Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist Desk

I'm back~~
Finally I can post my (rewritten) report after so many tiring IRL stuff.

Great Plain - #SE1 - E-Ranked - Slay 20 Slimes [ 50 G ]
Great Plain - #SE2 - E-Ranked - Slay 10 Goblins [ 50 G ]
Great Plain - #SE3 - E-Ranked - Slay 15 Orcs [ 50 G ]

Solo
Receptionist, @LittleFox21

Spoiler: Report - Great Plain Subjugations

Flying City of Aeternus.

Traverse through the clouds, proudly floating above. The usual scenery you might found.

People are travelling with aircrafts from the ship port. Some of them are travelling with flying creatures like dragons, gryphons or griffins, and so on. Leaving and coming. Inside, as usual is the life of its citizens. All kind of activities are happening in this city. Trading, labors, every breadwinner for their family and the city roads, its veins are flowing with people. Going to one place and to another.

But as always, the heart of this city is the guild which is functioned as the heart of the city.

Aeternus City Adventurer Guild Headquarter.

Home for the adventurers, and the center of their activities. A peek inside, you will found the rowdy hall, filled with the warmth of the receptionist smile, smells of the food served, the tastes of the ale and adventurers bragging about their grand adventures or talking to each other. All of them. Every races, beliefs, not mentioning strength, intelligence and influence, are gathering here.

There we back again.
From the main door, Crowen, was going outside with a disturbed face. Disturbed, maybe the word could be interpreted to sorrowful. His face and expressions were all mixed up, and it seems that he was deep in his own thinking.

With every steps, his feet became more and more heavier. His body is weary. His eyes were hollow. And his mouth, are releasing a long sigh.

"Haaa~ What should I do about it?" so he sighed along with each steps he made.


Well, everything has a reason.

After the last quest, it began.

Three man cell merry party, going to a subjugation mission. Nothing is wrong with that of course. So he thought. This is a normal subjugation with three people taking participation. Just three men. It will be alright.

But, according to the old phrases by the wise, everything must be accounted for. For anything that may go wrong, may just go wrong at the unexpected times. That's what really happened. It's not the quest but, what happened after that.

Getting carried away.
That's the problem.

Leaving a crater upon the quest completion is not really a good thing to do. Maybe it was fine when you're fighting something like all powerful dragon or something like that but, is that really necessary when you're just fighting goblins and orcs? No.

The environment problem has already solved by Momon actually, but doing that every times will be....
a problem for the guild.

"Would you mind to explain?" asked by the receptionist, he couldn't say anything but to nod his head. Heed the warning, reflect on what you do. What you do back then is overkill. It was hidden carefully in every words said.


"What should I do?" mutters to himself, Crowen walks out from the main door.

By the kindness, or to be more precisely the benevolent of his two party members, Crowen accepted two armaments from them. Armaments with power of the divine one reside.

Having a powerful weapon is a lifesaver when you fight powerful enemies. But there was also a downside. All who wields great power should necessarily uses their power. Means have to know when to hold back. Don't do something fool. Even more, what Crowen hold inside his inventory now is a reliquary of the ancients, which not only powerful but full with historical values.

"I will be certainly doomed when uses this" he thought.


Unfortunately, our every day live must continue, and time is not so generous. He won't wait. There was a stomach to be fulfilled, and throat to quench. And of course, money to make.

It was clear, he must decide to only use them for a last ditch effort.


Decided to taking on another quest, Crowen readied his equipment and walks to the teleportation gate.


The Great Plain.

A vast plain of grass, widely spread to the north of Aeternus, located between The East Barrier Mountain Range, Verdant Forest, Ash Plains and The Sand Desert. Just by looking at the geographical location, it can be concluded that the plain climates were various. Dry air, and bit hot to the north, dusty wind in the south, cold in the east and a bit wet and smells of forest in the west. Hence this plain is a dear home to many kind of monsters, orcs, goblins, slimes, from the weakest mob monsters until fabulous unicorns or cyclops. In addition, you may found all purpose healing plant or exquisite plants like moonlight flowers. Bee nest is often found here, so maybe you could get some raw honey and royal jelly. A natural hoard of treasure.


Upon arrival, Crowen is wearing a fur robe to cease his own presence, and made hiding more convenient.

His objective now is to slay some goblins, orcs, and slimes.


Slimes and goblins are the naties of this plains, and for orcs, they probably came from the pass, and settled here. They're roaming freely in the plains but, regularly their number is controlled. Thanks to the adventurers and concerned citizens.

For adventurers, this place is perfect for practicing their skills, and the place itself is not so extreme when compared to another places. The survival rate is high. No wonder there were many adventurers, especially beginners chose this place when picking up quest, or to hone their skills.


Counting his arrows and checking his equipment, Crowen start to search in the vicinity for monster presence.

It's not so hard for looking, because the place topography is a plain with grass. It becomes easy to look for some monsters.


In the distance, not far, Crowen saw something transparent, wiggling.
A creature of liquid body, with a single core floating inside.

Indeed, this creature is a slime.

Slime, is a creature with no peripheral. All of its body was consists of liquid, and the only part of the body which is solid, is only the core. Slime is a curious creature. Its a mystery why did slime could exist.

Research shows that slime live by digest its food by putting them inside their own body. Digest slowly with acid. They change the osmotic balance and their body liquid to be more acid so they could digest their food. But, the "no good" part is when slime approach you and beginning to sticking itself to you. You will be digested for sure. Not mentioning Variants which have paralysis or poisoning property. Slowly digested or drown in slime liquid, is a really painful way to die.

For sensing what happened in the surrounding, slime uses their perception of touch. What they feel is what they see. Additionally, slime is sensitive to magical essence, and they can sense the magic power flow. They're attracted to it just like other monsters.

Finally, the only way to kill a slime is the core. Crush it, and it doesn't need to be detached from the body. The problem is, the core is protected, inside the viscous slime liquid. But, fortunately, the position of the core is constant. A good hit will do. Squash it with club or staff or Warhammer, thrust it with your rapier, or shoot it with magic. Or an arrow.


