Chapter 27: Beginning Hamster
10 reviews = bonus chapter
50 comments = bonus chapter
200 gems = bonus chapter
Full story at:
patreon.com/FanFictionPremium
***
Comment on Chapter 25. Beginning Hamster.
Enjoy your reading!
Waking up, the first thing Eros saw was the wooden ceiling.
- The little guy woke up.
Lifting himself up, he turned around to a voice, where he saw Gildarts.
- Master, what has happened to you? - "Surprised" exclaimed the Titan, "Who beat you like that? - It was impossible to look at the mage without tears, there was not a single part of his body where bandages were missing. Somehow he reminded Eros of a mummy, if only his face had been rewound, the resemblance would have been a hundred per cent.
- It's funny, isn't it?
- There's a little bit of-- Ow! Why?! - Eros looked resentfully at Gildart, rubbing the top of his head.
- It's to make your life not seem like a raspberry, - the mage said with a sneer.
- You're wicked, I'll leave you.
Eros sat down next to him, rubbing his head with a smirk.
- Do you remember? - He asked more seriously.
- Yes, - Eros said with a dreamy smile, - I will never forget such a thing, it will warm my heart for the rest of my life.
Seeing his pupil's spiritualised face, Gildarts suddenly wanted to feed him a slice of lemon... No, a whole unwashed lemon with the peel. But he managed to pull himself together.
- What was that?
- Transfiguration magic, as I understand it," he looked at his hand and a scarlet magic circle lit up on it, the scarlet glow engulfing it for a moment. The hand was covered with dark tattoos on the outside and the inside turned grey, and long claws grew on the fingers, - Demonic Transformation, does it sound?
- Partial transformation, - the magician thoughtfully stretched out, touching and examining his hand, - When did you learn it?
- It was as if this knowledge appeared in my head when I defeated the demon in my inner world.
- Well, that's good, then.
- I can also turn completely into a demon, can I show you? - Gildarts shuddered at those words.
- I don't think so, and as long as you're all right, you'd better go for a walk.
- Where are we?
- Still in Shirotsumi, and this is where the town healer lives.
- I see, but what about the children?
- The ones you brought out are fine, but..." he hesitated for a moment, "All the ones who were dragged to the demon are already dead... If I'd taken on this task earlier....
- I thought so," Eros sighed and returned his hand to its former form, "You have nothing to blame yourself for, it's only the council's fault that they missed the demon and it's been here for five months. Well, I'm in the wrong place, I'm going to go, but I have unfinished business.
- What is it?
- You'll find out soon," Eros said mysteriously, leaving the room.
The titan walked through the city towards Everly's mansion, or what was left of it. On the way, people came up to him thirty times and thanked him for saving the children, many tried to thank him with money or things, others invited him to their homes for a visit. But Eros refused with a modest smile and tried to leave them as soon as possible. It was not in his nature to take the last of the people.
Leaving the townspeople, he accelerated slightly and in a couple of minutes, he was standing over a pit fifty metres deep.
- That was a nice mansion," Eros said with a sigh as he jumped down.
And when he was fifteen metres away from the ground, a pair of black leather wings opened behind him. When he landed, Eros retracted his wings and looked around the room. But when he saw the state of the room, he almost cried bitter tears.
The room that contained all of the demon's research was almost completely destroyed... Only a third, if not less, of the shelves of books remained. Eros certainly doubted that all of the demon's research was stored here. Even his father had always said that a scientist kept all the most important things in his head.
One thing Eros regretted was that he didn't have Spatial Magic, because then he could take all this stuff with him, but now he would have to give it all to the council, and the books here were the kind that could get him locked up. The first book that caught his eye, "Rituals of Sacrifice," could easily land Eros in jail for a year.
But still, the titan decided to study everything that was left, to know better what his future enemies could do, if they would use "dark magic" or if any of his loved ones would be cursed. Of course, there is a saying, you know less, you sleep better, but Eros would argue with it. After all, in the world of magic, such a thing would hardly fly.
So taking out a pair of black glasses he quickly began flipping through the book. Five minutes were enough for Eros to study its contents, and he would be able to comprehend everything in the guild. Therefore, the titan spent most of the evening memorising the contents of all the books.
The goggles that Eros was using were hurricane reading goggles with 128x acceleration. Of course, his skill level wasn't high enough to be able to place such runes, so he solved the problem in a different way. Eros bought glasses with 32x acceleration and erased the runes, later he went to one of the masters and for an extra fee, they put the runes at 128x. Though even Eros can't use them for long, only five hours, and after that he gets a severe headache due to information overload.
