Trapped On A Death World - Chapter 19

I’d awoken a sleeping dragon. Power erupted from Christine unlike anything I’d felt before. Wind cycloned around the store throwing merchandise off shelves and scattering knickknacks. when they traveled too close to her they were shredded. She was the eye of a hurricane and her aura was the deadly winds.

I reached my hand to Diabla’s pommel and felt her accept my touch. My aura touched her sword, and she took it in. Crimson light filled the room while Diabla sucked in more of my aura.

A pressure like the weight of a mountain settled on my shoulders and I knew I was in for a hard fight. Diabla hadn’t received even the first upgrade. I was strong but, I didn’t know how strong Christine was. Every scan turned back errors.

I didn’t know if she could attack me. There were rules and despite the bravado she hadn’t struck first. Wind continued to spiral around but she didn’t attack. Shadows danced around and the pressure of danger increased but she still didn’t attack. Slowly, I removed my hand from Diabla’s ass.

Christine let out a sigh and the power she’d generated calmed down. She gave me a small smile. “Alright, I’ll make a deal with you. You don’t summon anymore competition and I’ll give you fair prices. We’re still going to mark up the prices 10% above their Under Book value but no more than that.” She held out her hand.

“Alright, but will your uncle hold to it.” I asked.

“Nope, you’ll have to deal through me from now on.” She said.

I looked over at Diabla for a hint. The demon sword spirit shrugged her shoulders. “The Under Book is the only standard demons follow. You won’t find a better deal.”

“Five percent,” I said.

“You’re breaking my heart Jacob. A girl has to wear the latest fashion, and Night Weaver silk is expensive.” She waved a hand over what little clothes she wore. “I can only afford this much of the fabric. I can’t take any less than 9%.” She said.

“I live in a junkyard and wear nothing. “6% and I’ll buy the clothes and a few other things.” I said.

“7% and that is my final offer. I have a collection of spell books I could sell you.” I raised my hand, and we shook.

“How much for the clothes?” I asked.

Christine chuckled. “15BS the leather was made from an earth cow.”

I sighed and picked up the pants. My claws poked through them by accident and I let a growl escape my lips. “How is earth, I haven’t been there in decades?” I asked.

She picked up and the black nail clipper and began trimming my nails while I sat on the counter. “Not terrible, they’re going through a hard year. Politicians act more like children than ever mirroring the people who vote for them. True democracies are mob ruled nightmares anyway. Other foot.”

“So, it hasnt changed since I died.” I muttered.

The demoness quickly cut the pointy talons off my toes. “They were falling into a new dark age. Unlike when Rome burned, their knowledge wasn’t lost. The internet is everywhere. The slow awakening AI will have a lot of work to do.”

“I’m glad I missed that party.” I said.

“Wait, what did you call me?” Diabla asked. I turned to the sword spirit. Her horn sparked with red energy.

“I thought Diabla sounded like a great name.” I said.

Christine took her time inspecting Diabla. “I can’t believe my uncle actually sold you a top of the line sword. Though she is defiant and a newborn spirit. They are also very choosy about their partners.”

Diabla gave me a thousand-yard stare. “You’re going to buy sword techniques and we’re going to practice until you can do them in your sleep. I’m going to give you this chance. Don’t you dare fail.”

I checked my black apple. There was still about 924m BS left. “Sword techniques, do you have any and I could use some spell books too. Do you have any tier 1 and 2 books?”

Christine motioned with her hand. “We haven’t really taken up shop on this world for very long. There is another shop on the surface in a devil’s sect. My sister Jenni works there. She’s has it nice there. The Devil cultivators are very devoted there and dumb.”

I turned my head to see a red skinned demon in a duster open the door to the outside. “That’s just Wilhelm our forensic economist. He’s going to check out the corpse of your lotto ticket.”

She led me to an aisle of scrolls. “What’s all of this and how do sword techniques work?” I asked.

After passing a few scrolls, she pulled one down. “Most demonic technology runs off of BS. Knowledge can be gained instantly from scrolls for the right price. Aura is nice but BS runs the underworld. Most demonic techniques use BS instead of Aura. But we also have techniques that use aura exclusively. BS can permanently upgrade them. Here, try this one out.” Christine said.

Ping!

Learn Sky Slam I Channel aura to fly down like a fallen stone to slam your sword into enemies.

Class: Arial Strike

Rank: E

Cost: 1000

Upgrades

Thunder Judgement I Unleash a powerful arc of lightning when your sword strikes.

Class: Area Effect

Rank: E+

Cost: 1500

I looked over the scroll. It was certainly powerful. What would it cost me to use the technique? Where did the power come from? “How do they work?” I asked.

She tapped her chin. “Think of it like upgrading your sword. Only, its your body. There are more skills than stars in the sky. We have a couple thousand sword skills. Pick out something you like. You said you wanted some tier 1 and 2 spell books. I can get you some standard Hohenheim 2nd additions. What kinds are you looking for? We have red, white, blue, yellow, and black of course.”

