Sunday, the day I can freely devote myself to my hobbies.
Usually, I game all day or read manga, but today I have different plans
"Underground base is a romance"
I'm building a hidden base under my house
"Damn, it is"
Alter is with me on this one, rather he's with me in almost everything.
Anyway, I already have all blueprints drawn out, all that's left is to begin.
If a proper architect were to see my plans, they would have a heart attack, but a proper architect doesn't have magic, so I can't really give a damn about it.
Though even with magic, I don't think building it would be that easy, for now, I just want an empty space underground, other things can wait for now.
Well, alter has already done this kind of thing in his world so there won't be many errors
"Time to get going, Transmute!"
The moment I said that the ground beneath me collapsed, after getting to sufficient depth I started expansion.
.
.
.
Sometime later I was done.
I didn't go past the borders of my house, it is around three and a half meters in height, somewhat small for an underground base, but I'll expand it in the future with space magic when I get better at it.
"This looks quite good if I do say so myself"
The floor, walls and ceiling are reinforced with magic so they'll not collapse under any circumstances.
"Too bad there's nothing for you to do here for you"
"Yet!"
Alter makes a valid point though, even if I have the knowledge to make crazy things I don't have proper materials yet
"By the way alter, compared to you how strong am I right now?"
Alter put his hand on his chin in thought
"Your parameters should be a bit lower than mine when I just consumed the monster flesh, so all-around two hundred I guess"
The starting point was ten across the board when I was human, It increased a bit when I reincarnated as a devil, but not much.
Well, the stats don't really matter for now, with time they will gradually increase, but there's a thing, alter never relied purely on his tough body, his strength lied in the equipment he made and while I inherited some knowledge, and continue to do so, to create them myself, unfortunately, I've yet to fully master creation magic, so I'm bit short on some quality materials
"No need to rush, you'll get there eventually"
"I know"
There's that
"How's the progress on stacking 'Limit Break'?"
Alter asked
"Pretty good, I'm working on removing the backlash from it or lessen it somehow"
Truth to be told, staking itself wasn't that big of a deal, using multiple 'Last Zell' worked like a charm, but the backlash after that is ridiculous, breaking limits one time is exhausting and leaves body sore all over, more than that and I almost died
"You don't need to remove it, redirecting would be easier, something like 'Soul Shell' might work"
'Soul Shell' is a necklace-type artefact that protects the wearer from mental attack using spirit magic, it does so by redirecting all mental attacks to the pseudo-soul inside the necklace
"That... could work"
I could link myself with something sturdy object using spirit magic so that all the backlash will go to that object, at least most of it
There is a little tiny detail
"I can't do spirit magic"
"You will in time"
"That's good"
Today is a special day, this evening president will recruit a new pawn, I'm interested in what kind of kohai I'll get, they didn't tell me anything about them, also I'm curious how the proper recruitment goes, apparently, not everyone is scouted near their death doors, will it be something like a salesman pitch?
"There's still some time left till then, how about you give me another ancient magic in the meantime, alter"
Age of gods magic, gods magic, ancient magic, it has been called many things, there are seven of them, I only know one, the Creation Magic, it gives the user control over any object physical of magical, the true nature of this magic is to 'interfere with any inorganic material' and is the only magic which allows creating an artefact, as a synergist alter had the highest compatibility with this one and being the same person I also have a high aptitude for it
"I was planning on doing so for some time"
Alter said
"I wanted to give you Spatial Magic or Restoration Magic as they would be most useful for you right now"
Inheriting the ancient magic is done through memory, basically, the theory will be etched into your brain, even if you have zero compatibility you still can have it, but won't be able to use it, thankfully I already have Creation Magic, so even if I can't directly use any other magic I can make magic tools that'll get my job done.
The priority on which I get first goes to one with the most versatility, Spatial Magic is best in this regard, but Restoration Magic will give me a lot of survivability, to hell with that It can even revive dead I heard.
There's nothing stopping me from taking them all at once or six out of seven because some painful things will happen once I have all of them.
I wanted to master them one by one, I learned the Creation Magic several days ago when I mastered Transmutation to a degree that alter found adequate, but I hit the wall there, you see I can't really do anything with it other than make precious jewels or really hard rocks, I've inherited a lot of 'skills' from alter, not all, but a lot, most of what I learned are self-buffs and some resistances here and there.
Don't get this wrong, I made some useful things, guns, another world gunpowder, exploding stones that release a strong shockwave, a taser, just to name a few, but that's kind of my limit right now
"But due to some differences between us, I discovered that you have slight compatibility with Metamorphosis Magic"
"Metamorphosis? that's strange, I don't remember ever metamorphosising"
"Are you sure about that?"
Am I sure? of course I am, there's... wait
"Yes, becoming a devil counts as metamorphosis, one time I became a vampire for a few days"
Wow, that's pretty cool
"So, in consideration of all this, I decided that..."
He'll teach me Metamorphosis Magic, that much is obvious
"I don't give a damn what you think, you're getting them all! NOW!"
...I see a large leap of logic here
"What"
"Don't 'what' at me you bastard, I spent year risking my live acquiring this power like a fucking pokemon gym badges and here you want to master them one at a time!? don't spout such bullshit when you're getting it so easy! you think you're some shounen protagonist, huh!!! I'd break your kneecaps if I could!"
Alter yelled in rage... I feel awkward now.
Before I could reply, unknown knowledge flowed into my head
"Somehow I expected it to hurt more"
Gravity Magic, Spatial Magic, Restoration Magic, Spirit Magic, Metamorphosis Magic, they are all in my head now, and with Creation Magic, I have a full set now... wait a minute
"Where's the seventh?"
It was Evolution Magic if I remember correctly, I won't go in details but, it can boost all other forms of power, be it weak or strong, it even works on other ancient magics.
Now that alter vented enough, he calmly answered
"In your current level completing the set would knock you out for several days, I don't really care, but you have an appointment this evening, you'll get it once there's nothing important going on"
"I see... to the club we go?"
"Whatever, I don't give a shit"
I got out of the underground room and covered the hole with transmutation.
'To the club I go...'
A/N: I made a minor change to chapter 3, I said that as long as Hajime had base materials he could make anything, but after some re-reading the WN turns out he doesn't need those materials, everything can be done with creation magic, specifically it's 'Structural Component' skill but I'm pretty sure it can be lumped with the creative magic.