It seemed that time was frozen around me, as everything had a sort of gray and blurry tinge to it. I just kept rereading the lines over and over again for several minutes, trying to convince myself that what I was seeing was real.

  System Detected

  Plunderer Activated

  Plunder System?

  Yes / No

  My mind was reeling at the sudden implications. This was something that I had wanted for so long, but why was it showing up now? How did I get it? When? As if to answer my questions, a second screen popped up.

  Plunderer activation required the defeat of an individual that had a system.

  This system was given as a gift for Reincarnation.

  All Transmigrators and Reincarnators obtain a system of some kind, although Reincarnators have an unlock requirement

  That was a bit convoluted. I dismissed that screen mentally, and it blipped out of existence. I looked at the original message, wondering what type of system it was. However Plunderer didn’t tell me. “Well… any system is better than no system, right?” I mumbled before I mentally selected Yes.

  Congratulations!

  Ultimate Harem System Plundered!

  I frowned, almost immediately regretting my previous statement, and mentally tried to bring up an explanation of the system.

  Ultimate Harem System

  Every member in your Harem gives you a point to spend in the store to obtain special rewards

  Before I had a chance to really think about that, another window popped up.

  The previous owner of the

  The Ultimate Harem System had ten rewards obtained.

  Would you like to Plunder them?

  Please be aware that doing so will spend any points you would have gained.

  “What were the rewards?” In response to my question, a list popped up.

  Halfsies Preference: Gain increased overall power for any half-breed subject that is a member of your Harem. Any half-breed is more willing to join your Harem. Please note this reward was given as a special reward from Transmigrating and cannot be Plundered.

  Perfect Assassin Assimilation: If you can kill a person without anyone being aware, you may assume their appearance and identity. No one will question anything that does not match up with the original subject, brushing it off as a simple change in personality. Please note this reward was given as a special reward from Transmigrating and cannot be Plundered.

  Perfect Words: You know exactly what to say to influence a potential Harem member to be more willing to join. Warning: this does not work on individuals who are significantly stronger than you. Please note this reward was given as a special reward from Transmigrating and cannot be Plundered.

  Romance of Beasts and Monsters: Gain bonus power for every beastfolk, beast, or monster type in your Harem. This includes half-breeds, although the return is not as much as a pure-breed.

  Perfect Rhetoric: It is extremely easy to twist your words to influence those around you. Warning: this does not work on individuals who are significantly stronger than you.

  Your Opinion is Irrelevant: Those in your Harem are not easily influenced by people outside of it, especially if they have a negative opinion of you, or your relationship.

  Royal Etiquette: You have extensive knowledge on how to act as a noble and amongst nobles.

  Manipulator: You find it easy to convince others to your way of thinking. This increases in effectiveness by the amount of Harem members you have participating in the conversation. Warning: this does not work on individuals who are significantly stronger than you.

  Power Boost: You gain a small boost in power for every member in your Harem. Note that this boost is decreased by every member that is assisting you in a fight.

  Twisted Love: Members of your Harem are far more willing to do things that you ask of them, even if normally they would be against it.

  My face scrunched up the more I read. This man was…disgusting. He purposefully chose rewards singling out half-breeds, and manipulation. “No, I don’t want those rewards.”

  Rewards denied.

  Returning to real time

  Please bring up the System

  At your convenience to select

  Your rewards

  Everything was suddenly normal, and I actually felt a bit dizzy. What brought me out of it was a scream from the stands. I looked over to see several of the girls who had been in his harem crying, one of which threw up. It seemed that the rewards went away when I plundered the system from him.

  I looked down to see a very different individual. He was scrawny, what I could see of his face was malnourished and not taken care of. He also looked older than me. “Otherworlder!” I heard one of the guards shout and they suddenly rushed him.

  “Don’t kill him! We must find out what happened to my son,” the Duke said, his face a twist of rage and despair.

  I backed away quickly as he was mobbed and chained. Even as I continued to back away from him, worried that I might be questioned as to if I knew what happened, I could hear the group of girls sobbing and cursing at him. Some of them who claimed to have known him before he changed claimed he had bewitched them.

  The half-elf seemed to have taken it the hardest as she had immediately gone for a knife and attempted to end her own life. She hadn’t succeeded as guards near them had started to subdue the ones getting more violent, but she now had a bit of a cut on her neck.

  My backwards retreat was stopped as I bumped into Shuzshu. “What is going on?” she whispered.

  “He-” I hesitated, but decided to explain it in a vague way. “He must have had some sort of mind control ability. Something that made others see him positively and do things against their will.”

  “What makes you think that?” the Duke asked, having gotten beside us without me realizing.

  “Just look at the reaction. He must have traumatized those girls and made them do some… really awful things, judging by how they’re acting.” I gestured with a nod towards the group of girls. “And he somehow took the place of your son with no one questioning it. When did he start collecting girls?”

  He had to think about it for a moment. “About two years ago?”

  “Then I figure that’s when he took his place,” I said with a nod, but I decided to continue. “All Otherworlders gain a special power when they cross over. Some have called them cheats, or a system, it depends on the Otherworlder, but they all have this in common. And it is extremely powerful.”

  “How do you know so much about Otherworlders?” the Duke said, and I could hear the suspicion in his voice.

  “Power,” I said honestly. “Their worlds are so much different than ours, and they bring with them all sorts of knowledge. Not all of them are bad. Take the last hero for example, he was an Otherworlder. It’s just…” I vaguely gestured to the man who was being hauled off. “This is the case too often.”

  “So that’s how you’ve gotten so strong with a profession like Archanist,” the Duke said, nodding.

  I frowned a bit. “While that has been a big part of it, I will admit, I would rather think that it’s because I put in more effort than anyone else has ever done.”

  “Ah, I didn’t mean to offend you. I just meant that your extensive research in rather niche subjects has paid off.” He coughed slightly, realizing that he made the situation awkward. “I’ll… be going,” he said before taking his leave.

