Minute Mage: A Time-Traveling LitRPG Progression Fantasy

A Devil sat at a desk in a damp, dark room. He wasn’t doing any paperwork at all this time. Instead, he was pacing around his messy office, trying to focus on breathing. Every step he took, he scattered piles of paper across the floor, but he didn’t pay them any mind. He’d just gotten word that the individual that had killed Temporus had been found, and was waiting to be informed of whether or not the man had a Class. The man’s name was something like Alan – Humans had such a strange system for naming people that it was impossible to remember their illogical labels anyway.

Demons were born nameless. If someone wanted to refer to a nameless Demon, they would simply call it by its species; all nameless Demons were basically the same, so it didn’t matter if you didn’t know exactly which one you were speaking to.

In order to gain a name, a Demon had to be put into a position of power. The higher the position, the longer the name. When the Devil had first started working, he was a simple office grunt, and his name was Xhag. Then, he got a promotion, and his name was Xhag’duul. After that, it was Xhag’duulin. Every promotion he received, he was given another syllable. So, his name hadn’t actually been Xhag’duulinithar’obaba’iidook’naisantipoduun’torobaroxhixhonxhaxintep forever, and it wouldn’t be that name forever, either. Next time he got another promotion, he would get another syllable.

It was a simple, righteous system. When he spoke to someone and they introduced themselves, he would automatically know how much respect he had to offer that person, and they would know the same. But Humans… when they were born, they were just given a name? They didn’t have to earn it in any way? It didn’t mean anything regarding their status?

Ridiculous.

The Human who killed Temporus – Arlan Nota was his name, the Devil remembered – had a simple four-syllable name, so it was incredibly difficult to even entertain the idea that he might be a threat. However, the Devil had to remember that names held no real importance in Human culture; there could even be a king with a four-syllable name. Even the idea was disgusting.

Hopefully this ‘Arlan Nota’ person was Classed at the moment he killed Temporus. In that case, the Devil could simply move on with his life without ever having to worry about these Humans or their names ever again.

His Communication Crystal hummed with activity – he was getting an incoming call. He willed Mana into the crystal, and it chimed to let him know he was connected with the caller.

“Yes?”

“Formal expression of greeting, Xhag’duulinithar’obaba’iidook’naisantipoduun’torobaroxhixhonxhaxintep. This is Ton’daoduvaotuv’taitotuu’iin.”

“Expression of greeting. I will call you Ton’dao. Give your report.”

“Of course. I have received confirmation by the Diviner squads that Arlan Nota, the Human that killed Temporus, was indeed Unclassed during the killing.”

“...” The Devil stared at the crystal. “Send in the Diviner that found him.”

“Yes, sir.”

The crystal shut off.

“...Fuck!”

The Devil’s office door opened, and in walked a Diviner.

“Formal expression of greeting, Xhag’duulini–”

“Follow me. You’re coming along to a meeting.”

“Indeed, Xhag’duu–”

“And stop with the fucking names!”

The Devil knocked on his superior’s office door, the short, splotchy-faced Diviner standing behind him.

After a short wait, he heard her voice call out, “Come in.” He entered, head bowed, hoping that the Diviner did the same. “Ah, expression of greeting, Xhag’duul. I did not expect you. Do you have news?”

“Formal expression of greeting, Quinmorada’qualticularoohdodonmi’asmomonomomonminmi’oohdoohdimyuumyuuquanquimi’jinndarrqyuqyakwuquoquanki’miminanmujardinmani’quokinwukanquokokanki. Yes, we have found Temporus’s killer. He was Unclassed when he killed it.”

The superior’s face hardened. “I see. Is this Diviner you brought with you the one that found him?”

“Yes.” He turned to the Diviner behind him. “Krokin, tell us the basic information we have on the Human.”

The Diviner stepped forward. “Formal expression of greeting, Quinmorada’qualticularoohdodonmi’asmomonomomonminmi’oohdoohdimyuumyuuquanquimi’jinndarrqyuqyakwuquoquanki’miminanmujardinmani’quokinwukanquokokanki. This one has been given the name of Krokin’oorohkakinomo. The Human that ended the life of Temporus, Overlord of Tomorrows was born with the name Arlan Nota, and, at the time of the ending of the life of Temporus, Overlord Tomorrows, this ‘Arlan Nota’ Human did, indeed, lack a Class.”

“And where is he at right now?” The superior asked.

“He is currently located at 370.264571–”

“No, no,” the superior shook her head. “Not his co-ordinates. I mean, what type of location is it? Is he somewhere populated? What kind of people is he around? What’s the terrain like? What Human territory?”

“The type of location is Overworld. Yes, the Human is somewhere populated. The Human is around other Humans. The terrain is forest. The Human territory is the Koinkar Kingdom.”

“...Do you mind being more specific?”

“No, I do not.”

“...Well?”

The Diviner tilted its head in confusion, its robe ruffling beneath it.

The superior impatiently turned to the Devil and sighed. “Xhag’duul, you have more experience talking to Diviners. Please get all relevant information out of it so that we can proceed. And do it quickly. The more time we waste here, the more time the Human has to meddle about and make this harder on me.”

The Devil turned to the Diviner. “Krokin, tell us the information you have gathered on Arlan Nota, his surroundings, and his situation, but omit all information that might be redundant or irrelevant to us.”

“How might this one determine what information is ‘irrelevant?’”

The Devil looked back to his superior. “What are our plans?”

“We’re hunting and killing this ‘Arlan Nota.’ Ideally, we can do so without alerting the rest of the Humans in the Overworld, but if that is not possible, we might need to be more direct with our measures.”

