DxD - Game Master - Chapter 7

Ryuji sighed as he walked toward the school gates. Yesterday had been a bit of a bust. He had believed he could forge at least a knife, even if that knife would have been a complete piece of trash. Well, he had been half right, he'd managed to forge a piece of trash that didn't look anything like a knife. Who knew how hard it was to get the temperature for forging right?! The first time the metal had been to cold and cracked when he hit it too hard. The second time it had been to hot and he'd actually burned the metal! Fucking metal could burn?!

Needless to say he spent the entire time he was in the forge just trying to get the metal to the right temperature, let alone trying to forge it. That was alright though. He'd learned from his mistakes and was now going to cheat his ass off!

How?

Easy! Magic! Fuck doing it the right way, he was going to do it the easy way! He was in the middle of designing a series of spells with a singular purpose. Turn a piece of metal into a goddamn knife. He knew the steps it took to properly forge something just lacked the skill to perform those steps. It was going to take a slew of spells but he was willing to put in the work. Who knows, it might even net him a magical blacksmith. Though he'd be satisfied with a farrier at this point!

He hadn't honestly expected it to be this hard to summon a useful spirit to have possess an NPC body. He thought it would be an amazing shortcut, yet looking at all the work he had to do for it put the lie to that thought. Well, whatever. He was getting a cool series of spells out of it and he was making them even better thanks to the material in the new book on magic he'd started reading last night.

That book was a godsend. It too was by Mephisto Pheles, specifically chosen by Ryuji because Mephisto knew his shit. A lot of the theories Ryuji had after studying the first book were proven correct. Then Mephisto went on to add additional thoughts and possibilities that Ryuji simply hadn't thought of. His repertoire and knowledge of the human magic system was growing rapidly.

The most important thing that the book taught though were 'shortcuts' in casting. The process of a human magician casting a spell was a massive task in memorization. They designed the spell circle, then had to memorize every last bit of it. Once memorized they had to visualize it perfectly and feed the mental image magical power to make it real. Finally the spell would be cast from the realized magic circle.

Mehpisto's shortcut was to memorize specific sections of spell circles as separate entities. Then, on the fly, piece them together into completely new spells. It was a very difficult skill to master and was nowhere near as efficient as a well designed spell but it allowed for a lot of flexibility that human magic otherwise lacked.

For Ryuji, this method of thought was a massive revelation. While he did love a good efficient spell, he had the magical weight to use this modular method of spell casting without the consequences that other mages could suffer from. Namely, he never seemed to run out of magical power. If he were a video game character, he would have 100 MP with 999/s MP Regen. So, he could blow his entire pool of magical power in a single spell and have it all back a moment later to repeat the process. It gave him a huge advantage when it came to modular casting as he could afford the wasted mana.

Modular Casting wouldn't stop him from designing specific spells. It was good for flexibility but any spell he cast using the modular method would inherently be weaker than a specifically designed spell. It was all about that wasted magical power. If a modular spell cost him all his magic then he was probably wasting a quarter of that whereas a designed spell would use all of the magic. More succinctly, a modular fireball would have seventy-five percent of the power that a specifically designed fireball would have.

Ryuji spotted the gates leading into the school and paused in his walk for a moment. He watched other students walk through the gate while sighing to himself. He'd beaten Sona in chess yesterday for the second time. Somehow he expected that would not lessen her intense interest in getting him into the student council offices. At this point he was wondering if he should file for a restraining order against her.

He only dismissed that option because he was one hundred percent certain that the devils would mess with the courts to protect themselves. Therefore, it would be a pointless waste of effort. It was still a tempting through though.

Before moving again, he checked himself over thoroughly, even making sure his little ribbon tie was perfectly centered. Not a single thing was even remotely out of place. His clothing was clean and pressed to perfection. His satchel only contained exactly what the school handbook outlined. Hell, he'd even spent a good twenty minutes working on his hair to make sure not even a single strand of his glorious crimson locks was out of place.

He. Was. Immaculate.

So imagine his surprise when he walked through the gates and Souna didn't even glance in his direction. In fact, she seemed to be deliberately avoiding looking in his direction at all. That... was very concerning to him and sent a shiver of trepidation down his spine. She had to be plotting something! There was no way she would just suddenly ignore him after being so obnoxious. Especially not after he beat her at chess a second time! No. She was plotting something and it was worrying him.

He continued on his way to class as he tried to figure out what Souna's plot might be. He found himself secretly hoping she was just planning to invite him to her peerage. That he could easily handle. He had a simple policy for dealing with any peerage invites. It hearkened back to the days of his first childhood and the silly D.A.R.E. meetings where they harped on about one phrase.

'Just say no.'

He fully intended to listen to that advice. Though, granted, that advice was meant to be applied to drugs but he felt it fit the situation he found himself in rather well. Not that there had ever been a chance of him being willing to serve under anyone. He was a grown ass man, even if he was trapped in a teen body. Being ordered around by someone so much younger, mentally, than him just didn't sit well with him.

Of course, there was also the slave aspect of it and that was just a whole can of worms he didn't want to deal with. He'd been American in his past life, the country that kicked its own ass to end slavery. He was very obviously against the practice, no matter how prettied up it was by the devils. While he had seen how Rias treated her peerage, it was only for the first season of the show through two conflicts. There was no telling if things changed later on. For all he knew, Rias became some psychopath that fought anyone who argued with her like a rabid dog.

He didn't think anything like that happened, of course. The point was that he just didn't know much about the DxD story. He barely knew season one of the anime and a few things he'd heard here and there. Like, he knew Issei's rival was named Vali. He didn't know jackshit else about the... Guy? Girl? Was Vali a unisex name? He had no idea. And that was his point. As long as he didn't know, he had no choice but to stay independent.

