DxD - Game Master - Chapter 10

Rias watched in wonder as the small cut that Ryuji gave Akeno slowly healed under the white glow of the healing spell she was casting. It was... impossible. Yet, here she was, casting an effective healing spell as a pure blooded devil. This alone, just this single spell by itself, was priceless. Anything and everything that she could give Ryuji as her pact magician was worth it. Hell! He could sit on his ass in her home living a lavish lifestyle of excess sleeping with whoever he wanted for the next ten decades and it still wouldn't come close to the value of the healing spell.

She looked from the now closed wound, a small cut that Ryuji had given Akeno to test the spell, to look at Ryuji in wonder. It was only their first full day of training and it was already far more than she expected. She just... She didn't know what to say as she gaped at Ryuji.

Ryuji, on the other hand, was feeling smug as hell. After he'd shown her his spell work last night and claimed he had healing spells, she'd been very interested in them. After they did some physical training to finish the day, he'd cast them to heal the micro-tears in their muscles to make them stronger. That particular healing spell was a regeneration based one. He had that for non-life-threatening wounds. For deadly wounds, he had more powerful instant heal spells that would repair the damage as if it had never been. Almost like rewinding time.

The regeneration-type spell let the body keep beneficial things like muscle growth while the instant heal spell didn't. It was a good thing and Rias had just cast the regeneration spell. It had taken a few tries but it was worth the effort.

It also might have made him feel a little smug to be the first magician in history to ever make a healing spell that a devil could effectively use. Probably because his spell wasn't an attempt to recreate holy healing or a sacred gear's power. His regeneration spell was based solely on the bodies own ability to heal, just super charging it to an insane degree with magic. Meanwhile, his instant heal spell was just designed to undo what damage had been done and return things to what they should be. Neither used 'holy' as a method or even had in in mind.

Finally, Rias managed to overcome her shock, “Ryuji... this... this is amazing. Do you have any idea what this means? What this one spell could do for devil society?”

Ryuji shrugged, “Not especially.”

He knew it would be a big deal, but not how big exactly. Devils did have other methods of healing, excluding the potions he was selling them. There was the naked skin contact thing, Phoenix Tears, and probably other things he wasn't aware of. So, really, he had no way of knowing exactly how big a deal it was.

Rias, flushed with excitement, nearly babbled as she said, “It's huge! Once everyone else learns this spell we'll be the only peerage in all of the Underworld to have healers without Sacred Gears! It will make an unbelievable difference! Healing in Rating Games is almost always accomplished with Phoenix Tears, and those are limited to two per game! With this spell that limitation doesn't matter! We're only limited to how much Demonic Power we need to spend on healing! This will make us one of the toughest peerages in existence!”

Ryuji smiled, happy for Rias and her excitement, “Cool. Well, while you all practice that, I'll get to work on the gravity spell I was talking about yesterday.”

He left the notebook that contained his healing spells with Rias and the rest. He really did feel proud of his healing spells, but he always wanted to make more spells. It was one of the ways he could feel himself growing stronger. The whole point of a spell caster was flexibility and control, at least to his mind. He wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could have a spell ready for any and all situations, but that's what modular casting was for. He just needed to have enough pieces and parts to put a spell together.

Once he was outside, sitting at a nice table with a fresh notebook, he got to work. It might be an idea he stole from a classic anime in his last life, one even he was well aware of, but gravity training almost always proved effective in these kind of worlds. Shounen ones. So, he expected it would be a hell of a powerful training tool for them all to use. Yes, he even intended to use it himself. He didn't want to be a melee fighter of any sort, but being strong was better than being weak.

As he started running the formulae to design a gravity training area, an idea sprung to his mind and he began cackling. Oh, he was SO going to have some fun with this!

-----Line Break-----

Ryuji paused in his calculations as a human shadow appeared over him. He looked up and paused when he saw a stranger standing in front of him. A stranger he could immediately recognize due to the mans looks, Sirzechs Lucifer. Ryuji found that he suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Without even thinking about it, he surrounded himself with the black mists of Dimension Lost, ready to bolt at a moments notice.

While Ryuji had never seen Sirzechs in action in his last life, he'd heard enough about the guy to apply the term 'monster' to him. Supposedly, the man standing right in front of him was one of, if not the, strongest beings in the world. Possibly even stronger than the original Lucifer, the fallen angel turned devil. Or whatever Lucifer's background was in this world.

Sirzechs, with Grayfia standing to the side and slightly behind him, smiled congenially, “You have nothing to fear Ryuji-kun, I'm actually here to give you some information.”

That... was not what Ryuji had expected, at all. He wasn't really sure what he expected, but being given information from Lucifer while helping out his kid sister wasn't in the cards at all. With his frozen for a moment in surprise, Sirzechs continued, “I am... aware of your 'extracurricular' activities. I wanted to take a moment to thank you for taking such good care of Rias for the last month.”

Ryuji swallowed but managed to gather himself to nod and reply, “You're welcome.”

Sirzechs smiled happily, “To thank you I wanted to let you know a little something.” He gestured vaguely to the mist still flowing around Ryuji, “Much like you did with Dimension Lost here, you could, if you wanted, do the same thing with the Boosted Gear in your possession.”

The only thing to go through Ryuji's mind was, 'What the fuck?' Though, aloud, he asked, “Why are you telling me this? I mean... wouldn't you rather your sister have it or something? I'm not exactly a melee fighter so the Boosted Gear doesn't really matter to me all that much.”

Sirzechs raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Would you be willing to sell the Boosted Gear?”

Ryuji gnawed on his lip as he thought about that. He still had no idea how to price something like that. But he could at least say, “I suppose, for the right price.”

