DxD - Game Master - Chapter 5

Ryuji say at his desk in his Home Dimension looking at his progress for the last few days. Today was Friday and school was already out. It was time to review his progress and the progress of the people that he'd been luring into his scenarios. Mostly Rias and her peerage members, though Sona and hers had managed to enter a few of them. Though it seemed like Sona was leaving them to Rias deliberately. He wasn't sure why, but the only ones Sona had gone to were a few that Rias couldn't make it to for various reasons.

He had been opening two a day, one sometime in the morning and another sometime in the afternoon or evening. Rias had been paying some attention to him lately so he'd even opened a few in the middle of classes. It had been interesting to see the weak hypnosis that she used on the teacher and class before she and Akeno had left. Thankfully, his innate magic protected him from such a weak hypnosis effect. It was significantly weaker than the memory modification magic they'd used before. He pretended it worked on himself though. No need to rock the boat.

After each scenario run he would use a good portion of the Dungeon Energy he gained to increase his own magical power. Once his power was increased, he would use it to put stronger monsters into the scenarios. The stronger the monsters, the more growth of the people killing them, the more emotions they felt, the more power he gained. It was a self sustaining circle and it was helping him grow more powerful more quickly.

Rias and her peerage members had also had a noticeable increase in their power. The tiny bits of power they could gain from beating the weak monsters he first summoned was nothing compared to the energy given by the monsters he could now summon. If this kept up, he'd make them into true powerhouses. At the same time, their effort would make him into a powerhouse. He loved how it was all working out.

Aside from making his dungeons more dangerous, and therefore more lucrative, he'd also been working on creating magic spells. He might not have been a weeb like the chick he dated and learned about DxD through, but he did play video games and read a lot of fiction. His favorite magic systems were ones that had access to things like Space and Void magics. Naturally he wanted to emulate such awesome spells. After all, having control over space itself was a powerful tool. Let alone the power of the black sucking void that obliterates everything.

There was just one problem. He didn't have the magical reserves to cast the really awesome spells he'd worked out. He'd had to figure out weaker versions of the spells and design his own tier system for them. So, instead of being able to cast an awesome as hell Reality Slash spell using the power of Space to cleanly slice through anything, even the most dense or massive objects, with no resistance. He was only capable of something more akin to a Reality Scratch. It still cut just about anything but it was a teeny tiny cut that would be more akin to a super magical paper cut.

He'd also spent time making spells in the various normal elements. He found he had a natural talent for fire spells. Making them was extremely easy and they felt like they took less energy to cast. It could just be his imagination, but it was possible he had a natural affinity for the element. Though, he didn't actually find making spells for any element to be all that difficult. The hardest ones had been the space spells and even then it was only slightly.

He was starting to suspect that when it came to magic, specifically magic, that he was something of a peerless genius. None of it really seemed all that hard. Once he knew the rules for human magic, he'd been able to infer things and testing proved his inferences right. Well, his inferences for the lower level spells he was capable of casting. Only time would tell if his higher level spells would work as he predicted.

His most shocking discovery in experimenting with his magic was discovering he could make light magic spells. Something his primer book had claimed was beyond the means of most humans and restricted to those chosen or created by God.

He highly doubted he was one of the chosen of god. Still, access to light magic gave him an edge he might need against any of the devils that might come after him. He might like Rias and Sona but those two, and their families, were among the kindest within the underworld. Others were not so kind and many of them were cruel or downright evil. He wasn't stupid enough to think that none of them would come after him.

He'd also designed a few healing spells. Something he remembered as being very rare in the series. Which he expected was an excuse for the porn-like world since the 'healing' magic that Rias had was all about naked cuddling. So, he made some spells of his own. Not that he was against naked cuddling with hot red heads, but that method of hers was also pretty slow.

He'd also taken a lot more time to study the Power of Destruction. He couldn't cast any spells with it yet, he was missing something, but once he learned what that something was, he would be able to use it to his hearts content. He was looking forward to that.

Now it was the start of the weekend and it was time for his next big upgrade... or upgrades rather. He'd been saving a portion of the Dungeon Energy he'd been gaining over the week to buy his next big upgrades. With a thought, all that Dungeon Energy vanished and two new doors appeared in his Home Base.

Above the first door was a plaque reading 'Enchanting' and above the second was 'Jewelcrafting'. His smile lit up the room as he looked over his new purchases and reviewed the information that came with them. Just like with Alchemy, he could purchase ingredients for either craft using Dungeon Energy or cold hard cash. Though, in the case of some of the enchanting materials he could only get them using Dungeon Energy.

He quickly got to his feet and made his way into the Jewelcrafting section. It was filled with all kinds of tools of the trade, many of which he only knew the names of because his power told him. A quick purchase, using some of his rapidly dwindling funds, gave him a large selection of cheap metals and unprocessed semi-precious stones. What someone, on the outside, might have found weird was his purchase of some magical wood.

The reasoning was simple though. He could easily use the lathe in the jewel section to turn the wood into dowels, then slice them into pucks, which he could turn into wooden rings. They would be super cheap piece he could use to practice his enchanting on. Obviously they wouldn't be super powerful or anything, but they were for practice.

He took the block of wood, a magical piece of Ironwood known as Steelwood, said to be as strong as forged steel. It didn't take long for him to turn the block into a a bunch of long strips that were about an inch in height and width while being two feet long. He had twenty of them and could make roughly twenty four rings from each one. He wouldn't need that many, but it was definitely enough to give him plenty of practice.

After making a dozen simple wooden rings, he took them all into the other new section, the Enchanting room. Enchanting, at least at the lowest level, coincidentally the level Ryuji could work at currently, was a very simple affair. It was essentially two steps. Step one, carve the anchoring rune scheme. In the case of what Ryuji could do, that scheme essentially boiled down to two runes meaning 'magic locked' as in locked into the item. Step two, channel mana into the object while shaping it with your desire. It was a fairly broad and objective portion of the process and could cover pretty much anything.

