Daily Life with Three Systems: Chapter 23

"Give it up for Fairy Tail's newest S-Class! Koneko Toujou!" Makarov shouts causing the people around us to cheer in response.  

"NOW LET'S GO BACK TO THE GUILD TO PARTY!" He continues, raising his hands into the air. 

"Welp. I'm going home." I decide. 

"Oh... uhm... why? Is it just... being social?" Natsuki asks. 

"Nah. I got another goal for myself I want to start on." 

"Oh... like... a goal goal?" 

"Yep. One that'll last about all year." I nod slowly as Rias and Koneko walk over. 

The redhead is sulking, the cat looks as if it had gotten the canary. 

"I win." She declares. 

I pat her head, causing Rias to pout more. "Good job, Koneko." 

"You gave it a good try, Rias, but the last trial just suited Koneko more. That's just how it is sometimes." I shrug, causing the girl to cross her arms. 

"Now. I'm going back home. Enjoy the party."  

"Mhhn." Koneko grumbles as I stop patting her head. 

With that, wings sprout from my back, I take off into the sky, then get struck by a bolt of lightning, the ground below becoming nothing more than a green blur as I fly the miles back to Magnolia in mere seconds. 

I circle the town, having slightly overshot, then land in my front yard. 

"Alright... now to read this book." 

[Split] 

I close the book with a thud, hands steepling in front of my face. 

"You look troubled." The demon across the room observes. 

"I got a new task from that random omnipotent being... I have to make magical items." 

"Oh... interesting." She comments, tilting her head slightly. "Do you have any ideas?" 

"That's the part I'm troubled about." I groan, shoulders slumping slightly. "The book on ring magic gave me some examples, but it mostly talked about the affinities of certain materials and how to bind spells to them. I just... don't know what I want to make. Unique things would grant more rewards, so I don't really just want to craft a bunch of rings of firebolt." 

"I see. A conundrum." She comments. 

"Tsk-" I quietly click my tongue. "Actually..." 

I tap my fingers slowly. "Seilah... do you know the spell Abyss Break?" 

"I can't say that I do." She shakes her head. 

"Shit." I sigh. "it's a fairly destructive spell. Heavenly Body Magic. But to use it you need to know Fire, Wind, Earth, and Water magic. I was thinking that if I could put that in a ring..." 

"I'm afraid I cannot help you there." She shakes her head. 

"Shame." I sigh as I call Virgo's key to my hand. 

"Open, Gate of the Maiden: Virgo." 

FLASH  

"You rang?" The pink haired girl appears with a beaming smile. 

"I need to make magic items this year. Are there any celestial spirits which could help?"  I ask causing her to perk up. 

"Oh! There are some, yes." She confirms. "Not many, but there are a few. You should look for Ara the Altar, they'll improve the result of your creation a small bit if you use them while crafting. Then Fornax the Furnace can create unique magical alloys and even unique metals entirely like Celestial Steel!" 

She seems to think for a moment. "Beyond those two... technically Solarium the sundial would help... not because it'll help you, but because it strengthens celestial spirits. When combined with the other two you should see some notable improvements." 

"Alright." I nod slowly, a plan slowly forming. "Seilah, how does your 'Macro' work exactly?" 

"I can give commands to people and objects." She replies simply. 

"What is... the limit to such things." I ask. "Like... if you were to write 'soften' on an object, would it soften?" 

"I'm afraid that I can only control physical actions, such as movement or attack." 

A small sigh leaves my lips. "Alright, that's fine... maybe I can do something with Light Ecriture. But your magic could be useful in steadying my hands if I need it. Do you think it would be possible to let me draw runes at a scale far smaller than normal?" 

She seems to stop, thinking for a moment. "Perhaps? Why. What do you have in mind?" 

I was thinking about having two lines of rings that go around the outside of a ring, but do you think it would be possible to create like... a spiral?" 

"I am... unsure." The etherious frowns, cupping her chin. "It would be a potentially helpful experiment certainly." 

"Alright. In which case... Virgo do you have any paper on you?" 

"Yes master!" 

