Chapter 1058 - 1.9

Lilian

"Why do we need to get into a Gate again? I thought dad's still setting things up for you." Missy questioned as we walked towards a Gate dad had reserved for us, even hiring eight other hunters to just show up to the raid so we'd meet the number requirement.

"Because I came up with a spell and want to test it." Also because I wanted to see how strong I was now but that was less important and a C-Rank Gate was unlikely to be a good test for it. It was also not something I had any intention of mentioning in public for the time being.

"And I have to be there why exactly?" Missy complained but noticeably didn't stop walking next to me.

I shot her a grin in response, "Because I want to know if you want that spell yourself. Besides, you know I wouldn't trust anyone else to have my back in case things go wrong."

"So I'm here to satisfy your paranoia, got it." My twin said with a smug smirk.

"Exactly." I nodded unashamedly. I wasn't that paranoid but I certainly didn't trust any of the hunters dad had hired. The only reason I didn't care to hide my abilities was that I had no intention of stagnating. Not just because of the active danger from this world but also because I just enjoyed learning.

If Scion hadn't been in this world, I'd have just spent most of my time learning magic. I probably still would but now I'd actually have to put some effort into dealing with whatever he's planning to do in the process, which would be a lot easier if I had any idea on how he was planning to achieve his goal of infinite mana.

On that note, I probably should actually try to gather hints and what better hint did I have available to me than my ability to identify the origin of supernatural powers, for which I got eight test subjects as soon as I made it to the location of the Gate.

Innate to body and soul was an expected result because it's what I got when using the ability on Missy. Mana granted by Rulers was mildly surprising but not too much so since this setting had been merged with Solo Leveling. It was interesting to note that none of the four D-Ranks had innate magical abilities, though. If I had to guess, those wouldn't have been parahumans in a pure Worm setting while the ones who had innate abilities actually got them from something Scion and Eden did.

The momentary headache I got from trying to identify the powers of a C-Rank girl in a hoodie was entirely unexpected, though, and certainly made me curious. Curious enough to do an in-depth scan of her mana, even.

What I sensed was…strange. It felt as if there were two different manas in her, both trying to subsume each other and, interestingly enough, the weaker one seemed to be winning. It felt like an iron grip trying to grasp a slippery insect. For all that the insect had more mana, its mana wasn't made to control while that seemed to be the only thing the other mana was capable of.

And both manas were far above C-Rank in quantity. If they hadn't been buried so deep under the surface that I actually had to search for them, even I wouldn't have found them so her being misranked wasn't all that strange. Should either of the manas within her actually succeed at consuming the other, she'd likely become S-Rank as a result.

The conflict was also almost certainly the reason for Identify Talents being unable to give me an answer as to the source of her powers. If I had to guess, she got powers both from whatever weirdness had replaced parahuman powers and the Rulers and the two clearly conflicted with each other. 'How interesting. I'll have to ask dad for her profile later so I can recruit her as soon as everything's set up for my guild.' I decided, my curiosity making that decision for me.

"Lily? You done staring off into space now?" Missy asked, drawing me out of my thoughts.

Smiling at her, I nodded. "Let's get going. I just had to make some plans in my head."

Done addressing her, I turned towards the eight hunters skulking about. "Thank you all for showing up so quickly. Since this was organized quite quickly, I'll fill you in quickly. All you have to do is to enter the Gate with my sister and I and then loiter at the entrance. Obviously, if you're attacked, you should defend yourself but, generally, there's no need for you to progress in the dungeon. You're here just to fill the numbers and the two of us are more than enough to deal with all the monsters. As long as you enter the Gate, you'll be compensated as promised and, should you face danger you can't handle, feel free to just leave the Gate. You'll still get paid either way."

For all that none of these people mattered to me aside from the interesting one, pretending to care about their well-being wouldn't hurt me and might even spread to potential recruits so putting in that little effort was worth it, especially now that I actually wanted to recruit one of the eight people dad had hired.

The Gate was…interesting. Oh, the smell was completely and utterly disgusting as it constantly switched between sweet and alluring and what I imagined rotting carcasses smelt like, it was cold and somehow remained just as cold even as I switched to winter clothes to the point that I switched back to less bothersome clothes a couple moments after equipping them in the first place but it was still interesting.

Gates could be weird. Everyone knew that. I had just personally never seen one as weird as this one.

The sky was covered in dark, fiery clouds while the ground was a weird sludge that just further spread the cold within it and there were also some small pools of a liquid that looked a bit like water but the colour was just off enough to make it possible to discern the two.

Most importantly, to my senses, the greatest concentrations of mana in this entire dungeon, including the mana crystals in the 'ground' were those pools. Even more interestingly, the mana in the pools felt a bit like one of the two that I'd sensed in that C-Rank girl. Specifically, that sensation of control was in the mana even though its other traits were so different as to be incomparable.

"Don't touch that water." I warned the others. If they'd heed my warning or not was no longer my problem at this point. "Missy, there's monsters up ahead." The weird, imp-like creatures seemed vaguely familiar to me with their white, leathery skin and black, jagged growths covering parts of their upper body as well as giving them horns but I couldn't place them at the moment.

Their mana also felt very similar to that of the 'water' but, before I could try to figure out why, one of them noticed us and screeched, leading to a group of twenty of the things rushing us.

"Keep them from approaching the eight behind us. I'll deal with them." With a thought, my rapier was in my hand and, proudly standing tall in front of the approaching horde, I spoke the incantation for my spatial shield – the name was a work in progress – and, as soon as I felt it taking effect, I ran in.

Combat Instincts, Omnilingual, the Force and now actual skill with a sword beyond 'stick them with the pointy end'; these monsters didn't stand much of a chance in a one-on-one. In a group battle, my odds were worse but, as I quickly discovered, I was at least faster and stronger than any of them so three had already died to a rapier to their heads by the time the first one encountered my spell.

Space suddenly stretched just enough for its claws to miss and let me kill the attacker but, as it did so, I felt a much larger chunk of my mana than I'd expected being drained by my spell.

Apparently a simple extension of space by my new spell consumed around 1% or so of my mana. Great when I didn't expect to get hit much but definitely not usable in an actual fight. Were I native to Scholomance, I wouldn't have even been able to dream of casting that spell in anything other than an emergency in which I had the mana of at least a couple hundred others at my disposal.

And, as I suddenly felt dodging to be much more important, I discovered another downside: Since dodging implied that I didn't have absolute confidence in the spell's 'invincibility', it increased the mana upkeep.

My spatial magic was never cheap to cast but this? This was more of a mana cost than I was able to handle in the long run and certainly not something that's worth what I got in return.

Annoyed, I took my anger out on the monsters around me, stabbing another one through what I assumed to be the location of their heart since my use of High Probability had pointed it out as a weakpoint and then swung my blade in such a way that the momentum made the corpse shoot off it and into the path of one of its comrades.

That alone would've been amusing enough to calm me down but I certainly didn't waste that moment and stabbed another monster to see if I could repeat that trick.

As it turned out, I certainly could and, soon enough, there were twenty one dead monsters around me.

"Again, don't touch the water but feel free to do whatever else you might want to do while we're gone." I told the hired help as Missy and I began stuffing corpses and mana crystals into our inventories. "There's still sixty three monsters and the boss but none of the groups of monsters are close to the entrance and, if they come here, you can just leave the dungeon."

I had been using my mana sense to go through the dungeon in its entirety since this pocket dimension wasn't that large and, upon reaching its edges, I couldn't help but notice a similarity to what I felt in the Scholomance. It wasn't even close to identical but there were similarities.

In the Scholomance, space was unstable. It's how the school altered itself so easily. Reality was more of a suggestion in it to the point that, if one were to begin to doubt that the school's real and the doubts were strong enough, the school would begin to fade from existence near the person doubting it. My mana sense actually reinforced its reality because it encompassed the entire school, hence me needing to shut it off when I'd asked for books after acquiring it.

This space was seemingly stable but there was still something reminiscent of the Scholomance to it. Maybe it was just something that'd be the case for all pocket dimensions but part of me doubted it.

Ignoring those thoughts, I took out a bottle of actual water, emptied it over the ground and filled it with whatever liquid was in those strange pools by using the Force to lower it into one of them before using telekinesis to close it and stuffing it back into my inventory. I didn't have large containers for liquids in my inventory (yet) so this was the best I could do but I definitely didn't want to leave without a sample of whatever that stuff was.

