Munetsuchi

Mugen was full of information with the right words spoken. He was also quite blunt in his assessments. He thought the girl had low standards in men, which might be true, but there was a bit of a conditional clause to that. "I mean they might be bad but by this logic the pool was tainted to start with," she mumbled. If she was being truthful, Miyuki was considered a catch by most, and even her first boyfriend remained pretty popular. Human standards for this sort of thing were entirely different. Ah, but she'd learned that lesson herself and was content not to harp on it. Things weren't always as they appeared, and she could easily see that the outward appearances of things didn't belie their intentions.

Moving on from that, when asked about childishness and actions undertaken just for the sake of them, Mugen pointed out his life status as a demon. Kaguya have that a bit of thought and opened her mouth once more in that silent o. It did make perfect sense for this to be his answer, and given that demons weren't even allowed in the world normally he definitely just made some random decisions in his lives. Moving on there was something rather ominous about the way Mugen spoke of keeping an eye on the things she did. But it didn't seem negative at all. "Hai hai, I'll try and make sure it's interesting then," she mentioned. Ah, there were many potential things to do and according to Mugen her options for properly integrating the powers associated with Cthugha were quite varied. She could do a lot with those sorts of things and her own imagination. She sorted through the information she'd been given on the world workings but didn't find one particular thing, so she'd ask about it.

"Mugen-sama, is there like a way I'm supposed to like make or organize skills? Do I have like a stats sheet or like a status window or something similar?" she asked wanting to have a go at figuring out how her skills currently worked and how she could edit or manipulate them to make them do what she wanted. In most games it was easy to pick things off skill-trees. AoE hadn't been a game she'd played but she'd heard it was way more in-depth than a standard game and worked a bit more like the tabletop stats sheets she got used to in the games with her more analog friends. But if she was going magical build there was a certain amount of freedom she fully expected and it'd already been mostly proven by her ability to turn an Ancient Forbidden God into a pet.

"It's an ignorant world," Mugen said quickly. "All things that are pure, are tainted by the extreme. All things that are impure, are tainted by the undesirable. Embracing yourself and seeking only your own enlightenment is the only way to make better choices," he explained. Ah, but he wasn't quite done there. "And when you bring things into yourself spiritually, physically or mentally, be sure to embrace them. Even the things you find negative can be used to produce positive results for yourself. The positives, however, will come with negatives too. That's how Karma works. You just have to accept that and make it work for you in the end. You could even find satisfaction with that runt over there if you wanted to," he concluded with certainty. True enough, Kaguya could have returned to Miyuki's side at this very moment, and everything would have been fine. She would never reach the same heights possible otherwise, but not everyone had such desires anyway. Everything was always an option, so long as one was willing to work within certain limitations.

That was about it for the random life lesson, but there were still lessons to give. The girl questioned the existence of status windows or other things of the sort, and wondered if there was a way she was meant to create or sort her Skills. Indeed, all of those things existed. "Ara? You really like asking questions that don't require mana, don't you? I'd like to know if that's something I should start expecting, or I'll get my hopes up for nothing~" he teased. "Status." With one word and an extended arm, Mugen conjured a magical, blood-red display of his own status. His name, titles, appearance, and all of his visible combat abilities were displayed for the girl ─ including a very unusual Class. With this showing, there was a brief explanation. "A basic magecraft that requires so little mana, a human toddler could use it. It's surprisingly one of the closets magecrafts to magic. Just picture it, focus, and say the word. The world will do most of the work for you."

An ignorant world. Yes, that much was true, it seemed a bit of philosophy would be passed on to Kaguya. It all boiled down to aim high for yourself and make better choices. But it wasn't just that, according to Mugen all things that one took into themselves, spiritually, physically and mentally needed to be accepted whether they were negative or positive because they could be used in whichever way one wanted. Karma apparently worked to balance things. "Harmony in the universe, yin-yang balance and be willing to be flexible while still being accepting, if you take a downgrade," she summarized her own understanding of the situation. That all sounded fine, though the mention of the 'runt' made her almost gag to think about. "Yeah, no... I'm not that forgiving. I won't... I don't even like it as a theoretical," she said. She wasn't exactly aiming to be anything spectacular, even so... she didn't want to be tied down by something she couldn't have faith in, and Miyuki had become that pretty quickly. She was in a magical world now, she felt not need to continue binding herself to the limits of others.