That didn't mean he wasn't planning to ditch his humanity when it was convenient though. He was very much willing to turn himself into another race, probably a Devil since they had the best benefits. At least as far as he was aware they did. He especially wanted to get his hands on their imagination based magic system. If a loser like Issei could develop a never before seen spell during a ten day training came, there was no telling what Ruiji himself could come up with.

He also suspected it would make it possible for him to harness the Power of Destruction. He'd studied it, heavily, thanks to Rias running so many of his scenarios. He understood it to a profound level yet still couldn't actually get it to function. He didn't know what was missing but suspected it was devil genetics or some aspect of how Demonic Power was different from Magical Power.

He had no interest in changing to an Angel or a Fallen Angel. He already had access to their light magic and could make spells to form light weaponry if he wanted. About the only thing they offered was wings for flight, and he had a spell for that! He wasn't aware of the attributes of any other races out there.

He did know Yokai existed out in the wider supernatural world and some of them were definitely interesting if they matched their tales. He just didn't know where they were or have the slightest clue on how to find any of them. So that route was a moot point.

A race change potion was still likely to be a while into the future though. It would give him time to learn more about the world. He could also make more than one potion and change his race at will if he wanted. So, for now, he was stuck as a limited human. That was a real shame. But in the future he could swap races like other people changed clothes. Hell, maybe he would design his own super devil-yokai-angel-god-dragon-monster race of epicness.

Maybe.

He sat at his desk in his classroom and pulled out a notebook. Classes were just getting easier as he got used to them so he decided to spend some time working on those new spells he needed to fake forging something to summon an appropriate ghost. He could easily do the math for the spells in his head and free draw them almost as accurately as a machine could. He knew it was only because of his Essence's but it was still awesome to see something as complex as a spell circle come to life from his own hand.

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Rias calmly walked into the classroom with Akeno at her side. As she made her way to her desk, she glanced at the still somewhat mysterious Okane Ryuji. The would be Gremory looked to be sketching something in his notebook. She'd never seen him draw anything before, but then again she'd hadn't been paying extremely close attention to him since the dungeons appeared. She should probably take the time to fix that small issue.

With Sona determined to now marry Ryuji, Rias believed it would do her some good to get to know the 'future husband' of her best friend. She couldn't bring herself to point out to Sona that in order for them to get married Ryuji would have to actually agree. Sona was so lost in her pride at the moment that the possibility of Ryuji saying no to hadn't even crossed her mind. Rias was sure it would, eventually.

She took her seat in the class and considered Ryuji further. He seemed to just blend into the school after the novelty of a new student wore off. He did his school work and, according to Sona, did it rather well. So, he was intelligent at least. He was also a potential Magician. His magical power might not be spectacular or anything, but it was definitely way above the average human norm. It meant he would make an excellent bishop. Something she'd noted before.

Perhaps she should reconsider offering him a place in her peerage. She highly doubted Sona would mind and it would allow for him to be changed into a devil. She wouldn't order Ryuji to marry Sona, she wasn't that big of a hypocrite. It would make things easier though as it would bring Ryuji under the authority of the devil government. She and Sona were related to two of the leaders of said government was completely irrelevant.

As it stood, he was still a human and though he was in their territory, they had no real direct say over him. Japan belonged to the Shinto Gods and they were only given Kuoh with the permission of those Gods. There were rules they had to follow to maintain their permission to rule. The deal was pretty simple, they were in charge of protecting the city by ending any supernatural threats to the human population as well as maintaining the masquerade. In exchange they were allowed to recruit to their hearts content using non-violent means.

In other words, she couldn't blackmail, beat up, or otherwise force Ryuji into her peerage, not that she would. Recruiting people that were dying, or recently dead, didn't count as forced so long as the person wasn't deliberately allowed to be hurt to that point. In other words, if she were to just ignore the fallen angel that had asked him out on a date and let the fallen kill him, she would be assisting the fallen and breaking the pact. It was her duty to try her best to prevent the fallen from killing Ryuji. Though, she and Sona didn't think the fallen was actually planning to kill him.

They didn't know what the fallen wanted and that worried them. As simple human magician shouldn't attract any positive, or negative, attention from the Grigori. While the fallen faction was known to recruit humans, they tended to focus on humans with Sacred Gears, or extreme magical talent. Ryuji was neither. His talent looked to be middling given his magical power and there was no signs of him having a Sacred Gear at all.

She was sure they would find out when the date happened. After it was over, she would have to see about inviting Ryuji to visit the ORC room and have a little talk with him. Regardless of what happened, he would need to be informed of the supernatural world and his place in it. Provided he didn't already know. Perhaps that was something else they would learn on his date.

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Ryuji was confused. First, Souna practically stalked him and looked for any excuse she could to force him to come to the student council offices. Now? Now she was ignoring him completely and it was actually freaking him out a bit. He had no idea what she was thinking or what was going to happen next and that bugged the hell out of him. He would have to go back to looking through the records he had of Souna in the Onsen Scenario and see if he could find a clue. He hadn't watched all of the available footage and there was no search or filing functions he could use to speed things up. It was going to be a slog to go through it all.

Wow, that sounded so wrong, even in his own head. Going through at least a hundred hours of beautiful naked women was suddenly a slog? Life really did like to throw curve balls.