Sirzechs chuckled at that, “Even I'm not sure what a fair price for a Longinus class Sacred Gear would fetch. Money alone wouldn't be enough, I'm sure. So, let's put that aside. Instead, let me tell you a little something. The power of the Boosted Gear isn't just physical might, it amplifies the users magical power as well.”

Ryuji froze as he comprehended what Sirzechs had just said. His mind raced as he thought about how he could use more magical power in an untold number of ways. Every single NPC he made was based one hundred percent on how much magical power he could spend creating it. Just a single boost from the Boosted Gear would DOUBLE the amount of power he could spend on making a monster. The sheer number of options and additions he could get from just that...

But then he started thinking about some of the spells he'd designed. He could easily design spells that he didn't have the magical power to actually cast. Yet, if he could increase his power by two, four, eight, or more times? The possibilities were endless. His current magical power was by no means small, but it also wasn't anything very impressive either. A half dozen boosts would make him very powerful indeed.

The possibilities of what he could accomplish with that were truly endless. Suddenly the red gauntlet sitting in his inventory that he'd felt no desire for, was the most desirable thing in existence. He had to have it!

When he looked up to thank Sirzechs for the advice, he found himself all alone. Looking around he saw no sign that the Satan had even been there. Even the mist from Dimension Lost had gone away because he'd been so lost in his thoughts. Thoughts that he immediately got lost in once again. He would need to wait until... Oh!

He looked around to make sure he was alone and no one was nearby, which would probably look suspicious to anyone who happened to be watching. Seeing no one, he smirked and opened a scenario he had already planned. The portal opened up a fair distance away from him inside of the woods. It wasn't long before Rias, Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba arrived back at the lodge.

Seeing him sitting at the table, ostensibly working on a new gravity spell, Rias broke off from the others after telling them to go ahead. She stepped up to the table and addressed him, “Ryuji, there's something we need to take care of. I'm not sure how long it will take. We'll be back as soon as we can though, okay?”

Ryuji plastered a confused look on his face before he answered, “Okay. It's your training camp, you don't need to tell me everything you want to do.”

Rias gave him a polite smile before chasing after the others and vanishing from sight. The moment that he felt the foursome enter the scenario, he had his inventory open and the crimson gauntlet sitting on the table in front of himself. Before the talk with Sirzechs the sight of the gauntlet didn't mean much. Now? Now it set his heart hammering in excitement.

What used to be a kind of cool looking red gauntlet with nice green and gold accents, now looked like the most epic thing he'd ever seen. Just like when he learned how to infuse himself with Dimension Lost, he did the same with the Boosted Gear. The gauntlet quickly faded away and moments later he felt it within himself.

With a flash of light, a finger-less red gauntlet with a green orb on the back of the hand and two golden spikes that swept back. Ryuji frowned as he stared at it in confusion. It looked nothing like it had a moment ago. The armor on the fingers was gone, the spikes were in the wrong place and the gauntlet looked smaller overall.

“The fuck is this shit?” He rapped the knuckles of his right hand against the green orb on the back of his left hand, “The fuck is wrong with you? You looked completely different five minutes ago!” He rapped his knuckles against he table a few times causing a metallic sound to echo out, “Wake up you overgrown lizard and explain!”

He was only met with silence from the gauntlet, “Goddamnit. Whatever. You can still boost my power right?”

As if to respond to his question the gauntlet spoke in a deep masculine voice.

[BOOST!]

Ryuji's whole body shuddered as he felt his magical power double. He'd felt his power grow a few times thanks to his abilities but it was nothing like this. It was like lightning flowed through veins and filled his whole being with power. It was a powerful and heady feeling, he could get very used to the feeling.

As for his physical strength... Well he was only an average teen who could bench press maybe fifty to sixty kilograms and doubling that to maybe one twenty was not much. He wasn't in it for the physical strength boost anyway.

He had to experiment with this right away! He quickly got to his feet and opened up a portal to his Home Base. He dismissed the current version of his Tailor NPC. With it gone, he focused on spending every last drop of his new maximum amount to make an even more skilled and competent version of the same NPC. A straight upgrade of the previous existence.

Less than a moment after emptying his newly enlarged magical capacity it was completely refilled. That... that had a lot of potential for abuse. Something he immediately took advantage of by dismissing and re-summoning all of his NPC's except for Yasa. Updating Yasa's body would require a lot more work due to the actual soul within it. That would need to wait until later as he didn't think his scenario would keep the devils distracted for very long. With his updates made and plans for more experiments percolating in his mind, he left his Home Base and closed the portal.

After he stepped down he looked at the gauntlet on his hand, “Go away now.”

[RESET!]

The gauntlet flashed red and vanished from his hand. After it faded, Ryuji slouched and groaned. He felt drained, like he'd just run a mile straight. So, that was the price of using the Boosted Gear? Thank god Dimension Lost wasn't nearly as draining. Although, he hadn't really pushed Dimension Lost all that much, had he? Something he should look into doing in the near future to know his limits.

He returned to his calculations with a smile on his face. The Boosted Gear could give him more magical power, who knew?

-----Line Break-----

Rias stepped out of the dungeon with a bright smile. She'd been somewhat worried that they wouldn't be able to continue gaining power from the dungeons. She was glad to be wrong but, on the flip side, it did kind of bother her that whoever was making the dungeons seemed to know where they were. Only Sona had been told where they were going. It meant whoever was making the dungeons was either following her or had some other way of knowing where she was. It was a little disconcerting. Yet, she couldn't deny she appreciated it.

Though... She looked over to where Ryuji was bent over his work and frowned. She needed to take that thought back. Someone else did know where she was. A magician who came out of nowhere and seemed to know things he couldn't. She still didn't know how he'd learned about magic, no one had told her or Sona anything about him. Aside from that he'd found a book on magic and was a fast learner.

