The Protagonist System

32 Encounters

When I woke up again at my mentally predetermined time, thanks to the invisible clock in my head, it was just passed dawn. I also had two hands wrapped tightly around my manhood, one calloused and one delicate. I held in my sigh at that, mostly because I was nervous about Hestia losing her innocence. If she was going to lose it, I would be making sure it was well deserved and wasn't from her enjoying a groping accident.

I tried to move my arms and could, which meant Hestia's commands only lasted for as long as she set the condition or when she released them. I did feel well rested and I also felt a lot more powerful. It was just too bad that I couldn't cast a spell to determine what my Falna said. That required blood from my Goddess and her permission to check it.

I lifted my head slightly and looked down to see my erection was still there after remaining all night and barely suppressed my laugh at the quite large puddle of clear fluid that had been dripping out of the tip. I cast a cleaning spell and it disappeared, then I cast a lubrication spell on my penis. I was very tempted to use both hands to get off and crushed that thought as I slid both hands up and off of me.

Released from my first restriction, I had to cast the same lubrication spell on their other hands that gripped my arms tightly to their chests. I also cast it on their chests, just in case, and carefully pulled my arms from their grasps. Two cleaning spells later had the evidence of my escape gone.

Both women made soft sounds of protest at the loss and I created two soft fluffy towels to replace my arms. Both of them cuddled the softness and stopped moving. I slid out of the bed and quickly dressed in my bodysuit and put on my armor. I had done it enough that it was second nature now and I was finished a moment later.

I created two bundles of roses for them and left a note, then left the room as quietly as I could. I had debated staying there with them and decided to avoid the whole thing, just because they would be too protective and might restrict me from doing anything today. There was too much to be done for me to relax, even if I had almost died.

I went to the main building and entered the kitchen. It wasn't a surprise when I saw the restocked pantry, so I chose to make something simple with a twist. I hard-boiled a bunch of eggs and cooked up sausages, which was going to make a lot of what I wanted, because there was a lot of people in the Hephaestus Familia and they all ate together.

When the eggs were done, I cut them in half, sliced the cooked sausages into 1 inch sections, and chopped up cheddar cheese, then I created a bunch of wooden skewers and made them into breakfast shish kabobs. I put them on plates and under stasis spells and continued to make more of them.

A few people entered the dining part of the room while I worked and waited patiently for me to finish.

“I guess you're still alive.” A man's voice said from across the room and I ignored him, because he was the asshole that rejected me and I had already dealt with him. “Hey! I'm talking to you!”

“That's too bad, because I'm not talking to you.” I said without turning around. I heard a sword being drawn and picked up a knife that I wasn't using and whipped around and threw it. It sunk into the man's shoulder to the hilt and he dropped his sword with a clatter.

The other people in the room looked stunned and the man hissed as he wrapped a hand over the handle of the knife to pull it out.

“I wouldn't do that, unless you have a healer around or a spare potion.” I said and went back to finishing breakfast. “It's a serrated blade and will cause more damage when you yank it out.”

The man cursed and grumbled about liars and yanked. “ARGH!” He yelled and clamped a hand over the now excessively bleeding wound as he dropped to his knees.

“I warned you.” I said and did up the last of the shish kabobs and placed them onto a plate, cast stasis on it, and set it aside. I turned around and stood there to wait, because my last detection spell let me feel the two goddesses approaching from different directions. I also felt a very strong magic coming from Tsubaki.

When Hephaestus stepped into the room, she sighed at the idiot from her Familia. “If you weren't such a good blacksmith, I would have kicked you out already.” She said and grabbed the back of the man's shirt to lift him up. “Stop angering the only member of our contracted associate Familia.”

“He started it!” The man lied.

“No, I ended it.” I said and started serving the food. “Draw a weapon on me again and you'll lose the arm permanently and not just for the day.”

Hephaestus motioned to one of the others and he ran off to get a healing potion. “I can't let you harm my people like this. They are under my protection.”

“As am I, or does our contract mean so little to you?” I asked and the blacksmith goddess kept her face blank. “I understand.”

