Highschool DxD: Dragon's Ascent

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Specialization: 

Primary: [Alchemy]

All Alchemy skills improve 50% faster, all Alchemy skills are 25% stronger.

Secondary: [Enchanting]

Enchanting skills grow 25% faster, all Enchantments are 12.5% stronger.

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[Enchanting(Novice) Lv.3]

Your skill in granting magical effects to items and objects.

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Enchanting was pretty nice. Getting the skill for it really helped with using it too, it would have taken me a while to figure out how to do enchanting the way it is meant to be done.

Now then, what did enchanting do? It was pretty simple, it was the art of changing the nature of an object by granting it a magical effect. 

For example, giving a pair of gloves the [Fire Resistance] enchanting would involve you essentially granting it a magical code that is enforced by magical power and made permanent by permanently altering the state of the object.

Basically, it was coding magic with items.

It is the most effective when you have something to base it off of. For example, if I make fire resistance gloves they would be pretty bad simply because I don't have the skill fire resistance and have nothing to sample the enchantment off of.

But it is far easier for me to make the transmutation gloves, because I already have transmutation it is simply much easier to create(and thanks to the nature of transmutation circles too, just slap one on).

Putting more than one enchantment on an object is more difficult because of the reaction between the code and the conflict it can cause. For example, you wouldn't put water and sodium in the same bottle and expect a good outcome right? So you need more skill to be able to better integrate enchantments.

A helpful feature was my skills recording what I can do with my skills. For example with my Alchemy:

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[Alchemy(Novice) Lv.6]

Your skill in creating potions and other alchemical products.

Recipes:

[Minor Healing Potion V], [Minor Stamina Potion IV], [Minor Recovery Potion V]...

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And with Enchanting the enchants I do successfully create get recorded in the skill, allowing me to able to replicate the success easily and improve my skill with it. For example my first and honestly my most important success.

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[Enchanting(Novice) Lv.3]

Your skill in granting magical effects to items and objects.

Enhancements:

[Reinforcement], [Transmutation]

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To make a good test I first created myself a long black cardigan made of better silk using transmutation, then I enchanted it with [Reinforcement] by applying the effect and permanently suffusing the object with it.

Took nearly all of my mana and over an hour.

But the end result was a silk cardigan that was just straight-up bulletproof, I was not able to pierce it with my earth alchemy at least. 

And man this shit was comfortable, reinforced silk is just the definition of luxury. It felt like wearing a soft hug from a pillow. So I repeated and made myself black pants too and a white shirt out of the same silk. These ones were also enchanted, putting a large strain on my mana.

Sure they wouldn't protect me much since silk doesn't really absorb all that much impact so the kinetic energy would go straight through but it is the thought that counts right? 

Figuring out more magic I could do was probably the core to figuring out more enchanting I could do.

For now, I should really head to school considering I had been tinkering and messing around with my abilities all night. 

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Now wasn't this intriguing?

I leaned back in my chair as I looked at the almost pamphlet-like paper in my hand with a magic circle on it with caricatures of naked women silhouettes in suggestive positions. Written on it was "We grant your wish."

So this was their approach huh?

I was handed this on my way back from yet another school day where I meditated and slept and messed with Koneko by a woman wearing a bat-like devil costume. A use of inspect revealed that she was in fact Rias' familiar.

They probably did this in hopes of me using it to summon one of them to establish a connection with me, this would also let them see if I was already aware of the supernatural or not and allow them to gauge my character more clearly.

If I used this chances are, the day after I would be pulled into the Occult Research Clubroom for the devil recruitment speech Rias must have prepared for me.

So, should I use it?

I am kind of curious about what I can ask for with a devil contract like this one and what I would give to them as payment. After all, do I give them money? Do devils even care about human money? I think some of the peerage members did get paid with money.

I also know that there are things such as contracts between magicians and devils where they provide services to each other. 

Now, what exactly would I stand to gain from summoning one of the devils? A decent bit actually. If I am willing to reveal that I am supernatural I can actually ask the devil I summoned for supernatural ingredients or things otherwise very hard to obtain, even magic books would be possible.

The question is, is it worth revealing myself for? 

