17 Chapter 16: Report, Bitter Training and Talks
A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
[ ] : System, Raphael,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
\\ \\: Parallel Wills,
// // : W System announcement.
< > : Majutsu/Conjuring usage.(Using MA energy for skills, spells, etc.)
Some people who have read the novel of Kumo desu ga, nani ka? would have noticed that the timeline is massively accelerated as Shiraori originally spent 2 years in the labyrinth so just wanted to remind y'all to that this is an AU, for more reasons than 1.
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General POV (Different from the Narrator)
This is a report on two anomalous beings. Firstly the one known as the "Nightmare of the Labyrinth" and the other known as "The Wanderer" and "Consort of the Nightmare".
The Nightmare is a dangerous spider monster estimated to be in the legendary class and the Consort is a male human believed to be in the same vein of power as the Nightmare.
The first reported sighting of the Nightmare was in the year 891 of the Kingdom Calendar in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
When abnormal behaviors broke out among the monsters of the labyrinth, Ohts Kingdom requested aid from their allies in the Renxandt Empire to investigate and resolve this problem.
Accepting the request, the empire sent a group of knights that were accompanied by another group from Ohts into the labyrinth to investigate, upon which they encountered the Nightmare and its Consort.
Based on a judgement call made by the knight captain and labyrinth guide, this force immediately retreated without engaging in combat. However, they also made comments that the Nightmare could communicate with humans and the Consort may have a skill that can manipulate the emotions of beings around him.
Not long after this encounter, they called for reinforcements and in response the empire sent out an elite squad led by the summoner knight, Buirimus.
The squad engaged in battle with the Nightmare but lost with only Buirimus left alive.
Buirimus reported that after the squad had been all but destroyed, the Consort seemingly appeared from out of nowhere, showing that he may have high level stealth skills and he may have cursed Buirimus as well as his use of mana and stamina was increased by over tenfold and he was more prone to sickness.
Later the Nightmare and its Consort appeared outside the labyrinth and destroyed the Elroe fortress in Ohts. For some days after that, their whereabouts were unknown.
The next sighting of the Nightmare was in Keren County of Sariella with the Consort nowhere to be found. It is assumed that he was constantly using his stealth skills.
The Nightmare created a nest near a town at the center of Keren County and resided there for some time. There are accounts that claim that during its stay, the Nightmare healed sick and injured villagers, chased away nearby monsters and culled the robbers that were running rampant at the time.
The humans who benefited from this likened the Nightmare to the Goddess's Divine Beast, a mythical spider of legend, and began to spread praise of the monster throughout Sariella, possibly as a form of propaganda.
The behavior was a complete turnaround from the Nightmare obliterating the Empire's elites and the destruction of the fortress in Ohts. However, based on the fact that the citizens that lives near the Nightmare were not harmed, combined with the existence of official reports by the former lord of the territory , most believe this account of events to be true.
It was around this time that Ohts took issue with Sariella. Ohts had claimed that it was inexcusable for them to worship the Nightmare as it had caused them direct harm and demanded that Sariella hand over the monster, which Sariella rejected causing tensions between the countries to rise.
Being followers of the Word of God, Ohts Kingdom already held long-standing enmity with the Goddess-worshipping Sariella, but this incident had caused their already strained relationship to become hostile. To make matters worse, the diplomat who had been sent to negotiate regarding the Nightmare had somehow been recorded assaulting citizens of Keren County in an attempt to intimidate the monster.
With this incident as the final straw, both countries went to war and the diplomat was never heard from again.
The battle had taken place at the Zatona Plain and is now known as the Tragedy of Zatona. Sariella had an army of 42,000 soldiers while Ohts had backup from the Empire and other countries that follow the Word of God, amounting a total of 53,000 soldiers.
On this occasion, the Nightmare followed the Sariella army as an ally and launched a magic attack at the Ohts army. It is said that the attack obliterated 10% of the Ohts army. The word 'obliterated' was used as there were no remains from anyone caught in the attack, indicating the scale and power of the Nightmare's attack.