Silently approaching the slime, and taking aim, Crowen release the first shot.

Shooosh!!!

His arrow went straight to the slime core and detach it from the slime body.

The arrow went through the slime, and finally fell on the ground. The wooden arrow was gooey, and sticky, with its tip stuck to the slime core, which release its content to the ground. Shortly after it, the slime lose its form and became a puddle in the grass.

"That's one for sure" Crowen said. He readying his next shot while watching the vicinity.

After the first one, another slime is approaching the dead slime. The slime was approaching the dead slime, and step on it. It looks confused, and wiggling left right, and back front.

But before realizing what was happened, a second shot was coming, and hit its core.

"Two. It begins~" so he said with a grin.


With a little movement from his previous spot, Crowen starts to exterminate all confused slime which is trying to get closer.

Arrows and arrows one after another. His aim is not always perfect but, he somehow always made the shot.
Totals, fifteen slime, arrow count, 5 missed out of twenty.

"And for now~"

Opening his fur robe, Crowen taken out vials and beginning to procure the slime liquid.

For for your information, slime liquid is a popular basic ingredients in crafting, alchemistry, chemistry, magic rites, research and etcetera. Easy way to make more cash in a fun way, do the subjugation, and extract it. Easy.

After 5 or more bottles, Crowen is over with the extraction, and proceeding to his next objectives.
Means time for goblins and orcs.


To search for orcs and goblins, trust your instinct, and better, trust your nose.

It's not a joke.


If to you, a latrine pit maybe is a heaven and hell in a one place. But nothing is more worse than orcs. Goblin is better, for they still understand what hygiene means. But orc....

No.

Hygiene term is not inside their dictionary.


Trusting his nose, Crowen starts to wander in the area where goblins or orcs may set an ambush. As low level intelligent monster, a simple place would do. Shortest way to get to destination, way to a settlement, anyplace to put an ambush will do. More suspicious the place, the better.

In this case, Crowen chose to head to north east, following the riverside to the Frontier Village.

The reason is, considering to many travelers went there, and the place have population. Of course, monsters attention is always set there.


The sun is already rising.

With his traveling speed, he should be arrived at frontier village at noon. Hopefully, he will found them before lunch. Crowen is always keeping a tight regime of eating. Always eating when you can. Always be on time. Enjoy it. You won't know that it will be your last.


Well, remembering now he had two powerful artifacts as last ditch effort, he would enjoying his lunch from now on.

After a long walk.
Today, luck smiled upon him.

A trace, not a human, but monsters. Orcs.
No doubt about it. Fresh on the ground.

And from what he can tell, their den is near, or at least their pack is.


After looking at his surrounding, he found them.

A pack of orcs, armed with self made weapons, they're roaming in the plain. Their distance is quite far. Fifth league to tenth.


"Not too far for me~"

He readied his bow, and fixing his stance to shot.

"Something heavy would be nice but, let's use the normal one"

After saying that, Crowen began to loading out his arrows. Twenty of them, five for precaution. All of them just normal arrows.


Calming his breath, his heart, he took along breath before picking his arrow, and pull the strings. Concentration. Just then, he began to release all of his arrows.

"Giii!!!!"
"GuGuGiii!!!!"
"UguGiii!!!!"
"First, three"

The three orcs who walked in the most back are the first one to fall. They have fallen victim to his arrow. Three simultaneous shot. Right in the head. Their fat body tumbled upon the ground.

"Gii!!!!!!!"

Shouting, angered, provoked, confused orcs who saw their comrades has fallen begin to look for the cause of their brethren death, only to found three more is dead.

"Six"

The nearest orc who stand realize Crowen presence, and raise a shout while pointing his club to Crowen direction. The other orcs hear the shout, and run to Crowen direction.

But this is what he hopes.

"Thank you for saving me time" he said it while releasing more shots.

"Seven"
"Giii!!!!"
"Eight!"
"GuGuGiii!!!!"
"Nine"

And so it went until the distance became closer and closer. This is an evil scheme devised by Crowen. Provoke monsters from the distance, made them coming, and whittle until nothing stands. Even if there is monsters who reach him, the monster will meet its end on Crowen knife.

"Last one~"
"Giii!!!!"

Zurash!!!

Crowen personally stuck his arrows to the monster body. Leaving all the blood splattered on the grass.

"Finally. It's over"

Slumping on the ground for a while, Crowen packed the arrows left, and heading to his next objective.


Continuing from before, Crowen walks aside the river, and went to the Frontier Village. Hopefully he will found goblin settlement around the river and would finish the last quest.


Just two leagues before the Frontier Village outermost area. Crowen could see, smoke, a fire lit, in the middle of the plain. Hut was build with twigs, grass and other material. But it was shabby when you compare it with a farmer hut. Even more, the ones who sat surrounding the fire is not any human. A creature with small build, with green skin. Goblin. And this was indeed, a goblin settlement.


Goblin, is a monster who often live in settlements they made. Hunt in pack and live by community rule. Their number is reaching elevens but, the quests often round the numbers to ten, for goblin baby or elder goblin is not counted due to their lack of aggressiveness. They basically could do nothing.

Goblins individually is weak but, they made a good fight in numbers. Never underestimate the power of numbers. Except you're individuals suited to a strategic battles and have the thing to do one man army style battle.

Considering Crowen skills, killing ten goblins is an easy task.
Same tactics as before. Provoke, whittle until nothing left.

Crowen starts by giving swift shot from far distance.

One by one, not realizing who or where the shots are coming from, goblins are falling to the ground. The number of the goblin corpses is ten.

Panicking, provoked, confused, and fear. That's what the goblins feel right now.

By the end of the massacre, the last of the goblins were abandoning their settlement, and fleeing for their lives. They was spared for the request is only to kill ten, and not above or less.

"I guess that's it for today~" he said with satisfaction.

Thus his quests were accomplished.