The Devil translated this back to the Diviner, “Information is irrelevant if it does not relate to something that might help or hamper our ability to find, pursue, fight, or kill the Human, or to do the same to any forces within or around the territory that the Human is residing in. Give me… the five most relevant items.”

“This one understands the request. The five most influential items of information that fall within the parameters set is so: the individual of name Arlan Nota is currently within the Kingdom of Koinkar, residing in a town that has been given the name of Ordensville. The number of persons in the town is exactly 513. An estimated 39 of those residents are Classed, and their estimated average Level is 11. There are six Human settlements within a two-day’s travel of the town with the name of Ordensville. Only two of the previously mentioned six settlements have an estimated military power that is greater than the town with the name of Ordensville.”

“Why is so much of this information estimated?” The superior asked.

“This one only has the ability to garner certain pieces of information while doing Divinations. This one searched for Humans, and, as such, now knows the locations of Humans. However, this one did not Divine the System information of these Humans, and, as such, must rely on guesswork to report on that.”

The superior sat for a second, deep in thought. Then she looked back up and said, “You may leave now. I want you and the rest of the teams in your squad to find as much information relating to what Xhag’duul requested of you as you can, especially System-related information.”

“Indeed. This one will do so right away.” The Diviner stepped out of the room, leaving the Devil with his superior.

“Xhag’duul, what are you currently managing?” The superior asked.

“Uh, I am currently managing my main position of Prison #7B16OQ44, the Temporus case, and the Diviner squad assigned to me.” It was a lot to take on for the Devil , and the stress had been piling up quite a bit from trying to do his main job alongside these other projects. He’d managed to scrape by so far, though.

“Well, you’re going to have to take on another project.”

The Devil’s heart sank.

“In order to recapture what is ours,” the superior continued, “we will need to invade the Overworld and send in a military force to kill Arlan Nota. You will be in charge of creating this force and managing troop movements.”

“Superior, with all due respect, I do not believe that decision is wise. I won’t be able to perform at peak capacity with the military force if I am also doing other time-consuming work at the same—“

“Xhag’duul, I need you to understand that, while I am outwardly calm right now, I am fucking furious with you. You created this problem, and you will solve it. It is ridiculous that we even need to resort to such drastic measures. Consider the extra work to be your punishment.”

“…Yes, superior.”

“Now get out of my office, and go make requests for your military forces. I don’t care what you use, as long as you get it done quickly.”

“Superior, if I am to be sending military forces to the Overworld, does that mean I have your permission to damage relations with the Overworld denizens?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself. I don’t care what you do, as long as you reclaim what is ours.”

“Yes, superior.” The Devil left the office.

Back in his own office, the Devil sat at his messy desk, papers still scattered on the floor, pen in hand, hurriedly writing a report. His hand cramped from the multiple pages of handwritten words, but he kept going. There were ways to write things with magic, of course – Spells to transcribe your thoughts to paper, Enchanted pens that would write whatever you said, and more – but the Demon people prided themselves on having all documents, reports, and anything official be handwritten by the Demon proposing it.

Normally, the Devil was in support of this policy – it taught the younger Demons discipline and kept everyone from succumbing to laziness. But now, he was really reconsidering that support. This wasn’t the first time he’d ever handwritten a document, of course, but it was definitely the first time he’d truly felt overwhelmed by tasks to do, and he didn’t have the time to sit down and hand-write a fifteen page proposal.

The proposal he was writing was a request for military power. He’d put quite a bit of thought into the best strategy of how, exactly, he would go about killing Arlan Nota. His best bet was that of a surprise attack; not only would that give the Human the least amount of time to react and defend himself, but it would also keep the rest of the Humans’ meddling to a minimum.

The Demons’ military was mighty, but the Devil would never be able to convince the higher-ups to expend the whole force on a simple reclamation of an asset that, in truth, wasn’t strictly necessary to the functioning of the Seventh Circle of the Underworld. So, if he was forced to fight every single Human in the Overworld in order to kill Arlan Nota, he simply wouldn’t be allowed the forces to do so, and the mission would be a failure.

So, in order to kill Arlan, he wanted to execute a quick and dirty sneak attack. Demons typically fought honorably, but these were Humans – they weren’t worth wasting honor on.

Normally, in order to execute such an attack, all the Devil would need would be a small strike team, but this Arlan Nota person was in the middle of a populated kingdom. Even if he was ambushed on the road, physically isolated from everyone, magic made movement over long distances trivial, so anyone could teleport in to fend off the attack.

Demons invading the Overworld would be a massive deal to the Humans, and they would fight their all to push the forces back, even if the actual goals of the Demons had nothing to do with them. So it was entirely possible that a powerful Magic-Type Classer could be monitoring the Underworld, ready to teleport in and attack any Demons that came to the Overworld. Arlan Nota could very well have bodyguards against the Demons watching him right now without even knowing it.

However, those people would only help if Arlan Nota’s location was the only place the Demons were attacking. If the Demon forces appeared all over the kingdom, these unintentional bodyguards would simply fight wherever was nearest to them.

So, while his target was really just a single man, the Devil was planning an attack on the entirety of the kingdom of Koinkar. Considering the kingdom's tiny size in comparison to the entire 7th Circle, it wouldn't really take many resources to execute, but it was still a lot for the individual Devil to keep track of.

That was why his report was taking so long. And, of course, once it was done, he would need to submit it for all thirteen levels of verification. The Devil was in for a very, very long few days. And the days would only get longer once the invasion started.

Not that the Devil would want to trade places with that Human, of course.

No, his days were numbered.

And he would run out of time very soon.