The Grand beginnings (CYOA) (Patreon)

“Ho boy.” Lyra let out as she sank into the chair of her student common room. Luckily for her, the room was usually deserted at this time of day, especially considering that it was summer break, but that was beside the point. Because right now, she had only eyes for the glowing red jewel on the desk in front of her and nothing else.

“Are all girls so easily impressed with jewelry like that?” A male voice asked from behind her, making her expression change first to a frown, but after a quick shake of the head back to her sarcastic smile again. She turned around to look at the all too familiar figure behind her.

“Nope, pretty sure it's just me~ But considering what we went through to acquire such beauty, wouldn’t you also want to have a peek, Ilen?” Lyra asked, looking smugly at the boy behind her who was just shaking his head in response.

Lyra and Ilen were, of course, students at the local academy of supernatural activity. Or in other words, they were in training to become wizards. As far as the public knew, this facility did not exist, though anyone that had had an encounter with a certain goddess before, might get stuck in there for further education.

Lyra wasn’t very fond of learning, though very gifted in the art of combining the magic of other people in a way that could lead to entirely new and creative outcomes. Well, as long as she herself didn’t need to cast the magic anyway. There was also something mysterious about her since she practically came out of nowhere into the academy, but this was seemingly a secret that she shared with no one but the goddess herself, who also referred her to the school.

Ilen however had a bit of a backstory that was kinda well known since a certain fairy couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Quite a while back,he agreed to the, in his opinion, “crazy scientist” fairy Azalea to “drink whatever potion she would give him, if she could make him into a monster girl”. And let’s just say, she abused the hell out of that promise and now just sometimes shows up randomly and throws potions on him. He mostly went to this academy in order to maybe become powerful enough to not be completely at her mercy, though even he himself doubted that.

“So… have you found out a way to use that thing yet?” Ilen asked, looking at the female-to-be wizard with little hope.

“Well… not yet. Though I do know a few people who might be able to convert this into a more usable form.” She replied, making Ilen’s ears perk up.

“Oh? Who would that be?” He replied, but just as quickly his eyes went wide. “Wait, you don't mean…”

“Yeah, that fairy chick that uses you as her lab rat, I’m sure she can get some use out of it!” Lyra said cheerfully.
“Right… she’ll just turn me into a spoon- no, she’ll turn me into a hammer to smash it!”
“A hammer? I thought she only did monster girls?”
“Exactly! Have you never seen a hammer monster girl before?”
“Well now I’m more curious! We should go show it to her.” Ilen held out his hand to stop Lyra.

“Listen, knowing her, giving her anything with a modicum of power would be disastrous. I mean, Azalea… She's like a super villain at times. Imagine what she could do with that gem.”
“Hmmm….” The two became quiet, an awkward moment of silence followed but only briefly.
“Why not present it to my Alchemy Professor instead?” Ilen said, trying to change the subject.
“Your professor? Why?”
“Well, for one, he’s not insane like Azalea. In fact, he seems to be the one person she has any respect for… if you can call it that.”

“And… who is he?” Lyra asked.
“Oh right, his name is Nick! I’ve met him several times during my… uh… ‘experiments’. He’s pretty cool actually, he is also a scientist of sorts and has created some many different inventions! I think he mentioned once about a device that could transport people to different dimensions. I don’t know if it’s real, but he is not the type of guy that would lie about that sort of thing.”

“You wanna travel dimensions again? Seriously? After we just came back from this mess?” Lyra asked, shaking her head in disappointment. “And also, why don't you just ask Nagisa if you want to do that? With her being a goddess and all, this would be easy to do, right?”

“Because not everyone has the phone number of a goddess in their mobile, okay?” Ilen rolled his eyes, though Lyra just cutely giggled and spoke up again. “Speaking of Nagisa, we could show it to her as well. With a friendly goddess on our side, we can surely convert this gem into something more useful.”

“You mean with a force of chaos on our side. That Nagisa is very… unpredictable.” Ilen let out, his gaze wandering to the floor as he fell into thought.

“You have way too many trust issues. Nagisa is one of the most honest people I have ever met! …but I do agree that she is kind of random at times…” Lyra admitted and broke into laughter.

“If I may suggest someone, then how about Marie, that secondary goddess who also leads that giant tech company. What was it called again? ‘Monline tech’?” Ilen suggested, making Lyra look at him in confusion.

“Never heard of her.” She replied flatly.

“She is mostly known for inventing all sorts of really magically powerful machinery, though I think she does it because she is not really that powerful compared to other goddesses. Like our chaotic darkness goddess.” Ilen explained, making Lyra nod.

“OH! I remember now! I saw her a few times when Nagisa was visiting her brother.” Lyra chimed, happy that she remembered. “And i also know that Hiros is a master of monster girls transformation thingymacjiggy! Not sure what he uses for that, but I have always seen him armed with a book.”

“A book? What does he want to do with that? Death Note us?” Ilian responded jokingly.

“Not sure, but if I had to guess, then it kinda works that way. Though he would probably use it as a ‘monster girl note’ instead of something that brings death.” Lyra laughed weakly, but then shook her head.

“So then, Lyra. You were the one who brought this gem back, so I think it's fair you decide who to ask for help.” Ilen said, giving her the slightest of smiles. “Who shall we ask?”

CHOICHE

1.) Azalea, the ‘crazy’ fairy alchemist

2.) Nick, the experimenter and inventor

3.) Nagisa, the chaotic goddess of darkness

4.) Marie, minor goddess and CEO of a magical tech company

5.) Hiros, Master of all sorts of monster girl magic