After the day of our little success, we participated in many raid missions since the client suddenly decided to promote us, in a sense. This resulted in a large amount of people coming to hire us, which means more money opportunities. Although a little work will make the days a bit tiring, it's all worth it in the end.
Some days I'll even try doing a job myself, one that does not involve stealing objects on somebody. Along with my skills of manipulating hydrogen and the usage of Goa, I pulled off my missions flawlessly, much to my surprise and Felt's as well. The Yellow Flash and the Warlock of Flame (Cringey name, I know) were now renowned in the slums, sometimes even as saviours when I decide to make a food steal trip for the poor in the slums.
Soon enough, my name became well known in the capital, to my dismay. This meant I had to work more discreetly since the nobles have ordered an arrest for me by this point. I don't really like having a bounty, which means I'm going to change methods to avoid being recognized while doing work.
AAAAAAAHHHHHH! I hate thievery. But sadly, it's my only chance of survival right now, so it's not like I have a choice.
Frustrated, I decided to activate my Authority, which led to the panel opening up, and I gently tapped on Hydrogen, and a mini-screen showed up beside it. The 'Mastery Level' thing was now at 465/1000 right now, and apparently I have to reach Lvl 1 to unlock Helium, which leads to more choices of attack.
The only thing I could make right now is Hydrogen Gas, which only helps in either suffocating people or lighting things on fire. I probably should try the Hydrogen balloon strategy, where we can fly away to make a quick escape and pop it to land. The other hydrogen isotopes and ions require a Yin or Yang spirit, and Alchemis certainly was not willing to find one for me.
The thing is, deuterium, which is one of the hydrogen's isotopes, was actually quite useful and vital in the making of a nuclear bomb. Not that I wanted to make one right now, but it could come in handy if I found a certain Sin Archbishop's headquarters, and just blow it up. But that's a thing for another time because I definitely need a lot more elements to make a hydrogen bomb. Once I get oxygen, I could create heavy water, which would effectively eliminate certain people without any suspicion placed on me, but perhaps by then I don't need to result to thievery,
So that made me set my sights on Helium. Now, Hydrogen's mastery level thingy goes up by 10 every time I generate it in a sphere, and actually have to be tossed somewhere. I could potentially grind the level by just randomly generating, but that sucks up a lot of stamina. Fun fact: Authorities will never drain mana, so mine does a little restriction on its usage in the form of stamina, while mana only limits my maximum output rather than the regular usage. So if I overuse it, I might die from over-exhaustion or just pass out.
Anyways, back to Helium. Helium and Hydrogen make a great combo, because the compound Helium Hydride makes up one of the strongest acids ever produced, although its natural formation is extremely rare. But who cares about natural formations when you can do it yourself? Besides, it might work well against a certain assassin.
Now that I've set my sights on acquiring Helium, I have to do something to make up for the time that I can't use hydrogen to boost my Fire attacks. Goa is the most basic fire spell, which urged me to learn something stronger. In incantations of magic in Re:Zero, if I remember correctly, the power level goes up like this: No Prefix->El->Ul->Al. Since Goa was the first step, maybe El Goa is what I should aim for.
"Um, Alchemis, a little help here?" I asked my spirit buddy, and he came flashing out as I recognized the turquoise sphere of light.
"Hm? Oh, you want to learn fire magic? Well, you already know Goa, so the next step should be-"
"El Goa, right?"
"Huh? How- HOW did you know that? You weren't even from this world! Have you been reading books?"
"Man, where would I get the books when I'm a wanted criminal?" I asked Alchemis, who decided to shut up before sighing.
"How did you get yourself into this mess?"
"Have you not been watching? I have to steal for money in this world! And now I need to stop using my Authority to avoid being found out. Worse than that, is if I use my abilities too much, the freaking dragon tablet in the capital would act up and tell the freaking sage candidates this: 'Oh, ya, there's like an Archbishop of something in the slums, go kill him he's weak!' I do not want to get impaled and slashed by knights."
Alchemis saw no flaw in my logic, and decided to put his suspicions aside before appearing by my side to instruct me. "Hold your palm up to face the direction you want to shoot your attack at."
I aimed at the wall immediately.
"Not the wall, dumbass! You're going to burn the house down!"
"Oh... oh, right..."
I quickly ran around the loot house and found the pile of garbage that I used as my practice spot. Luckily, the things weren't flammable (most of them) so I didn't have to pour water on it after I finish. That's the pain with fire magic.
