Unwanted Guests...
The crowd is silent, but it doesn't last long as the once silent crowd erupts into loud cheering and yelling. The fancy man spaces out for a few seconds before he collects himself and signals for the healers waiting on standby to take Rena away to a private room to recuperate. Only after the healers successfully carried Rena to safety did the fancy man start talking
(Fancy Man) "*Ahem* Well, uh. {Collects himself}, It looks like we have a winner!"
The fancy man then approaches Bruce, who's currently being helped to his feet by Monika
(Fancy Man) "I have to say, that was some impressive swordsmanship out there young man. Now, why don't you come with me to accept your prize!"
Bruce looks at the fancy man with a tired look before raising his hand up while motioning with his pointer finger, as if he was saying, "just gimme a second"
Monika then hands Bruce a small healing potion, that he gladly downs. After the potion takes effect, Bruce manages to finally stand up on his own. He then looks toward the fancy man, and decides to go with him
(Bruce) "Alright, I'm ready now. Oh, and thanks for waiting a bit. My leg muscles aren't all that happy with the move I just pulled... So I had to take a quick breather"
The fancy man shrugs
(Fancy Man) "That's understandable"
The fancy man then starts walking towards a small building nearby before he enthusiastically starts talking again
(Fancy Man) "Follow me! Your earnings are in the small building up ahead!"
As Bruce and Monika follow the fancy man, they can hear all sorts of compliments from the crowd. Saying things like "Good job out there kid", "That was the best match I've seen in awhile". Bruce also heard some people say "Ara~ Ara~", "OH GOD, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT RUNE SWORD COST TO MAKE!", as well as the collective silent rambling and curses of the many, MANY! people who just lost a lot all their money betting that Rena would win.... You know, for some reason. Bruce feels a lot more scared of the first of the three things he heard than the other two combined... Oh, and the one guy who bet on Bruce is currently so high on dopamine that he collapsed, and had to be taken away to be treated by healers...
After walking a little bit longer, they reach the door of the building. Bruce had already checked the building using his dungeon core powers to make sure that it's safe before entering. So he enters without worry as the fancy man leads them to the room in which the money is kept. Once they actually reach the room however, there seems to just be four small bags sitting on a table
(Fancy Man) "These bags hold your winnings, and even though they may seem small. They can hold a lot more than you think. Although... I think you two are already familiar with such things"
The fancy man looks directly at Monika
(Fancy Man) "I mean, everyone else might have missed it, but I've been doing this for a long time. So don't go thinking that I didn't notice the way you secretly pulled that healing potion out of a magic item"
Monika doesn't respond, but instead, she nervously looks away whilst awkwardly whistling a little tune to herself
The fancy man just rolls his eyes at Monika's response before he picks up and hands all of the bags to Bruce
(Fancy Man) "The first three bags holds exactly 870 silver coins. While the other three bags hold all the copper and bronze coins people used instead of silver"
In the world Bruce is in, money is universally the same everywhere since the god of currency has to put his divine enchantment on a coin for it to be considered as real money. The currency scale currently goes like this. Copper, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, orichalcum, mithril, adamantite. And the values look something like this 10 copper = 1 bronze, 10 bronze = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 platinum, 100 platinum = 1 orichalcum, 100 orichalcum = 1 mithril, 100 mithril = 1 adamantite. Now, back to the story
The fancy man then pulls a normal bag from his pocket and hands it to Bruce as well
(Fancy Man) "This bag isn't magic, but it holds 10 gold coins inside of it. Think of it as an extra reward for your troubles"
(Bruce) 'The extra coin bag is definitely him trying to butter me up for something...' {Telepathically}
(Monika) 'Agreed...'
Bruce accepts the bag with the gold coins
(Bruce) "Thank you for the extra money, but I think I should get going now"
(Fancy Man) "No problem. I would like to ask you a question or two before you leave though. Is that alright with you?"
(Bruce) 'Called it...'
Bruce lets out a sigh before answering
(Bruce) "Sure, go ahead and ask"
The fancy man smiles and clears his throat
(Fancy Man) "Well, you see. The primary purpose of our little fighting event was not to make a lot of money, although, that could be called a secondary purpose. But instead, it was to scout out talented individuals who might be interested in joining Renas exploration party, as they'll be setting out to explore the moment it gains enough members. And I was wondering if you and your friend here wanted to join?"
(Bruce) "Interesting, and your other question?"
(Fancy Man) "My other question pertains to how you unexpectedly defeated Rena, and I was curious if you also might be interested in joining the Evanwind family that Rena belongs to. Because after learning about your skills, the Evanwind family patriarch would definitely allow you entry"
(Bruce) "Would you like to elaborate more on, join family?"