  I watched him go with a frown. He was probably off to interrogate the Otherworlder. “Do you… think my brother… is alive?” Lillece asked as she walked over. Her eyes never left the door they had all left.

  “No,” I said bluntly, and sighed. “Unless the ability specifically requires the subject to be alive, there’s no reason to keep him so.”

  “But you don’t think that’s the case,” she said, glancing at me.

  I shook my head. “After two years, there should have been something. Especially with an awakened profession.”

  She nodded slowly. She looked a bit sad, but overall didn’t seem terribly upset. “I see…”

  There wasn’t really anything I could say to make her feel better. Everything that came to mind were just things that I would use to comfort myself. But I couldn’t just say nothing. “Doesn’t feel fair, does it?”

  She frowned and shook her head. “No.” There were a few minutes of silence as we stood there. But it was broken when she asked, “What did you mean by mitigate the damage?”

  “In simple terms,” I turned a bit to her. “You move enough so that you can survive the hit. You can live without an arm, but if your head is blown off, or a hole gets put in your chest you’re dead.”

  She nodded slowly. “So if you have to get hit…get hit in a way you can survive.”

  “Exactly. Though don’t put too much thought into that. Just be aware of it,” I cautioned her. “It’s easy to get into a mindset of ‘I can take it’ and end up putting yourself in a bad situation. Dodge, block, deflect should be what you focus on.”

  She continued to nod, looking down at the ground.

  “As a caster and buffer, you should be in the middle, watching the front and also paying attention to the back,” I explained as I drew a little diagram on the floor with my foot.

  However she looked confused. “I thought I need to be at the back?”

  I shook my head. “There should always be someone behind you. You’re in the same position you would put a healer. Putting you in the back is like asking to get flanked.”

  She frowned, only looking more confused. “But at the academy, they said that healers and buffers go at the back?”

  That caused me to frown. “Sounds like your teachers aren’t the best at tactics. Or have never faced anyone who’s actually good at them.”

  She blinked at me. “Huh?”

  I sighed slightly. “Your back line is the most vulnerable position. How do you not know this?”

  “I know that,” she said defensively, frowning at me.

  “If you put all your most vulnerable people in the most vulnerable position, all it would take is a single enemy to kill every single one of them.” As I spoke I added onto the diagram, emphasizing someone circling around and hitting the back.

  “But that goes against the rules of engagement.”

  I stared at her for a moment, unable to even form words for a bit. “What do rules have to do with anything?” I managed to get out.

  “We are all taught the rules of engagement. One of the first rules is you don’t target healers,” she explained with a smug tone.

  “Do you think a bandit cares about that? Or a monster?” I asked, and she blinked at me. “There are no rules in the fight for your life. You do whatever it takes to win, and if your enemy doesn’t like it, why would you care? You’re the one who gets to go home at the end of it.”

  “But… If you did that in a war, then thousands of people would die…”

  “Hundreds of thousands,” I agreed with a nod. “Maybe millions. That’s what war is. Death.” I could tell that she really didn’t like the nonchalantness that I was saying all this. “The dead don’t have the luxury of complaining about how they died. A wolf doesn’t care that you have a family, when it has its own to feed.”

  A thoughtful expression adorned her face. “I…I never thought of it that way…”

  “It’s the harshness of reality. The unfairness of it.” I took a deep breath, letting it out in a heavy sigh. “When you can accept that a fight isn’t going to be fair- That there are going to be people who not only don’t follow the rules, but take advantage of the fact that you will be, that’s when you’ll get a true hold on your own life.”

  Silence fell between us as she digested the words. I glanced at Velvese and Shuzshu who were also listening with thoughtful expressions. It looked like Lillece understood what I was saying, but still had her doubts. “But- but it can’t be that bad.”

  I sighed again with a shake of my head. “You’ve literally experienced three different scenarios of this. The dungeon. Landerson. Your brother. If all parties had been following the rules, none of that would have happened.”

  Judging by the pained expression that she got, that was probably a bit too harsh. But this was part of the training. Training wasn’t all about physical things, you needed to train yourself mentally as well. Especially in this sort of life, only the truly powerful have the luxury of hesitating about killing someone who wants to kill them. “But I just… I don’t understand. Why are people so cruel?”

  “There’s no simple way to put it,” I said with a shake of my head. I could explain psychopathy and sociopathy to her, or numerous other mental diagnoses, but she wouldn’t understand them.

  She turned to me and frowned. “That’s a lie. You know a simple way.”

  I paused and frowned, glancing at her. “The simple answer is that some people are just evil.” That statement seemed to actually shock her as she simply stared at me. “And the worst part is they don’t see themselves as such. They see themselves as heroes of their own stories.”

  “Heroes of their own stories?” Lillece said, not understanding what that meant.

  Again I had to pause a moment to think of how best to explain it. “When you look at me, what do you see?”

  Her brow furrowed as she looked me over. “A man in his early twenties, brown hair, fair features-”

  I waved my hand. “No, no, not physically,” I said with a chuckle.

  “The Archanist?”

  I snorted a bit. “Closer. I am the Archanist, this is true, but I am a person. A living being. Someone with my own thoughts, feelings, past experiences. My own life that I have lived. I continue to exist when you don’t see me. Some people only see others as characters in their life. These people lack empathy, and so don’t care about those around them. They may say they care, and may even think they care… but look at what that man did to those girls. Do you think he cared about them?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “But he might have thought he did. But even if he loved them, he didn’t love them for them, he loved the ideal version he made of them in his head, and forced them to be that.” I was staring at the sword that had been left in the arena. “To me, that is evil.”

  “Do you love anyone?” she suddenly asked.

  The question completely caught me off guard and I felt my entire body tense. “I…” I cleared my throat. “That is… that is a difficult subject for me.” I took a deep breath, closing my eyes in an attempt to just not look at anyone. “I have been betrayed or had my heart broken by every single person I have ever conveyed my love to.”

