Chapter 6

–Gandoma Balam–

Michael was his friend. They hadn't known each other for a long time, just a few days really, but he thought of the weird human as his friend since he was one of the few that treated him fairly and didn't care about his inhuman appearance. That didn't change the fact that he also thought that Michael was an idiot.

Kuisha believed he was a once in a generation genius. One of those people that could accomplish anything they set their mind to and that did things others thought were impossible.

The rest seemed to agree with her. Especially after they learned that he went from someone who wasn't ever aware of the supernatural to a Mid-Class fighter in about two weeks. Add in the fact that Michael developed Touki and also figured out how to manipulate his Ki in a unique way to make food in that same time frame? Yeah, he could see why they believed he was a once in a generation genius, but Gandoma still thought Michael was a fucking idiot.

He took a deep breath as he watched his character get hit by yet another combo before it was shot out of the screen. Slowly, he turned his head to the side, only to see Michael staring at him with a shit-eating grin.

Super Smash Melee? This game only made him want to super smash Michael's face and knock out some of his teeth. Stupid, smug little shit.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Calm. He had to be calm and resist the urge to beat the shit out of his new friend.

"Aw, man. You're not that good at this, are you?"

A crack echoed in the room, and Gandoma looked down, seeing how the controller in his hands was now in two pieces.

"You broke the controller?" Michael's grin somehow grew even wider. How that was even possible was beyond him.

"Don't worry, buddy. It happens to the best of us." Michael tapped him on the shoulder in a failed attempt to comfort him before he got up.

Calm. Gandoma had to stay calm and not punch him in the face. He could do that tomorrow during their training as he already planned to spar with Michael. He just had to endure and be patient.

And then… then when he knocked him around and beat him black and blue, Gandoma would get to ask him that same question, "You're not that good at this, are you?"

Gandoma could already envision the satisfaction from doing just that. The image even managed to calm him down, but Michael just had to open his mouth again.

"Thankfully, I bought a bunch of controllers!" Michael waved at him with the new device in his hand while staring at him with that stupid smug look on his face.

Gandoma exhaled as he slowly placed the two broken halves on top of the pile of destroyed controllers next to him. He looked back at the idiot, whose grin had grown even wider again. Maybe he could get away with hitting him once?

His phone buzzed before Gandoma could make a decision. It seemed Michael would get to keep his teeth today as he was notified of a Stray Devil appearing in one of their cities. It looked like an easy one since it was just a newly acquired Pawn that had killed a couple of servants before escaping to the human world.

Kuisha had forwarded this task to him since hunting Strays counted as a contract, a very lucrative one at that. Just killing a single Stray was the equivalent of completing ten deals and that was perfect for someone like him who was lagging behind the rest.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Michael said after he informed him of this. "We can consider the contract finished since we've been playing for hours now."

"Thank you." Gandoma nodded as he presented him with the blocky device for him to swipe his card. He didn't want to take his money, but this was a formality that marked his contract as completed, so it had to be done.

"Say… would you mind if I tag along?" Michael asked before he left.

Gandoma thought about it for a second before nodding. "It shouldn't be a problem."

He wasn't as good with Magic as some of the other peerage members like Kuisha, the two Bishops, Coriana and Misteeta, or even Liban and Beluga, but he was adequate enough to bring one more person with him while teleporting. Taking Michael along for the ride shouldn't be too much of an issue for him.

"Awesome." Michael grinned and stepped closer.

Since he couldn't teleport to locations he hadn't been before to, Gandoma was forced to bring them to the roof of a building that was relatively close to where the Stray was spotted by Cori's familiar.

"This way," he told his friend as he took the lead, jumping to another building with relative ease.

Michael followed after him, agiley hopping from roof to roof, easily keeping up with him. He might even be slightly faster than Gandoma, though that was only on foot. If he spread his wings, he'd easily outspeed him.

"Does this happen often?" Michael asked as they moved towards their destination. "Strays, I mean."

"Not as often as others like to claim," Gandoma explained.

