Part 26

I see your activity but only 1 person subscribed to patreon, I am waiting for you. And there will be more chapters.

patreon.com/FanFictionPremium.

Enjoy reading.

---

Rokari welcomed us much more cordially than her husband did. She immediately made a cosy bustle in the house, put a pot on the fire and started to prepare dinner for the guests. And, of course, she had quite a few questions.

- So... Roxy has already found a fiancé? - A young looking blue-haired girl asked.

Yes, her resemblance to her daughter was striking. Except that this woman seemed to have bigger breasts than Roxy. You couldn't tell for sure, though, with those loose clothes. You'd have to feel them

- Yes, thank you for sheltering us for now. I apologise for the burden, and if it's within my power, I'll try to make up for your concern.

- Ohhh... no... don't worry about it, it's our duty to take care of you while you're here. But, please, can you tell me about Roxy? How did you two meet?

- Hnn-" Rovin frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

He sat in a half-lotus position on the other side of the hearth.

Next to me, Norn was snoozing, and Eris was looking around bored. She didn't understand the local language, so she didn't even know what we were talking about.

- Well... so, let me remember... - I thought about it. - Now I... yeah, so we met Roxy about seven years ago. I was still just a kid then, but I had already started witchcraft and my parents hired a magic teacher for me. That was Roxy.

- That's how... - Rokari smiled. - She became a mage? She had a talent for it as a child.

- Yes, and a very powerful mage. Now she has already reached the royal rank in water magic.

- О...

- Of course, this is our daughter after all! - Rovin nodded proudly.

- Back then, she settled in our house for two years. But... it seems they flew by too quickly. And after spending so much time with her, how could I not fall in love? I mean, she's amazing. Smart, kind, beautiful.

- Ha ha...I'm glad you think that about my daughter. - The woman laughed.

It's worth noting that when we first met, Rokari had been somewhat tense, or rather anxious. Now she seemed more joyful. She was happy to hear something good about her daughter, and it showed. It wasn't just Rokari, her husband - Rovin was concerned as well. Though he still showed paternal displeasure.

- That was when, before the exam, I asked her to be my wife. We agreed that we would meet a few years later when I was older. Well, because of my success in magic, Roxy was also enthusiastic and decided to continue improving her skills, so she went to the magic academy.

- And... did you two meet afterwards? - Rokari inquired.

- Yes, and we corresponded before we met. And then... well... our feelings didn't change much during the years of separation, only grew stronger. The second time we met, I gave her an engagement ring. But given the age difference, we decided to wait a little longer until I reached adulthood.

- Oh, so you were supposed to be married soon?

- No... I'm still only ten years old. According to human tradition, I don't come of age for five years. And I didn't want anyone to think badly of Roxy because of my age.

- Huh?" Rokari's eyes widened in surprise. - Ten? Oh yeah... people live shorter lives, grow up faster....

- Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rovin jumped to his feet. - Even for a human, ten is not enough! And you don't look ten!

- Oh, I just used healing magic to speed up my growth and increase the efficiency of my training. Besides magic, I also learnt swordsmanship, first from my father and then from the sword queen. So I look older.

- Magic.

- And please don't treat me like a child. I'm different from normal people in that respect. Even though I'm still ten, my mind is mature enough. Before I met Roxy, I was already thinking like an adult trapped in a child's body. So it's not as if Roxy seduced me, determined to raise a husband to her liking. Our relationship was built on mutual affection and respect.

- Oh...ha ha ha ha...sorry Rudeus, I didn't mean to offend you like that...I can see you're a nice young guy. We demons have a simpler attitude about age.

- The difference in life expectancy between the different species and peoples of the demonic continent is sometimes very great. - Rovin remarked calmly.

- Oh, well then. - I nodded. It's still unfamiliar to me. 

- There's something else. - The boy squinted. - You said Roxy told you to come to us for help. But, didn't this disaster divide you?

- It did. But Roxy and I have our own way of communicating. Even now, across continents, we can send messages to each other through magic.

- Yes? Rokari is clearly agitated. - Is that possible?

- Can you contact her? - Even Rowyn was worried.

And, it was quite obvious what exactly they were thinking about.

- Exactly. I suppose you'd like to send her some sort of message too. That can be arranged. If you can't write, I can take dictation. By the way, here's her recent letter.

I also showed them the message in which Roxy advised them to look up her home village. And actually, Rokari and Rovin had no trouble reading. As it turns out, though few people here can read and write, these two have learnt to teach it to their daughter as well.