His desires could be anything from 'make the user tougher' to 'give the user infinite wishes without restrictions'. Of course, he was nowhere near powerful enough for the second option. That was just the first limitation on enchanting. The next was the quality of the materials. The better the materials the more powerful the enchantment they could hold. Another was that one item could only hold one enchantment.

With the wooden rings he'd created, he'd only be capable of making the weakest of enchantments stick to it. If he tried for something too strong the magical energy would destroy the ring. He didn't care though, this was only for testing purposes and to get used to the work. When he wanted to get to more serious work, he'd use materials like silver to make the rings and necklaces he wanted to enchant.

Carving the anchoring runes into the wood using the provided tools was an easy process. The tools were designed to deal with significantly more durable materials than steel, after all. The runes were also super simple as well, something a novice could easily scribe. Someone like him. He took the time to scribe the runes into every ring first.

With all the rings prepped, he picked up the first one and decided to go with a simple enchantment that would match the theme of the Steelwood, defensive. He started feeding mana into the ring focusing on having the ring share its toughness with the wearer. Granted, the defensive power of the ring wouldn't protect from anything supernatural, but it would make the wearer almost immune to mundane stuff.

In moments the rung was filled with mana causing the anchoring runes to flash. Ryuji instantly stopped using his mana and checked the ring. He sighed when he spotted a small blackened crack on one side of the ring. Too much mana. That was exactly why he'd chosen to practice on something cheap. Unlike with the Alchemy potions, he could actually break the stuff he was making with Enchanting.

He looked over at the remaining eleven rings and grinned. And that's why he prepared so many to practice with.

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

Ryuji looked at his small collection of enchanted rings. He'd ended up blowing his attempts on the first couple of rings, destroying them. But he quickly got the hang of it and had done the rest of them perfectly. The problem was how much mana he could output. It was simply too much for the simple material of Steelwood to handle. After he got perfect control over his output, it was all too easy. Now he had eight Steelwood Rings of Defense. Each one granting the user's skin the properties of Steelwood.

Now he had something new to stick inside of his scenarios as rewards. It was finally time to begin the story arc he'd been working on. He might have taken some inspiration from a few different sources, but it should still make for a fun and exciting adventure for Rias and her peerage to enjoy. He could work on making more enchanted gear while they ran the first couple of scenarios. He was sure they would enjoy what he made for them, once they earned them.

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

Rias stepped through the portal to the new dungeon, their 'official' term for the portals crated by the hidden Innovate Clear user. She and Sona had suspected Okane Ryuji and had been keeping a close eye on him. However, they're theory had easily been proven wrong when dungeons had been opened during school hours. She'd been sitting in the same classroom as Okane and hadn't felt even a flicker in his magical signature as a new dungeon opened halfway across town.

Still, Okane might not be the one opening the dungeons, but he was a potential recruit regardless. Unattached human magicians were a rare discovery. Well, technically he wasn't a magician yet. There had been no signs of him knowing anything about the supernatural world. His magic signature hadn't changed at all since she first met him so there was so signs at all of him even knowing he had magic. He was a blank slate and would make an excellent Bishop for her peerage. He might not be the overwhelming power she was searching for to beat Riser, but he was a piece that could help.

Coming through the portal, she stopped and stared at the sight before her. She was in front of a massive city gate set inside walls at least fifty feet tall made of boulders and large stones. Through the wide open gate she could see a huge bustling city filled with people of various races. Just in the few moments she'd been looking she'd seen humans, an Orc, several different people that looked like Yokai with various animal features, and even a dwarf.

It was by far the most variety she'd seen within any one dungeon since they'd started opening. It was only a moment later that her eyes locked onto a sign sticking out above a large set of double doors on one of the bigger buildings.

“Adventurer's Guild”

Her eyes widened, her heart started hammering, and her body began vibrating, all in excitement. The last few dungeons had people in them mentioning the Adventurer's Guild, but there had been no sign of it in any of the dungeons. Yet, here it was! She couldn't wait a moment longer. She walked, swiftly, toward the building. So intent on her destination was she that she didn't hear a gate guard welcoming her to the City of Beginnings.

Rias threw the doors of the Guild open and stopped in the doorway to take it all in. It was nothing like she expected, yet everything she hoped. The interior was one big room that looked like a mix between a bar, a restaurant, a bank, an inn, and a temporary job office. Most importantly for her, on one wall was a huge cork-board that took up almost the whole thing and was covered with thick pieces of paper stuck to it.

The quest board! The single most important part of any Adventurer's Guild.

If she was excited before, she was over the moon now. It was like someone had read her mind to see what all of her secret fantasies were and put them all together.

…

She shuddered, that was actually a terrifying thought that brought her mood down a fair bit and gave her a minor case of paranoia. They still knew nothing about whoever was making these dungeons. For all she knew, he was reading her mind and making worlds to her desires for... She didn't know what for. So far everything had basically been to her benefit, but that could change at any moment. As much as she hated the thought, she needed to keep on her toes.

But, until the moment something bad happened, she was going to have fun!

As she stepped into the building a woman's voice called out from behind one of the counters that looked like something out of a bank, “Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild, if you're new in town or new to being an Adventurer, come over here and I can help you out!”

Rias focused in on where the voice came from and moved closer to the counter. It had golden colored decorative bars over it that seemed more for looks than actual protection. Though it did do a decent job of giving the woman behind the counter a semblance of privacy to do whatever kind of work she did.

She was surprised when she got to the counter and saw the woman for the first time. She was gorgeous. Blond hair, blue eyes, a beautiful face with a classic beauty mark by her ruby red lips, and a body that put Rias to shame. Larger breasts, proportionally tiny waist, and thick thighs all wrapped in an extremely tight button up shirt that was fighting for its life and a pair of jean-looking booty shorts.

Rias had always felt secure in her looks, knowing she was a beautiful young woman, but this woman was a WOMAN. It made her feel something completely new, insecurity. As she was fighting the formation of a new complex, the woman behind the counter smiled at her, “Welcome to the Guild. I'm Lana, a Guild receptionist. I can help you get started, if you'd like.”

