11 Chapter 11

I remained contemplative throughout the entirety of my meal. The food was the best that I had ever anticipated, even knowing that the restaurant/bar was famous for its food. However, most of my focus was elsewhere. Throughout the entire time I was in the restaurant I could see Ryuu giving me a look. I couldn't tell what the look meant or if she was somehow able to tell if I had used an ability on her. It was in situations like this that I was annoyed at my lack of being able to read minds. It would be useful to know if she had somehow sensed that I had done something or if she was looking at me for an entirely different reason. Eventually, I finished my meal and chose to speak to Ryuu when she came to clear my plates.

"Excuse me, miss," I said to get her attention as she began to pile up the plates, "You have lived in the city for a good amount of time, right?"

She remained passive and maybe even slightly annoyed as she responded, "Yes, I have lived in the city for many years. Why?"

"I am new to the city, and I was just wondering where the best markets to buy groceries are. However, if you are busy, then I can just explore tomorrow." I said, seemingly catching her off guard with my question.

Her borderline annoyance was replaced by a contemplative look as she considered my question, "There are many places to buy various types of food here in the city, but I would say that the best one isn't too far from here..."

She proceeded to give me directions from Babel to reach the market which she was talking about. I nodded gratefully and even scribbled down the directions on a small piece of paper she provided me. I smiled as she nodded and walked away, taking the dishes with her. Since I had already paid, I got up and walked out of the building, turning back toward Babel. As I walked back, I considered how my plan had worked perfectly.

I had planned my question to Ryuu during dinner since I had two objectives to accomplish with it. The first was that I actually just needed the location of a market to shop at since I had no food at my apartment and needed to stock the place up. The second was that I wanted to develop a friendship with her over time so that I could eventually convince her to possibly join the familia in the future so that we could team up since I knew that she had some useful skills and abilities. I also know that she is trustworthy from the show, which makes me willing to put more confidence in her compared to some randos from the familia. However, this plan would be a long-term one that I knew would take a while to pay off.

I switched gears to thinking about rituals and the materials I would need to make to them as I entered my apartment. Increasing my magic stat was my highest priority, but there were also non-strength-incresing-related rituals that I was interested in performing. For example, I was interested in rituals that would allow me to free my astral form for my body and further explore the Warp. I know that there is great power available there. I only need to go out, find, then harness or obtain it. I also want to investigate the situation with Chaos, but I know that I have to be very careful with that, so it was a future goal. For now, I would focus on the dungeon and growing my stats, then focus on other things.

I walked into my study, which contained empty bookshelves and a desk that I had also moved in here. I sat at the desk and opened it up to find some paper and ink inside. Before starting to work, I reached over and grabbed two lamps, using a quick burst of electricity to light their wicks before setting them back on their holders, filling the room with warm flickering illumination. Next, I practiced drawing a specific ritual circle that allowed me to extract power from objects on one of the blank pieces of paper pulled from my desk. Once the drawing was complete, I laid it flat on the desk and looked at it. There was a central circle for me to place my hand on this miniature version, though the most efficient version would be to upsize the ritual so that my entire body was in the central circle and five smaller circles in a semi-circle on the face side of the central one, sort of like in a paw shape. 

Just to test if the ritual would actually work, I pulled out five magic stones from my inventory and placed them in the smaller slots. Then, I placed my hand in the larger circle and willed warp energy to flow throughout the intricate lines of the ritual and watched as the magic stones lost their vibrance and that power flowed into my hand, then to the rest of my body. The paper disintegrated into dust due to the strain of containing Warp power, though its purpose was already fulfilled. I felt the minuscule increase in my magic power from the ritual. Now, all that was left was to upsize the ritual and get some powerful magic stones, which I already had a few ideas on what to do. 

First, I drew my sword from my inventory and started to take apart one of the large empty bookshelves. I used my blade to split it down the seams until only the large backboard was left. I pushed the other splintered pieces of wood off to the side before laying out the large and flat piece of wood on the floor. First, I sketched over where I needed to carve with my blade with a simple pen and ink. Then, I carefully spent the next few hours meticulously carving out where I had drawn, leaving a shallow trench in the wood where the lines of the ritual circles would go. Next, I moved to the half-empty inkpot I had been using and held a hand over it. I used my blade to give myself a small nick that I used my power to command to bleed until the ink pot went from half full to completely full.

For the finishing touch to the ink, I condensed a drop of both pure mana and warp stuff before dropping them into the mixture. With that done, I commanded the wound on my hand to close, then thoroughly mixed everything in the pot of ink. I watched as the liquid turned a deep purple color within the pot. Then, I poured that mixture into the hollow ritual circles that I had carved into the wood. Due to my tinkering, the liquid smiled in and stretched itself out so that it perfectly filled the trenches and hardened into something that felt like stone. That marked the final step of the creation process, so I quickly tested it.

I dumped the rest of my stones evenly in each of the circles, then stood in the central one. This time, the ritual didn't disintegrate afterward, and I noticed that the efficiency of the transfer of power was much better. I nodded in appreciation as the ritual flared purple and new power washed into my body. It was probably only a few points worth of mana that I gained from the magic stones, but I was happy nonetheless. Now that the demo runs were over, all that was left was to get the magic stones themselves from the dungeon. However, before any of that, I extinguished my candles and climbed into bed. Outside my window, I could see the horizon slowly beginning to lighten right before I fell asleep. 

I awoke a few hours later, feeling strangely refreshed despite my lack of sleep. From the intensity of the light spilling into my room, I guessed that it was just around late morning, so it was time for me to get up. With a groan, I rolled out of my bed and got dressed. I decided to go to the market first and buy food, then I would store them in my inventory while heading into the dungeon. So I walked down the never-ending flights of stairs of Babel and emerged into the warmth of direct sunlight. Then I began to look down at the paper with the directions Ryuu gave me and began to follow them. I strode along the first part, which went right past the Hostess of Fertility, and noticed a few of the girls outside fixing up some of the paint jobs on the front of the building.

Ryuu was among them, and we made direct eye contact, so I waved and smiled, holding up the note with directions, which almost made her crack a smile as she hesitantly returned the wave with a smaller, more conservative one. Then they faded from sight as I walked on.