She crossed her arms as he continued to work. The dungeons began appearing shortly after he had as well. It was circumstantial but... Coupled with the warnings from Serafall and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the things he did...

Was Ryuji the one making the dungeons? If so... how? They were much more than a simple magician should be capable of creating by themselves. She could see a group of them pulling it off, but not a single individual. There was also the fact that Ryuji hadn't gotten any magically stronger than he was when he'd first arrived...

Wait. Wait wait wait. Didn't magicians have a way to cloak their magical power to seem less threatening? If that was one of the first things Ryuji learned, then couldn't he have been cloaking any increases in his magical power since the beginning? If so, then she could only assume that his actual magical strength was unknown to her.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she contemplated all of that. She was derailed from her thoughts by Akeno's teasing voice, “Ara ara, see something you like ?”

Rias blushed and instantly looked away from Ryuji. She didn't even want to contemplate what finding Ryuji attractive could mean. Especially someone who looked so much like he could be family. He didn't look anything like Sirzechs, but he could easily mix in with her family and no one would see anything out of place. Aside from the fact that he would have come out of nowhere. She could imagine the fuss that he could kick up in such a scenario.

Rias shook her head and addressed Akeno, “No, it's not that. I'll tell you later.”

Koneko and Kiba had taken their leave and were back to their individual training. Rias led Akeno over to where Ryuji was quickly drawing and scribbling notes on a spell formula. The pair watched him for a few moments, entranced by how quickly and confidently he was working. It was fascinating to see the spell circle coming together in bits and pieces as he ran the numbers by hand. Neither woman realized they'd been staring until Ryuji stopped and looked at them, “Welcome back. I'm almost done with the gravity circle. I had to make some modifications to turn it into a ward scheme so it could be laid down and then powered by whoever. I'm also making it a dual channel spell.”

Rias frowned at the unfamiliar term, “Dual channel?”

Ryuji nodded, “Right, sorry it's a term I made up, I suppose. Anyway. The way it works is two fold. There's two areas where you channel magic to activate it. The first spot,” he tapped a small section of the circle, “controls the duration. The more magic the longer the events last. The second spot,” he tapped an area directly opposite the first, “controls the intensity of the spell. The more put into it, the stronger the gravity gets.”

Rias smiled in excitement as she looked over the exceptionally complex magic circle and accompanying formula. She had no problem admitting that she couldn't understand the complex equations that led to the final product. That didn't mean she couldn't comprehend just how amazing it was that Ryuji could do what he was doing. He was clearly a certifiable genius.

The pair watched him as he put the final touches on the diagram, “And done. This combined with my regenerative healing should let you all increase your physical strength grow rapidly and massively.”

Rias beamed happily as she looked at the finished product, “This will really help Koneko and Yuuto out.”

He looked up from his work with a frown, “Just those two? I would think it would be good for all of you. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but physical strength isn't something that should be neglected by anyone in your peerage. I mean, Akeno-san is your Queen right?”

He continued after Rias and Akeno confirmed she was, “My understanding of the evil piece system is that each piece has its own traits. Right?” Another confirmation and he continued, “So, the Queen piece has all the combined traits of the other pieces. The Strength and Defenses of the Rook, the speed of the Knight, and the magical boost of the Bishop. From what you told me yesterday, Akeno-san, you specialize in magic, specifically lightning.”

Akeno nodded, “That's right, Ryuji-kun.”

“Right. So, that means that if you don't take advantage of the similar boosts to a Rook and Knight, what's the point of even being a Queen? If you're going to just act like a pure Bishop then you're wasting two thirds of the boost from the Queen piece.” He gave the interested looking pair and wicked smile, “If Akeno is somewhat known as just a back line spell caster, then her moving into melee and hitting like a Mac Truck will come as a complete shock.” He focused on Rias, “And the same would apply to you if you were to jump into melee and punch someone out.”

Both of them looked surprised and then thought about it themselves. Akeno was the first to speak, “I'm not much of a fist fighter. I've never even thrown a punch, just a slap or two.”

Rias nodded along in agreement, “Same here.”

He gave them both a bland look, “You have two melee fighters in your peerage and this is a training camp. Learn. It will be something you can pull out as a surprise. On top of which, if the gravity training works as expected, you will all grow far more physically imposing than you currently are. Never underestimate the power of surprise.”

They both seemed to be seriously considering his words. Eventually, Rias nodded, “You make a good point. We'll all do the gravity training.” She smiled brightly, “It might also help with our Demonic Power. Either way, we'll get stronger. Can you set this up so we can start using it tomorrow?”

Ryuji nodded, “Sure. Oh!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial that looked like it contained water, “I'll need some of your blood to tune the ward scheme to you and give you control over it. Just a couple of drops diluted in here will be more than enough.”

Rias blinked and looked at the vial, “Really?” When he nodded, she shrugged, “Alright.”

She picked up a small carving knife sitting on the table and lightly cut the tip of her finger. After a few drops of blood fell into the vial, tinting it a light pink as they dispersed, Ryuji capped the bottle and put on the table so he could take Rias's hand in his own. A simple casting of a healing spell later and the small cut was gone, “There, perfect once more.”

Rias blushed and took her hand back, “Right. Come on Akeno, time to get back to it!”

Akeno's teasing giggles followed behind her as she made her way to an isolated area where she could practice.

-----Line Break-----

Ryuji walked out of the building the were using as their base during the training trip. As he stepped out, he looked up and smiled at the moon and stars visible in the night sky. It had been an interesting day, and he wasn't finished with it quite yet. With a soft, happy, sigh, he moved away from the building a little ways until he entered the woods nearby. He didn't want to do what he was about to do where it would be too easy to find him. Or, more specifically, the portal to his Home Base.

