Otherworld Adventure

Since the craftsmen were preparing the parts for the Storm Howler Mk.II, Cecil now only had the easy job of inscribing the runic arrays on the parts which would then be a.s.sembled by the craftsmen after he was finished.

Cecil was actually pretty satisfied with their work that he even sent them the blueprints for the parts of the Teleportation Gate so that they could craft it for him. Of course, he split all of the blueprints into the individual parts of the Teleportation Gate before handing them over. He didn"t want anyone else to know of him building the gate just yet.

His family was the only one that needed to know at the moment. With the help of the kingdom"s craftsmen, his work on the gate was sure to speed up. It might take him even less time to build and a.s.semble the gate. All he needed to do now was wait for the parts to be delivered to him.

After Cecil holed himself inside his workshop for 3 consecutive days, his mother and wives dragged him out of the place because it wasn"t healthy for him to be like that. During their journey, Lucia and Serilla would normally leave Cecil and Ren be if the two decided to hole up in their workshop for days and they"d only bring them food and tell them to wash up.

The two never tried to interfere with Cecil"s work no matter how much they yearned to spend some time with him. Besides, Lucia and Serilla thought that it would be better for him to quickly finish up his work before they barred him from entering the workshop for a while.

Now that Mother Anastasia was here, the girls became even bolder and directly dragged Cecil out of his workshop so that they could spend some time with their husband. Cecil felt that his work was being hindered by his own family, but he didn"t feel all too bad about it. It was nice to take a break once in a while and after being lectured by his mother and grandmother, he finally understood the folly of him neglecting his wives to only focus on his work.

Cecil didn"t want to lose either of them because they felt they were being neglected by him. He was lectured to better manage his time and split it between work and break. It was a hard habit to break, but he did promise his elders that he"d try.

Since Cecil wasn"t allowed back inside his workshop for the next few days, he decided to help out with Lucia and Fatima"s cla.s.ses. He had already given the school his Mana Manipulation methods so when he came as an a.s.sistant to the girls, he was glad to see that the students had some inkling of what Mana Manipulation was.

Next week, he would be heading out to war with his father and it was a good thing that the magi-tech weapons that his kingdom was creating were all upgraded with the anti-magic coating and his new firing mechanism. This way, the cannons wouldn"t be useless if they fell under the Empire"s M-Jammer.

On the last day before the army was going to head out, Angelia kept on bugging her brother to take her out for monster hunting as he had originally promised her before. Of course, it didn"t mean hunting down and killing monsters, but hunting down and taming them.

It was the weekend and that meant there was no school so Cecil had to agree. Lucia, Ren, Quinn, and Gabriel tagged along on this trip outside of the valley as well. They were going to head out on the Wanderer so they brought Serilla"s trusty steed, Sleipnir, with them.

"Yay, yay, yay~"

"Settle down, Angel, you"re going to fall off!"

"Haha, no way~ even if I do, Orochi will catch me~"

"...that"s still no reason for you to be jumping up and down on the wagon"s roof..."

"Hehehe~ lighten up big bro! I"m holding onto you anyway~"

"Hmmm..." Cecil eyed the little three-headed golden snake wrapped around Angelia"s arm. He found it peculiar that his little sister was able to contract with so many monsters at once.

It was only the little snake, but there was also the small bird on her shoulder, Chi, the black cat nestling around her neck, Mao, and the beautiful gem-like ornaments decorating her hair. These weren"t your ordinary ornaments, the small gems in Angelia"s hair was actually an Orobos that she had named Jewel.

When Cecil had found out that those hair ornaments that Angelia had on 24/7 were actually an Orobos, he was a little shocked. This was the troublesome monster that he had fought all those years ago inside of that mine!

When he asked where Angelia found it, her answer was something he had expected and sure enough, he was correct. The monster came from deep within the Silvaria Kingdom"s mine. It was a good thing that no one had died due to the monster"s attacks since it was discovered very early on.

Her Orobos was a little unique because it could split itself into multiple parts unlike the one he had faced which could only split into 4. The small gems in Angelia"s hair acted like her own automated laser beam defense system. If a monster or an individual with bad intentions tried to get close to her, the Orobos would sense it and immediately attack to protect its Master.

These were just the monsters that Angelia had brought with her this time. On her personal ranch which was located in a cordoned area inside the valley, she had at least 30 more monsters that she was connected to by a pact.

She originally had close to 50 or so, but after the war with Merkruz, it was reduced to around 30. This was also another bone that Cecil and his family had to pick with Merkruz. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had killed off about 20 or so of their precious little Angel"s pets, and this was unforgivable.

"Hey, Angel, I"ve wanted to ask this, but are you able to contract with any kind of monsters?" Cecil curiously asked.

"Contract? What"s that?"

"Uhm... let me rephrase that, are you able to form a link with just any monster you meet?"

"A link? Oh, you mean the connection I have with my pets?"

"Yes, that"s what I meant, so are you able to form a connection with just any monster?"

Angelia thought hard for a moment before replying, "No, I don"t think I can... there are some monsters that attack me or just run away even after I help and try to befriend them... for the ones that try to attack me...well, you can imagine what"ll happen to them."

