yet. My father taught me the game over several decades and I’m not about to be bested by a novice. No matter how beautiful she is.

“Prepare yourself to lose in a different way then, Vel, because I’m not letting you win.”. I placed my white pawn in the center of the board and smirked at my opponent.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She said with a lopsided grin of her own that made my heart skip, even if I knew I would defeat her completely in a few hours.

The moments we shared together were the best of my otherwise monotone life. I wish they could last forever, even though I knew I was not enough to stand by her side.

Chapter Text

{POV: Charybdis ‘Vel’}

A few years have passed since I first stepped foot in Dwargon and life has been mostly repetitive.

In the dwarven nation, I, ‘Vel’, kept working successfully for the department of technology, now a Senior Runic Engineer, I headed a small team of engineers in the projects handed to me. I didn’t even need the salary anymore, because of the revenue generated by my books, but I kept working, in order to use the laboratories and other facilities for my private runic research.

Now that I was up to date with the current public dwarven knowledge on runes, I had to actually experiment and research in order to find new uses and applications for runes, and to further the currently incomplete general runic theory.

My subordinates were learning at a steady pace, and were already able to teach the basics to all the useless monsters living in my territory.

After the fiasco that was the Magicule Accelerator project, for which I created the MCC80s, the whole project was shelved. Apparently, they did not realize how big and expensive the contraption would have to be to work, and they did not have the resources to finalize it.

Even through that failure, my cables actually sprouted an idea for a bigger project. The ManaWeb project consisted of creating a wide network of cables that connected the citizens of Dwargon to Ambient Mana Absorber Centrals, giving every household a stable source of a powerful mana current to power the more complex machines that normal people couldn’t activate for significant periods of time.

This is a very big project that is predicted to take a few decades of work until completion. Me and my team were assigned a permanent spot on the ManaWeb development, and were currently trying to upgrade the efficiency of the cables.

Everyone around me thought I had given up on rune clusters, they thought it was some kind of weird naive obsession that was better left behind. Privately I kept researching, but frustratingly, I wasn’t able to create one as of yet.

In Velest, I, ‘Charybdis’, had ordered for the creation of fields, to grow various types of food. The reasons for this were twofold. First, in order to grow Tyriana manaberry, a very rich soil was needed, and second, a high density of ambient magicules was also required. To achieve the second point, I needed a bigger monster population, and for that, I needed enough food to feed a bigger population.

The goblins, realizing they now had more than enough food for survival, started copulating like rabbits. Their population was growing so quickly, that I had to create one of the first laws of Velest.

The Excessive Goblin Population law states that a female goblin may have no more than one child in their life and may only get pregnant after their 25th birthday. Named goblins, or evolutions of the species are not affected by this law.

They were not the only ones repopulating, but all other races did so at a much more desirable pace. Except the serpentfolk. The development of the eggs was very slow, and once the egg was outside, it required a great amount of magicules from the parents, incapacitating at least one of them for years.

Only one puny, but cute little serpent baby had hatched, but he was much stronger than all babies from other races, so the time he took to be born was debatably worth it.

During this time, Naga came to me with a beautiful rainbow colored crystal that the miners had found. It was called Bismuth, and its form was very angular. The stair-shaped, rectangular spirals that composed the metal made it look like some kind of ancient complex building.

It wasn’t very common, but it wasn’t as rare as magic ore for example. We had apparently found some, but to the blacksmith, Cackll’s knowledge,  it was very brittle and so, not useful in weapons. Its mana transferring speed was the slowest of all known metals, and so it was considered a useless trinket.

After some experimentation, I found that, despite it being very slow at absorbing, it was equally as slow at releasing. With some absorption runes, carefully calibrated and connected so I could channel and absorb separately, I had created the first prototype of a Magicule Storage Device.

After a few months, with various different materials and runes, I finished the MSD. It was a gray rectangular prism that fit in my palm. The mana it stored could be absorbed for immediate use by an individual, or by a machine created with an MSD port. Of course, currently there were none with one of those.

I could also name more monsters with less risk to myself if I used enough MSD units, depending on the strength of the unnamed.

If Trygna knew about this, she would definitely squeal with happiness, but unfortunately for her, I will keep this exclusively in Velest for now.