"You were serious about not touching the water, huh?" Missy seemed curious as we began walking away from the entrance and towards where I could sense the closest group of monsters.

"I have no idea what it is but there's more mana in that bottle than in five of those monsters put together." Mana that felt like control and was probably at least partially responsible for the supernatural cold of this place, at that.

"Alright, so stay away from that stuff, got it. Anyways, let's hurry up and clear this Gate so we can get away from this cold." My sister demanded and I agreed without hesitation.

I'd had enough of the cold before entering this dungeon, now I couldn't wait for my equipment to be ready since it's meant to improve my resistance to extreme temperatures, be they heat or cold.

…I should probably stop rushing into stuff that might see me facing extreme temperatures when I've already ordered equipment to help me deal with those.

The remaining groups of monsters weren't any harder to deal with than the first one. In fact, they were easier because I no longer had to rush to kill monsters that planned to attack the eight deadweights we'd taken along with us. With Missy supporting me by occasionally decreasing the distance between a single monster and me and otherwise just making it hard for them to approach us and my rapier, they weren't even a challenge.

I was slightly worried about the boss, though. Mostly because this entire dungeon was weird and my offence was mostly limited to my rapier.

I had a theoretical trump card but I had no idea if or how it'd work.

Of course, the moment I saw the boss, two thoughts entered my mind: One, High Probability identified the black rocks in its body as weak points. Two, that's a blue and more masculine flame atronarch.

Then, of course, came the third thought of 'Oh fuck, this dungeon is a part of Coldharbour.'

"Missy, make sure that that thing can't reach us!" I hurriedly told my sister, trying to calm my racing thoughts as I did so.

'This Gate wasn't made by the Monarchs or Rulers.' The very thought seemed laughable. Monarchs and Rulers weren't weak but they certainly couldn't hold a candle to Molag Bal. Stealing a chunk of his realm and, what? Sever the connection between it and the monsters inside while also controlling them to act like normal dungeon monsters?

After all, creatures of Coldharbour were meant to be all but immortal in Coldharbour. Even ignoring the fact that Molag Bal wouldn't just cut off a chunk of the realm that was very much a part of him, the fact that I'd killed the monsters, probably the weakest daedra of Coldharbour, and nothing reacted to it was weird so someone must've messed with a lot of things to make this seem like a mostly normal dungeon.

Neither the Monarchs nor the Rulers seemed like they'd have had the power to do any of this. Scion and Eden were the most likely suspects here and that honestly just gave me more questions than answers.

And I didn't have the time to deal with those questions because there was an annoying cold-flame atronarch attacking us and Missy's mana wasn't infinite.

Stabbing it, I dealt some damage but also felt my rapier rapidly growing colder within the second or so before I pulled it away and stuffed it back into my inventory. Clearly, metal was not a good tool to wield against this thing.

"Buy me some time." I requested of my sister, already grimacing internally at what I'd have to do.

I could vaguely sense Missy nodding, the mana in her head moving alongside her as I closed my eyes and calmed myself, also lightly pulling on the Force to hopefully help me not fuck.

When I opened my eyes again a couple moments later, I was composed and forcing myself to remain that way, all worries removed from my mind as I forced myself to believe that I'd succeed, that this cold-flame atronarch wasn't even a challenge.

"A la Mort." I said almost contemptuously, casting my spell.

The result was a slight, barely visible crack in the rocks of the atronarch and I could sense the reason behind the failure. Simply put, rather than actually being a killing spell, the spell apparently just barely managed to even damage the atronarch's mana. If I had to guess, the goal of the spell was to essentially force its way past the target's mana and then sever the soul. Simple enough in Scholomance, where mana was a rare commodity and even used as a currency.

Against an atronarch, the spell would have to be overcharged to the point of stupidity to stand a chance at working. It only had a slight effect because the atronarch's body and mana were connected to a much larger degree than what's the case for humans.

"If I fail again, we're leaving for another world." I told Missy, allowing myself to grimace for a moment before forcing myself to calm down once more.

Had it not been counterproductive, I'd have vowed then and there to not jump into a Gate again without getting another offensive option because La Main de la Mort was clearly not the great secondary option I'd hoped it'd be when I'd learnt it the previous day.

Of course, thinking thoughts like that would influence my casting so I very purposefully avoided doing that with a bit of help from the Force, having it steer my thoughts towards how pathetic that atronarch was for not even hitting us once yet.

"A la Mort." I cast once more, using up almost all my mana and, this time, it managed to force its way past the fiery mana of the cold-flame atronarch and sever its soul, the flames extinguishing a moment later to leave behind a cold corpse.

Even mentally exhausted and almost out of mana, I shoved that thing into my inventory through the Force, not quite stupid enough to try and touch it moments after its death and risk frostbite.

"If that's the spell you wanted to try, I don't think I really want to use that. It doesn't seem all that good." Missy commented, looking slightly worried.

"It wasn't. That was my fallback in case I needed something to kill monsters and my rapier wouldn't work." I replied with a frown. That last fight had been much too close for my liking. "The spell I came up with is far too flawed so I only used it in the first fight."

"That's when you were talking gibberish beforehand, right?" Missy's smile told me that she was teasing me on purpose, not that I'd expected otherwise. In all fairness, though, gibberish was an accurate description of that incantation.

"Yes, it was." I said, shaking my head in disappointment at the reminder of that incantation. Had it been worthy of the arrogance held in it, I'd have happily continued to use it but the spell was simply too bad to be worth the mana cost.

Missy must have picked up on my annoyance and decided to ask more about it, "So, why's the spell bad? And what'd it do?"

"It's meant to automatically increase the space between myself and any attack so that it'd miss and it's terrible because it wastes stupid amounts of mana and the mana cost actively increases if I dodge instead of relying on it." If I had infinite mana, it'd be useful since I didn't have a better defensive spell at the moment but I didn't have infinite mana and so I'd have to create a better version in the future.

"Soooo…good spell, terrible execution?" Missy replied, a teasing lilt to her voice.

"It can't be helped that the spell was just not good enough. I'll make a better one in due time." I retorted, nodding to myself.

Missy, however, smiled innocently at me. "Uh huh."

Wisely, I didn't respond. There was absolutely no winning that conversation anymore. "Let's go back. Probably best to get out of the cold." I changed the topic, ignoring the sheer smugness of my twin.

So I think now's a good time to remind everyone that every single narrator in this story is flawed and not everything they say and think is accurate.

Could Lily be right about the assumptions she's made? Sure. Is it likely for her to be right about all of those? Maybe, maybe not. She made a lot of assumptions, after all.

Also, funny Avada Kedavra equivalent from Scholomance isn't particularly strong here and, should I decide to add Harry Potter, I'll probably do something similar for that killing spell, too. Essentially, the more mana something has, the more mana it takes to use such a spell on them. Great in low-power settings, a lot worse outside them.

Lily

I'd fully expected people to be outside the Gate when we left. I'd also forgotten about it during the raid because I was still mildly panicked over the implications of creatures of Coldharbour being in that dungeon.

Reporters were obvious because the chance to interview one S-Rank would've already gotten a lot of them moving, much less there being two of us here. Reporters, however, couldn't get as close to the Gate as personnel from some of the biggest hunter organizations in Brockton Bay.

The symbol of the Marche, crossed bone swords, the Empire's '88' on a red and black background and, of course, the PRT were about what I'd expected. New Wave had also been a potential visitor but, frankly, they were by far the most minor guild in the city at this point.

Their 'accountability in dungeons' project consumed quite a lot of resources due to needing cameras durable enough to actually survive raids among various other things and that four of their members either went to school or college limited the time they could spend in dungeons so affording to replace broken equipment kept them much poorer than any guild with a raid team composed of almost entirely B-Ranks should've been so few people wanted to join them.

Ignoring my amusement at how badly New Wave was doing in a world in which they didn't have Amy, I turned towards the hired help, "Feel free to leave now. You'll be paid as promised."

I fully expected some of my hired help to be paid to give information on the abilities Missy and I used but that mattered very little when they didn't get to see the boss fight. Besides, I'd have new abilities soon enough.

