For witnessing the manifestation and destruction of the demon lord, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 48.
For successfully engaging in telepathic communication with a demon, [Telepathy] advances to level 23. Sorry, but no huge leap in levels for that one. You should have tried talking to the demon lord after getting stuck.
Achievent unlocked: [True Hero]
Achievent unlocked: [The Final Cycle]
Mystery the Human has obtained the mythical achievent [True Hero] at the age of 0.
Mystery the Human has obtained the mythical achievent [The Final Cycle] at the age of 0.
Rose the Human has obtained the mythical achievent [The Final Cycle] at the age of 15.
Kellela Catter the Human has obtained the mythical achievent [The Final Cycle] at the age of 25.
Grace Flinel the Human has obtained the mythical achievent [The Final Cycle] at the age of 15.
Hayedalf Catter the Human has obtained the mythical achievent [The Final Cycle] at the age of 27.
Rrillandral Lehibeborn the Elf has obtained the mythical achievent [The Final Cycle] at the age of 2671.
Mystery stared at her long list of ssages, the words not making an awful lot of sense. She was feeling seriously concussed, which wasn't sothing a foetus should really be feeling, but she did at least have sothing that was almost a head now, if you squinted a bit. Having a concussion without a head would be really weird.
"Hah. They fixed the overflow bug. But why don't I have a family na when both my parents do? Oh, bloody hell; Rrillandral is ancient! Wait... Rose had a birthday? Why didn't she ntion it? Oh, damn; speaking of ages... What's the betting that pair of achievents are going to do sothing really horrible to mine? Bah, I'll deal with that later. For now... let's just pass out for a bit."
She wasn't yet at an age that required sleep, her brain still insufficiently developed to differentiate between unconsciousness and wakefulness, but there was sothing about having half of one's soul eroded away that made one just want to switch off for a bit.
"Night night."
Brylyndril Lehibeborn, the [Monarch of the Vale], walked impatient circles around Myllearn's Heart, remaining in his magical girl form to protect himself from the burning quantities of mana. Waiting around inside the Heart's chamber wasn't the most sensible pasti, but from this close up, he could feel the subtle flows of mana every ti Mystery drew on the Vale's Finger. Each trickle of mana was proof that she was still alive and fighting. That she hadn't given up, or been captured again.
ding
The elven monarch read the unexpected ssage, seeing within it everything he had dread of and more. Unlike his echo within Rrillandral's dream, his gamble had paid off spectacularly.
[The Final Cycle]. Final. To him, who had lived for millennia, 'final' was a strong word, yet for now, he need fear no demon. The chosen [Hero] of the administrators had won a victory that no previous hero could manage.
"Yes!" he exclaid, jumping for joy.
Alas, he failed to account for the vastly increased mobility his magical girl form offered.
"Ouch," he added, rubbing his head where it had impacted the ceiling.
Dave the [Scribe] sat at his desk, colleagues flashing him pitying looks as they walked by. Frankly, he missed the days when monitoring the Recorder had been a zero-prestige, thankless task. At least it had been simple. Then it had briefly beco Important, in a way that justified the capital letter, and he was proud to do his duty even if things had suddenly beco Interesting. But now it was just... weird. Why did he need to be the one to report the [Hero] earning [Royal Pervert]?
And then there were the modifications the [Royal Knight] had ordered after discovering murderers had been covering up their activities by ensuring their milestone kills took place outside of the kingdom's borders. It had taken a while—thanks to Hayedalf being unavailable and needing to fall back on lesser enchanters—but recently, as well as tracking activity within the borders, it also tracked the activity of registered citizens wherever in the world they were.
Which, of course, ant that when Mystery earned [Royal Corrupter], it had once again fallen upon Dave to report it. The [King] was only barely talked down from barging his way into the Vale of Myllearn's embassy! And then there was all the effort that had gone into convincing him that [Veteran of the Corruption] was an evolution of [Raider of the Corruption] rather than [Royal Corrupter]. If they didn't have history books from the previous [Hero] to fall back on, he probably would have charged straight into the demonic forest!
The [King] doted on his daughters in the weirdest ways, in Dave's opinion. Probably a side effect of the way their upbringing was mostly delegated to nannies and sour-faced governesses while he concentrated on kinging.
[I Couldn't Stop Breaking The System, And Now I've Been Smited] had caused issues of a different sort, but at least the [Hero] had still been in the capital at the ti, and hence was verifiably fine. No-one had worked out how she'd been smitten, though, and she hadn't owned up to anything. One of the palace guards had surreptitiously started a betting pool, under the assumption it would turn out to be sothing obvious once she was born. Dave had personally put down a few silvers on her sharing the affliction of the grechen.