As he stepped out of the school gates he found an unpleasant surprise awaiting him. Yuuma, also know as Raynare, was waiting for him in her fake school uniform. After seeing it he'd spent a few minutes looking at local school uniforms and nothing matched what she was wearing. The uniform did exist, though it was for a school all the way in Tokyo. It made him wonder which of the recent murders reported in that city belonged to her. There was honestly no telling since humans killed each other more often than fallen did.

As he stepped out of the school, Yuuma perked up and skipped over to him where she posed in a manner that would draw eyes to her chest, “Ryuji-kun! I couldn't wait until our date to see you again, so here I am! I-I hope that's okay...?”

She started off excited, but then transitioned to nervous and fidgety smoothly. She was one hell of an actress that was for sure. He honestly wouldn't have a clue she was anything but what she portrayed if he didn't have a source of outside information. He had to play his part so he gave her a smile, “I see. Well it's good to see you again Yuuma-san.”

She perked up and smiled brightly, “I was thinking that m-maybe we could go for a walk? Together?”

Ryuji wanted to tell her no, but considered the area he was in. Raynare was playing her part perfectly and they'd drawn a few onlookers. He might not be the most popular boy, that was still Kiba, but he was rather handsome and shared a look with one of the 'Great Beauties' of the school. If he did something that made him look bad in front of them toward Raynare... Well she would just have to fake a few tears and his reputation would be shredded.

Now, he didn't care all that much about his reputation. It was a high school after all. But! It was a lot easier to have a good reputation than a bad one. Who knows? Maybe he'd find someone here he actually wanted to date and Raynare throwing a bitch fit could ruin the chances of that.

There was also the more practical side of things. If he pissed her off then maybe she wouldn't wait until the date to try and kill him. She might go off, for now, and then return at an unknown time to try and kill him when he least expected it. That was exactly why he'd accepted the date to begin with.

Left with little choice in the matter, he put on a smile of his own and nodded, “I would like that Yuuma-chan.”

Yuuma smiled happily as she skipped up next to him and spun around so they were facing the same direction, “How about a nice walk through a park?”

That set alarm bells ringing in his head, but he didn't object, instead he smiled at her and started walking. She stuck close to his side, but they didn't touch. As they walked he was outwardly silent, on the inside though...

'Shit! Is she going to try to kill me today? Fuck fuck fuck. I've got some spells but I have no idea how well they'll work. I've never been in a fight before! Let alone a magical one throwing spells around! That was a fucking mistake. I should have made some scenarios and run them myself! Just because I don't get the growth from it doesn't mean they were useless! I could have gotten some real world combat experience! Fuck that was a major oversight! Shit. Fuck. Damn! What the fuck am I going to do? I have a lot of spells but no idea which ones would work best! Okay, okay, calm down. I made plenty of defensive spells. I should start there so I can survive the first blow. From there I need to counter attack while she's surprised. I don't think I can go right for the kill though... A restraining spell then? I have a couple. Yeah! That's what I'll do! I'll defend then counter attack with a restraining spell.'

“What are you thinking about Ryuji-kun?”

Shaken from his thoughts, he turned to Yuuma and smiled, “Just classwork. I've got an essay to write and was thinking about the topic.”

Yuuma pouted, “Mou, you're supposed to be paying attention to me.”

Ryuji chuckled lightly, “Right. Sorry. I just get caught up in my thoughts sometimes. It won't happen again, I promise.”

It had better not, he didn't want to be deep in thought when she sprung her attack! He kept his focus on her, despite the lack of conversation, as they finally arrived at the park. It wasn't very busy at the moment. Most students were either still doing club activities or just went home. There wasn't exactly a lot of things for students to do in the park. It was busiest on the weekends, not the middle of the week.

The walk though the park was done in complete silence. Ryuji barely even glanced at Yuuma the entire time. Instead, his focus was on having his chosen defensive spell at the ready, one specifically designed to stop light magic. So he was rather surprised when they reached the other side of the park and Yuuma spoke, “I live this way.”

So saying, she pointed in the opposite direction of where he lived. He glanced down the road and then back to Yuuma, “Alright then. See you Saturday?”

Yumma smiled and nodded, “Of course! Goodnight Ryuji-kun!”

Ryuji watched, surprised that Yuuma actually started walking away. He watched her go for a bit, unwilling to turn his back on her, until she turned a corner and left his sight. He let out a sigh and shook his head. That scared the life out of him. What the hell was the point of all of that?

It took a little thinking to remember that she'd done something similar with Issei. She'd walked next to him on his way to school once and met the other two perverts. It must have something to do with her M.O. When killing high school boys. He did remember her being pretty twisted and enjoying turning whatever knives she could verbally stick into Issei. He guessed it was supposed to be his turn for that kind of treatment.

Jokes on her. He's not even remotely tricked.

As soon as he arrived home, he changed into some older street clothing he wouldn't mind being destroyed. He'd just realized how unprepared he was to fight, it was time to change that. After stepping into his Home Base he got comfortable and began constructing a training scenario. It was a simple one meant just for him. An open arena that he could easily modify with obstacles and quickly change the monsters he would be facing. It was actually some extra effort for him to make sure the monsters would be violent towards him, their creator. To his creations he was essentially god and fighting him was anathema. He could force it though so, while annoying, it wasn't impossible to circumvent.

It did present one problem though. The monsters would not stop and would do their best to kill him now. He could actually die at their hands. It was a tad scary, but he had control over their numbers and strength. He would just have to be careful. He also gave them their own intelligence so they would use their own strategies and not ones he implanted. It would do him no good if he knew their every move before they made it.

After and hour of work, his basic arena was finished and he'd made a multistage scenario that would slowly ramp up in difficulty. It was broken into stages and he could quit between any stage as he desired. He could also flee out of the portal back to the real world if he had to, but he didn't expect that to be necessary.