Rias nodded, “I would like that.”

“Wonderful!” She reached under the counter and pulled out a large orb on a stand. When she set it down, Rias could see a small needle sticking out of the bottom of the orb. Once it was set down, the receptionist picked up a small metal plate with gold filigree around the edges and slid it under the orb so it was below the needle, “All you have to do is place your hand on the orb and state your name. Once you do it will etch your name into the identification plate. It was also give you your beginning rank, which is F, just like everyone else. It will also keep track of your progress with Quests.”

Rias, out of her funk and feeling excited once more, placed her hand on the orb, “Rias Gremory.”

As soon as she spoke the orb glowed blue and a small beam came from the needle to hit the plate on the counter. It quickly etched her name into it in a flowing script followed by a big letter F under her name. Once that was done, the receptionist took the orb away and slid he plate toward Rias, “Welcome to the Guild Rias! Now, there are just a few more things I should let you know.”

Rias picked up her Guild Plate and, once she finished looking it over, returned her attention to Lana, “Okay.”

Lana smiled warmly, “The rules are simple. Requests are on the board, you can only take requests ranked equal to or lower than the average of your group. To take any quests requires a group of four, minimum. This is for your safety. The only time you are allowed to take quests solo is if they are two ranks below your Guild Rank. So, you can only begin taking F ranked quests alone when you reach rank D. Rewards for requests will be listed on them. Most often this is just money. You got all that?”

Rias nodded as she said, “I do. So, I can't take a request now. I need at least three more group members. Right?”

Lana nodded, “That's right! I also suggest going to the store across the street. It's low on stock at the moment, things haven't been going very well since the war started, but they're hoping to get more shipments in soon. They do have a good supply of potions available along with a few trinkets.”

Lana gestured to a counter just slightly down from hers, “As a new comer I suppose you wont have much in the way of local currency. If you want to exchange for some you can do so there. Or, you can just do some quests to earn the currency you need. Once you have some you can deposit it with us and we'll engrave your balance on your Guild Plate. You can store and retrieve your funds any time you wish.”

“Thank you Lana, I think I'll go get my friends first and have them sign up first.”

“No problem! I look forward to helping them out.”

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

Rias stood at the request board with Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba by her side. All three of them had already gone through the same process that Rias had to get their Guild Plates. Now she was picking a quest for them to take. Sadly, all the F rank ones were rather boring. The most interesting one was to go out and hunt down some goblins. Naturally, that's the one she took. Who the hell wanted to go flower picking anyway?

She snatched down the request and took it to the counter where Lana was. Turns out she ran half of the windows in the guild by herself and her partner Tina handled the others. Lana looked over the request and nodded, “Alright, you're all set. If you're not back in twenty-four hours with proof of completion, we'll put it back up for someone else to take.”

Rias, smiling brightly, just nodded, “We'll be done long before then.”

“Good. The goblins were last spotted near the forest to the south. You should start there.”

“Thanks for the tip!”

With that as a goodbye, Rias led her peerage out of the Guild building. As they stepped into the streets, she noticed Koneko wincing. Instantly on guard, she asked her Rook, “Is there a problem Koneko?”

Koneko looked down the main street that lead further into the city and showed a rather active area of commerce, “Fake.”

Rias looked in the direction Koneko was and walked toward it. Before long she came to the same kind of invisible wall that she'd discovered in the forest that one time. It was one hell of an impressive illusion showing a bustling city even further on. She hadn't even thought it was fake, but thinking on it now, she realized it would have to be. From their experiences in the dungeons, they believed they were limited in size. This meant that it would be impossible for the dungeon to contain an entire bustling city and space for their to be a goblin camp any distance away.

Since that was fake, she turned and walked to the door of the store on the opposite side of the street from the Guild. A quick tug on the door showed it was capable of being opened and a peek inside showed a small storefront with lots of glass bottles filled with various colored liquid. There were definitely plenty of potions in sight but she wasn't interested in those right then so she closed the door and faced her peerage.

“It looks like this place isn't as big as it seems at first glance. Still, she should do what we can while we're here. There must be a reason that the guy doing all of this made it a rule that we have to be in a group. Be on your guards. Koneko, I want you to take point, Yuuto back her up. Akeno, cover the rear and provide ranged support with me.”

Everyone nodded seriously as they get their orders from Rias. Ever since the dungeons had started appearing, they had been forced to take things more seriously. Especially after Rias got hurt when she ranged through a dungeon on her own. They had gotten a lot of combat experience since the dungeons opened and it was showing. Even stray devil hunts didn't make them work as hard as the dungeons. Oh sure, the monsters were almost always individually weaker than the strays but they were also almost always in groups.

Worse, the creator had made monsters that were weak to only specific elements. In one dungeon Akeno had been frustrated by a group of trolls. Their regeneration had make them nearly immune to anything but a single specific element. If she didn't put them down with that element, they would heal and recover. One might require fire, another ice, and one even required her to surround its head with water and drown it to death. It had really pissed Akeno off as she much preferred to use her lightning almost exclusively.

In another dungeon, there had been a bunch of bandits that were led by an amazingly skilled swordsman. Rias had been running that one with Akeno, but swapped her out for Yuuto when she'd learned about the leader. Yuuto didn't often have skilled opponents to fight so it was a rare opportunity for him.

Those two incidents plus others had firmly convinced Rias that whoever was running the dungeons wanted to help her and her entire peerage to get stronger. She was wondering what they had to look forward to this time with him insisting on the entire peerage being present.

As they entered the woods just outside of the city, because they realistically couldn't be much further with the limits the creator had, Koneko spoke softly, “Trail.”

Even if Koneko wasn't a professional tracker the innate abilities granted to her by being a Nekoshou made it easy for her to pick up traces and do some amateur tracking. Her original race, enhanced by being turned into a devil, gave her an greatly enhanced sense of smell and a far above average sense of hearing. She might not be able to tell where a deer went in the woods by its footprints and broken twigs on the path, but she could follow its scent like a bloodhound.

