17

After two days of failed attempts and angrily cursing about how stupid metal is, I finally have a somewhat working moonshine still and so help me god-aghh my head. and so help me lucifer I will have it making liquid gold if it kills me. how the first person to do this came up with the method is beyond me but I can thank the discovery channel for teaching me how to do this. using a fair helping of dragon script I sealed it to the point even if a bomb went off in it the thing wouldn't even rattle. also cooling and venting pressure and a whole bunch of other nifty features.

to explain the process simply there are a few main components the heating element which is dragon script and will run for years with how I have it set up with no need to add any fuel. then there is the pot which if I had to guess the monstrosity is around four hundred gallons. the mash goes into the pot and heats to a set temperature thanks to the dragon script. the vapor from the mash then goes through a poorly made but near indestructible pipe into a doubler that's sealed with only one way out. in the doubler, it does as its name says and doubles the purity or proof. from the doubler, it goes into another container full of cool water that it travels through a pipe in and the water cools it off before it drips out the tap, and boom moonshine. how do I know it was done right you might ask? if when I drink it I feel a burn in my lungs I know it worked.

Ideally, for every one hundred gallons of mash, I should get ten gallons of moonshine if I remember correctly. but now I am just watching and waiting and it's making some pretty loud whining noises. need to add some silence dragon scripts to it.

"Nova are you sure this is fine?" asks a worried Athena. jumping up from my seat I didn't even notice she was there.

"How long have you been here?" she deadpans.

"Like four hours ago around the time you started singing about sipping on straight chloine?" she tilts her head. ah, she's been here awhile then I stopped singing twenty-one pilots when I thought I broke the pipe.

"Chlorine but dang why didn't you let me know you were here I was so focused." she shakes her head and smiles.

"Alice asked me to help find you she wants to let you know that the sky battle is today and Joseph has arrived and even brought a representative from red spirit estate. he must be confident if he has brought someone that means he's trying to show off and gain favor to compete with his brother for the lordship of red spirit estate." I hope he also brought those wyverns with him like the books as well I want to pull a Daenerys and dracarys some fools.

"Alright I just need to wait a bit longer for this to work I used some of my power to speed it up but not too much or it might just roast all the mash. wait you heard me sing a while ago?" feeling a bit embarrassed I have never sung Infront of someone and there were some high notes here and there. She gives me a shit-eating grin and goes on to sing a couple of songs I sang earlier and I dread all the future teasing that is to come. on a side note, she's killing toss a coin to your Witcher.

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After screwing around with Athena for an hour I check the tap and there is some fluid coming out I dip my finger and go to taste it and nearly cough my lung out at the smell. I don't know if it's the corn alternative or what but it's so strong it burned my nose hairs. I was worried about not using much copper to get rid of the Sulphur as I would have liked but this isn't too bad.

"Here taste a bit." she mimics me and dips her finger in and scrunches her nose after tastings it.

"I don't know if that is what it's supposed to taste like but if it is then I prefer wine." it's probably because it just tastes like straight alcohol it needs apple or something.

"Is it the taste or the kick?"

"A little of both to be honest." Hmmm, need to experiment further. I will pass a gallon over to old Gauss and if he survives drinking it then that will be my FDA certification.

"Alright, let's head off to see Alice and get ready for the sky battle."

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Walking to the location of the sky battle with Athena, Alice and Kia we arrive in an open field with quite a big audience. on the side I see old Gauss sitting with who I assume is the representative of red spirit estate. beside that man, I see a young-looking great demon who has a human appearance. with the three other great demons behind him standing like guards I assume this is Joseph.

"You arrived, welcome princess Alice." looking at who I am assuming is Joseph I confirm it's him by the sheer amount of lust sin that rolls off him while looking at Alice. even though he is an expert on controlling his appearance the sin doesn't lie this lolicon is exposed.

"Hello Joseph, let's get this started shall we." he waves and a lich walks out from the side judging by what I can feel he is an early higher demon.

"This is my first participant. we will be doing a best of three and each match is a different participant. same rules as always whoever gets knocked off their mount loses. no interference from the rider is allowed other than through their riding skills." he emphasizes the no interference part while casting a curious glance my way.

"Alright Athena will be my first participant let's get this started." we all walk off to where we should be and Athena and the unnamed lich both walk to the provided griffins.

Alice presides over the match and calls for both riders to be ready then take off. as they both ascend into the sky I can feel the Lich start to channel some spell of sorts. allowing it to happen as I know Gauss will also notice it and this can be used against Joseph. he will attempt to kill him once he fails after the match I just need to prevent that and we can get compensation for his unsportsmanlike conduct. also, I want to see where josephs strength is at. in the book he dispatched the lich before he could start talking by blasting his head with magic if I remember. I just need to use worthless on him to get a judge of his power.

As the spell completes Athena's griffin begins to panic and fly in a crazed state and then the lich casts another spell discreetly and he begins to fiercely attack at Athena. this is where the original Athena broke through to a higher demon but my Athena is already a mid-tier higher demon and used to using her flames. and on cue, she erupts in flames and it wraps around her griffin and seems to calm it somehow. she then charges the other griffin and it snaps out of whatever magic was on it and begins to flee. speeding past it Athena's griffin picks off the lich and slings him to the ground. Gauss seeing the lich falling to his death throws out some kind of wind spell and the lich lands safely Infront of him and Gauss glares at him.