In the center of my territory, the first city of Velest was being erected. In the middle, a gigantic space was left for the majestic castle of my dreams, still being designed by Raven, and around it, many different buildings, with different purposes, connected by wide roads.

It was still in the early stages, but many monsters already lived in the completed smaller houses, and worked in the forges, laboratories, boutiques, kitchens, training areas, and others. I could already imagine the grandeur of my first city when it’s completed.

I was working on the creation of a remote monitoring device that I could use with my subskill, [Runic Telepathy], when I noticed a stronger than average aura that I did not recognize.

“Naga. I’m going to leave for a second. Keep working on the runic sensor.”. I turned my back to the table full of various metals, carved with different runes and Naga, that was currently carving lines connecting analysis and communication runes to an Information rune.

The lamia paused for less than a second. “Yes my lady. Please enjoy your peaceful stroll through the woods.”. Her voice was full of mirth as she teased me, implying I was simply being lazy.

My closest subordinates, mainly the pale snake I was leaving behind, had gotten over the initial shock of my incredible power and acted in a more personal, but still respectful way towards me. For some reason I didn’t particularly mind the extra warmth in her voice recently.

I took off, flying through the sky in the direction of the forest. Some of the monsters living in Velest had asked me why I didn’t use my wings, even though they made me go faster and move more nimbly through the air. The reason wasn’t very deep. I simply didn’t feel like using them most of the time. They also made me a bigger target and easier to see in the sky.

Below the canopy of the trees, I spotted two figures. One of them was an unnamed gnoll that liked to hunt alone, and the other, had long gray ears and was dressed with a beaked yellow mask, an expensive looking white overcoat, yellow undershirt with a red bowtie and green pants. I focused on hearing what they were saying.

The masked ‘gray elf’, as I decided to call him, was gesticulating all over the place, pointing his cane everywhere, seemingly frustrated. “...What do you mean you don’t want a name from me? I am millions of times stronger than you, a god in comparison to your feeble self. I offer you the path to unlimited power and you refuse it? Can you not understand the folly in which you are engaging?...”.

Before he could continue in his delusional rant, the gnoll answered him. “You are much weaker than my leader. And she promised to give me a name if I beat the others. That’s why I'm in the forest alone, to get stronger faster than the other cowards.”.

That was probably a bad thing to say in front of such a prideful narcissist. My opinion was validated when he raised his left hand, forming a pink [Mana Bullet] and yelled “DIE” as he released it. I descended quickly in order to stop the bullet while the gnoll futilely tried to jump away from the trajectory of the attack.

“Boom” , a little crater formed in the ground beneath my feet, as I stopped the weak attack with a small magic shield. The gnoll stared wide eyed like an idiot before I told him to leave. As he ran, I looked at the masked individual in front of me, who stared back in silence. I imagine him standing there, open mouthed at my glorious appearance.

He adjusted his white top hat and cleared his throat. “You must be his leader… Um… As a fellow powerful being like myself, I’m sure you understand that all I wanted was to help, am I right?...”. The change in his attitude made me smirk at him, and I crossed my arms under my chest.

I didn’t believe him for a second, but for the sake of figuring out why this guy was offering a random monster something as important and risky as a name, I pretended to. “Oh, absolutely. I’m sure there is no nefarious plan behind your actions. Although, I am curious about your reasons for doing this.”

He shifted slightly, twirling his cane in his fingers slowly, probably to hide his nervousness in front of my vastly reduced aura. “Yes, well. I believe it’s only polite to introduce ourselves first, before we continue. My name is Gelmud”.

He was probably just trying to gain time for something, either waiting for reinforcements or to think of a good excuse for threatening a subordinate of mine.

“Excuse my rudeness then. My name is ‘Vel’. I’m sure it’s a pleasure for you to meet me, Gelmud.”. He held a guarded stance, holding his cane very tightly with his gloved hand. “I would like for you to tell me why you’re giving names to random unremarkable monsters in the middle of the forest?.”

He really isn’t in the mood to answer my question, going by how far the cane is being buried in the ground from the force of his hand. “Well, miss Vel, it’s simple, really. I’m doing this because…”, he suddenly jerks his head, looking over my head, points his cane at the sky and yells in a desperate voice. 