Leaving the abandoned settlement, satisfied Crowen was heading back to the guild. While humming around, he wonder what should he do with the money he would get today. Maybe, what he will do is to eat something with the money. Better, he could invite some of the guild members for a small feast.

"It would be nice" he thought.

 

Oh no... more typos appeared sigh...
I don't know what to do any more~

 

============================
Great Plain - #SE1 - E-Ranked - Slay 20 Slimes [ 50 G ]
Great Plain - #SE2 - E-Ranked - Slay 10 Goblins [ 50 G ]
Great Plain - #SE3 - E-Ranked - Slay 15 Orcs [ 50 G ]
============================
good day deri~
your archery is cool deriyo~
that reminds me, i got a nice bow back then, but i gave it to the guildmaster since i don't know how to use one, deri.
hmm. anyway, here's your reward, deri! 150G deriyo.
have a nice feast deri!

 

Thank you~
After the raid maybe~
If we came back, if I can get back alive, I will.

 

Great Plain - #SE2 - E-Ranked - Slay 10 Goblins [50 G]
Great Plain - #SE3 - E-Ranked - Slay 15 Orcs [50 G]
Great Plain - #SE4 - E-Ranked - Slay 5 Boar Warriors. [70 G]

Spoiler

After that whole debacle I just wished to have a nice and quick job and earn some money. With the newly acquired crossbow in hand I decided to do the job quick and effortlessly with stealth and distance.

Walking across the plains in search of my prey, I saw a bunch of smoke up ahead. Presumably it was a camp, if it was one of allies or one of my sought after prey depended depends on how big the smoke is. Judging by the blatant size and disregard for safety, I can assume that what I was about to face was definitely not one of the more intelligent races, at least not human.

I crouched down into the think tall grass and slowly army crawled with the crossbow in hand towards the camp. Despite my metal armor being somewhat noisy I made almost no sound, for the powerful winds that blew constantly over the plains were making a load ruckus that could even temporarily make someone deaf.

When I got close enough I saw ten Goblins surrounding a rather large and poorly made fire. They were currently eating some type of roasted meat. Seeing that they had put down their weapons and resting, I felt lucky, that’s when my cat (Lucky) pushed his head against my arm purring. I rubbed his head for a little bit before looking back at the eating goblins. I took aim when I thought of something and immediately ordered lucky to go do it. Finally, after seeing the cat doing his job successfully I let loose a bolt.

*whoosh* The crossbow bolt flew across the air, strangely the raging winds seemed to have stopped, and impaled itself in a mid-swallowing throat. The eating goblin clutched it’s throat in pain before sub coming to death, and had fallen over into the fire. The surrounding 9 goblins were immediately alarmed and quickly dropped their foods and went to grab their weapons, only to come up empty handed.

‘Good job Lucky’ The sly cat managed to take away all their weapons, making them now vulnerable. Whilst thinking that I dropped my crossbow, as to get rid of deadweight, and took my mace out and jumped out of the thicket.

The goblins now confused over the fact that one of their own died, they had no weapons, and a new enemy appeared, went into a panic. Using that I quickly dispatched the remaining ones and finished one mission.

“Sigh, 2 more to go!” I said with a rather resentful tone to myself.

I then walked towards the fire and put it out, I don’t need an unattended fire to set fire to the whole plain now did I? I then remember Lucky who was jumping on my leg asking for food. Seeing this I took out some and gave it to him, this also served as a catalyst for me remembering their (goblins) weapons. Though after checking I decided not to keep any of it as they were all in too bad of a shape or were poorly made and had no use for me.

Seeing the cat finish his food I began to search for the other two monsters that I was tasked with. In the end I safely and smartly ended them, finishing my 3 missions.

(OOC I ran out ideas to write, since I still have to write for the raid, so sorry for the hasty ending)

Quest Complete
@shad12ow

 

Great Plain - #SE2 - E-Ranked - Slay 10 Goblins [50 G]
Great Plain - #SE3 - E-Ranked - Slay 15 Orcs [50 G]
Great Plain - #SE4 - E-Ranked - Slay 5 Boar Warriors. [70 G]
===========================================================
"Good day to you, friend. Submitting a report? Let me see....Hmm...okay, good and good. Nice~! Clean and efficient killing. Good work. There your reward, 170 gold. Take care now~!"
OOC: Don't worry~! It is good~! And the raid is only until the next week. After that, it is 'slow' week again~! LOL~!

 

North Mountain - #SB1 - B-Ranked - Slay: 1 Cloud Giant [ 300 G ]
North Mountain - #SB2 - B-Ranked - Slay: 1 Fire Bird [ 300 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SC1 - C-Ranked - Slay 3 Ice Golems [ 150 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB1 - B-Ranked -Slay 1 Greater Ice Golems [ 250 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB2 - B-Ranked -Slay 5 Lesser Ice Elemental[ 250 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB3 - B-Ranked -Slay 2 Greater Ice Elemental[ 250 G]

Spoiler: ”je ne comprends pas francais”

My first quest as a B rank. Hopefully something interesting happens. Possibly, probably not. I sighed and left the tavern in a mock hope. Just gotta wait until the DLC or after the morian arc. Come on…. Was that a fourth wall break? Nah… not like it matters anyway.


I teleported to the first location, the north mountains. It sounds Better as ‘northern mountains’ but I didn’t get to name them so oh well. Fire birds and cloud giants. This was going to be difficult. Sarcasm aside though, I scanned the area and teleported to a firebird.


It screeched and I rubbed my temples, damn thing was loud. It rushed at me with it’s claws stretched out. I sidestepped a couple feet to the left. It was so slow. I reached out and grasped its neck before tightening my grip. Screeching and clawing, the sounds made by it was simply annoying.


My grip tightened and the firebird’s movements and noises were overshadowed by a loud snap. I enjoyed that? I haven’t felt this way since before my demon blood was sealed. I should get that checked out again.


