Fortune Favors (QQ) Chapter 24

I take a seat on a box as I watch the dark skinned mage talk on the other side of the room. 

"And thus, with a simple alteration, I've found that we can create a magic item that runs a not so insignificant portion of its enchantment off the ambient magical energy in the air, allowing us to extend the overall duration and use limit before recharging by a staggering two to three times. As a result, the enchantments we place upon the item can be empowered greatly without a true loss in efficiency."  

A large wooden board sits behind him with an almost endless deluge of equations and math across its surface. Seemingly etched with charcoal. 

Some of the things on the board I know, like looking at a massive math equation, you could note things like 'oh, there's the letter A.' or 'Ah yes, thirty nine.' But the true extent and nature of the calculations elude me. 

"So, making use of the new enchantment principals we have discovered, I would like each of you to try and enchant an item for me. The enchantment doesn't matter. The power doesn't matter. we are trying to see how much of the enchanting principals you understand. Of course, you should first know the ins and out of the Soul Trap spell. I know that we have a few spare tomes of it within the Arcanaeum. Please take your time, and of course be careful with your magic. It is called the soul trap spell for a reason. do try to not imprison your soul in the oblivion." His eyes seem to slowly stray to me. "Now. If you'll excuse me." 

"Argo." He greets as he quickly walks over. 

"Savos." I reply with a small smile. "I've seen a spectre running about on my way over. Did you finally figure out the bag?" 

"Yes and No." The man replies. "We've figured out how to summon a soldier that keeps his memories, but it is by no means endless. He needs to be charged with a greater soul gem every month or so... less if he is forced to repeatedly reform. But the fact we were able to push his duration that long is already a genuinely astounding miracle of magic." 

"Facinating." I mutter, eyes straying to the spectral figure as he passes by the doorway. My eyes eventually return to the archmage. "Now. For the reason I'm here. I've got a few interesting things you might like to take a look at." 

"Wonderful." He snaps his fingers and we are suddenly in his quarters. Not even commenting on my lack of ears or tail. He likely can sense what I'm doing. "What have you brought me today?" 

"Well, firstly," I walk over to a nearby table and lay a large coin pouch down on the table with a thud that rattles some of the cutlery on it. It's heavier than it looks. "Bag of holding. It weighs about thirty five pounds, but you can fill it with up to one thousand without a single change in weight... it does have a maximum capacity as well, about one hundred and fifty cubic feet? So about five by five by six. You'd be carrying around a small closet with you wherever you go." 

"There's no air inside, so I wouldn't recommend ever going into one." I list. "Oh. It also doesn't have a charge, much like the hat, bag, or cloak." 

"Intriguing." The archmage whispers. "No weight increase at all?" 

"Nope." I shake my head.  

"How do you take things out if you don't enter it?" He continues. "That area is quite large. Would you have to know telekinesis to sort it?" 

"Nope!" I beam as I reach down into the bag. "You just reach in and think of whatever you want... and speaking of which... here is a sword that implants memories of a certain sword movement... one that seems to leech the life from whoever is hit, healing the wielder." 

I pull my hand free, revealing a single-edged blade with a tooth-like handguard, it seemingly glints in the artificial magical light of the room. 

I lay it on the table as Savos makes his way over, gazing down at it. "This is... hrn... I can't sense any magic from it at all." 

"May I?" he asks. 

"Go ahead." I shrug as his hand wraps around the handle. 

His eyes widen. "This is... interesting." 

He takes a few steps back, turning away from me. He holds the sword out to the side. 

The blade glows a deep red as his body seems to move on its own, a chain of slashes leaves red streaks in the air in front of him as with one final swipe he steps forwards, seemingly over-extending. 

He remains in place for a long moment, blade extended outwards before he allows his arm to fall downwards. He seems to rotate his wrist, seemingly not used to the movements. 

"That is- I couldn't stop myself... fascinating! I didn't feel a hint of magic even after it glowed!" 

His blood red eyes have lit up as he returns, laying the blade on the table. "Anything else?" 

"Well. There's this." 

I pull out a bottle of wine. Yui helpfully made a glass working skill which allowed me to transfer my wines into much more sell-able looking forms. 

Now, you might be asking. 'why the hell would anyone waste their time on glassworking?' 

The bottles enhance the product. 

