My Perfect Isekai: Pragmatic Protagonist, Progression Fantasy and Strategy

The morning sun forced its way through the gaps in the oak shutters of the Golden Griffin tavern. Dust swirled lazily in the streaks of sharp light. I walked down the creaky stairs to the ground floor. The interior smelled of burned wood and roasted meat, which Mina was slowly preparing in the kitchen. The idyll of the base had a soothing effect on my regenerated Vessel.

I stopped in mid-step. Shnee sat by the bench. She was wiping her steel rapier with a linen cloth. I frowned. My gaze immediately caught micro-chips on the cutting edge. Cheap metal from the city had no right to survive the deep floors. Ordinary steel was definitely too soft for armors molded from condensed mana. Pure logic suggested simple logic. The blade will eventually break at the worst moment and leave the girl completely defenseless in the middle of a fight.

”Leave this scrap,” I murmured, approaching the table. The elf raised her head. Misunderstanding flashed in her diamond eyes, but she obediently put the weapon down on the counter. I slipped my hand deep into the pocket of my coat. I pulled out a handful of black diamonds. I robbed them from the aristocrat’s safe a few days ago. They were waiting for the right moment. I threw the stones onto the table. They clinked dully against the wood.

”You cannot forge a weapon from this in a normal furnace,” Shnee stated coldly, crossing her arms. ”I do not need a blacksmith or a furnace,” I answered with Brazen chill. ”I just need brutal force”.

I fired up my crafting hyperfixation. Creator Mode went into high gear. Instead of looking for tools, I used raw will. I raised my open hand over the counter. I used crushing telekinesis. I closed the black diamonds in an invisible vise. I focused my intention. I squeezed the space with the force of a siege press. The air around my hand cracked with a dry snap. The hard stones began to grind. Their carbon structure broke under the influence of inhuman force. The black ore literally crushed against itself. I increased the push with every passing second. The fragments turned into thick dust, trapped in my invisible sphere.

I opened the pores in my fingers. I let Sapphire Slime into the sphere. The blue matter flooded the crushed dust. I forced raw mana into drastic integration with the material. The slime acted like a powerful binder. The sound resembled the freezing of a lake in a fraction of a second. The temperature in the room dropped sharply. The black color of the diamonds burned out completely under the influence of blue energy. Pure physics of condensation in practice. I released the grip of my hand. The sharp light went out.

On the oak counter lay a new rapier. The blade was completely transparent. It shone with an internal glow. The density of this material absolutely ignored the laws of nature. The weapon did not possess a single joint. It was a perfect monolith pulled from the raw force of my Vessel.

I handed the weapon to the stunned elf. She grabbed the hilt. She weighed the weapon in her hand. Her eyes widened with pure awe. The sword was light, but the center of gravity lay perfectly.

”We are going to test this on living meat,” I threw freely. I yawned shortly, baring my teeth.

We left the tavern behind. We headed towards the Dark Breach on the outskirts of Oakhaven. The dungeons stank of staleness and wet stone. We went down into the gloom without any hesitation. The first floors resembled a walk in the park. Trash monsters emerged from the shadows, and Shnee cut them in mid-air. The new rapier acted like a surgical scalpel. The blade passed through the bone armors of the ghouls without the slightest resistance. The elf did not have to put any physical strength into the thrusts at all. The very sharpness of the condensed matter did all the work. It left behind only whirling dust. I gathered the small cores into my pouch, keeping my hands deep in my pockets.

We reached a large arena at the end of the zone. A guard waited in the middle of the floor. A mutated giant encased in thick steel. He measured exactly four meters. His face was covered by a smooth mask carved from yellowed bone. In his hands, he wielded a massive sword the size of a grown man. The monster roared. The sound shook the stone vault, and a rotten stench belched from its maw. I stood lazily against the wall. I leaned my back against it.

”Your target. Test this gear on thick sheet metal,” I ordered calmly.

Shnee shot forward like an unleashed predator. She danced around the giant. She bypassed his clumsy cuts by millimeters. The crystalline blade struck from the side with murderous precision. She cut thick tendons. She pierced the thick metal right through, as if it were made of wet cardboard. The classic ice from her aura froze the monster’s joints. The guard roared with growing frustration. He could not keep up with her. The elf’s dominance was absolute.

Then the giant changed his fighting style. He understood in his blunt instinct that swinging steel in the air misses the point. Instead of delivering another horizontal cut, the monster raised his heavy leg. He struck the floor with his hobnailed boot with all his fury.