I knocked those thoughts off for the future and scanned the area for a cloud giant. And lo and behold, I found one quite easily. I didn’t have the patience to deal with it like the firebird so I teleported behind it and shoved my hand through it’s head, spreading gore everywhere. Glee was fighting to surface on my face but I suppressed it. I quite liked my non-bloodlusty thoughts.


I teleported over to the mines where my new targets awaited. Let's see here, goblins, goblins, more goblins and oh! A pack of ice golems. AWAY TO NARN- the pack! I teleported smack down in the middle and used aura infused flames to set loose a blast that rampages throughout the small cavern. Causing the deaths to 6 ice golems and 2 greater ice golems. Easy peasy.


Scanning…. Scanning….. Goblins, more goblins, and even more goblins. The hell is going on here? Let’s see, a large amount of snow goblins may lead to problems for the gui- ignore. Oh! Some elementals. 20 or more, reminds me of my recent quest with Khaos. Doesn’t look like there’s anything to guard though. Large amounts of each species in the mines are gathering and may cause proble- ignore.


BOOM! Teleport! More fire magic, more death, more yay. And my quests are done. I teleported back to the guild in hopes of turning in these quests so I can get more useless gold …. Yay.

Misc: suspicious gatherings are suspicious

@shad12ow

 

North Mountain - #SB1 - B-Ranked - Slay: 1 Cloud Giant [ 300 G ]
North Mountain - #SB2 - B-Ranked - Slay: 1 Fire Bird [ 300 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SC1 - C-Ranked - Slay 3 Ice Golems [ 150 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB1 - B-Ranked -Slay 1 Greater Ice Golems [ 250 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB2 - B-Ranked -Slay 5 Lesser Ice Elemental[ 250 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB3 - B-Ranked -Slay 2 Greater Ice Elemental[ 250 G]
======================================================================
"Hmm...so problem is at hand, eh? Sheesh....I'll note that. And the mine is getting more and more dangerous each day. I think we really need to increase the security there. Here is your reward, 1500 gold. Take care."

 

@brasca123
@shad12ow
@LittleFox21
We really need to make a Shop Thread.

 

Even if they do it would be hard to keep track of everything. From the gold, to stocks, to ummmmm something else..... I just had it...... damn...

 

...I reconsidering whether that Reset Button is bad idea right know.

 

Lol.......



.......................................what reset button?

 

The button where you tag the GM(@shad12ow) and tell him that you"re resetting your char

 

@shad12ow @Nurman @a101011

I almost missed an emergency quest, in light that the undead army took priority. Would've missed it like everyone else if the word "Holy Empire" wasn't plastered on it. Then I noticed that it's on the emergency section.

Let's see... damn, I need to burn that place down sometimes soon. Well, time limit's at sundown tonight, and there's only a C rank guy taking it. I doubt it'll be done flawlessly, and there's some personal killing I can do too...

I signed my name, and immediately flew toward the appointed place.


*****


Sooo, the security's way too tight and two of the stakes were empty. Trashes were watching while keeping the crowds away, shouting stuffs that I very much would prefer not to hear. It's bad for my health.

The afternoon sky was suddenly alight as several thousands of blazing lances formed around me. It rained indiscriminately, completely missing the stakes while removing all the paladins and priests and whatnot from the immediate area. Not few strayed to the onlookers, but eh. They deserved that. Must look like armageddon from down there, fire raining from the sky and all.

I fluttered down, the falsely accused women looked with just about as much fear as the survivors. In hindsight, they probably aren't expecting to be rescued my a real witch. Heh. The Empire had been really treading the line with the differentiating witches from magus.

"Come, I'll get you to safety."

The ropes snapped telekinetically, I ensured that they won't fall on their face. Probably sore from the lengthened immobilization, and some sported bruises, so i healed them in a moment. Then I turned to survey what few survivors were around.

Mostly spellbreakers. The fire lances was barely advanced spell while they're equipped to fight magic, so plenty survived although their shields half-melted already. Some rather unfortunate individuals were hit by more and burned just like the rest.

It took one of them charging in rage to prompt the rest, which met with a massive flaming wave much more intense than a mere fire lance. This time, they burned for good.

Hmm? There's one more survivor. A bit to the side, a minor priest with bad burn on his back crawling away while muttering something. Strange, he shouldn't have survived a direcr hit of a fire lance...

"Lord Luminous save me... Lord..."

I turned to the women, asking "Anyone knew this guy?" to them. Surprisingly they said that he's supposed to be a junior acolyte, but the way he bossed everyone and the fact that they complied begrudgingly means he's doing a bad job staying undercover.

"So the scum-in-charge, eh? Well then-"

A sharp burst of mana forced me to jump off, right before several stone pillars emerged at a backbreaking speed. I noticed that the man was holding some white thing in his grasp... distress signal? To who?

The responsible party came floating in sight ten seconds later, a streak of white amidst the constantly darkening sky. He became clear to see ten seconds later, fluttering down with a grace I never thought was possible.

Dark brown hair, tall and slender physique yet with an immature tinge to his face. Quite a beautiful lad, but all that was secondary to the ten massive wings unfurling behind his back.

He was somewhat nervous and annoyed, if I had to judge.

"And you are..?" I asked this newcomer. As young as he looked, his mana actually eclipsed me so badly - reminding me of Morian, in a way.

"Uuuh, The Holy Empire's guardian angel, I guess? I'm Raphael." He had a bitter smile while he's at it. That looks a bit familiar, but I dont remember where. "You did this?" He waved at the general direction of the burnt corpse, while trying his best to ignore the smell.

"That's me."

"...may I know why?"

"Kidnapping and burning innocent women- at least, that's the plan for the night." I pointed at the ten-odds women huddling some distance away.

"So you burned them in turn." His expression darkened a notch.

"It had some kind of poetic justice to it, don't you think?"

"I see some noncombatants among the coprses."

"The fools gathering to throw rocks? Sure, I think some may got caught in the crossfire."

"Yet I see you missed all the stakes." There's a tinge of anger, and I see the wings fluttered a little.

"Of course. That much control is nothing to talk about." I replied a bit venomously.

"You evil woman-!'

