Daily Life with Three Systems: Chapter 25

Haaaah I yawn, arms stretching up above my head. 

"Alllllright." I groan, slipping out of bed. 'let's get to work, then.' 

I make my way to the door, eyes briefly straying to the kitchen. 

No Natsuki. Ah well.  

I open the bathroom. 

Theeeeere's Natsuki... in the corner, one hand between her legs the other in her shirt. 

Her face is ghastly pale. 

"You should lock the door." I deadpan as I reach over to the sink and grab my toothbrush.  

"A-ANDY! Y-YOU SHOULD KNOCK!" She protests. 

"My house. Also no judgement. Do whatever. Bye." I shrug, wetting the bristles of my toothbrush with water magic, grabbing my tube of toothpaste and closing the door behind me. 

You know... I should start keeping this stuff in my requip space... 

Oh well! 

I hum to myself as I walk into the kitchen. 

[Split] 

"A-Andy..." Natsuki sputters as she sits on the other side of the room. "D-Don't misunderstand, it's not like- i-i do that... a lot... it's just-" 

"Natsuki. You don't have to explain." I huff, quietly eating a sandwich from whatever cured deli meat Virgo bought and put in the fridge a few days ago. I think it's salami? "Cause I really don't care about you pleasuring yourself. Frankly the only reason I don't is because Koneko would hear it and ask if I wanted a 'hand'... and by hand she would obviously mean her mouth." 

The girl is a beat red. "Y-Y- She- she can hear-" 

"She has cat ears, Natsuki, what do you think?" I shoot back, causing the girl to look even more embarrassed. "But I mean, do you really think any of us care if you pleasure yourself a little? I mean, Rias and Koneko wander around most of the time completely naked. I had to install curtains to make sure no random visitors get an eyeful walking up to the house." 

"A-Andy... do you think I'm... pretty?" 

"Absolutely. Next question?" 

"H-Huh?! You d-do?!" 

"Of course." I hum. "You're really cute and to be honest I wouldn't mind seeing you naked some more, it's just I didn't really know if you felt any particular ways about me and I kiiiind of already had my hands full with two possessive and assertive women." 

"But I mean, I've kind of known you for the longest out of everyone... just not like... face to face." My voice slowly dies out. "You know I'm anti-social and really bad at this ah..." 

"N-NO! it's- it's okay... I've never really... captured someone's interest like that before." She admits, squirming in place with a deep blush. "It... feels kind of nice, I guess." 

"I'm kind of the same boat." I admit. "When Rias did that whole 'kiss me and say you better take responsibility' thing I thought she was just playing a cruel joke on me." 

"Though... I'll admit, since I reincarnated I guess I'm... fairly attractive... in a weird kind of... lanky shut in loser kind of way." I continue. 

At times... I wonder if they would even give me a second look if I was still my old self... 

No. 

They wouldn't. Or if they did it would be one of disgust. 

I prefer being like this. 

We sit in silence for a bit. 

"Hey... Andy... you met your... sister yesterday? And... it's a bad thing?" 

"..." 

FUCK. 

"Judging by your face..." The girl sighs. 

"Did I ever tell you why I call myself Andrew Graves?" I ask slowly. 

"No?" 

"It's because I look pretty much EXACTLY like the main character from this one like... video game from back home... the 'Coffin of Andy and Ley Ley'." 

"Oh? Why is that... bad?" 

"Now, I never played the game, but I did hear some about it and basically from what I remember, a brother and sister get locked in an apartment complex because of some quarantine or whatever. It truly doesn't matter. What does is the genuinely deplorable shit those two get up to." 

"Ashley Graves is a manipulative, brutal, murderous, demon worshiping, cannibalistic, incestuous psychopath. Who, if she is anything like her game counterpart, will try to murder you, Koneko, Rias, and Valerie... and that is, if she isn't a reincarnate like myself." 

Natsuki's mouth is a flat line. "O-Oh." 

"Luckily, I had my face covered. So. She has no idea that I either one: exist in this world if she's also a reincarnate. or two: Assumes I'm dead if the body I'm in has some sort of history with her." I finish. "So. That's kind of what I had been worrying about all morning. Frankly, my only worry is that she has some sort of cheat like I do." 