Once he felt secure enough, he opened the portal and stepped inside. He had a lot of work to do now that he could make stronger monsters. Except, before he could do that, he needed to get the stupid ass Boosted Gear to awaken. It'd taken him a while to remember, but when he did, he was annoyed. In the show Issei had started out with everyone thinking he had a Twice Critial, an infinitely weaker version of the Boosted Gear that could only give a single Boost.

It wasn't until Issei had gotten into a fight with Raynare and gotten emotional that the Boosted Gear had awoken and allowed for more than a single boost. He needed to attempt to awaken the Boosted Gear so he could use its broken power with his own broken power to make even more broken things. In short, the sooner it awoke, the sooner he became an overpowered SOB.

He smiled to himself as he stepped into the enchanting section of his Home Base. Within it were items made by his NPC's. He'd had the Blacksmith NPC making simple swords and shields that he could have his NPC's use within his scenarios. They didn't need to be extremely high quality so the NPC could churn out a couple every day. It was now up to Ryuji to enchant the weapons and shields for the scenario NPC's to use. The same went for the Tailoring NPC. Only the Jewelcrafter and Yasa took their time making things.

[BOOST!]

Ryuji smiled at the surge of power that filled him with that call out from the gauntlet on his left hand. The amount of power he had in hand would let him add significant strength to the enchantments he planned to place on the gear before him. He selected a sword first. It was crudely made, so it would fit in with the Demon Lord's less evolved minions, such as the Orcs. Despite its shoddy appearance, still having forge scale and soot with only the edge being sharpened and polished, it was made out of high quality steel.

With the sword selected he began focusing on his chosen enchantments, durability, sharpness, and flames. He had more than enough magical power to ensure the enchantments would be effective. He focused his intent, gathered his power, and began feeding it into the prepared sword. All items made by his blacksmith NPC had the anchoring runes for enchantments placed on them during construction. It saved Ryuji a fair bit of time.

He watched the process while he fed his magical power into the sword. Something new happened as the sword began to glow red, then orange. Ryuji watched, fascinated, as the sword melted from the overwhelming magical power being fed into it.

“Huh. Didn't know that could happen.”

Oddly, despite the glowing orange color of the melted metal, there was no heat coming off of it. Even the table the metal was on showed no signed of being heated up. Tentatively, he reached out and poked the melted metal. The moment his finger touched the metal he yanked it back, just in case. But there was no burning sensation, or any signs of a burn. He reached out again, more confident, and touched the metal once more.

It was cool to the touch, room temperature even. Yet, it was soft, easily malleable. It's consistency felt weird as he played with it. If anything, it kind of reminded him of silly putty, only softer. He picked it up and played with it for a bit, laughing as he did. Over the course of a few minutes the glow began fading, growing darker, while the metal simultaneously became harder to work with. He was so engrossed in the weirdness that he didn't even hear the reset of the Boosted Gear.

Eventually the metal was once more too hard for him to change the shape of with just his physical strength. He set it down, intending to study it later, “Okay, clearly mundane steel can't handle as much power as I just tried to put into it. But I know it can handle more than I've been putting in it so far. I'll just have to be careful.”

Over the next hour Ryuji managed to melt two more swords before he finally got it right on his fourth attempt. Once he knew exactly how much magical power mundane steel could handle for enchantments, it was as easy as breathing for him to enchant the swords that remained. Though, a few shields did meet the same fate as the first few swords. It left him with a half dozen melted piles of metal.

He collected the metal piles and took hem back into the blacksmithing section, “Blacksmith, I accidentally melted a few swords and shields while enchanting them. See if you can reuse the metal or not. I'd prefer it not go to waste.”

The blacksmith acknowledged the order. As Ryuji left the area, he didn't notice the intense look of interest on Yasa's face.

-----Line Break-----

Ryuji walked out of his Home Base, shutting the portal behind himself, and made his way back into the main building. He'd spent half the night enchanting swords and shields, then giving those weapons and armor monsters he'd improved with the Boosted Gear. All before he'd stepped into his arena scenario and fought non stop for hours, all to try and push the Boosted Gear to awaken.

It failed.

He didn't plan to give up though. He would try again tomorrow night and keep trying until he succeeded. He wanted more boosts! The more he had, the more powerful he could make his NPC's, enchantments, scenarios, and all kinds of things. Thinking about it, he wondered just how massive of a scenario he could make by combining multiple boosts for magical power and then the space expanding power of Dimension Lost.

Could he make an entire world eventually? That would be... awesome! If he had the power to make an entire world... That was still a long way off though. He needed to get a lot stronger before he could even begin to think of making a whole world. It was still an exciting prospect for his future though.

He returned to the present and negligently opened a portal into a copy of the Onsen Resort scenario right by the entrance to the baths in the house. Already half asleep from his work, he walked into the portal and made his way directly to the open air baths, stripping out of his clothing as he walked.

Once naked, he paused as he remembered something. With a tired smile, he opened his inventory and retrieved the race change potion he'd had Rias add he blood to earlier in the day. He popped the cork and quickly downed the potion. The taste was sharp and metallic with a hint of anise. It wasn't very pleasant, but it wasn't disgusting either. He might as well let the transformation happen while he was relaxing in a nice hot bath.

He had no idea what to expect from it, and didn't care. He quickly washed himself off and made his way to the hot spring, which he gratefully sank into with a sigh of pleasure. He sank down into the water until only his head was above it. He'd pushed himself in his training, fighting both physically, which he was terrible at, and magically to push himself. Every muscle was sore despite the healing spells he'd used on himself.

