SSS-Rank Engineer: Only I Can Create Legendary Weapons

Percy didn't know how to feel the next day. He barely slept that night after seeing the optional quests from Nyx and Aether.

He wasn't surprised they could see him. The two of them were gods that could kill people across dimensions. Finding one human was too easy

But he was surprised to see that Aether was watching; it made him think more of what Nyx had said about her treacherous brother. Aether had plans that stretched from stupidly simple to inconceivably complex.

The other thing on his mind was the rewards for each optional quest.

━━━━━━ ✦ Optional Storage ✦ ━━━━━━

​– Make some friends, you weirdo (Given by Nyx): Your loner nature worries the goddess, Nyx. Tomorrow on your visit to the city, make just one friend. Rewards: One Rank 1 customizable reward, two additional stat points.

​– Kill Baron Nokis before he leaves Dema (Given by Aether): Hasn't the baron disrespected your family enough? Even now he conspires with former Viscount Sion to assassinate your father. Kill him before he can escape to his barony. Rewards: One Rank 3 customizable reward, ten additional stat points.

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The way their rewards mirrored each other wasn't lost on him either. Aether was attacking Nyx's offer, showing Percy that he could offer far more than Nyx.

It was all a political game between the two gods. And he was just a little boy that wanted to build his cool machine and marry a couple women. Was that too much to ask for?

So he would take Nyx's quest. Kids were dumb, but they were a bit less dangerous than being an assassin. By the end of the day, however, he was ready to boil his ears and kill a lot more than Baron Nokis.

The morning of their visit to Dema came quickly. Too quickly considering he had barely slept last night. Hecate came into his room and pulled his tired body out of bed.

Child abuse, he droned lazily in his mind. You'll regret this one day.

They dragged him out of bed and forced him into the most basic attire he had ever seen. A pair of matching blue coats and trousers. His half-white, half-black hair was then combed, and he was left smelling like a thousand manhandled flowers.

Once they left the castle, the scent of fresh air and sunlight slapped him awake and ignited his excitement. Hecate and Thalos held his hand on either side, smiling happily.

They were dressed somewhat commonly to not draw attention. Hecate wore a brown dress and a white linen veil. Thalos wore a simple black cloak over his black shirt and brown trousers.

The simple clothes couldn't hide jackshit, though. Hecate's stark white hair and alluring purple eyes, Thalos' steely gray gaze and strong gait. These things easily broke the thin facade of normalcy.

But hey, they were his weird parents and he loved them. Most people wouldn't exactly know their rulers by face, and Hecate hadn't distributed a family portrait around. So they would go mostly without a crowd until word spread.

He would ditch his parents if they drew too much attention. They had sent guards into the city to prepare for their walk, so they'd at least know where to find him.

The loud roar of water interrupted his thoughts. They were on the bridge now, waiting as the coachman prepared their carriage.

Percy peeked over the stone rails to see the waterfalls. The fortress of Dema was built in the middle of the Crean River, and the city of Dema was built on both sides of the river. The monolithic stone walls circled the entire city and fortress, cutting across the river on both sides.

Water gates were cut from the white stone walls to allow the river to pass through, but whoever built the walls didn't care about backwater pressure or the damage it would do to the walls over the years.

Percy sighed; more work for him. They should count their stars that such a blessed child was born in their city. Or they would have counted them when the walls broke and flooded the city.

Thalos tapped him on the shoulder.

"The carriage is ready. I didn't know you liked walls this much."

The ride helped him understand the city a bit more. The houses were arranged around marketplaces in the more common districts.

Then houses close to the fortress were more luxurious and built around single streets.

There was a well at each marketplace in poorer districts and one well allocated to different streets close to the fortress.

Water for bathing or washing clothes was sourced by miniature streams from the Crean River, but they were very careful not to drink that water.

But there were some blocks of town and streets that made no sense. Houses that cut off roads and made you loop around, roads that winded and turned for seemingly no reason.

He assumed the old empire that built this place was skilled with Earth magic, so it couldn't be because of the land's uneven nature that they built this trash pile.

He didn't have to dwell on his annoyance with the city design for long, however, because they dropped from the carriage once they'd gone far enough.

