Arpious of the Planes

The sclera of my eyes turned a deep black which seemed to go on forever… just like the abyss…

"Huh? H-how the hell do you have [Abyss Magic]?" Reyna asks as soon as she feels a familiar sensation.

But, I didn't hear Reyna talking at all as I only focused my attention on the panels in front of me.

[Select which type of Abyss Magic you would like to acquire]

[Power]

[Numbers]

[Foresight]

"Oh, so this is what my inner demon was talking about," I mutter to myself and take a glance at Reyna, who seemed to shiver in fear.

I knew it… This is why we shouldn't even be friends.

"Hey, what type of Abyss Magic did you pick? Numbers?" I ask Reyna, who just managed to look up at me.

"Y-yes,"

Silence befell the throne room, and I could tell my maids felt awkward just standing here, listening into our conversation.

"Do you remember the speech I gave about monsters when I was serving as your knight?"

"Y-yes,"

"Well, one of the things I said, I was referring to myself, in fact. Which one do you think I was or still am?"

Reyna's face went through a wave of emotions, starting with fear and ending with pity, which raised my eyebrow slightly because I didn't expect it.

"A-are you okay?" Reyna asks, still pitying me.

"Of course. I'm better now, but if I were still on the same track as before, I would've either died already or destroyed my entire kingdom… with my wives following right after," I respond.

"*sigh*... Are you sure?" Reyna asks as my response didn't convince her, but I didn't even convince myself as well.

After a few minutes of thinking, I respond with a weary voice.

"Probably not. In fact, I've been thinking of leaving this plane just in case I go berserk so I won't end up killing everybody I love," I say.

"That's a bit extreme… Plus, do you even know how to travel through planes?" Reyna asks.

"Do you?" I respond with a question.

"Nope… But I have heard that elves travel through planes a lot due to their unique bloodline and their teleporters which they have selfishly kept to themselves,"

"Elves? What do you mean by elves because my maids are elves but-"

"Oh, I was talking about the Elven Metropolis, which resides a few layers below Caelum… Do you know what Caelum is?" Reyna asks.

"Of course… Caelum is the highest plane, and Infernum is the lowest plane,"

"Good. Then which way are you planning to go?"

"Like going up or down?" I respond after taking another sip of water.

"Yep,"

"Uhhhhhh… I feel like the plane below me is calling me, so I'll probably go there… And I also want to explore this labyrinth thing I found beneath the surface, which is right next to my kingdom," I say as I draw another line across the map.

"What is that for?" Reyna asks as she calls over a maid for a glass of water as well.

But, it seems my maid wanted to confirm with me as none of my maids knew who Reyna was, and serving somebody they don't know would be out of the question.

"Go ahead," I say before drawing another line that reaches from the edge of my kingdom to a spot in the forest that is on the very outer edge of the [Mountain of Twilight].

"So you gonna tell me or what?"

"O-oh, sorry, I spaced out for a bit, but this basically leads to the labyrinth I was talking about. I wanted to capitalize on the potential XP and fighting experience we can gain from it as it was tough, even for me.

If some of my citizens go in raid groups of possibly 75 to 100, then they should be fine… But of course, I need to fully explore it before I actually open it up to my kingdom," I explain.

"Do you need extra manpower for digging out those tunnels?" Reyna asks.

"Yeah, can you give me some?"

"You'll have to pay for it, you know,"

"Well, first of all, our highest currency is called an obsidian coin,"

"Obsidian? What's that?" Reyna asks, tilting her head slightly, shocking me greatly before a smile crept onto my face.

Ah… she shouldn't have said that.

"You don't have obsidian?" I ask after suppressing the smile that only crept up halfway.

"No… I don't even know what that is,"

"Maids, do we have some right now that is not in the form of coins?" I ask my present maids.

"Indeed… Would you like us to get some?" A fire harpy maid asks.

"Yes, bring some out," I order, and as soon as the maids left, an awkward silence befell the room as a maid just came back and brought Reyna her glass of water.

And just as I was about to break the silence with "How are you doing today," Reyna spoke up first and proposed something that I took quite a liking to.

"Since you don't want to marry me, how about we become sisters?"

"Oh," I accidentally say out loud.

This would be quite beneficial as this is basically having the same advantage if I was married to her. Still, as I honestly don't really want to marry her, this allows me to gain the same benefits, such as having a high status in her kingdom.

And, of course, vice-versa.

"But, I don't want to be sisters just in name, but also through our blood. Just like how Moon and Sun shared blood, we could do the same," Reyna says with a smile.

"Wait… what about your love for me?" I ask as it's not easy getting rid of feelings that will, not possibly, but will linger on for a while.

"Ah, I can forget about them or maybe try to covert them into familial love," Reyna responds.

That's definitely not going to happen, but oh well... Her problem.

"Hmmm… I see… Well, I have to say one thing if you want to share blood with me," I say.

"Go ahead,"

"You might not survive,"

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Literally… You might die,"

"If it's because you have monster blood, then I know a way to nullify the effects. All I need is a few herbs that I saw earlier in your kingdom when I went for a walk last night,"

"Partly, but my blood is much stronger than any other monster in this kingdom. My blood is made up of multiple bloodlines from terribly strong creatures, which I'm pretty sure will kill you if you try to mix with my blood,"

"Which monsters?"

"I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure there is a phoenix, overlord wolf, overlord deer, and a dragon… and I think the blood of a Golden Mountain Bear Queen… I honestly don't really remember,"

"It's fine… But it's worth a try. Just get the guy from earlier to split apart our blood if things go wrong,"

"That's not how it works, plus, he's a bit weird when it comes to blood, so It's best not to do it. We can be sisters in name until we find a way that secures your safety if we do end up doing the process again,"

"*sigh*... Fine," Reyna says as I look back up at the panels which had just been sitting in front of me this entire time.

"Which type of [Abyss Magic] suits me best?" I ask Reyna.

"Probably power because you can actually gain more power instead of just acquiring combat skills. Just like Lan does, you can draw magic from mages and hopefully get a few stat points from them, but they have to be dead," Reyna explains.

"Hmmm… I see, but what does foresight do?"

"Pretty sure it tells you the future, but as I've never personally known anybody who has it, I can't really tell you the effects… your best bet is Power, though. Looking into the future and planning doesn't really fit you,"

"Nah, I like planning," I refute but didn't disagree with Reyna's statement.

This is really hard… I don't need any other summons as I already have plenty, so numbers are out of the question, so now it's just between foresight and power…

If I choose power, I can gain more skills by just eating people and absorb part of their magic stat, growing my power exponentially with each upcoming battle.

But if I choose foresight, then I can make up for my minimal planning and arrogance, which seeps out whenever I see somebody I assume is weaker than me but might be stronger than me.

After a few minutes of thinking, I decided to select foresight as I was extremely interested in it. It will balance out my low planning to a mediocre or even high planning skill.

[You have selected Foresight]

[Would you like to confirm?]

Yes…

[Foresight Selected]

[Abyss Magic panel has been granted]

[Key Word: Abyss Status has been set]

And just as I was about to check my newly acquired skill, I saw my maids come in with a chunk of obsidian which made Reyna's eyes light up in excitement.