Mushoku Tensei: Ragnarök

SKREE! SKREE! SKREE!

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The vultures circled overhead, their cries growing more insistent. Sigurd looked up at them with annoyance, then began picking up rocks from the ground.

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'You feathery bald-headed assholes led me to another monster, now YOU are asking for food!?' Sigurd thought irritably as he started converting the rocks into chunks of meat.

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Kishirika blinked, looking around in confusion. "Who are you speaking to?"

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Sigurd glanced at her, then pointed skyward. 'Those damn vultures. They're demanding and I quote "their share of food" as if it is their right. Entitled feathery fuckers.'

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"You can... understand animals?" Kishirika's mental voice carried genuine surprise.

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'Yeah, I can understand the little shits, although I wish I didn't. They've been my guides for the past few days, at least that's what they're supposed to do.' Sigurd tossed the meat chunks onto a flat rock.

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'Not very good ones, apparently.' The vultures descended immediately, tearing into the food with enthusiastic screeches.

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Kishirika watched this display with growing fascination. "Fascinating... This One has decided to follow you!"

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Sigurd's mental response was an immediate 'Fuck off. I already got too much on my plate. I don't need some bossy kid tagging along, so shove it.'

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"This One is not asking! This One is tagging along whether you like it or not! Besides, you have provided This One with enough food to last several years."

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Sigurd stared at her. 'Say what? Several years? You don't happen to have the metabolism of an Ant do you?'

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"This One does not require much sustenance," she replied smugly. "And in return for your generosity, This One can grant you a Demon Eye. Consider it a compensation."

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Sigurd's expression shifted from annoyance to curiosity. 'A Demon Eye?'

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"Indeed! This One possesses the ability to bestow various Demon Eyes upon those she deems worthy. Since you have saved This One's life and provided sustenance, you have earned such a reward."

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Then she leaned closer, inspecting his face—or his eyes more specifically.

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"In fact, your peculiar eyes feel like some sort of natural born Demon Eyes. In any case, let This One check something. This One has been getting a weird feeling from you since she came close to you."

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The connection was cut off as her eye rolled like a slot machine before it settled on a different eye and looked at Sigurd again. Her expression shifted dramatically.

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"Disgusting! Your mana pool is disgustingly huge!—even bigger than that damned Laplace's!" she exclaimed, her usual arrogant smirk faltering as she stared with intense focus. "But it appears to be—defective? or more like broken?"

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'What the hell is she talking about?' Sigurd thought, still processing her words. 'I mean, I know magic exists from the anime, but I've been too busy not dying to think about it.'

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"It's like... imagine a massive water tank with holes all over it. Water keeps pouring in, but it can't stay inside," she gestured with her hands, mimicking water flowing and spilling.

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'A leaky tank? Great. So I'm basically a magical sieve.' Sigurd's expression remained neutral, but internally he was starting to piece together what this might mean.

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"Your body is absorbing mana constantly, but do not contain it. It's all just... leaking out." Her brow furrowed in confusion, clearly struggling to understand what she's seeing.

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'Five days old and already broken. Fantastic.' He watched her animated explanations with growing interest.

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"Your body is pulling in mana at an incredible rate—faster than most mages can even cast spells—but releasing it just as fast to maintain some kind of balance. It keeps your mana pool constantly full, but all that absorption and release is making the mana around you completely unstable!"

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'So that's why I felt weird sometimes. I thought it was just the desert heat or poison side effects.'

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Her eyes widened to an almost comical degree, mouth slightly agape. "No wonder magic feels unstable around you! You're like a... a mana storm in demon form. The ambient mana can't settle because you're constantly stirring it up with this absorption-release cycle."

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'A walking magical disaster. Of course I am.' Sigurd couldn't help but feel a mix of fascination and annoyance. 'Just my luck.'

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"A mage trying to cast a spell near you would probably find their mana getting pulled away mid-incantation, or their spell completely disrupted!" She took a step back, her usual confident demeanor replaced with genuine astonishment, one hand unconsciously moving to her chest.

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"You're basically a walking anti-magic field! This One estimates the disruption extends at least... ten to fifteen meters?"

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'Well, I never had time to bother trying to use magic. Yet apparently my body's a magical sinkhole.' Sigurd processed this information with growing interest. 'An anti-magic field, huh? That could actually be useful.'

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Kishirika raised a hand. "Useful, yes, but it is not without danger. It is a double-edged constitution."

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'Wait what do you mean?'

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"If a mage manages to cast a spell—particularly someone skilled enough to forcefully form their spell—it can still be formed. But once released, the spell won't fly as intended. Your body's pull distorts it."

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She pointed at him. "Your abnormal mana flow doesn't just disrupt casting—it attracts magic toward you. Any spell that forms successfully gets dragged in faster. That pull increases the spell's speed the moment it's released. And the target is of course you"

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Sigurd frowned. 'So either their spell collapses before it's done, or if it manages to come out, it gets pulled toward me harder than normal?'

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"Exactly. You make magic harder to cast, but if they manage to cast it, it strikes faster. Even the ones that aren't directed at you, the moment it's loose, it comes for you anyway."

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"This is... this is really and completely unprecedented! This One has no idea how your constitution came to be, but whatever it is, it's unlike anything This One has ever witnessed." She shook her head slowly, looking genuinely bewildered for perhaps the first time in centuries.

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'Great. So I'm not just an overpowered baby, I'm a freakishly unique overpowered baby with a built-in magic jammer AND magic magnet at the same damn time. Just what I needed to make my life more complicated.'