"You Cheated and used magic to interact with the griffins I could feel two spells a fear one on Athena's and a Frenzy one on yours you are disqualified and Athena won the round." the lich casts a nervous look toward Joseph and he is smiling calmly staring at him but there is rage bubbling underneath. "Joseph explain yourself sending in someone to cheat in the first round." Gauss turns to look in josephs direction and joseph rises and I cast worthless around him like a bubble.

"I have no clue why this coward would do such a thing." he pauses and raises his hand the lich starts panicking and begins to speak but joseph launches a bolt of red at him only for it to snuff out in front of him. the Lich looks terrified and covered his eyes. Gauss is enraged at this guy for silencing the witness and everyone looks at joseph in confusion about what he just did. he looks at his hand and then looks around at everyone staring at him before he coughs. " I will handle this blatant cheater I expected better from him not to use cheap tricks e all are here to watch a match, not this charade."

"I will handle it Sir Joseph you have done enough." Gauss takes the lich and joseph looks a bit worried before sitting back down and putting back on his smile.

If I had to guess he's around mid-low demon king from that hit and if he used his full power might reach mid-tier or peak, demon king. nothing I can't handle but might be a bit fun to fight him. feeling a glare I turn and see Alice looking at me.

"Did you do something?" this inquisitive little brat needs to watch where we are Kia is right beside her.

"No Alice, call up the next contestants." seeing I don't want to talk about it now she looks back up and walks to the podium to call for the next contestants. Kia is taking glances in my direction but there's nothing I can do about it now. I resign myself to finally talk to Kia before I leave for the mountain mine.

After some time and reading the griffins Joseph himself walks out onto the field and since I can only participate once I hold off I want to ride the wyvern. Kaguli was called out unlike in the original where Alice pretended to participate to get Joseph to call for a draw. they begin and fly up and after a fierce back and forth Joseph manages to knock Kaguli off and she manages to land safely. after that Joseph walks up to the podium and riles up the crowd stating how they all came for a show and he wants to give them the best show he can provide. with the crowd hooting and hollering, he challenges me to ride in the third match with a special twist. in comes, some cages with a tarp on them and they are getting knocked around from the inside.

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-- Joseph pov --

"Joseph what's going on I thought we agreed I would face the weak pathetic human and kill him in the third round." Alan complains this idiot doesn't see the efforts I went through to win this. I even especially brought a representative from home to watch the match so it could improve my prestige back at the red spirit estate.

"You are participating but you need to eat these." taking out some poison resistance pills I pass them over. he looks them over then asks what they do. "They will help you resist the poison of the wyverns and the weak human will die before the match even starts from poison."

"Wyverns?!" Alan looks over as the caretakers take off the tarp and the crowd roars at seeing the next rounds of beasts. "Are you sure I have never ridden a wyvern?"

"Are you saying you cant last as long as the weak human? look at him he looks terrified." we both look at the human named Nova and he is pale and wide-eyed looking at the wyverns. how pathetic such a weak person will die of fright before he even mounts it. "See he looks petrified." Alan gaining confidence nods and begins walking to the cages. looking back at the human he is shaking his head and Alice seems to be reprimanding him. She turns and looks at me and walks over.

"Joseph this is a cruel trick but if it's going to be this way you're going to have to increase the bet." increase the bet? I already won plus she has nothing to bet with, seeming to understand my confusion she answers. "If you raise I will add in the deed to the princess retail store." a bit taken aback I wonder where she is getting this confidence from looking at the human who seems prepared to fall on his sword after Athena talked him into going. I can't possibly understand how she thinks this will work in her favor unless the human is pretending. no that's impossible I can't feel even a little spirit power from him he's just trash.

"What do you want me to raise it by?" with the princess retail in my hands I will just be one step closer to complete economic control on the dark moon. if she wants to offer it up I will take it.

"I want the wyverns if I win." thinking it over I can't possibly see the trick unless she is betting on Alda's antidotes to keep the human alive from the wyvern's poisons long enough to outlast Alan.

"I agree." Smiling I walk back to my seat and sit down and watch as the human approaches to wyverns with obvious fear.

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-- Nova pov --

I was half expecting to gain a trait with this award-winning acting I am pulling off. after seeing Alice walk back to sit with Athena and Kia and she nods with an evil smile I stop the act and calmly walk up to the wyvern's. as I unleash some Bune aura they both snap their heads in my direction and look a bit scared.

"Hey, little ones, what're your names?" I stick my hand in the cage and hear a collective gasp from behind me. looking over at Alan he's wide-eyed watching me. the wyverns sniff me and approach my hand pushing each other away from my hand trying to get scratched. surprisingly when they make low rumbles in their chest I clearly understand them there obviously more sentient than a Griffin.

"I am Kegu that's Mengda, you smell really good."

"You smell like momma." Mengda adds on.

"Hey you two want out of the cage to never go back in?" they both nod. "ok well we are about to fight in the air on your backs if you help me knock him off to the ground then I can let you guys never go in a cage again. I will even help you find your family in the future if you behave." they both eagerly agree and I realize just how broken Bune is on these poor saps. I guess I will take care of them till I go find their parents, from what I remember they are in the same area as Paglio's treasury.

"What are you doing you dumb human you can't talk to wyverns! you are destined to lose me, Alan!" Alan puffing and preening himself walks over just for Mengda to snap in his direction and growl that shakes the air around us and he falls back. no, the crowd is laughing at the idiot. turning to look in Josephs's direction I can see he is straight-faced completely unreadable. looking with sin though and he is exploding in red.