Thankfully, her pace of achievents had slowed down sowhat since her earliest days of activity, so most of the ti he could just...
Dave cursed himself for raising such an obvious temptation of fate as he noticed a light flashing to indicate that a person of interest had earned an achievent.
"Please don't be sothing that sets the [King] off... Please don't be sothing that sets the [King] off..." he chanted as he checked the output and spotted that the light had indeed been triggered by Mystery. Twice. Thankfully, the words 'corrupter' or 'corruption' did not appear anywhere in the output. "[True Hero]? That sounds better than [Diligent Hero], and [Diligent Hero] was already legendary. Does that an there'll be a..."
ding
"... world announcent?"
Dave read the world announcent.
"Oh well. The [King] has seen it already. No need for
to do anything," he muttered.
Mythic achievents were like passenger carts. You could go your whole life without seeing one, and then seven turned up all at once.
In a bar in Karn's Vigil, lody and Platus clinked mugs of ale together with a few other adventurers they'd beco acquaintances with during the life-or-death battle for the kingdom.
"Here's to promotion!" they cheered in unison before taking a swig.
"Impressive how quickly the guild sorted the ss out," said lody, fiddling with the new silver plate around her neck.
"Disappointing we only got silver, though," said Platus, who was proudly wearing a matching tag. "We took down dragons!"
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"Makes perfect sense to . We can't actually cast the spell, so they could only promote us based on the achievents and level gains we managed during the battle," sighed lody. "Maybe I'll try to get an occupation change, but I'm a bit old for that sort of thing."
"Sa here," said one of the other adventurers. "A pity. I can think of a few things I'd like to try with that spell, if I could cast it myself."
"Oh? Like what?" asked Platus, taking another swig of ale.
"How about using it in the bedroom?"
The ale left Platus at high speed, while lody's expression turned complicated.
"Huh?" continued the adventurer. "I've seen you two together, so it's far too late to go acting innocent now. Don't tell
you've never considered it. The panties may be irremovable, but they're thin and supple, and the outfit as a whole isn't exactly modest. You have to admit it's sexy. Not to ntion the chance to experience things from the other side," he added, wiggling his eyebrows at Platus.
"It's not that," explained lody. "Rember that anyone casting the Aster Blue form of [Magical Girl Transformation] ends up looking like our daughter, so the thought of people getting sexual gratification from it is... Uh... I'm not sure how to finish that sentence, but I'm sure you can imagine."
The adventurer in question fell silent, glowing red with embarrassnt.
"Well, that killed the conversation pretty thoroughly," said a fourth adventurer after a few seconds of awkwardness. "Anyone got another topic they want to try?"
ding
The silence resud as everyone checked their ssages, wondering what they'd just got a level for and not realising everyone else had heard the sa ding.
And then eyebrows furrowed as they all tried to work out what they were reading.
Platus was the first to react. "Yes!" he yelled at a volu sufficient to rattle the windows. "That's my daughter! My daughter got a mythical achievent!"
"That's nice, dear, but I think the rest of the room will care more about the fact that this presumably ans the demon lord has been defeated."
Inside the egg of the demon lord, another sort of awkward silence was taking place.
"Is Mystery okay?" asked Grace, finally.
"She managed a few words to , which is an encouraging sign," said Kellela. "Her soul didn't look in great condition, though, as far as I could see with [Sense Soul]. I... have no idea how quickly that sort of thing heals, or even if it heals. We should probably see a priest."
"She managed a couple of words to , too," added Dreobeth, the cause of most of the awkwardness. "She sounded weak, but she was conscious."
Everyone stared at the flying demon. The arm he'd used to cast his demonic fireball was hanging limply, burnt, but he was otherwise in good condition. But his condition, good or otherwise, didn't change the fact that he was a demon. A demon that had captured the magical girls not much earlier, deliberately inflicting significant ntal anguish on them to get them to behave as he willed.
No-one quite knew how they were supposed to react.
Kellela was the first to respond. "Thank you," she said to the demon, bowing her head. "If not for you, I'd have lost my child."
"Why?" asked Rrillandral, simply.
"I already explained, didn't I?" snorted Dreobeth. "As things were, you were going to win, but the [Hero] would have died in the process. Between you being pissed and whatever the hell you were doing to the demon lord, I didn't fancy my chances of survival. If I'd hit you from behind, I bet I could have killed Grace and then the demon lord would have won. But the mont it recovered, it would just order the sa war it always does, and as the last surviving demon, I didn't fancy my chances in that direction either. Switching side was the best way to save my skin."
"So you're saying you have no loyalty or honour, and will betray us the mont you feel it's advantageous?" asked Rrillandral.
