Chapter 47: The Cool Aunt.

—Luine POV—“AAAAARRRRRGHHGHHGGHHG!!!”

My breath hitched, and my muscles clamped up for a tenth of a tenth of a moment. I looked at Haell and saw dread incarnate upon the imp’s armored form.

It was brief, it was short, not even enough to make a difference if I was fighting someone,

That was absurd, it should not be, and yet it was.

I smiled, and allowed the following carnage to play out. Plenty of times I questioned if I should intervene, her wounds painting an unkind picture, the risk of death apparent. But Haell was not yet down, she had not given up, and I could not bring myself to trample upon that spirit.

My patience was rewarded with a glorious victory. It was yet another ridiculous feat to kill something an evolution above her, when she had just barely crossed into the level 10s, but nothing this girl did will surprise me anymore.

She feasted upon the remains of her foe in the next moment, and…. well, that wasn’t uncommon at all in nature. I knew plenty of people did that. Although Haell’s… enthusiasm was certainly… commendable. Yes.

I jumped back down to collect her, but Haell immediately attacked me upon seeing my face. That was not fair, I was so nice, I was the cool aunt.

I knocked her out and dragged her back to safety. Because I was such a cool aunt!

Salaire would agree.

—Back to Haell POV. She’s the best—

[Menace Heart has reached Level 11!

I stared at my notifications, first thing upon waking up. I recalled the events of last night, up until I was slammed into a tree. Poor tree. The rest then came, like tar being squeezed out through a plastic tube. I remembered the sheer violence of my emotions, the victory that I sought, and then how Luine knocked me out. That was not very nice.

“Hey Luine!” I called out to the woman from across the cavern. The bedding was alright, the pillow serviceable, but we did not even have our own rooms. Really poor service. “Is it normal to level up your Mutations this fast after evolving? Maybe there’s bleed-over experience from before I evolved them? I did wait a while…”

Her eyebrows raised, her eyes widened. “You got new Mutations, right? They leveled? Like, to level 2?”

“Oh. Oh no, those leveled up a while ago. They’re up to three now. But I mean… not just one but quite a lot of my Mutations have reached level 11.”

She blinked. “That’s… of them?”

“Yep! I’m awesome.”

“Yes. Awesome. Ridiculous. Same thing, I suppose.”

“I am indeed very funny. You think I can make it as a comedian?”

“Uhh… Right, sure. That’s cute, Haell. Anyway, you’re not bullshitting me? You really reached level 11 in everything!?”

I blinked. “Not silly. Just some.”

“Right. Right…” She paced around the room, until a beaming smile split her face. “That’s great! Keep going just like that!”

“Yes! Of course! But again, don’t get your hopes up, there could be bleed-over Levels here!” I waited for a long while before upgrading my Mutations.

“Ah, right, yeah. I don’t actually know if that’s a thing. People don’t typically wait around before evolving their Mutations. Why would they?”

“To become a demon?”

“No one knew about demons before you arrived! And no one was crazy enough to try the same suicidal thing. Which I reiterate, what you did was bloody dangerous, and I still can’t believe you remain here after that stunt.”

I loved people talking about my achievements like this. Really strokes the ego. I didn’t know if that was wise.

“Aww, come on. I thought you were the cool aunt.”

She froze, then whirled around to face me. “I brought you into the middle of the dangerous wilderness, to stay underneath a bare and sparsely decorated cavern. I just watched as you slaughtered and screamed your way through hordes of monsters, allowing yourself to fully get it out of your system.”

“Hmm. All good points. Fair. I defer to you, cool aunt.”

“Good.”

We both giggled, and went about our day. Which for me mostly consisted of laying around in bed because I was still sore despite the fact that most of the damage had indeed been healed. Baston and the rest probably didn’t realize that the work was still not over, even with how much they’d already done with healing me while I was asleep.

I allowed my regen heart to heal the rest, observing how it did its work. The organ was less efficient now, it really did work better in the middle of combat or other high-stress situations, because of how it beat faster. The remaining damage slowly healed and I had time to review and ponder upon the experience and the fights that I had just experienced.

“Menace Training!” I shouted after a day in bed. Three pairs of eyes turned to look at me, but they all collectively shrugged and went back to their own work.

Moonwash was decorating the place and laying the foundations for an eventual forge. She made furniture from scratch, and she made use of the various hides and other materials that we brought with us. Baston was concealing us further with plants, and he was also setting up an underground garden.

Luine was outside, lazing around.

Kidding, I knew she was keeping an eye out and all that.