Once the last of the low-ranking hunters had left, Missy and I were immediately approached by a smiling man in a suit, the PRT logo emblazoned on his chest. "Hello. I am the Deputy Director of the PRT ENE, Ben Renick. I'm here on behalf of Director Piggot to invite you to discuss potentially joining the Wards."

"I'm sorry but we're not interested." I told him, mirroring his smile with a practiced one of my own.

"Is that so? We're capable of aiding you quite a bit in your career as hunters, you know?" The unspoken willingness to offer a lot more than most Wards got was heard but didn't change my mind.

"I'm certain we'll be fine without the PRT's help." I replied easily.

"Very well." Whether it was because of the reporters or him realizing that there was nothing he could say that'd change my mind, he backed off though not without mentioning that we could contact the PRT should we ever want to join.

The person from the Empire, I handled similarly but with less false politeness. I knew enough about this world's Empire to know that it's ideology wasn't something I wanted anything to do with.

The representative from the Marche was actually interesting, though. An inhumanly beautiful brunette in a suit could at least hold my interest enough to make me curious even if I'd still decline any offers of recruitment.

"Amelia Lavere, right?" I asked, suspecting that she'd modified other things with her magic to then improve her appearance with them.

She nodded in response, an amused smile on her lips. "I'm guessing you two don't want to be in the Marche?"

"Not at all." Amelia didn't show any reaction to the refusal. Her body language and feelings only showed curiosity and interest in both Missy and I, neither of which wavered in the face of my reaction.

"Thought so. Since I'm already here, though, how about getting a coffee with me?" Her offer wasn't surprising in consideration of those feelings and part of me was certainly interested. At the very least, she was nice to look at and I wanted to know how different Amelia Lavere was from Amy Dallon.

"I'd be interested. Missy?" The question had been directed towards both myself and my twin so I'd at least ask her for her opinion.

Missy shrugged in response. "Sure, why not?" Despite her feigned nonchalance, there were amusement and anticipation hidden in her feelings.

…If anything came of this, I'd definitely regret the times Missy'd crushed on people and I'd teased her for it.

"Great! In that case, come with me. My driver's waiting nearby and he can get us to a nice café nearby." Amelia replied enthusiastically, not bothered by the fact that both of us had said yes rather than just one.

Less of a date this way but it'd also let her figure out which one, if any, of us she liked more.

So, ignoring the reporters for now, the three of us moved towards the car that was thankfully directly outside the cordoned-off area.

It was good that the café Amelia brought us to also served some teas because I couldn't stand coffee. The selection was subpar but I didn't really expect anything else from a fairly simple café.

"So, why do you two not want to join a guild?" Amelia asked after we'd ordered, ignoring the stares from various people with ease.

"Because I want to be my own boss." I answered simply.

Missy nodded, grinning at Amelia, "I'm helping her satisfy her ego."

"And you're not worried that things would be easier if you'd have an experienced team?"

"Not at all. If there's a problem I can't deal with right now, I'll simply figure out how to deal with it." Ultimately, that'd always been my approach to things. If I encountered an issue, I'd learn how to make sure it wouldn't be a problem again and move on. Magic just increased the amount of potential issues as well as that of the solutions. "And what about you? Why'd you join your dad instead of getting rich by healing people or making your own guild?"

"'Cause he's my dad. I wanted to help him with his work when I was younger and, when I got magic, I got the chance to do it." She answered, her body language and feelings making it seem like the truth to me.

I nodded, a smile on my lips. "Fair enough." I couldn't say I'd necessarily have done the same but I was prideful. To be beneath someone else was not something I was willing to consider unless it was necessary.

I'd only ever trust myself to be in charge of myself.

"Moving on, what do you do two do for fun?" Amelia asked.

"I mostly watch movies or shows and read some comics." Missy lied. I knew for a fact that she also read the trashiest of all romance novels. It's why I got her some from time to time. Well, I also enjoyed watching her quickly stuff them away when I handed them to her while we were at school. That was always funny.

"I try a lot of new hobbies from time to time but I've always enjoyed reading, drawing and, lately, figuring out magic." I noticed Missy's sceptical look and raised an eyebrow in response. If she wanted to elaborate on my answer, I'd happily elaborate on hers.

'Princess dress-up' I mouthed to her. I had more than enough childhood stories to share if she wanted to out my other hobbies. I even had pictures of some of them!

Of course, my twin wasn't quite as quick to fold as I'd have liked and I hadn't been the only who'd gotten blackmail out of our childhood. Her lifting her hand over her right eye with an unimpressed look in her left one was enough for me to get the message.

She'd had a phase in which she'd dreamt of being a princess that'd never quite ended and I had suffered from a severe case of chuunibyou years before entering eighth grade. That phase had never ended.

It was mildly less embarrassing because I'd mostly acted like that to entertain myself but it'd also given Missy just as much and far more unconventional blackmail than her playing princess had given me.

"And what are your hobbies, Amelia?" I asked, breaking eye contact with my twin before she could give more hints for the third person at the table.

She definitely knew that there was more to our seemingly nonsensical interaction than what she could see but Amelia also seemed to get that we wouldn't elaborate so she answered, "Reading and cooking."

Grateful for her not pushing it further, we chatted for a couple more minutes and, before parting ways, exchanged numbers with a promise to meet up again in the future.

Making sure that Missy was asleep, I took out my holocron and basically poked it with the Force until it reacted. In hindsight, it wasn't too surprising that it was me basically letting my desires bleed into the Force without restraint that made it react. Sith were all about that from what I knew so the dark side was probably similar.

A hologram of a tall, lanky woman in clothes that looked as if they'd suit a mechanic more so than what I assumed to be a sith appeared before me. "So you are the newest possessor of my holocron then? Tell me, are you a sith, a jedi or simply a Force sensitive fortunate enough to find my holocron?" She questioned.

"The last one." I answered simply. "And I assume you are a sith?" If she wasn't, the holocron wouldn't have been worth potentially having pissed someone off.

I'd take any Force techniques right now but I also had preferences – specifically the more magic-esque Force stuff as well as Force lightning. Sorcery, alchemy and lightning were the three coolest things the Force had and I wanted them all!

"I was once a sith called Belia Darzu, yes. Now, what is it you wish to learn from my holocron?" She introduced herself but the name didn't ring a bell.

"Everything." I replied without hesitation, my eyes lighting up for a moment until I once again remembered the not-so-small issue of needing to, ugh, prioritize. "But I'd like to start with Force lightning. I'll also take everything you have on sith alchemy and sorcery."

"And what do you wish to do with that knowledge?" Darzu asked and, interestingly enough, I couldn't read her body language. Whether it was because she was a hologram or simply had perfect control of it in life, there was nothing to read with her. And, of course, the Force didn't help me, either.

It was problematic how quickly I'd come to rely on my ability to figure out what people around me felt and meant.

But I'd viewed social situations as games, if sometimes bothersome ones, long before I'd gotten powers that made it all stupidly easy so I put on a smile and spread my arms to the sides. "Whatever I want to, of course!" I declared proudly.

Had she been a jedi, I'd have claimed some nonsense about learning self-control or something dumb but she was from the cool – if highly corruptive – side of the Force so I could give an answer that was about as honest as it could be with how simple it was.

…Man, I'd probably have to learn actual self-control if I weren't just about immune to corruption. I still should but that sounded like a lot of boring work that could be replaced with learning more cool stuff.

"I recommend you figure out what that is in the near future." I blinked at the icy response to my grand declaration. I hadn't expected that. "I will not bar you from accessing the knowledge within the holocron either way but neither will I guide you when your ambition is so uncertain."

"That works for me as long as you tell me how I can actually access the holocron's knowledge." I had no idea how the thing worked, after all.

The hologram shot me an unimpressed look but still answered. "Ask whatever you wish to learn about and I will tell you about it. I will not guide your attempts to make use of that knowledge until I feel like you are worth guiding, however."

Part of me was tempted to immediately ask about Force lightning but, in the end, the part of me that was painfully aware of my lacking knowledge of the Force made me see reason. Sighing, I told her, "A basic explanation on how to use the Force in general, please." Even as great as I was, I felt like I had to learn the basics before jumping into a technique designed to murder things.

I enjoyed learning, of course, but it wasn't as great as learning how to shoot lightning out of my fingers would've been, of that I was sure.

