18. Meeting Them

Seth was holding a bloodied chisel, his left ring finger was missing and blood was squirting from it.

Aqua was rushing towards Seth with a chopped-off finger, "SETH! I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK! LET ME PUT YOUR FINGER BACK!" She shouted in distress.

"No," Seth snatched his finger before throwing it into the air.

He splattered his godly blood all over his chopped finger, causing his blood droplets to hover around the finger, levitating it.

 Seth threw away the chisel and performed intricate hand signs. His blood droplets blazed into a magic circle, "Hearken, ancient laws that ascend the mortal realm. With this divine blood as the medium, I break the realm's laws… And command thee to incinerate any being that dares cross thy path! Behold, 'PURGATORY FLAME'!" A torrent of dark crimson flames erupted from the circle, swirling and crackling with raw untamed power, disintegrating everything in its path to the core. 

The group stood shocked by its intensity and heat, while Megumin secretly gave a thumbs-up at his cool chant.

The flames subsided; the aftermath revealed something magical: the ring, unblemished from that world-ending flame, floated magically around a piece of charcoal that was previously his finger.

Tch, this is no joke. Seth admitted inwardly

"SETH! WHY DID YOU BURN IT!" Aqua panicked, she immediately tried to use her power to regenerate Seth's amputated finger.

Seth pushed Aqua away and pointed his unchopped hand toward the ring. he shouted, "By the ancient laws of truth and light, I summon thee to unveil the hidden and expose all deception! 'REVEAL TRUTH'!"

The ring on Seth's Finger flashed and unknown energies swirled around the surface of his dark purple gem.

The swirling energy flowed outwards to Aqua's ring, causing it to swirl around Aqua's blue gem too. 

"WAH! WHAT IS THIS!?" she yelped and flailed her hand.

"These rings are why we are attracted to each other. The reason why we spoke with affection towards each other!" Seth declared.

"Ok! I understand! Now please let me heal your finger!" Aqua spoke with genuine concern, to which Seth obliged and extended his hand. 

Aqua used her power to regrew his finger, and the moment it did so, the ring teleported back to his new finger.

"Looks like this isn't going anywhere." Seth lamented. 

"The mad wizard's curse still exists!" Megumin and Darkness exclaimed at the same time. They still believed in their fake origin since the three never told them the truth.

Kazuma asked, "Is there any danger from it? What will happen if this goes on?"

Seth answered with a worried face, "If we don't do anything about it… Aqua and I will be… addicted to each other permanently."

"Don't you mean 'love'?" Chris (Eris) questioned.

"No, it's addicted, like actually having withdrawal symptoms for not even in sight and contact with each other. Worst-case scenario, Aqua and I will have to snuggle and embrace each other while doing everything together. Annoying others with public affection, even if we didn't want to."

The group instantly imagined it vividly: On their way to the guild, Seth apathetically princess carried Aqua while she latched at his neck with a dead face.

Their faces contorted at the thought of it. "What will you do now?" Darkness asked.

"I'll leave and travel the world to find a solution. So it is kinda sad for me to do this, but I will leave my Aqua in your hands."

"Wait? How could you teach me in the path of explosions if you are going to leave? that is unacceptable!" Megumin demanded.

"Don't worry, I can still teach you from afar thanks to this." Seth pointed towards Kazuma's hand. 

Everyone stared blankly at Kazuma's hand, Seth clarified, "It's the thing the mad wizard did to Kazuma. I have tested its function, and for what it does." Seth was covered in light and disappeared. 

Following this, a small gem emerged from Kazuma's hand. A small projection of Seth emerged from the gem.

"Woah…" everyone watched in fascination

"With this, I will still be able to help from afar. But since you still don't want to cast any other spells, I've decided that each time you want my guidance on explosion magic, you must learn between five basic or three intermediate magic spells first!"

"AHH!!! NOT FAIR! You can't do this to me! I'd rather not know cooler ways to cast explosions than to learn other magic!"

"Then If I show you this." Seth pulled out a cool-looking badge with pulsing mana, "If you do learn other spells, you'll get this, an artifact that will allow you to cast your beloved explosions 'MULTIPLE' of times."

