After watching Milia blast the Serina woman into the sky, I decided to address the many curious people that had gathered. Sensing the hero’s party watching, I raised my aura.
“Cheat Force, assemble!” I chanted, power in my voice. And yes, I probably sounded like Lion-O or He-Man. The hero’s party debated on whether to cringe or feel honored but had no idea why. If I was going to be stuck wearing this outfit in front of people, so were they.
One thing I learned was that the Saint magician realm was actually not sainthood. No, the system thought it’d be a good idea to change me into a real saint, my consent be damned. Magicians had an extremely small chance of becoming one after reaching the realm.
Oh wait, what was I doing! I should be able to make potions with the holy affinity now. No sooner than the thoughts came, the system prompt emerged. One of my favorites, in fact, that I missed dearly.
[New listing added, Basic Purification Potion.]
[Basic Purification Potion. You may consume or pour this on anyone tainted with darkness, undead, and unholy sicknesses, blights, or various effects. A high-quality version of this potion will prevent these effects for 24 hours.]
[Warning, creating a blighted version of this is considered unethical. Extreme punishment comes to those who use these on the innocent.]
So what you’re saying, System, is that I’m free to do so as long as I don’t give it to people. Got it!
The system didn’t reply, but if I could see its face, the eye would probably be twitching.
While the hero’s party approached in their outfits and Milia beat up Serina, I checked the potions available to me.
Potions Unlocked:
[Current self-use potions: Health, Energy, General Medicine, Speed Booster, Sleeping, Clarity.]
[Complex self-use potions: Minor Luck.]
[Special potions: Night Vision, *Mana Core, Water Breathing, Masking, Eagle Sight, Shadow, God Flame, Summoning, Blood Lightning.]
[Utility potions: Lighting.]
[Misc potions: Flavors, Basic Purification.]
[Mid-tier Special potions: Potion of Water Spirits.]
[*Grand-tiered potions: Potion of Storms.]
The only thing missing to complete my little arsenal was support potions, like maybe some to increase attack, defense. Then again, Chenzu handled that just fine. I was talking about dungeon diving for ingredients, of course. The hell do we look like, an adventurer’s party? No hero duty for me. Aside… from this incident. Hey, protecting potential customers… never mind.
The sooner we ranked Kyushu to the appropriate rank, the better, so that the guards could actually be useful. I seriously needed access to that town management system, without the politics, of course. Unfortunately, the system didn’t cave even the slightest to my hopes.
Closing out the windows, I glanced at the even larger crowd of excited people. By now, Serina was unconscious and handcuffed, on her way to jail. She’d be receiving the same fate as her brother for, you know, committing casual terrorism.
Why in the hell would she risk coming here? Oh yeah, overconfident noble magicians. I’m taking back my love for this world.
“We’re just passing through,” I told the people. “Call us the Cheat Force, and do try to keep our appearance a secret, alright?”
“Are you Raider!?” asked some young woman, her eyes filled with something I would not be paying attention to. Fanaticism.
Ignoring her, I continued speaking. “Carry on, nothing more to see here, just cleaning up the trash. Your mayor was right to ask us for help before this crazy Starrigon girl attacked your town for no good reason.”
Their eyes widened and my plan to damage the Starrigon name had successfully started. “But hey, rumors say the duke punishes family members that embarrass their name severely. So do make sure that upon mailing your loved ones, the word gets out about their reckless behavior.”
Not a single ordinary person in the crowd could afford their ridiculously overpriced coffee, so I didn’t risk damaging the economy with my words. Hopefully. The nobles wouldn’t give a shit if a town like this got attacked. They’d still purchase their products without a care in the world. Something totally normal on Earth.
The crowd didn’t disperse until the guards finally did their damn jobs. Let’s just say the crowd had an entire rainbow’s worth of language directed at them. Honestly, it was kind of a miracle anyone even applied for a law enforcement position in this town.
“You should know what to do with her,” I said as I turned to the mayor. “Make sure you keep it professional, of course, but also the kingdom needs to know that randomly attacking towns is nothing more than embarrassing banditry.”