So, one, writing this chapter sucked. I need it to exist for later plot points but that didn't make it any less miserable to write. If you have any feedback on it, please tell me because I'm pretty sure I'm biased against it at this point.

Two, normally I'd make the chapter longer but, honestly, I felt like this was a good point to end it with Lily (reluctantly) beginning to learn the very basics of the dark side from the holocron. Speaking of said holocron, I spent quite some time figuring out which holocron I felt like giving Lily and this is the result. Also the name's a hint on who she stole it from (yes, she nabbed it straight out of someone's vault and they're not happy).

Anyways, I'll go and get started on the next chapter now. Hope you enjoy this one!

Lily

So, as it turned out, I was completely and utterly terrible at meditating. When I had a task to do, something to occupy my mind, I could do it and delve into the Force to receive guidance but I couldn't do it without a clear goal in mind because it'd bore me so much that I'd rather indulge stray thoughts than focus solely on the Force.

Infusing my emotions into the Force? Simple enough and I didn't see or feel anything weird when channelling the dark side while looking into a mirror so I probably didn't have to worry about mutations or other unwanted issues so I should be fine with using nothing but the dark side until I'd get my hands on some other Force techniques.

I just wouldn't receive visions from the Force anytime soon. Even my attempts at getting info on Scion or the Endbringers out of the Force didn't get me anything useful. A sense of danger, yes, but no visions and certainly no information.

I had the feeling that hologram had been right to criticize me for not having a strong enough ambition. Ultimately, I didn't think highly enough of anyone, even Scion, to make them my ultimate goal. All I wanted out of life was to learn everything – an eternal goal that fit the ageless being I had become.

Were I not terrified by the fact that Scion might kill me no matter where I fled if he wasn't stopped, I'd just have taken my family and left. All he and the Endbringers were to me were nuisances. Dangerous nuisances, admittedly, but nuisances nonetheless.

How could a nuisance make me focus enough to get a vision out of the Force? And, unlike others, I was always awake so I wouldn't get any visions in my dreams, either.

"I'll have to get information through other methods." I decided, a couple ideas already floating around in my mind though I ultimately decided against going for any of them at the moment.

Unless I saw any signs saying otherwise, I'd assume that Scion wasn't an immediate threat and the Endbringers, though I didn't know their purpose now that they weren't under Eidolon's control, would only be a threat once every couple of months.

So, putting the threats to all life out of my mind, I instead did what I'd been too distracted to do the last couple of hours and pulled a new power once again.

Control: Keeping Promises; 200 CP, 500 CP left

Binding vows were already brought up previously, but it's worth noting that placing restrictions upon oneself is only part of what's possible with this aspect of jujutsu. No, binding vows can also be made with others. This often takes the form of a contract between two parties, where both agree to a certain set of conditions, most often certain actions they must do for the other party. Unlike in a self-imposed vow, however, the penalty for breaking a binding vow with another is much more harsh. Though the exact details of what will transpire will vary from vow to vow, the punishment is severe enough that even the most powerful of sorcerers and cursed spirits do their utmost to honour such agreements.

Usually, these require that both parties are capable of manipulating cursed energy. You, however, can apply the principles of a binding vow with anyone, regardless of whether they can use jujutsu or not. When you make an agreement with someone or a group of people, you can choose to make the terms nigh-inviolable as described above. All parties involved will understand that breaking the terms of the contract will result in them suffering severe penalties, far worse than any gain they might have received from not honouring the vow. Naturally, this isn't a one-sided thing: you, too, will face consequences for breaking such a deal. However, it's important to note that abusing loopholes in the vow's wording doesn't count as breaking it. If you agree to kill someone, for example, killing them and then immediately reviving them afterwards is completely acceptable unless explicitly agreed otherwise.​

Well…that changed a lot, didn't it? The greatest issue with forming an organization I didn't want to spend most my time managing was finding a trustworthy assistant to handle all the stuff I didn't want to deal with.

Previously, I'd intended to grab my soon-to-be-assistant from Scholomance since there was a talented and fairly easy to handle candidate there but this power was enough to change my mind. Oh, I'd almost certainly still make use of that revenge-hungry girl in the future because she had the potential to be useful but, frankly, she wouldn't be respected in this world. At her best, she'd be a D-Rank hunter when her mana reserves were full and Scholomance mages didn't regenerate mana on their own.

There was someone much more useful right here who I'd just ignored because I hadn't wanted to deal with her without some way of ensuring her loyalty.

Now, time to get dad to help me set up a meeting with an independent B-Rank and get his lawyers to come up with an ironclad contract.

Neither Star Wars nor Scholomance were settings that were particularly easy for me to explore. Or, more accurately, Scholomance had little of actual value in it and Star Wars had so much that finding anything I wanted out of the countless things in it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

When all I really wanted from the former was knowledge on how to make enclaves and maybe that super volcano spell I knew existed and I was already being kept busy with knowledge from Star Wars, that only really left finding a new, better world to explore now that I was bored once again.

Well, either that or actually figuring out if I was able to get the final pieces of knowledge I wanted from Scholomance immediately.

"…Fuck it. Much as I love Scholomance, it really doesn't have anything useful to offer right now. I can always find another version of it whenever I'm done with him." I carefully didn't say Scion's name because I had no clue if just saying it would cause him to take notice of me.

And, with that decision made, I jumped worlds once more to return to the delightful library reaching into the endless void.

Missy

I couldn't sense Lily through the Force for some reason but I could sense when Lily left this world because my Force senses would suddenly get a lot weaker and it felt like my Force 'shrunk' every time it happened.

I had no idea why that happened and I was kind of against telling Lily just because she waited until I fell asleep before leaving. Whatever my twin felt like keeping a secret, I wanted to know. Not because I didn't trust her but because she had an ego the size of the freaking sun. That she kept jumping headfirst into new worlds just proved that I was right to be worried about her.

But, right now, I could only do less than Lily. I didn't have extra magic, didn't use a weapon and didn't make a bunch of plans.

Unlike my sister, who believed that her talent would always be enough to get her out of any sticky situations, I decided to try to improve what I had instead.

I hadn't studied magic much but what little I'd looked at made one thing clear: the Manton limit, the restriction on most spells when it came to living beings, could be gotten rid off by modifying one's spells.

'I need to figure this out.' I reminded myself before beginning to manipulate space while trying to also focus on the Force to make it help me with figuring out how to change this spell.

If I could get rid of the Manton limit in my spell, I'd be able to use it offensively. Then it wouldn't matter that I had no idea how to use a sword or cast a dozen spells. One spell would be enough.

I just had to succeed and, unlike Lilian who'd change her approach with every attempt, I was willing to try this again and again until I'd succeed.

That screams greeted me as soon as I returned to the Scholomance's library probably should've been worrying. Instead, after a moment of thinking on events during which people were screaming here in the books, I felt like laughing. Without hesitation, I focused on my mana sense, desperately hoping that doing this wouldn't mess up the Scholomance's working and, as if a switch had flipped, the Scholomance became able to alter itself as if I hadn't been there at all, even the shelves right in front of me being able to change.

I had, admittedly, had a tendency to skim really long CYOAs if I'd already played them before. As such, while part of me had remembered that Naturalized Foreigner had this funny little part of 'you can turn any parts of this off whenever you feel like it', the memory hadn't returned to me until I was in need of that very ability.

That I wasn't fully aware of what that perk had done for me until now almost certainly hadn't helped, either. I had a very vague awareness of there being more things I was able to turn off much as I'd turned off my ability to influence the magic of this world for the time being but I couldn't really tell what those changes were. Maybe if I'd focused more on it, searched what I assumed to be part of my soul until I had a good grasp of what Naturalized Foreigner did right now, I'd have had a greater awareness of it but I didn't have the time for that.

Sensing an abomination that drew malia out of hundreds of souls nearby was simultaneously fascinating as well as completely and utterly nauseating and, most importantly, following it was certain to give me a great chance to get my hands on the spells required to build an enclave.

Even if I had to give up literally all the mana crystals in my inventory, that'd have been worth it if even half my theories on what I'd be able to do with enclaves were right. Especially since I'd get more soon enough.

Sensing the abomination that screamed of misery meeting a mana that was small in quantity but full of destructive potential, I leisurely began to walk the paths I could sense. Here, in a space that only existed due to mana keeping it somewhat real, I was omniscient. I could sense every path, every mal, every movement and there was nothing quite like knowing that nothing could escape me here.