"Can you write a note to the others that I will be out searching for celestial spirit keys? I'm going to be scrying the locations of the things I need." 

[Split] 

"So... Ara is around Oak Town, there's an unclaimed Fornax all the way in Alakitasia- and that's a maybe... it's merely in the direction. It could be on an island or in the sea somewhere in between. Annnnd... the same could be said for Solarium but for Guiltina." I sigh. "Fucking wonderful. I've got to fly all the way across the ocean... twice. Well, technically speaking thrice if I want to get back home."  

"Virgo. Pack a lunch. This is going to be a several-day thing probably." I grumble. 

"Yes master!" 

[Split] 

I step through the streets of Oak town, a small frown on my lips. 

A towering guild hall rests up atop a nearby hill. Phantom Lord. 

I'm decidedly not showing any form of Fairy Tail branding right now. Not that I'm scared. But because I don't really want to deal with a bunch of annoying wizards. 

A small circular screen appears in front of me, a smaller version of my map. It's less noticeable and takes less energy to cast. 

Sooo... I'm looking for... that building there. 

I look up, seeing a magic shop down the street. I nod slowly quickly making my way over and inside. 

A bell above the door jingles, an old man walking out of the back. "Can I help you?" 

"I'm looking for celestial Spirit keys. Do you have any?" I ask, glancing around at the numerous items lining the walls.  

"Ah. You're in luck. We have a few in stock."  

He pulls out a case with a cushion in it, within the box are four keys, one silver and three copper. 

The symbol on the base are all different. 

Meh, might as well grab them all if I want to start that celestial spirit collection. 

"How much for all of them." 

"A million jewel!" 

"Whatever." I toss a stack of bills on the table and with a single swipe take all four keys. I'm not in the mood to haggle. That genuinely sounds like such a pain. "Thanks. Bye." 

I promptly leave, heading out the door. 

"Virgo." I call out just as I make it outside. "Can you tell me the names of these four keys, please?" 

"That would be Bootes the herdsman as the silver key, then Ara the Alter, Lyra the Lyre, and Rosa the Rose for the copper keys." 

"I see, thank you." I nod once causing the girl to beam me another bright smile then disappear with a flash of golden light. 

I turn and begin walking, Requiping Virgo's key away. 

As I continue to walk I notice something, causing me to let out a long sigh. 

I step out of the town, walking into the woods. 

My finger lazily traces symbols in the air as I continue walking, idly pondering if I should use Light Ecriture for this. 

Nah. Thaumaturgy should be more than enough. 

"Oi." A voice calls out, I slowly turn, a frown on my lips. 

"What?" I ask. 

"I couldn't help notice that your pockets look a little heavy. Would you mind sparing a few jewel. Me and my friends here are about to go on a veeeery important mission for our guild. A time sensitive one, and we just so happened to forget our money at home. You think you could spot us some money? We promise that we'll pay you back~" I turn, facing a sleazy looking man flanked by two others, there's a fourth creeping around along outside of my vision, trying to cut off any of my potential 'escapes'. 

"Sorry, but no." I huff giving the three an amused smile. 

"It wasn't exactly a suggestion." The man frowns causing me to roll my eyes. 

"Alright. This is how this is going to go... you three are going to grab your loser friend back there." I point over my shoulder with a thumb. "And you are going to get out of my sight before I beat each and every one of you within an inch of your sorry lives." 

I take a step to the right, avoiding a strange magical chain with what looks like some sort of grabber on the end of it. 

Grappling hook magic? That's kind of neat. 

"WRONG ANSWER!" The man in front of me roars, hands coming up. 

"FIRE BULLETS!" 

A spray of small ping-pong ball sized blasts of fire rocket towards me as his two friends dart left and right respectively. 'heh, you poor bastard.' 

I raise a single hand, the fire being snuffed out completely. 

"Wh-" 

"Water lash!" The guy on the right shouts, swinging his arm back, blue magic circle  

'Oh? Another magic that's kind of weak to temperature change? Wow these guys are unlucky.' 

I stomp on the ground, injecting some ambient ethernano into the soil, flicking my fingers upwards. "Tellus." 