  “I’m sorry,” I heard her say softly.

  “It’s-” I didn’t get to finish my sentence as I was suddenly enveloped by a very emotional Gnoll.

  “Is that why you can’t say it?” Shuzshu asked softly, and I could feel the emotion in her voice. “You don’t have to say it. I know you do,” she continued, squeezing me a bit tighter.

  I sighed softly, reaching up to pet the Gnoll as she clung to me. “It’s alright. It’s okay. Things just… are like that for me.”

  “The world is so cruel…” Shuzshu said, actually petting me.

  “Yeah. Which sort of brings me to the whole point of the lesson.” I struggled a bit to try and get out of the Gnolls grasp, but she was having none of it. I sighed and instead just moved so that I could look at Lillece. “You have to expect the world is going to be unfair and cruel. But that doesn’t mean you have to be that as well- will you let me go, I’m trying to impart a lesson,” I muttered at Shuzshu.

  “No,” was her response.

  I sighed and shook my head. “Fine. Alright, being cruel and unfair is the fastest and most efficient way to win, but you’re just adding to the problem. So instead, expect it to be bad, but hope for it to be good. All you have to do is be kind. Stay on your feet, power through it, move on, knock down anyone who tries to knock you down, and help those that you can. But know your limits.”

  Lillece had a smile on her face, clearly amused by the antics of the Gnoll. “That’s quite a lot.”

  I couldn’t help but let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s the first lesson. If you can’t get it, then we won’t continue. I’m not going to teach someone who is going to turn around and use those teachings to do something fucked up.”

  “You’ve taught others?” she asked.

  It was an innocent question, but I couldn’t help wondering if there was more behind it. Had her father trained her to ask probing questions like this? “Yes,” I said simply.

  The curt response seemed to puzzle her a bit, but she didn’t question it further. “I see… so, if that is my first lesson, are we done for today?”

  “Usually I would say no, but considering all that’s happened… I think it’s best if we did.” I finally managed to get free of the Gnoll as I spoke, absentmindedly smoothing out my coat. I didn’t think I could properly focus on training her anyways, considering what I had just gained.

  “Alright,” she said with a slight bow. “Thank you. I will see you next week.”

  “Mhm.” I gave her a bit of a bow in return before leaving.

  We stopped to get food on the way back, a sort of stew. It made me think of Mae and wonder what she was doing. Tugging on the leash did nothing. Shuzshu talked about starting to hunt again, as she was getting antsy. Battlejunkie had a rather detrimental skill known as battle lust, and it got worse the longer she went without engaging in combat. I agreed, telling her that she should introduce herself and Velvese to the new Guild Master. There had probably been a few higher tier hunting requests that came in while we had been busy.

  She made it known she was reluctant to leave me alone, but I just sort of laughed at her, saying that I would be fine as I had no plans to go anywhere. We parted ways at the house, rather than wait until tomorrow.

  That was good for me as I walked in, putting a bowl of stew down on the table before heading upstairs. I told the cat that there was a bowl of stew downstairs for her, and she practically sprinted down the stairs. I found her enthusiasm for food amusing, but I also understood it. Not knowing when your next meal was was extremely stressful.

  As I entered my lab, I took a seat, pulling out several notebooks. I wanted to make it look like I was simply lost in thought while working if anyone should peek in. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust most of the people who would do that, I just didn’t want to explain. The first thing I did was try and bring up my status.

  ERROR

  Plunderer does not contain a Status Option.

  The Profession System does not contain a Status Option.

  Ultimate Harem System does not contain a Status Option.

  That was a bit annoying, but it did make me realize that the professions did come from a system. One that everyone in this world had. But for some reason we weren’t allowed to bring it up. Mentally I tried to bring up information on the Profession System.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Profession System

  Unique system of XXXXX given to all those that

  Reach the age of sixteen in their domain.

  This system gives every individual a Profession based

  On what they would be best at.

  Your Profession is Archanist.

  Curiously the name of the thing that had given out the system was blocked out. Did that mean that Plunderer wasn’t strong enough to see it? That also brought about the curious nature of systems in general. From the testimony of otherworlders, there were thousands of different systems. Some were rather mundane, like a Healthy Living system that kept you healthy and slightly extended your life. But there were also systems like the Twelve Stars had.

  Not all of their systems were ever published, but we do know of some. Sorcerer King, Beast King, Master, Unlimited Weaponry, and Star Ruler. Only five of the twelve, as the others never divulged the name of whatever their system was. The question now was, how does my system stack up to theirs?

  Ultimate Harem System

  For every member in your Harem you gain one point to spend in the Store

  These purchased rewards are tied to the individual, so removing someone from your Harem will lose the associated reward.

  Current Harem size: 8

  Available Points: 8

  I stared at the last two lines for several minutes. “The fuck do you mean eight?” I said aloud, unable to stop myself. Eight? Eight what? I had eight people the system considered part of my harem? How the fuck does the system consider a harem member? What are the qualifications? I don’t even think there are eight people that I even like enough to consider friends, let alone part of a harem.

  Harem members are considered by their affection, favorability, and willingness to be with the host. Host input is not needed to collect new members, and current Harem members may collect new members.

  Okay that answered some of my questions. But how- my train of thought derailed. “Shuzshu,” I muttered softly. Her talk of packs… was that enough for the system to register those she deemed worthy to join the harem? That seemed… correct, but at the same time extremely concerning. Especially because I couldn’t even think of eight people.

  Trying to work it out in my head, Shuzshu herself was a given. Velvese and Mae brought it up to three… The slip mice? No, I had vetoed that. Fuck she didn’t consider Lillece, did she? That might be one. The Kobold? That was a good candidate, so probably her. But… even counting Lillece, which I didn’t, that still left three. Four if I rejected that. No, even Shuzshu rejected that. She called her weak, so Shuzshu wouldn’t think that.