So, when the mal turned away from its soon-to-be killer, I already knew the paths it'd take and wasn't hurried. Had Missy been here, she probably wouldn't have been so relaxed. The maw-mouth was on its way to add quite a lot of teenagers to the collection of ever-screaming souls inside its flesh-slime mass, after all. If anything in this world was different enough to make the protagonist slow down just a bit or maybe not follow it at all then all that suffering would be at least partially on me.

Alas, I was not a hero. The little protagonist I was starting to follow now, however, was and even she had hesitated because getting caught by a maw-mouth meant eternal suffering that almost certainly wouldn't end even with its death since the most likely killer of a maw-mouth was a bigger maw-mouth.

They were slimes made out of flesh, eyes and mouths remaining in its mass and the newer victims would scream until they exhausted themselves or maybe just until their vocal cords finished being digested by the mal. After all, I vividly remembered reading that using magical communication with long-eaten maw-mouth victims was possible, it'd just result in hearing incoherent screaming.

If Galadriel, the protagonist, failed, I'd rather abandon my chance at getting enclave building spells than try to get the book off that thing.

My little killing spell was one of very few ways to theoretically kill one of those things and, probably due to the multitude of souls in it, that'd require several casts during which one would also have to keep up a shield in order to not get eaten.

I'd rather fight two cold-flame atronarchs at once than risk dealing with one maw-mouth.

But, as I sensed killing spell after killing spell stripping souls and melting sludge even further, I instead used my magic to extend the corridor behind me. I had no intention of dealing with that mal thinking itself to be a human and I especially didn't want them to stop me from taking advantage of the girl who was in the process of sacrificing all the mana she'd worked so hard to save up over the years she'd spent here.

Well, that sounded quite bad but, in all fairness, I'd give her enough mana to make her poor choice a better one as long as she let me copy the book she'd grabbed recently.

Besides, sacrificing all her hard work was her choice and decidedly not my problem. The only help she got from me was a cleaning spell to get rid of all the rotten sludge that had once been flesh covering every inch of the shield spell around her body.

Taking in the visibly traumatized girl in ratty clothes, I couldn't help but be amused. She certainly didn't look like the singularly most powerful human who didn't use malia in the entire setting and, at the moment, she wasn't. She lacked the mana and the knowledge for that. Given another year or two, she'd be above just about everyone else, though.

Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with a version of her that hadn't just recently been traumatized and instead got the uncertain, much weaker teenager immediately after what was probably her most traumatizing experience to date.

"Hello there," I greeted her, willing a mana crystal into my hand as I approached, "I know you're probably still in shock and all but, if you let me have that golden book you got from the library, I'll give you fifty of these."

"Who- who are you?" She asked, sobbing with her eyes wide open.

"Someone who usually only visits this place for the interesting books here. Now, consider this: You just wasted so much mana for some people who'll never even know about it. How could you, who you can't just enter and leave at will, possibly survive getting past all those hungry hungry mals in the graduation hall next year? Just give me that book of yours and I'll give you these mana crystals so you can survive." I'd normally have added something mildly taunting but, from what I remembered, Galadriel was actually fairly smart in some regards and, if I pushed too hard, she'd probably notice how much I really wanted that book.

"How can you know what's in it if it's never been in the library before?" She challenged despite being this close to a mental breakdown.

If nothing else, I had to praise the designers of the Scholomance for accidentally creating a place that made most children really mentally resilient. She'd probably break down as soon as she's alone and at least somewhat safe but she was still functioning for the moment.

"That's unimportant." I replied, not bothering to keep a smile on my face. She'd have been more suspicious had I smiled, anyways. "You just need to know that I'm willing to give you lots of mana in exchange for it."

Galadriel narrowed her eyes at me, something which might've been more intimidating if they hadn't been red-rimmed and her entire face stained with tears. "80 of those crystals and you can only copy the spells, not take the book."

"60 and I can have the book for an entire day to copy it in its entirety." It'd be mind-numbingly boring but I'd rather have a copy of the entire thing than just the spells.

"Deal." She said and I didn't hesitate to make that a binding vow. I also didn't hesitate to take out the promised mana crystals and put them into her backpack while taking the book for myself.

She clearly still had questions but she was also mentally exhausted and, more importantly, I had what I wanted so I smiled a victorious smile at her, undid my little expansion of the hallway we'd both taken to get here and then told her, "I'll be in the library tomorrow afternoon to return the book," before leaving this reality once again.

I felt like laughing at the sight of her eyes widening due to however it looked like when I exited a world but restrained myself. I had a book to copy. And, honestly, I'd probably just take pictures of every page with my phone, making sure that each picture would be readable.

Lisa Wilbourn

Thinker-type hunters were almost as coveted as artificers and it took a lot of work from me to not get blackmailed into joining any guilds until now despite me only being a B-Rank. That I could gather better blackmail was the only thing stopping them but I was still terrified every time I (reluctantly) entered a Gate.

See, I didn't want to die. I really didn't want to die. It's why I usually avoided Gates like the plague. It's also why I'd have been happy with any guild that were willing to pay me without me having to enter those death traps. Alas, my magic was one of those that got more useful the closer I was to the target.

So, every month or so, I took on a Gate with people I vetted beforehand and advised them how to deal with everything in it despite being terrified the entire time and then I'd live off those profits for as long as possible.

I wanted to be rich and live in the comfort I'd had when I'd still lived with the assholes that were my parents but nobody wanted a thinker that couldn't be useful and using my magic for non-hunter business was a terrible idea because that's the kind of stuff that got you fined thanks to NEPEA-5 and using it for crimes would get you 'repurposed' if you ever went too far.

I didn't need a visit from the boogeyman of hunters the world over. In fact, just thinking about it sent shivers down my spine.

So, if neither crimes nor business were an option – and I was basically barred from the latter due to my magic being what it was – that left working a really terrible job or occasionally forcing myself to get past my fear of death and take on a Gate most people would say I was overqualified for as a B-Rank.

I'd like to argue by mentioning once again that Red Gates existed and the thought of them used to keep me up at night when I started doing this.

Ultimately, I wanted survival, freedom and money in that order with freedom and survival maybe being exchangeable. Either way, money didn't beat survival.

That said, I normally wouldn't even entertain a recruitment offer from a guild, much less a new one, but the position they wanted me for wasn't a combat one. No, they wanted to hire me to vet and manage personnel as well as acting as something that could be summed up as a personal assistant to the guild leader.

I'd have to ask more about the personal assistant part and negotiate for a better salary just to have it but, aside from that, the offer seemed nice. No more days of fearing for my life with the only downside being that I'd be the assistant of a teenage girl and, probably, her twin sister.

"I'll at least give it a shot." I decided, sending back an agreement and getting an offer of an appointment the very next day. It felt weird to not have to wait even a couple days but it worked for me so I agreed.

Now to see if the Bay's newest S-Ranks could solve my money problems.

So, funny little fact: When I was thinking over how NEPEA-5 would work in this world, I realized that, without secret identities, thinkers that could theoretically use their powers to make money quickly would basically be locked out of all the ways to do that. And, with Coil having a very different role now that will be mentioned in the story later on, Lisa never got recruited with a gun to her head so she's ripe for recruitment.

Also, there'll be all of one more scene in Scholomance. Much as I love that series, it's really too low-power to stick around and I mostly needed it to give Lily access to their pocket dimension spells for various reasons.

On another fun note, yeah, Lily's not fully aware of all the parts of her CYOA powers. She also has yet to remember that she can theoretically 'share' some of her Foreigner powers.

Lily

Sighing after parting ways with Galadriel, the golden spellbook no longer in my hands or inventory, I returned my own ability to affect the magic of this world. In an instant, the Scholomance stilled, the magic it used to move and conjure things too expensive to use simply because it was being perceived by me.

Afterwards, I made my way through the shelves, taking countless books into my inventory. I'd have taken the entire library but that'd have taken too long. I still had an appointment in a couple hours so I really didn't have the time to grab all the books.

Besides, if the Scholomance merely summoned rather than conjured, even just taking everything that was currently in the library was a potential death sentence for many students of the Scholomance because I'd have taken the knowledge they'd need to survive.