They stopped in front of a local playground and Percy turned pale. It was just sand and a bunch of children playing together, nothing scary.

But he could sense Hecate's intentions easily. He turned to her and she gave him a sly smile.

"Oh, come on. They're just kids not lions. You need friends your age, Perseus. Now go on."

She pushed him forward gently until Percy started walking by himself. In the meantime, they walked across the street to enter the marketplace.

They left a couple of guards behind, watching him drag his feet over the ground and stand before one of the children.

There were about twenty of them there, but he didn't bother remembering what they looked like. He sat on the sand, sighing. He should plan his movements before trying to find a well or something that would lead him closer to Spiritmancy.

While he was thinking, the children had all stopped playing to stare at the boy with strange hair, white and black. He wasn't dressed like anyone from around here; his clothes were simple but too bright and new.

A boy ran over, scattering sand with his carelessness. Percy raised a hand over his face and cursed under his breath. The boy didn't seem to understand why he was shielding himself.

"Hey, who are you? When did you start living here? Are you from Darin Avenue? Hah, you're here to steal our flag again, aren't you? You won't deceive us, Halfy. Stand up right now! Or else."

The boy bounced all around Percy while his words rolled on with no end in sight. Each of his little jumps poured sand over his body, his voice occasionally rose dramatically and the boy made sure to lean down and shout right into Percy's ear.

Rising to his feet, Percy was about to tell him off, but someone pushed him from behind and shouted.

"What you looking for, Halfy?"

Soon he was surrounded by smiling but overly touchy kids, screaming different stupid insults into his ears.

"You trying to fight, Half-baked feta?"

"Tear his fancy clothes, hehehe!"

"He looks so pale! Do your parents not let you play?"

They were dragging, punching, and pushing at him from all sides. He was really considering punching someone; a kid beating another kid wouldn't be so crazy.

But if he did, he'll probably have to beat up the kid's friends too and eventually the entire playground.

Now Percy wasn't afraid of fighting a couple of kids. He always wanted to kick a couple of toddlers, but societal norms forbade kicking such kickable things.

He escaped the crowd and managed to escape the playground and run up the stairs of a building. One of the kids shouted behind him.

"Hey! My mom says we aren't allowed up there! And the witch's daughter is also up there."

He wasn't trying to hear all that. If they pissed him off, he would break a branch and craft a good cane. For now, he let the snot-nosed brats off the hook and climbed to the top of the building.

He stumbled to a stop, breathing a bit harder than usual. The roof opened to a brilliant blue sky and refreshing breeze.

There was a tower in the distance, looming darkly over the smaller building. He wondered if that was a special place, might as well check it out after the kids fucked off.

A sudden voice interrupted his thoughts.

"It's the Tower of Hermetics."

He spun around and found a girl sitting at the edge of the stairs, just slightly out of sight because he didn't look down.

Her hair was black as soot, a tangled, stringy mess that hid her pale face, but he could see eyes red as blood peeking from underneath. She was huddled over at the edge of the stairs with a leather-bound block of a book.

Percy would have jumped off the roof if this was a day after he watched that one horror movie. The one with a creepy girl in all white crawling out of a well.

He coughed and managed to compose himself, studying her appearance and looking back at the tower.

"Let me guess, you're the Witch's daughter that those brats were talking about?"

The girl nodded slowly, maintaining eerie eye contact with him.

Percy cringed but still tried to be nice to the obviously bullied kid.

"Don't mind those dumb kids. They shouldn't call people names because they don't want to play their stupid games. What's your name?"

"You sound so old," the girl said slowly, surprised that someone was being nice. "I don't mean that in an insulting way, of course! I'm Terra… but the kids aren't wrong either, I am the daughter of a witch."

Percy frowned, then he turned back at the Tower of Hermetics in the distance.

"She works there? If she's magic like the rest of the Spiritmancers, why call her a witch?"

Terra rose to her feet and opened the book she was reading. It was drawn in red ink like blood, and featured different circles and off-putting illustrations of monsters.

"Because we study how to manipulate nature instead of coexisting with it."