“CHARYBDIS”

What??? What does he mean? I was completely stunned for a second. It’s not possible for me to be behind myself? Did he somehow figure out who I am? How would he even do that?

‘Boom’ , another explosion sounded in front of me, and a big cloud of dirt rose from the ground. I could no longer see him, but I felt him running away and taking flight.

I turned my [Thought Acceleration] to the maximum and the fleeing coward’s body stayed almost static mid-air.

This lucky fool chose my name to distract me. The probability that he would say one of the only names that could stun me like this must be astronomically small.

And then, this disgusting, weak piece of garbage believes he can run away from the Great Charybdis ? I could catch this weakling in a second and destroy him in the same length of time. And I really want to do so as well, but, logically, he is definitely in service to someone else, and if I want to figure out who is looking for trouble in my territory, and eliminate said threat, it would be wiser to simply follow him.

Reducing the speed of my thoughts to a more normal level, I flew behind the arrogant elf, keeping my distance and using light magic to hide myself to the best of my ability. At one point, the coward looked behind him. Not seeing my form, distorted by magic and hiding in the canopies of the forest, he exhaled deeply and changed direction, turning to Jistav and flying away.

Very interesting. What does the dark elf country want in my father’s forest? I don’t really see what the demon lord of curses would want from the forest. It’s much more work than it’s worth for him. There must be some kind of deeper reason behind it.

It could be a resource shortage, however unlikely that was, if the legends of the elves preserving their advanced technology in the city of Amrita were true. It could be a political reason, to gain power with the other demon lords. It could be a foolishly ambitious territory expansion. There were a lot of possible reasons, but I don’t have enough information to make a good guess.

The masked idiot landed, in a small clearing, and a small masked pink clown appeared from behind the trees. Were these imbeciles part of some kind of intelligence gathering group? The masks did hide their identity, but that didn’t necessarily mean they were spies. At least Gelmud did not behave like one.

Weirdly enough, the twin-tail haired girl with the tear mask, began whispering to Gelmud, as if scared that someone was listening in to their conversation. I guess that was a good decision since I am here, watching them secretly.

‘Paaam’ , a yellow blur hit me so quickly that I couldn’t even react. I was launched through several trees, breaking them in half, and creating a series of craters on the ground with each impact.

Damn, that hurts. The yellow spinning wheel wasn’t done yet however, as he sped up in my direction  yet again.

I dodged to the side, getting up in the process and looked at the trio of masked people in front of me. The spinner stopped rotating to the right of Gelmud, and was revealed to be a fat yellow clown with an angry mask on his face.

“Ho ho ho…” the lard ball laughs obnoxiously, “... What is this? It seems we have a fishy situation on our hands, ho ho ho…”. Did this bloated excuse of a bouncing ball just call me a mere fish ?

“Yes, yes…”, the pink pipsqueak nodded, exaggerating her head motion, “... There’s ‘no-fin’ more scary than a wide eyed stalker.”. She put her hands on the sides of her face, mimicking a scandalized expression that would probably work a lot better, had she been unmasked. “But why is she following our friend I wonder?”, she asks, her voice filled with a sickening sarcasm, “Oh… Gelmud seems to have a secret admirer. Isn’t that ‘Jaws-ome’?”

Ugh. I should kill these clowns for their disrespectful jokes, but unfortunately, I still have my concerns about what Jistav is planning for the forest. I begin to open my mouth, but am interrupted before I can even say anything.

The pink clown shot towards me in a surprisingly quick maneuver. Her speed wasn’t even close to the rotund clown’s first attack, but it was still faster than most of my subordinates. All three of them must be relatively strong named beings.

I blocked her punch with my left hand and she immediately dropped to the ground and attempted to strike my legs with her foot. Her gracious way of fighting was almost like a dance.

At the same time, the obese clown quickly rushed me from the opposite side and threw a punch, and Gelmud launched a mana bullet bigger than himself, wildly off target. Must have terrible aim. He did look like the weakest of the three.

I swatted the small clown away with my tail, but the fat arm throwing a punch to my right side accelerated impossibly quickly, making me throw my arms up, protecting my face as quickly as possible, instead of intercepting the attack as I had planned.