On the bright side, he could now see the faint outlines on his stomach that hinted at him having incoming abs. Once he joined Rias and the others in gravity training they would probably become more significant. Especially now that he was going to be a half-devil and be able to benefit from their physiology. He had no idea how strong a baseline human could get in the DxD world, but he doubted it was as strong as a devil could become.

He closed his eyes, laid his head back on the rim of the bath, and let out a content sigh. This was the kind of thing that made life worth living.

His relaxation was interrupted by gentle movement in the water and a female sigh of contentment. He opened one eye to take a look. Both of his eyes opened wide as he spotted Rias sitting in the water opposite him wearing nothing but her birthday suit. Well, that wasn't entirely true, she did have her hair wrapped up in a towel to keep it out of the water. That was all she was wearing though and it gave Ryuji a perfect view of her naked body. One he was very much enjoying. Going by the smirk she was giving him, she could see how much he was enjoying the view through the crystal clear water. Neither of them had anything to be ashamed of and he was too mature to be embarrassed about popping a boner in front of an attractive woman.

He took in every inch of her, even noting a cute little patch of red pubic hair. Though she did have her legs crossed under the water hiding what the hair rested over. She was definitely a tease, something her knowing look only further confirmed for him. He took a moment to enjoy the view, noting that her pink nipples were erect, before closing his eyes once again and leaning back to relax.

They both enjoyed the water in silence for a few minutes before Rias spoke, “I didn't expect this place to appear here, but I have to say I'm glad it did. I've been spoiled by it and just didn't enjoy my earlier bath nearly as much.”

Ryuji hummed in agreement, “Yes, this place is something special, isn't it?”

Rias, unseen by Ryuji, narrowed her eyes at him. First, there was the dungeon earlier in the day and now the onsen resort that seemed to be permanently located in her clubhouse? She was highly suspicious of Ryuji now. He'd shown no signs of being the one making the dungeons, but she didn't know enough about their creation to be one hundred percent certain.

After the silence stretched between them for a while, she spoke up once more, “You don't seem too surprised about this place? Have you entered a dungeon before?”

Ryuji cracked one eye open to look at her, “Is that what you call this place? A dungeon? Not the first thing that comes to mind for me.” He hummed, “This is more like paradise.”

Rias giggled, which did wonderful things to her chest that he got to enjoy. She coyly crossed her arms under her breasts, playfully pushing them up, “I don't mind if you look, if I did I would be covered up. Though, I admit you're right. This place is more like paradise, though there are other places like this filled with monsters and adventure.”

Ryuji gave her a smile as he closed his eye once again. He'd seen Rias naked plenty of times already. Though never in person like this. If only she knew that he could create an exact copy of her that would do anything he requested and be completely loyal to him. Something that was still an extreme temptation that he had to ignore every day. If he was a teenager for the first time, it would be a temptation that he wouldn't have been able to resist.

He let out a sigh and climbed to his feet, exposing himself completely to Rias in the process, “Well, I'm tired and I need some sleep.” He stepped out of the water and made his way toward the changing room while grabbing a towel, “Goodnight Rias.”

“Goodnight Ryuji.”

-----Line Break-----

The next morning Ryuji was up bright and early, against his vehement protests. Unfortunately, Akeno was the one sent to wake him up when he didn't get up at the designated time to make the gravity circle. Little zaps of electricity to his ass was not a pleasant way to be woken up. So, that started his foul mood, but it wasn't the whole story. Once he stepped outside he found the sunlight extremely annoying and it made him feel tired.

He knew what it was, of course, it was his newfound weaknesses from changing into a half-devil. It was the only sign so far and he wasn't about to attempt to open his new wings in front of the other devils. Instead, he kept his bitching about the light and lack of sleep to an internal monologue while he worked on setting everything up. It only took him about an hour to get everything set up. With the circle complete he stepped back and looked at Rias and Akeno, the ones who would power it, “Your turn ladies. Just feed your magic into the points I showed you. They'll give you feedback to let you know how long it will last and powerful the gravity will be.”

Rias turned to Akeno, “You do the time, we'll start with just an hour. I'll set the gravity for two times normal.”

Thanks to how monstrously efficient Ryuji's magic circles were, it didn't take much demonic power at all for the girls to get the circle up and running. Everyone stepped into the field. Ryuji instantly felt the strain of being in double gravity. It wasn't comfortable, but it also wasn't debilitating. With the gravity and timer set, they all got to work.

Ryuji didn't pay much attention to what the others did, though he did see Kiba summon a sword and begin swinging it. Ryuji didn't have any gear so he did a simple workout, push ups, sit ups, that sort of thing. Anytime his muscles felt sore, he used his healing magic to repair the damage to his muscles and make them stronger. Eventually his body burned too many calories healing so he stepped out of the gravity and got something to eat, protein bars mostly. Then went right back to it.

By the time the hour ended, Ryuji had done the equivalent of at least two weeks of gym visits. He barely even noticed the doubled gravity anymore. When he looked around, the devil group was a sweaty mess, but there were smiles all around. He decided to help them out and cast healing spells on all of them. His magical recovery was nigh instant so he didn't have to worry about wasting it helping them out.

He didn't notice any changes in his use of magic. Or anything really. It might have something to do with being a half-devil. As far as he knew he was the only half-devil in all of DxD, though, he highly doubled it. Given what little he knew about devils and their likely promiscuous nature, it'd take a miracle for him to be the only half devil to exist. There were probably other half-breed races, most likely fallen and yokai if he had to guess.

