Chapter 5: My first quest!

I'm now standing in front of a massive dragon in a completely dark dimension.

"Yo Nullus, I did what you asked and can now use magic." I say while waving my hand.

"Hahaha! You seem to have gotten used to things rather fast. Good a Gluttonics has to adapt quickly under any circumstances!" Nullus seemed happy that I've adapted quickly but it's not like I had any other choice.

"Now you have to increase your power before I can guide you, you seem to have about 20 low-mana, so, I would say something among the lines of 100, 000 thousand should suffice as a minimum requirement." Nullus was as casual as ever, and the way it just throw unreasonable information at me reminded me of the system.

"What? That's a lot! What rank would I even have to be to have that much?!" I complain for obvious reasons.

"If we use the standard of this world... I would say in between S-Ex, but I can't be sure until I see someone of those ranks in this world. It's not my fault it's a world with low-mana." Nullus complained back.

"Wait, what do you mean by low-mana? Isn't this world full of mana?" I ask curious.

"Nah. Low-mana is a term used to classify a world's mana quality, not its quantity. I'm just saying the mana in this world is low quality. That's also part of the reason people here call it Ethernano rather than mana, worlds with lower quality tend to have different names for mana, not to say that it doesn't happen in worlds with higher quality mana, it's just more common in the worlds with low-quality mana." Nullus clarified as carefree as always.

"So, Ethernano is the same as mana in any other world with the same level of mana quality?" A new question arrived in my mind and I had to voice it.

"No. Mana is different in every world like I told you before, different worlds have different rules, so it's not the same. You might find worlds that work under the same rules but have mana that works differently, so just consider the mana of each world to be a variant of mana as opposed to natural mana which is the real deal." Nullus once again corrected me.

"Ok, that means Ethernano is a mana variant of low quality. So, I almost died trying to use low-quality mana?" I didn't know how to feel about this and could only accept it.

"Yup, I would have destroyed the remains of your soul if you died in such a pathetic way." Nullus' gigantic eyes opened for a bit but then closed again.

Because of how relaxed Nullus is, I sometimes forget I would be dying if the system wasn't protecting me from the pressure.

"Also, don't forget to use your spell Gluttony Dragon's hunger when you consume anything, that way you can assimilate the abilities and even some characteristics of what you eat. Don't come back here until you either meet a rank S mage so I can tell you the exact rank you have to reach, or reach said rank, whichever comes first, now get lost." Nullus gave me a tip before throwing me out.

Waking up in my room, I stretch my body, and ask the system what time it is and discover it's still 10 am, so I decided to go to guild and get a quest to start making some money.

I don't just want to pay my rent, I also want to buy clothes and some other appliances for my apartment, besides quests, are a good opportunity for me to both improve my magic and level up! I've asked the system and I can get exp by defeating my opponents and I don't have to kill anything, but I get a bonus on exp if I do.

When I got to the guild it had its usual lively atmosphere and I was greeted by a few people and of course, answered back. Once I got to the quest board I was approached by Mirajane.

"Hi, Kaory, how have you been? Oh, you want to take a quest? I can help you chose something suitable for you if that's the case." Mirajane once again came in with her smile making me wonder if she's an angel, even though I'm aware of how demonic she can be.

"Hi Mira, I've been doing great. As for the quest, it would be very helpful if you did." I respond to her with a small smile, but nothing that lasts too long, I'm not a big fan of smiling.

"Great! I have the perfect quest for you, just wait for a bit." Mira left to go get the quest paper.

I sat on one of the sits nearby and distracted myself by practicing controlling my magic with only my fingers.

"What are you doing?" Natsu came out of nowhere and was looking at my glowing fingers.

"It's my magic since I'm sick it's weak, but I can still use it." I shamelessly say to Natsu.

"What does it do?" Happy who was now standing on the table in front of me asked.

"It can pull things towards me and weaken other people's magic." it doesn't matter if I tell them or not, they'll eventually figure it out, so might as well do it now.

"Really?! Do a trick! Can you make Happy fly?" Natsu said excitedly, as he pushed happy towards me.

"Natsu, I can already fly." Happy said in response.

"Yeah, but not without your wings." Natsu countered.

"Fine, Happy, stay still." I say as I apply more mana to my hand and pull Happy towards me with the Void aura.

"Huh? Wait I didn't-..." Happy wanted to say something but before he could he was pulled from Natsu's hands to mine at high speed.

(He's very light so it was easy, but I don't think it will go this well if I try it on a person.) I thought to myself somewhat satisfied with the results.

"Cool! Now do me!" Natsu said with the excitement of a child that just found a new toy, but since I want to know how effective it is on a person, I don't mind.

I put Happy down on the table and he seems a little dizzy, maybe I pulled with too much strength, I have to be more careful.

