Ancient Magic : Creation!

The 100th and final true floor of the Orcus dungeon was rather plain.

Giant pillars lined a plain white and gold hall with patterns of blue and black interspersed in an orderly fashion. At the end of the hall stood a large double door, metallic and black, with concentric squares carved into it.

Two ringed knockers were bolted to it and a magic circle was faintly visible at it's perimeter, carved into the marbled white floor in thin white ink.

I got ready and gestured at Yue to do the same as we approached it, coming closer when suddenly, something triggered it and it began to glow with a crimson light.

Was it distance activated?

If someone got close enough it would automatically summon the monster?

That's a nice defence mechanism.

Too bad. I came prepared.

"Yue, hide behind a pillar. Now." I warned activating my abilities.

Leaving Yue behind, I flash stepped forward, coming up to the summoning magic circle just as the monster's six heads began to pop out.

A hydra. A monster from legend with a fearsome regenerative power.

Cutting it's head would only result in another one spurting out in it's place.

This hydra however had other abilities too. A devastating breath attack. Physical attcaks like biting and slamming.

Even rolling with it's hard turtle like shell.

But the most important were the unique abilities it possessed.

Six of them in fact. One for each of it's heads, indicated by the markings on each head.

In order they were Fire, Wind, Ice, Defense, Healing and Intimidation.

Fire, Wind and Ice as self explanatory.

The defense ability reinforces the body of the hydra to the extreme, making it nigh invulnerable on a physical level.

The intimidation head casts a fear effect on it's target, like an evil eye, causing them to suffer from terrifying visions and become paralyzed.

A debuff ability.

The healing head, as it's head suggests, heals itself and other heads once chipped off.

But why did it need a healing head if it was a hydra? Shouldn't it regenerate automatically?

That's the thing about this one.

It doesn't have a very strong regeneration ability.

Given enough time, a new head will regenerate, sure. But it will be slow and leave it vulnerable. So the healing head compensates for it.

In the novel this thing nearly ended Hajime.

Here, I don't intend to even give it the chance.

I waited before the circle as it's body emerged just to it's shoulders, before I aimed my particle beam at it, and amidst the heavy fire and ice atracks, diced the creature up in one move.

A netted mesh-like wave of particle beams shot out from the watch and instantly ended one of the most difficult fights of the series as it's bite size pieces rained down onto the floor. The magic circle went dead and the doors before me clicked, some unknown mechanism releasing to let them be opened.

"Yue! Come out now. It's safe." I said , as she walked out from behind the pillar and walked around the monster bits, over to me.

With a thought a portal swallowed the hydra's remains and I pushed the door open, walking into the sanctuary at the end of the dungeon.

The last refuge of Oscar Orcus, freedom fighter and traitor to the God of Tortus. The creator of the Orcus dungeon. The wielder of the Ancient Magic : Creation.

The true reason I was here.

Not for Yue. She was just a bonus.

I could have gotten her part done by android. Even the secrets magic ritual at the end of the year could have been done with someone else. I just needed to mind wipe them later.

Not that I don't appreciate having Yue with me. It eases thing for me.

But my true intentions behind conquering this dungeon were different.

For my plans in the future, to create my own homegrown god, a god grown in a test tube.

After all, since gods are just magicians operating on a higher level, if I condense enough magic and data, theoretically I should be able to create a god in a lab. And what better conduit for it than the natural condensate of magic itself, the divinity stone!

That was the real reason I had to take a sidequest from the main plot and come here, to another world. For two very important implements that will raise me above the gods.

Because they were the only ones who posed me any real threat.

Now, those goals were within arms reach.

I entered the refuge, into a huge sanctum, the size of ten football fields.

A yellow brick path led into the sanctum, lined with tilled fields, empty animal pens and little rivers.

A self sufficient environment huh?

I noted.

The little rivers meandered across the shelter, with plants and flowers, shrubs and trees growing everywhere.

It was like a miniature shire from Lord Of The Rings.

Picturesque as fuck.

The path even crossed over a couple of the little rivers via little bridges, complete with fishes swimming in them, leading right to the end of the road to a big mansion.