They all split up to do their own things after the workout. Ryuji made his way to the same table he used the previous day and got to work. He didn't forget to open the portal to his main scenario for Rias and the others through. With the help of the Boosted Gear he'd been able to make a lot of improvements and he was looking forward to them all experiencing it. He needed them to get stronger. The stronger they were, the more benefits he reaped from them doing his scenarios.

Once he was certain the troop of devils had taken his bait, he opened the portal to his Home Base. If he'd been more clear headed he'd have done this the night before. He needed to do a little testing to see if things were different with his body and magic. He was realizing his decision might have been a little impulsive... okay many of them had. So, maybe his new younger age was effecting his mentality more than he was aware.

It didn't matter though. What's done is done. He'd just have to keep an eye on his decision making process in the future. He could technically undo the race change, but he didn't see the point. If anything, he'd just change his race to full devil in the future when he developed the proper potion for it. Then there were the Sacred Gears. Stuffing two of them into himself probably wasn't the wisest decision, especially not two extremely powerful Longinus class Sacred Gears. The only thing that truly kept him from freaking out and finding somewhere to hide was that the Devil leadership seemed to be on his side. At least Leviathan and Lucifer were.

He shook those thoughts off and made a portal leading into a testing environment. He had several things he wanted to test, but up first was something he'd wanted since he first started learning magic. He focused on his magic, he intellectually knew about how it was supposed to be imagination magic, but even so it was still limited. If it wasn't, Rias wouldn't need him to design healing spells that she could use. Magicians would be useless to devils if they could do anything with their magic.

That didn't mean their magic was useless though. He held his hand up and focused on what he wanted to create. With a force of will, something he found easy, a red magic circle formed and flames erupted from it to form into a long whip. He'd planned to make a flame whip spell, but now he didn't have to if he didn't want to. Though he wanted to. While the spell worked as he'd intended, it was highly inefficient and costing him way more demonic power than it should. That couldn't be allowed.

He dismissed the flame whip spell and focused on something else he really wanted. He closed his eyes and focused on every single memory he had of Rias using her Power of Destruction. He'd craved the ability to use it since he'd first seen it in action. He now recognized it as the same craving that drove him to take Dimension Lost, Boosted Gear, and the race change potion.

Power.

He wanted the power to do whatever he wanted. But most of all, the power to survive. There were monsters in the world and he wouldn't feel truly safe until he was one of them. That thought helped him focus until he felt his demonic power shift. Something new, deep within his being, awoke and came surging forth. He opened his eyes and looked at the flickering red and black power surrounding his hands.

“The Power of Destruction.”

He felt giddy as he watched the flame-like energy dance. This was one of the more powerful abilities that he knew of in the DxD world. The only other interesting one he knew of was the regeneration of the Phenex clan. For once, he wished he knew more about the world so that he could plot and plan how to get his hands on those amazing abilities. Well, he'd just have to take what he could get. So far, that got him the Power of Destruction and a possibility to snag excellent regenerative power.

He focused on the power and began trying to shape it. He frowned when the power fought against him, it didn't want to be controlled, it just wanted to be unleashed and destroy everything in its path. No wonder Rias had just let it loose in the beginning. That's all the power wanted to do. He wasn't about to let it do as it pleased though.

He gathered all his focus and pointed it directly at the energy in his hand. It fought, but was no match for the sheer determination Ryuji was capable of when it came to magic. Soon he had the flame-like energy corralled and shaped into a sphere with a glowing red interior surrounded by blackness, like shadows. With the magic shaped, he aimed his palm at one of the targets downrange and fired it. The ball of power, no bigger than a baseball, whipped through the air and slammed into the target. It didn't explode, erupt, or come apart in any fashion. Rather, it simply erased the portion of the target in its path and continued on until it hit the back wall and dispersed.

Ryuji stared in surprise at the damage that had been done. He quickly walked closer to examine the damage and was surprised by just how clean the edges of the 'wound' were on the target, “Power of Destruction indeed.”

He stepped back to the firing line while the target 'healed' the damage that had been done to it. He planned to practice for however long it took him to get control over his new power, or for Rias and the others to finish his scenario. He was keeping an eye on them in the back of his mind so he could beat them outside and look like he'd never left. He was going to have to wait until night to go into the Arena Scenario and get some more practice. He was determined to awaken the Boosted Gear!

He sighed as he realized how little sleep he was going to be getting during the training trip. Why did he agree to come again?

Oh, right, contracted magician. He was getting excellent compensation for it. Still, that wouldn't stop him complaining about the lack of sleep and rude wake up calls.

-----Line Break-----

Rias smiled happily as she stepped into the dungeon with her peerage. She had her suspicions about Ryuji and had shared them with Akeno. Still, she had no proof. They'd watched him closely as portals had opened and there was just no sign of him doing anything. Then again, for all she knew they could be on timers. There was the fact that they kept appearing around them though. Not to mention Ryuji just calmly accepting that they existed and using the Onsen Resort one last night.

That... had been an interesting experience. One she had not told Akeno about. It would have only earned her a lot of teasing. She had enjoyed her bath last night and she had to admit, if only silently to herself, that Ryuji was a rather good looking guy, if she ignored the implications of finding him attractive. Something she constantly needed to remind herself of with him around.

She shook those thoughts off and led her group into the Adventurer's Guild. Lana perked up from behind the counter and called out, “Rias! Akeno! Koneko! Kiba! Welcome back! I've got just the job for you!”

Riash chuckled at the enthusiastic woman and made her way to the counter. Ever since the battle Lana had been assigned to them as their personal attendant. She would pick quests for them that she believed they could handle. It saved a little time and they hadn't run into any issues with the system in place. So, curious, Rias walked up to the counter in front of Lana, “What is it this time?”

Lana placed a piece of parchment on the counter and slid it toward her. Rias picked it up and looked it over, “Goblins again?”

