10

Arriving at the palace's meeting room I notice it's just me and Shea, she requested I visit this morning to discuss an official position in her cabinet. as I approach the end of the table she watches and begins after I have sat down.

"Good morning Nova, I wanted to appoint you as my secretary which would give you a title you could use to participate in meetings with me. I would prefer to appoint you as finance officer in the future after some proof of concept on your ideas but that position is locked tight in josephs hands. given that as it may we can work toward that end once we begin to take back the economy from him. do you accept?" This is the position Chen had originally before joseph forced him into mining officer, but it works for multiple reasons such as buying property as a no-one versus the secretary of the lord. kind of like becoming a thane in Skyrim just so you can buy breeze home.

"Sure, that position will work with me. is there anything that I am expected to do as your secretary, I would like to have free time to practice with Athena and also start building my business."

"No the main thing is coming in the morning to give reports of your progress if there is any and give some advice on matters such as this one." she pulls out a slip of paper and I open it and read it. It's letting Shea know of the arrival of a potioneer named Sandro who is challenging Aldas for his position as a master. remembering how Chen Rui carried Aldas through this in the original I feel that this may cause a problem. then I remember my Stolas trait and get an idea, if I just use my trait to give Aldas a poison that will kill Sandro in one go then he will win. the only problem is that Aldas may have to drink Sandro's poison first and if that's the case I also need to give Aldas an antidote but that should be fine I can do both easily.

"I could solve this problem for you but you would have to force Aldas to accept my help doing a little finagling." Raising an eyebrow at me I press on. "if you remember my immunity to poisons that Aldas discovered during my imprisonment." she looks a little uncomfortable at being reminded she's asking me to help my ex-captor. "I can give him an antidote to anything Sandro will throw at him and if he throws some of my poison into his before he passes it for Sandro to take then he will win without any trouble." thinking about it for a bit she nods and agrees, it will hurt the elf's pride but even he can see that they are just trying to stomp out any of Shea's support by sending someone of such skill to challenge Aldas.

(for those of you who didn't read the original this challenge is to poison each other in turns and if your opponent can't cure themself and die you win. and they sent one of the top prodigies to stomp on Aldas who is mid-tier. )

"I will let him know, whenever you have the items ready for him just pass them to me and I will get them taken to him to prepare for the challenge." remembering I still have one and a half of Paglio's poison pearls I can just use some of the half that's left from giving Kia and Alice there portion in a soup I made after ice-cream. I want to save the other pearl because the resistance it gives to poison allows one to survive the poison of a devil fruit and the pearl itself if diluted can be used on up to twenty people if I remember correctly. if I can plant the devil fruit tree from the black rainforest in the garden in my shop and then get some subordinates to treat them with the pearl and a devil fruit as well as give them a pawn piece I would have a pretty strong little gang to get to do my dirty work.

"Sounds good, is there anything else I can help with?" after this, I need to meet Athena to train but I want to make my way to see Paglio and practice my traits today.

"No that is all for now Nova." she answers in her usual cold authoritative tone.

"Alright I will be by tomorrow morning" walking out the door I head to the training area,

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After spending a few hours training with Athena and her using her transformation which takes her to the peak of higher demon I realize that the passive buff from Balam is huge. I will need to try to fight with Paglio and get his opinion but the difference between me and Athena is pretty big.

"Hey Athena I still got things I need to do today so I will stop here." she leans on her training sword.

"Ok Nova, do you want to train again tomorrow? I feel like I am making some good progress fighting you." She looks pretty happy with her results, which isn't very surprising we have seen like three other people come out here and train and not even for very long. she probably doesn't have anyone to fight with because they're scared to lose or scared of her father's position and making him mad.

"Yea sure I don't have a problem with it after I get done with Shea in the morning I will come here around the same time."

"Your meeting Shea again tomorrow?" She looks slightly bothered, hmmm is she jealous?

"Yea she hired me to be her ' secretary ' so I will be seeing her most mornings." I say while stretching. and she nods but still looks a bit bothered by it. "Why are you jealous?" smirking at her going red again but this time it's not from her transformation.

"NO! why would I be she's your boss it's not like she likes you or anything." she sounds more like she's reassuring herself more than informing me.

"Oh, I see I guess your right Shea is too busy to think about liking someone." She nods in agreement. "So are you?"