Seth teleported back and handed his badge for her to examine. As a trained arch-wizard and daughter of a craftsman, she analyzed.

Seconds later her eyes widened. She groggily asked, "How many… explosions… can this badge help me cast… in succession?"

"At least above a hundred."

"UGH!!!" Megumin shouted in distress. "Not Enough!" She persisted.

"I forgot to mention you could stack up all those explosions into a single one, imagine merging the might of hundreds of explosions into a single blast, the destruction it would cause will reshape the continent itself," Seth added with a merchant's grin.

"AHH! I CAN'T TAKE IT! STOP TORTURING THIS PURSUER OF EXPLOSIONS WITH SUCH TEMPTATIONS! I'll do it! I'll learn other spells!" Megumin shouted in frustration as she finally gave in.

"Good." Seth handed a book to Megumin with a smile. "Here's a list of the spells that can support or boost your explosion magic, with explanations on how they could do that."

Megumin took a quick read at the book, her face became fascinated and troubled as she read it.

"Promise me, when I learn these spells, you'll give me that badge."

"Of course," Seth promised.

"Now that's done, Darkness! It's time for you to meet them! You four can come along." With this, they set off.

—

Location: Axel City

"Seth, are you sure this is the right path?" Aqua asked as she walked down an unfamiliar street.

"Yes, this is the way. Now that I think of it, Megumin, forgive me if this seems out of place, but do you still remember the people from your village."

" I remember a lot of them. Why do you ask?"

"Because…"

"MAMA! PAPA! IT'S ONEE-CHAN!" A little girl tackled Megumin into a hug.

"Komekko!" 

"Komekko! Don't run too far! this is not our home village. There are baddies over here. Ara? Mister Seth?" a woman's voice was heard.

Son of a gun. Seth sniggered at how small this world was. 

A couple was riding on a caravan pulled by strange machinery. "Seth! My crafting compatriot! It is truly fate for us to meet each other!"

"Ehh… EHH!!!" Megumin shouted. "Seth! what's your business with my family!? DON'T TELL ME! They're the craftsman you talked about!?"

"Calm down. Let me tell you how it all started…"

—

The following flashback is from Seth's point of view.

Time: a week after Kazuma's reincarnation in this world.

I was walking through the market testing my clairvoyance power, looking for individuals who could be fated with us or more.

—

"Since when did you have this power!?" Chris (Eris) asked.

"I'll explain later, let's go back to the story." Seth continued.

— 

In the end, I found no one. 

I looked towards the sky, clearly seeing lines of destiny pointing toward this place yet I currently found none.

"This is very odd, my power said I should find someone here…" 

"Ahh!" As if the heavens answered, A beautiful lady bumped into me. She was carrying a big bag of groceries and our bump caused her bag to spill.

"Forgive me! Lady…" At that moment, when I looked at her with my clairvoyance, I finally found her. 

—

"Seth! Don't you dare have any feelings for her,'" Aqua harrumphed.

Seth spoke, "It's not like that, you're always my Eh… let's get back to the story…"

—

"Don't worry it was my mistake in the first place, I didn't pay attention." She replied.

"Let me help." I reached out to pick up her fallen groceries and found something peculiar.

"Excuse me, what is this thing?" I held an odd-looking stick with a button on it.

My clairvoyance suddenly flared, urging me to press it, and I did. The moment I did so a dome-shaped barrier covered me.

"Sir! Are you okay? Did it hurt you!? This was a sample given to me by a wonderful craftsman. I wanted to test it out later but it seemed like you activated it. I'm sorry if this caused you inconvenience." she bowed apologetically.

I knocked on the barrier and exclaimed, "This barrier is amazing! For such a small item to hold such a barrier without needing the user's mana…"

"You think so too!" The lady showed happiness and relief.

"Yes really! I can't even find a way to, *gasp!*" Suddenly I choked.

"WAH! Sir! Is there something wrong!? If anything bad happens, I'll do my best to make amends and even compensate you, though I currently don't have much money to begin with!"

I held my breath and wrote the air using my mana, 'There's no oxygen! How to turn this thing off?'

"You can't, it has a timer inside the tool, the only other way is to destroy this barrier or wait it out. I could break this barrier if you can't handle it anymore."