A large wall made of compacted dirt shoots upwards and blocks the whip of water, the wall cracking slightly- as it is just a non-magically enhanced wall of dirt- and beginning to break apart. 

But it did its job in stopping the attack. 

"SMOKE-" The guy across from water boy begins, my raised hand causes one of the larger hunks of broken earth to quickly halt its fall, then with a swing I send it rocketing towards the smoke wizard. "LANCE!" 

His attack is a swirling vortex of grey smoke, it shoots towards the hunk of earth, shattering it as I gather the dispersed heat and ethernano from fire guy's attack at the tip of my finger. 

Turns out I'm a genuine nightmare for a fire wizard to face. 

Due to being a 'frost' human thanks to the Permafrost Concoction I drank long ago, temperature magics are genuinely childsplay to fight. Especially one so... I'd hesitate to even call him 'average'. 

Dispersing the spell of someone powerful might be a bit tricky, but... for this dude? 

Childsplay. 

And this is when something quite interesting happens. 

If I were to suck all the cold out of ice, it would lose its form and turn to water... but for fire? It vanishes. Poof. Gone. That blaze dispersed over an entire area, raising the temperature of the clearing perhaps... half a degrees. 

What's interesting is what happens to the ethernano. 

Nothing. 

Nothing happens to it. 

Thus. It can be used to power further thaumaturge spells. 

"Ignis." I hiss, a singular white-hot bolt of fire streaking out with almost a scream, much like a tea kettle might. 

It seems to lose heat relatively quickly, changing from white to yellow as it makes contact with the smoke and explodes, dispersing the head of the attack. 

I hold my hands out and swing them in a circular pattern around me, injecting a little of my own magic into the air around me, tapping into my reserves for the first time this entire scuffle. 

A vortex of wind spirals around me, beating back the rest of the smokey wave that reaches me a few short moments later. 

"Grab... FLAIL!" Chain guy snarls, seemingly grabbing a large hunk of earth in his magic and swinging it around like- well- a large flail. 

He seems to be less trying to hit me with the flail itself and more trying to wrap me in the chains. 

I duck it as it cuts through my weakened whirlwind. 

Fire guy has gotten quite close in that time, continuing to charge forwards. 

"You asked for it you bastard!" He roars, cupping his hands to his side where a large orange circle turns slowly. 

He swings his hands forwards. "FLAMETHROWER!" 

The magic gets around a foot past his hands before it vanishes. 

The air is saturated with ethernano particles as the sleazebag can only gape at his spell being utterly erased. 

"Wh- huh? What just-" 

He seems to put quite a bit of his magic into that. anywhere from five to twenty percent at the very least. If I didn't stop it there it likely would have continued on for a good thirty or so feet past me. 

I step forwards into his range, a smirk on my lips as his spell completely peters out, grabbing his forearm with a hand. 

I promptly twist and slam him into the ground hard enough for him to bounce- it was made easier by the fact I made the earth shoot upwards by about an inch the instant he made contact, spittle flies from his mouth, a wheeze of pain leaving his lungs as I let him go and send him sprawling with a roundhouse kick. 

"TSUNAMI!" The water mage roars and... oh he's putting quite a lot into that. Funny. 

I gather the energy dispersed and swing my entire arm down. Heat shimmers into existence as the wave of water- about six feet tall roars across the forest clearing. 

Steam explodes everywhere. It's like a sauna. I add a little more of my own magic to ensure that his spell is perfectly countered, a small grimace appearing on my lips as I realize I'm actually beginning to run quite low. 

"Grab... BURST!"  

I duck back, eyes straying to a massive grappling hook easily the size of my torso. 

It explodes, revealing that it was actually a dozen grappling hooks all woven together, now expanding outwards like a shotgun blast. 

That... Is actually... pretty fucking cool. I wonder if I could make a variant that can drain magic. 

I hop, body becoming just a blur as I swing my arms outwards, narrowly slipping through a gap in the chains. 

The steam in the surroundings abruptly turns back to water... then snow as I smile viciously. 