Not to mention that I could already sense that the school was unhappy with me. Whether it summoned or conjured, either would take mana and the Scholomance in general already consumed so much that every enclave that sent their children here had to contribute.

…Huh, if I'd had the time to go through with my original plan of taking everything, I genuinely might have caused the end of the Scholomance or maybe even the enclaves, though the latter could've just refused to hand the school the mana it needed.

Now I just had to ignore the urge to put in the extra effort just to see what'd happen because I really didn't have the time to check up on this world frequently enough to observe the consequences of my actions. The Scholomance might also just throw a maw-mouth at me if I kept showing up and I'd still prefer not to ever have to deal with those.

It was difficult but, in the end, I managed to get out of the Scholomance in time to get ready for my meeting and without stealing all the books beforehand.

The headquarters for my still unnamed guild had yet to finish the renovations required to make it a guild building so, rather than holding the job interview in what'd be my office, I instead had dad rent an office for me and spent a good several minutes casting spells to prevent sound from escaping the room before Lisa was set to arrive.

By the time Lisa entered the office I could confidently say that none would be able to eavesdrop on our meeting without using magic that I'd almost certainly be able to sense.

"Good afternoon, Miss Wilbourn." I greeted her, taking in her curiosity, anticipation and wariness.

My own body language was carefully controlled to give nothing away. Omniglot had made me 'fluent' in it and, of course, that also included letting me control my 'speech' with a bit of focus.

I was immune to all thinkers except for the type she belonged to; the one whose magic gathered information from the caster's senses to form conclusions. It was also the only type of thinker I considered to be a useful subordinate for me because all the others would inevitably get worse results from my mere existence.

"Hi." She was purposefully being casual to test my reaction. It was also almost certainly why she'd shown up in a purple shirt and jeans. "So, what do the Bay's newest S-Ranks want from little old me? Or is it just you?"

I suppressed my own reactions to her attempts at gathering information and could both see and feel her intrigue rising in response. Just as she was gathering information on me, I was doing the same with her but she wasn't 'fluent' in body language. "As described in the email sent to you, I want you to become my assistant and manage various things for me, one of which would be vetting potential members for my guild."

"It's all yours, huh? Guess it's just you who wants to hire me, then." Lisa looked smug but there was little actual smugness in her emotions. Mostly, she remained curious. "Anyways, what would I have to do aside from figuring out which people to hire?"

"For now? You'll only have to assist me in managing the guild so that I can have the time to focus on other things. Later on, I expect I'll have several other things I'll need you to help me manage." I answered calmly and saw her intrigue rising alongside her apprehension.

Despite not being entirely comfortable anymore, Lisa raised an unimpressed eyebrow and said, "An ambitious type, hm? And how many things do you expect me to have to manage eventually?"

"I'm not sure yet but it doesn't matter much. It's a nice, safe job and I'm not unreasonable. If you don't want to manage something, you don't have to." Having to find and bind more managers would be bothersome but also inevitable. I was already ageless and, in less than a century, Lisa would probably be dead and I couldn't be certain that she'd find and train her replacement before her inevitable end.

Considering the fact that I'd always need money, it was foolish to think that I'd never again need someone to deal with the things that would make my fortune and there were infinite potential candidates out there. I'd just have to find them.

"I suppose you already have a contract ready?" She asked after several moments of silence.

In response, I took out a thick ledger filled with the many pages of the contract. Several of the clauses would be utterly nonsensical without knowledge of my ability to utilize binding vows but that's fine. As long as I got an agreement to follow the terms of that contract out of her, I wouldn't even need her to sign it. And, aside from promising to grant her a reasonable salary based on the income of everything she managed for me – and my own standards would prevent me from short-changing her – as well as vacation days, there was nothing in there that'd even inconvenience me.

"It'll take a while for me to read through that." Lisa said, sounding mildly exasperated as she looked at me.

"Take your time." I told her, taking a sanskrit book on transmutation magic I'd stolen from the Scholomance out of my inventory.

Lisa

Relaxed, self-assured. It's only now that the girl in front of me was reading a book written in a language I had never seen before that my magic seemed to work properly on her and what it told me was about what I'd have assumed already.

From start to finish, this meeting had felt planned. Or maybe not exactly planned but as if she could read me even better than I could read her and, considering how my magic told me everything about her body language prior to her taking out that book from nowhere – Spatial magic, clearly superior to what was shown to the PRT, didn't emit any mana – was carefully controlled, I didn't find it hard to believe that she either had similar magic to mine or more training in reading people than I'd thought to be possible in what was, as I'd figured out from looking up her few appearances, an arrogant teenager.

That she was in charge of the guild wasn't much of a surprise. Figuring out that she thought of most people as irrelevant barely took me five minutes, with her sister, mother and Amelia Lavere being the only three exceptions I'd found yet but, even then, I'd only noticed her being curious about the latter.

I didn't need my magic to tell me that the entire purpose of this guild was to make Lilian her own boss rather than her having to listen to anyone else and it wasn't all that surprising that she clearly planned to eventually also have other things to manage, whatever those might end up being.

I was honestly kind of worried that she, much like more guilds than anyone would ever admit, planned to 'sponsor' some criminals to circumvent the issues that came with being a criminal with magic and it'd certainly explain the many clauses that amounted to 'do not share Lilian's business with people who aren't cleared to know about it' but it didn't really fit.

Most guilds that resorted to that all faced the same issue: Money. Running a guild was expensive and, if the guild was too low-rank, the profit margins weren't nearly high enough to satisfy the ones in charge of it.

The moment a guild had an S-Rank, crime became more effort than it was worth. A single A-Rank Gate held an entire fortune inside and S-Ranks rarely actually struggled with those so they could take more of those on than other guilds.

So, considering NEPEA-5, what could the girl probably expect me to have to manage on top of the guild in the future if it wasn't of a criminal nature?

The question kept going through my head even as I read the contract that sometimes felt completely and utterly absurd. Normally, contracts only included stuff that was enforceable but this one held clauses like 'never knowingly betray Lilian Biron' that couldn't reasonably be enforced or checked for.

Unless, of course, the girl had a spell to bind me to follow those terms, ludicrous as the thought was. Spatial magic, what I assumed to be a pocket dimension, information gathering on par with me, control over her body language, contract enforcement and who knew what else; Lilian Biron clearly had multiple magics, magics that were far beyond what people could learn right now.

Either gains new magic over time, comes up with them herself or triggered with several.

And that changed things. Either my would-be boss fully expected to grow in power rapidly or she hid quite a bit of her magic from the start. If it was the former, that'd make aligning myself with her early on worth it even with the dozens of clauses against literally any form of betrayal – that girl had trust issues a mile wide and spreading those clauses out among the rest of the contract didn't hide them – and, if it was the latter, it'd still almost certainly set me up for a comfortable life.

"Do you gain new magics over time or did you just luck out?" I asked her, taking a gamble by revealing that I knew that secret of hers.

In response, she raised her gaze to meet mine and the amusement she felt was clearly visible as was a small hint of surprise. "The former." And those two words sealed the deal.

"Can you bind me to the clauses about not revealing your secrets already so that I can know more about the duties I'd have before I accept?" There were still questions left unanswered and I wouldn't bind myself to serve her loyally as long as I was alive if I didn't have a clear picture of things.

This time, both the amusement and the surprise were even larger and I could tell she was just shy of breaking out into laughter, clearly not having expected me to figure out that that contract would be enforced by something more than the law but not minding it.

"Very well. Do you agree to every clause in the contract related to keeping my information as well as that of my family away from those who aren't aware of it and who I haven't permitted you to tell that information?" She asked and the knowledge that she apparently required some kind of verbal agreement was at least somewhat reassuring.

"I do." I said and felt as if there were chains around my heart for a moment, causing me to forget how to breathe for that instant. They didn't last long, though, vanishing a moment later.

"Great. Now let me fill you in." Lilian said, seeming a bit more casual now that I could no longer reveal anything about her.

And, for the next half an hour or so, I got to learn enough about my prospective boss to know that signing up with her was for the best. Powers from other worlds on top of her potentially getting one new magic per day all but guaranteed that she'd go far and she promised me a salary that'd change based on how much money I made her.

I'd never wanted to make someone else filthy rich until right now and it was weird but I'd profit from it.