"But I shouldn't really... worry much about that." I shake my head. "I'm going to put it out of mind." 

"So." I begin as I stand up, I'm uh... going to go get to work on some magical items. Or the preparations at the very least... I might even head to Crocus for a few materials." 

"O-Oh! Alright!" She states. "I-I'm ah... going to be here... I guess..." 

"Have fun." I wave as I turn and make my way to the door. "Remember that the bathroom has locks for a reason. Byeeee!" 

"A-ANDY!" 

[Split] 

I gaze at a large blacksmithing forge, a table, and a massive sundial looming just behind them both Virgo stands just behind me, merely here for translation. 

"Alright. So. As I'm sure you've heard I'm going to be making a lot magical items over the next twelve months. Soooo I'd like to know a little bit more about your capabilities. Fornax. How exactly do I make celestial metals?" 

CLANG CLANG 

The little anvil on the large metal limb of the forge taps against the numerous hammers. 

"He says that you just need to supply him magical energy and he can convert metals into their 'celestial' counterparts with enough time and power with rarer and stronger materials taking far more time and energy." Virgo hums. 

"And... what does being 'celestial' actually... do?" I slowly ask. 

 CLANG 

"He said that it is a qualitative increase which is far more noticeable in weaker metals such as copper, silver, gold, and brass, but it still can apply to metals like iron or steel, just with it being less noticeable." 

"So, like, sorry if I ramble for a bit, but is it more precious metals with some sort of metaphysical weight being improved more? Like with Copper, Silver and Gold, those are the classic celestial spirit key metals. They hold an inherent connection to celestial spirits so it would make sense that they are improved more. But like... what about something like Tin? It's weaker than copper so would it be improved even further?" 

There's a brief silence before the metal arm rattles briefly, Virgo speaks up. "He's lamenting not making that connection before. Copper is improved more than tin despite the latter metal's greater weakness." 

"So... precious metals." I nod slowly. "Or at the very least metals with a truly impressive affinity for magic would likely see greater results, then. What happens if you try to make some sort of inherently evil or infernal metal 'celestial'? Would you purify it? Turn it into a different metal entirely? Does weapons made from your celestial metals work better on evil creatures like demons?" 

I look back to Virgo as the anvil repeatedly hammers his anvil with a loud clanging noise. 

My eyes flick back to the forge. 

"He claims that there's not necessarily any 'evil' metals and he hasn't tried, but he also has the ability to remove the impurities from metal. As for celestial weapons being more effective? Well, that depends. By nature the weapons would be stronger than their non-celestial counterpart, but he's not sure if there's any additional benefit granted to the weapons against such creatures." 

"Alright. Would you mind me testing something? I have two metals on me that could be argued as 'evil'. I'd like to see if you could purify them." 

CLANG CLANG 

"He agrees." 

"Okay." I mutter under my breath. 

Keeping four celestial spirits out is quite taxing, it's been about ten minutes and I've already burned through around five percent of my magical energy despite the fact I'm not really doing anything with them. 

The magical drain of Celestial spirits seem to compile ontop of each other when you summon them, so they're magnified the more spirits you summon.  

I requip a bar, juggling it between my hands. "Ow ow ow ow." 

I inject a little magic into it and use thaumaturgy to float it in the air. "Damn. Sorry. This metal's always scalding. It's called Hellstone." 

I had divided up the bars I got from Papi a while back so I could do tests like this. It's surprisingly easy to chop metal when you have a bullshit super sword just in your back pocket. 

Heck, I have quite a few, actually. 

Two more miniature bars of metal appear in my hands. "And this is Demonite and Crimtane. So let's do this!" 

CLANG 

"He's ready." Virgo affirms. 

[Split] 

I look over three bars of metal two utterly identical, little bars of blue-ish silvery metal. The purple and red of the Crimtane and Demonite becoming something else entirely.  

I've kind of just called it 'Celenium'. It's basically a purified version of the other metals. It's better, of course, thanks to Fornax's 'celestialization' buff to it, but it also seems to have gotten an improvement more akin to Gold, Silver, and Copper has given me high hopes as those 'precious metals' naturally have a really high affinity for all magics. 