"A dog of the empire have no right to define good or evil."

And with that, negotiations over. Spikes emerged from the ground, while rocks at the speed of a bullet was shot from all direction. I took to the air, but to my surprise the spikes extended dangerously close even as I took an evasive maneuver. Still, it can't be fine-tuned once it stepped into my mana domain so I can still somewhat stayed away from it.

Talking about domain, it shrunk to a pitiful twenty-something meters in a sphere around me. Only there my mana managed to fight back the pressure of his, allowing my magic to materialize in it while preventing him from directly conjuring his in there. Still, extending the base of his spikes allowed the tip to intrude while flinging rocks doesn't rely on mana, so I'm a bit on a defensive right now.

I noticed that he needed direct line of sight to properly aim his attacks at me. That's why older spikes returned to dust once I went sufficiently far away, as not to clutter the vision. Knowing that I produced both water and flames, resulting in white mist blocking his vision as I shot down to find cover.

Well, it didn't work.

A literal mountain of spiky rock emerged, rapidly snapping shut on the mist like a gigantic bear trap. I think I had some moderate-bad internal wound as I blasted up to avoid it, narrowly avoiding a messy death.

I think I heard Raphael groaning in frustration.

As evasive as I get, there's no way I'll last longer and escape isn't an option. I'll probably reform somewhere even if I die, but I'm worried about the girls if I ended up somewhere too far away.

So I can only attack.

And I happen to have just the thing...

I prepared the experimental spell I once invented, the null field spreading with me at the center. Then I charged at the seraph while doing my best to avoid his spikes.

Normally, if we're too close then his domain would overpower mine. But with the null field, it would be for naught since he couldn't materialize any magic in the first place.

He realized that something was interrupting his magic far too late. An earthern wall was hastily erected but a concentrated telekinetic impact broke a hole, which I squeezed through to arrive on his side. He already wore an armor of stone but it immediately crumbled as my null field engulfed him whole.

"Never thought I'll use this again..."

Only arcane mana can flow in here, so I use the only magic I can think of - my old pair of buzz-saws, I still bring it around for nostalgia value. I fired them at Raphael, who did his best to dodge and ended with two shredded wings and a real bad cut to his side.

He's quite fast to follow up, seeing what happened. The saws just went back and torn one more wings as well as his shoulder when he converted more mana than I ever had into an energy blast. The energy blast, as bad as the efficiency went it was poured a lot of mana - I lost all sense except pain for a minute before my body regenerated back from the charred shell it became, and when I came to it Raphael was nothing more than a barely visible white streak in the distance.

A very wide area was, predictably, turned into a gigantic field of jagged rocks. And there's a new mountain in the middle, with a conspicuously large circular crater where the final energy blast carved in.

Took me a while finding where exactly the saws fell, then I grow a grass in shape of garment that would be a blatant offense to natural evolution. Wearing the makeshift dress, I picked up the wide-jawed girls before dispelling the strange and suspicious runes on their back, and finally flew back to Aeternus.

Burned Snobface was nowhere to be seen.


*****

"Sooo, that's why the collateral damage is totally not my fault. Totally."

 

Great Plain - #SE3 - E-Ranked - Slay 15 Orcs [ 50 G ]
Great Plain - #SD3 - D-Ranked - Slay 5 Orc Leaders [ 100 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB1 - B-Ranked - Slay 1 Greater Ice Golems [ 250 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB2 - B-Ranked - Slay 5 Lesser Ice Elemental[ 250 G ]
Gallant Mine - #SB3 - B-Ranked - Slay 2 Greater Ice Elemental[ 250 G ]
Gallant Mine - #GB1 - B-Ranked – Mine 5 Refined Ice Crystal[ 60G | 1 x Ice Crystal ]

Spoiler: Flowers

I wonder... What should I do this time...

Last time I went on a quest with Baldy-kun, but... It was too quick... It barely killed my boredom... This won't really do, will it?

Well, with nothing better to do, I suppose it would be a good idea to check how things are going with that Ice Elemental on the Gallant Mine, it's been a while since last we checked after all... And since I'm at it, might as well reduce a bit of the threats on the plains, I'll pass by them anyway, and it doesn't really hurt to make sure their numbers are controlled.

I thought about going with Niyari-chan or one of my pets, but... I wouldn't mind some time by myself, it's good to relax a bit, so I'll be going alone this time.

Once I had decided where and how I'd go, I went to the guild, took the quests and departed, I started to feel the flow of the Mana around to find some Orcs, and after a small bit, I found a group of them... Well, let's get on to it!

As I flew closer, I could see their numbers... About 30 orcs and some bigger ones ordering them around, which are probably the leaders, this works.

I held their feet in place with Shadow Magic so that they wouldn't escape, and aimed my wand at them.

"Love Sign: Master Spark!"

As the Master Spark was going out, I used the Chaos Energy to corrupt my own Mana and make it stop flowing to it, so I could wipe them out by using only about 60% of my Mana and 20% of the Chaos Energy... It still wasn't good, but I was slowly making progress on that, I think I might be able to control the Master Spark properly if I keep trying.

I decided to head out to the Gallant Mine now, and was about to set out... However... Something seemed... Amiss... I tried to focus a bit more, and noticed... A weird pattern on the flow of Mana... I couldn't exactly identify why it was like this, but... Seemed to be... Resonating with the aftershock of the Master Spark? Weird... I tried to follow the disturbance, but... It was really subtle, really really subtle, the very alteration of gravity that I usually made to fly was enough to make me almost lose it, so I decided to go back to the ground and started to follow this unusual pattern on the Mana.

As I kept walking, I slowly noticed that the scenery was changing... Weird, I never saw anything like this while flying through the Great Plains, and are those... Sunflowers? Here? I kept on walking, and as I did, more and more of them started to become visible... In fact the only thing I could see in my surroundings were Sunflowers, and they were all taller than me as well... When did I get in the middle of this many...

"I see a rat in the middle of mah flowers~"

"Who...?"