“My Bell...” Hestia started to say.

“I said I understand, my Goddess.” I interrupted her. “Familia business before other business.”

Hestia sighed and didn't say anything else.

“Goddess Hephaestus, since you won't order that man to remain civil to someone he clearly hates and doesn't want here, I will not enter Hephaestus Familia lands until required by our contract.” I said and quickly left without eating breakfast.

“Bell!” Tsubaki said and ran after me.

I stopped at the teleportation circle and turned to face her. “I can take a lot before I act, Tsubaki. I easily could have killed him by putting that knife through his eye or his neck. I didn't. Please tell them that.”

Tsubaki sighed and nodded as she stepped onto the circle.

“Tsubaki, you can't come with me. You have work to do.” I said.

“You forgot that I have a gift for you.” Tsubaki said instead of responding to me and took out a slightly glowing amulet from her pocket. It was on a leather string and it felt warm to the touch when she handed it to me. “I made this for you.”

“What is it?” I asked and knew it was a very expensive item. I had to wait until I was alone before I could cast a diagnostic spell on it to find out.

“Magical backlash is something that can't be dealt with by normal means. So, I made you something to help you by other means.” Tsubaki said and pointed to my neck.

I took the hint and slipped it on. My breath caught as I felt my skin harden and become thicker.

“It doesn't have a name. I can't figure out what it does besides adjusting your Defense number to be exactly 1 point above your Magic number, no matter what it is.” Tsubaki said.

I stared at her and didn't know what to say.

“If you cast more high tier magic spells, you'll still hurt like a fire ant is chewing out your insides.” Tsubaki said and leaned in to briefly kiss me. “But, you will never risk dying from magical backlash ever again. Your regeneration will always keep you alive.”

I locked eyes with her as I watched her step back out of the teleportation circle.

“You better make a personal room for yourself at the church, because I will be staying over occasionally.” Tsubaki said and smirked at me. “You need to invest in some spells and runes for silence, too.”

I had to chuckle at that and placed a hand over my heart as I bowed to her. “See you after lunch?”

Tsubaki nodded and waved.

I activated the magic circle and disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared at the church. Crossing most of the city instantly for a drop of magic was a hell of a lot better than walking all that way. Then again, there was no spot in between above the surface, so in order to get to the Guild to pick up the money for the Golden Egg, it had to be done the long way.

I would do that after replacing Hestia's old statue with a new one and adding a lot of protection spells around the property. In fact, I would do that first and I would do the same to each teleportation circle at the first opportunity, now that I wouldn't die from casting higher tier magic.

My laughter kept me in a good mood as I worked, because my minor regeneration skill would keep getting a good workout for the next while.

*

Tsubaki was tempted... very tempted... to remove the annoyance that made her lover leave. The man must have sensed her hatred, because he avoided being anywhere near her, no matter where she went. The rest of the Familia sensed it as well, probably because she kept her glowing magic hammer in her hand and glared at anyone that tried to comment about her boyfriend running away.

Hephaestus had a whispered conversation with her reestablished friend Hestia and knew that she couldn't rescind her declaration and also couldn't force someone else's child to bend to her will, despite her inherent power and her authority as both the head of a Familia and a descended Goddess. The one time she tried had backfired and almost ruined her child's new relationship.

When asked about it, Hestia refused to disclose Bell's skills and abilities, with the excuse that Hephaestus would never tell anyone about her children's skills unless she was bragging, which Hephaestus never did. The blacksmith goddess sighed at the truth in her words and didn't press the matter.

*

The streets were deserted, since it was still fairly early in the morning. I continued my spam-casting of magic detection and no one was anywhere within 150 feet of me as I walked towards the Guild Hall. It was a bit of a cheat to pump my magic stat up, especially since I could regenerate a tier of damage within an hour.

A very strong magical presence suddenly appeared within reach behind me, so I whipped around as I drew the mythril sword strapped to my hip. I had been so used to reacting like that inside the dungeon that my sword powered up with Light magic automatically and had passed through the neck of the thing before I could blink.

