Witch Hunter: Lord of Lust and Sin

Forcefully calming himself down, Richard turned his attention to the Goddess, despite all the things she does- their relationship was like a toxic workplace. Even if Richard wanted to strangle her to death, even if he could, doing so would just bring him more problems- and he already had a ton.

"How about teaching me some magic? All you do is teleport from one place to another, bring some weird shit or food- using my money by the way"

Whenever he asked her, the Goddess would always make up some random excuse but this time-

The Goddess gave Richard a choice but-

"Is there any magic that doesn’t use souls, blood, sacrifices or anything like that?"

The answer he got was-

Richard, who already understood some of the more general rules of magic, had an idea of the "price" he had to pay. But he didn’t just accept it based on a guess.

"What price?" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"That doesn’t sound too bad?"

The Goddess’ reply on the price made Richard feel like his worries were unfounded- worthless even.

After all, if he really thought about it, the magic that Cindy and Hana used were built upon the sacrifice of living beings.

All the two women had to do was sacrifice others, the worst thing they could get was PTSD from the shit they had to do. But aside from that? Nothing much.

On the flip side, if the Goddess’ words were to be believed, then all Richard had to do in order to make proper use of his talents was to work hard. It could even be something similar or close to training arcs!

In other words, all he had to do was maybe do some cultivation like in those chinese webnovels or maybe follow the superhero training of doing 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 pull ups and running 100 steps while only eating a single banana a day-

’That was the routine right?’

He thought while the Goddess teleported away to get the "required materials" for his training.

With magic already on the table, Richard was sure that his life was going to start entering the "epic phase". The moment when he goes from a worthless former billionaire to a secret magical prodigy living a double life!

He already sacrificed his youth for his dreams after all!

A whole decade to build an empire that fell because of a woman...

Since his first run towards greatness fell, why would he follow the same path?

He already did the careful, intellectual and scumbag route, why do the same thing? That strategy already failed! Being too serious led him to lose everything!

Now, he was going to do things in a different way- a different path!

As he was psyching himself up, the Goddess returned and with her she brought a bear pelt that was made to work as a cloak or something similar.

The head of the bear was cleanly skinned as it acted like a cool fantasy hood.

The type you’d see in fanart for berserkers in fantasy but Richard was now seeing it in reality.

As cool as it was though, the fact that it was brought out by the goddess could only mean one thing.

"Am I going to learn a form of Shamanism using a spirit bear?"

The Goddess laughed as she answered Richard-

Richard’s eyes went wide open in excitement as he stared at the bear pelt.

Wasn’t this the typical story of Richard finding out he actually had talent for martial arts? That he could become a legendary knight or martial artist if he was in the medieval era?

That was totally the case, after all, Merlin was Arthur’s teacher right?

Richard forgot about the fact about Arthur Pendragon’s sexuality, for now, he focused on the fact that his genes could very likely be carrying a talent for combat.

Even though he didn’t really see any worth in having Close Quarters Combat (CQC) talent in the modern age with the prevalence of guns and all-

But! If he matched martial prowess and the Goddess special teleportation magic- couldn’t he just become a real life ninja?

The teleportation of the Goddess was oddly similar to that one guy in anime after all! If he could improve the Goddess teleportation magic... maybe use it on beads or something else...

"What’s he thinking about?"

Cindy asked the Goddess as she eyed Richard who was showing a weird expression.

"I see- that pelt? I don’t know where exactly it came from but my Grandma said it was an inheritance from our ancestors who used to live in Medieval Britain. The only legendary figures from that land that wear bear skin or use bear skin... if I’m not wrong"

Cindy’s expression crumpled in confusion while she asked.

"That kind of person would teach Richard magic? What kind? If it’s the same type those idiots over there use as an excuse to "get high" then I’ll be a better teacher. I’m not that good with other systems but I am well learned in those that naturally talented idiots use."

But in response to Cindy, the Goddess only shook her head while explaining-

The Goddess’ answer left Cindy speechless, she did not know if Analog systems were still in use but given that she had access to Richard’s knowledge... there is a high chance that her words were true.

Cindy wasn’t aware, but even the most modern jets, those used by many militaries, still use analog systems.

In fact, some aircraft that are newly made also use the same analog systems.

While modern digital infrastructure was rapidly taking over the civilian space, the rapid advancements left many vulnerabilities. It is also this rapid advancement which made geniuses capable of speeding up development to gain increasing importance to the world.

But geniuses are a dime a dozen, which is also why Richard... no, Damien Dixon, was being quietly erased.

An uncontrollable force was a bigger vulnerability than any new and untested system.

This type situation is the same reason why archaic magic works, despite the fact that many archaic techniques were wasteful and dangerous due to their unpredictable nature- one thing that kept them alive is the fact that "results were insured".

Yes, sometimes you accidentally create a demigod monster that roams the woods hunting down people and causing an urban legend that feeds itself in an endless loop of power accumulation.

But you created a mystical being right?

There were modern versions of techniques but many of them were prone to failure.

The biggest example being the "spiritual state" where mystics would use substances to place themselves in certain "free minded states" where they could "commune with the mystical powers".

Such a method worked only half of the time, the other half left the mystics in a worthless "high".

Worse off, those mystics who fail would likely end up as druggies instead of actual practitioners of the mystic arts.

Cindy was not aware of the analog vs digital problem but she was aware of the reasons why the mystical arts still retained records and knowledge about the dangerous methods from the past.

"So the ancient humans had methods specifically used for people like Richard?"

"Because the god’s got horny and fucked a few hot humans?"

The Goddess threw the pelt forward but it did not fall to the ground and instead floated as the form of a man manifested under the pelt.

At this point, Richard had also snapped out of his delusions as he stood next to the two women who were discussing some important matters while he kept his eyes focused on the figure that was forming underneath the bear cloak.