Up above in the sky, Two small orbs hung across the ends of a double sided cone, suffusing the room with a warm sunny feel in the day, i.e., right now, and supposedly a nice cool blue light at night.

Yue and I stopped by the streams, dipping our toes in the cool waters and picking out flowers for study as we made our way slowly to the mansion at the end of the road.

It was big for a shelter this size, dusty and old. Stonework of some kind but I couldn't identify what.

Granite but changed by magic maybe?

It was things like this that made me miss having a shard that auto-analyzed the properties of all materials I saw.

I'm so going to go and get back the true body once I get me a god seed.

The door was open, slightly ajar and a slight layer of dust coated every surface.

Dirty, you might think.

But for a 2000 year old abode, it was certainly very well kept.

And well made.

Unfortunately.....

"This door is locked too." Yue checked making me sigh in annoyance.

This guy is too stingy!

The house was filled to the brim with precious books on magic and artifact blueprints, ores and minerals. All sorts of resources and yet....

Why shut all the doors? I'd get it if it was something like only the worthy shall recieve my resources but then again, by coming here, are we not worthy already?

I knew a way around it but that doesn't make this any less annoying.

The way around it was simple. Use his magic signet ring to unlock the doors.

Except it is on the other side of a magic circle that teaches you Ancient Magic automatically.

I could use a portal to get around it but if Oscar rigged it to blow upon interference, and that's very likely from what I know of him the novels, it could destroy the magic circle, taking away my chance to learn this Ancient Magic.

Now you might be wondering, why the caution? Didn't I come here to learn exactly that?

Well yes but it is learnt by having it burned into your consciousness.

With my code damaged, I didn't know what could happen if more data was shoved into those damaged holes.

It could corrupt my savefiles.

Now sure, this was unlikely and a million to one chance but I am paranoid. Sue me.

I had originally planned on bringing in test subjects and making them learn the magic to see if there were any hidden effects.

In the novel nothing happened but I'm not stupid enough to think it will all go exactly as the novel says. It's the reason I still keep an eye of Yue via surveillance microcameras, just in case she does something suspicious.

Well, I could use a portal but who knows what anti teleport traps he's set in this place? Until I have a better understanding of his magic, I can't recklessly teleport shit in and out.

I sighed.

Alright. I have three bodies. Even if there's a minor side effect, I can handle one body going into quarantine.

Let's do this.

"This room is open but....it has a skeleton..." Yue informed me. I walked over to her and peeked into the room. Magic circle on the floor.

Robed skeleton on the chair. A ruby ring on his hand.

Yup. That's Oscar Orcus.

Just seeing him made me sad.

Most of the time when you see a skeleton in a room in fiction, you think oh neat, a skeleton and try to loot him without much though.

Or it's a lich and you die.

50-50 odds on that.

But no one ever thinks, 'What led this man to die here, like this, sitting alone on a chair?'

Because y'know, people usually fight to stay alive.

But to think ... To think a talented guy like him would die here, like this. He didn't even thrash about. He died sitting there. Like he had just given up on life? I had read the first two volumes of Arifureta Zero so I knew he wasn't type of guy to go down with a fight.

So what broke his spirit so much that he willingly gave in and gave up?

"Jay.....suspicious. What do you want to do?" Yue wondered, looking around the empty room curiously.

"Yes the skeleton is creepy. So I'll go first." I said.

Why not send the immortal loli vampire first as a test subject?

Because if there are any changes I won't be able to check with her.

I am a better choice here. Also, if she gets possessed and destroys the formation, I'll lose the Ancient Magic forever. And that's a big no no.

The magic formation shone faintly as I stepped in, filling the room with a mysterious light and Yue disappeared from sight.

A young man was standing in front of me, and if you looked closely the man was wearing the same robe as the corpse on the chair.

"You have arrived here after overcoming the trials. My name is Oscar Orcus. The person who created this dungeon. If I said one of the Traitors, would you understand?"

Seems like the person speaking was Oscar Orcus. The creator of the "Orcus Dungeon". As expected.

"Ah, please don't ask questions. This is just a recording, unfortunately, it won't be able to answer your questions. For the person who has reached this place, I will impart the truth of the world and what we fought for…this is the leftover message. I took this shape. Please I want you to listen…We are traitors but we are also not."