“That's right, though this time the scouts report its a small army of them being led by a troop of hobgoblins under command of at least a hobgoblin general. That's all we were able to confirm. Beware, there were signs of a stronger leader than the hobgoblin general in the area. We don't think it's a king, but don't dismiss it as a possibility.”

Rias nodded and accepted the parchment, which included directions to the area the monsters were located. It was a shockingly far distance from the city. Had the area covered been expanded even further? Would the area continue to grow until it was a whole world? What were the limits on the creation of this place?

She needed to keep a closer eye on Ryuji and figure out if he really was the one making these dungeons once and for all. Later though.

After leaving the city she looked to Koneko, “You know what to do.”

Koneko nodded and moved ahead to begin scouting. It had become her default job in these little missions of theirs and one she didn't mind fulfilling. It made her feel unique and needed. It was a good feeling.

It took them nearly half an hour to arrive close enough for Koneko to catch the scent of the goblins, it was a hard scent to miss. Goblins were very... pungent. When not being polite, they reeked like wet trash left out in the sun to ferment. It was a very unpleasant odor that no one would want to experience, let alone someone with enhanced senses. As they got closer the entire group had the joy of experiencing that particular odor.

Akeno wrinkled her nose and huffed, “If I ever meet the person making these dungeons, I promise to introduce them to an entire new universe of pain.”

The sadistic grin she wore after making her statement prevented anyone from inquiring for specifics. Though the only one even remotely curious would have been Rias. She wasn't a sadist, unlike her Queen, but she was a very curious girl. It was healthy for a seventeen year old girl like her to have curiosity about such things. Though, again, she had to pull her mind away from the topic and focus on the present. They were getting close now.

When they started getting closer, they all started to employ stealth. It had become habit to double check the guild information and confirm the situation with their own eyes. They'd had a few incidents where the guild information wasn't completely accurate and they'd been caught off guard. It only took a few small injuries from surprise attacks to have them be more cautious.

The majority of the group paused and held back while Koneko took to the trees and scouted ahead. She was small, quiet, and strong enough to protect herself if something went wrong. They all waited a few minutes until Koneko returned. They all huddled together crouched as she explained what she found in her own stoic fashion, “Lots of goblins, hobgoblins too. One much bigger. And a cave with a really bad smell, new monster.”

They all pondered what she said. A new monster was always a pain in the ass for them to deal with. Akeno especially hated when the trolls had appeared. If it was something as annoying as those things again... Well, she already had many plans for how to punish the person making the dungeons. She wasn't opposed to adding in more though.

They made a pretty simple plan. The goblins and hobgoblins weren't much of a threat except in massive numbers. The numbers they could handle were pretty high so there was little to fear from that. It was the leader and the unknown they had to worry about. Rias stood up from their little huddle, “Alright everyone, you know what to do.”

-----Line Break-----

The group of devils sat on the ground panting heavily from their exertions. They hadn't had any issue defeating the goblins and hobgoblins outside of the cave. It was the small army hiding inside that had made things so difficult, especially with the Hobgoblin General giving out orders. Things became completely chaotic when Rias had assassinated the general and the goblins went insane and lost all cohesion.

Each goblin was easy to defeat, but the sheer number of them... Well it was safe to say that they were all exhausted. Rias wasn't sure if she even had enough demonic power to fly as a casual pace. They were all sweaty, dirty, and tired.

She felt amazing! She knew they had all gotten stronger from this. It was how the dungeons worked. But the sheer number of goblins and the strength they each had? Rias was certain that Koneko and Kiba had achieved enough strength to qualify as High Class Devils, they only needed to take and pass the exams to make it official. She was very proud of them both.

It was herself and Akeno that she wasn't so certain about anymore. Before the dungeons they were both high class in strength, Akeno was uninterested in an official promotion. Their strength had grown significantly as well and now she wasn't certain if they still qualified as High Class, or if they'd taken the next step to arrive in the Ultimate Class. Granted, they would be at the bottom of the Ultimate Class, but that would still be a big step up for the both of them.

Once the group recovered enough energy to move, they all started drinking their Lesser Mana and Stamina Potions. They all had some Minor Potions, but they saved those for emergencies. The Lesser Potions were a lot more common and significantly cheaper so they didn't feel like it was a waste to down a few after a tough fight.

Once the potions finished their work, everyone was feeling a lot better. It made the trek back into the city a lot more bearable. It was only a short time later that they were making their way to the exit for the dungeon.

As everyone stepped out they paused in shock. Every single one of them could feel their power increase by a measurable amount. It was by far the most power they'd gained in a single session and it felt incredible. Rias had taken advantage of the given training time hoping to gain some small extra bit of power that could push them to the point of defeating Riser and his peerage. Now, now she had no doubt that they could easily take out all of his peerage members bar himself and his younger sister. Only their regenerative power made their defeat less certain than the others.

That was where Ryuji was supposed to come in. If he could develop a spell capable of stopping Riser's ability to regenerate, then their odds of victory would drastically increase. If they could keep this pace up for the next week... It was impossible for her to keep the smile off of her face at the thought.

Yes, it was all coming together. Soon, she would have the freedom to choose who she would love and marry. If a certain magician happened to pop into her thoughts at that moment it was surely just a coincidence.

-----Line Break-----

Ryuji looked up from his work as Rias and the others came out of the woods looking a little worse for wear. Not to be unexpected. They'd taken out over a hundred goblins alone. The cave acted as a choke point making it easier for them to handle. He had no doubt that without it they would have been overwhelmed and forced to flee. That was a lot of goblins, let alone the hobgoblins and the general.