"Exactly! I'm glad soone understands ," he answered.
The suspicious magical girls peered at the demon a few monts longer.
"Then why did you blush when Kellela said thank you?" asked Rose.
Dreobeth blushed harder.
"I think the word Mystery uses for this sort of situation is 'tsundere'," opined Grace. "But Rrillandral, how is your arm? That looks... nasty. Does it need purification?"
"Looks fine to ," grumbled Dreobeth, admiring Rrillandral's new patterning. He thought the heterochromia was pretty cool, too, although the vertically slitted pupil in her new red eye was perhaps pushing things a bit.
"It's okay. As long as I'm not exposed to more miasma, it'll remain stable. I'll need to get it treated eventually, but for now, conserve your mana. We're still trapped in here, and even if we get out, we're in the middle of the demonic forest."
"Which is a good point. Does anyone know how to get out of here?" asked Hayedalf.
"Well, how did you get in?" asked Dreobeth.
"Teleported by a counterattack when Grace attacked the egg. How about you?"
"I just flew at it really hard."
"Sounds as good a plan as any," shrugged Rose, looking upwards appraisingly and materialising an axe.
"Please don't," ca a voice, and then the five magical girls were outside.
"Huh?" asked Kellela.
"Don't look at . I have no idea what that was."
"Please don't tell
the demon lord isn't dead."
"I believe that sothing is still alive," suggested Rrillandral, peering at the unburied tip of the pure white egg. "I do not believe it is the demon lord."
"Hey, where's Dreobeth?"
ding
The girls each peered at their notifications but didn't get the chance to comnt before Dreobeth appeared in front of them in a flash of light, his missing wing finally restored.
"You know, actually, maybe I'll keep this arm," suggested Rrillandral, looking at the sheet of white hanging behind the demon—no, the forr demon, she corrected herself—and admiring the contrasting effect against his previous black wing. The two sides, together as one.
This cycle really was interesting. Even after it had ended, new things were still happening one after another.
Dreobeth himself recalled the few words his master had spoken to him before sending him out to join the others, for the first ti not thinking 'master' in the sa tone he'd use for 'slaver'. And then he checked his ssages once more, just because he could. It was a novel experience; he'd never had ssages before.
Dreobeth the Nephalem has obtained the mythical achievent [First of Their Kind] at the age of 0.
Life really was looking up.
Spoiler
Mystery (Human)
Age: -15 years
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (48/100)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
>> Sense Light (C)
>> Sense Sound (C)
>> Pierce Illusions (U)
>> Sense Miasma (R)
>> Multi-focal (R)
>> Sense Spirit (R)
- Astral Projection (U) (31/60)
>> Sure Navigation (U)
>> Uncontainable (U)
>> Tether of Will (L)
- Robust (C) (37/50)
>> Hardened Soul (R)
>> Secured Mana (U)
>> Pain Tolerance (C)
>> Strengthened Will (U)
- Stealth (C) (3/20)
>> Camouflage Vitality (R)
- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (30/30)
>> Age Correction (R)
>> Gender Bending (R)
- Light (C) (12/20)
>> Heterochro (U)
- Increased Attributes (C) (11/20)
>> Mana Storage (U)
- Investigation (C) (8/10)
- Cosplay (U) (12/20)
>> Skit (U)
- Mana Absorption (U) (14/30)
>> Drain Mana (U)
>> Conduit (U)
- Translate (U) (11/20)
>> Two Way (U)
- Telepathy (U) (23/40)
>> Reciprocity (U)
>> Empathy (U)
>> Guarded Mind (U)
- Lightning Bolt (U) (8/30)
>> Multishot (U)
>> Continuous Discharge (U)
- Fireball (U) (23/30)
>> Multishot (U)
>> Overcharge (U)
- Wall of Light (U) (1/10)
- Energy Resistance (U) (7/10)
- Recharge (U) (4/10)
Achievents:
- Early Bloor II (R)
- First Skill (C)
- Adept (U)
- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)
- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievent (E)
- Astral Explorer II (E)
- First Spell (C)
- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate
(E)
- Famous Spell Forger (E)
- Demon Slayer III (E)
- Monster Slayer VI (E)
- Curiosity (U)
- War Veteran (U)
- Royal Audience (C)
- Diligent Hero (L)
- Studious (C)
- Pioneering Guider (E)
- Royal Pervert (R)
- I Couldn't Stop Breaking The System, And Now I've Been Smited (E)
- Royal Corrupter (E)
- Blessed of the Forest (C)
- Artefact Wielder (R)
- Veteran of the Corruption (R)
- Skill Capped (C)
- True Hero (M)
- The Final Cycle (M)
Artefacts:
- The Vale's Finger
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