I motioned for the Cheat Force to follow and without saying another word to the mayor, we started toward the town exit. The mayor had the foresight to have his guard prevent people from tailing us, reminding them that we were magicians. Just hearing the word magician made just about all of them back off.
A little boy, roughly five years of age, somehow caught up to me.
“Sir Raider, Sir Raider,” he said, holding up what appeared to be an old sketchbook and quill. Something he likely snuck out of his parent’s bedroom or something. “Please sign my book.”
Seeing no harm with humoring the kid, I signed the name of my persona. I also gave the kid a hug at his insistence. Dammit, Milia was probably right about me being a softy. Hopefully they didn’t start making Raider action figures. I planned to ditch this persona eventually when my shop got big enough and my name known for the first time. For now, it served as a tool to fight without exposing myself as something the kingdom should look at. Judging by the amusement I felt oozing from my fiancée, I wouldn’t be surprised to receive some teasing about this encounter later.
After making sure nobody followed us, we set off into the deep east, moving at top speed until meeting up with Beakwing.
“How was the hunt, buddy?” I asked as I scratched underneath the griffin’s chin. He purred and let out a snort of victory. “Glad you enjoyed the meal.”
The hero’s party had already changed out of their cloaks, into their normal clothing.
“Did you really have to involve us in that?” Iris whined.
I know the smirk curled across my face, that or a shit-eating grin.
“Oh, come on, it was fun, right? Showing these people the Cheat Force,” I said, gaining the satisfying cringing and groans. Except from the twerp, of course, who loved her pink cloak and goofy mask.
“We seriously have to do that more,” the twerp cheered.
“Aren’t you used to fame by now?” Milia said, shaking her head, though her amusement still increased, indicating that she enjoyed this far too much. There wasn’t a thing I’d be able to say to undo my slight regrets of starting up the Cheat Force. Well, now was as good as a time as any to own up to it, maybe be proud of it instead. So I humored the twerp a little.
“This will definitely not be the last time we have to dress up, so get used to it,” I said. “But look at the bright side. It’s better than being slaves to the capital.”
“That’s true,” Maxus said, though he still gained my narrow-eyed gaze for replacing the Cheat Force cloak with his rogue’s cloak. The only difference being that one was gray and the other, black.
Roman sighed. “There’s one problem with this.”
“What?” I asked.
“There’s no possible way we can keep up with your level of strength,” Ramon continued.
“Well, you’d better push more effort into training,” I said, turning my gaze right at the twerp. “Buying twenty honey cakes isn’t going to cut it.”
Ronica flinched, smiling sheepishly as her colleagues turned to glare at her.
“I’ll have you know, there was a perfectly justified reason for buying those honey cakes,” she said, pouting.
“Enlighten us,” I said, stare nearly blank.
“They were on sale!” she defended, and I swear, I think all of us almost fell.
As much as Nate wanted to keep his persona and his own identity a secret, the praising, speculation, chatter, fawning, loving, hating of Raider spread throughout the town like a godfire-infused wildfire. The Cheat Force didn’t get out of admiration, either.
“I can’t believe Raider came to our town and I only caught a glimpse of him,” a young man said to his friend. He frowned, practically glowing with envy. “To think the guards let a five-year-old child slip past them and talk to the entirety of the Cheat Force is not fair.”
“I still doubt they’d just take you in and train you,” his friend said. “Just accept the fact that you’re either going to be unmarried and running your dad’s stand or married to that farm girl.”
“She isn’t interested in some loser like me, but that’s why I’d like the chance to get stronger.”
The young man’s friend chuckled. “You and like everyone else probably.” He returned to catering to the horses.
In a flower shop, an older woman hummed a pleasant tune, her two twenty-year-old daughters assisting with shop preparations. Her husband was still out retrieving materials from Tom, and her son was hunting wild game with his team.
“Mother, what do you think of Raider?” one of the daughters asked.
She turned to the starry-eyed young woman. “It is too early to say. To think the rumors of him existing are true. But do be careful when it comes to famous people. They may not be as friendly as you think.”