With the scenario prepared, there was only one thing left to do. With a thought he opened the portal to the scenario within his Home Base and entered it. The arena was just a wide open sand pit with a low wall around it. The monsters would spawn inside of the ring the moment he stepped into it.

Ryuji took a moment to gather his wits. He wasn't scared, not really. The first monsters should be simple as hell to defeat. Then the difficulty would ramp up and that did worry him a bit. He continued to take deep breaths as he reviewed his spells and psyched himself up. Finally, he stepped over the low wall onto the sand of the arena.

The moment he did a large black magic circle appeared, purely cosmetic but it looked cool, and from it a large rat appeared. He wanted to start with the first creature he'd ever put into a scenario. It just seemed... right somehow. The moment the rat spawned in, it let out a roar-like squeak and charged at Ryuji without hesitation. It was the smallest one he'd made and he knew how he wanted to deal with it.

His heart instantly began to hammer in his chest as adrenaline flooded through his body. He felt like lightning was running through him as his hands shook and sweat immediately beaded on his brow. He was scared and unafraid to admit it. One mistake and the summoned rat would happily kill him. Going in he had confidence but the moment the rat appeared it became real, not just a thought in his head. There was no safety net here, it was literally do or die and that was terrifying. He wasn't scared of death as much as he had been in his first life, but he had no idea what to expect if he died again and he didn't want to find out so soon after getting a fresh start.

No. He wasn't afraid of death. He was afraid of what he would lose if he did die. As that thought filtered through his consciousness, he narrowed his eyes and resolved himself to fight with his life on the line and come out the other side.

He had the spell ready instantly, a small red magic circle appearing in front of the palm of his hand as he aimed it at the right. It only seemed right that his first creation should be taken down by his first spell. Moments after the magic circle appeared a small ball of flames blasted from it directly at the rat. Ryuji was honestly shocked when the rat dodged to the left causing the small ball of flames to completely miss. It was way more agile than he'd expected!

He lifted his left hand to match his right and began casting again. The same magic circles appeared in front of both hands. He fired with his left hand first. The rat squeaked as it jumped to the right. Meanwhile Ryuji fired off the second shot the moment the rat jumped. The small ball of flames slammed into the rat just as its paws touched the ground. It might have been the weakest beginner offensive spell, but it was still more than enough to take out the rat.

He wasn't given a moment to rest as a second larger rat appeared. The same bigger one that had been in the basement, the kind that had killed Issei. Ryuji had wanted to prove something to himself and programmed this first encounter to have no break between each rat. He'd set it so he would have to deal with five rats one after the other with no break. He'd even made a special change to the final one.

The second rat mimicked the first with the same squeaky roar and charge. Ryuji didn't want to mess around anymore and went fully on the offensive. He continued to hold both of his arms up with this palms facing the charging rat. A much larger red magic circle appeared in front of both of his hands showing itself to be somewhat larger than both hands combined. The moment he activated the spell a torrent of flames shot out in a large cone that covered the entire area in front of him and left nowhere for the rat to escape.

As the squeaks of pain faded another rat was immediately summoned, this one yet again bigger than the previous one, bigger than any rat he'd put in that fateful basement. The second rat had been about as big as a medium sized dog, this one was as big as a Huskie and far more vicious. The roar from the newest rat actually sounded much closer to a roar as it too charged directly at Ryuji.

Rats were not known as cunning strategists so it wasn't too shocking that they'd all done the same thing on being summoned. This time Ryuji decided to try something different, he wanted to test one of his restraining spells. He split his hands apart while two yellow magic circles formed. Hair thin lines of yellow light shot out of the circles and shot through the air while wiggling like thread. As the various strings of magic touched different areas they solidified into yellow magical threads that blocked the rats path. As soon as the rat touched the first one, the others responded and soon the rat was cocooned in a whole mess of glowing yellow threads.

Ryuji studied the threads as he continued to feed them magical power. The rat was completely restrained, unable to do more than blink and breath. Satisfied, for now, Ryuji dropped one of the spell circles, halving the number of threads binding the rat. Yet even bound with only half the threads the rat was still completely restrained. He nodded in satisfaction at that. The threads were meant to contain much stronger threats, but they still needed some work. Their strength seemed rather good but he wanted them to be near invisible. Clearly he needed to rework the circle a bit to get the exact effect he wanted.

With his consideration of the spell done, he formed a new magic circle in his free hand, blue this time, that fired an icicle just like the one that had killed the intruder. He had to know a spell to give it to his creations, after all.

He actually found that kind of off. For his creations to use magic he needed to know how to do the spell himself. Yet he could give them skills like sword fighting without knowing how to do it himself. Maybe it was the metaphysical difference? Technically anyone could learn how to fight with a sword, but not everyone could do magic. Something like that? He didn't know but...

His mind froze for a moment and he felt the urge to punch himself in the face. Here he was going through a lot of effort to summon a blacksmith, even going so far as to ruin some good steel, and he could have just made a blacksmith with his power! He was able to make a very limited number of creatures in the real world, likely as a method to protect himself, and he'd only ever used it to track where Issei lived. After that he'd just sort of... forgotten that he could do that, like a chump.

He was brought out of his self deprecation by the roar of the final rat. A proper roar coming from a proper monster, a Dire Rat that stood equal to him at the shoulders. With it's elongated head thrown up to roar it was actually taller than him. A real beast, one he hadn't used at all so far in any scenarios.