Her grin looked at least mildly evil when I agreed to the terms of the contract but I could handle my boss looking like a cliché villain. At least she agreed to give me a bunch of benefits as long as I did a good job.

Now to get started on handling the far too many things my boss had left undone so she could shove them at whoever she'd get to take the job, beginning with forcing her to come up with a name that didn't sound like an extremely edgy middle schooler had decided on it.

Travelers Guild was at least alright, even if most people wouldn't get the reference to Lilian's ability to travel to other worlds.

So I decided to end this chapter early mostly because I couldn't think of a way to make the jump between these scenes that tie into one another and the next ones less weird to me so they get to be their own chapters.

On another note, just to let you guys know, Lily didn't like the power she got the day after she got binding vows and didn't buy it.

In case you're curious, here it is:

Augment: Urban Plague; 200 CP

Now if you're willing to pay a bit more for your augments, or have ties with those who might make them, we can get you something a bit more special. All of the effects of the prior tier are significantly improved, legs able to do great leaps, arms that never tire despite swinging swords the same size as yourself, and camera eyes that replicate the full function of human ones, along with seeing into UV, infrared, and so on. More than that, now your augments come with a distinct gimmick to them. Perhaps they create sheathes of fire around your weapons to burn away at your foes, have assorted modes they can cycle through as needed in order to improve your performance in numerous minor ways, actively build up power in their internal engines to spur you on to greater heights the longer the battle lasts, or disable key muscle groups of your foes with carefully placed electrical shocks.

Lily's not a fan of mechanizing herself (something something she's perfect already) so she wouldn't have considered this power for more than second, hence me not writing about it

Lily

It wasn't rare for mom and dad to fight but I had honestly just not expected it after how much had happened over the last several days so, after a breakfast full of anger and open insults, I joined Missy in her room and said, "Want to go to another world for the day?" I'd rather have picked up my equipment first but I now had spells to keep us warm or cool down our surroundings and, as long as Missy didn't doubt that I did and there were no other people around, they'd work.

I had every intention of leaving either way but I wanted to at least offer my sister the chance to come with me. It was either this or going into another Gate and it'd probably be for the best to wait for Lisa to recruit people before doing that.

Missy only looked at me for a second before nodding. "Let's go." The decision was an easy one to make for her, I imagined. Stay here and listen to our parents fight or get away for long enough that things might've calmed down by the time we got back.

So, a couple moments later, we were stood in a forest rather than her bedroom and I immediately began looking around once the dizziness was gone. There was a city in the distance and it looked at least somewhat modern, though I couldn't make out any details and there was a good chance I was wrong. I had yet to study architecture, after all.

Then again, I could see several flying objects in the distance and, unless those were living beings, those were probably aircraft.

"What are those?" Missy sounded alarmed so, turning towards my twin and following her line of sight, I saw several mostly black creatures with bone-like growths covering them and some red markings on a skull-like 'mask'.

'Ah,' I realized, 'We're in RWBY.'

It should probably be mentioned that most of my RWBY knowledge came from fanfics, the series itself not capturing my attention enough for me to watch all of it, especially since I'd only heard negative things about the later seasons.

In other words, I knew some vague pieces of the more important lore that may or may not have been accurate and were therefore to be considered as completely and utterly unreliable in case they weren't true in this world.

"Monsters. I'd recommend just leaving." We could almost certainly kill them but I saw no reason to go through the effort.

"Gimme the sword." Missy demanded holding her right hand out towards me as I blinked. "Come on! I just want to stab something!"

Laughing a little at her whining, I took out my rapier and handed it to her. "If it breaks, you're getting me a new one."

"Yeah yeah. You're on defence this time." My twin replied, already beginning to use her magic with surprising speed to skewer one of the grimm through its masked head, the magical sword not struggling against what I assumed to be a beowolf.

At the very least it was amusing to see Missy letting loose and it was probably better in the long run for her to take this anger out on these Grimm rather than our parents. I'd probably do the same at some point in the future but I really preferred being alone when venting my frustrations.

I'd also greatly prefer having a spell of mass destruction to use for it. Several times, preferably.

As it turned out, dust was expensive. Well, the high-quality dust was. Dust in general was also the only thing here to still have mana aside from the Grimm, which I assumed was because the latter had been made by a god. The buildings? Nothing. The people? Nothing. The closest thing to mana in the entire city aside from dust was a very faint trace coming from the local huntsmen academy, that being Beacon since we'd apparently shown up very close to the city of Vale.

The world felt dead to my mana senses aside from some spots in the ground that almost certainly held dust and it just felt weird to be in a world that had mana but somehow had almost all its mana concentrated in crystals or monsters to such a degree.

"So, why did you spend all your savings on magic crystals?" Missy questioned after I put my new dust collection away.

"Not all of them, my book fund's still safe." I said just to disagree with her. "And I did it because these crystals can be used as a substitute for various elemental magics." And I should probably get a mining company or something set up. With my mana senses, finding dust deposits in the ground was incredibly simple and I could always fund the thing with money brought in from clearing Gates.

Really, what I was saying was that Lisa should be brought in to set up a company for me once the Travelers Guild made enough money for it because there'd probably be several issues with me doing that using money from another world even with my inventory converting it into local currency and I didn't want to deal with any of that.

"Of course you spent all your money on bomb crystals." Missy nodded to herself with a small smirk.

"There's swords here that can shift their parts around to become guns and turn back into swords and they use these 'bomb crystals' as ammunition." My words shut her up as I knew they would. Unlike me, who I much preferred spells over ranged weapons – ignoring my fondness for bows that I'd indulge at some point – Missy liked guns and I knew that part of why she hadn't picked a weapon already was that there weren't any magic guns in the stores we'd visited in the past, most artificers preferring to use those themselves rather than selling them.

"Why didn't you say that earlier? I'd have bought some, too, if I'd known!" My twin did an immediate 180 and I couldn't stop myself from giggling a little at her sudden change of heart the moment I let her know of the mechashift weapons of this world.

I was, admittedly, a nerd but I was a fantasy nerd, the type who loved all things magic. Missy was the sci-fi nerd between the two of us, she was just much less likely to admit it. She was also much less of a nerd than I was but that's besides the point.

If she knew how to get to any other planet than the icy cold one I'd shown her, she'd probably go to Star Wars quite regularly. So would I but I wouldn't be doing it to get my hands on blasters or spaceships, I'd do it in order to learn more about the Force and probably make money.

"I didn't say anything because I have no idea how much money a custom weapon would cost and I want you to be able to afford the weapon before you waste money on ammunition." I told her, still incredibly amused.

"Alright so we're going to a weapons store now, right?" Missy asked, almost bouncing on her heels in excitement.

I thought it over for a moment before shaking my head. "Let's split up for now. These people speak english, apparently, so you're able to communicate. Since that's the case, you can find a weapons shop yourself and I don't have to watch you drool over weapons while you don't have to watch me drool over books."

"You're emptying that book fund, hm?" My twin teased and, while she seemed a bit nervous, she was also still excited so she clearly didn't disagree all that much with my idea.

"We'll make a lot of money with every Gate we clear in the future, Missy. May as well buy what we want now." Which, for me, meant lots of books on this world's history, folk-tales, aura, dust and, because I wanted to make sure that Missy would always have enough ammunition, mechashift weapons and dust bullets.

If her weapon ever got damaged or she ran low on ammo, I'd at least be able to help her if I learnt about that kind of stuff.

Missy

There was a part of me that had wanted to grill Lily about this world because she clearly recognized it but, ultimately, it didn't matter because I didn't. Unless I wanted Lily to tell me everything about this world and spend a lot of time trying to figure things out myself, her simple explanation that those monsters I killed basically threatened all the people in this world enough that there were only a handful of large, fortified settlements was enough.

I didn't need to know everything about this world to know that I could probably come here to practice with both my magic and the weapon I'd buy and it'd even help people.

Lily'd already exploit everything in this world – there was a very low chance that she wouldn't but I wasn't counting on it – and I might as well make up for it while also training and relieving some stress.

Anyways, before doing that, I should really have a weapon but had run into the small issue of, well, not really knowing what would be useful and the shopkeeper would probably try to sell me overpriced junk if I were to ask for assistance.