"Rats are no good, they are definitely an eyesore~"

Bad... This was definitely bad, I felt an incredibly ominous feeling right now, and an incommensurable urge to run away, but everything I saw around me were sunflowers, I wasn't even sure where I had come from... And my legs were shaking so much that I wasn't sure I could actually move them...

"I guess it's time to do some Rat extermination!!!"

"Kyah!"

The flowers on my left bent away, and from behind them, I could see a huge laser beam coming on my direction, I jumped away from it, and used Wind Magic to throw me further away, the laser grazed my arm and I felt a huge amount of pain, if it wasn't for the magical enchantments on it, I might have lost this arm... Dangerous, what is this thing?

I turned on its direction, and saw... A woman, green haired, with a red outfit and holding an umbrella... She didn't look too much far from the ordinary, but there was a feeling coming out from her, a feeling that screamed danger to all fibers of my being, my whole body was shaking uncontrollably just from looking at her.

"Oh, the rat is still alive? How curious... I guess we must fix that, shouldn't we?"

"No! Please don't! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude! Please forgive me!!!"

"Huuummmm... No!"

Thorny vines came out of the ground and coiled around my legs, locking me in place, the smile on her face was such a wicked and terrifying thing, how could one smile like that at the thought of killing someone!?

She pointed her umbrella towards me, and I felt death looming closer... I will really die like this... I can't... I need to go back to Mama... Onee-chan... Shadow... No! I can't die here!

I stopped her time to try and move away, that however, led me to a huge Mana consumption that I never before... Why? Is she actually resisting the time magic?

I didn't really have time to think about that, I tried to use Chaos Magic to corrupt the Vines around my legs, but that was no good, I couldn't do it, I tried burning them down, but they were just too tough, my Mana was draining at a crazy rate, and I couldn't even get out of this!

In a desperate last struggle, I pointed my wand towards the ground right below me and shouted:

"Love Sign: Master Spark!"

As the Master Spark shot out, the vines were finally destroyed and I ended up receiving a huge impulse upwards, leading me away from the woman, as that pretty much consumed all Mana I had left, the time stop instantly lifted, however, she didn't actually shot another laser towards me, instead, she just looked up and looked at me with a really annoyed face...

"Huh? I thought ya were just a rat, but turns out you're actually an old hag as well? Ya know... I really hate... Old hag."

"Eh? I'm not that old... What are you talking about? Please just let me go! I'm sorry for-"

She didn't really let me finish it, she flew towards my direction, which I promptly tried to flee, but... While I was looking down at her and trying to flee, I could see... The sunflowers... They were... Looking at me... All of them, on this gigantic flower field that stretched as far as I could see, they were... I had a really bad feeling about this.

It didn't take long for my feeling to take form into real and tangible fear, the sunflowers started to shoot pellets at me, they seemed to be covered into pure magical power as well... Those things would hurt, I started trying to dodge with pretty much all I could, but this obviously allowed the woman to get close to me, I could barely dodge those, what would I do if...

She pointed her umbrella at me again, at this range I wouldn't be able to dodge, so I did the only thing that I could, I pointed my wand at her, and converted almost all of my Chaos Energy into Mana.

"Love Sign: Master Spark!"
"Die."

We both shot our spells towards one another, hers was...

"Why!? Why can you also shoot a Master Spark?"

"The rat is asking why the cheese wheel has cheese crumbs in it? Of course the it will have crumbs in it, just because you stole one of them, this won't simply eradicate the whole wheel!"

I felt more and more pain, as each of the sunflower pellets kept on hitting me, however, I couldn't really dodge them as I was too busy keeping the Master Spark going... And the weird thing was... It seemed ours resonated somehow, it really seemed like they were the same spell, only... Hers was bigger, stronger and... More... Complete? Stable maybe? However...

"No! Marisa-sama would never steal a spell! She wouldn't..."

"Oh, so ya really are a rat after all! And just like the big rat, now the small rat comes to steal as well!"

"What!? No! I don't want to... To..."

The pain got too big, my Mana was at its limits... Was I really going to... I started to feel my consciousness fading, and started to fall, I could see her own laser passing above me... This was bad... I don't want to die...

"Bye!"

She aimed her umbrella at me again, and shot another laser... It kept on looming closer and closer... It hit my pendant and... it resisted for a brief moment before... Breaking... It broke... My... Pendant... From Shadow...

The laser hit me, but I couldn't even fill pain from it, rather... The only thing on my head was... An uncontrollable and unbelievably big anger took over me, I didn't care about anything anymore, I just had to get rid of that damned bitch in front of me.

I put my Chaos Energy on her laser and started corrupting it, the process went by in an instant, and suddenly I absorbed the whole thing as I made it my own, I stopped my falling and looked at her, she seemed to be looking with a dumbstruck smiling face, damn you, I'll take that smug grin out of you!

I flew towards her and aimed my wand while shooting as many spells as I could think of, fire, ice, thunder, as many things as I could towards that annoyance that I wished to kill more than anything else... That she kept on dodging.

"Die already you bitch! How dare you fucking break it! It was my pendant! My only one! The gift from Shadow... I'll definitely kill you!!!"

"Ahaahahahaha, that's more like it! Come on! Try harder! Give me some playtime!!"

"Fuck you!! Master Spark!!!"

"I can do that too~~"

The sparks clashed again, this time I put Chaos Energy within mine, and used it to corrupt hers at once, I absorbed her own into mine and saw as both sparks merged together hit her all at once.

"Disappear from this universe you scum!!"

I kept on putting more and more energy unto it, I'm sure she must be dead already, but I didn't care, I wanted to erase all traces of her existence... Why is everything... Getting... Black?

"Hey, hey, don't go ruining all the fun like that! Are ya stupid or something? On danmaku matches, ya need to actually dodge the bullets, otherwise ya'll just end up dead."

"What...?"

"Ya're not even hearing me are you? Let me heal ya already..."

I felt some light enveloping me, suddenly I felt awake again and looked a bit around, the sunflowers had stopped shooting, the woman was right above me and... Holding my hand? Screw you! I slapped her hand and shouted.