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Afterward they switched back to their telepathic communication to have a more in depth discussion about the unexpected subject.

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SKREE! SKREE! SKREEE!

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The vultures circling overhead, cries again through the middle of Kishirika's explanation about mana disruption fields.

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Sigurd's eye twitched as he looked up at them. 'Seriously? Right now?'

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SKREE! SKREE!

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'I know you're hungry, you feathered pricks, you are hungry all the time! you can't wait five damn minutes.' His mental voice was sharp with irritation.

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Kishirika paused mid-sentence, watching the exchange with mild amusement. 'Your companions have quite the timing.'

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'They're not my companions. They're just... persistent beggars.' Sigurd grabbed a nearby boulder, hefting it with one hand. 'And I'm getting real sick of their attitude.'

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He slammed his palm against the rock, willing it to transform. The stone shifted and morphed, becoming a large pile of fresh raw meat—pork, beef, mutton, all mixed together in a bloody heap.

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'There! Now shut up and eat!' He hurled the meat pile toward a flat section of ground, where it landed with a wet splat.

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The vultures descended immediately, their grateful SKREEs echoing across the desert.

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'bastards. Once I figure out how to get around without them, I'm ditching their sorry asses.' Sigurd dusted off his hands, scowling at the feeding frenzy.

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Kishirika watched the display with raised eyebrows. 'This One notes your growing impatience with your... guides.'

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'Temporary guides. I've got better company now.' He glanced at her, then back at the vultures. 'At least you don't screech every five minutes for food.'

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As the vultures gorged themselves on their unexpected feast, Sigurd and Kishirika found a shaded spot beneath a large cactus to continue their conversation. The mental link between remained active as they discussed the implications of his unusual constitution.

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'So this mana absorption thing—any other concerns I should have about it?' Sigurd asked, settling against the cactus trunk.

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'This One has never encountered anything like it, and constitutional abnormalities of this kind have never been seen before.' Kishirika's mental voice carried a hint of academic fascination. 'Though it's beneficial, it balance the advantage with disadvantage.'

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'Great. So I'm stuck being a walking magical disaster zone.' He watched a small lizard scurry past, noting how it seemed to move more erratically near him. 'No wonder everything feels off around me.'

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'This One would not call it a disaster. Double edged, yes. Potentially powerful, absolutely. But—'

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GROWL~

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A low, rumbling growl cut through their mental conversation.

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Both turned toward the sound, eyes widening as they saw the massive lizard from earlier struggling to its feet. The poison that had knocked it unconscious was clearly wearing off, and its yellow eyes burned with renewed fury.

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'Oh, shit.' Sigurd was already moving, poison gathering in his palms. 'I thought the reptile cunt would be dead by now.'

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'This One may have neglected to mention—large desert predators have considerable resistance to toxins!' Kishirika scrambled to her feet, backing away from the standing beast.

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'Now you remember!?'

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The lizard shook its massive head, tongue flicking out to taste the air. When it spotted them, it let out a bone-rattling roar.

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ROAR!!

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'Here's your wake-up call, gecko breath. Hope you like the taste of regret!'

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Sigurd remarked, and without hesitation. His hands moved in quick succession, throwing multiple balls of poison. They struck the lizard's open mouth, eyes, and last one went straight up its nostril.

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SHRIEEEK!

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WHIMPERS~

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The creature's roar became a shriek of agony as the poison burned through its most sensitive tissues. It thrashed wildly, claws gouging deep furrows in the sand as it writhed.

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'Time to go!' Sigurd grabbed Kishirika's arm, pulling her into a steady jog away from the screaming beast.

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'My, my... for someone who looks barely a week old, you certainly have a vicious streak,' Kishirika observed as they put distance between themselves and the dying lizard.

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'Says the one who was screaming for help ten minutes ago. Maybe don't critique my methods when they're keeping your purple ass alive.' Sigurd's mental voice was dry, unimpressed.

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'This One merely observes that someone your age isn't supposed to deal with these kind of things.'

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'Yeah, well, most babies didn't get thrown off a cliff by some pigeon cunts on their first day of life. I'm past hesitation.' His grip on her arm tightened slightly as they navigated around a cluster of rocks. 'This world doesn't seem big on second chances to me.'

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'pigeon cunts? Who?— you seems to have a rather colorful way of speaking, and what do you mean thrown off a cliff?' Kishirika wondered while they jogged far from the monster.

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'Dunno, some winged bitch gave birth to me and some other bitches like her convinced her to throw me, thus I was thrown off a freakishly high cliff down the sea. I kid you not it was a frigging scary experience, but luckily I got washed off shores, been surviving on my own since then' Sigurd said playing it off with a shrug trying to dismiss the subject as nothing special.

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Kishirika looking at him understood there's something more to it, but she let him divert the subject and focused on what made her more shocked 'Wait—that wouldn't happen to be the Divine Continent's cliff right? Because that's like a three thousands meters fall, a certain death to almost anyone.'

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'The cunt who threw me said something about Divine Lands bullshit, I guess it might be it?—Anyway, I barely felt any pain from the fall' Sigurd put a thoughtful facade before answering her which caused her to stop in her track.

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"This One can't believe YOU survived THAT fall as a newborn!? Exactly how tough is your body for you to not just survive but be completely fine too!?" Kishirika was looking at him completely shocked with eyes and mouth agape. In her shock she didn't mentally relay her words.

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END OF CHAPTER

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• Author Note:

How is the story so far? Next chapter will feature a time skip to show Sigurd's progress, please look forward to it.