Moving on from that her question about how her skills should work or be put together was answered in a pretty obvious way. According to Mugen this didn't require mana and he was curious about whether this was something he should be expecting or not. "I need to know the basics. I don't know what questions will be complex enough to need mana and which will be simple enough for minor demonstrations yet~" she teased back. Of course, knowing that the man would rather get questions of complexity she might be inclined to make sure hers were deeper inquiries when she could manage it. For now she was given a demonstration and had the basic magecraft of Status as a display explained to her. She got to witness the Status of her mentor in a rather direct manner and as such came to understand several oddities surrounding him. She eyed this man's status with the ideations of a girl into science fiction and fantasy games. 'Champion Type? Is that why the weird balance? Also I don't know what a Dark Omen is but... I feel like it fits. He's got some interesting stuff going on...' the girl thought while staring at the whole of it.

With that done she found herself staring in front of her. She could easily show her Status to her mentor so she'd make sure he saw it. "Status," she said opening a screen in front of herself which displayed her current self and only a surname no given name. "Oh? I have to name myself... I'll have to be careful, I can hear them complaining in my head," she said hearing her friends being mad at her over her lack of social sense when naming herself on the internet. "Well, they gave me Kaa-sama's surname though... I like it~" she chimed seemingly pleased seeing her surname listed as Asakura. Her level was listed at 60 and had not much else currently ascribed to her. Well, there were a couple of things, like a strange support skill called 'Existence Outside the Domain' which seemed kind of intense but then she saw the next one and became confused. 'Divinity?' this was a lot to take in. She also needed to name herself. Perhaps she should start from what she understood and move on from there.

The mention of balance between Yin and Yang was more relevant than most could realize. She had no intention to entertain future dealings with Miyuki. She'd be a million times better for the decision, but as always, the decision was hers to make. "If that's your intention, so be it," Mugen said. He proceeded to offer the girl all necessary information for revealing Status, at which point she stared at his for quite some time. Mugen had no actual issue with being asked simpler questions that could be answered verbally. He was no elf; he didn't feel the need to keep precise memory for all information when transferring it. He did, however, believe the conversion of power had to be kept to a certain standard.

Whatever she gained from observing his sheet, the girl eventually opened her own. What a strange sight there was to see there. Asakura was her name? That wasn't very unexpected at all, though her reaction to it was unusual. Apparently, it was the name of her mother. "Kaa-san?" Mugen questioned without much thought at all. That name, Asakura, was his name a very long time ago. The current life wasn't even a dream the last time he heard those syllables thrown together. Mugen would eventually have to follow the trail from the seed which found her, if only to discover whether it traveled through her lineage or not. "Did your mother ever exhibit strange abilities?" he wondered.

"That is my intention..." she stated pretty clearly. She appreciated the ability to make her own decisions, but she wouldn't be allowing herself to take a step backward after moving forward. Miyuki now felt like a step backward. It would have been a shame, of course, she did quite enjoy the company of his little sister... perhaps it was for the better that she ended up in a magical world. That break out would have made school quite awkward.

Whatever the case, she was now thinking through her apparent developments. Of course, this was a rather interesting thing knowing she'd been given her mother's surname instead of another. "Asakura Nayotake..." she mentioned the name of her own mother. As for any strange abilities, she couldn't really think of anything, well not much that might count as being supernatural or anything like that. "Strange not really, well not to me anyway. She was good at word based puzzles and great at hide and seek, but that always just seemed like a parent thing," she mentioned, though now that she was talking about her mother aloud there was one odd coincidental thing she seemed to do. "I think the coolest thing about Kaa-sama was she always knew when it was going to rain. But that was just a funny thing, like sending me to school with an umbrella even when the weather reports said it was going to be sunny all day. It always rained those days but I never got caught in a downpour," she mentioned as if it was a pleasant memory. If such a thing randomly counted it would be odd to her, but her mother had died when she was young, of heart failure or something like that. Kaguya didn't know what that meant exactly but that started her life on its strange spiral. With that said she began to think, of fate, of destiny and of many other things. Hm, she could give herself a name like that. Yu like night and Me like weave. Oh, Ume like fate, but also a play with it as kanji. As the kanji for dream could be read as Yume but also as Mugen. Ah, that was great. And if she went with a name like this her friends couldn't hate it and the more she thought about it, the more she liked it. She'd filled it in, as such.

From there her skills came into play, and there was one which seemed to be connected to her form. Ah, there had to be more too that, she could do something crazy with it, now that she was seeing how her bond with Cthugha manifested. She could induce madness... well some would deserve it. She ended up adding it and a few other things to her base understanding of that skill and came up with a skill that went from Ruinous Beauty to Consort of Devastating Beauty. Nice. It would inflict upon others a spiteful sort of ruin if they found themselves desirous of her in a way she couldn't tolerate. As it manifested properly she found her eyes glancing towards Miyuki, maybe he didn't deserve all of this, but he'd earned a bit.