“Fine then, don’t ask…” I grumbled upon being ignored by them. I summoned a ball of menace magic and swirled it around on my palm. It was weak. Far weaker than what I used before.

That was the biggest takeaway with my recent excursion. Menace mana responded to my emotions, it grew stronger the more I fed into its… desires.

This was something I knew about before, but I had not experienced how far it could truly be taken if only I allowed myself to succumb.

Of course, I had no intentions to lose myself. I was no slobbering beast.

The memories of activating my Hyperdemon Gland resurfaced and I shivered. Not entirely in a negative way.

The crux of the matter was that I needed control. My emotions were far too unreliable otherwise, and I had to learn how to on command, or otherwise convey the same sense of urgency to my magic.

To use my emotions as a weapon.

A list of objectives.

Feel “menacing” thoughts on command.Stop feeling “menacing” thoughts on command.Be able to function properly and logically, even when feeling very negative things.Profit.

“Profit?” Moonwash asked after I’d given her my list to read.

“Profit.”

“...You can make more money if you become stronger. And this will make you stronger.”

“Exactly. You get it.”

“Okay. Anyway, how your emotions affect the intensity of your magic is very interesting. I’m also very interested in infusing objects with your menace magic. It apparently happens much more quickly with curse-aligned elements, as we’ve seen with the goblins.” She handed me an ornate knife, with an equally ornate sheathe. I knew she made it herself. “Here, infuse this with curse magic.”

“How?”

“Maybe by just pouring your mana into it? It is a process that happens naturally, so it should work even better if you’re actively doing it. Or perhaps it’s the opposite? But probably not, there are actually large-scale projects to infuse weapons with an element, so there is precedent. There are rumors that the goblins have done exactly this with their wicked magic, if rarely. There have even been cases where well-made weapons have been left out in the middle of goblin camps in order to ‘mature’ them, be it through rituals or sheer exposure.”

“Wow. They tried to treat goblins as a fucking farm. I’m pretty sure of that is illegal. So I totally support the people doing it!” It was legitimately dangerous to wield cursed weapons, but that ship had long sailed when I held the same sort of energy within myself.

Moonwash rummaged around her newly made shelf, she really took no time at all in making the piece of furniture from scratch. She found the feathers of a dead cloudbird and then waved it around. I touched it and it was wet.

“Infused. The ability to create rain with their wing flaps remains, although weaker than in life, I think. But not by much anyhow.”

“Ah. That’s cool.”

“I think this should be kind of similar to how infused weapons work. I know it’s because the feather is a Mutation, but their power comes from the presence of a deeper and more… permanent form of mana that is present within them. It is not the mana that we find usable, but something more akin to whatever force makes The Endless Dive what it is. It is magic infused and inseparable to a single object, leading to all sorts of effects.” She stared right at the tiny piece of feather in her hands. Moonwash then dropped it and grabbed something else from the shelf, something I was familiar with. The horn of a goeath.

“Ah! I remember those! I used them to grow myself horns.” I tapped my own horns. “The result turned out to be different though.”

“Yes. I intend to explore that. Later.” I sensed impatience from her tone, and perhaps some annoyance. I realized that she truly was annoyed when she grabbed a wand and fireballed me in the face!

“Aaahhh!!”

“What?” Moonwash asked. She did summon a fireball, but it was definitely far away from my face. She wouldn’t do that to me. “Did it really hurt?”

“Ah, no. Not at all. I was joking.” I laughed sheepishly and crawled back next to her.

“It wasn’t funny.”

I died.

Moonwash continued to speak upon my grave. “Now without the horn.” She tossed the things away, and then made another fireball. “It is far weaker, despite me using the same amount of effort. Actually, I’m not sure if I executed that correctly.” She handed the fire wand to me. “Here, make yourself useful and do a fireball.”

“...Yes ma'am.”

I did as she asked, and mine was already noticeably bigger than Moonwash’s. She retrieved the horns and my fireball became larger when she came back.

“You see? It still works. Some body parts don’t, like the heart or the brain. Mana founts don’t work either. But some Mutations do still work post-mortem. It’s strange. But I think… things made of harder materials like chitin, or bones, or repositories, are more likely to work upon harvesting. Things that are outside the body seem to be a factor too. Hides and skin typically still function.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I have many interesting parts that could be harvested when I’m dead.”

Moonwash took out a dagger and pointed it right at my head. “Actually, you have a healing heart, and we could also heal you after…”

“What? No!” I complained, genuinely upset.

Moonwash smiled. “I’m joking.”