This single attack destroyed the morale of the Ohts Alliance, putting them in an unfavorable position. However, no further records exist in our land about what happened at the Tragedy of Zatona.
The battlefield was in chaos and there were so few survivors of the battle that know what truly happened, so it is impossible to record the truth in our history.
Some say that the Nightmare began attacking indiscriminately while others say that it was fighting something or someone, but the reality of the situation is unclear. All that is clear is that the Nightmare's rampage resulted in massive losses for both sides.
Shiraori POV
Today was a clear day, no clouds to obstruct our view of the sky, the sun beaming down warmly and a cool breeze keeping things from getting too hot. It felt like the perfect day for a picnic. But unfortunately, reality is not always what we wish it to be, meaning I can't enjoy a picnic with Dante.
All because of our newest disciples, a baby that currently looks like it's on death's door and a butler that that's not too far off either. 'I know they're going to be following us now, but why did he have to offer to train them?' I think back to what he said a few days back.
*Flashback - 5 days ago*
We'd already been on the road for us bout a day when Dante brought up something important. "Okay, while you're going to follow us, it doesn't mean that we'll allow you to be weak, especially you, Sophia. So I've decided that Shiraori and I will train the both of you until you're at a satisfactory level of power and Shiro-chan, it's time I started training you on how to use weapons." He said pointing at each of us.
"So Shiraori would train you both to use magic while I will train you in combat and help increase your resistance skills. Understand?" Dante said to us and we all nodded. "The resistance and magic training will go on at the same time, while the combat training will be done immediately afterward." He said with a chilling smile and we nodded.
*Present*
So here I am now teaching Sophia and Merazophis to use magic while Dante is lightly attacking them with different attributes to build up their resistances. All of this with them under the effects of Charity, so they will always heal back from it.
So far, they have gained Pain Nullification which has sped things up and Pain Super-Mitigation LV2 so that they can take more damage without the sensation of pain niggling at the back of their minds.
Seeing them grow this fast almost made me flip out in anger, mainly because I thought there was some extra cheat that D gave Sophia that she didn't tell me about or show in her status, but I found out it was just one of Dante's skills that basically allowed him to teach others any skill if his at an accelerated rate which when you think about it, is actually quite useful if he ever chooses to train an army of any kind. 'Not that I expect him to.'
Due to the fact that I've also been feeding them poisoned food, they've both gained the Foul Feeder title so their Rot Resistance is already present and with Dante at the helm of their resistance training, it would be Nullification before the end of the month.
Now looking towards their stat growth, they've gone through a considerable boost in power as our baby vamp has grown to be more powerful than a weaker monster while the butler is now more powerful than that summoner from that time, all in all, pretty good growth.
As for me though, I've gotten every weapon skill to the max thanks to Dante's training and all of them came together to give me the Deva skill and I also got the Puppeteer skill by using Sophia as a puppet so it's been a win-win situation so far.
"You know, even I am shocked. Don't you think this is a bit much for a baby?" Ariel asks as she jumps down to my side. "The both of us doing this is more helpful for her future, especially since we know that this world will become more chaotic with us going to war against Potimas. And besides, since she's a baby, just moving around is straining on her body, allowing her skills to level up far faster than normal, otherwise her training would be as intense as his." I say, pointing at Merazophis who is receiving training multiple times more intense and dangerous than Sophia's.
Either way, It's time for our lunch break so I'd better tell them so they can rest up for now. "Hey, both of you can rest for now, so come up here to eat.!" I shout to them and Merazophis picks Sophia from the floor and jumps to us.
Regarding the cooking, Dante took all the cooking utensils from the lord's mansion before we left and altered them quite a bit, so now they're all quite durable, not to mention he inscribed some runes on them so they perform better.
He pulls out some meat that he got from a boar like monster and starts seasoning and cooking it. He uses a spell he made called Clean Wash to clear the two vamps of the blood, sweat, tears and dirt that has gathered on them during training before forming a dining table and chairs from earth for them to sit.
"By the way, I have a question. How does your teleportation work?" Ariel asks as she takes a seat. "Well, for Shiraori, she can only teleport to places she has been to or that have been mapped in her mind. As for me, I can basically teleport anywhere since I have Spatiokinesis." Dante respond to her question.