According to Fornax' this is the most he's ever improved anything. No doubt thanks to Solarium the Sundial. 

After my 'Celenium' there's also 'heavenstone'. The inverse of Hellstone. 

It's a more durable metal so it has less of an improvement when compared to the purified demonite, sure, but it still surpasses it. 

It also doesn't burn my hand anymore which I am thankful for. 

It also had some improvements akin to a precious metal. But like I said, ten plus nine compared to demonite's five plus twelve. 

Creating these two materials REALLY sapped my magical power. It was probably the cost of having four celestial spirits out. In the future I could probably manage with just Solarium and Fornax, but it has been a useful learning experience. 

So. All that's left is to find out what the affinities for these metals are. 

Luckily that book on ring magic had a few basic spells in it. 

I'd struggle to call these spells, actually, they'd be more just waving fingers and magical sparkles shoot out. 

But it's more than enough to test affinity as these 'spells' were MADE to be shit. They were personally crafted to never improve no matter how big your magic is nor how skilled you become at using them. 

But one more thing before I de-summon these four and begin working on my plans. "So. Before I go, one final thing, Fornax, and, well, I suppose for you as well Ara. Can you help me process dragon bone? Like... could I make an alloy out of metal and dragon bone with your abilities Fornax?" 

CLANG 

"He said that it may be possible but to do so it would require a truly ludicrous amount of magical energy from you." 

I nod slowly. "I see... I should be able to manage. Do you drain all the magical energy at once or can you take it in bursts?"  

CLANG CLANG 

"It's similar to what you just did. A continuous stream of magical energy over a longer period of time. With better alloys taking far longer." Virgo answers. 

"Is it a set rate, or could you take more energy to do it faster or take less in exchange for doing it longer?" I question. 

CLANG 

"He's never tried." 

"Alright. Those can be questions to answer later, then. Thank all of you for your time. Please rest up I'll summon you all again eventually." 

With three bright flashes, the item spirits disappear. A long sigh leaves my lips as I look back down at the three small bars of metal. 

"Alriiight. Thank you for translating, Virgo." I stretch my arms above my head and yawn. 

"It was no problem master!" Virgo beams as I turn and begin walking back towards the house. 

"How much magical power do you think it'll take to refine the dragon bones into something suitable for my purposes?" 

"More than you have. I'm positive of that." Virgo frowns. "But as for how much exactly... I'm not entirely sure." 

"Hrm... it that case, I believe this might be a 'make tools to make tools' sort of scenario. Do you know of any magical metal that holds magical power really well? I plan to create a bunch of stockpile magic items. Rings might not give me a lot, but if I had like... a pillar of the stuff it might make a considerable difference." 

"The only question is... how do I store it. I'd need to create my very own enchantments as Stockpile Magic isn't necessarily meant for this." I ponder aloud. "Can Light Ecriture be made permanent? Surely if I carved it, right? That'll also need some testing." 

"Mithril is probably what you are looking for, but it is... quite expensive. You might be able to find some alternatives from your allies. Gemstones might also work, but finding a 'pillar' of gemstone is almost impossible unless its from a maker-mage of some sort, and even then the sheer magical power required to make a permanent gem pillar..." 

"I see." I mutter under my breath. "Out of all the gems, which would be the best at conducting magic?" 

"It depends on element, but diamond- as long as it's not some form of colored diamond is typically universal... but more than likely the most magically costly to create." She informs. 

A low 'tsk' leaves my lips. "Hrnn... that could be... a future project perhaps? I'd need to learn diamond maker magic. Possible. But I doubt I'd have that much time to make things if I did... although, realistically I don't need to know it that well. I just need to make a giant pillar of the gem... but then again higher purity diamonds would no doubt create a better product." 

"It'll probably just be more time-efficient to make a bunch of thunder ofuda and merely use my Skrill form to convert the electricity into magic." I tap my chin, eventually reaching the house. 

Ping 

"The magic paper worked. Perhaps a little too well. I apologize for not being able to retrieve one of the Sword Stealers. I'll arrange something else." - Grimmel the Grisly 

"That's Fine." I type back. "We can work something out." 