Angelia gestured at all her pets that were currently with her. She was literally covered in all sorts of high-ranked monsters right now. They were all still young so their ranks weren"t that high yet, but once they"ve matured, Angelia would have a pretty formidable army under her.

"So there are only certain monsters that can form connections with you, huh?"

"Yup! Before, I used to just jump the gun and try to befriend every monster I see, but now, I"ve developed some sort of gut feeling that usually helps me determine whether or not I can form a bond with the monster!"

"That"s neat, but it also strikes me as odd as to why you can form so many bonds with so many monsters..."

"Is that bad?" Angelia asked.

"No, of course, it isn"t. It"s just puzzling to me because people aren"t supposed to be able to form pacts with so many monsters at once! A pact has a direct influence on the two contractors" bodies, take for example me and Silv, you already know by now that we both have a pact, right?"

"Yeah, too bad though. I really like Silv..."

"Haha, well, get this, out pact enables us to use a portion of our partner"s abilities. It"s like how I can use Silv"s abilities to fly in the sky and how Silv can transform himself into a human."

"I thought Silv said that he had a magic spell for that?"

"Yes, but it"s a little different than the pact"s transformation which Silv uses. Listen here, Silver"s transformation into a human is quite literal. This means that in his human form, Silv"s no longer a Fenrir, but an actual human. He"d be 100% human while in that form and he"d only turn back into a Fenrir once he goes back into his normal form while he"d turn into a beastkin if he goes into his humanoid battle form. It"s different from Lucia"s Transformation Magic that only changes our forms, but not our fundamental genetic make-up."

"I don"t understand...that sounds too complicated..."

"I know! Anyways, the Pact between me and Silv has a direct impact on our bodies. So, if I were to try and form a pact with another monster, my pact with Silv will only interfere with the process of forming a new pact and cancel it out. But not you, Angel, you can somehow form pacts with so many monsters, and from what I see, although it doesn"t allow you to use their abilities or have any effects on your body, it somehow commands absolute loyalty from them."

"Uh... Okay?" Angelia was still a little puzzled. She didn"t understand what her big brother was getting at.

Seeing his little sister still confused, Cecil decided to drop the matter and quickly changed the subject.

"We"ll go look for stronger monsters and try to tame them. Have you ever tried taming a leader-type monster and take control of the monster"s entire pack or family?"

"I have, but it didn"t work out so well. The other members of the pack immediately attacked me like they were trying to take back their leader...but it"s not like I kidnapped them! They were the ones who wanted to follow me!"

"I see...was it Chi or?"

"Oh no, it was actually Orochi! He was the leader of a huge colony of Double-headed snake monsters, but he was the unique one being golden-colored and having 3 heads. I thought he looked kinda cute so I went to befriend him!"

"...He"s cute huh..."

"Yup!"

"Well, from what you said, the experience afterward wasn"t really that pleasant..."

"Yeah, the entire colony of monsters soon started attacking me after I formed a connection with Orochi! It was really frightening to see a sea of snakeheads aiming attacks at you..."

"...What happened to them after that?"

"Well... Chi and Mao got really angry and wiped out half of the colony..."

"Ouch..." Cecil playfully grimaced.

"Orochi was grumpy the whole month and he wouldn"t get along with Chi and Mao after that... but they"re good now!"

After a few more hours of travel, Cecil had Sleipnir stop in the middle of the vast open plains of the No-Man"s Land. He jumped down from the wagon and scanned the area with his Mana Sense.

"As I thought, the mana density in the air thickens as we go deeper and deeper into the area," Cecil said aloud.

"Does that mean something, Cel?" Lucia asked from the wagon"s driver seat.

"Not sure, but for now, we should keep away from the No-Man"s Land"s Inner Areas. The higher the mana density—"

"The stronger the monsters," Lucia finished.

"Mhm. We can explore the land after we"ve finished dealing with all our problems outside."

"Yes, but I heard father-in-law say that there were other Earthling powers present inside the No-Man"s Land, do you think we"ll run into some of them inside the land"s inner areas?"

Cecil immediately denied Lucia"s words, "I doubt it. From what I"ve heard from father, the other powers haven"t even made contact with the native powers beyond the Sky-Piercing Mountain Range... there"s just that one seaside power that was able to make contact with the outside world because they quickly built a port and ventured out to sea...I"m surprised that no sea monsters attacked their ships."

"Oh, I"ve heard about that one. I think it was the Goldenia Kingdom or something," Lucia replied thoughtfully.

Cecil only shrugged at her words. He didn"t really care about any other earthling powers, but the name Goldenia did ring a bell for some reason. Cecil wasn"t really sure where he"s heard that name before but it was probably only in pa.s.sing since he didn"t remember it well.

"Alright, now let"s go catch us some monsters! We"re near the mountainside so why not go catch a griffin or wyvern for Angel?"

"Muuhhh~ you spoil Angie a little too much Cel..."

"I"m her brother, so what?!"

"You even help her solve the incantation and spell array homework I"ve handed out to everyone..."

"I have no idea what you"re talking about, Lulu!"

"..." Lucia only rolled her eyes at him.

"Sleipnir, head to the mountain over there! I think I just saw a golem!"

"What happened to the wyverns and griffins?"

"They"re on that mountain as well!"

"..."