The scent of the goblins was rather... ripe so she had no trouble following the unpleasant smells directly toward where they were. It didn't take very long for her to lead the peerage to the goblin camp. They approached with caution, all of them had been ambushed at least once in the dungeons and knew not to just walk in like they owned the place. Though none of them had received any terrible injuries, they'd all bled at least once within a dungeon due to their arrogance. It taught them a valuable lesson, one they used now to scout the goblin camp and make a plan of action.

Due to her small size, excellent senses, and durability, Koneko often did the scouting and came back to report her results. Koneko spoke softly, mostly because that's the way she spoke, but also to keep the sound from reaching the goblins nearby, “Thirty or more. Some bigger, stronger. One really big and the strongest. Spread out in several huts.”

Rias considered their options. As the King of the peerage it was her job to plan their attacks. This meant the dungeons were also excellent for her training for future ratings games. Especially the one looming closer by the day. After a few moments of contemplation, she came to a decision, “Goblins are pests, but smart pests. There's no way to take them on piecemeal so we need to launch a powerful alpha strike. Akeno and I will take to the air to rain down fire on them.”

She narrowed her eyes and looked at Akeno, “Literal fire. We want to sow confusion among them and the flames will hopefully take out a few of them while they're inside the huts. Once we set all the huts on fire we'll rejoin Yuuto and Koneko and continue our bombardment from the rear of the group. Anything that gets close will be handled by them. Once the main group is downed, we can hunt down any stragglers from the air. All clear?”

Everyone nodded and got prepared. Yuuto made a swaord while Koneko pulled on her fighting gloves. Akeno and Rias opened their devil wings and took to the air. The pair on the ground didn't have to wait long before it literally began to rain fire down on the goblin village. Screams of pain mixed with war cries as the monsters responded to the attack. The biggest goblin of the bunch stood at an impressive, for a goblin, five feet tall and equally as wide. It was one fat goblin.

The fat goblin began shouting and the other goblins began listening and seemed to be following orders. Soon the goblins were dragged out of their panic and began acting like a disciplined group. Several of the smaller goblins pulled out either cheap wooden bows or leather slings. Soon arrows and small rocks filled the air all aimed at Akeno and Rias. This forced them to land earlier than intended.

Once on the ground, Rias focused on using defensive magic while Akeno went on the offense. Yuuto and Koneko charged into the goblins using their various means to take down the most threateneing looking ones they could get to. Rias had started learning defensive magic to protect her peerage members and herself. She felt she was set with offensive magic since she had the Power of Destruction to tap into whenever she wanted. Akeno was a near master at the various elements so she went in a different direction instead of competing with her own Queen. She would continue to do so until she found someone new for her peerage that could do a better job.

The battle devolved into chaos as the tall, fat goblin screamed orders while frothing at the mouth. Yuuto and Koneko were devestating any goblins that got within range of their attacks. Rias was blocking the rocks and arrows from hitting anyone. Lastly, Akeno was raining lightning down on any clumps of goblins that formed.

Seeing that it was losing, the fat goblin let out a warbling scream. A moment later, a goblin that no one had noticed before stood next to the fat leader. This new goblin wore scraps of cloth that took on the appearance of a rob and held a skull topped staff in its gnarled clawed hand. It started chanting in a guttural language while waving its staff around.

Seeing the obvious spell caster, Rias called out, “Akeno, target the caster!”

Akeno didn't reply verbally, but her next bought of lightning was fired directly at the goblin spell caster. However, the blast never hit its target as it was intercepted by one of the ranged fighters. While her lightning was fast, it wasn't as fast as natural lightning. Being magical in nature actually slowed the speed of the lightning down.

Before she could get another shot off, a cloud of black smoke blocked her view of the spell casting goblin. They all heard cries of confusion from th sight of the smoke. It quickly cleared through to reveal a young man, probably in his twenties, wearing a Japanese school uniform under a red coat.

At the same time that the smoke just began to clear, the goblin shaman let out a guttural cry and launched his spell. A jagged spike of ice was launched through the air with the force of a bullet. Its trajectory put it right on track for the quickly appearing young man.

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

Georg sighed as he walked into his room. He'd just come from a mission that Cao Cao had insisted they run for the last week. During that time he'd sensed a dozen of the curious pocket dimensions open and close but hadn't been free to investigate any of them. It was annoying that he couldn't investigate them and sate his curiosity about them.

Even worse, he hadn't been able to do much practicing to master the pocket dimension magic. He was very proud of his genius when it came to magic and taking so long to master something was a hit to that pride. He planned to get some work done on it right then, but he felt a new pocket dimension open. It was the strangest one he'd felt by far as it seemed to be in an odd shape that made no sense to him from the outside. Given what could be on the inside, he would need to explore the interior to understand more.

Which is exactly what he planned to do!

He summoned up the black smoke of Dimension Lost and began hacking his way into the newly opened dimension. His brows furrowed as the protections on it seemed a little stronger than the last one he'd broken into. Had the creator become stronger? It didn't matter. No matter how tough it was between his own intelligence and the power of Dimension Lost, there was no dimension he couldn't break into with enough time and effort.

His confidence was proven right about an hour later when he managed to slip through the last of the dimensions defenses. Smirking in triumph, he quickly opened a portal into the space and moved through it.

Stepping out of the portal he found himself in a completely different world. Not unexpected given the nature of the dimension he'd visited last time. What was unexpected was seeing a small green creature that he was certain had never existed. He wasn't a huge gamer or anything, but he was geek enough to easily recognize a cadre of goblins when they stood right in front of him.

He was quickly recovering from the surprising sight, calling up his magic to fight, when he heard a loud guttural shout from his right. He felt something hit the side of his head before his vision darkened and he knew no more.

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

Ryuji sat in his Home Base watching Rias and the others live as they explored his current masterwork of a scenario. It was the most complex and expansive scenario he'd made by far. While he hadn't designed an entire city, he had designed the entire sections that could be seen and added buildings to make the illusion complete, even from the air. It was no small task and he felt he deserved to be proud of how good it all looked. Granted he would have to modify it over time, but he planned for the city to be the main hub of his story line scenarios. It was his Baldur's Gate, the center of everything.

