Reborn With a Magic System

'System, am I supposed to just kill people for their magic cores?'

{It is advised for the host to not commit crimes to acquire magic cores for conversion as this would endanger the Magic System. All creatures that can cast magic contain a magic core. It is recommended the host pursue unintelligent creatures for magic cores.}

'Unintelligent creatures?' Damion questioned. The Magic System couldn't be talking about goblins or the other races, since they were intelligent, so where was he supposed to find unintelligent creatures with magic cores. The only other creatures were Ferocious Beasts, who did not have a core at all, they carried magic in their blood and when they formed a core, they became Demonic Beasts, with a Demonic Beast Core.

'Unless… System, do Demonic Beast Cores count as magic cores?'

{What host refers to as Demonic Beast Cores are magic cores obtained from what the people of this world refer to as Demonic Beasts.}

'That answers that,' Damion felt relieved he would not be forced into a life of murder to acquire credits for the Magic System. But it opened another question in his mind, if Demonic Beasts contained magic cores, not Demonic Beast Cores, were they really Demonic Beasts? Or was it just like the System claimed, people on Nerotath just called them Demonic Beasts while the System called them something else.

'Forget this, I'll figure it out later' Damion said as he felt his head starting to hurt from the series of revelations he'd had today. 'System, how many credits are cores worth.'

{Error. Unable to reveal that information until the Magic System reaches appropriate level.}

'Of course you can't,' Damion rubbed his temples in frustration. 'Seems like I'm back to the old uncooperative system. System, open the Shop.'

Damion quickly skimmed through the Upgrades section of the Shop and bought a replacement E Rank Health Potion for the one he had fed to Mage Blythe in the labyrinth. Then he purchased several C Rank Utility Artifacts. Damion ended up with a ring, that increased his mana capacity by 5%, a necklace that granted him 5% faster mana regeneration and a belt that granted him a 5% increase to his Dexterity.

The three items gave him a modest increase in power, but now that Damion knew he could upgrade artifacts he was interested to know which would be better, upgrading his artifacts or buying new ones from the Magic System when he Ranked up. He was still a long way from B Rank, but Damion had a feeling the B Rank artifacts were going to be something special, especially since he had never seen artifacts outside of the System provide bonuses to attributes.

As tempted as he was to buy more artifacts or even another magic affinity, Damion decided to hold off. Once he was out of school and out doing missions and exploring the world on his own, he could use a different affinity without anyone knowing, but for now having more affinities would be a pointless luxury.

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Damion eyed the Spells icon of the Magic System in his mind. He wanted more spells, but if the Blanche family did offer him magic seals in in exchange for returning their ancestral armor to them, he did not want to end up already knowing the spell they offered. On the other hand, if Damion learned their spells, and then bought spells from the system, it would be a win-win situation. He just had to be patient a little longer.

Of all the options in the Magic System Shop, Damion still had his heart set on the most expensive one. The Attribute Anti-Regression Potion. If he bought and used that, he would never need to train just to keep up his attributes. From then on, everything he did would allow him to push those attributes higher. He could purchase the Strength or Dexterity Potions without fear that the boost he got from them would be wasted because he missed a day. Until then he could afford the Anti-Regression potion, Damion decided not to bother with the attribute potions, their gains were too easily lost, best to save now and lock everything in once he got 100,000,000 credits.

"Damion, dinner is ready," Elicia called out, snapping him out of a daydream where he had finally purchased the Attribute Anti-Regression Potion.

When Damion was almost finished eating, Elicia set down her utensils and gave him a serious look. "I have a meeting with my grandfather tomorrow."

"Do you think he is going to kick you out of the family and send in a replacement?"

"I don't know. I think he will ask me if you have told me anything you didn't tell to the Justiciar about the attack in the labyrinth. Which you haven't, so I won't have anything to report to him."

"Which, I'm guessing, will annoy him."

"Probably," Elicia agreed.

"Well, I can tell you something I didn't tell the Justiciar, I didn't escape from the goblins, nor did they give up chasing me as I flew on my Ice Sword. They let me collect our dead and let me leave."

"What? That doesn't make any sense. Goblins are known to fight to the death once provoked. You can avoid them in some dungeons, since goblins usually aren't the guardian of the dungeon core, but I've never heard of them not fighting to the death once the fighting starts."

"Yeah, I thought it was pretty strange too," Damion said.

He was hoping perhaps Elicia or her grandfather would have an idea of what happened in the dungeon. If there were other instances where goblins did not try to slaughter everyone it would give Damion a bit more confidence in his plan to try talking to one the next time he was in a dungeon or labyrinth.

"Is there anything else I can tell him?"

"Did you already tell him about our kiss?"

"What? I… No, I didn't tell him," Elicia said blushing.

"Wouldn't telling him that buy you more time before he kicks you out of the family and fires you as my attendant?"

"Yes. But I don't think I want to stay in the Sorin family. And if I tell him about the kiss, then he will be less likely to push me aside in hopes I could make further progress."

"Tell him whatever you want then," Damion told Elicia and tried to smile reassuringly. "You already know my plan, so it doesn't matter if he fires you or kicks you out of the family."

"You'll really let me stay?" Elicia asked.

"Haven't I already paid you?"

"I guess you did," Elicia smiled back when she thought about the D Rank armor Damion had gifted her. She had yet to find an opportunity to put it to use, but given that it was the same armor he had used for years, she was sure it was quality and worth it as her wages as an attendant.

"What time is your meeting with him?"

"First thing, I won't get to join you for our morning run," Elicia told him.

"It's fine. Tell him whatever you feel like. If he doesn't fire you, quit. It might be interesting to see his reaction."

Elicia paled for a moment when she heard Damion's suggestion, but then, the longer she thought about it, the more she thought he was right. It would be fun to see her grandfather's reaction.