"Get away from me Bastard, I'll definitely kill you this-"

"Wow wow, chill there girl, ya already lost this one, do ya really think ya're in any condition to keep on fighting? Take a look at yerself will ya?"

At myself, what is this wretch... Huh? How did this...

"Oh, did ya finally notice?"

Well... I was a wreck, my clothes were all ragged, there were bloodmarks all over, except... On my right arm? There was no more clothing there, but it seemed to be the one part that was completely clean.

"Why is my arm..."

"Eh? Ya seriously hadn't noticed it up till now? Well... Take a look then."

Suddenly a huge vine raised to the ground, a vine that was holding something... It was completely covered by blood and full of holes... It was... An arm? Wait... Is it...

"Yep, it's yours, it fell while ya were attacking me a while ago, I thought you had actually noticed ya know? You're quite a crazy girl aren't ya?"

"How did this..." *sobs* "Why... Why did all this happen... Why did I have to lose... Waaa-"

I felt something hitting my head, it hurts...

"Shut up! In the first place, it was yer fault for entering mah flower field, I usually just exterminate those rats that dare to go through mah barrier to come in here, so be glad I found ya interesting enough to keep you alive won't ya?"

"Eh? Barrier?"

"Yeah, barrier! Or else, how do ya think I'd keep all the pests away from mah field, how did ya come in without even noticing it!?"

"I just... Followed the weird Mana flow that resonated with my Master Spark..."

"You... No wonder I didn't feel any damage on the barrier, you simply slipped through it! Just like that damned old hag!"

"Who is this old hag you're talking about?"

"Who else? The one that smells just like ya! Ya used her power a while back didn't ya?"

"Eh? Smell? What? And... I don't think I used the power of anybody else... Unless you're talking about Chaos, but..."

"Huh? You don't even know it!? Tsc, what is that old hag thinking... Oh well, if ya don't know it then ya don't, well, come on in, I'll give ya a change of clothes or something."

"Uhh... I..."

"Hurry up!"

I started to fly after her, I didn't really understand what was happening, but I didn't know how to go out anyway... And I wanted to know more about who was this person anyway..."

"Seems ya finally calmed down, did ya really need to get that worked up over a pendant?"

"That was... The first present... My husband gave me... I had even had it enchanted and refined to make sure it didn't break..." *sobs* "Damn it..."

"Gah, don't go crying again! I don't want to deal with that! So, ya lost that pendant? What about it!? Isn't this husband of yers still alive? Just ask him to buy ya another won't ya? Don't go crying over something as worthless as that!"

"It... It was not worthless! It was important to me!"

"Yeah yeah, important, sure, as far as I know, having that thing break was what made ya survive wasn't it? So shouldn't ya just be glad it was useful for something?"

"I... I guess... I don't know..."

"Just get over it already, if ya don't, then I'll simply kick ya out all raggedy like that, got it?"

"Ah-ah yes!"

Wait... Why did I just accept it like this? I could've just told her I wanted to go out... I could just go back home and get a change of clothes anyway...

I think I'm letting my curiosity get the better of me... But... I really want to know more about this person... About why she could use the same spell as Marisa-sama...

"Yuuka."

"Eh?"

"Mah name, it's Kazami Yuuka, ya need to call me something don't ya?"

"Ah, right! I'm Hikari, Hikari Shiki."

"Got it, Hikari... Shiki... Light's death is it? Talk about a funny name."

"Eh? No! It's about the seasons! The seasons!"

"Gahahaha, got it, light's death then!"

"Muu... Stop that..."

"Make me!"

"Don't go regretting it later then!"

We fought with... What did she call it? Danmaku again, this time she only shot pellets through her umbrella instead of using all those sunflowers, it was tiring, and I was completely defeated, but... Surprisingly fun, I wonder if she does this kind of play all the time.

After flying for a while, we reached a house in the middle of the field, it was quite big, though smaller than the temple, it seemed simple and... Extremely fitting to the scenery, I assume it's hers.

"Alright, come on in."

"Sorry for intruding..."

As soon as we entered, she led me straight upstairs and into a room, then she pulled some clothes and threw them at me. It was a white dress with various flowers embroidered in it, as well as a pair of white sandals with a few flowers on them as well, they were pretty cute.

"Change, we'll talk afterwards."

"Ah! Got it... Uh... Thank you..."

"Heh."

She left the room and closed the door to give me some privacy... Yuuka-san is surprisingly a nice person, isn't she? I didn't really expect that after meeting like that.

After changing, I got out and found her sitting in front of a a table with some tea and cookies in it.

"Take a seat."

"Umn."

I sat in front of her and she served some tea to me before she started the conversation.

"Well, ya must've some things you want to ask, don't ya? Ask away."

"Then... Why did you bring me here?"

"What? Are ya stupid or something? I played danmaku with ya, I had fun with it, and yer clothes were ragged, so I gave ya some new ones, what else would be there?"

"Just that? Nothing else?"

"Of course dumbass, do ya really think I'd need to bring ya here if I had anything I wanted out of ya? I could just force mah way through. It's simply better to talk over a table with some food then it is to talk out in the open while flying."

"I... I see... I guess I thought too much on it... My apologies."

"Why the crap are ya talking like that? Weren't ya swearing and shouting that you were going to kill me a while back? And now ya're all being formal and stuff!? The heck is wrong with ya? Just talk normally already!"

Somehow, it felt like she was just trying to make me feel more at ease by talking like this... Teehee, she seems to be a bit tsun, so cute!

Although I feel she has been swearing more and more towards me lately... That's not really nice... Oh well, I guess I should just ask what's been on my mind already.

"Then... What was your relationship with Marisa-sama? Did she really steal your spell? I just... Can't believe she'd do something like this... She wouldn't..."

"Aye aye, the thieving rat huh? She did steal mah spell, but not in the way ya're thinking, the girl was just a genius, never saw a human like that, was able to copy a spell just by looking at it a few times, granted, it wasn't perfect, but it got the job done.