A bead of blue fire rests on the tip of my fingers as I fall through the air. "Sol... FLUCTUS!" 

I swing my arm downwards, creating a literal laserbeam of heat. The ground below has a thick layer of ice as the remaining water from the water mage's spell gets the heat removed from it. 

Said mage lets out shouts as he clutches his arm, now trapped within a claw of ice. 

My attack splits the forest floor, melting through the ice and causing it to boil in places as a molten line is carved from one end of the clearing to the other avoiding all the mages. 

Steam billows as the molten earth is rapidly cooled from the excess ice and water. 

As I flip back, falling towards the floor, a spire of rock shoots up, cracking through the thick layer of ice and acting as a platform for me as I stand a good five feet above the mages who are probably from the Phantom Lord guild now that I think about it. 

Snow gently falls across the battlefield as I look down at the four mages, a frown on my lips. 

I can see the fire wizard melting the ice on the water wizard's arm, the smoke mage's hands are shaking slightly, I can see a flickering grey magic circle in front of them, the laser had passed uncomfortably close to them, after all. 

Even the grapple mage looks terrified. 

"H-He..." The smoke mage begins. "He can't have that much magical power left." 

"ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?! WE NEED TO RU-" 

"You're right." I admit, causing a beat of silence to briefly overtake the forest. 

"..." 

"I used all the magic I planned to use on this fight." I shrug. "So... if we continue I'll be forced to use my actual magic container. Not... the stockpile I sat aside that is merely one percent of my total magical capacity." 

"Or I could realistically just beat you the old-fashioned way... with my bare hands." 

"You should ask yourselves... can you handle doing this a hundred more times? Because frankly I haven't used even a single bit of my actual magical energy yet." 

They all let out shrieks and begin fleeing, proclaiming that I'm a 'monster'. 

"Now. That's rude." I huff, crossing my arms. "Cloth make... String Pull." 

Their clothes unravel briefly before reforming into just an entire loop of cloth. The legs have fused together and so have the arms, leaving them squirming on the ground like massive caterpillars. 

I end the recording of my archive magic, I plan to show this to Makarov later. He'll probably get a kick out of it. 

I walked a good five hundred feet into the forest while they were tailing me. Now they'll be forced to wiggle the rest of the way. Sucks to suck. Don't try and rob people if you're that weak. 

With that, I fly upwards and into the clouds, briefly reorientating myself, then shooting off within a bolt of lightning, towards my next destination. 

I may need to stop and recharge my magic along the way, but I should be there in under thirty minutes if I keep up this speed. 

I have zoomed out the map as far as I could. Just flat out making a beeline for the first of my markings and at this rate? 

I'll be there in maybe a minute or two... 

[Split] 

I let out a few tired pants, hands on my knees as I land within the forest. 

I swear... flying like that is like running as hard as I can but like... for magic. 

I turn to my large blue wings, slapping a few shocking ofuda on them. 

After ten my reserves are back to fifty, causing me to retract my wings. 

That should be more than enough. 

I'll recover the rest while I'm walking through Thaumaturgy. 

It may not gather energy as fast as the 'spirit bomb chant', but just passively gathering ethernano and guiding it to my body does let me recover faster. The larger area I gather from- or if the air is particularly saturated with ethernano like after a mage fight, the faster the recovery. 

Ping 

I glance to the side. 

'oh? OH! Grimmel. It has been a while since he said anything.' 

Honestly I kind of thought he died. Our last trade was for that super skrill. 

"Graves. I need weapons." - Grimmel the Grisly 

That works out quite well for me. 

"What sort?" I type back as I begin to walk, glancing over to the map in the corner I'm well within the circle now. From what I can see there were no towns close by so I suppose this has become a scavenger hunt. "Swords? Spears? Crossbows? Or would you like something a little more... esoteric?" 

"Arrows. Preferably the kind that can pierce metal." - Grimmel the Grisly 

I type another reply. "Is this an immediate need? Because I'm afraid that I'm not within my home at the moment. If you need something now, I could probably give you a few seals that might work." 