"Aye, sir..." Happy fainted with dizzy eyes, he looked like a knocked-out pokemon.

Then I pointed my hand towards Natsu and put in more mana than before with a rough estimate of what would take to move a person, but unexpectedly, it didn't move Natsu at all.

Since with Happy, I had used too much, I toned it down while taking into consideration the fact Natsu weights more than Happy, but in the end, it was not enough. So, I follow and increase it to the equivalent of what I did to Happy but for Natsu, and to my surprise he was only moving slowly towards me... Seeing that it was still not enough, I increased the strength, and Natsu came rushed towards me at high speed knocking both of us onto the floor.

(There seems to be something that reduces the effect of my magic on their bodies unless I apply a certain amount of power to it. Do mages have some kind of natural resistance to magic? Similar to how I have my resistances in my status... It could be, after all, their bodies have to be prepared to resist magic to a certain extent, or they would be heavily injured by even the weakest of magic spells. The problem is that it's not worth it to use my magic to pull people in, at least not at my current level, I used up more than half my mp just to pull Natsu in when Happy didn't even cost me one-tenth of it.) I came to my conclusions after the experiment was over.

"Kaory, found a great quest for you." Mira came closer with a quest paper in her hands.

"Wait for a second, please. Natsu get off me!" I push Natsu and get up before turning to Mira and saying. "Yes, please continue."

"I found a quest with 100,000 jewels reward that only requires you to take a package to a village not too far from Magnolia, I was going to give it to Lucy, but she said you'd be a better option for this, so I've been saving it up for you." Mira explains with her calming aura and charming smile.

I'm starting to think that maybe I'm not nice enough to Lucy...

"Thank you, Mira, also if you see Lucy thank her on my behalf." I say as I take the quest paper from Mira.

"It wasn't a big deal, I'm happy to help. Besides, I think you should personally thank Lucy, she would be happy if you did." Mira replied, then I got the package I have to deliver and we said our goodbyes, and I started walking towards the exit.

"Hey! Wait up!" Natsu came running with Happy flying next to him.

"Yeah, do you want something?" I inquired confused.

"Lucy wanted me to help you on your first mission to make sure you don't get hurt, since you're sick and all. So let's go!" Natsu responded then grabbed my arm and dragged me running.

On another thought, maybe I've been too nice to Lucy...

Natsu ran for a while until he realized he didn't know which direction to go for the mission and finally let go of me to ask. Under my guidance, we shifted to the right route, and Natsu wanted to go with a carriage since it's quite far but being penniless, I refused and moved by foot. I had to ask for directions a few times but things went well, Natsu followed me on foot even though a little unwilling. The route I was shown passes through the forest and should only take us about an hour of travel on foot, so it's close.

While we were traveling on foot, I picked up a few rocks and twigs I found on the way and put them in the inventory since I want to try the effects of my magic later.

After about an hour of travel, we reached our destination.

Wooden walls with more than 4 meters stood in front of us as we got closer to the place. Once we got close enough, we found two women holding wooden spears with stone tips, and when they saw us they become wary, and began pointing their spears at us.

"We are from Fairy tail and we came to deliver a package." I show the mark on my neck, and both Natsu and Happy show their own as well.

They put down their spears, and one of them spoke. "We have been waiting for your arrival." She had a soft voice and it felt like you wouldn't be able to hear her in a crowded room.

"Please follow us, we'll take you to our chief and he'll tell you the rest." she said and we all nodded then followed after her.

The village inside was full of small wooden houses and tents, it looked nice with paintings on the walls.

"Ah, this place looks nice. Don't you think guys so too?" Natsu asked and I nodded in response.

"Aye, sir! It's weird we never heard of a place like this." Happy added as he walked next to Natsu.

I agree with Happy and this place wasn't a part of the original series, I even remember a quest like this ever getting mentioned. Regardless, it's not like it changes anything.

After a while, we reached a house that was bigger than the rest, inside there were a lot of animal skins and bones lying around as decoration. In the center, a man with blue hair was looking at a weird black bone, but what surprised me was that standing next to him is an exceed with green fur and red eyes.

"You should really give up on that thing Maltus, it's probably lost its power long ago ~Puru." The green exceed said to the man.

"Enough Angelica! All you do lately is disturb my research if you're not going to help, you can just leave, I don't need a useless assistant." Maltus said coldly, and getting closer I can see the bags under his eyes, this man obviously hasn't slept for a while.

"Hmph! Do whatever you want! I'm going to leave since you don't need me." Angelica seemed hurt and stormed out of the house as we were going in.

"Chief Maltus, the mages from Fairy tail have arrived." the guard that came with us announced our arrival.