"There is one thing I'm curious about, though. The ink. That is dragon blood, correct?" - Grimmel the Grisly 

"Yes." I reply. "Dragon's blood is a powerful reagent, even with the quite weak dragons of your world. More specifically those paper seals I gave you were made with the blood of that Skrill you sent me, most dragons have specific affinities, Skrill with Lightning, Speed Stingers with restraints. Of course the quality of the dragon in question has an effect as well, a baby skrill would have far less of an effect than that beast you sent me a while back." 

"I see. So this is what you meant by a fate worse than death. Constantly being harvested for parts. At least the dragons are finally useful for something." - Grimmel the Grisly 

With that message, the conversation seems to die out. I make my way back into my home, a hum leaving my lips. now, time for some testing I suppose. 

[Split] 

So, I've tested the metals a bit. 

Little sparks of electricity, embers from fire, droplets of water, gentle breezes, stuff like that channeled through the thick finger-like blocks of the metal I have right now. 

I've determined a few things about it. 

 Firstly, they're a conductive metal because it has a high electricity affinity, but the Celenium- which is getting kind of hard to remember so I may just start calling it 'celestial demonite' regardless of if it was originally crimtane or demonite- doesn't actually reach the affinity of Copper. Heavenstone- which is thankfully a more memorable name than 'Celenium'- has quite the high affinity for electricity and water. Even surpassing silver. 

Not that silver has a TRUE affinity for electricity, merely being an extremely conductive metal, Heavenston seems to ACTUALLY have an affinity for electricity, even if it may be quite small. 

'quite small' for a conductive metal does make quite a difference, however. 

The water affinity is a bit lower, sadly, but still quite impressive. 

Of course, these smaller affinities hold NOTHING in comparison to their affinity for light and holy magics. 

I used the metals kind of like blocky crayons for Light Ecriture after using some basic glow spells and... wow... 

Celestial Demonite has Thrice the effect, be it barrier strength, duration, or attack potency and Heavenstone had nearly four times the effect. 

I'm probably going to be making myself a stylus pretty soon just so I can make better use of my ecriture. 

I'm sure there are ways to improve this further. Maybe by adding some gemstones? 

Runes? 

What gemstone correlates with light? 

Probably some sort of pearl or moonstone? Or does moonstone count as more of a 'darkness' and 'night' gemstone. 

The book on ring magic briefly touched on gems, but it kind of only covered the basic elements of fire-ruby, water-aquamarine, earth-topaz, wind-malachite. 

I'll need a more specialized book to figure it out from there. 

Ugh. But I'd need to make some magic items first in order to get points. 

I open the quest window. 

Create 246 Ofuda {+2 Points} 

Yeah, I've gotten pretty good with that, that was about twelve hours of work, the most annoying part would be the cutting myself for ink part, but anyways I can tell that it's giving me diminishing returns. 

MASSIVELY diminished returns. 

I got one point for ten, then a second point for one hundred. 

I'll likely get a third at... maybe three hundred? Or possibly five hundred? Most definitely one thousand though if not either of the earlier options. 

But there's not much I can do with just two points... so I'll probably need to produce a few shitty rings to get some more crafting books. 

So, I'll need at least ten points to get a book on 'weak' magic, which could theoretically be crafting magic. 

But beyond that... 

I could get ten at fifty points... 

Wait. 

'Why... do I need to use the system?' I perk up, eyes glinting slightly. 'especially when I have a guild right in the town below.' 

I wonder if Makarov knows any good book stores? 

[Split] 

I step into the guild hall, hands in my pockets, peering out of my hoodie across the many groups. 

There's nobody here that I recognize... aside from Makarov at least who is on the counter. Drinking. Again. 

I swear he has some sort of alcohol based death wish. 

He seems genuinely surprised upon seeing me. "Ah. Andrew. Back at the guild so soon after the trials? I really didn't expect you till next month or so." 

"Yes, har har, I don't leave the house much." I roll my eyes with a small smile. "I'll have you know I went sightseeing this past week." 