(Fancy Man) "Well, that would mean marriage? As the patriarch has been trying to find someone Rena might like for years now, he's begun to worry that she'll never marry due to her talent and the conditions she's set. As she declared that she'll only marry someone who can defeat her in combat, while also being around the same rank and age as her. So, do you agree to either of my propositions?"
Bruce looks the fancy man straight in the eyes and then smiles
(Bruce) "I'm not sure whether or not I'll be interested in joining Renas exploration party or not, so I'll come and find you the moment I make up my mind. Don't worry about a place and time, I have my ways when it comes to finding people"
(Fancy Man) "Well, okay... And about the second question?"
Bruce smiles even more
(Bruce) {:D}
(Bruce) "No" {:D}
(Fancy Man) "Great! Welcome to the- wait, come again?"
(Bruce) "I said no. I mean, Rena is attractive and all, and I know the Evanwind family is powerful as well. It's just just that I have no interest in getting married right now, so I'd like to ask that you respect my decision and not pursue this topic any further"
Bruce and Monika then proceed to exit the room before the fancy man can reply
(Monika) 'So, why didn't you say yes? Didn't you say Rena was attractive?' {Telepathically}
(Bruce) 'And what's wrong with that? I think a lot of people are attractive, but that's all. After all, I'm not one of those isekai MC's who sees an attractive person of the female gender and instantly loses all common sense. I like to think with my head, er, I mean core. And not with the second brain that exists in between every guys legs... I mean, even in my previous life, I've never actually had a girlfriend. Many friends of the female gender, yes, but an actual girlfriend, no...'
(Monika) 'What about her powerful family background?'
(Bruce) 'I ain't no gold digger. And I'm not about to pull a Sims 4 just to become rich'
(Monika) 'Wait, I don't get it... Actually, hold on, I get it now. I just had to look through your memories a bit more to understand the reference...'
Bruce and Monika exit the building before they proceed to head over to the nearest Inn to stay the night
(Monika) '...'
(Bruce) 'What is it?'
(Monika) 'You are aware of our problematic guest, right?'
(Bruce) 'Yes, I am, and don't worry about it. I started acting the moment I noticed the problem'
Bruce and Monika proceed to enter the Inn and ask for a single room for two, and nothing eventful really happens. So they just simply head to their room
- - - - -
It's night time, and a man dressed in a black cloak can be seen skulking about the town. Staying in the darkness, and moving with such skill and precision, that even the most skilled individuals in the town would have a hard time detecting his presence
The man makes his way to an empty two story building, and jumps up to one of the open windows of the second floor before he enters the room through it. The man then closes the window and shuts the blinds before setting up a magic circle using some magic chalk. He then places a magic crystal in the center of the circle, and places 6 crystals filled with mana around the outside of the circle. And before he activates the circle, he covers the walls of the room in paper magic talismans to prevent anyone from sensing the circle once it activates
Once everything has been successfully set up, the man approaches his magical setup and activates it. The circle drains the mana from the outer crystals and directs it into the center crystal. The center crystal then begins to glow, and a voice can be heard from the other side
(Crystal) "Testing, testing, is the connection complete, please respond"
The man pulls out a magic rune with the insignia of the country Tsunami on it before he injects it with mana and speaks into it
(Cloaked Man) "The connection is complete sir, and I have successfully copied the safest route to the island that the rebels fled to"
The cloaked man pulls a magic scroll that contains the safest route to sandbox within, and is about to activate it, just for the crystal to talk again
(Crystal) "Again, testing, testing, please respond"
The cloaked man is confused for a second, because he could have sworn he set everything up correctly. So he starts double checking the setup of the magic circle and its components, but can't find anything wrong with any of it. And just as the cloaked man's about to check the circle and its components one last time, he hears an eerie metallic sounding voice talk from behind him
(???) "Don't bother checking again..."
The cloaked man immediately jumps back and draws two platinum short swords before taking a fighting stance. He doesn't immediately attack the individual in front of him, but is instead nervously thinking of an escape route. The cloaked man knew of only a few individuals in the town that he should be worried about, but even they couldn't sneak up on him to the level this person did. And it also doesn't help that as he looks at the armored individual, his instincts and field experience are telling him to get away as soon as possible
(???) "Why are you so surprised, I simply just came in through the window like you did. Although, it was a little creaky, so I decided to fix that part of the window while you were busy double checking if your magic circle was working or not"
The person standing in front of the cloaked man seems to be wearing a full set of black armor. But after the cloaked man looks at it a little bit longer, he can tell that whatever's standing in front of him isn't human, elven, or any other race he can think of. As some parts of the armor are shaped or made in ways that would make it impossible to wear unless you want your body torn apart
(Cloaked Man) "Who and what are you... Why are you interfering with my work"
The metal entity takes a step forward
(???) "I am the thing that is going to kill you, and for what I am, you don't need to know"
The moment the metal entity declared its intention to kill him, the cloaked man dashed towards the window at full speed, using everything he could muster to try and escape. Not even caring about how much noise he would make anymore. But he was immediately forced to stop when he barely managed to avoid a fast but thin needle that was shot at him
(???) "It's rude to leave when someones not done talking you know"
(Monika) 'Like you did with the fancy man?' {Telepathically}
(Bruce) 'Shut up, that was different!'