  But it was the other line I had to focus on. Affection, favorability towards me and willingness to be with me. Why was affection and favorability seen as different? The cat? Did the cat count? Maybe? She at least fits the criteria. That still left three unaccounted for. I had to wrack my brain for several minutes, but nothing came to mind. It wasn’t until a soft voice spoke from nearby that I had an answer, “Do you need my help with the salve?”

  He looked over at the House Spirit, who was watching me stare blankly at the air and slowly cooking my own head with how hard I was thinking. “Ah- yes. Please.”

  With her help, we removed the bandages and began reapplying the salve. The salve was fascinating, it was supplying the body with energy and encouraging the cells to not just regenerate, but helping the body produce more at a faster rate. Not only that but I could actually feel a sort of dullness in my arms as the nerves began to recover.

  Turning my attention to the House Spirit I watched as she did her task with extreme focus. I had honestly never expected her to be willing to show herself to me, especially after I brought a different Spirit into the house. Maybe she thought that I was going to replace her?

  She looked up at me and our eyes locked for a moment. Suddenly a window popped up next to her.

  Harem Member: Nameless House Spirit

  Species: House Spirit

  Affection: 126

  I read the display out of the corner of my eye, not breaking her gaze. I saw her face go a bit red before she looked away, turning her attention back to applying the salve. That was extremely curious. I could look at some details of members of the harem, though I had no idea what affection meant. Was it my affection for them? Or there's for me? Was there a maximum, or did it just increase exponentially?

  After waiting for a moment for the system to answer, I got nothing. Maybe I could get more information from a reward in the store? I hadn’t checked that yet, but I also wasn’t going to do so while the House Spirit was so focused on me. She tied off the last of the bandages, a bit of a satisfied look on her face from a job well done. I placed my hand gently on hers as she smoothed out some of the bandages. “Thank you,” I said softly.

  I saw the way her face went red, and the number next to affection jumped by four points. “O-of course. You are… the one who owns this place. I must… I want to serve.”

  That pulled a smile onto my face. “I’m glad. I was honestly worried that you hated me.”

  “I- I would- would never,” she denied, though her tone and the way that she stumbled and faltered with her words told me otherwise.

  “It’s alright. I understand.” I pat her hand gently before breaking the contact. She seemed to get a bit flustered at that before she simply vanished. It seemed she was fairly easy to fluster, and her response was to vanish. Though I knew she was still around, since she was the house itself, it wasn’t like she could leave. The little display screen also disappeared with her.

  Turning my focus back to the system, I opened the store. Immediately I was flooded with thousands of options, all scattered and uncategorized. I frowned at this. This was going to take me hours to look through enough of it to even get a general idea.

  And it did take hours. I hadn’t even gotten past S before taking a break and ordering my thoughts. The list was ordered alphabetically, which was both a boon and a curse. A boon because if you knew what you were looking for it was easier to find, but a curse because of all the scrolling. I was only thankful that I had a speed reading skill. The next thing I figured out was that there were several categories, though there was no way to sort them.

  All of the rewards fell into one of five categories. Species specializations, mental manipulations, self boosts, harem boosts, and utility. Species specialization was about getting bonuses for certain species, the more restrictive the better the boons. The most interesting thing about this category was that restricting things that you could take offered better rewards than ones that offered boons for having certain species.

  Mental manipulations was pretty self explanatory, though it also included things that would help you blend into society and be better at socializing. Perfect assassin assimilation and royal etiquette were part of this category. Boosts was also fairly self explanatory; you get things by having more members, giving the boon to either you or your harem members.

  The final category was the most interesting to me, and also where I made an interesting discovery. Some rewards cost multiple points. Almost every utility reward I saw cost more than one point, I hadn’t seen anything more than ten points yet, but several of them cost ten. I couldn’t even imagine what sort of crazy- I stopped my thought as I realized I was literally only two members away from crossing that line.

  I was still struggling with that. How did I get into this situation? That damn Gnoll was causing me so many headaches. A smile pulled at the corner of my mouth a bit and I leaned back in my chair, looking out the window.

  “Gotta admit… it’s kinda fun though…” As I was looking outside, I had a sudden realization and then couldn’t help but think how stupid I was. “Ah- fuck…” I took a deep breath and sighed. I had no idea if it would work, but it was worth a shot. I sat up a bit straighter, cleared my throat, and then cautiously voiced to the open air. “Lady Amaterasu?”

  There was a flash of light and as I struggled a moment to blink away the flashbang that had just gone off in front of me I found myself once again sitting at a small tea table in a garden. “Took you long enough!” was the first thing I heard before I was tackled from the side. “You bastard…” the familiar fox was clinging to me, clearly upset. “That piece of shit banished me!” she complained, not letting me go.

  “I know… I know…” I said softly, stroking her head. “I’m sorry. I’m dumb.”

  “Yes you are,” she whined, shoving her head against my chest. “Dumb stupid bastard…”

  I just pet her for a few minutes before she finally let me up and I looked around. Lady Amaterasu was watching with an amused expression. With a sigh, I looked at Mae and then back at the Goddess. “So, I’m not really here, am I?”

  The Goddess shook her head. “No, you are simply projecting here at my behest.”

  A frown pulled at my face. “Alright… Well… How do I get Mae back?” I asked, trying to ignore the way that the fox squeezed me tighter.

  “You actually want her back?” Lady Amaterasu asked with a quirked brow.

  “Yes?”

  “I told you,” Mae said happily.

  “Even with how she forced you to take her?” the Goddess pressed.

  I arched a brow. “I’d hardly call that forced. Perhaps coerced. Compared to Shuzshu, she was down right gentle.” The both wore confused expressions and I looked over at Mae. “Has she never told you about that?”

  Mae shook her head. “No.”