He was clearly the strongest of the two melee fighters, as with just one punch, I was pushed back a few meters. ‘Boom’ . The off course bullet hit me and sent me flying a couple meters. My [Ultraspeed Regeneration] undid all damage dealt by the infuriating clowns fighting me, but the attacks still hurt a little bit. It was very annoying.

Gelmud was either incredibly lucky, or very skilled in predicting enemy movement and working in a team. I was inclined to believe the former. He was definitely an incompetent idiot, from what he has shown me before.

Also, his [Mana Bullet] wasn’t completely blocked by [Mana Jamming], because apparently, it’s not a magic attack, but a battlewill one. I don’t completely understand this family of arts, but magicules only play a part in the attack, and are not the majority of what composes a bullet, therefore surpassing the jamming ability.

I focused on the bigger threat, the yellow clown, unfurled my purple-blue wings and rushed as quickly as I could in his direction with my fist pulled back, to punch him in the gut.

He could barely react to me, flying through the dust cloud the bullet created and I hit him right on target. With the impact of my fist, an explosion occurred, resulting from [torpedo], amplifying the force of the attack, and sending the angry clown flying backwards.

Dodging various smaller mana bullets, I ducked under the sad clown’s punch and slapped her away with the back of my hand, causing another smaller explosion. My eye shone red as I was about to completely incapacitate Gelmud with my [Wicked Light Ray], which disperses magicules, making it very effective against magicule dependent life, when he started shouting.

“Tear! Punch her!”. Huh… What could she even do about this? She was clearly weaker than the other clown, so why ask for her specifically?

As it turns out, there was an intelligent reason to call out for her. She came running and hit my hand again, except this time, it was way more powerful. My feet made streaks of dirt on the ground as her punch moved me a bit to the side and my laser failed its target by around a meter.

The resulting explosions still affected the beaked fool, and he was thrown against a tree, his clothes burned in some places, exposing bruises and light bleeding.

Was she hiding her strength, or was there some condition she needed to use the boost in power? It could be something that activates when your allies are in danger, or maybe when ordered, or asked to do something. It makes sense if she was feigning weakness, only to then attack at an opportune moment, catching the opponent off guard.

The problem with that strategy was that the strength she was hiding was still weak. Or simply not good enough to pass through my block, enhanced with the gnomes ‘support’ magic.

The yellow clown rolled quickly and stopped in front of Gelmud, preparing to defend his fallen comrade. I grabbed Tear’s wrist, and threw her in his direction. She twisted and twirled in the air and landed on the ground gracefully with her arms up.

I thought of how to solve this situation without angering a dangerous demon lord while also gathering the information I require. I suppose first I should stop the fight entirely and try to reason yet again. Maybe they will be more reasonable after witnessing my majestic battle prowess.

I cross my arms under my chest. “It seems we have started on the wrong foot…”, the angry clown made a slight exhale noise that I ignored, “... My name is Vel, as I have already told your friend Gelmud, and all I want to know is why he was trying to name a random monster in the middle of the Jura forest.”

The biggest clown lifts his left hand, silencing the already silent Tear, and nods a few times to no one. After a few silent seconds, he bowed, putting his right hand over his heart. “Ho ho ho ho. My name is Footman.”, he rises and spreads his arms open, “I am a member of the Harlequin Moderate Alliance, the one they call the Angry Pierrot!”

“And I am Tear!”, Tear unhelpfully provided with her shrill voice.

Footman rubbed his hands together. “It appears that you have stumbled into a secret of ours. But…”, he dramatically clapped his hands. “... our boss has seen you worthy of meeting his esteemed self. He says that if you follow us to his mansion, he might have an answer for you, and perhaps, we can all profit from this encounter. Ho ho ho ho…”

I suppose meeting with the lord of curses would be interesting, if dangerous. I believe that, in an emergency, I should be able to at least escape flying. I wasn’t called ‘Ruler of the Skies’ for nothing after all. And considering all the runic technology they are said to have, the benefits outweigh the risks.

“I accept your proposal, Footman of the Harlequin Moderate Alliance. I hope for a fruitful relationship with your leader, for many years to come.”, I said with a smile on my lips.

I couldn’t see it, but I imagined the angry pierrot also had a smile on his face.