Devils didn't have many friends due to the existence of the Evil Pieces, but they didn't have that many enemies. After all, they weren't the only ones that recruited from the humans or the other various factions. It's just that their method was a bit more extreme, comparable only to the vampires.

The Fallen and Heaven were the only ones that were truly hostile with them. Though the hostilities had greatly lowered over the years, to the point where they could even oversee human cities together without getting into too many fights.

Still, Devils weren't really liked by the others and factions tended to make a fuss when a Stray caused trouble in their territory, but this didn't happen that often. And when it happened, they made sure to wring them dry.

"I see." Michael thoughtfully nodded as they continued on their way, shortly reaching a nice little park.

Gandoma spotted Cori's colorful bird flying in the air. It circled a specific spot a few times, pointing out the location of their target.

"This way," he told Michael as he took the lead again.

A sense of calmness overtook him as they moved past the trees. Parks and forests were his favorite locations to spend time in. They were the perfect place to get away from others since it was just so easy to blend in with the environment even with his appearance. People didn't even notice him if he sat still, and he could be mistaken for a weirdly shaped rock.

His King found and recruited him in a park similar to this. Sairaorg was searching for a quiet place to train and ended up punching him in the face because he mistook him for a rock, thinking it was the perfect object to train his fists on.

Gandoma punched him right back, and they ended up beating each other until they dropped from exhaustion. The rest… the rest was history.

"Can I fight it first?" Michael's question snapped him out of his thoughts. "There's something… I want to test."

"I will intervene if you need help," Gandoma replied, giving him the go ahead since he understood the need for someone to prove to themselves that their hard work hadn't been for nothing.

Michael was an idiot, but he was his friend, and he'd rather not see his friends hurt. Though he doubted a weak Stray could hurt him considering he could take a punch from Sai.

Michael nodded at him before his posture shifted. He had been somewhat tense until moments ago, but now he was calm, relaxed even. Without even asking for directions, he started walking with confidence in his steps.

Gandoma didn't question it and followed along. He thought that Regulus and Ladora were onto something as Michael led them right to their target as if he knew exactly where it was.

The Stray's body had already mutated from its rampaging Demonic Power. Its skin was replaced by a hairy hide and its limbs were deformed and mismatched. Gandoma couldn't even tell if it had been a male or female at this point.

All in all, it didn't look that dangerous, except for that shield that was orbiting around it. Some kind of Sacred Gear perhaps. That explained how a weak Pawn had managed to escape, though there was no mention of it in the information he received.

He looked at Michael, who was intently staring at the target, probably judging how to quickly and efficiently eliminate the Stray. Gandoma stayed quiet, wondering why it was taking him so long to make a move.

"Yoouu!" The Stray snapped in their direction, seemingly having caught their scent. The shield that was orbiting around it began rapidly spinning before it shot in their direction.

Michael made his move then. He shot off the ground, rushing straight at the spinning disk. Jumping lightly, he landed on the shield and used it to catapult himself towards the Stray. Michael made for quite the sight as he pulled back his fist mid flight while activating his Touki. It was quite impresi–

"I Cast Fist!"

Never mind. Gandoma should've known better. Michael was an idiot. Even if he managed to punch a hole through the Stray's chest and take it down in one blow.

Sighing, he walked over to confirm the kill. Gandoma marked it as complete on his device to let the King know he could recall the Piece now. He then turned towards Michael, only to see him standing motionless, his eyes staring at nothing in particular.

"Michael?" Gandoma worriedly called out, wondering if he had somehow missed something. "Are you alright? Is everything okay?"

There was no response at first and that only made him worry about his friend even more. He was about to call the others and ask for help when Michael finally moved.

"You know," he said as he looked at the night sky. "I had a dream before I found out about the supernatural."

Gandoma wasn't sure where this was going, but he quietly listened. That's what friends were supposed to do.

"I planned on becoming the world's greatest evil." Michael turned to him, his blue eyes shining brightly, and Gandoma started to worry again as things took a weird turn.