The metal entity then took another step towards the cloaked man
(???) "And for why I'm interfering, it's because it would be a pain in the ass if a massive army decided to show up at my doorstep. So I'm stopping it now"
The metal entity... wait for it... takes two more steps toward the cloaked man [10/10 plot twist]
(???) "Well, all that aside. I'll spare you if you can guess the correct answer of the question I give you. If you get it wrong, I'll just kill you before asking your friends on the other side the same exact thing"
Seeing that this was his only way out, the cloaked man lowered his weapons and decided to try his luck
(Cloaked Man) "Fine, what is the question"
As the words of the question leave the metal entities mouth, the cloaked man isn't sure whether or not it's being serious or not, while the sound of Monika's telepathic facepalm can be heard by everything with the telepathy skill within a ten mile radius
(Cloaked Man) "Ugh... What?"
(???) "Wrong answer"
The metal entity silently fires multiple thin metal needles even faster than before. One hits the cloaked mans throat to silence him, one flies through his solar plexus into his aorta, another needle flies through a gap in the bones and into his spinal cord to paralyze him, while a final special needle flies into his head to knock him unconscious so he doesn't have to suffer the pain of internally bleeding to death. The metal entity then loots the magic scroll with the directions to sandbox and destroys it before it approaches the magic circle
(???) "Now, it's their turn to answer"
- - - - -
(Officer) "Should we wait a little longer sir"
(Commanding Officer) "We'll wait a few more minutes, if it's not done by then, terminate the connection, and if we don't hear from him in another two weeks, he'll be considered MIA"
(Crystal) "Um... Hello"
All the officers in the room jump as an unfamiliar voice comes through the crystal
(Commanding Officer) "Who are you! And how did you send a message through this crystal. Only those with a magic rune specifically attuned to the magic crystal can speak using it. And even if you took our agents rune, the runes are soulbound, so only he could use it!"
(Crystal) "I'll answer all of your questions if you can answer mine"
(Commanding Officer) "Why would I do that!"
(Crystal) "Because I'm the one with all the answers, so if you want to figure anything that just happened today out, you'd better answer correctly"
(Commanding Officer) "Urgh, fine, just give me a minute or two, and then you can go ahead and ask me your question"
The commanding officer sends another officer to the room next door to deliver a message. And when the officer returns, he is followed by all of the brightest minds in the entire country of Tsunami who decided to accept the new government. There are mathematicians, wizards, sorcerers, strategists, engineers, economists, and more all surrounding the crystal. All of Tsunamis greatest minds in just about every field now surround the crystal, the pressure is building, and an eerie silence fills the air. What sort of question would this mysterious individual who's capable of easily hijacking one of their military grade devices possibly ask them. What sort of monstrous conundrum would they have to face to get the answers they seek... And then... It came...
(Crystal) "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
After the words left the crystal, the room became silent for what seemed like forever... And for a fraction of a microsecond, if anyone was listening closely at that time. They would've been able to hear the sound of Cognilia Omnilous, the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, and all other intellectually related things. Have a deific brain aneurysm...
(Commanding Officer) "Wait... Are you being serious right now..."
(Crystal) "Sorry pal... That's the wrong answer"
The communication crystal begins to glow a bright blue color, and those proficient at magic in the room immediately start creating a magical barrier to reduce the damage of the blast
(Wizard) "Everyone get out of the room!"
The crystal then proceeds to violently explode, shattering the magic barriers of all the spellcasters, severely injuring everyone in the room, and even injuring most people in the rooms adjacent or close to the main room. No one died thanks to the work of the spellcasters, but everyone still got severely injured, and the event is now being investigated vigorously by the country
- - - - -
The crystal in front of Bruce shatters into almost dust like shards after he sends a massive surge of mana through it to the other side. After that, he begins to clean up and dispose of all the evidence in the room
(Monika) 'What exactly do? After you uh, asked the, *cough*, question'
(Bruce) 'Oh, after hijacking the crystals communication system. Instead of sending mana to the otherside in the form of words, I just simply sent a ridiculous amount of mana through instead. Thus, causing my end to break from forcing so much mana through it, while the other end violently explodes as my mana evicted those militaristic fools from the room before doing some serious renovations to the surrounding area so that rest of the mana I sent through could move into the neighborhood'
(Monika) 'I... See...'