"Am I what?" she tilts her head a bit then it clicks and she goes red again and pulls up her training sword and swings at me. "you dummy! what are you asking me?!" jumping back and starting to run off I laugh and she throws her training sword at my back but I step out of the way and keep going.

"See you tomorrow Athena!" turning the corner I short distance warp a few times and I am out of the city and continue warping to the blue lake.

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"Paglio! are you the-" turning to see a literal dragon rising from the lake I am taken a bit aback. it's my first time seeing his dragon form but also seeing such a big living being in person he's massive. "hey Paglio can you help me practice a few things? you're the only person I know it won't hurt to try stuff on." a flash and he's Infront of me in his delinquent-looking human form.

"Did you bring me some tributes?" tributes? oh, food and drink.

"Yea I got some." taking out some goodies I bought this morning in prep he snatches them up like a starving man and pigs out.

"Give me a minute to eat and then I will help you train some."

"Hey is there a way to test what someone's level is?" giving me an odd look.

"No, it's mainly years of experience that lets me judge." feels bad to know there's no cheat code.

"I guess that makes sense or it would be widespread by now." after waiting for him to finish he stands up and motions for me to follow.

"Alright punch me as hard as you can so I can get an idea about where your current standing is no power though just physical body strength." punching his outstretched hand he loses footing a bit but recovers and looks at me with clear shock. "What the hell you are a great demon king rank?"

"No, I should be around the level of demon king." shaking his head

"No that was for sure early great demon king, I may be sealed to peak great demon king but I wouldn't mess something like this up." Huh so Balam's super strength lets my physical body be one rank up, that's super useful I wonder if that will be the same going forward. " here let's try this.."

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After a few hours of testing my limits and another few learning dragon inscriptions, I begin to head home. thinking about all I just learned I try to sum it all up. it seems I have the hitting and lifting strength of an early great demon king but the senses and endurance of a middle-tier demon king. my magic is best placed at the peak of demon king by Paglio's standards. after fighting for a bit and using my traits I learned that there are many ways to practice going forward using them for combat.

Agares with it I can not only speed myself up and my response time by letting it run through me but I can do the opposite to my enemies. after a few times of trying it, Paglio got used to it and could even resist the effects somewhat but even he with all his experience couldn't negate the debuff entirely. he bragged in his prime he could completely block it and I don't doubt it but he also experienced it a few times. if it's the first time someone is feeling the effects of time debuffing them then I could easily catch them off guard and get a fatal hit. I can't stop time in an area yet but I feel it will be possible the more I practice.

Belial, man did I underestimate this one by a lot. it doesn't just cancel magic, that's like using it like a hammer you can use it like many different tools for many different effects. Paglio may not be the best at magic but he still is better than most people and he proved it by zapping and burning me till I accidentally learned a new feature of my Worthless trait. he was casting a fireball when I accidentally targeted only part of the spell instead of snuffing the whole thing out it detonated on the spot in Paglio's hand. it seems if I can understand what a spell is I can target certain points and negate certain features. like if there was a spell that made someone float and moves forward if I targeted the move forward they would just float. lots to practice with this one but I want to know if it's possible to make anything worthless with enough information about the subject.

Balam is pretty simple but a huge benefit. not only did it give me a super solder body but it also acts kind of like the serum and puts me a league above what should be the norm for my rank. not much I could find to do with it. I am not able to interact with it to turn it off or on without using worthless on myself which would just consume my power for no real reason.

Stolas is a pretty useful utility trait it allows the creation of venom from my body with almost any effect I want. I can make my spit acidic or even heal which is kind of gross. I can also make my blood into a cure-all almost so long as I understand what it's curing. and the number of different poison effects I can make even made the poison dragon envious. there are a few more options like a nicotine effect to get people addicted and also an aphrodisiac effect. Not sure if these devils are one of the extinct clans in DxD but if they are I understand why there to dangerous to be left alive.

Bune this one was tricky it seems it has multiple effects. I gain a pseudo dragon form that allows me access to dragon aura which suppresses a lot of weaker species. it also gives me a huge affinity toward dragons Paglio said he almost didn't want to beat my ass when I used it but then he thought about all the female dragons falling into my hands and wanted to beat me up again. speaking of female dragons meeting Zola just got a whole lot safer. my dragon aspect also gives me a bit better control of magic and a damage resistance magic and physical but only when I have it active. which I am slowly practicing using on only certain parts of my body at once.

Lots to work on and even more to look forward to but now I need to sleep and tomorrow I can worry about what to prioritize.