Once it was done with it's dominance display, the rat's blood red eyes locked onto Ryuji. It's powerful hing leg muscles bunched up just a moment before it leaped into the air like a missile and came barreling at Ryuji. Ryuji yelled in shock and dove to his right to get out of the rats ballistic path. He rolled into a crouch and immediately threw out his left hand conjuring a white magic circle.

It was a good thing he did as the moment the rats feet touched the ground it whirled around and whipped its tail directly at Ryuji. The magic circle flared as the tail impacted an invisible dome protecting Ryuji. The sound of the tail striking his defensive spell was like a clap of thunder that rang out loudly and partially deafened him.

He shuddered at the thought of the tail actually hitting him. Scary! He couldn't let the rat keep the intitiative so he pushed for space. He lifted his right hand and cast his flamethrower spell bathing the area in front of him with flames. The Dire Rat, smarter than it's smaller brethren, didn't get more than slightly warm as it quickly vacated the area covered by the flames.

Ryuji ended the flames as they completely blocked his view of the field, something he would need to keep in mind for future use. He instantly spotted the Dire Rat as it glared at him and actually growled while its tail lashed back and forth violently. This beast was on a whole different level than the others. For a start, it was a legitimate monster and a magical animal. That clearly made a dig difference in the abilities of the monster he was facing. It had his heart hammering even harder than it already had been.

He dropped his shield causing the Dire Rat to charge, but Ryuji wasn't idle either. A brown magic circle appeared in his left hand and caused the sand to shift and coalesce into three solid stone ramparts covered in spikes. One faced the charging rat while the other two appeared on its sides, leaving it with only two paths, retreat or jumping. Ryuji was counting on the latter.

His hopes were answered as he watched the huge body of the Dire Rat jump over the rampart with apparent ease. Ryuji thrust his right hand out the blue magic circle sparking dangerously as it unleashed a powerful bolt of magical lighting that cleanly connected with the giant rat monster. It screamed in pain as it was electrocuted, its muscles seized preventing it from landing properly. Instead it crashed painfully to the ground while Ryuji continued to pour magical power into his spell. Soon the rats agony ended as its heart and brain were fried.

The moment he ended his lighting spell, Ryuji collapsed onto his ass before quickly falling into his back to stare at the ceiling. He was panting heavily as sweat coated his body as it shook violently from the adrenaline slowly leaving his system now that the threat had passed. He lay like that for a few minutes, ignoring the thin pillar that had risen in the center of the arena adorned with a green button. Pushing the button would start the next round and Ryuji wasn't quite ready for that.

Being in a real fight was a hell of an experience for him and had him shaken. He was infinitely thankful that he'd had this chance to get used to it because if he'd gone up against Raynare without taking the time to practice... Well, he was certain that he would have died and become a Devil against his will. A fate he didn't want to contemplate. Oh, he had nothing against Rias, though Sona pissed him off, but he didn't want to be her servant. Not one bit.

He'd still choose it over death though. Not out of fear of death, but because being dead was soooooo boring.

He shook those thoughts off and finally climbed back to his feet. He ignored the pillar with the green button and made his way back out of the arena scenario. Oh, he wasn't done with it, not by a long shot, but he had had a great idea while inside of it and he wanted to implement it right away! He moved through his Home Base to the blacksmith shop where he concentrated for a few minutes on what he wanted to create. Once he was ready he created the being he wanted and drained every last drop of his magical power to do it.

The area in front of him flashed with light for a moment as the being Ryuji had just made came to life. Standing in the middle of the room was a middle aged man with a thick black beard, bright blue eyes, and arms as thick as Ryuji's thighs. He wore plain jeans and a thick leather apron. He looked, for all intents and purposes, like a stereotypical blacksmith.

The man looked around at his new workshop and grinned, though one could only tell because the thick beard moved, “Aye, this will work. What do you want me to make first boss?”

Ryuji grinned in triumph. He could give his creations skills proportional to the amount of magic he could spend on said skill. For this blacksmith he'd spent enough magic to make him physically strong and dumped the rest all in his skill at blacksmithing. In any subject not related to blacksmithing his creation was completely clueless. Not that it really mattered that the Blacksmith didn't know anything about history.

“I'd like you to forge a katana. All the supplies for one are in the shop.”

The Blacksmith stroked his thick beard while his dark eyes swept over the room and took everything in, “I can do that boss-man. It'll take me about sixty hours to make a decent one, longer if you want higher quality.”

Ryuji waved the offer off, “Just a basic one will do.”

“You got it boss-man.”

The Blacksmith didn't say another word and immediately got to work on the request. Ryuji grinned as he watched for a few minutes. The Blacksmith, as a creation of his, didn't require food or sleep. It was essentially a magical construct so it lacked any of the needs a living creature had. He would be able to work twety-four seven. That meant the sword should be ready sixty hours from right then, exactly two and a half days.

Ryuji turned and walked away from the blacksmithing room and made his way to the Tailoring room where he repeated the process of creating a new creature. This time he made a middle aged woman to act as the worker. He had to give her slightly less skill in making clothing as he gave her a skill to help with her job, the ability to tell a girls measurements from just a look, similar to what Motohama could do. He did so to give the Tailor the ability to just look at images he had of Rias and the others and know their sizes for perfectly tailored clothing.

The two creations would work as substitutes until he could summon an appropriate spirit to replace them. He still wanted to do the summoning because it would give him a significantly better creator in either field. The spirit would have all the skills so he could focus completely on making them the perfect vessel to their desires. They would get a perfect body for their work and he would get access to their skills.