Mugen had taken quite an interest in this girl's mother. Asakura Nayotake, she was called. Something about that particular name called to him as well, though it was nothing very direct. As for any supernatural abilities she may have possessed, there was an alleged ability to solve word puzzles and excel at the youthful game 'hide and seek'. Mugen already had several connections in mind, then suddenly, there was the addition of Asakura Nayotake predicting rainy days. How interesting. That sort of thing was one of the earliest signs of divination ability, which made a connection to his old self almost certain. "You call it a funny thing. Your mother was divining at a basic level. Quite capably, I might add. Divination requires mana perception of a high quality, and Gaia does not allow that sort of thing. I would assume either she was a distant descendant of mine, or that seeker I sent passed through your family and... someone eventually became aware of it. I suppose it's the same result either way, really," he surmised.

Moving on, Mugen had a direct look at the girl's status. The name she chose was quite inspired, and could be taken an additional way that she probably had no reason to consider. It was quite fitting, however, with Mugen's knowledge and the understanding of Kaguya ─ now Yume's ─ traits. Whatever the truth of her origins may have been, she was proving to be quite the gem indeed. "Asakura Yume... Interesting," he said while casually glancing over her status screen once more. "Consort?" he questioned almost in rhetoric.

Moments later, Miyuki's mind would be shattered. Being the current embodiment of so many men from their previous world, he was subjected to the alteration of Yume's skill a hundredfold, and then some. The desire for Shinomiya Kaguya was constant, so the same could be said of the ruinous effect. The way it manifested currently was not such a negative, though. He continued staring at Yume, and once again saw her as Kaguya ─ that was all. Sadly, he'd learn the truth eventually. . .

Mugen had an interesting thing to say about Yume's former mother. "It was funny," she mentioned of the ability her mother showed to predict the weather. This was apparently some sort of low tier divining skill. That was interesting to note, one didn't know about things like that it was the sort of thing that was told in a story. Still, it was interesting to think that either she was a descendent of this man across worlds, or that his search for her and pinged on her mother. "Admittedly either way is fine... I won't spend too much time thinking about the number of cursed tags being created by being related to you~" she mused seeming to find it amusing. Whatever the case, it wasn't really an issue.

Her name choice was the next thing which was noted as being interesting, "Right? I like it. I think it suits me~" she said of her own name. Of course there was the interest in the term consort in her skills list but she found it to be the most appropriate word. "Eh, it applies on multiple levels. I'm consorting with an Ancient One to partially attain some of the effects. I have consorted with a demon and I am pretty technically a consort. And I can use the skill to consort with others... it's a great word~" she mused finding it pleasing on all levels and in all word uses. The skill itself was her beauty skill, it was also madness inducing, it also apparently included almost bard-like skills like playing instruments and singing. It was a great skill with huge depth and potential. It also would bring spiteful ruin to those who coveted her beauty.

Yume seemed to have a pretty natural affinity for making things work in her favor, it was notably one of her better natural abilities. Regardless there might be a bit more to her life in the moment and she should perhaps be getting back to more interesting things. "Hm, I think those skills are fine for now, but since I can do it, I should probably be learning some legitimate magic for application sake," she stated seeming to be giving some thought to various options after knowing she could turn a single ancient being into clothing. Maybe there were other lesser used magical things she could abuse. At this junction with a new name and a new purpose, she truly could let go of the spite she aimed at Miyuki and focus on her own development.

"I suppose it was," Mugen said flatly. He imagined it was easy to see comedy in something of that sort, provided one had no reason to believe in the supernatural. Had that woman been raised in this world, she'd be a rarity among humans and coveted for her potential. Some might even theorize that she was a descendant of his. Speaking of the former Mugen's descendants, Yume was claiming 'cursed tags' were linked to any familial relations between them. He had no idea what that term meant specifically, but context clues gave him a general idea of the intention, at least. "I don't know what a cursed tag is, but that sounds unnecessarily negative. But, I understand. Human ignorance. Technically speaking, your soul could identify as my wife, sibling, or even child. I suppose a stretch could have you labeled in someone's mind as my familiar as well," he rambled.

Yume went on to explain the application of 'consort' as a title to her current strongest Support Skill. It did make sense in many ways, including a few unlisted. Mugen had no qualms with it. She could do with a few more abilities, but there were also openings in her core which could still be advanced as well. Of all possibilities, those would be the most important things. "Hmm. It seems you've gotten less from me than I expected. Summoning an Ancient One must take a lot," the demon mused while stepping toward his bed, sitting at the edge to continue conversing. Yume expressed an interest in learning additional magic, and he could certainly make that happen by any method. "That's rather vague. What sort of magic? Real magic is as infinite as your imagination can be, especially when channeled through the Void. Your desire creates questions. What do you want to accomplish with magic? How big of an impact are you looking to create? Do you want something already unique, or do you want to inherit my skills directly? Do you want the information sent directly to your soul, demonstrated, practiced, or absorbed from a hat?"