Afterwards, while I ate lunch with Eris and fed the waking Norn, the owners of the house wrote a letter to Roxy, which I later sent to the sorceress, along with my note.

It was obvious that her parents loved her very much.

But the girl herself was clearly uncomfortable with her relatives. And her reply did not come until the next day, before which Rovin asked almost every ten minutes if she had written back. Yes, if Rokari in this respect behaved more calmly and was patient, the father of the sorceress directly did not find a place to himself.

And, nevertheless, when the answer was received, they were very happy.

Meanwhile, I had my own worries.

Since last night...

Mission accomplished!

Matchmakers

You've met the parents of the lovely Roxy and made a good impression on them, more or less.

Reward: Grimoire of teleportation.

And into my hands fell a book that appeared in the air. It was a heavy work with a leather cover that scaled with the image of a serpent biting its tail. The title of the book, however, was quite pathos. Dragon's Gate.

Here, in fact, in reading this work I plunged....

And then I quickly closed the book, realising it wasn't my level yet. I mean, it's like trying to comprehend higher mathematics right after you've just learnt the multiplication table. The only thing I definitely understood was that this teleportation technique was developed by the dragons of this world. And that this magic has a distinct resemblance to summoning magic. But it was closer to summoning creatures, not summoning spirits, which I was beginning to understand more or less something about.

So, putting the new book in my inventory, I picked up a volume of summoning magic, determined to delve deeper into creature summoning.

And, using the hospitality of the migurds, while my reserve was recovering, I repeated all the important details of summoning magic. Still, the book only covered the basics. Though, the school of creature summoning itself is pretty simple if you get into it. Just knowing the theory alone wouldn't even allow one to approach teleportation magic.

This was where the sudden question arose.

Is it even worth learning teleportation magic now? I mean, wouldn't it be more effective to continue perfecting the technique of programming spirits. With the help of artificial intelligence, theoretically, I can improve the levitation spell, achieving full flight. And, if I can just take off with the girls and fly across the entire demonic continent, wouldn't that be faster than studying teleportation magic? Moreover, even if I succeed with teleportation, this magic, at best, involves the use of interconnected magic circles. I mean, I still won't be able to teleport anywhere. Only to Sylphie and Roxy, if they properly draw the appropriate circle from their side.

Though, both would be useful in the near future and beyond. The same flight magic, in addition to high mobility in general, can make me practically out of reach of most opponents. Although, I can still take off, generally speaking. I just forget about it sometimes, nada.....

As a result, I decided to try out some summoning circles first to try and get a feel for this magic. This kind of approach has always helped me get a better understanding of spells and attribution. In fact, with my reserve more than half restored, I left the migurd village for a while, leaving Eris and Norn in the care of Roxy's parents. I wasn't too worried about Ruijed's presence, either. I'd seen how he treated the locals and how they perceived him, and it was obvious that he wasn't much of a threat to us. Not because he's not dangerous, but he won't attack us.

When I left the village, I used the inscription, having knocked out a circle of the necessary configuration with earth magic right in the stone. Then I made a few strokes, eliminating inaccuracies, checking with the book. And only after all this he used the circle itself according to the instructions.

The drawing flashed with a bright light, and I felt the familiar flow of magic.

The summoning function, the setting of parameters, and perhaps one of the most important parts of this branch of magic: the contract. Oh, it's a particularly fancy formula that could be compared to the algorithm of behaviour that is set when a spirit is created. But in the case of summoning, it's more of an agreement between mage and familiar. In this case, a simple non-aggression pact was used.

And, after absorbing enough mana, the magic circle exuded a creature that matched the given parameters.

- Hmm...

In the centre of the huge magic circle, a grey hare looked around dazedly.

- Hello, my friend. - I nodded to him.

The beast immediately raised its ears, looked at me....

And then he turned round sharply and ran away, wherever he was. I pointed my finger in his direction, releasing a lightning spell that struck the hare in a flash and, twitching, he jumped, and then fell dead.

All in all, magic works. Having erased the magic circle, I picked up the hare by the ears and returned to the settlement with the booty. Today we can eat hare meat. Although, these animals are not found on the demonic continent. But probably even the migurds had heard of them. Eris was especially excited to eat familiar food.

Well, over the next few days I used the different circles a few more times, summoning different creatures and evaluating how the pattern worked with different parameters.