"Very well done Cira, you can leave now. I'll take care of the rest, thank you." Maltus send Cira out and then turned to us.

His left eye was twitching and his tiredness was very obvious on his face.

"Welcome Fairy Tail mages, I'm Maltus Crook, the Chief of this village." He introduced himself and allowed us to do the same.

"I'm Natsu Dragneel a Fairy tail mage!" Natsu introduced himself with excitement.

"I'm Happy." Happy followed.

"I'm Kaory and I'm also a Fairy Tail mage. In actuality, I was the one who took the quest." I would have introduced myself without my last name, because I don't want Nullus to be on me, so I refrain from doing so.

"Oh I see, it is my pleasure, any way you must be wondering why I've called you here when the job is to deliver a package, but I must inform you that you have to deliver it to mount Fira with this item in my hands." He started explaining then raised the weird black bone on his hand.

"What is that thing?" Coincidentally I and Natsu ask the question at the same time.

"Good thing you ask, this is Hell cross, a magic wand said to be made of demon bone and bathed in Dragon blood, it was the heirloom of the ancient Shany tribe from 4000 years ago." The man said while shaking.

"Did you just say dragon blood?!" Natsu questioned with a serious expression eyes full of anger.

"Calm down Natsu, he said it's an heirloom of a 4000 years old tribe, it's not his fault they used dragon blood and it has nothing to do with Igneel!" I immediately try to calm Natsu down before he does something stupid.

"Yes, but-" Natsu wanted to retort but I decided to not give him the chance to.

"But what? We don't even know what exactly he wants us to do. Let's listen and see what he wants, if it's nothing go we'll just beat them up and leave." Once again, I start feeling that Lucy set me up even if not on purpose.

"Fine... You're right." Natsu accepts what I said very unwillingly and I sigh in relief.

Then I look at Maltus again and ask.

"What exactly is going on?" I need to understand the situation first.

"I would normally not tell you this, but the situation has changed and we don't have much time. The truth is we aren't a tribe from here, we're researchers undercover in a secret operation of the Council to study this item and understand its powers. After our investigation, we discovered that this wand has forbidden magic in it and if it were to ever be unleashed it could be the end of this world. " Maltus answered shortly explaining the situation.

"Destroy the world?!" Natsu and Happy shouted in unison, but I am still a little skeptical about all this.

"If that's the case, why not just call the council instead of putting up a mission at our guild?" I ask about what's bugging me the most.

"We wanted to report to the council but got intercepted by the Dark Guild Anarchy Kings, so we did our best to be stealthy and send someone to Magnolia to put a quest on Fairy Tail, I'm sorry to not have given the full information on the quest paper but we couldn't risk having an Anarchy Kings spy discovering it." Maltus continues his explanation.

(None of this was in the original show... I guess I can't count on my fairy tail knowledge too much should think of this world as a world similar to the Fairy tail I know. Anyway, I guess I got caught in a mess right in my first quest, I should have known a delivery quest with high pay is too suspicious.) I accept the situation and decide to move on.

"Understood, in that case. What exactly do you expect us to do, you mentioned going to mount Fira before correct?" I asked calmly.

We've already come here, might as well try to complete the quest if it's not too unreasonable, besides, according to this guy we would be saving the world, not bad for a first quest.

"Yes, mount Fira is a volcano not too far from here, that hasn't erupted in thousands of years, so most people don't know it's actually still active and our research shows that it has special flames that should be able to destroy Hell cross with no secondary effects, at least no noticeable ones." Maltus said with a serious expression and worried.

"I see, I just have two more other questions then. First, what would happen if we just destroyed Hell cross with our magic? Second, what is in the package I brought?" I Throw my last questions at Maltus.

"Please don't, trying to destroy Hell cross with normal means would result in a colossal explosion that would spread its terrifying magic to what we estimate to be at least a third of the continent. As for the package..." Maltus explain then pauses and looks at the package in my hand with a straight face that makes all the seriousness from before pale in comparison and says. "It has nothing inside of it, it's just a decoy to make the quest look legitimate."

I was worried for a second! Why did you have such a serious expression for such a simple explanation?!

"I think we should take the quest, how about you Natsu?" I ask since he's technically still my partner in this quest.

".... Before I decide, I want to know what kind of forbidden magic this shell cross has?" Natsu voices his thoughts with a serious expression.

"It's Hell cross Natsu." Happy corrected him.

"Whatever, I just want to know what it does." Natsu says in response.

We all look at Maltus waiting for an answer.

".... " Maltus gave us a few minutes of silence before finally speaking. ".... It has Death God slayer magic in it..."

All the three of was had our eyes widen in shock.

Until Natsu destroyed the atmosphere. "Hum... What's that?"

I shook my head and sighed, as much as I would like to explain, I can't.