Then Orcus started his story. This story was basically what I knew.

A tale of the battle between the Mad God and his descendants.

During the first years after the Age of Gods, the world was filled with strife. Humans, Devils, and Demi-Humans were constantly at war with each other. The reason for their wars varies. Territorial expansion, ethnic values, greed, and much others. The biggest reason was being labelled "Enemy of God". During that time the races and countries were finely divided. Each of the race and country would worship their own god. the god would tell them, 'The other races are enemies of god. Kill them.'. For their god's oracle, they continued to wage their war.

But after hundreds of years of countless battles, there came people who wanted to end this war. The group was called "Liberators" during those days.

They all had a common connection. All of them were direct descendants of the gods that were followed in the Age of Gods. The leader of the "Liberators" had, by chance, found out the real intentions of the gods. The gods had urged the wars with the intention of having the people be the pieces in their war game. When she found this out, the leader set out on a mission. She gathered like minded people who would not stand for the gods manipulating the people and driving them to war for their games.

They located the place where the gods resided, "World of God". There were 8 of them that had the strength of ancestral times in "Liberators", and with their powerful strength challenged the gods.

However, the plan failed before the fighting began. The gods were the puppet masters of the people, and they had gotten people to recognize the "Liberators" as the enemy of god that wanted to bring destruction to the world. People were made to be their enemies. There were complications in the process, after all, they couldn't wield their power against the people they were trying to protect.

Pussies. I scoffed.

When the "Liberators" were defeated they were labeled as "Traitors", the traitors who forgot the grace of god and wanted to destroy the world.

At the end, their group had been dwindled to the 8 strongest. They were now the world's enemies and they judged that they were not strong enough to strike down the gods. Each of them scattered around the continent and created the 8 Great Dungeon to hide in. The dungeon was a trial to find a worthy person to hand over their powers, and with it accomplish what they could not.

Orcus smiled gently after he finished that long story.

"I don't know who you are or what reason you arrived here for. I will not coerce you into killing God. However, I wanted you to know. What we stood for.

…To you, I grant my powers. You are free to use it as you will.

Please do not use this power to satisfy the evil in your heart."

Oho! So he did implant some moral judgy thingy in the magic circle huh?

"Our conversation is at an end. Thank you for listening. Now your free will won't be under supervision."

Or not...?

After he finished what he said, the recorded image of Orcus disappeared. Something invaded my mind at the same time. My mind ached with a throb, but I endured it quietly because it imprinted knowledge of a certain magic.

Soon, both the pain and magic formation settled. I slowly exhaled.

"Jay…are you okay?"

"Ah, I'm fine…kind of. I just learnt something immense. Creation Magic, the ability to craft artifacts." I muttered, scanning the code and my memories. Nothing seemed out of place.

So he really was just a decent guy huh?

Who'd have thought!

Well anyone not paranoid like me but eh, you gotta play with the cards you're dealt, and paranoia isn't even that bad a mental illness.

I lied to myself.

"Yue, go learn the ancient magic too. It'll be useful."

Yue nodded and learnt it too, stumbling out of the magic circle into my arms.

"Now that you know it, what do you want to do? Follow their footsteps?" I asked, just to be sure.

Yue shook her head, nuzzling into my chest.

"My place is here.....with Jay." She said with complete sincerity.

Aww!

Melted my heart honestly.

Then all stealthy, she immediately went for a suck and ruined the moment.

I rolled my eyes like a housewife watching her husband stumble in drunk for the fifth time this week when he promised he would stop drinking.

But this time I let her. She had earned it, being all nice and proactive about helping me clear the dungeon.

Unlike most anime women, who just cheer from the background and freeload off of the MC.

Looking at you, every harem member, from generic isekai harem show number 10.

Carrying Yue in my arms, I plucked the signet ring off of Orcus's bony, dead finger and made my way out of the shelter, before portaling back home and collapsing onto the bed from anemia.

I looked down at greedy little leech and sighed, patting her head.

I'll let her have this today.

___________________

Arifureta arc ends here for now.

Next time, Alice attempts to save her brother. And shit goes south.

Extra chapter at 600 powerstones.

Thanks for reading.

Bye!

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