The guild was something he was particularly proud of. Thanks to his Jewelcrafting And Enchanting, he'd been able to repicate parts of common themes from Isekai stories. Namely, the guild cards. Granted, they couldn't do much at all and were just a nifty little souvenir. Still, he had enchanted them with a simple enchantment that let them be rewritten by the other device he'd made. This would let him update their ranks as they progressed through his little game.

There was a bit of disappointment though. They hadn't checked out the shop! He'd spent a good bit of time making some enchanted rings and necklaces that he'd put up for sale alongside his usual selection of potions. He was certain that his enchanted jewelry would be a big hit... Once someone actually discovered he'd made them. He'd gotten pretty good after his practice with the wooden rings so he was extra excited to see how they would be received.

He was also hoping the devils would enjoy the increased difficulty of the monsters within the scenario. He'd spent a lot of time designing the different goblins and min-maxing them. He'd put in special effort for the goblin shaman and the goblin lord. They were his most mechanically complex monsters to date. The shaman was especially difficult because of it having access to magic.

All of the monsters in his scenario were made purely from his magic. His magical power went through the essence that made the scenarios and brought things to life. Giving a monster magic meant that he had to portion some of the limited magical power he could provide specifically for the monsters own pool of power. This limited the power the monster could have access to.

On top of that, the monsters could only have access to spells he could cast himself. Worse, the spells had to be pretty weak, relatively speaking, because of how limited their magical power was. It forced him to work on designing ultra efficient spells, which was honestly a great thing for him personally. Another nice thing was that the monsters didn't have to use magic circles. He wasn't sure how that worked, but once he assigned a spell he knew to the monster, they could just cast it using their own magical power. He was a tad jealous of that as the magical circles always appearing was kind of annoying.

He was really enjoying their reaction to seeing the first monster with access to magic, so he was rather surprised when he saw a thick cloud of black smoke infiltrate the scenario in the middle of the battle between the devils and the goblins. He was further surprised when a young man appeared out of that black smoke only to take and icicle to the temple and fall over dead.

“Seriously? What the fuck?! What's with people dying to weak shit in my scenarios?! AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!”

Ryuji was rather disturbed that someone had broken into his scenario only to die an instant later to a weak ass spell. The icicle spell he'd designed for the goblin was more like an icicle bullet. It was just a sharp piece of ice about three inches long and one inch wide at the base. He knew that Rias and the others could easily handle such a spell. It was designed to keep them on their toes and maybe give them a bruise or small wound, not fucking kill some random nobody!

He opened his inventory and looked at the new body sitting in a slot not too far from Issei's body, “Who the hell are you?”

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

Rias watched in horror as the stranger that had somehow appeared from black smoke took the goblin shaman's icicle to his right temple. The small shard of sharp ice moving at high speed easy pierced into the mans skull and killed him instantly. It all happened so fast that she had barely even had a chance to sense that the man was a magician before he was unceremoniously killed.

Now wasn't the time to wonder who he was or how the hell he had gotten into the middle of their battle. There would be time for that later. For now, they needed to finish off the goblins and that goblin shaman was a serious threat. The only member of her peerage who likely could have taken that icicle spell and shaken it off would have been Koneko. It needed to die, now. She called on her Power of Destruction forming a magic circle from the palm of her right hand and aiming it at her target. At the same time she called out, “Akeno, focus fire on the caster! We can't let it get another spell off.”

Akeno acknowledged the order by firing off another lightning spell at the goblin shaman. Yet again, another of the weaker goblins took the hit for the shaman. She didn't let up though and continued to fire off blasts aimed at the shaman. While she whittled down the suicidal goblins protecting the shaman, Rias had gathered her power. With a shout of effort, Rias fired a large blast of her power that erased everything in its path, including the shaman.

The moment the shaman died, the fat goblin let out a roar of rage. It's skin turned red while steam poured off of its body. As they watched, shocked, it's fat quickly vanished and turned into bulging muscle. Its transformation complete, the goblin kicked off of the ground and charged head first at Koneko as she was the closest to him.

Koneko was in mid recovery from punching a goblin through the air when the previously fat, now muscular, goblin's fist slammed into her face from the side. The powerful blow sent Koneko through the air to land on the ground and tumble to a stop. She recovered near instantly, hopping to her feet and facing the new threat. The only sign of the goblin leaders blow being a slight scuff on her cheek. Not wanting to let the goblin leader have the initiative, she gave a quiet, “Hup” and dashed directly at it with her fist cocked back.

The goblin didn't stand down and cocked its own fist back. As she closed and threw her punch, the goblin reciprocated and their fists clashed. The clash of their fists echoed like two pieces of iron slamming together. However, it was the goblin that screamed in pain as its fist and wrist crumpled under Koneko's relatively smaller one. Koneko didn't let up. Before the goblin could recover, her left fist came crashing into the goblins stomach with enough force to bend it over her arm and cause it to gag.

With the goblin bent over her left arm, she cocked her right back and threw a punch directly into its face. The powerful blow distorted the goblins face breaking its cheek bone and sending it crashing to the ground where it proceeded to roll away until it slammed violently into a tree. The goblin leader didn't even have a chance to recover before a wave of red and black power washed over and consumed it.

From there it wasn't much effort for them to finish off the remaining goblins. Though Rias and Akeno did have to break out some water magic to put out the fires before they spread. Dungeon or not, the trees burned just like real ones and produced real smoke.

With the fires out and the smoke cleared, Rias took the time to check on the man that had broken into the dungeon and died near instantly. She had a sneaking suspicion of which Sacred Gear the man had been using, but she would need to confer with Sona, and possibly some others, to make certain of it. A quick scan with her magic showed the man was definitely very dead. She tried summoning her Evil Pieces to her but, as she had expected, the summoning failed. She wasn't certain she could revive him anyway. The damage to his head was pretty extreme and Devil healing wasn't the fastest or most effective kind.