“Love to crash the fun as usual,” her other daughter said, but thankfully did not share the same naïve eyes as her sister. “Thank goodness.”
Her sister glared at her.
And the talk spread and spread, emerging to every dinner table, shop, the farm and its vast fields, the tavern, the town square, markets, the woods where woodworkers worked, noble houses, and even the halls of the mayor’s building.
“Father, I want to marry him now! I can feel it, he’s the one. A charming prince and hero, and I have a feeling he’s going to protect more places like ours. You should arrange a marriage, get him in our family. I’ll be first of our family to join the Cheat Force.”
The minor noble looked at his annoying falsely lovestruck daughter, who was barely an adult, and laughed. Then he returned to reading his paper, tuning out everything around him.
We ran the shop as usual for the rest of the morning, and I listened to many people talk about Raider and his Cheat Force. People were… weird. That’s something about humanity that remained consistent throughout the universe. I started to dread the consequences of my identity ever getting leaked. The hero’s party, excluding Ramon, were somewhat my friends, but they would likely keep it safe out of fear. Especially Ramon.
Milia’s amusement surprisingly didn’t die from the numerous declarations of marriages, challenges, enlistments, manhunts, invitations to God knows what, and the list went on. On the other hand, I considered staging the Raider’s death. The teenagers seemed to be in a rather upbeat mood today.
It should blow over, right? I did nothing that impressive, really. Hell, it was Cheat Force Green that did the fighting, but somehow I got the credit. Surely, the novelty of defeating the Black Knight and stopping his rampage died already, right?
No, this was likely the case of people adding things to the rumors until blowing up the singular encounter from Wingston.
During our lunch break, I went to the lab, pulling out the red cube to see what I could buy.
[Current options. Buildings. Tools. Garden. Forges. Equipment and Devices. Farm. Shop. Structures.]
Seeing the forges reminded me to check on my order from Lucas. Before I did that, I purchased the heavenly blacksmithing tools for fifty spirit coins.
[Tools. Currently unlocked.
1. Dungeon Detector. Price: 30 spirit coins.
2. Heavenly Blacksmithing Tools. Price: 50 spirit coins, requires a good forge.
3. Gadget Assist Pixie. Price: 80 spirit coins.
4. D-ranked Mana Striker Device. Price: 100,000 spirit coins.
5. D-ranked Oracle Spirit Stone. Price: 150,000 spirit coins and one C-ranked or higher standard mana stone.
6. Mana Steam Engine. Price: 395,000,000 spirit coins.]
I considered purchasing the wine cellar, especially for Milia, but held back, deciding to stick with my plan of saving up for one of the major items.
[Heavenly Blacksmithing Tools. Requires a good forge. Using these tools, especially with a heavenly forge hammer, will automatically increase the quality and ranking of items made by at least once. These tools will help pave the way for an aspiring blacksmith to create even divine and beyond tools, weapons, armor, containers, so on. Requires apprenticeship under a master magician to work.]
Alright, I get it, System, damn! I wasn’t going to fire the kid. Besides, I rather enjoyed watching Lucas progress. All three of the brats were equally interesting. Harmony with the potential to become a master magician one day, Mandi as a gadgetmancer capable of defeating foes with no powers, Lucas a half-dwarf magician with the potential of forging something that would end up in legends. Though I hoped Mandi would get on with forming her core already. We had limits when it came to training her, though I wouldn’t be surprised if she invented something to circumvent them.
Lucas was at his forge when I waved at him. The excited look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know about the status of my first order. However, the shock that probably formed on my face only made the kid smile wider, knowing that he exceeded my expectations. I asked for C-ranked, after all, to replace my old ones. He went above and beyond and made one for each hand.
[Dwarven Power Silver Knuckles. Item rank: A. Item quality: Superior, heavenly attuned. Blacksmith: Lucas Fireborn. It would be a bad day for anyone hit by these. Chance to be ripped apart by the force of heaven itself!]
[Due to the forge being basic, not only did it take Lucas significantly longer to form this item, but the quality, rank, and effects were reduced. Get a better forge!]