"Then, you chant the spell and envision three fireballs forming." Alchemis instructed, and I followed his orders as I pointed my outstretch palm at the pile.
"El Goa."
Three soccer-ball-sized fireballs manifested beside me, and flew at high speeds towards the pile of garbage, setting it aflame for a while before the fire died out.
"Woah... that's some nice firepower." I said to Alchemis, who made three fireballs of his own, but they were blue instead of the usual orange flame. He then threw them upwards and formed a triangle with them before letting them explode in the sky like fireworks.
"If you have enough control over the fire, you could redirect them in battle as you wish. Maybe even make them homing." Alchemis said to me. "But how to add extra effects is up to you to find how to do it. Since I'm a spirit formed with the will of your Authority, I can't do much help for creating new spells, only teaching them. Sorry."
"It's okay, Alchemis. I suppose I have a little work to do, then."
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How did I end up in this situation?
I forgot what I was doing exactly, but most likely because I seemed to damage some property by accident when I was practicing El Goa. Some guards got mad at me and chased me down the streets, where I ran using a few skills that Felt taught me during our duration of partnership.
Yes, the favour I wanted to return ended days ago, so now I'm on my own for whatever I do.
Funny enough, I ditched the thievery job and now just focused on raising my Hydrogen mastery and practicing controlling the El Goa fireballs. Which resulted me now in an alley, panting and gasping for air as I struggled to breathe after being chased for half an hour straight.
My luck continued to run out when I saw three shadows approaching from the alley's entrance, but they were not knights. I lifted my head and saw three figures I'm rather familiar with: the thugs who tried to rob Subaru on his first day when he arrived here.
"Well, look who we have here?" The skinny guy smiled as he took out one of his knives, smiling with a horrid smile as they approached. "The Warlock of Flame, exhausted in an alley. I bet we can get quite an amount of money if we turn you over."
I stood up and faced the thugs, who believed they had the upper hand. I summoned a few Hydrogen spheres behind my back, and sent them towards the thugs without them noticing a thing. Thank god Hydrogen is odourless and colourless.
As they continued to advance, my plan sprung into action as they suddenly glanced at another and realized the air got denser. "What's wrong?" I sneered. "Can't breathe now, can you?"
"What did you... do?" The short guy gasped for air, but failed to do so as his lungs inhaled hydrogen once again instead of oxygen.
"Listen up here. Ton, Chin, Kan." They gasped as I said their names. "Yes, I know your names. Or should I call you guys something else? What about Gaston, Rachins Hoffman, and... Camberley?"
"Don't act so surprised, now. You will run out of oxygen if you keep gasping. I will release the gas from here but you will swear to be loyal to me, how about that? In return, I'll grant you a favor. Nod your head if you understand. Time is running out, so do it quickly."
The three nodded their heads immediately as soon as I finished, and I proceeded to withdraw all hydrogen particles present in the area, which allowed the three to finally gasp for air.
"I suppose we shouldn't pry into how you got that info, Mr.?"
"Y/N. Y/N L/N. Pleased to make your acquaintance. Now, your loyalty?"
They bowed slightly out of respect as I got their meaning, before telling them to lift their heads. "Now, what favour do you guys want? Or you could save it for later, I suppose."
"We just want to live a happy life, I suppose, a better one-" Gaston began, but Camberley stopped him for a moment and whispered to him.
"We'll save it for later." Rachins suddenly spoke. "We might need time to decide. I thank you for sparing us, since not many who wield powers are willing to forgive such actions."
"Well, take all the time you need, since I have something I've got to do as well." I waved goodbye to the three outlaws, and made my exit using my Flame Walls.
Timeskip*
Yesterday apparently Felt had received a request to steal something, so she was spending time analyzing her target. I didn't see her since I was dealing with the three thugs in the capital after my little incident. Today she was out before the sun was up, so I didn't see her when I woke up.
I decided to help Old Man Rom to buy a barrel of milk for Felt since we were running out. I then fished out a few silver coins of Lugnica, and ran towards the market place.
A strange sensation surrounded me today, as if something new has been added to this world. I do not know why nor how, so I kind of just ignored the feeling. Weirdly enough, Alchemis has been silent for the entire day, but I figured he was just recharging mana.