"Oh yeah? Where'd you go?" 

"Oak town, some phantom lord mages tried to mug me. Big mistake. Then i went to Guiltina and Alvarez shortly after that." 

"..." 

"You went to Guiltina and Alvarez in... what... three days?" Makarov blinks. 

 "One day, actually. Turns out you can cover a lot of distance when you can ride lightning." I shrug simply. 

"Traveling that fast surely drains a lot of magical power, right?" 

"Oh, it does. Not really an issue for me, though. I can recharge really fast." 

"And you got... mugged?" 

"Fire wizard, water wizard, smoke wizard and some sort of grabby grappling hook wizard. They bit off a little more than they could chew. I roughed them up a little, but mainly just scared them. Left them about one hundred feet outside Oak Town after turning their clothes into straight jackets." 

"You've got some sort of goal this year, don't you..." Makarov observes. "You were looking for something." 

"Celestial spirit keys. I got the ones I needed." I nod slowly. 

"You... are horrifyingly efficient." The man blinks twice, causing my smile to grow. 

"So, what do you need, my boy?' 

"Enchanting books. I'd like just... any book on the enchanting profession. Blacksmithing, bow-stringing, wand making, totem carving. Heck, I'd take magical basket weaving if it exists." 

"I wouldn't recommend splitting your attention between so many things, my boy." 

"Hm? Oh. I wouldn't worry about it. I'm quite skilled at multitasking. Why do you think I practice so many magics? There's my thaumaturgy, my first magic and the one I more or less invented from the ground up so it holds quite a special place in my heart, then the thread maker magics which is a collection of numerous similar maker magics from linen-make to silk make alongside knowledge on how to make enchanted clothing, then I've got elemental bolt magic. I'll admit though, that one's a little neglected, it's just kind of boring. Then I've got takeover which is quite a large part of my combat style. Then archive magic which has been quite useful, celestial spirit magic which, admittedly isn't that hard to learn as long as you have an aptitude for it as it's a holder magic, and finally divination. There's a reason as to why I can complete missions so quickly, master. I have a large assortment of skills and I'd like to expand them into more branching forms of item creation." 

"Because master, I see magic as... a puzzle... it all comes from one source, yet the more I read and the more I understand, the more I might see similarities between two different magics." 

"Anyways, do you know any places where I could buy the books?" I ask. 

"I... do know a few." Makarov sighs. "There's a few in crocus." 

"Oh? That's good. I can kill two birds with one stone, then. I need to go to crocus to get some materials." 

"Let me get a piece of paper." Makarov begins as he goes to stand up... but I simply requip a piece of paper and a pen.  

"Oh. Alright then." The man notes as he sits his mug down on the table and begins to write. "By the way... Sorcerer Weekly has been trying to get a hold of you. They want to do an interview." 

"Not going ot happen." I reply instantly. 

"Haaah. Thought you'd say that." The man bemoans. "What, are you afraid to be seen as part of the guild? Do we shame you?" 

"Oh, of course not, Master, I just... would prefer to not be perceived. I'm in this guild for the long haul. If someone destroys it, every waking moment of my long life would be finding a way to avenge it and I believe Natsuki, Rias, Koneko, and Valerie would feel the same. It's that... I really don't like attention. I'd personally rather people forget about me, if not for the fact that I'd loathe dealing with any potential fanboys and fangirls, then for tactical reasons. Let anyone who seeks to do harm think that I'm kind of just like... an urban legend. Something that shows up, does ten S-Class jobs in a row then disappears for months at a time." 

 "I mean, people like mysteries. Soooo perhaps me staying out of the limelight might even be good for the guild in the long run. At least that's how I'm totally justifying it and you really won't be able to sway my thoughts on that. Mainly because of personal reason." 

"Alright... Alright... you are doing better though... far better than when you first showed up... I am quite proud of you, Andrew." The man admits. "Rias and the others... have been good for you." 

"Yeah." I sigh. "I guess they have..." 

"I still really don't like new people though." I frown, crossing my arms before letting out a small huff. "Want to see the recording of me beating up those phantom lord wizards?" 

"Boy, do you even need to ask?!" the man laughs.