  I let out a snort before actually laughing a bit. “Oh. Well, she tried to kill me. We beat the shit out of each other for five minutes till I knocked her down. But she was making such pathetic little whimpers that I felt bad, so I cast stabilize on her. Which I damn near regretted cus she tracked me for weeks and then-” I paused, thinking about how to word it. “We had a rather uh… intense discussion.”

  There was silence for a moment until Lady Amaterasu broke out into fits of laughter. Mae just sat there slack jawed, staring at me. “Well, certainly by comparison I would say this little one's methods were mundane,” the Goddess said, still giggling softly. “Though, as much as I would like to let her return, there are complications.”

  “I have her leash,” I immediately argued, holding up my left arm for emphasis.

  “Yes…” she admitted with a nod. “However, you took that without receiving permission to do so.”

  My brow furrowed and I frowned for a moment. “Then…” An idea popped into my head that brought a smile to my face. “Then make her my reward. For solving the Spirit problem.”

  Lady Amaterasu got a thoughtful look on her face. “You have solved that?”

  “Yes. It may take a few more days before you see the effects, but the majority of the problem should be solved.” I glanced at Mae, who was blinking at me with a questioning expression. “It turns out that the city's ex-guild master was behind it. He has been executed for that and numerous other crimes, as well as more than four hundred others.”

  The two of them simply stared at me for a moment before the Goddess finally spoke, “And you are sure he was the one in charge?”

  My brow furrowed a bit. “I can’t say for certain if he was in charge, he wasn’t smart enough. But I am confident that the operation can’t continue to run without him for the time being, until some other moron gets it into their head to use Spirits. As I explained, this is a never ending cycle of greed.”

  It took a few moments before Lady Amaterasu responded, “This will need to be confirmed… but when it is, Mae will be returned to the Middle Realm.”

  Mae was practically beaming, and I gave her a smile. Suddenly a message box opened up beside her, nearly startling me.

  Harem Member: Tamamo-no-Mae

  Species: Eight Tailed Fox Spirit

  Affection: 789

  I blinked, and looked her over a bit. “You gained another tail.”

  She just grinned at me in response. “Oh? Just noticed?” She sashayed around the little tea area, showing off her eight tails.

  With a bit of a chuckle, I turned my attention back to the Goddess. “So uh… when can I expect to have Mae back?”

  Lady Amaterasu also seemed amused at Mae’s antics. “Probably a few days. It should not take long to confirm what you have said.”

  I nodded a bit. “Good. Good… Shuzshu really wants to punish her for letting me get hurt.”

  Mae stopped and huffed. “I did no such thing. How dare she accuse me of such nonsense.” As she spoke I could hear that slight tinge of fear in her voice. I know that the Gnoll liked the Fox, but her way of showing it was a rather rough one.

  “Oh would you look at that, times up.”

  “Hm?” I looked over towards the Goddess only to see the empty room of my laboratory. “Huh?” It took me a moment to understand that I was now back. Or had never left? I’m not sure how that worked.

  “Are you okay?” the House Spirit asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

  “Ah. Yeah. That was… That was weird.” I shook my head a bit, trying to get rid of the odd dissociation feeling that was throughout my body. It helped to look down at my hands and flex my fingers.

  “Your soul was gone for a moment,” she said, quite concerned.

  “Yeah, Lady Amaterasu wanted to have a word with me.” It was rather concerning to know that my body had just been left here while she yanked my soul. “Trying to get Mae back.”

  Her hand withdrew. “That Fox Spirit scares me…”

  “She’s-” I hesitated and then shook my head. “Okay, not harmless. But I already threatened her about that.”

  “And she’ll… listen to you?” she asked tentatively. There was a certain nervous tone to her voice.

  I held up my left arm. “Do you know what this is?” The band around my arm shimmered slightly.

  “Spirit tether,” she said with a nod. “But… how do you have it?”

  That caused me to hesitate again. “I stole it,” I said honestly. “It was made by a God, and I made a soul pact with Mae and grabbed it.”

  “How did you soul pact a Spirit?” a cat suddenly asked. She had come up the stairs, apparently having sensed the disturbance from the Goddesses meddling.

  I glanced over at the cat. “Everyone thinks magic is so rigid… There are so many things that can just be…swapped around. A soul pact is just a type of contract, so I used the basis of a spirit contract, twisted the wording and supplemented a few runes.”

  They both gaped at me for a moment. “You could have killed both of you,” the cat said.

  “If I was an idiot, yeah.” They were both still just staring at me. “Okay, so, think of magic like a sentence. You can say the same thing with different words.”

  I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote; ‘There is a mouse over there.’ And under it I wrote; ‘Over there there is a mouse.’ And at the bottom I wrote; ‘There mouse over there is.’

  “All three of these sentences convey the same meaning, but are said in different ways. And one of them makes more sense than the others, but they all mean the same.

  They both looked at me confused. “I can’t read,” the House Spirit said after a moment.

  “I can’t read your handwriting,” the cat said just after.

  I sighed before reading all three sentences out, gesturing to them as I did. “See?” They both just stared at me with blank expressions. “Nevermind.” I turned back to my desk. “You’re lucky you’re both cute,” I muttered.

  The House Spirit let out a soft “Eep” noise as she disappeared.

  The cat sauntered over and jumped into my lap, laying down. She was already purring before I even started petting her. Curiously I tried to bring up the panel to confirm she was a part of my harem.

  Harem Member: Princess Riko Liako

  Species: Cat Demon (SEALED)

  Affection: 231

  I did my best to not react to what I was seeing. So far it looked like Mae had the highest affection, but I had not seen Shuzshu or Velvese yet. “Hey, since you can talk, and mentioned you’re sealed. That means you have a name, right?” I asked instead of reacting.

  She looked like she was about to say something and then immediately thought better of it. “You may call me Riko.”

  “Right,” I said with a bit of a nod, scratching between her ears. “You can call me Arc.” She didn’t respond, settling into my lap and apparently falling asleep. A lazy cat it seemed. But that was to be expected of cats.