I took a nice, long stroll around the capital before heading home, and by the time I saw the loot house in the slums, it was already dark. I was about to push open the door when suddenly my vision turned black and the world flipped, sending my consciousness over and into an abyss before it was no more.
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"Huh?"
I looked around, amazed. I was somehow at the milk shop I was at before, where I bought the barrel of milk before dropping it off at the loot house. So why am I here?
Wait... wasn't it night when I got to the loot house?
I was about to push open the door... then... I... didn't do anything and came here?
Wait, wait, this doesn't make sense.
First of all, this couldn't have been Return by Death, since I didn't even die nor feel pain before I was here again. So what happened?
Could something have happened in the loot house-
The loot house.
In Subaru's first loop, he approached the loot house in order to find the insignia, but Elsa killed him when he found Rom's body. Wait... hold up...
Did Natsuki Subaru already arrive in this world?
Timeskip*
Now I was running through the streets Lugnica, trying to find Subaru in an alleyway before he bumps into more trouble...
And I just wanna say I'm an idiot.
Because the darkness came for me again, and I had no idea why.
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Okay, Y/N, think. Why did Subaru die so fast this time?
Could it be Rachin's knife that Subaru accidentally walked through?
Wait, then that means that Subaru has already died once before but I didn't remember it?
But his first death was during the night, and second was around dusk. Which means that I was looped back a little later than I was supposed to. Why?
You...Save him...
What? Who's talking? I glanced around, but suddenly I saw myself facing a shadow, in a place that I wasn't supposed to be.
Brought you here...so you can know... that I love him... please save him... go.... don't let him die again...
No way... was that... The Witch of Envy, Satella?
She said to save him, which I'm going to presume is Subaru. True, he did die three times, so I suppose I should...?
Wait! He's already back here, so I should go and find him! But before that...
To my surprise, with a bit of luck and calculations, I managed to locate the patch of red hair in the crowd as my brain formulated a plan. If I could manage to let Reinhard help us, Subaru might get out of this unscathed. I ran up to Reinhard, who was taking a look around, and noticed me. Thank god I made a smooth entrance.
"Hmm...? Who are you? Did you want to say something?" I looked up at Reinhard, and began my plan.
"Please, I need your help with something tonight. People will be in danger if I left this go unchecked."
"People will be in danger? What do you mean?"
"I know where the Bowel Hunter will show up next." I said in a hushed voice, and he immediately reared back a little, shocked.
"How do you know this information?"
I then made up a story of how I overheard Felt and Elsa talking about a deal, and then I noticed her outfit and blades and I decided to help Felt in case she was killed since Elsa is an extremely dangerous individual. After my explanation, Reinhard nodded in response as he promised to keep watch outside of the loot house in case of emergencies, and can capture Elsa if negotiations go well. (Which it isn't)
Now, with that plan in motion, time to move onto the next phase.
Timeskip*
I finally arrived at the alley where I spotted the three thugs, my (underlings) acquaintances who have sworn loyalties to me. Subaru went towards them but before he could act, Rachins and Camberley moved with some erratic movement as they countered his moves.
Shit! I did spend a little time training them, but I thought Subaru could still beat them. Seems not. I disrupted the timeline, then. I just hope that this event will not disrupt the main line further.
As Rachins decided to brandish his second knife, I made my move after climbing up the nearby building. I sang my warning tune that I taught to the thieves, and immediately they went on high alert before I jumped down in front of them, spooking them out a little.
"Yo, hello there! Ton, Chin, Kan, would you mind letting my acquaintance here off the hook today? Do me a favour, please? I might just give you a gold coin each if you comply. Or just no, you know, the suffocation part." I spoke in a clear voice as I gave them a little wink as a confirmation, and they nodded hurriedly before scurrying off.
I turned to the black-haired boy, who looked at me with a bewildered expression as I gave him a weak smile.
"Yo, Natsuki Subaru. The name's Y/N L/N. Wassup?"
Name: Y/N L/N
Authority(ies):
Authority of ??? (Commonly known as Authority of Elements):
Hydrogen Mastery: Stage 0, 945/1000 complete. (Spells: Hydrogen Gas Formation, Hydrogen Gas Wall, Hydrogen Gas Mist)
??? Mastery: {locked}
Spirits: Alchemis- spirit of fire (turquoise)
Magic Spells:
Goa- shoots a small ball of fire from the tip of the user's index finger when imbued with mana.
El Goa- manifests three fireballs around the user, and shoots them towards the opponent at high speeds