No, he was very much dead and yet another Sacred Gear was out of her reach. If her suspicions were right, it was the second Longinus Class Sacred Gear to be lost to these dungeons. That had to be some kind of record.

With the area clear, the dead guy checked, and the fires put out, it was time for the next step in the dungeon going process, looting! It was something relatively new that they had to get into the mindset of over the last few dungeons. Whoever was making them had taken to placing potions as loot on occasion. The potions were a nice free bonus and worth spending a couple of minutes looking for.

As they were searching the remains of the camp, Rias couldn't help hoping that the shop dungeon would be opened again. She still wanted to give Azeez a piece of her mind. His maker might have apologized, but she wouldn't be satisfied until she ripped Azeez a new one personally. Yes, she was aware Azeez wasn't a real person and no, she didn't care one bit.

“Found something.” Yuuto called out.

The others joined him and looked at his discovery. It was a small figurine made of silver with a weak magical aura to it. The figurine looked like a twisted misshapen humanoid covered in spikes. Yuuto was near where the goblin leaders hut had been before it burned down and the figurine had some soot coating it. Yuuto turned the figurine over to look at it from every angle and revealed a symbol carved into its base. The symbol looked like a crudely drawn serpents eye.

After examining it for a bit, Rias spoke up, “I think its important. This is the first magical item we've ever found while beating monsters so it has to mean something. We should take it to the guild and see what they say.”

To her that was the obvious thing to do. As far as she was concerned, the figurine was a clue that would lead to the next adventure and eventually uncover the big bad of the dungeons. Anyone in the know would get that right away! She smiled at Yuuto as she said, “Put it away for now and resume searching. We'll find out more about it soon enough.”

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

The return trip was just as short as the trip out to meet the goblins so the arrived back at the counter in front of Lana pretty quickly. Lana gave them all a rather proud looking smile as she exclaimed, “Welcome back! I take it your expedition was a success?”

Rias chuckled a little, “Calling it an expedition might be a bit much, but yes, the goblins have been wiped out.”

Lana clapped her hands together in front of her prodigious chest, “Excellent! The reward for the goblin extermination quest is five gold pieces.” As she said that, she pulled out the coins themselves and set them on the counter for Rias to take, “Congratulations on completing your first quest! Keep this up and it wont be long before you rank up to E! Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Rias nodded, “Actually, there is.” She held her hand out toward Yuuto, giving him a smile of thanks as he passed over the figurine they found, “We found this at the goblin camp. Does it mean anything to you?”

After Rias set the figurine down and Lana got a look at it, the latter let out a hiss of distaste, “That's a figure of Hionos, the god of cruelty and torture.” She gingerly picked it up and looked at the bottom, judging by her lack of reaction she saw what she was expecting, “And this is the symbol of Grizus, the current Demon Lord.”

There it was! Rias practically vibrated in place as a classic setup unfolded in front of her. Evil gods! Demon Lords! It was everything anyone in an isekai adventure could ask for! Even her peerage was a little affected by the reveal, feeling a bit of excitement from Rias rubbing off on them. After all, who didn't love a good adventure?

Lana set the figurine down and pushed it back toward Rias, “If I was you I'd take that across the street and let Azeez deal with it. I don't know what the enchantment upon it does, but it can't be good.”

Rias's eyes widened at the familiar name. She'd poked her head into the shop earlier but hadn't looked long enough to see the proprietor. Now she was dearly wishing she had! Oh, but she didn't need to wish, she could do it right that moment! She snatched up the figure, and the reward gold, with a determined glint in her eyes, “I think I will do just that!”

Without further ado, she practically stomped out of the guild and made her way across the street. Her peerage following behind dutifully. All of them had heard Rias's complaints about the 'Sleeze Azeez' and how he had ripped her off by selling her the fake Boosted Gear. Akeno had enjoyed laughing at Rias for believing she could buy a Longinus class Sacred Gear for a measly hundred million yen. Yuuto and Koneko had wisely kept their opinions to themselves, though both quietly agreed with Akeno.

Rias barely refrained from kicking the door to the store open and storming inside of the place. Well, the kicking part, she definitely decided to storm in as she practically stomped her way up to the counter. Behind said counter was a familiar man who, upon seeing Rias, started looking a little nervous. Just as Rias opened her mouth to begin ranting, Azeez cut in, “Azeez did tell you the gauntlet was a display item not meant for sale! Madam insisted on buying it from Azeez even after Azeez said it was not for sale!”

Rias glared at Azeez, “I still think it was a dirty trick! You could have just said it was a fake!”

Azeez frowned, “But it was not a fake, it was a display item. Do you expect a sword bought purely for display above a mantle to be as good as a sword forged for war? Azeez does not think so! Azeez did not know the gauntlet was an imitation of another item, but Azeez did say it was for display! Azeez cannot be blamed for not knowing of the original. Azeez only knows what the creator wishes for Azeez to know!”

Rias glowered at Azeez but could find no fault in his words. As much as she wished to blame Azeez, he was, essentially, just an NPC made by the person making the dungeons. That didn't mean she had to like it though! Still upset and letting it show, Rias slammed the five small golden coins they'd been paid onto the counter, “What can I get with this?”

Azeez looked at the coins, “Ah! Azeez will help. One gold earned here is worth ten thousand yen. For five gold you could purchase five of Azeez's Least potions, or two Lesser potions. Azeez also has some potions with minor effects for sale around five gold.” Azeez's dark eyes practically shone as he said the next part, “Azeez also has some jewelry that has been enchanted by the Master as well, though it will cost the lovely lady more than five gold.”

Everyone's eyes widened at the mention of enchanted items. Enchanted items were not so easily found or bought. Most were weapons, left overs from the great war. There were some minor enchanted items around, but not so many as to make them common and readily available. To be able to simply purchase such an item... Just how powerful was the person using Innovate Clear? There's no way the Sacred Gear she'd recently studied should be capable of so many different things! It had to be a magician who owned it, and not just any magician but a strong and well educated one who discovered a method of enchanting.