Stained Glass gives morale buffs, a glass gives benefits to whatever is put in it. A plate improves whatever is put on it. Like, a really nice plate might extend a food buff's duration by hours for example. 

"Magical wine?" The man asks. 

"Yes. Something I've personally made. I like to call this wine of growth." 

"Wine of... growth?" He echoes. 

"I made it using these plums here, otherwise known as fruit of growth. What these fruits basically do is enhance your body. Permanently. The increase is quite small, but thanks to my special methods I managed to improve the yield of this increase. It's basically a permanent potion of fortify that can stack with itself." 

"That is- what-" 

"The main issue is the sheer time it takes even a single of these fruits to grow. Naturally, in the wild where I found my first, it took one hundred years to finish growing." 

"Then... how did you find more?" 

"I made a deal with an extremely powerful being." I shrug. "I keep bringing her flowers she doesn't know about, and in exchange she'll accelerate the growth process and give me some." 

"If- If this does what you say..." He whispers, eyes growing wide. 

"I will warn you about one thing. My method for improving things. It's a special ability of mine. Like a dunmer's resistance to fire or truly great affinity for destructive magics. Think of it like a form of alchemy. I can extract the effects of the ingredients added and vastly improve upon them over time. I haven't experimented much with it yet, but theoretically, I COULD make potions far stronger than what you'd see typical alchemists create with one singular side effect." 

"Alcohol content?" the man questions. 

"Precisely." I nod once. "Whatever I make into a 'potion wine' will continue to grow in power theoretically endlessly, but so too does the alcohol content and flavor improve as well. The issue comes when my creations reach a threshold where they're too powerful." 

I gesture to the bottle of wine. "That. Is not something I'd recommend you finish in one sitting. I'd personally water it down a bit as well." 

"This... seems a little far-fetched." The man notes. "Even from you. But... I'll put faith in you this time. Anything else?" 

I lay a bar of metal on the table. "This is Nichirin. A form of sun-infused metal that some call the 'color changing metal'." 

"Color changing metal?" The man echoes. 

"Supposedly when someone skilled in a certain fighting style grabs a blade made of the stuff it changes color to match them. These fighting styles seem to mirror elements. Lightning becomes yellow, water becomes blue, fire becomes red, etcetera." 

"I've actually learned some of these fighting techniques. I'm more partial to the form of 'lightning breathing', but I am by no means skilled enough to change the blade's color. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that this should have a high affinity for most elemental enchantments and might possibly be extremely dangerous against vampires." 

"You've learned some of this fighting style, you say?" The man echoes.  "Can you show me?" 

"Sure, sure." I nod slowly as I take the weapon that teaches you a sword-skill. "This isn't really the exact weapon shape you should be using for thunder breathing... it requires a single-edged slightly curved blade. But I should be able to make this work. The main aspect of the first form is footwork anyways. 

I walk to the center of the room, taking a deep breath and slowly sheathing the blade at my side. 

My breath sharpens as my leg muscles tense. 

I blur forwards in an instant, if you had blinked I would have already been on the other side of the room, a glint of silver being left in the air from my slash. 

"Hooooh fuuuuh." I grumble as I pat my calf. "Yeah, my body can't really support that yet." 

Savos' eyes are wide seemingly shocked by the movement. 

"That was... so fast..." He whispers. 

"Yes. That was the first form. The only one I've learned. The 'thunderclap and flash'. Pretty useful but hell on the legs." 

A pulse of restoration magic surrounds me as I rise back up to my full height and return to the table. "That's roughly all I've got for you today." 

"I see... well, it was all very fascinating." His eyes glint slightly. "So. Now let's discuss pricing." 

"Five Malachite septims for the wine." He begins. 

"Come now." I smile. "It's a permanent enhancement, plus the flavor is out of this world. Two ebony." 

"Five Malachite is quite reasonable for even the most aged elven wines." 

"But are they magical?" I ask. 

"..." 

"Touche." The man grumples. "Fine. I can do two Ebony Septims." 

I gesture to the sword. "Ten." 

"Come now. Five is more than reasonable." 

"it's anomalous, but I will admit being made of simple Iron makes it not as potent as an orcish or dwarven-made blade. I could do eight." 

"It's likely that I couldn't discover anything about the enchantment method. It looks... different from what I'm used to... far too uniform." 