He really wished he'd remembered he could make characters outside of the scenarios sooner. Oh well, they were created and working now. He'd set the tailor to making him some clothing out of some high quality cloth he'd purchased using his Dungeon Energy. Once the outfit was finished, he'd spent the time to enchant it for protection. After all, one should always have protection when meeting a beautiful woman.

Snickering to himself, Ryuji stepped back into the Arena Scenario and got back to practicing. He wanted to be able to fight better than a rank amateur when his date on Saturday turned violent.

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

Hours later Ryuji stepped out of the portal to the Training Area a little worse for wear. His clothing was torn and bloodstained in several places, showing clear signs of injuries that he'd healed with his magic. Everything about him was dirty and disheveled. He'd spent the last few hours in almost non-stop combat, only taking breaks to regain his breath. Magic was an absolute cheat when it came to lowering his recovery time between battles.

He didn't hang out inside of his Home Base for long though. He closed the portal to the Training Arena and opened another one to a copy of the Onsen Resort. Just because there was a permanent version of it over in the ORC didn't mean he couldn't open a second one anytime he wanted. Why should he settle for his apartments subpar bathroom when he could have an entire inn and its staff to himself?

Truly, if he wanted he could just make a perfect little place to live in and never leave it again. Just about anything he wanted he could create for himself. Hell, if he was more depraved he could easily make simulacrums of Rias, Akeno, Sona, Tsubaki, and any other girl that caught his fancy to have nonstop sex with anytime he desired. It was a temptation he'd been avoiding ever since he'd realized he could make humans within his scenarios. One he intended to keep resisting. If he gave in he could very easily stop seeing the women as real beings. It could completely distort his view of reality and get him into serious trouble.

It was best that he avoid abusing his power in such a way. No matter how tempting it was to give a beauty like Rias a trial run. Though, he had to admit to himself, the one he'd be most interested in doing something like that with would be Akeno. He didn't really like her personality but even he could admit she was a beautiful young woman. Still, it wasn't going to happen.

Well, he might have indulged just a little as all the staff in his version of the Onsen Resort were young beautiful women. He didn't sexually abuse them, just used them as eye candy to enjoy while he was relaxing. Why should he get a nice massage from a burly guy when he could enjoy one from a beauty?

Yeah, life was pretty good for Ryuji at that moment.

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

Ryuji checked his watch for the tenth time and sighed to himself. Today was the day of the big date. Do or die moment. Yet he'd acted like a shounen protagonist and shown up to the date half an hour early and he had no idea why. He was even excited. Not about the date, but about what might happen when it was all over.

“Ryuji-kun!”

He looked up at hearing his name and spotted Raynare in her Yuuma disguise. It was easier to think of her as Yuuma in the disguise so he wouldn't mess up and call her the wrong name. He wasn't supposed to know who she was after all. He smiled happily when he saw her coming. He was actually happy to see her. Again, it had nothing to do with the date. It was because he remembered something the other night that she did, something that could help him out a lot if he could get the information out of her.

He lifted his hand and gave her a wave, “Yuuma-chan.”

She made her way over to him and smiled brightly, “Sorry to make you wait.”

He waved it off, “I didn't wait long.”

Her smile seemed to get even brighter at that moment. He really had to give her props for her acting chops. Still, best to get on with the date. He offered her his arm because, potential attempted murderer or not, he was a gentleman and it was polite to offer your arm to a lady. She took his offer and looped her arm within his.

She looked up at him while deliberately pressing her chest into his arm, “So, where are we going first?”

He looked in the direction of a diner, “Over there.”

He was pretty much broke once more. Buying materials had reduced the money he'd gotten from Rias and Sona to a paltry sum. He needed to open the shop instance again and get them to buy some stuff from Azeez. He really needed that funding as spending Dungeon Energy on supplies felt like such a waste when he could use it for more important things, like increasing his magical power.

He'd spent every last drop of Dungeon Energy he'd gained from Rias and her peerage over the last few days on improving his magical power. He could now happily say that he was significantly more magically powerful than Rias or Sona. Physically they could still beat him like a drum, but in a clash of magical power he would win. Especially with his near instant recovery.

He hadn't made himself more magically powerful for combat reasons though. He'd done it entirely for enchanting. After making the Blacksmith and Tailor, he'd made a Jeweler to complete the set. Alchemy was magically automated so that just left him to do the enchanting himself. Thanks to the Jeweler he had a wonderful array of finely crafted jewelry that he spent a lot of time and energy enchanting.

Of course, he'd also gotten his custom tailored and enchanted clothing from the Tailor. He was wearing them now and he'd never worn something so comfortable in his life. Even before he'd enchanted it the clothing had been comfortable. Now that it was enchanted with temperature regulation? He would not be able to go back to normal clothing ever again. To make sure he didn't have to, he had the Tailor making him a couple of school uniforms to enchant. Only because enchanting the higher quality work of the Tailor allowed for more power for the enchantments. He'd also bought and enchanted mass produced stuff. It wasn't as good, but it would give Azeez a lot more to sell. And that was what was most important.

They soon arrived at the diner and were led to a boot where they could sit across form each other and talk. They talked throughout the meal, though he doubted either of them said a single thing that was true or even meaningful. After the meal they walked through the local mall, mostly because ti was free to just walk and chat. The less Ryuji had to spend on this farce the better, as far as he was concerned.

Together they spent hours in that fashion. He even ended up buying her a trinket from a store, an inexpensive necklace with a little heart trinket on it. She'd picked it out and essentially used social blackmail to get him to buy it for her. They drew attention where they went due to the both of them being rather good looking and she'd used the people watching them to get him to buy the necklace.