“Holy shit,” I said softly, ignoring the annoying system that chose not to mention its monthly restriction. “You are more than just a natural. Fantastic. You passed with flying colors!”
[Lucas is now an S-ranked apprentice. You have automatically paid Lucas 1 contribution point. Lucas has received a bonus contribution point. You received 2,000 spirit coins! Number of spirit coins: 45,301.]
One had to love just how much the system trusted me to distribute points to my students fairly. Just automatically doing so, because why not. First off, spirit coin income. Why would I not reward my apprentices? Two, I got reequipped through my student. How cool was that?
Seeing Lucas’s excitement at having gained his S-rank and the most contribution points, I smiled. The others most certainly saw his gains. Looks of determination flared into their eyes.
Since we currently had a basic forge, I accessed the menu and added the heavenly blacksmithing tools to the reward pool. Suddenly, the silver and gold toolbox the size of a large suitcase vanished from my grasp.
Setting the price, I accessed the apprentice ranking system.
[Apprentice Ranking System. Detecting apprentices… 4.]
[Harmony Rue, Mandi Wingston, Lucas Fireborn, Alexander Demonblade.]
[For every approved feat your apprentices accomplish, they will be awarded contribution points. They will see the prompts and know this is possible by the MMABS. You can only personally give them up to 2 points per week. The system will decline any attempt to just give them away for free; however, you will be responsible for most of the rewards. Every reward you give will generate spirit coins with a 1% chance of generating heavenly spirit coins if the situation is great enough.]
[Harmony Rue. Magician rank: 6th realm of the Novice. Apprentice rank: S. Points: 1.
Mandi Wingston. Mortal. Apprentice rank: S. Points: 1.
Lucas Fireborn. Magician rank: 8th realm of the Beginnings. Apprentice rank: S. Points: 3.
Alexander Demonblade. Magician rank: sealed. Untrained. Apprentice rank: S. Points: 1.
Reward pool.
–Heavenly Blacksmithing Tools. Requires a good forge. Price: 2 contribution points.]
“Alright everyone, break’s over, back to the shop in ten minutes,” I announced. “Alexander, how are you holding up?”
The kid saluted fist to chest, then grinned. “Quite good, Sir Nate. Thank you for the meditation tip and letting me try the spiritual room. Although, Mazu’s kind of wary of it.”
“Ah, the fox? Where is he?”
“He… seems to be talking to Wolverine and the others,” Alexander said, pointing out quite the scene. The golden fox looked as if he was lecturing all of the pets and… the calf. It still felt a bit weird having a baby cow as a spirit beast, but that was the way the cookie of life crumbled. Moo Moo, mother… Okay, I won’t go there. But you know what I mean.
“Thank God people around me can’t read my thoughts,” I muttered to myself.
I recalled the damage shield prompt received after the shop upgraded to its D-rank. How did the shop end up attached to the town in the first place?
[D-ranked Shop Damage Shield. Increase the shop’s rank to increase its protection. This shield also protects the safe, not that it is needed due to the dryad’s spell.
Unfortunately, until the town this shop is attached to is upgraded, your farm cannot be considered a safe zone and will not grant any divine protection. With the town sitting at a pathetic, awful, downright embarrassing F-rank, you will receive no local high-tier customers. Upgrade this town, or it will be impossible to build a legacy as a proper potion maker.]
System, could I remove my shop’s attachment to Kyushu?
[No. It was determined that reaching your shop’s maximum potential required a town. Without a town, there are no customers. People are naturally wary of any shop in the middle of nowhere without a town affiliated to it.]
Fair enough. I sure as shit wouldn’t want to stop at a rundown store in the middle of the woods. Just as I started to relax, beginning our second half of the workday, a cloaked, buff customer walked in. The rough-looking middle-aged man took out a crossbow and aimed it right at me.
“I suggest you start loading up your gold or you’ll be wondering why you didn’t comply in the afterlife, lad.”
I finally understood why having an F-ranked town truly sucked ass. Crime. No wonder why we were getting attacked so often.