"If that's the case, then why have we been walking for these past few days when you could have just teleported us there?" She asks with a vein popping on her forehead. "It's for their training. While I could just teleport us over to the demon realm, they are too weak. And besides, if we're going to get an army from the demons, we can't have any of your companions or direct subordinates be weak." He says while pointing to Sophia and Merazophis.
"That makes sense, but you do know that this means we'll have to make rest stops to get supplies right?" Ariel asks, after agreeing. "Yeah, but it's not like I've got any problem with that. Besides, I'll be keeping Shiro and the puppets company." He says, referring to the strange species of Taratect that live in and manipulate human sized puppets.
"Fine, then. Let's all eat up then me, Merazophis and Sophia will head into the city to buy supplies and get back here while you, Shiraori and the Puppet taratects will stay at a good distance from the city and the road." She says as Dante begins serving the food.
Not long after, we finish the food and continue on the way to the nearest city which was much closer than I thought as we only walked for about 5 minutes before we saw its outskirts.
"Okay, we're heading into the city, anything in particular that you need us to get for you?" Ariel asks the both of us while putting on a cloak she made from her threads. "No, we'll be fine." Dante says while waving them goodbye.
Shortly after they leave, Dante turns to the puppet taratects with a soft smile on his face. "Now then, you little ones haven't eaten much, so here." He says pulling out two fully cooked boars and slicing them to more accommodating pieces. I would have asked him for some if I was hungry but I wasn't so I was bored and left to quite literally twiddle my thumbs to drive boredom away.
Hearing a sound like a panel opening, I turn to the puppet taratects to see that their face has been opened up and they're placing the meat in a hole made to allow for food to be sent to their real bodies in the chest of the puppets. 'This gives me an idea.' I think looking at the puppet's bodies and mannerisms that were quite feminine.
I quickly make a dress and wore it over my t-shirt and they applaud, all 10 of them. 'Good, good. Just a little bit more and you'll all fall into my trap.' I think before asking if they wanted to wear clothes like mine and they all nodded.
With a smile on my face I begin inspecting their bodies to find that they're all made from threads, most likely Ariel's, meaning I could remodel their bodies a lot more easily than I expected.
"Want a hand with that?" Dante asks as he walks up to us. "Sure, I do want to see how they'd look afterward." I said to him as I started unraveling the first of them.
*a few hours later*
"Phew, I think I've outdone myself with these girls, don't you think?" I ask Dante while checking out my handiwork. "Yeah, they actually look and can speak like humans. If anyone meets them for the first time and doesn't use Appraisal or Detection, they wouldn't have a clue. Well done." He says while stroking my head.
I feel Ariel and the vamps close by and soon they reach us. They all look at the puppets and slight confusion shows on their faces. "Hmm this is a bit odd. Why are there suddenly more cute girls around?" Ariel says as she scrutinizes their appearance before turning to me with a smile that wasn't a smile on here face.
"Shiraori, mind telling me what exactly you were doing to my children? And Dante, you were here from whenever she started this to when she finished. Why didn't you stop her?" She asks, her hand twitching, as if getting ready to punch someone. "First off, I just remodeled them with stronger threads and secondly, Dante gave me tips to make their bodies better and more humanlike to reduce suspicion toward them." I answer her questions quickly, hoping that some sense gets to her.
Calming down, she exhales and asks me what I mean by making their bodies better. "Well, on top of being remade with threads that have every nullification skill in the system, they have also been given enchantments by Dante that will aid their survival in environments that would otherwise kill them." I say while also trying to draw their attention to my new dress.
"Uh, um, it looks.. good. Your dress.. looks good." The vampire girl says with a tiny blush on her face. "It is, right?! Tell you what, if you want, I'll help you make the clothes you'll wear from now on. So you can look as pretty as you want without being afraid of your clothes ever tearing or getting damaged. What do you say?" I say with enthusiasm and my face a few centimeters away from hers.