Azeez could see the wheels turning in his customers head and knew he was about to make another excellent sale. Ah, repeat customers with deep pockets truly were the best!

Rias knew she had lost. She didn't know what she had lost, only that she had somehow lost. With a sigh of resignation she made a 'get on with it' motion and said, “Alright, show me these enchanted items.”

Azeez wasted no time in pulling out a regular ring tray laden with several different rings. There was a nice variety of them in various metals but what caught her eye were the ones made of wood. Mostly due to how unusual it was to see something like that. Even so, the wooden rings were buttery smooth looking and carved with what looked to be great care.

Azeez waved his hands over the rings, “Allow Azeez to describe what you see. The rings made of wood are carved from the Steelwood tree and grant the wearer protection from harm by making their skin as resilient as the wood the ring is made from. The silver bands with various gems enhance the power of specific elemental spells, red for fire, brown for earth, blue for water, and so on. Next, the golden bands with gems are the same as their silver brethren, only more powerful. Lastly, the two platinum bands enhance the rate at which the wearer recovers their spent magic.”

If it were to be put into game terms, the silver bands would enhance a spell of the specific element by about ten percent or so while the gold would go as high as fifteen. Not much else could be expected of a mundane metal paired with mundane semi-precious stones.

Rias and Akeno, the two most prolific magic users, instantly honed in on the golden and platinum rings. Meanwhile, Yuuto and Koneko both took a look at the wooden ones. Koneko's defensive strength was already pretty great, but it wouldn't hurt to have more. As for Yuuto, he didn't really have anything going on defense wise since he relied heavily on his speed to protect himself. Something like the protection rings were just the kind of thing he would benefit from greatly.

Rias pointed to the Platinum recovery rings, “How much for those?”

Azeez smiled the smile of a man about to make bank, “Azeez must sell those for no less than fifteen gold or one hundred and fifty thousand yen. Each.”

Rias grimaced. Her finances weren't looking so hot after the debacle with the fake Boosted Gear. She had some income, but blowing three hundred thousand yen on a pair of rings was pushing it. On the other hand, if, as it seemed the maker wanted, more dungeons opened with this particular setting, she should be able to earn the thirty gold within three days. Of course, that was assuming they would earn five gold on every quest and perform two quests per day. Not impossible with how often the dungeons opened.

Of course, there was one small problem with that math. Share splitting. She couldn't just claim the entirety of the reward for herself. Well, she could, she was the King of her peerage, after all. It was more accurate to say she wouldn't as that just wasn't how she did things. So, with no other recourse, she let out a sigh and stepped back from the counter, “We'll have to come back another time.”

Azeez didn't quite pout, but he didn't look very happy to not be making a sale. Somehow, that really brightened Rias's mood. Feeling better, she turned to her peerage and announced, “We're leaving.”

Once out of the shop, Rias took out the gold coins and handed one to each of the others, keeping only two in her hand, “I believe we should split the proceeds from the quests we perform so we can all buy our own items. I also believe we should start to bring a not too small sum of yen into these dungeons with us so we can be ready to make future purchases.”

With everyone in agreement, they left the dungeon. As soon as they exited, the portal to it closed. Another adventure down and more clearly to come.

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

Ryuji sighed as he watched Rias leave the scenario without making a purchase. That... sucked. He was running low on funds and was hoping to make a few quick sales to her to help bolster them back up. It was shocking how fast he blew threw his funding. The prices for silver, gold, and platinum were unforgiving and had brutally beaten his wallet into submission.

Regardless, the prices had been worth it as the materials let him create much stronger enchantments than he could perform with the wooden practice rings. He now had a firm understanding of how enchanting worked. His rings still looked fairly basic though. It was something he would have to work on in the future. Or, maybe, he could find someone to buy completed jewelry off of to enchant before reselling.

He was also pretty happy with how his little gold system was looking like it would turn out. He had to give something out as prizes for completing the quests, so what better to give than gold coins? Granted, they weren't actually solid gold. They were tin slugs stamped and then electroplated before being enchanted to be more durable. They weren't worth very much on the open market meaning their only use would remain as being spent in his scenarios.

Now for the next item on his list of things to do. He turned to focus on the newest corpse in his inventory. He was not pleased that it seemed to be the beginning of a new collection. He had zero idea who the guy was so the first thing he did was search the body for identification.

Which it did not have.

Fine. So he still had no idea who the guy was. What he did know what that the guy had to have a Sacred Gear. That's what he assumed the black smoke was anyway. So, he pulled an Issei on the new guy by pulling out his soul and dropping it into another slot within his inventory. Doing so let him see the bright blue of the soul mixed the the black smoke of the Sacred Gear. With a thought, he separated them leaving him with a pure bright soul and a black ball of swirling smoke.

He looked between Issei's soul and the soul of the new guy. There was a very distinct difference between them. Issei's soul was pure white while the new guys was a bright, almost neon, blue. He had no idea what made them look so different. Though, he did get the impression of mana from the second soul. So, maybe a difference in magical talent? He recalled that Issei had such low magic that he couldn't even use a basic teleportation spell to get to his devil jobs. Of course, he had no idea if the other guy had any talent for magic at all. For all he knew, the guy was a melee juggernaut.

The next thing he focused on was the roiling ball of black smoke he'd just claimed from the dead guy. He was certain it was a Sacred Gear, he just had no idea which one. He suspected it had something to do with teleportation, or maybe even space. It kind of reminded him of that one villain from My Hero Academia that could make portals. They were both swirling black smoke and the guy had broken into his pocket dimension using the smoke. Perhaps that's what it related to? Dimensions? If so, he wanted it for himself!

If his newest Sacred Gear had anything to do with space, dimensions, portals, or teleportation, he wanted it. He especially wanted it if it had anything to do with dimensions. His magical mind could think of a LOT of ways that could be used to enhance his current dimensional abilities. Hell, even if the only thing it could do was make his pocket dimensions larger, it would be worth having.