"Ah. But you could very well discover something." I note. "In addition, I believe that further enchantments could be placed upon it meaning if you DO discover how it functions, your enchanted weapons will at minimum have two enchantments. Allowing even a novice to attack like a skilled swordsman. Eight is more than reasonable." 

He frowns at me. 

"Eight... would be reasonable... or... would you please come with me for a moment?" He turns and walks across the room, causing me to follow along. 

He leads me to a simple wooden table with a large stone sigil on it, there's a strange... reddish porous stone in the center of it, with five red gems towards the back. 

"This is a staff enchanter that I've bought recently and repaired... I already have one, but, knowing you'd be around again I thought you'd want it." 

"Oh?" I smile. "This is interesting. Alright. How much off?" I ask. 

"Twenty Ebony." 

"Your mad." I snort. "Twenty-five for an enchanter is one thing, but for a staff enchanter? I need heart stones for that and those are FAR more scarce than soul stones." 

"Yes, but a staff allows even the dumbest troll to cast a spell as if they were a wizard. Plus, they can be recharged with soul-stones. You may need to find heart stones, yes. But enchanting a staff is actually far easier than the standard enchanting method." 

"Tsk." I let out a low click. 

He's right. 

"I could do seventeen?" 

"Ninteen." 

"How about we meet in the middle at eighteen?" I ask. 

"I'll trade it for the bag of holding." The man lists. 

"Oh, that's worth at least thirty ebony septims and you know it." I frown. 

"Twenty one." He replies. 

"I could maybe do twenty seven." 

"Twenty four." 

"Come up just a liiiitle bit more at twenty five." 

"Fine, fine. And what of this metal and the fruit?" He asks. 

"Five gold septims for the metal, two malachite for the fruit." 

"Five gold is certainly reasonable. Same for the fruit" He nods slowly. "That brings us to the staff enchanter, seventeen ebony septims, two malachite, and five gold." 

The man lets out a long sigh. "I'll admit. the college's coffers are quite bare at this moment... but..." 

A chest appears in his hands as he seemingly teleports it from across the room. 

"This... is why." 

The box creaks open, revealing a red glinting material within. 

"What is-" I whisper, my eyes widen at the sheer value of this ore. My appraisal is going CRAZY! 

"This... is Rubedite ore. A material that is superior to ebony." 

"S-Seriously?!" I gasp. 

"Yes. I managed to win this small portion of the metal at an auction in Daggerfall. It was quite expensive, costing me one hundred ebony septims to even get this much." 

It looks to be enough for maybe a bar. possibly two. 

"Tsk... damn damn damn." I let out a long sigh. "Alright. One second let me see what I've got." 

I reach into a pipe, patting around slowly. 

"How much more wine of growth would you accept at the same rate as before?" 

"One moment." He pauses, approaching the bottle. 

He pops the cork on it, giving it a sniff. 

"How many bottles do you have available?" 

"Not including that? Sixty." 

He summons a wine glass and pours a small amount into it, taking a sip. 

"Hm. Yes. I'll take forty two, then, that'll leave you with-" he blinks twice and looks at the bottle. "Huh... I'm already buzzed. Fascinating." 

"That'd be seven malachite, five gold in your favor." I list. 

"Ah. Yes." He nods  

"A fan of wine, then?" I ask. 

"Not particularly." He shakes his head. "Even with just that sip I felt reinvigorated. I could probably resell them for quite a high price to some of the elite of Tamriel... magic wine from an archmage means a bit more than from you, but that is merely due to your name not being widespread." 

"It's a matter of branding." I nod slowly. "So. Where do you want these wines?" 

"Ah. I've got a shelf for wine around here somewhere. Please follow me." 

[Split] 

"Yui. Metal. Better than Ebony." I call out into the expanse of Sword Art as I toss the large chest down into the shop's storage room. "Tell Tsukasa to get that to Lisbeth eventually." 

I heft a pipe forwards and deposit a large table within the room as well. "Also that's a staff enchanter. I don't have everything needed, but I should be able to make a magic staff pretty easy when I get around to it." 

With that, I close the door, knowing the AI heard me. 

I stand there for a moment, gathering my thoughts, then turn and quickly make my way towards the safe as I can feel two new worlds slot into place. 

'let's see what I've got here.' 