My mana had already pretty much recovered by the time I settled on summoning a single hare. It's just that, each time, I set a slightly different algorithm, which is to say, I rewrote the contract. And, although it's called a contract, it doesn't really have to be a contract, even with a sentient creature, it can be enforced through the summoning circle if you have more mana than the target. But, if the summoned creature trusts you, it reduces the cost of approving the treaty. So, it really can be exactly concluded.

And, about sentient creatures....

For some reason, this magic doesn't allow you to summon humans. But other races - beastmen, demons, hobbits, elves, anyone. Any intelligent creature other than humans can theoretically be summoned. But there is a clarification that the presence of the mind greatly complicates the forceful implementation of the treaty.

In any case, there were no such circles in the book. Of course, you can also try to fix the parameters of the target yourself. However, I thought it would be impolite to summon someone like that. And I couldn't summon my own family anyway, because they were human. Unless I can find a way to overcome this limitation. I'm not sure where it came from. It's not like the rule against teleportation magic. As far as the latter is concerned, it's known to be used by Perugius Dora, aka the Armoured Dragon. No, teleportation is exactly forbidden. In the past, it has been used extensively for troop movement, and has proven to be an extremely effective element of military strategy. That's when the treaty of mutual renunciation of teleportation magic came into being. There was also a ban on its research. And in time, many of the peoples of the Six-Faced World forgot all about this magic. Not its very existence, but the magical science of teleportation.

There are also no circles for summoning any things. Although, that doesn't mean that such an inscription can't be created. But this is a matter for the future, and now I have certain priorities in my research.

Actually, the practice of summoning creatures really helped. And in both directions I was concerned about. Learning new parameters and contract magic helped me add to my arsenal of commands to compose an algorithm for artificial spirit intelligence. And using the summoning itself gave me the opportunity to experience the magic in question and better understand its effects, which brought me closer to understanding Dragon Gate.

It could be said that I had initially overestimated the amount of time it would take me to advance my research. Especially since I didn't necessarily need to delve into learning the fundamental principles of teleportation magic. After all, the new grimoire already had the blueprints for the magic circles that dragons used for teleportation. The other thing was that they were much more complicated than the forms of summoning creatures and creating spirits that I had already mastered. And, the problem is that it would be difficult for me, Roxy, and Sylphie alike to reproduce such circles correctly and without mistakes. And the problem is that distorting the shape could have dire consequences. Although, maybe that's not such a problem, since one can first experience the workings of teleportation circles before going through them themselves.

So, I decided to try using them after all. It shouldn't take as long as the fundamental study of teleportation magic since there are ready-made formulas. And putting them into practice will help with the learning itself.

And finally...

Another morning I woke up with a pleasant feeling of mana reserve filled to the brim.

Health is a shota on steroids

Mana - more than the sum total of all other mana in the Six-Faced World.

Yeah...

This is the first time in a long time I've seen the system describe my full mana reserve. And, well, it's even kind of impressive. If a tenth of my reserve is the level of a god of magic, then my total reserve is more than the total mana reserves of all other creatures in this world? That's right, mana isn't just in sentient beings and monsters, there's also natural mana filling the entire world, in the air, in the water, in the earth, everywhere. Does that count too? If so, then it turns out my reserve is really kind of absurd. All because I happened to be the target for the reincarnation spell of the local demon god, which is also considered the greatest mage of the Six-Faced World. Did he really have that much mana? And where does it come from if my reserve exceeds the amount of mana in the world? This was already giving me a few thoughts. Could it be that it is not the magical world that causes the appearance of mages, but the very existence of mages is the reason why the world is magical? Well, that is, what if the mages themselves are the source of mana, which fills the rest of the world with magic? And by mages I mean, first of all, not human mages, but dragon and elf mages. These are the races that are at the origins of magic in this world.

But still, with such a reserve, one can easily become conceited, you know.

Although, the amount of mana is not the same as the ability to use it. Just like if a gunner had an infinite supply of ammunition, it wouldn't add to his accuracy per se. And I clearly still have a lot of room to grow. I barely beat Ruijed, and he's not the strongest fighter in this world. Although he is one of the strongest on the demonic continent, but he is not even in the top seven.

And, in any case, the only thing that has changed for me is that now I felt full of energy and ready to fight. And since I no longer have the goal of wasting all my mana, it is almost unrealistic to empty it.

In fact, just at this point I started to create an experimental circle.

Again I left the village of migurds, but this time I also prepared a special place for work. Considering the problems related to the legality of teleportation magic, I decided to hide the place of the inscription. I created a special underground cave, placed magical lights in the form of burning flame spirits for illumination, and got to work.