I had a brief glimpse of shock on the blue-haired barmaid's face with her hands extended towards me, when a bright light glowed from inside of her and lit up the entire street. I had to cover my eyes briefly from the bright flash and barely saw the beam of light pierce the sky before it disappeared.

When I looked down at the decapitated body, it no longer looked like a barmaid and had changed into a scantily dressed silver-haired woman with that same look of shock on her face. The small monster crystal in her hands had fallen to the side.

“Oops.” I whispered and quickly reached down and tossed the body and head into my backpack. A touch of magic cleaned the blood up and I grabbed the crystal before I ran to the side of the street and down an alleyway. I didn't want to be anywhere near there when people came to investigate the giant pillar of light.

If my guess was right, every god and goddess in the city could have seen and possibly felt that. I cast several barrier and blocking spells on my backpack and made my way to the Guild Hall using the back streets. I entered the building as most of the adventurers were running out.

“What's going on?” I asked, pretending ignorance.

“Someone ran in here and said they saw a Heaven's Ascension Pillar!” A man said and ran by me to follow the others.

“A what?” I asked, never having heard that term before.

“It's a local term for the beam of light when a god or goddess leaves the lower world to return to Heaven.” A sultry voice said.

I turned to look at who spoke. My eyes widened at a fairly busty redheaded woman with red ears behind the main counter and I walked over with my hand out. “I haven't seen you here before. I'm Bell Cranel.”

“I know who you are.” She said and gave my offered hand a cursory look before she briefly shook it and let it go. “Rose Fannet.”

“I don't recognize your ears or tail. Do you mind if I ask what type they are?” I asked as a conversation starter.

“Werewolf.” Rose said and her eyes roamed over my armored form and she looked slightly impressed.

“I can honestly say you're the first long-haired werewolf I've ever met.” I said and one of her eyebrows rose. “Can you guess what my next question is?”

“If it's about dating adventurers, the answer is no.” Rose said, her tone flat.

I smiled at her shutting me down when I wasn't even trying to pick her up. “Does your hair stay long when you transform or does it somehow shrink or disappear?”

Rose looked slightly confused. “Why would it shrink or disappear? It's my hair.”

“I meant when you become a werewolf during the full moon or even the full transformation into a wolf form. If you kept the long hair, you would be the shaggiest werewolf in existence.” I clarified for her.

Rose looked really confused now. “What are you talking about? I'm already a werewolf.”

I blinked my eyes at her for several seconds. “You're already a werewolf? You don't mean...” I paused and gave her another searching look. “This is your transformation?”

“What? No, of course not. I can't activate my beastification until the night of the full moon and only if I'm feeling angry.” Rose told me.

I had to blink my eyes for several seconds again. “I think I'm misinformed about what a were-person is. Do you think we could go to a private booth and you can explain things to me? Please?”

Rose tilted her head slightly. “That's an odd way to get me alone to ask me out, I'll give you that.”

I didn't bother correcting her and looked at the man behind her. “I'll be back in a little while. Inform the Guild Section Leader I'm here for the Golden Egg payout.”

Rose gasped and her ears and tail puffed right out.

“I'll let Rehmer know.” The man said with a slight bow.

“Thank you.” I said and looked at the now clearly nervous redhead.

“R-r-right this way.” Rose said and led me across the room to a private area. We sat down and she stayed quiet as her eyes darted around and seemed to be examining me for something. Whatever it was, she didn't find it.

“Can you tell me about werewolves and their powers and abilities?” I asked.

Rose blushed. “I... well... we're not really supposed to. It's very personal and...”

“I have a skill called Minor Regeneration. I can heal a tier's rank of damage in an hour.” I interrupted.

Rose caught her breath and stared at me for a full minute before she recovered. “If you're being that open about such an important skill, then I should be as well.” She said and took a deep breath, let it out, and started to explain. “Werewolves are a sub-species of...”

I soon discovered that my preconceptions of werewolves and were-people were way off in this world.