Slot 0: Gensokyo 
Slot 1: Demon Slayer  
Slot 2: Skyrim  
Slot 3: Sword Art Online  
Slot 4: Land Before Time 
Slot 5: Warhammer 40k 

"NOPE!" I instantly deny. "Re-roll that shit now." 

Slot 5: Generating next world. Time remaining: 95:59:59 

What about number six? 

Slot 6: Neptunia. 

"..." 

Huh. That sounds familiar... 

Isn't that the one with the pink haired girl? Like... they're based on game consoles and stuff? 

Oh hey! That sounds like a good place to get some advanced tech! 

That could be pretty neat! 

"Welp. Got my four excaliburs, ring of agility, plus twenty spider silk kimono... pocket money." I look over my body.  "Should be fine, then." 

I turn, snapping my fingers and stepping up towards a large appearing doorway. I quietly slip through it, coming into a... grassy plain of some sort... I can see sparse trees that thicken in the distance, some with strange metal glowing rings around them. 

Well, less rings, more floating hunks of metal with glowing lines within them. Some blue, some green, others purple. 

This is... weird. 

"Soooo Compa. This is where I was so elegantly lodged in the ground?" I hear a higher pitched voice ask. 

"W-Well..." A second girlish voice begins, this one a little gruff. "Not quite. it's a little farther back, but..." 

"But?" The first asks. 

"There's monsters all over the place now!" The second girl exclaims. 

I turn, looking over to two girls, the first, a short petite girl with short chin-length purple hair with two d-pad hairclips in it and a white, purple, and blue hoodie with light blue and white striped stockings. The next? A taller busty girl with long cream-ish pink hair, she wears a white wool sweater with matching arm warmers, a red skirt, and a small bag at her hip. 

I can see them gazing around at nearby... monsters? 

Is that a slime that has dog ears and a tail? 

And a face? 

"Ummm this world has monsters all over it like any RPG, right?" The first questions. 

"Not really, they just kind of popped up out of nowhere these last few years." 'Compa' replies, tilting her head and scratching the back of her head absentmindedly. 

I turn and begin walking away, rubbing my temple. 

'I forgot that the people here break the fourth wall like it's nothing.' 

"Oh! Whatever, then. Now let's go out and get some XP and find my memories!" The shorter girl exclaims. 

"Nep-Nep! I don't think memories are just something you find on the floor!" 

"This the protagonist's journey! I must struggle helplessly against the world until I reveal myself to be the chosen one and defeat the great evil! Tis a simple character arc!" The shorter girl seems to cheer. 

"Well... uh... maybe that guy over there knows something?" 

"Good eye, Compa! Hey! You! With the weeby Kimono!" I can hear the sound of crunching grass. 

I pause and turn slowly to see the two girls quickly rush over. 

They come to a stop in front of me causing me to scan them once more. The short purple one has... a bokken and the other- holy shit that's a large syringe. 

"Can I help you?" I question, a small frown on my lips. 

"Yes-siree~" the shorter one beams. "So. Like, have you seen any memories laying around anywhere?" 

"I literally just got here." I deadpan. 

"A no?" The purple girl sighs, shoulders slumping slightly. "Drat! Oh well! Soooo like what's your dealio?" 

"Pardon?" 

"You're like one of the only people in this game to have an actual unique character model. Clearly there's some sort of plot significance! So. Dlc character? Ooooh a secret boss?! The final boss?!" 

"..." 

"I'm just a merchant." I declare after a long moment of silence. 

"ooooh a traveling merchant, haaah? So whaddya buyin~" The girl asks in a gruff voice. 

"Uh Nep-Nep... I think you're getting a little too meta. I think the players are skipping your dialogue. We've been talking for a long time now." 

"Et tu, Compa?" The petite girl grumbles, causing the other to scratch the back of her head and let out a weak 'eheheh.'. 

I wonder if it's too late to re-roll this one as well? 

"So! I'm Neptune! And this is Compa!" The small girl introduces herself before gesturing to her companion. "I was being serious earlier, though. What-are-ya sellin~" 

"I've got this sword here." 

"OOOOOH! Green! Katana!" Neptune grins as I slowly draw the nichirin katana that I stole from that Wind Hashira prick. "If only it was purple!" 

The blade seems to ripple and change. 

"GAH! PURBLE!" Neptunia gasps. "Oooooh~ come here my glorious RGB gamer katana!" 