  I decided to continue to peruse the system store to see if I found anything better than I already wanted. There were a few things that had caught my eye that I planned to take. Afterall, have system, will use. Be a waste not to. However much to my dismay, closing the store had not kept where I had stopped, so now I had a ton of scrolling to do.

  ~

  In the evening I was still debating. If I wanted the perfect build for what I wanted to use the system for I would need another twelve points. But that would mean my harem would be at twenty and that sounded insane to me. I was not the same as that smartphone guy. Although if it were simple things like this cat, or the House Spirit, I might be able to pull it off. Especially considering there were still two members unaccounted for.

  The reason my number was so high was there was an extremely expensive utility that I really wanted.

  Immense Magic Reserves: Your mana capacity becomes near limitless, allowing you to have no regards to your use of mana. However this does not affect your mana recovery, nor will it negate penalties from using massive amounts of mana.

  Cost: 10 Points

  Taking it by itself would be a huge boon, but also incredibly risky. Mana recovery was slow, and took longer depending on your profession. Archanist didn’t have a very good recovery rate, and if I emptied my current mana total it would take days to refill. The second part was also troubling. Mana headaches were a thing from using too much mana at once, and you could damage your body from the channeling. Though that could be strengthened, it would hinder me.

  There were other things to negate those penalties, such as Mana Regen Booster and Mana Draw Negation, but they also cost points. So I reluctantly had to discard that option. No, as much as I wanted that and it would make my life easier, I would have to go with a different plan.

  Something for recovery would be convenient now, but I don’t plan on getting hurt like this again. It would be better to plan to prevent being injured, than to plan for what to do after. I only had eight points… Some of the options to boost other members were also very tempting. Boosting myself was also a good idea. There were just too many damn options and I was getting decision paralysis.

  In my growing frustration I started to rapidly scroll through the list. Normally I would have just chosen at random out of annoyance, but there were some really bad options in here that I would despise having. I scrolled all the way to the bottom, looking at the only Z item.

  Zero Solution: Learn the recipe for Liquid Starlight.

  Cost: 5 Points

  I had no idea what that even was. In my head I wondered if the system would offer me something so convenient… something better than magic silver. But I had never heard of something like that. Maybe it was like a sort of mana potion? Or a cure-all healing potion? There were a couple other recipes in the utility category, which was a bit strange but it was like the system expected you to have an Alchemist type in your harem, or be one yourself. In fact there were a couple that would boost alchemy, but I didn’t need that since I had Eulreka.

  The name of the reward also didn’t make sense. Why not call it liquid starlight recipe, like the other recipes? Zero solution was a math thing, where when solving for X in an equation the only viable option was zero. But it could also be described as no solution, where there are multiple solutions for variables on either side of the equation but due to the structure you can’t get an answer. Something like three equals four or something.

  Did that imply that it was an impossible thing? That was the only conclusion I could come to. Something about either the recipe, or the end product was impossible. The more I thought about it, the more curious I was.

  So in my frustration at not being able to think properly about what else to take, I selected it as my reward. Immediately the recipe was in my head and it was… strange. I didn’t understand most of it. There were ingredients I recognized, surprisingly magic silver was one of them, but there were also other things like a stone from a well traveled road picked up at midnight and hidden away from the sun. And some of these other things seemed weird. Who would steep the knuckles of a wolf in feline tears?

  Even if it didn’t make sense to me, I’m sure the Kobold could figure it out. And so I wrote it down, every single step and ingredient in as excruciating detail as possible. It honestly felt good to write despite the state of my hands.

  “It is dinner time,” I heard Shuzshu say from the stairs.

  “I’m almost done,” I responded as Riko practically flew from my lap. “Mae will be back in a few days,” I added.

  “Good.”

  After I finished writing up the recipe, it took nearly thirty pages, I folded them and tucked them into my coat before heading downstairs. Immediately when I saw Velvese I focused to access her window.

  Harem Member: Velvese

  Species: Lizardfolk

  Affection: 989

  That surprised me a bit to see her affection so high, and I wondered if that was as high as it went. And I got my answer almost immediately as I looked at Shuzshu and opened her window.

  Harem Member: Shuzshu

  Species: High Gnoll

  Affection: 2658

  I nearly missed the last step off the stairs as I caught sight of that number. I knew that the Gnoll was fond of me, but to actually quantify a number to it, especially when compared to others… It was rather intense. Over two and a half thousand. Now I really wanted to know what the hell the affection even meant. What was it used for? Was it used for anything? There had been a Detailed Harem Window reward in the store for one point but did I really want that?

  Yes I did. Since I was wasting my reward points anyways, I might as well do that. As I sat down at the table I quickly opened the store and selected the Detailed Harem Window reward. Then I turned my attention back to Shuzshu.

  Harem Member: Shuzshu

  Species: High Gnoll

  Affection: 2658

  Age: 43

  Height: 10’ 2” (Slouches)

  Profession: Battlejunky

  Strength: Extremely High

  Endurance: High

  Speed: Above Average

  Intelligence: Average

  Magic: None

  The first big surprise was her age. She really did not look that old, but I didn’t know how High Gnoll’s aged. They were a rather reclusive species. For some curious reason it listed her height but didn’t list her weight. Though it was interesting that it noted that she was slouching. I wasn’t sure if it was worth an entire point as a reward, but it was a lot more information. I glanced at Velvese next.

  Harem Member: Velvese

  Species: Lizardfolk

  Affection: 992

  Age: 27

  Height: 6’ 3”

  Profession: Dual Swordsorcerer

  Strength: Above Average

  Endurance: Above Average

  Speed: Extremely High

  Intelligence: Average

  Magic: Above Average

  The lizard's affection had gone up? That was such a weird stat that I had no idea how to- wait does that say Swordsorcerer? My eyes narrowed a bit as I looked at Velvese. We had never really gotten her officially appraised. The question was… did she know? “Velvese? What was your Profession?”