Hmm, I would say it is, after all, If I keep trying to avoid them, the moment when they find me out will be out of my control. Whereas if I seek them out first I have the control. 

But I will first wait a day or two, firstly to make some preparations and secondly to get them a little nervous. I don't want to look like I am looking forward to summoning the devils after all. But overall, summoning them seems to be the best decision.

Besides, it is slowly getting closer to the start of the series anyway. I need to start making some moves. 

Because I had plans. And an important step of said plans was removing the crows from this town.

Their existence was a liability for me, I had a sacred gear and they were able to sense the sacred gear of Issei. And they weren't complete fodder either.

Racial advantages aside, they were able to cause a fair amount of trouble to Akeno. And the former exorcists on their side were able to stall Kiba and Koneko.

But they were opponents that were necessary for me to remove for me to able to continue with my plans. I needed to defeat them and that's not negotiable.

Why?

Because those bastards knew how to remove sacred gears and get them for themselves.

While I do have a certain level of confidence in my abilities I do not want to lie to myself or fool myself here. 

I am not reaching Ultimate class anytime soon with just Iter Melius.

That is just a cold hard fact. Sure I could probably reach High Tier by myself but there is confidence then there is arrogance.

Just a simple High to Mid Tier Sacred Gear and my own wits won't let me climb up into the realm of the gods in less than 10 years.

But I can take a page out of Naruto's book.

What do you do when you aren't born with talent? 

Well, you borrow talent from someone else of course!

From what I see, there is a method of taking someone's sacred gear in the church and there are two Sacred Gears up for grabs in Kuoh Town. One of them being the goddam Boosted Gear.

I have seen what Mr. Oppai Dragon was able to achieve with that overpowered gauntlet. 

So, theoretically. What if someone capable of casting magic beyond "Strip" and "Boob Talk" and at least semi-competent with meta knowledge got their hands on that God-Killing Weapon?

Well, I for one think it would be pretty cool. 

Getting Absorption Line would be incredibly great too. The ability to drain people of their mana and even powers is one that is incredibly useful under basically any circumstance.

To be honest, if they had the same level of Oomph behind them I would take Absorption Line over Boosted Gear. And If I could have both of them and not die instantly I would be overjoyed I tell you.

But there is just one tiny problem.

I don't really want to murder innocents.

Well, while I am fully ready and prepared to kill innocents to preserve my own life... 

I don't know, killing two innocent people just because I wanted to power myself up leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

How should I say it, it feels like it puts me on the same tier of garbage as Raynare. Killing two innocents because "Sorry, you have sacred gears. If you want to blame someone then blame god for giving you them tehee~." is just really shitty behaviour. And I refuse to be put on the same tier as garbage like Raynare.

Don't get me, wrong I am taking those sacred gears one way or the other. If I cannot take them without violence I will take them with violence. But I first want to see if I can find a way to extract them without violently murdering the previous user.

Besides, if I do find a way I can stick it to the Fallen Angels who DO need to murder the previous owners.

It will be a fun project. Besides, I already have a lead on how to accomplish this.

Why does taking the Sacred Gear kill the previous wielder? There are two options.

First, It's because it injures their soul beyond repair. This is possible because Sacred Gears are a part of the soul after all. So tearing it out would be like tearing out someone's appendix.

Yeah, they don't need those to live, but at the same time, you plunged your fist into someone's guts and pulled out their appendix probably along with their intestines.

Second, it is because you are draining all of their Lifeforce. If there is a common unifier between the sacred gears it's that they love draining your life force. So it could stand to reason that trying to forcefully pull that shit out of the soul would expend all of their life force. Besides, it's not like Lifeforce and Soul aren't related.

It could be 1 it could be 2, it could be both too. Regardless, I have something that should help me both.

Fullmetal Alchemist helped me out before it's gonna have to help me out again.

That's right it's time to dip my toes into Alkahestry.

A/N: Takumi's actual future plans are slowly being revealed. Currently, his two most important goals are getting combat power and the preparations ready for stealing some gear. After all, Takumi is no fool, he knows his limits. But most importantly he knows how to break them or work around them.

What did you think about the developments in this chapter? I would love to know. Especially about Takumi's near future plans.

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