"Okay, that's enough." Ariel says pulling me away. "And as for you, what's going on?" She says, looking at Dante who's been looking at the sky ever since we finished with the puppets.
"*Sigh* It's nothing much. I'm just looking into the other worlds that I can detect." He says nonchalantly, despite how shocking what he just said was. "It feels nice to see a world that isn't on the verge of destruction." He continues, sitting up.
"I've also been thinking about Potimas and how Shiro-chan would face him in the future. His Anti-Magic Barrier would be a problem regardless of the amount of skills you have, so the only ways that you could probably affect him there would be your physical strength or a powerful enough weapon." He says with a hand on his chin.
"While I could craft one given I have the materials, the materials present on this world aren't adequate. Unless..." He says and looks at my spider half, more specifically, my scythes, and it clicks in my head. Understanding his thoughts about the matter as I had also had this thought a few times, I cut off one of my scythes and connect it to a handle made of my threads.
And thanks to his training, my proficiency with weapons as a whole is already quite high so I don't need to train too much with it. Giving the newly crafted scythe a few test swings, I notice that it works extremely easily with me, which I assume is as a result of it being a literal part of my body.
"Could this work well enough?" I ask while presenting the scythe to him. Looking me in the eyes, he smiles softly which I reciprocate and he takes it off my hands then begins inspecting it.
"Interesting. The scythe not only has its own stats and attributes, it's also a growth type weapon with multiple effects." He says after inspecting it for a few seconds. "A growth type? For real? Awesome!" I exclaim happily but that ember of happiness is extinguished upon hearing what he says next. "But it's grown a connection to D."
'Why is it always that bitch trying to take away my happiness?! Why?! What have I done to deserve this?!' I think in annoyance after hearing that D has established a connection with something that is literally a part of me.
"Is there anything that can be done about that?" I ask hopefully. "I could cut off the connection, but it would be too early as you are still a being under the W system. So unfortunately, I'll have to leave it as is for now." He says crushing my hopes and handing my scythe back to me.
"So, what do you wanna name it?" He asks me which confuses me for a bit then I shake my heads. "I won't name it while it is still connected to D." I say resolutely to which he simply nods in understanding. "Well, I better get to cooking." He says as he takes the foodstuffs from Ariel and makes a meal for all of us to eat.
Three weeks and some cities later and we've moved farther than we've been moving over the first few days of our travels, mainly because Dante made a large carriage with enough space for us to train out of his psionic energy and moved it at the speed of a supercar with shock absorbing and terrain alteration enchantments on the wheels to make it so the carriage doesn't shake about and some earthen puppet Fenerushes put in front to make it looked like it was being pulled by them.
Using this we've covered far more ground than we would've had we had chosen to walk. "Sophia, are you okay?" Dante asks the baby bloodsucker with a scowl on her face, who I am also puppeteering to keep her moving about. "Y-yes, I'm alright, just a bit exhausted." She says in-between tired pants.
I look at the puppets and think of how much I had outdone myself. They looked perfectly human, to the point that, as Dante had pointed out, if anyone met them newly without using Appraisal or Detection, the latter of which is almost impossible to find in any being due to its absurdly dangerous use conditions, they would never be seen as anything but human.
"I should name them." I mumble out without really thinking which caused both Ariel and Dante to flinch, with Ariel seemingly jerking in a short full body muscle spasm. "Hey, Shiraori. Don't go around naming someone else's kids." She says with a chilling smile. "She's got a point, Shiro-chan. Remember what happened when I named you." Dante says reminding me of the bond between our souls. "Okay, I won't name them, but I feel that you should name them. I remember that Mother didn't have a name either." I say, firing invisible arrows into Ariel's chest.
So far, our journey to the demon realm while avoiding the elves has been uneventful and hasn't negatively affected us. Well, all but one. Looking at Merazophis, I notice that he is uncharacteristically agitated and twitchy. I had thought that visiting human cities would have helped him calm down about the fact that he is no longer human but it seems to be doing the opposite and causing him anxiety.