  She tilted her head to the side a bit, food in hand and on its way to her mouth. “Dual Swordsman?”

  I nodded slowly. That was a rather mundane reaction, so she probably didn’t know. “Have you ever had your profession appraised?”

  She shook her head. “What’s this about?” Shuzshu asked, forcing herself into the conversation. I looked over at her, a bit confused. “You have that look like you just thought of something.”

  I blinked at her. This Gnoll was extremely good at reading me. “She has mana,” I said as I gestured towards the Lizardfolk. They both just gapped at me as I started to eat. They had gotten sandwiches.

  “I have mana?” she said softly.

  I nodded. “Quite a bit of it… If I had to guess, your slave seal was suppressing it. That’s why no one noticed before. That’s pretty common to keep slaves from using magic items, like scrolls or wands, without permission.”

  “I have mana?” she said again, and I could see tears in her eyes. “All this time?”

  I reached out and put a hand on hers. I was a bit confused as to why this upset her, but I could try and comfort her. “Yes. You do.”

  “I… I-” She was crying now, trying to form words. “I was so… I just… I couldn’t get any better. I thought this was it…” I could see that she had a smile despite the tears. “I thought I had reached my limit.”

  Ah she had hit a plateau, or bottleneck. I gave her a smile, rubbing the back of her hand. “Tomorrow we should go to the Guild and get your profession checked. I also want to meet the new guild master. Did you two see them?”

  Shuzshu shook her head. “No, they weren’t there when we went. But apparently it’s some really strong lady.”

  I felt a tingle in the back of my spine. Was this one of the new members of the harem that the Gnoll had added? But it said they had to have favorability with me… they would have to meet me for that, right? Ugh that was frustrating. “I see. Well, we’ll try and see if she’s available tomorrow. I want to make sure we don’t get another incompetent piece of shit.”

  Silence fell for a few minutes as we continued eating. Velvese was still a bit sniffly, but she seemed happy. “Will you teach me magic?” she suddenly asked.

  I paused mid bite, looking at her. I gave a nod. “Of course.” That made her even happier, and I could actually see her tail wagging, or twitching. I wasn’t the only one to take note of that, as I saw the way Riko’s eyes dilated slightly. Curious, I decided to see what the feline's new screen displayed.

  Harem Member: Princess Riko Liako

  Species: Cat Demon (SEALED)

  Affection: 231

  Age: 407

  Height: 2’ 2” (SEALED)

  Profession: Demon Princess

  Strength: Low (High SEALED)

  Endurance: Below Average (Extremely High SEALED)

  Speed: High (Extremely High SEALED)

  Intelligence: Average

  Magic: Extremely Low (Extremely High SEALED)

  That cat would be very dangerous if she wasn’t stuck like that. It got me curious as to how she had been sealed, or what sealed her. She had said it was when she left the demon kingdom… Was it because of the familiar contract? Something for later.

  The rest of the evening passed in much the way it usually did. Although Shuzshu didn’t toss me, since I was still injured.

  ~

  The next day the three of us made our way to the guild. It had a new door, but it was open. Inside was practically empty, most of the tables and chairs were stacked up at the side out of the way, and it seemed like no one wanted to hang out here. Unsurprising considering recent events.

  I followed Shuzshu and Velvese up to the counter and they began discussing their recent hunt and providing proof of subjugation. A pack of dire wolves.

  “Archanist?” a quiet voice from the side came.

  Glancing over I saw a rather young looking guild receptionist. “Yes?”

  “The- the Guild Master would uhm… like to see you… if you’re not busy…” She shifted uncomfortably, and didn’t make eye contact.

  “Alright,” I said, giving Shuzshu a pat on the back to get her attention and explain where I was going. She just nodded, and though she smiled I could tell she was a bit worried.

  Following the receptionist up, she knocked on the office door. “Come in,” came a voice. I didn’t recognize it, so probably not someone I had met.

  The staff member opened the door. “The Archanist is here…” she said before stepping out of the way. She didn’t enter the room, but gestured for me to do so.

  The room was trashed. The desk looked like it had exploded and a few tables had been set up. The cushions of the couches had been cut open, and the books had all been torn apart. Someone had been extremely thorough with this room. There was even evidence that some of the floor boards had been torn up and shoved back into place.

  Standing beside one of the tables looking over the papers was a shorter woman. Her hair was tied back, red with gray streaks. She was wearing a bright red vest jacket, and a sword at her hip. The sword had a red sheath, and her pants were red leather as well. “Archanist…” She looked back at me.

  I moved in and took a seat on the ruined couch. “If I’m not mistaken… You’re Red Crimson?” It was hard not to recognize a well renowned figure like her. She was a bit like me in the sense that other people chose her name, due to how she dressed in all red. Her profession was Blade King, and she was Tier Twenty.

  She looked me over for a moment. “It looks like you’re recovering.”

  I flexed my fingers a bit. “Slowly, but yes.”

  There was a moment of silence before she sighed and turned back to her papers. “This is a complete mess… Records are all either out of date or incorrect. The guild has over twice the amount registered that it has officially documented, many of which are wanted criminals from our country or abroad. Missing reward confirmations. Indications of bribes… And this whole Spirit experiment thing…” She looked back at me. “How are things about that?”

  “I informed Lady Amaterasu, and they are going to confirm things. But overall it seems to have settled somewhat,” I responded. Then I sighed and shook my head. “Until the next person gets it in their head that they can meddle with Spirits. But thankfully the Goddess is quite aware of that.”

  “Well at least there’s that.” She shifted a few papers and then tossed a stack of papers on the table in front of me. “That Dragons lair was well established, as you thought. Landerson was suppressing the report of it.”

  I picked up the folder and looked through it. “Almost three decades ago, that Earth Dragon moved into that area.” The folder was full of reports and eye witness accounts of the Dragon. “She’s been pretty content to just rule over that basin and hasn’t extended her territory. What’s concerning is that from accounts, no one’s seen an Earth Dragon like that.”