He hadn't appreciated spending more of his money, but did it simply to avoid the judging looks he would have gotten. It also didn't hurt that it kept Yuuma from suspecting anything. He was supposed to be an inexperienced virgin who'd never been on a date before, after all.

Thankfully, the day was coming to an end with the sun setting. They walked together, heading to the same park they'd walked through a few days ago. Yuuma guided their path to arrive at a fountain near the center of the park. He could see why she picked this spot as her murder spot. With the sun nearly down the spot was bathed in orange light and the sky that could be seen was clearly transitioning between dusk and night.

As they arrived, Yumma skipped ahead and stopped near the fountain where she spun around and faced Ryuji, “Say, would you do something for me if I asked you to?”

Ryuji shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe, depends on what you ask.”

Yuuma transitioned from a bright smile to a vicious smirk, “Wold you die for me?”

“Nah. I definitely don't like you nearly that much.”

Yuuma froze at that. The answer was completely unexpected as every time she'd played her game like this the boy had always been too flustered to even understand her properly. She loved the moment when they realized she wasn't making some silly joke. The look of betrayal in their eyes as they bled out was... divine. So, someone not sticking to the script she'd run dozens of times threw her off a bit.

She stared at Ryuji as he pulled his hands out of his pockets, each finger adorned with a smooth golden ring, even his thumbs. She'd thought it was tacky at first, but combined with his classy looking outfit it actually came together into an interesting look. She shook those thoughts off and tried to get back into the swing of her process but just couldn't do it.

With a sigh, Yumma jumped into the air and shed her fake persona and clothing changing into her full Fallen Angel form. In the process of transforming, she grew taller, taking on a more mature appearance, and her eyes changed, taking on a darker, narrower, and more evil look. Her clothing also changed dramatically, now consisting of black, strap-like objects resembling leather around and under her breasts, a thong-like piece held around her hips by three thin straps, gloves that ran right up her arms with small lengths of chains hanging from them, shoulder guard-like objects on her shoulders with three large spikes sprouting from her right shoulder, and black thigh-high heeled boots.

She spread her black feathered wings and glared at Ryuji, she was definitely mad at him for messing with her flow. Her anger only grew as Ryuji whistled in appreciation and clapped, “That was a wonderful transformation sequence. Which magical girl anime did you borrow that from?”

Raynare narrowed her eyes. This wasn't right. He should be shocked, surprised, and maybe even afraid after what she just did. He was supposed to be a laymen, uninitiated into the supernatural world. Had one of those devil bitches let him in on the masquerade when she wasn't looking? No, it was something else. Even if they had he should have been at least a little surprised by her change, but there wasn't even a flicker of surprise.

She felt a shiver run down her spine. Something about this was very wrong and she suddenly didn't feel as confident. Was this a trap? A trick? She didn't know and that bothered her deeply. She didn't know what was going on, but she did know the solution. Violence. Without even uttering a mocking word, she held up her hand and conjured a light spear that was dark pink in color and covered in thorns. She didn't utter a word as she launched it directly at Ryuji aiming to pierce his stomach.

Her eyes widened in shock as a white magic circle formed and easily blocked her light spear. So that was it! She sneered, “I see. So you knew about your magic. That's why you're not afraid!” Her sneer turned condescending, “If you think a few little spells will protect you magician,” the amount of scorn she managed to put into the word 'magician' was extraordinary, “then you don't know the first thing about the real world!”

Ryuji cocked an eyebrow as Raynare conjured another light spear and threw it as him with even more force than before. Still, his shield spell intercepted it and stopped it from doing any damage. He was stronger than Rias, magically, and she had been able to wipe out three fallen about as strong as Raynare with relative ease. He wouldn't have much trouble blocking Raynare's attacks. It was just lucky for the fallen that he wanted her alive.

Ryuji flicked his right hand while channeling magical power into the enchanted rings on his fingers. He wouldn't dress so gaudy without a valid reason. Raynare stared down at him in apparent surprise at the ease he was blocking her attacks, “Just die already you pathetic human!”

She conjured up and even bigger spear and launched it at Ryuji. He didn't bother moving and let his shield spell take the attack. Though he was mildly surprised when the spear struck the shield and detonated in a large explosion. Too bad for Raynare that his standard shield spell was a dome protecting him from the entirety of the blast. He didn't let the smokescreen Raynare gave him go to waste. He channeled magic into the rings on his left hand and used the enchantment on them as well.

As the smoke from the explosion slowly cleared, Ryuji threw both of his hands to the side. He stared up at Raynare and spoke two words that sent a shiver of fear down her spine, “Bird cage.”

Before she knew what was happening, Raynare found herself trussed up like a chicken as nearly invisible wires made of pure magical power wrapped around her. The wires were so thin and sharp that they began to bite into her skin as she began to struggle, forcing her to stop. Trapped and unable to move, she looked at Ryuji with undisguised fear.

Ryuji smiled to himself as he approached the restrained Raynare. He wasn't an idiot though so he made sure her hands were bound behind her back in such a way that creating a spear of light would pierce her own body. He turned his hand causing the wires holding Raynare to shift. It brought her closer to him so they could talk face to face.

He smiled happily at his captive, “Now we can talk civilly. You see, there's a few things I want to ask you. You are going to answer my questions, right?”

The wires restraining Raynare tightened painfully when he finished speaking. It clearly warned Raynare what would happen if she refused. She was already bleeding from several small cuts on her skin from the wires, she could tell they would shred her if they got any tighter. She only had one response, “What do you want to know?”

“Let's start with the obvious. Why did you try to kill me?”