He caused a massive seismic shock. The granite cracked with a roar. The shockwave spread across the entire arena. Shnee was in the air after executing a fluid dodge. The shock destroyed her point of support. The air rippled, and the girl lost her balance for a critical fraction of a second. The monster immediately exploited the gap in her stance. He swung the flat of his great sword like a baseball bat. Shnee had nothing to bounce off. She did not manage to block. The gigantic blade hit her chest with full momentum.

The roar of the impact was disgusting. The sound of breaking ribs echoed loudly through the chamber. The elf shot into the air with the force of an artillery shell. She crashed into the granite wall of the arena with a terrifying thud. Blood squirted onto the gray stones. Shnee fell limply into the dust-covered rubble. She began to choke on her own gore, catching shallow breaths. The new rapier fell to the floor far away from her with a clink.

My Brazen chill completely evaporated. The smile disappeared from my face in a millisecond. Pure fury ignited in my eyes. This was pure Power Fantasy. No one, absolutely no one had the right to hurt my crew.

I reacted with the flawless reflex of a predator. My agility allowed me to close the distance before the boss even managed to raise his sword to finish off the lying girl.

I entered his zone, but I did not take my hands out of my pockets. I unleashed raw telekinesis. I caught the monster in invisible pincers. I crushed the space around him. I drove the giant into the floor with the force of a falling anvil. The black steel of his armor cracked. The boss was brutally immobilized, pressed down so he would not interfere with my work.

I crouched by Shnee covered in rubble. She was breathing with a rattle. Bloody bubbles burst on her lips. Her organism was losing to the internal injuries.

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I opened the valve in my weaves. I placed my hand directly on her chest. I poured a rushing aura into her massacred body.

The process was brutal. Sapphire Slime ate into the torn organs. It sewed the tissues live with the hiss of burning meat. The broken ribs returned to their place with a loud crunch. The elf arched her back. She cried out shortly from the pain of rapid repair. Her eyes widened from shock, but after a dozen seconds of breathing, the wounds closed completely. Only smooth skin remained, stained with red gore.

I stepped away from her. I left her gasping for oxygen on the ground.

I turned slowly to the pinned boss. A psychopathic smile of a madman slowly crept onto my face. My sapphire eyes burned with a predatory hunger for pure slaughter.

I approached the giant with a leisurely pace. I released the telekinetic grip on his torso. I let him get up on his knees with difficulty. The guard raised his rusted sword, roaring angrily through his bone mask.

I did not use a weapon. I struck with pure kinetic force on bare fists.

I took a hard step forward. I drove my left hand straight into the boss’s steel breastplate. I crushed the sheet metal like an aluminum can. The armor caved deep inside. The monster roared in pain. I grabbed the edge of the smooth mask with my right hand. I jerked down with all my might. The mask broke in half. It exposed an empty skull.

I headbutted him. My forehead drove into his facial bones. I heard the disgusting crack of breaking bone.

I grabbed his armored shoulders with both hands. I braced my boot against his stomach. I pulled with all my might. I drew a sadistic satisfaction from this. I tore the hard connections of his armor. I ripped the left arm straight out of the shoulder. Black gore and rust splattered to the sides. The boss roared, weakening under the influence of my physical advantage of mass and momentum.

I threw the arm on the ground with a hollow thud. I drove my hand into the exposed hole in his chest. I found the pulsating core. I ripped it out with one movement.

The guard froze. He crumbled in a fraction of a second into a mountain of useless ash. A pure utilization.

I hid the loot in my pouch. I brushed the dust off my hands. Shnee got up from the ground, leaning on her new rapier. She panted heavily. Her body was whole. The phantom pain of the impact was slowly passing.

”We are returning to the base,” I threw coldly, turning to the exit.

I walked along the row with my hands in my pockets. I looked at them with Brazen chill. Suddenly my gaze lingered longer on the dark elf.

I extended my left arm, grabbed my chin with my hand, and supported my elbow with the right one. It was my constant habit. Usually I pondered quietly in my head this way, but now I wanted to loudly guide them to my train of thought.

”You! Fuck, I just connected the dots in my head,” I blurted out suddenly, breaking the silence.

Luthia twitched, completely thrown off by this sudden change of topic. Mina and Elena blinked, confused.

”It just dawned on me that you are a dark elf. Dark skin, those long ears...” I continued with slight surprise in my voice.

A dead silence fell in the room. The girls stared at me in complete stupor. Their minds simply caught a massive lag. They always considered me an infallible strategist, so this sudden flash of ignorance completely shattered their picture of the situation.

”Dave... are you serious?” Elena managed to say, barely hiding her shock. ”You can see it at first glance. Did you really not notice it before?”