I picked up a stone slab in the form of a large circle, and began to "carve" in it the formula of the circle.

Though I already had considerable experience with this kind of drawing, it took several days to transfer the entire array of the teleportation circle from the grimoire. I had to take breaks and return to the village. And then back to work again. It was during one of these breaks that my new wife caught me.

- Rudy... where are you going? And when are we going home?

- I'm working on it...I promise I'll show you everything when I'm done. But right now I need you to look after Norn. 

- Hnn... - The girl crossed her arms over her chest unhappily.

- I'm counting on you, Eris.

- Good. - She muttered.

After all, she was relying on me for a lot of things right now, and that made her especially obedient.

- You can practice magic or sword techniques for now.

- Ah... sorry, I... your sword was left at home... - She was upset.

- We'll get it back. Or I'll make you a new one. In the meantime, you can use this one.

I'm making a sword out of stone, transforming it and changing its properties to make it stronger and lighter. It can be used for combat as well, in fact, it's just as good as a regular sword. But I gave it to the girl for training. After that, I went to work on the teleportation circle.

It took me almost three days to draw it and, frankly speaking, such work is exhausting. And I still had to make a second circle for the experiment.

And, I had already set up another cave on the other side of the migurd village, started to draw the shape on the stone, when at the next look at the template in the book, it suddenly struck me, in some way, just a brilliant idea. Why this particular circle shape? Wouldn't it be better to draw the shape on a more compact or modular object, so that it could be handed to Roxy through the inventory afterwards? Then she wouldn't have to draw the circle herself, all she would have to do is install my blank and then the experiment could begin! Well, it's worth testing it myself at short range first, and then across continents.

Deciding so, I left the cooker, and took out the Boreas gift from my inventory.

Opening the book-case, I pull out sheets of parchment. Yeah, this leather still has remnants of the magic of the creature it once belonged to. But, it's not so important, the old mana should be completely erased during the process of writing. Its place will be taken by my magical energy. The main thing is that the material is able to retain mana at all.

And then I cheated!

I folded the sheets of parchment together and used healing magic, which also worked on similar organic materials. I also thought about the possibility of affecting the molecular bonds of substances to glue any object together in a similar way. I actually use something similar, but on a more intuitive level. I'll have to think about that later.

In the meantime...

Back in the first cave, I simply put the obtained sheet of parchment on the platform with the first teleportation circle and, using it as a template, duplicated the drawing, creating an exact copy from the carbon threads on the parchment. Well, somehow I was already used to working with carbon fibre, so it was even more convenient to use than ink, or anything else.

Afterwards, only minimal changes were required to number the circle in the linked system. Without that, theoretically, the object could just get smeared between two teleporters when teleported. Necessary precise data to provide an address.

And, lo and behold.

As evening fell, I made my first test.

- So, brother mouse, are you ready?

The summoned beast in the form of a small white mouse looked back at me cautiously, but then went back to its business and continued sniffing the teleportation slab. Channeling mana into the circle, setting the address and....

It was an interesting sensation, something akin to spirit command communication. In my mind I have an image of vast outer space and the gloomy yawn of the portal marked by the symbol I set. There are only two addresses in this link, and the portal used for activation is not displayed at all. So there's no chance of confusion. Although, I had concerns that this circle could link my portal to an existing dragon teleport system. But it looks like I'll have to build my transport system from scratch. Which isn't so bad, less attention from bison like Perugius.

Another blink and a stream of light takes over the brave test pilot....

- Pfsssss... - The mouse snorted fearfully.

On the parchment.

And here I am watching in surprise as the volunteer, whole and healthy, examines the new deployment point.

- Haa...

It worked.

Although, I was already used to magic, to some extent, still, this experiment felt like an incredible success. Something on the border of reality and fantasy. Holy crap, it's teleportation! Like in all those fantasy games where almost every village has a teleportation circle, allowing players to travel all over the fairy world.

- Huh... hahaha! - A feeling of euphoria swept over me.

This was a success.

Even though I still had other trials to test the functionality of the portals, I could already feel in my heart that the crisis had passed. Though I still had to look for my family, I still didn't know where they were. And yet, it looks like I will be able to return to Asura very soon and start searching from there. The central continent is closer to Begaritto than the land of demons. However, I still need to find Hilda in the land of Milis.

Still, it didn't spoil the feeling of triumph.