“Orders. We're supposed to kill anyone with potential in Kuoh to keep the devils here from getting any stronger. Blame God for making you a magician and bringing you to our attention.” she sneered a little, “It doesn't help that you look like you could be that Gremory bitches brother.”

He nodded in understanding. The devils were changing the balance of power over time by recruiting people with their evil pieces. It made them the faction recovering their numbers the fastest. It would turn them into the biggest threat. Though he expected God was replenishing the Angels during this cold war. More Angels meant more could fall during the next conflict replenishing the numbers of Fallen Angels. But, until then, they could only work to take out potential recruits to the devil faction. It made sense to him to deny the enemy resources where possible.

“I see. Well, I'll try not to take you trying to assassinate me personally. Though I have no intention of ever joining a peerage. I'm not much of a follower, you see. Now! This question is the most important and if you don't answer it for me, I will make you suffer.”

He studied Raynare to make sure she was paying close attention and believed him. Seeing that she did he asked, “How does one go about implanting a Sacred Gear within themselves?”

It was a bit of a surprise when he remembered that Raynare had taken the healing Sacred Gear from that blonde nun and given it to herself. That meant Raynare knew how to implant Sacred Gears into people and he wanted to know what kind of preparations he needed to make so he could give himself Dimension Lost. He was tempted to give himself Boosted Gear too, just as a backup, but he had no idea if someone could have two Sacred Gears at once. He didn't want to find out they were like Devil Fruits in One Piece that would kill him if he had two.

Raynare looked a little surprised at the question. She'd half expected some super secret or something else about her trying to kill him, not something so... basic. Hell, if that's all he wanted to know, she'd happily tell him! She smiled as she answered, “It's simple. If you've already ripped it from the soul of its user, all you have to do is hold it to your chest and channel a little magical power into it. After that it will bind with you. Though it takes a week for the bond to become permanent. Until then it will come out if you're killed. Still, you can use it even if its not fully bound.”

Ryuji smiled brightly, “Thanks for answering my questions.”

Raynare looked a little hopeful, “If that's all, could you release me so I can be on my way?”

Ryuji blinked and then looked at Raynare like she was an idiot, “I don't think so.”

Her look of shock and fear brought him a certain amount of schadenfreude. As if he would let her go so she could get her friends and try to kill him as a group. Not happening. Instead he pulled out a piece of paper with a magical circle inked on it. It had been given to him by a woman dressed in a weird fetish outfit. He recalled that she was Rias's familiar and this piece of paper would summon Rias.

He channeled some magical power into it to call her. Honestly, he was a little tired of hiding his knowledge of the supernatural and he didn't mind the devils thinking he was just a magician. It wasn't like he planned to tell them everything about himself and his powers. It was also unavoidable that his knowledge on magic and the supernatural would come out since he needed to turn Raynare over to someone and the only people he knew were the devils.

If he just left Raynare there and left the scene after summoning Rias, Raynare would end up telling her about him anyway. He considered memory magic, but supernatural creatures with their own magic were very resistant to the simpler spells in that category. It would also be super suspicious that Raynare went on a date with him and then lost all memory of him and the date. Frankly, he wasn't sure he could think of a way to keep Rias and Sona from figuring it out so he didn't bother.

Better they just think of him as some magician. Once the 'mystery' is solved they wont go looking for anything else or digging any deeper because they'll 'know' and that's all they needed.

Shortly after he fed magical power into the spell circle on the piece of paper, it began to glow and flew out of his hands. It landed on the ground and formed a much larger circle. Slowly, starting from her feet, Rias began to form in the magic circle in the most dramatic fashion possible. He expected she was just putting on a show. As soon as she formed, she looked at Ryuji, “You have called and so I have answered, what is your wish?”

Ryuji gave her a bland look for the dramatics and, instead of answering, he just pointed over her shoulder and behind her. Rias was a little surprised at the lack of shock on Ryuji's face. She was even more surprised when she looked where he pointed and found a Fallen Angel tied up by something invisible, “Wha...” Her head snapped back around to look at Ryuji, “What's going on?!”

Ryuji smiled brightly, “Well it went like this. The one over there tried to kill me. I didn't appreciate that so I tied her up nice and tight for a little talk. After we finished that, I summoned you. Since you wanted to butt in on my date so bad that you had a summoning circle passed to me, I figured you wouldn't mind.”

As he spoke a blue magic circle formed beneath his feet, “Be sure to ask her why she's around town murdering people! It's super interesting!”

With those words the blue magic circle activated and he vanished from sight as he teleported home. He was one hundred percent sure that he would have to deal with the fallout from tonight at school tomorrow. Well, that was future Ruyji's problem. Right now he had something much more important to deal with. He opened his inventory and gazed at the ball of swirling smoke that represented Dimension Lost.

It was time for a kick ass upgrade.

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

AN

Did I have to end it there? No. But I did anyway because I'm a dick like that sometimes! Muahahahaaaa!

So, a fair bit happened in this chapter. Not least of which was Ryuji realizing he wasn't abusing his power ENOUGH. Lol. Not he's got NPC's in his Home Base making him stuff and still plans to summon even better people in the near future. How awesome is that?

He also outed himself as a magician. The only path I could think of that would let him keep that a secret would be killing Raynare. He's never deliberately set out to kill someone before and didn't want to start now. The two deaths that happened in his scenarios were and accident and a dude letting himself in where he wasn't wanted. Totally not Ryuji's fault! But at least he's only outed as a magician and not the Game Master, right?

I'll hit some other POV's in the next chapter to show the fallout of this situation. Until then let me know what you think of the chapter and the events within.