I wrote in the air 'Nope, this is fine, breaking the barrier could damage this.'

"I see, it's rare to see someone appreciative about inventions like this." The lady smiled.

Yes, I can tell the creator of this tool should also be fated with us too. I thought with a mystical glint in my eyes.

A minute later, the barrier faded away and I took deep gulps of air. The lady got worried for a second but I assured her I was fine. I asked, "May I know what the creator originally intended this for?"

"He said it was to protect the user. Isn't it amazing? to allow anyone to have a barrier of this level even though they never even trained in their life!" The lady spoke with revelry.

"It is amazing but why does it also prevent air from entering the barrier?" I Inquired.

The lady explained, "The craftsman added that because he is worried poisonous gas could easily pass through the barrier."

"Then don't promote it as a tool for protection. Someone will suffocate from this," Seth remarked. The lady felt ashamed hearing that.

Seth noticed it and clarified, "I didn't mean to devalue this thing, I meant it when I said this thing is good."

"Eh!?"

"What's the matter?"

"People usually just called them trash." the lady answered meekly.

"Don't worry, one man's trash can be another man's treasure. Most of the time, people haven't found the right purpose for tools like this. From what I can tell, while this thing is not great for defending, It's a different matter for capturing someone!" I replied, The lady's mood lifted after hearing my words.

"Either way, can you introduce me to this tool's creator?"

"Of course, coincidentally, he is now here at my shop, delivering new magic tools for my shop."

"Your shop? May I come?"

"That would be lovely."

—

"After that, the lovely shop owner introduced Hyoizaburoo and Yuiyui to me at her shop," Seth explained how he met Megumin's parents.

"And that is how I met this comrade in craftsmanship," Hyoizaburoo added before slinging his whole arm around Seth's neck and shoulders.

Kazuma decided to ask something important during Seth's flashback, "That's good and all, but you forgot something, the shop owner's name." Seth never mentioned the shop owner's name once in his flashback.

Yuiyui immediately asked, "Wait, you never told them her name?"

"Well I planned to tell them the moment they met her, I wanted this to be more of a proper introduction, I feel it's kinda rude to tell someone about their name before they even properly met each other, plus it also kind of ruins the fun of meeting a new person."

Kazuma and the rest still looked resolute, they still wanted to know her name.

"Ok then, the lovely shop owner I spoke of is named Wiz, more famously known as the 'ice witch'."

"HER!" Darkness shouted.

"Do you know about her?" Kazuma inquired.

"Of course! The Ice Witch is an arch-wizard known around her for her beauty and strength. Her background is a complete mystery to us, all we know is that she arrived in this town just to build a shop and retire peacefully." Darkness spoke out. Hearing this, Aqua eye's darkened, feeling as if someone could be stolen from her.

Darkness continued, "The other thing worthy of note is that her shop's business was in horrible decline until a few weeks ago… SETH! Are you the one responsible for her recent success!?"

Seth nodded, to which Hyoizaburoo added, "You betcha! Since that fateful day when Wiz introduced us to Seth, Seth did his magic and turned her business around. Though I admit our first meeting wasn't the best."

Kazuma got curious, "How was your first meeting?"

"Well…"

—

"Why didn't you just design it to filter the air instead of pushing away all air completely?" Seth asked in the lady's shop.

"NONSENSE! A barrier's true purpose is protection! Not even parts of the air should be allowed to pass through! You go all in or not at all!" Hyoizaburoo argued.

"Then have you ever thought of using this thing for a different purpose, if you do, you could sell this for a lot more money?" 

"Blasphemy! Why should I HMPHH!?" Hyoizaburoo's wife, Yuiyui choked hold her husband and asked, "Excuse me, mister Seth, forgive my husband, please go on, how would you make this thing profitable."

"Buh! honey! That's my…"

"Listen dear, we haven't sold a single item for five days straight, why don't we let Seth have a go at it? Now you don't want our lovely Komekko to suffer from hunger because of your pride, right?" Yuiyui whispered grimly.

"Uh.. uh… Fine! Seth, show me how you made my finest creation even better! But you cannot modify or change anything on my prized creation."

"Challenge accepted," Seth replied with a smile.