  There were numerous sketches in the folder of her, as well as descriptions and attitude. As I had thought, she is docile as long as you don’t engage.

  She had a rather curious expression as she looked over at me again. “You’re the first person she’s actually attacked.”

  “Lucky me,” I mumbled, putting the folder down.

  “On that note, there’s actually a letter for you.”

  My brow furrowed and I blinked at her as she passed me an almost comically large letter. Opening it up, I quickly read over its content. “...an apology and an invitation?” I mused when I had finished reading.

  Red Crimson had a frown. “So you can read that,” she said flatly.

  Fuck. I didn’t check. This was the Monster Hunter language, which is close to English and pretty easy to understand if you know the English language. But that’s not what was spoken here. The language of this world was Taldura. “It’s the language from another world,” I admitted.

  “Which one?” she demanded, though she didn’t seem hostile towards me.

  “It doesn’t have a name, or… at least I don’t know it.”

  She sighed. “Damn it… You’re the only expert on otherworlds in the city…” she mumbled before turning away. That was a very interesting piece of information. The Duke must have spread the word of my ‘research’ so as to alleviate suspicion if other world things were brought up. “Do you know what she is?”

  I took a deep breath, “The Glorious Dragon Mother Goddess of Gold, Kulve Taroth. An Elder Dragon.”

  “Goddess?” she snapped, actually turning towards me.

  “Not a literal Goddess, I think. She’s just extremely powerful, so those of her world call her a Goddess.” I was looking over the letter again, though there wasn’t much more to see.

  “What’s an Elder Dragon?”

  “Beings at the height of power in the world she comes from, I think. Something to do with how they classify the danger levels of monsters, similar to our tier system.” I started to fold the letter back up.

  “Are you going to accept the invitation?”

  I hesitated a moment before shrugging. “Not until I’m fully healed and equipped again. Which could be a few months, or it could be never.”

  She frowned at that. “Are your injuries that severe?”

  “Unfortunately… Even with magic I may not fully recover,” I admitted. While I was confident that I would make a full recovery, I was under no illusion that there being permanent damage was a very real possibility.

  “That would be unfortunate, especially considering you’re one of the highest tier adventurers in the city.” She sighed as she rubbed her face. I could guess she was having a very difficult time picking up after Landerson.

  “I think Shuzshu and Velvese will need a more extensive evaluation,” I suggested with a bit of a wave towards the door. “Shuzshu’s strength is… oddly high, even for a High Gnoll. And Velvese-”

  The door flew open and Shuzshu was standing there, glancing around the room before her eyes locked on me. I saw her relax. “You called?” she said rather nonchalantly.

  “And her senses are on another level,” I added, looking at the Gnoll. “Did you get Velvese’s profession assessed?”

  She shook her head. “No, not yet.”

  I glanced at the Guild Master before returning my attention behind Shuzshu to see the Lizardfolk with a concerned expression. “Might want to do this in private.”

  The Guild Master huffed before going over to the remains of the desk and pulling out an orb. “Do you know how to use one of these?” she asked as she tossed it to me.

  “Yes,” I said as I caught it. “Velvese, come over here.” It had been a while since I saw a profession orb. It was much easier to make and use than what the guild normally uses. The lizard dutifully came to stand in front of me. I held out the orb. “Put your hands on it.”

  She nodded, and did so. There was a soft flash and I looked into the orb.

  A smirk immediately came to my face. “As I thought. You have mana. And not just that. Unique profession, Dual Swordsorcerer.”

  The sudden pressure that flooded the room was rather intense. I could barely track the movements of the red woman as she moved over to look. “Unique…profession…” she muttered, staring at the orb.

  “I figured it would be impressive, but I had no idea it’d be a unique-” my words were interrupted as the orb suddenly split into two.

  Again I had barely seen her even move, but the Guild Master had rather abruptly bisected the orb. All I managed to do was give her a quizzical look before she explained, “The orbs keep a record of everyone who’s touched them. The kingdom collects them and goes through them during audits.” She sighed as she shook her head. “Going to be difficult to get a new one…”

  I dropped the two halves, making them shatter on the floor. “Oh dear. Looks like Landerson broke the orb at some point… better put that in your report,” I said with a bit of a smirk.

  She stared at me for a moment before smiling, and nodding. “Yes, clearly the dumb oaf should have taken better care of such important things.”

  Looking over at Velvese, she was just standing there stunned, as was Shuzshu. Though it seemed that Shuzshu was more shocked at the speed of the new Guild Master. There was a sort of frustration on her face as she realized that she couldn’t have stopped that move at all. I couldn’t have stopped it either, unless I used overcharge.

  “Obviously I don’t need to say it, but I have to say it. Knowledge of this profession doesn’t leave this room,” Crimson said with a rather serious tone.

  I just nodded, knowing the danger of it. “Unique professions are extremely powerful, and someone with enough influence finding out that Velvese had one would most likely mean she would be killed or captured and turned into someone's slave,” I explained to a rather confused and concerned looking lizard and Gnoll. “They would also kill me, Shuzshu, and everyone associated with you.”

  “I can’t say it wouldn’t be someone from our kingdom,” the Guild Master said with a bit of an annoyed look. “But most likely it would be from one of the more warmongering places such as-” she stopped and glanced at me.

  “The Griffon Kingdom, I’m aware,” I said with a sigh before standing up. “If there’s nothing else, I would like to take my leave.”

  She nodded. “Yes, that’s all.”

  I nodded and headed towards the door. However I stopped before reaching it and turned back. “One more thing. There’s a freelance Alchemist. Eulreka. All of her quests were getting shorted, and suppressed. I would like that to stop.”

  Again she nodded. “Yes, there’s a lot of that that I have to put a stop to, but I will make sure she’s high on the list.” With that we left.