I hold out a hand. "Hold up. You got any money?" 

She seemingly pats her pockets down. "Uh oh! I forgot my money like I forgot my memories!" 

"Isn't there perhaps some... other way I can pay for it?" The girl asks. 

"What? Like with your body?" I snort. 

"Precisely!" The purple-ette nods repeatedly. 

"NEP NEP! THAT'S LEWD! THIS IS ONLY A PG13 GAME!" 

"Huh? What are you talking about?" I ask. "I was just talking about mercenary work." 

"Yeeaaaah Compy! Get your mind out of the gutter!" Neptune exclaims. 

"Wh- Buah- You-" The syringe-wielding girl sputters. 

"So, like... what level are you?" 

"One!" 

"..." I stare at her for a long moment. Silence echoes out. 

"B-But it'll grow! I'm a grower not a show-er!" 

"NEP NEP!" Compa cries. 

The girl turns. "OH NO! Compa's being Censored!"  

I can see the pink haired girl in the distance being attacked by three of the little dog slime things, swinging her weapon wildly and batting them away. "I'm not being Censored Nep nep! I'm being attacked off screen! Help me!" 

I let out a long sigh and wave my hand. 

A blade sprouts from the earth, skewering one of the ooze things. The blade fades and I do it twice more. 

"Gasp! Our mystery merchant just no-selled a scripted combat encounter!" Neptune gasps. 

"Oh my god I'm getting a headache." I groan, bringing my hand to my forehead. "Look. I'm a multidimensional merchant. This is my newest connected world. Yes. You're in a video game. Yes. We make fun of tropes. I get it. However. In this moment. Can we tone if down juuuust a smidgen? Like just the tiniest bit? That'd be nice thaaanks." 

Neptune pouts for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest. "This is sounding an awful lot like some sort of weird light novel or anime plot." 

"But... if... if you... if that's the case." The girl looks like she's having a world-shattering revelation, hands coming to the sides of her head. "Then... I'm not... the protagonist?" 

"..." 

"..." 

"..." 

"I'm not the Heroine?" She squeaks out after a deafening silence. 

"You sound like you're on heroine." I blandly shoot back. 

"If I'm not the Heroine... then... I must be the love interest!" She declares, eyes growing wide. "That means we'll have to do Censored and Censored!" 

"Uh, Nep Nep, this is still a T-Rated game." Compa replies. 

"If this was the first world I came to. You might have had a point. But by this point I've been to so many and so many damned romance flags have been raised you're seriously late to the party. It's like you jumping in at chapter one hundred of a story that's already in motion." I deadpan. 

"Anyways I'm gonna... go..." I gesture over my shoulder only to pause. 

"Wait. Do either of you know where the nearest city is?" 

"Planeptune is that way." the nurse girl points behind her.  

"Ah! Thank you!" I beam as I slowly float off the ground. 

"H-Hey! What about my Rgb gamer sword?!" Neptune calls up to me. 

I let out a long sigh and lazily toss it downwards. "Fine. Have this. But you owe me a favor." 

The most I'd probably be able to get out of that here in this world is like... five thousand dollars. It's technically just normal iron or steel. I doubt there's any 'creatures of darkness' around to hiss in pain at the sun aspects of the sword. 

Huh... that's an idea... considering how many tropes there are... and this is an RPG... 

"Hey, does this world have an excalibur?" 

"You mean the sword in the stone? Yessey!" The taller bustier girl smiles.  

"Cool. I'm collecting Excaliburs. Help me get that in the future." I point at them, wink, then fly off. 

"HE WINKED AT ME! IT'S A SIIIIIGN COMPY!" Neptune shouts. 

Well... now I kind of have a reason to not toss this world connection in the trash. 

A fifth excalibur. 

The technology is also kind of appealing. 

I get back gaming, fast food, vehicles, and other fun things like conventions, anime, and manga... but in exchange I have to deal with a genre savvy fourth wall breaking goddess, monsters, and whatever else exists in this place. 

Well, I mean... technically it's not fourth wall breaking, I suppose. It's basically the equivalent of someone in SAO making comments about SAO in such a manner. Breaking the fourth wall would imply that she's talking to someone and there's nobody here... right? 

Right. 

Anyways, I'm going to go buy me a game system and some video games for Shiro! I bet the little gamer would love that!