"It is not an immediate need, however a flock of sword stealers have been harassing a village we have been resting at. As dragon hunters I feel we owe it to these people to remove their issue before we leave." - Grimmel the Grisly 

"Hm. I see." I type briefly. "Try this out and tell me what you think. This is a thunder seal. A one-time use magical item I've created. The top and bottom of the blank side of it sticks to whatever object you place it on. Wrap it around an arrow and shoot it, tell me if you think this will be enough. But be careful. If the paper gets wet or if it burns it'll discharge prematurely. It should activate detecting a sudden change in momentum." 

I requip a single ofuda from my requip space- I have like fifty more- then place it within the trade window and click 'send'. 

I watch as he accepts the trade, then go back to my search. 

'Alright. Rolling.' 

Dot dot dot dot dot. 

From how all those are grouping, It appears to still be ahead of me. 

I walk for another ten minutes, occasionally rolling a few dice to check and see if I have gone too far. 

Ping 

"This will work. How many of these can you give me?" - Grimmel the Grisly 

I lean against a tree briefly.  "I have ten on me right now, will that be enough?" 

"It should be. I will see if we can capture one of the dragons alive for you. If not, we can work something else out for payment." - Grimmel the Grisly 

"That sounds fine." I type. 

I take ten thunder ofuda from my reserves and wordlessly send them to him. 

'allllright. So. Let's see here.' 

Grimmel doesn't reply further as I begin my search. I imagine that he's hunting the dragons now. 

I've never heard of... sword stealers, frankly... but judging by the name, I imagine they, well, steal swords and weld it to their bodies like that one boneknapper dragon. 

Not the actual boneknapper, but the one that is pretty much the exact same but it instead it used metal. 

Cough the animators probably re-used assets from that one boneknapper special and didn't want to make an entirely new dragon despite the fact it probably cost about the same to make the model as they had to rip off a bunch of bone. Cough 

"..." 

I miss movies... 

Anyways, on the topic of that metal-knapper dragon, I'm almost certain it wasn't called a 'sword stealer' although, that could just be some sort of slang term for it. 

Either way a new dragon is interesting. New blood for ofuda and all. 

Anyways, back to my search. I wander the forest for about an hour, a frown on my lips as I finally narrowed the location down to about a one hundred foot square area. 

"Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" I swing the key down, causing the pink haired woman to appear with a noise akin to a doorbell. 

"Yes, master? Oh! We're in Gulitina now. It has been a while since I've been here!" She beams. 

She peers around. "Beware of dragons. This continent has quite a few from what I can remember... I don't know if that one black dragon has hunted them all down yet." 

"Would you say that a dragon would be tougher than deliora?" 

The spirit pauses. "Hm... among all my summoners... you'd perhaps have the best chance against a dragon... but from what I saw of your fight with the demon... a dragon has it beat. Slightly. Though, of course, this changes depending on the dragon in question. There are weaker dragons and then there are stronger dragons." 

"I don't have any preparations against dragons, so if one shows up I'll probably just run." I sigh. 

"That would be wise, master." The pink haired maid agrees. "So. Are one of the keys you seek around here?" 

"One should be anywhere from this tree right here-" I gesture to the tree beside me before pointing across the forest. A bolt of energy shoots from my fingertips and strikes three more trees. "To those three." 

"I see!" The spirit mutters, gaze straying the trees.  

She walks forwards slowly, then stomps a foot on the ground, causing it to ripple outwards slightly. Her eyes narrow as she scans the dirt before lighting up. "OH!" 

She skips forwards then punches downwards, fist carving through the earth as if it were merely water. 

She pulls out a dirty looking ring of keys... and let me just say, WOW. That's quite a few. At least eight. 

"Master, would you mind if I take these back to the celestial spirit realm to clean them first?" 

"Oh, no I don't mind. I'll form the contracts when I get home." I wave off with a small smile. "Thank you, Virgo." 

"I live to serve, master!" and with that... she's gone in a puff of pink smoke leaving me alone in the forest... 

I turn, a small archive window appearing in front of me as I cross my arms. "Now... for the part of my journey that could end in disaster." 

I've got to get close to the Alverez Empire.