Monika then incoporally looks over to where the cloaked man used to be before Bruce turned his corpse into DP
(Monika) 'Also, isn't this the spot in a isekai novel where you start freaking out about killing someone?'
Bruce shrugs his metallic shoulders
(Bruce) 'Nah, I would've had to kill sooner or later, so what's the point in making a big deal about it'
Bruce's tone suddenly turns more serious as he keeps talking
(Bruce) 'But to say that I don't care or even enjoy that I had to kill someone is far from wrong. If I need to kill someone, I'll kill them, and I won't regret it. Because when he signed up for his job, I'm pretty darn sure he knew the risks involved, especially if he was an experienced veteran at it. That guy knew the risks, and he just happened to roll a nat1 today when he met me. So all I can do now is move forwards and try to make the most out of this new life I've been given, and to accept the reality that I'm going to be forced to take other lives away every now and then'
Bruce's tone goes back to normal
(Bruce) 'Man does everything feel awkward now. *Sigh*. I guess that's what happens when you go into super duper serious monologue mode. Anyways, back to the main issue at hand...'
(Monika) 'Yes indeed, because now that this minor nuisance has been taken care of-'
(Bruce) 'We can now give our new unwanted guests our metaphorically undivided attention'
Bruce looks toward the direction of where a magic portal is materializing. The portal is red in color and is located on the opposite side of the island from where the town is located. Bruce has already made sure to hide its presence so that no one in the town can detect it, that way, he can deal with the problem without anyone asking questions
(Monika) 'Oh, and I forgot to ask... What's with the new golem body. And why wasn't I aware that you made it in the first place...'
(Bruce) 'I was waiting for you to ask about it. This is my new assassin golem, it's made to be stealthy, fast, and extremely deadly. I put lots of work into the many different hidden weapons contained within its body, with most of the weapon designs being inspired by Tang Sans hidden weapons from the Douluo Dalu series'
(Monika) 'That explains the first half of my question...'
(Bruce) 'Ah... Well, I may or may not have a secret lab that I've been hiding from you...'
Silence...
(Monika) 'Give me a second...'
(Bruce) 'Wait, what for-'
Bruce's sentence is suddenly cut off as he's forced to engage Monika in a game of mental tug of war. With Monika trying to see what Bruce is hiding in his secret lab, while Bruce tries to keep her from seeing his secret stash of stuff. In real time, it's only been seconds, but in mindscape time, it's been several hours. And eventually, Monika gives up her attempts to satisfy her curiosity
(Monika) 'Fine, you win, I'll leave it alone'
(Bruce) 'That's good, and don't worry. It's not like I'm creating some apocalyptic device or creature that'll destroy the world or anything. If anything, it's full of super fun surprises like this golem body I'm using right now'
(Monika) 'Okay...'
(Bruce) 'Thank you...'
(Monika) 'Can I ask at least one more question though, and I promise it's the last one'
(Bruce) 'Sure, go ahead' [Seals fate]
(Monika) 'That golems body is composed almost entirely of black steel yes. So if you could, please tell me how much DP you spent creating that expensive looking body you've got there...' [Fate in action]
(Bruce) 'Haha... Oh look, my primary golem body has almost reached the magic portal. Lets pay attention to that, shall we' [Bruce uses the ability "Topic Change"]
(Monika) 'Yeah, great idea. First of all, I'd like to talk about all those expensive looking upgrades you've added to it. And that new Cobalt exterior looks really cool, it must have cost quite a lot for you to create such a fine masterpiece, right?' [Bruce rolls a nat1 for literally everything. Digging himself a hole so deep that even the TON618 black hole would look tiny compared to it]
- - - - -
As the red portal finally opens, a demonic aura spills out of it like a cataclysmic tidal wave. And from the crimson red depths of the portal, three powerful armored demons emerge from it, ready to fight anything at a moments notice
(Demon #1) "So this is where the strange mana readings came from right"
The second demon seems to be holding a strange magic device that looks different from any of the other items they're carrying. Well, that and the strange ancient aura that emanates from the thing like it's trying to show off how ancient and mysterious it is
(Demon #2) "Well yes, and according to this ancient magical device we found in those ancient runes we explored earlier this month. The island we're on should just be a small lump of sand and rock, but for some reason, it has been growing at an unnatural pace for some time now"
The third demon seems to be fed up with the other two, most likely because they've been talking for a long time before they traveled through the portal
(Demon #3) "Shut up, both of you. It seems that someone's come to greet us"
Bruce's metallic body can be seen walking across the beach towards the demons, and after a short period of time, he finally reaches them
(Bruce) "Thank you for waiting for me- {Looks at demon #2} wait just a second... Is that a freaking flip phone!"
- - - - -
https://discord.gg/jwMSCyB