Looking around the shop for anyone who looked like they knew their stuff, I saw a girl who was maybe my age and had black hair that turned red towards the end. She was also wearing a dress with a pretty cool red cape attached and, most importantly, she looked like she was really interested in the gun parts she was looking at.

Approaching her, I forced myself to smile, "Sorry to bother you but I'm wanting to buy the parts for my own weapon but I don't really know what's good yet. You look like you'd know about this kind of stuff so it'd be really nice if you could help me." I felt incredibly awkward the more I spoke but at least the girl didn't look weirded out.

Instead, she smiled and turned around really quickly, "What kind of weapon do you want to make? What do you want it to do? Do you want a specific material? Is there a colour scheme you're after?"

"A sword that can also be used as a gun and I haven't decided on much else yet. My sister only told me that I could go and buy the parts for a weapon here like half an hour ago. If you can teach me about, well, everything I need to know, I'd really appreciate it." Seeing how enthusiastic she was, I felt some of the awkwardness fade as I showed some of my own excitement.

"Ooh! That sounds great! Alright, c'mon! I'm only allowed to stay here until my sister comes to get me so we'll have to make it count. I'll show you some pictures of sword types first and then we'll go through the parts for your favourite one so you can decide on the materials for each of them!" She replied happily, taking out one of those 'scroll' things Lily had bought one of for each of us. Apparently, they were this world's phones and Lily wanted some just in case.

"Thanks!" I told her cheerfully. "My name's Missy by the way."

She blinked for a moment before blushing in embarassment, "Ruby." She quickly introduced herself before seemingly forgetting about her embarassment as she began to show me pictures of sword types and explaining their advantages and disadvantages.

'She's surprisingly cute like this.' I thought to myself. Then, when I realized what I'd just thought, I blushed a little, a cold realization settling in my stomach. 'Oh. Lily must never hear about this.' Because Lily learning that I found a girl cute would already lead to her teasing me forever but her learning that I wasn't fully straight would also mean that she'd tease me about girls from now on.

Lily already had enough ways to tease me, she really didn't need to have more. At some point, bringing up her really embarassing actions in the past wouldn't outweigh the sheer amount of embarassment she could cause me through various topics.

But, really, how could I not find this girl cute when she was ranting – and barely remembering to breathe while she's at it – about weapons so passionately, even proudly showing me her own weapon that she'd apparently made from scratch? It was clearly impossible.

Now I'd just need to deal with that extra bit of awkwardness for the time being without consulting my smug prick of a sister. She'd happily support me until the problem's solved but then she'd turn around and tease me until she'd had her fun and the situation wasn't bad enough for me to get her help despite that.

Mentally resolving myself, I forced myself to ignore my mild crush on Ruby as I listened to her explanations.

"So you have to leave now?" I asked, mildly sad as the sun began to set and Ruby's sister – a blonde named Yang – had shown up to get her.

"I do but I'll tell you everything else you need to know over text!" Ruby promised, holding up her scroll as she did so. She'd given me her number just a couple moments before so we could stay in contact.

"Thanks again for all the help. I'd be really lost without you." I told her, ignoring the disappointment at the fact that she had to leave. If the bookstore Lily chose to raid was beginning to close, my own sister would soon join this conversation and I'd really like it if that wouldn't happen. "If you ever need anything, just let me know."

Yang, standing at the side, raised an eyebrow for some reason. "Y'know, I didn't know you had it in you to make a friend so quickly, Ruby. I'm impressed."

Ruby ducked her head in response with a light blush on her cheeks, "Yang, don't be weird!" The sight of her was cute enough to make me blush slightly, too, and I just hoped neither of them had noticed.

"Who's weird here?" Yang replied, chuckling, and I suddenly knew I really couldn't have Lily join this conversation. If she did, Ruby and I would be teased to death and Lily would figure out my crush and maybe reveal it to Yang.

Now if only I could end this conversation faster without making it awkward.

"So, Missy, right?" I nodded as Yang addressed me. "You'll be a good friend to my little sister, right?"

I nodded again without hesitation even as a bead of cold sweat ran down my neck. "She's helped me a lot so far and we both like weapons so I want to talk about them with her some more." 'She's also really cute when she gets excited,' I didn't say that part, obviously, but I did think it.

Yang raised an eyebrow as if she knew what I was thinking but, before she could speak, she was interrupted by Ruby beginning to pull on her sister's sleeve with an embarassed whine I knew all too well, "C'mon Yang, time to leave! Talk to you later, Missy!" With all the energy of an embarassed sister trying to remove their sibling from a conversation Ruby pulled the visibly amused Yang away.

…Now to find my own incredibly embarassing sister before she emptied every bookstore in Vale.

Lily

Missy was definitely hiding something from me. She wouldn't have felt such a weird mix of embarassment, stress and affection if she weren't hiding something. The stress didn't feel all that serious, though, so I ignored it. If Missy didn't feel like sharing it, well, I certainly couldn't call her out on it when I still had yet to tell her about Scion.

…That really ought to be on my list of priorities. I could understand not telling her here – because I fully expected either Scion, the Simurgh or something else to potentially be paying attention – or on a planet that was much too cold to have a proper conversation on but talking to her about it in RWBY would probably be safe. I'd just need to get over there with her again and find some secluded spot where we could talk.

Since she still needed to actually order her weapon – apparently she'd spent the entire day learning about weapon parts and deciding what weapon it should be aside from a gun – that'd be a good opportunity to reveal that to her. I'd just need a convenient cover story for how I knew about it in the first place.

'I got a power that lets me identify the biggest threat to me and it's only pointing at that weird mage who never enters Gates but does enough in Endbringer attacks and dungeon breaks that nobody calls him out on it. It also tells me that he's planning to sacrifice all of humanity somehow.' The explanation didn't sound terrible and, much as I hated the thought of lying to Missy, the only lie in that sentence was that it's a power that warned me about Scion.

'It's good enough.' I decided, nodding to myself.

Then, feeling myself gaining a free Grimoire pull once more, I grinned and hoped for something good.

Lore: Skilled Development; 200 CP, 1300 CP left

You are now very talented being that you now improve physically and mentally twice as fast as before but for skills you now improve 5 times faster than before. Now you might be wondering why not just take Body Control for that growth instead of this perk. 1st, your skills will now naturally lean towards optimizing and improving via repetition, meaning you will improve skills just by using them as if actively training them. 2nd you now have the peak natural talent for any skill you attempt, you won't be good off the bat but you will effectively have a higher base learning rate for any form of skill. 3rd your skills no longer degrade meaning that your skills will be just as good as when you stopped practicing no matter how long it's been. 4th and last if you are starting training a new skill and already have similar skills you will find your pre-existing skills experience will enhance your new skills growth rate, the closer a skill is the faster the growth and multiple stack, though only to the same level of skill. Almost identical skills will see growth almost doubling while something that's only tangentially related(such as Piano and Guitar both being music skills with no direct overlap) will improve growth only by 1% minimum.​

And, just like that, my grin grew wider and I took out a notebook to write ideas for various skills in it so I could begin to come up with a priority list. Within an hour, I had one ready.

ReadingAnalysisObservationMana controlSpellcreationEnchanting

Everything else was lower than those six because I was fairly certain all six of those would be useful for just about every magic system I'd ever learn. Reading, analysis and observation only reigned supreme because they'd be required not just for magic systems but for just about everything I'd ever want to learn.

There were various other less all-encompassing skills but those six would be my priority for now.

And, wouldn't you look at that, I had a bunch of books I'd been meaning to read.

"I'll speedrun getting my reading speed to one page per second." I decided with a content smile on my lips as I took out some books on aura and began to read.

Happy New Year!

So, Missy and Lily discovered RWBY, which was always going to be an early world even if my Wheel of Worlds hadn't told me to do it now (fourth world at the latest turned into third world) because I decided early on that I wanted to hand Missy a magical gun (at least one of the twins has to be a proper american, after all) and then I had the idea to give her a magical gunsword so here we are.

I also decided to make Missy bi because I felt like it'd make her interactions with Ruby funnier. Not a promise that this'll be a pairing because, well, teenagers have crushes and sometimes those don't last very long but the potential is there.

In general, while I have a pairing in mind for Lily, I might change my mind if I feel like another pairing would be better and I have yet to decide on one for Missy. If any of you guys have a preference, feel free to tell me and I may or may not agree with you.