Luthia crossed her arms over her chest. A stiff defensive tension immediately appeared in her posture, learned through years of discrimination. ”Is that some kind of problem for you, Dave?” she asked coldly, with a clear note of surprise and distrust.

The truth was that sometimes I purposely played dumber than I actually was. Constantly showing full mental potential was simply tiring, so it was sometimes easier to play a simpleton. But this time I really caught a lag. Simple lack of comprehension in the multitude of slaughter.

I dropped my hand from my chin and looked at her with hard seriousness.

”I will forgive you that question and let it slide this time, because you don’t know me that well yet,” I said with a calm voice. ”But in the future, I will simply get offended by such words. I absolutely do not give a shit what race or species anyone is. If someone is cool, loyal, and takes my side, then to me they are just an exotic version of a human. All the rest is just a free cosmetic addition. Understood?”

All the tension immediately left the dark elf’s shoulders. A deep relief flashed in her yellow eyes, and the cold mask gave way to sincere respect. She understood my message.

”But returning to the topic of my pondering!” I threw loosely, cutting off the pathos. A brazen smile crept onto my face. ”Taking this on pure logic... Since dark elves grow up much later, on the principle that when you are seventy-five, you biologically look like ten human springs... and you now have the body of a twenty-two-year-old... that means you must be around two hundred and twenty-two years old, right?”

Luthia stiffened again.

”That means you are the official Grandma in our crew!” I snorted with sincere laughter, slapping my hand on my thigh. ”HAHAHA! Now we just need some grandpa to complete the set!”

Mina, who happened to be wiping the adjacent table, blinked her cat eyes. A fraction of a second later, an uncontrollable giggle from her and Elena resounded in the tavern. Ria in the back also started laughing, although she tried to hide it behind her apron.

Luthia immediately burned with a deep blush. Her dark skin on her cheeks took on a scarlet hue. She narrowed her yellow eyes in a blatant protest. ”I am no grandma, Dave!” she snorted, angrily stomping her boot on the boards. ”Physiologically I am twenty-two human years! Stop laughing, you little vipers!”

Shnee smiled under her breath, evidently glad that this time she was not the target of my jokes. This comedic moment perfectly relieved the thick tension after returning from the dark breach. I lowered my hands, and my face took on a hard expression again.

”Alright, jokes aside grandma, let’s get down to business,” I said calmly.

Luthia rolled her eyes, still red in the face, but stood straight.

”The deep floors will verify us. Ordinary bodies will not withstand the pressure of the monsters. Your muscles are too slow in regeneration. I must rebuild your foundations so you can keep up with my slaughter,” I explained, accenting every detail on pure logic. ”Hold out your right hands. Inner side up.”

They did not hesitate. They extended their arms in front of them.

I approached Shnee. No cheap theatrics. It was a raw process of granting power. I placed my hand, charged with a sapphire aura, directly on the inner side of her right hand.

I released an impulse.

She hissed in pain. The skin burned under the influence of the high temperature of mana. A distinct mark was burned into her soul and body. The letter ”D”. The mark of the predator. My stigma. I repeated the same procedure on Elena. She shuddered, clenching her teeth, but accepted the gift without a word of complaint. Luthia bore it in silence, staring at the shining mark on her hand.

I stepped back. The three shining marks faded, absorbing deep under their skin. The foundations were concreted.

”Listen carefully,” I said, leaning against the edge of the table. ”I gave you powerful regeneration. Your Vessels can now mend themselves on the fly. But this seal has a very crass catch.”

They looked at me with attention.

”This regeneration has a delayed ignition. It activates only after twenty to thirty seconds from the moment of taking a wound,” I explained firmly. ”When you take a hit, you must survive on the battlefield with your own strength for those fucking thirty seconds. Only then will the seal open. It will release my sapphire mana into your weaves. That energy will mix with yours. Then you will have to manually engage the aura to start the healing.”

I took a step back, observing their reactions. They understood the scale of the phenomenon.

”The blue will mend your broken bones. It will sew the torn tissues. It will even regenerate shredded arteries, as long as your heart lives to see that time limit,” I continued coldly. ”But if you let your head be cut off. If you let yourselves be torn in half, you will die on the spot. You will not live to see the healing activate. After a full recovery, the supply of sapphire is cut off. Your own mana returns to normal.”

I smiled brazenly, crossing my arms over my chest.

”You have gained powerful vitality. But in combat, you still must be deadly careful with your limbs. Unless I happen to be standing right next to you to manually pump aura into you live, like today with Shnee. The war machine got armor. We are ready to flood this market with blood.”