Ryuji leaned back in his chair and pondered what he should do. He needed information and the only sources he had ready access to were the devils, Souna and Rias respectively. Perhaps a trade. Rias seemed awfully interested in the magic recovery rings. He'd be willing to trade the pair of them for information on his newest Sacred Gear and how to give it to himself. After all, it wasn't like a ball of swirling smoke was as easy to put on as a pair of rings.

Yes, that was exactly what he would do. Grinning to himself he threw together a quick scenario and tossed Azeez into it for giggles.

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

Rias stared blankly as a dungeon portal opened up directly in front of her desk moments after she'd sat down in it. She'd just finished taking a shower to clean off from the last dungeon and a new one just opened up right in front of her face? It had only been a couple of hours. That... was annoying.

She heaved a sigh and stood up. She'd give it a quick check and if it was the same place as before, she'd leave it to Sona this time. She and her peerage had been clearing most of them and she wanted a short break before taking on another one. She just wanted to check it first and see what the annoying guy wanted. It was obvious from where the portal opened that the creator wanted something from her specifically.

Upon stepping through the portal she frowned as she found herself once more inside of Azeez's bazaar. She hadn't seen this place since the first time she visited with Sona and seeing it again annoyed the hell out of her. She felt like she was being taunted.

Stepping further in, Azeez, ever his cheerful merchant self, called out, “Ah! Pretty lady! Wonderful! Azeez knew you could not resist the allure! Come! Come! Azeez's Master wishes to make an exchange.”

That peaked Rias's curosity. She moved up to the shops counter and addressed Azeez, “Is your creator coming here?”

Azeez shook his head, “No no. Azeez has questions from his master and an offer to pay for the answers.”

Rias eyed Azeez for a moment before she responded, “Go on.”

“As beautiful miss knows, someone unexpected entered the forest and died suddenly.” He continued after Rias nodded, “My master wishes to know what the mans Sacred Gear was and how to implant an extracted Sacred Gear into a new user. In exchange for this information, Azeez's Master is willing to give you one of the platinum rings you desire.”

Rias leaned back a bit to consider the offer. It wasn't a terrible offer but neither was it fantastic. She'd only just gotten a full run down on the Sacred Gear from Sona a little while ago so she had that information. As for how to give someone else an extracted Sacred Gear, that she wasn't so sure on. Sacred Gears were not successfully extracted very often so it wasn't exactly common knowledge that was being asked for.

Finally, she came to a decision, “I can tell you about the Sacred Gear, for the ring. As for the method to implant it into someone else, that I don't know. But I believe I can find out and I will give you that information for the second ring.”

Azeez stroked his goatee for a bit, pondering over the offer, though his decision was made long ago. Finally, he reached under his counter and pulled out a single platinum ring, “Azeez agrees. Tell Azeez about this black smoke Sacred Gear.”

Rias smirked, “It's called Dimension Lost and is known as the Fog of Extinction. It's mist is said to be capable of stopping any attack, as well as transporting the user and anyone he desires wherever he desires. Nothing is know to stop it, only slow it down. Despite not having any direct offensive power, it is one of the top strongest Longinus Class Sacred Gears. Easily top five, even stronger than the Boosted Gear. That's all I was able to learn.”

Azeez studied Rias for a few moments before nodding his head and holding the ring out to her, “Azeez's master thanks you for the information. Azeez is sure he looks forward to the next piece.”

Rias plucked the ring from Azeez's fingers slipped it onto her right hand ring finger with a grin. Without so much as a goodbye, she flounced her way out of Azeez's shop and watched the portal close the moment she did.

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

Ryuji looked at the swirling ball of black mist in his inventory with a predatory grin, “Oh, I am SO implanting you in myself the moment I know how!”

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

AN

Alright and I'm back with another chapter of Game Master. I would have had it out sooner, but life likes kicking me in the nuts, apparently. So, we all know about the tree falling down, which is still there. Now, my computer decided it was time to give up the ghost.

Don't panic, frankly I was expecting that to happen at any moment. I'd been using that computer for over a decade. No, seriously. I bought the parts and assembled it in early 2014. I went back and looked at my amazon orders to confirm it. So, needless to say, it was ancient (technologically speaking) and I was long past due for an upgrade.

Oh dear god did I upgrade!

My old PC ran an AMD FX-8350 8 core processor at 4ghz. My new computer has an I9-13900KF running at 3ghz, but can easily clock up to over 5ghz. There's also all the big differences in threads, architecture and all that jazz. Needless to say, while I am running it at the minimum of 3ghz right now, it's still faster than the 4ghz of my old PC.

Then there's the memory. I actually had 32GB of RAM in my old PC 4x8GB. My new one has the same amount but 2x16GB. The big difference? My old ram was fucking DDR3 and my new ram is DDR5! I skipped the entire DDR4 generation! Rofl.

Now comes the biggest (and most expensive) difference. The GPU. My old PC was running a GTX 1070 8GB. Not horrible, but not great either. My new one? A Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB that completely and utterly annihilates my old GPU. It points at my old GPU and laughs at it. I couldn't resist installing and booting up Cyberpunk 2077 the first chance I got. It ran CP2077 at maximum settings at over 300FPS. It was the first time I ever got to play a graphics intensive game on max settings with crap like Ray Tracing on.

I think it was a religious experience.

I don't appreciate Windows 11 very much though. Regardless, that's what took me so long to get this chapter done. Old PC crapping out then buying the new parts, waiting for them to arrive, then assembly, OS installation, programs and so on. But it's almost all good now! Just need a new goddamn cord for my second monitor because the 7900 only has one HDMI port and three Display Ports. Goddamn annoying.

Oh, and let me know what you thought of the chapter! Georg dying in a stupid way, like Issei, had me giggling as I wrote it. Why? Because Georg is actually a certified badass in the canon story and he got taken out on accident here.

I'm beginning to think that Longinus users might be cursed if they go anywhere near one of Ryuji's Scenarios.

EDIT - Wrong chapter number, fixed.