I couldn’t just think about the fight coming up. The battle against Dol was right around the corner. Usually after the first part of the main story the big bad appears or at least gets set up. I didn’t think Dol was a big bad. There was probably a backer of some kind. Sometimes it was easy to forget that I wasn’t just the meat suit.

Ping!

Quest: Find Dol’s Backer or if he has one.

Reward: +4 INT +4 PER

I pulled a black scroll from a shelf. “I would like a copy of red, black, white, and if you can find gold, I’d appreciate it.” I said.

Diabla stared at the massive aisle of scrolls. “Most swordsman stick with three techniques. One is a saber based, another augments speed, and the last pierces shields. If you don’t take that path, then you’ll lose against the first real swordsman you run into.” She said.

“So, no ground pounds, anti-army, or debuffs.” I said.

She tapped a few scrolls then shook her head. “I can handle those things. Techniques are your burden, the ground, anti-army, and debuffs are my territory.” Diabla said.

I chuckled; she was adorable. “I think I prefer you to a bow.” I said.

“You are better than nothing.” She replied.

Ping!

Learn Armageddon’s Chainsaw I Tear apart shields and barriers with the powerful aura skill.

Class: Piercer

Rank: C

Cost: 25,000

Upgrades

Engine of Abandoned Souls I Armageddon’s Chainsaw’s engine feeds on the souls of the slain to empower the technique. +100,000RPMs +100Horse Power

Requirements: Armageddon’s Chainsaw III

Class: Piercer

Rank: C+

Cost: 30,000

Chain of Crushed Rebellions I Armageddon’s Chainsaw’s chain is replaced with ground bones of defeated enemies. +50%RPM.

Requirements: Engine of Abandoned Souls V

Class: Piercer

Rank: B-

Cost: 45,000

Teeth of Beasts I Armageddon’s Chainsaw’s teeth are replaced with the teeth of powerful beasts. +1% Pierce, +10% sharpness. Steal sharpness from the strongest Knight+ monster’s teeth slain with beast, were, nightmare, dragon, fell, undead or Elite creatures in their name, species, type, or title.

Requirements: Armageddon’s Chainsaw X, Engine of Abandoned Souls X, and Chain of Crushed Rebellions X.

Class: Piercer

Rank: A

Cost: 100,000

I looked over the scroll a few times and turned it around. It wasn’t limited to swords. In a pinch I could use it with my hands. Swords were the most obvious choice. An enemy raised a shield and bam their sliced in half. Some knight class monsters had teeth with special effects. To a dragon’s teeth steel might as well be butter. The horsepower and RPMs made it look really good. I couldn’t see a downside to the technique. Besides the price. 150,000BS, I couldn’t restore my money once spent. Well, I couldn’t like before.

Diabla tugged on my new pants. I looked down to see her with a black and purple scroll in her hands. “I knew it would be here. The most broken speed technique out there it’s a little expensive.” I was beginning to think that everything good was expensive especially when dealing with demons.

PIng!

Learn Aura Rush I A simple technique that manipulates aura to increase movement speed. +50% AGL

Class: Movement

Rank: F

Cost: 1000

I lowered the scroll and stared at her. “Don’t give me that keep reading. Its one of the most widely used techniques and it has a ton of upgrades. Best of all its is gentle on the body.” With that I scanned for the upgrades.

Upgrades

Stop Start I Plan and predict each point for a faster reaction time. +10% PER.

Class: Movement

Rank: F

Cost 1000

Frictionless Slide I Use aura to lower friction and skate on the ground. +100% AGL +10%DEX

Class: Movement

Rank: E

Cost 5,000

Controlled Thrust I Manipulate the direction Aura Rush pushes. +50% DEX

Class Movement

Rank: F

Cost 1000

Rush Zone I Boost senses to react with Aura Rush. +50% PER

Class: Movement

Rank: F

Cost 1000

Battle Mode I Combine all aspects of Aura Rush and increase their output. +100% to all Aura Rush Upgrades.

Requirements: Max Out All Aura Rush Upgrades.

Class: Movement

Rank: A

Cost: 100,000

I had two out of the three I needed. Just one more and I had all the techniques I needed to become a proper swordsman. Well, I felt more like they were the skills needed to become an assassin. Then again, she hadn’t even gotten the first skill tree.

We searched the aisle a few times, but I couldn’t find anything that stood out. There were plenty of beam, slash, and explosive techniques. None of them were what I needed. That’s when I heard a movement. Something was desperately trying to escape. I heard the jingle of chains and a scroll fell to the ground. The paper was white, and it was covered in red chains.

“Jacob it’s a saber technique. Come on, unbind the chains lets see what’s inside it.” Diabla said.