Taking off his glasses, he rubbed his eyes and put them back in their case.
- At least half of it is there, - Eros said in a tired voice, - Tomorrow I'll have the same amount and that's it... Eh... I hope they'll be here in two or three days so that I can explore everything here, - "It's a pity, of course, that I won't be able to get to the demon's knowledge soon..."- the titan thought with annoyance.
Having absorbed Astaroth, Eros should have gained all the knowledge of the demon, but sadly his brain was not ready to accept the memory of a demon that was almost five hundred years old. The seal set by the red magic power prevents him from accessing them. No, the titan is not offended, but on the contrary, grateful, because if she had not blocked this flow of information, Eros could have gone mad, and his personality could change and not for the better. After all, with Astaroth's memory, he received emotions once experienced by the demon, his worldview, his views on the world... And in this battle, Eros was unlikely to win.
After wandering around a bit more, the titan approached the demon's body.
- It has been lying there for a day and there is no sign that it is a corpse, only breathing is missing and heart is not beating, - whispered the titan, examining Astaroth's body with interest, - "Indeed, demons are something with something... There are no corpse stains, no signs of decomposition... It's a little frightening...".- The titan began to check the demon's pockets, removing all the jewellery and armour.
Yes, it's looting, but Eros had no qualms about it. After all, anyway, when the council mages come here, they will take everything, most likely even dissect the corpse. So, the titan decided to take everything for himself, because he could say with certainty that almost all the rings on Astaroth's hand were artifacts, the necklace was also an artifact, the armour was corroded, but the material it was made of was quite valuable, it had withstood a couple of blows of Gildarts and the dents on it were a full proof of that.
After only ten minutes, the demon was wearing almost nothing but a thin dressing gown covering his nakedness.
- Not bad, so the mission paid off, - Eros murmured contentedly, rubbing his hands together, looking at the sack of goodies, the size of the titan himself, - "Well, I'll pick up the rest tomorrow..."- As the titan was about to leave, his gaze locked on the book the demon was holding.
Eros picked it up and twirled it in his hand, but he found nothing remarkable in it. Just a red coloured cover, with stones in the corners connected by a golden line in the shape of a square. But still, his sixth sense told him that this book was not a simple one, though it had no pages, and for the sake of interest, Eros decided to use Analysing Magic on it....
The next moment, the titan froze with his mouth hanging open. After all, the magic simply showed nothing, which meant only one thing. The level of this spell was too low to tell anything about the thing in question.
"Interesting... I'll take it with me and study it later!"- With a satisfied grin, Eros lifted the bag in his arms, and a pair of leather wings grew on his back, "I almost forgot!"- the titan was already in the air and turned to the magic circle that had been drawn on the floor. Extending his arm, he began to mix the power of destruction and the power of absorption, creating a grey ball in his hand, no bigger than a ping-pong ball and threw it at him. The ball exploded and the explosion completely engulfed it, leaving only a deep hole. "What the demon was studying, I can't exactly call it good, and I don't want to give it to someone else either, in case there's a psycho who figures it out and wants to continue the research."- Eros didn't worry about that, he would get to Astaroth's knowledge in the future anyway.
***
Back at the healer's house, Gildarts looked at the titan with a dumbfounded face.
- What's this?
- Trophies," Eros said succinctly.
- Trophies...? - With a twitching eye, the mage clarified.
The titan nodded and pulled out a piece of demon armour.
- I'm going to take up Artefacting in the future, and this will be a good aid in that.
- I'm not going to tell you that it's bad to wear a demon corpse, you know that," Gildarts said in a tired voice, "But be careful with that stuff, and if you want to take it back to the guild, hide it.
- I know, I know," Eros rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a golden key, "Master, do you know what this key is for? - he looked at the key with boredom.
- It looks like the key of the star spirits.
- I've heard of it somewhere..." the titan said thoughtfully, twirling it in his hand.
- I don't know much about this magic, as I have no interest in it, but if I remember correctly, with this key you can summon a Star Spirit, but only Star Spirit casters can use them. So this key is useless for you.
- That's it," he looked at the key again and put it in his pocket, "Okay, I'll keep it for now and figure out what to do with it later.The Titan went into the next room, where he studied the contents of the bag until the morning...