"I was going to do that by spreading Gacha to every corner of the world!"

Never mind. Michael was just being an idiot. Everything was just like usual. There were no issues here.

"But I realized that I couldn't do that since I doubted the supernatural would be interested in it. Simple gamb–I mean, loot boxes wouldn't be enough to catch their interest."

Gambona wasn't sure where this was going, but he really wanted to punch him in the face. Just once.

"But now? Now I know what I must do. I have been enlightened and…" Michael took a deep breath, the light in his eyes shining even brighter. "I plan to go above and beyond!"

"What are you talking about?" Gandoma couldn't help but ask at this point.

"Gacha is an incredibly vile thing, but I plan to introduce something even more horrifying to this world. It will be so abominable that I might just ascend as an Evil God by creating it! VR League of Legends will be my magnum opus! It will bring a level of toxicity that this world just isn't prepared for!"

Gandoma had enough and decked him in the face. Michael's body flew back and slammed against a tree a short distance away, his eyes rapidly blinking as he stared back at him.

"What was that for?"

"You were starting to sound like those Old Satan lunatics." Gandoma looked at him as if he was an idiot… Oh wait, he was.

"You know what? Fair." Michael shrugged after shaking off his punch. Damn. He could've gotten away with another one or two.

"But what was all of that?" Gandoma asked, wondering what just happened.

"I was enlightened!" Michael replied with a grin before frowning. That really didn't help him understand though.

"Ah, shit. I'll have to do a lot of reading and look into all the various types of Magic. I'll also need a lot of materials…" He trailed off before nodding to himself. "I'll have to ask if Sairaorg could… Never mind, he's not the right person for this. It will be better to speak with Kuisha about this."

Michael wasn't wrong. Kuisha was definitely more suited for this, whatever this was. He loved Sairaorg like a brother, but his King was...

Oh, Gandoma came to a worrying realization. Two of the people he got along best were idiots. So then what did that say about him?

…

He had to remind himself that Michael was his friend because he really wanted to punch him in the face again.

World Seed: Magitech Master - 600 CP

If you looked at Neolife's technology for only a bit, you'd be surprised to see that it is not technology at all. Well, not pure technology at least. Rather, the technological standard in the game is magitech, a fusion of magic and technology. And it looks like you've taken a shine to this kind of thing, evident by your new skillset.

First of all, you are able to build a technological equivalent of any magic or other supernatural ability, like a Psychic power, and vice versa. If you could cast a basic fireball or lightning bolt spell, you could build a gun that can do the same. If it's something more complex than that, for example a whole skillset like fire magic, you might instead be able to build a nanite swarm or a glove that could grant it wholesale to other people, or a robot innately able to do it. The same goes for any technology you are able to build. If you had a device at your hand that could stabilize space in a radius, preventing any dimensional shenanigans, you'd be able to create a spell that could do the same. And if you studied a spaceship, you could create a spell that would let you travel the void unhindered at the same speed and with the same protection.

But of course, you are also able to make actual magitech, using the strengths of both fields to negate their weaknesses and make something surpassing what you could do just using one of them. Whether it is space ships powered by magic and enchanted to be far sturdier and more powerful than their material makeup would suggest, ships powered by white holes that are contained through magic, warp gates allowing for unmolested travel throughout the galaxy once they are set up, or bombs that break open rifts to subspace, capable of easily scorching a planet through mana acting like antimatter rushing out of them, there's no technology to be found in Neolife that is beyond your ability to create.

A/N

This is why I even considered the Fallen as an option. Besides Lavinia and an easy connection with better Akeno, that is. Because this makes him a bit of a genius when it comes to Magic, Science/Technology, and their sum, Magitech.

Pretty good Perk, but it has its downsides. For one, he will have to study a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Two, even though he can gain the knowledge to cast spells, well, his mana pool is still garbage tier, so he won't be able to do much with that. Though he will get better with his Ki as a result of this, so there's that I suppose.

Overall, good potential, but it will take quite a while before he can start making ridiculous things.