Humans on Gaia as it was apparently called truly didn't believe in magic. They had science, trial and error and patterns. Any thing else was either thought of as weird, negative or unusual to the point of it causing problems. For someone as young as Kaguya had been, her mother's ability to predict the weather in spite of science was funny. But that also made sense when one considered what Japanese culture was like. Moving right along, apparently Mugen didn't know what 'cursed tags' were but claimed that humans may have been overreacting. He claimed that Yume as she currently existed could be counted as his wife, sibling, child or even familiar, that was interesting to note. Given this information she'd give of some of her own, having nothing to fear from sharing it. "Cursed tags are a lot of things... socially unacceptable sex practices, illegal sex practices, and physically, emotionally or mentally harmful. The relatedness thing counts as a couple of those for various reasons, but given what I know about this world and what I know about the world I come from... that makes sense," she explained in a roundabout way. She might have accidentally learned a bit too much about 'cursed tags' but knowing stuff you aren't supposed to know was always appealing even to her.

She watched the man step over towards the bed and found herself following while taking in the atmosphere of this room. There was a claim made that summoning an Ancient One must have taken a lot of energy, and she could only smirk. "I suppose I didn't explain, I went the symbiotic approach, so in order to do my magical girl transformation I ended up feeding her most of the mana I'd gotten and a decent amount of what was left in my body..." she explained of the way the ability worked. This of course, would eventually have multiple uses including making sure she wouldn't literally explode from taking on too much of Mugen's mana as he seemed to enjoy pumping her full of it. She watched him as he sat at the edge of his bed and claimed that she'd been vague while thinking about magic. He went on to list various things, after stating that her desire created questions. How did she want to learn her magic and what did she want to do with it? "Hm, I think I would like to both inherit some magic and learn some new ones, but I am pretty good at making stuff up without much guidance. I also can figure things out pretty easily so I don't necessarily need a demonstration, unless there are some orthodox things I need to do," she stated honestly. "I do need to know though, like I can learn from a hat? Like is a sorting hat or like... does it do something crazy?!" she was still a bit childish and ultimately curious about the current things existing in this magical world, which were things of her imagination only previously.

An open mind would take anyone quite far in this world, and any other for that matter. Yume explained the thing called cursed tags, listing familial relations among them. Some of those other things made sense; that one did not. On the other hand, Yume considered the differences between worlds and how it would not be so negative in this one. "I understand. What you must know is that everything is about the soul here. When mating, our soul seeks compatibility because it seeks completion. That is where the clash sometimes manifests. You might complete someone else who does not, in turn, complete you. Both must match," he explained. If he were being a bit more specific, Mugen would have mentioned how true such a statement was to the girl's life. She could have uplifted that boy, but he would have kept her under ball and chain as a result. Alas, he felt that didn't need saying at this point. Yume had enough of his essence; she may soon find herself with one of his senses as well. "I've seen some human desires that would fit the category you speak of. Many of them are actually foul. Some humans fetishize expelling their waste on one another. I don't need to tell you why it's called waste even in a magical sense," he continued.

As he sat, Mugen heard details about Yume's name. She used a large sum of mana not to summon the Ancient One, but to contract it as if it were an Artifact. "I can tell," he responded. "But I don't think you're done yet. It seems there are a few more steps that could be taken. As for what they are, I suppose that's up to you." Whatever Yume chose to do with Cthugha, he'd observe with much interest. That would all come later, however. For now, Yume apparently wished to develop new magic, though she wanted to learn something preexisting as well. An excellent choice, he thought. She needed no demonstration, but when asked about learning from a hat, she questioned it more directly. Mention of a 'sorting' hat was something Mugen considered helpful for his explanation. "You know of the Sorting Hat? Good; that makes this easier. That hat was based on another. It contains the soul of its creators, and continues to enforce their will. Though, the original idea involves a hat that became a Natural Artifact... which holds the memory of its wearer," he explained while lifting one hand, summoning to it a tall tate eboshi with a distinct and elegant design and a symbol resembling a plum blossom. In truth, he had multiple eboshi; this one was chosen for the pun alone. "This one is such an Artifact. It has all the knowledge of a man long-lived and learned. Wearing it would be much like what you're doing with Cthugha now."