"Merazophis." Sophia calls him and his entire body jerks in surprise. "Ah, young lady, I'm fine." He says to her with momentary pauses. "Is there something wrong? You've been acting weirdly lately." She says, clearly worried about him. "No, it's nothing important." He says while fidgeting. 'Hah, he better not cause any problems otherwise I'll have to deal with him, Sophia's butler or not.' I think, exasperated by his current actions.
Some hours pass by with Sophia's training causing her to get tuckered out and Ariel returns from the town nearby with the more supplies. "Okay everyone, gather round. Dinner's ready." Dante says lifting the slight tension that was building up and Ariel does something that surprised all of us. "Okay, let's drink." She says, bringing out five barrels of what seemed like wine. She speedily puts wine in four wooden pints and puts one pint in my, Merazophis and Dante's hands. "Cheers!" She shouts as she starts downing the wine.
'Alcohol, huh. I never tried it in my past life because I was underage so this will be my first time drinking it.' I think to myself as I start taking some gulps from it. 'Fruit wine? It's actually not bad.' I think as I continue drinking from it. I finish it faster than I expected but I did not notice at this time that my consciousness had become clouded.
Dante POV
Seeing Shiraori enjoying the taste of the fruit wine is just bliss. She gets affected by it quite quickly as she loosens up and drinks some more of it. "Aren't you going to drink?" She asks as she walks up to me with a flushed face and the smell of alcohol starting to waft around her.
"Here, let me help you." She says as she grabs my cup and inches it towards my mouth. Smiling, I let go of the cup and allow her to bring the cup to my lips then take a big gulp of the wine, finishing it in one stroke.
"Hehe, that's my man. He knows how to drink." She says, fawning over me. "Unlike you!" She exclaims as she dashes to Merazophis who has been taking small sips from his drink.
"You're barely drinking anything. Drink properly, damnit. Get rid of that gloom on your face." She says while shoving his drink down his throat, causing him to cough and spit some of it out.
He glares at her while panting. "That's a good expression. At least it's better than just fidgeting around." She says and he growls at her. "What the hell do you even know about me?! I lost everything, even my own body was turned to this vampire monster. Do you have any idea how I feel?!" He shouted in frustration.
I raise a brow and look over to Sophia who is still asleep and shake my head. "Tch. To think you're acting like it's the end of the world over something so trivial." Shiraori says before downing another pint of wine. "Trivial?" Merazophis asks, offended.
"Yeah, it's trivial, 'cause at the end of the day, you're still alive." She says after finishing her drink. "Take me for example. I already died once and got reborn in another world as a spider. I wasn't even born remotely human. My own parent tried to eat me right after I was born and I had to eat the corpses of my sisters to make it out alive. Despite the fact that I had met Dante, I still had to eat poisonous frogs and bugs, had to bear far more pain than what a normal person could take and remain sane, had to circle an ocean of magma and literally fight for my life." She says with a low voice.
"Leaving my own experience out of it, what about her?" She says pointing at Sophia."She died just like me and was reborn as a 'vampire monster' and she lost everything you lost too. Unlike you however, she lost everything twice and even after all that she's doing her best. Even if you include her previous lifetime with this one, she's still a child much younger than you." She says and Merazophis gulps and looks at Sophia with guilt and amazement.
"You're way too half-assed to live or die. But if you hate it so much, why don't you just die. I'll even help out and make it quick and painless." She says as she flashes to his back and holds her scythe to his neck and one of her scythe-legs to his waist, near his groin.
He mutters for a few seconds which makes her impatient. "What is that? Speak clearly." She says bringing the blades ever so close to cutting him. "I don't want to die! For the young lady's sake, I can't afford to die yet!" He shouts out with tears in his eyes.
"Looks like you've already gotten your answer. She says and moves her scythes away from him and he collapses onto the floor while gasping and crying. 'Why did she have to bring that up? It really doesn't bring back pleasant memories.' I think to myself as I finish my drink and settle in for the night, leaving a few of my parallel wills to keep controlling the carriage.
Chapter end.
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A/N: Hey everyone, been a minute since I released a chapter. Sorry about that, been busier than I expected.
Although now that I think about it, are y'all still here? Just asking because I see so few comments here.