He planned to do multiple missions like it so that he could feed power to his friends. Yes, he considered them to be his friends even if he hadn't exchanged more than a few words with anyone but Rias. He watched them all take off to their various training areas with a smile. He could feel the improvement they'd gotten from destroying so many of his monsters. It wasn't a massive leap but it was significant and if he repeated the same thing for the next week.

Well, it was safe to say that Riser was in deep shit.

He looked at the half completed spell circle and frowned slightly. Working to make this was a lot harder than he had expected it to be. He had plenty of ideas to overcome any regenerative ability. His book on Necromancy, the one he'd sworn he would only use for politely summoning spirits, once again provided an answer, necrotic energy.

The problem was, necrotic energy was anathema to life. It could very easily kill Riser, something he was certain no one wanted, not even Rias. Every calculation he ran, every formula he attempted, all ended with Riser dead. It was entirely because of Riser's regenerative ability and conceptual connection to 'Immortality' that gave him an extreme weakness to necrotic damage. Hitting Riser with a necrotic spell would be like poisoning him with the deadliest poison on the planet. He wouldn't survive for very long once it was introduced into his system.

So, if hitting him with necrotic energy was out, he needed to find a way to modify spells to incorporate traits of necrotic energy. Which was what he had been attempting to do for hours now. After dissecting the schema of a few spells he came up with an idea. If he could figure out the right formula, he could enhance any spell with a very minor touch of what made necrotic energy a perfect counter to healing. A small piece of its formula that he could insert into existing spells to enhance them.

It would probably take him another day or two, but once he isolated what he needed and designed a small emblem for it, it would make any spell prevent rapid healing from regeneration or even magic. Though he also wanted the effect to not last for too long. A permanent wound that never healed would also be a big no-no to use against Riser.

He tapped his pencil on his notebook as he continued to study and puzzle out the pieces he would need to make what he wanted work.

-----Line Break-----

Ryuji stepped off of the Gremory crest as the glow from the teleportation spell ended. He looked around the club room, not sure what he was expecting but after the last nine days with Rias he'd expected something on their return. It was a little disappointing somehow. They'd come back a day early so that Rias and her peerage could get a good rest in before the big event.

Speaking of the event, Rias had invited him to come view the event with the other devils as her guest. It helped that he was her contracted magician and had helped her train. He would be expected to be there and it was a show he was looking forward to seeing.

He turned to face Rias, “Well, I guess I'll see you all tomorrow. Have a good night and enjoy your day off tomorrow.”

With his goodbye said, he teleported himself home using his own magic circle instead of the Gremory one. Which reminded him, he needed to look into a way to block unauthorized teleportation into his home. A thought that was doubly enforced when he saw a short-stack magical girl standing in the middle of his living room with her arms crossed and tapping her foot with clear impatience. Her eyes narrowed when he spotted her, “You're late.”

Ryuji rolled his eyes at her and waved his hand conjuring up a couple of boxes containing all the potions he'd made while he was off training. Serafall took a moment to look over the potions before she focused on him once again, “There's something different about you...”

Ryuji shrugged, “There's a lot different now.”

She stepped directly into his personal space and began sniffing the air around him, “Oh?” She took a deep inhale and slowly exhaled, “Your scent has changed. Alot. A hint of Dragon and...” She sniffed again, “Devil? Did you let Rias reincarnate you?” She shook her head, “No, that's not it.”

She glared at him while conjuring up a magic circle in her left hand. She glanced at it, her eyes widening slightly before she focused on him like a laser and narrowed her eyes dangerously, “Why are you now half-Gremory?”

Ryuji looked at the magic circle and then back into her eyes, “Huh, didn't know you could do that. The others didn't even notice that I'd changed. Not even when we were all training under twenty times gravity. That should have killed a normal human.”

Serafall reached up and grabbed him by the collar and yanked him down so they were eye to eye. That was his first clue that she was being deadly serious, “That's not what I asked. I asked why you are now a Gremory half-breed. This isn't a joke. I need to know what the hell you have done.”

Ryuji gulped, just now remembering that the happy-go-lucky woman in front of him was one of the four strongest devils in the underworld. Even with all of his recent gains, she could still crush him like a bug under her heel. So, naturally, he answered her honestly, “I used a potion. It's just a Minor Race Change potion so it only turned me into a half-devil instead of a full devil.” He swallowed hard, “Am I in trouble?”

Serafall continued to hold him close and stare as she asked, “Why are you registering as a Gremory?”

“I used some of Rias's blood to finish the potion, just a few drops she willingly gave me. Though I did imply it was for something else so she's unaware of what I really used her blood for.”

Serafall let him go with a little shove that caused him to stumble back a few steps. She punched the bridge of her nose while sighing deeply, “Just... please tell me that you didn't gain access to the Power of Destruction.”

Ryuji looked a little confused at that, “Why else would I pick Rias if not to get access to the Power of Destruction?”

Serafall groaned louder covering her face with both hands, “Lucifer damn it Ryuji! Do you have any idea what you've done? As soon as 'he' finds out it's going to cause a shit storm of epic proportions!”

Ryuji blinked at that but had no idea what she was talking about, “He who?”

Serafall dragged her hands down her face then glared at him, “Zeckram Bael, the progenitor of the Bael clan, leader of the Great King Faction, unofficially anyway, and man with a deep abiding love for the Power of Destruction. The moment he hears about you he will either try to kill or recruit you.”

“Oh. Well fuck.”

-----Line Break-----

AN

So this is just over 10k words. I believe that puts this story at roughly 100k words total. Not too bad for just over a month of work, wouldn't you say?

Anyway, next chapter some shit is about to go down. It won't completely derail canon, yet, but it will be one big step in that direction.

Anyway, let me knwo what you thought of the chapter!