As for mah relationship with her? Nothing much, just someone I played around from time to time, she stole a few of mah old books though, so I made sure to always greet her with a danmaku as big as possible."

"Eh? She stole them? But..."

"Yep, she did, twisted sense of moral I tell ya, saying something like 'old books lying in the shelves are just useless! If ya're not using them, I'll take them for mahself!" She never kept them for long though, the one time I went to her house to get them back, she had already donated them to some library to make them 'available to as many people or something', damned rat, never got mah books back."

"I see... So did it like that... Pfft, it's just like her indeed, was never one to store things... She was... Really..." *sobs*

"Was huh? Guess she isn't here anymore then, welp, can't do anything about it girl, cheer up and move on, won't help ya one bit to keep sorrowing over that."

"You're right..." *wipes tear* "Then... Who is this old hag you were talking about?"

"She? She is someone very similar to me, just way more annoying, an incredibly bored person, pretty much anything she does is to cure her boredom."

...

"Can't you... Tell me more about it?"

"Don't wanna."

"Eh?"

"Look, this old hag is annoying, a pain to deal with, and she has something on ya, don't know what, and I don't care what, but she is a pain in the ass, whatever she did to ya, is just another thing to relieve her boredom, and getting in the way of that would just end up annoying me, so no. I won't tell ya anything else, if she wants ya to know something, then she might as well ya herself!"

That's... Definitely not what I expected... Haa... I suppose it can't really be helped, let's move on.

"Then... I have a request."

"What is it?"

"I want you to teach me how to make a proper Master Spark! Please!" *bows head*

"...Eh?"

"You said it yourself, didn't you Yuuka-san? The spell isn't perfect, I can feel it myself when I use it, I want to become stronger, stronger and stronger, so that I won't worry Mama whenever I'm going out to fight, and for that, I can't use an incomplete spell like this, I need to make sure to perfect it! So please Yuuka-san! Teach me how to use it!"

*sigh* "First of all, raise that goddamned head of yers" *raises head and fixes posture* "Now listen, didn't I just say that I wanted to avoid annoyances? In that case, why the hell would I accept a pupil!?

"Please! I really need it! Just one day! It's all I ask!"

"One day... Ya're telling me ya'll be able to master this spell in one fucking day!?"

"If I can't do it, I'll just have to find a way to do it, I need to get stronger, and I don't have the time to train for too long either, so I just have to do it somehow! I'll definitely do it! I need to, so I will!"

"... Gahahahahahahah!!! Alright, ya took mah interest girl! No, rather, ya said it was Hikari right? Alright, I won't give you one, but actually 3 days! I'll drill the knowledge to yer head, and ya'd better make sure ya learn it, because otherwise... Ya're not leaving this flower field alive!! So, what say ya? Hi-ka-ri?" *grins*

"Alright, 3 days then, I'll do it, I definitely will."

... Mama is so going to kill me when she hears of this... I'll come back though, I'm sure of it.

"Then... Go rest!"

"Eh? Won't we start it now?"

"Baka! Ya just got yer ass kicked by me, not once, but twice! Do ya really think ya're in any condition to train properly right now!? Ya'll fall on yer knees after just an hour or so like this, so take the rest of this day to recover, we'll start tomorrow, yer room will be that one I got ya those clothes, feel free to get any other clothes from there."

After she said that, she just turned around and left... Eh? What am I supposed to do now? It's still 5pm!

With nothing else to do, I went back to that room and decided to take a bath, once I got in, I felt a huge wave of tiredness washing all over me... Huh? Was I really that bad? I... Hadn't noticed at all...

It ended up taking quite a lot of effort for me to go out of the bath, after I left it, I dried my whole body by using Water Magic, and just made sure to use "Drier" to dry my hair, as I wanted to make sure I didn't remove too much water from it... I almost slept in the process, but once I finished, I wobbled towards the bedroom, took a simple white nightgown from the wardrobe and threw myself on the bed, falling asleep instantly.

"Wake up ya dammed sleepyhead!"

I felt a kick to my side, instantly throwing me out of the bed.

"Eh!? What!?"

"The sun already rose, and ya're still in bed! For how long will ya sleep you lazyass!"

"Uhn, what, I don't... Ah! Yuuka-san! The training!"

"Finally, took yer time to remember, get dressed and come out, as soon as we finish breakfast, we're starting, so hurry up!"

"Okay! I'll be going as quickly as I can!"

I chose a red one piece dress this time, once again it was flowery, but as those are pretty cute, I don't really mind... Red is not my favorite color though, but it couldn't be helped since I couldn't find any other one that matched the sandals. After braiding my hair I went to have breakfast with Yuuka-san.

"Took ya long enough!"

"Couldn't be helped! I can't choose quickly if I don't which clothes are available! I can't just choose anything!"

"Tsc, whatever, just eat up already."

I started to eat without really worrying about the time, breakfast was quite simple, but pretty yummy! Not as good as Eun-chan's of course, but that can't be helped.

As soon as we finished eating, Yuuka-san took me outside so that we could start.

"Alright, before anything else, show me your Master Spark again, aim it at the sky or something, I just need to see what you're doing."

"Alright, then... Love Sign: Master Spark!"

I used about 1/2 of my Mana and 15% of my Chaos Energy this time... This doesn't seem to be progressing very well, but it's something I guess.

"What did ya just do to stop the Mana flow? That was weird as fuck!"

"Well... I used Chaos Energy to change my own flux of Mana to forcefully stop it, like this I can stop the Master Spark from draining the whole of it."

"The whole? Are ya actually saying that ya don't know how to stop the flow of Mana of this once it starts!? The heck! Yours is wrong at the very basis! You aren't supposed to keep draining your Mana with it, but to set a specific amount of it beforehand!"

"Eh? Seriously?"

"Of course dumbass! Who would be the idiot that would come up with a spell that simply drains the whole of your Mana!? It would make ya completely hopeless afterwards! Try again by setting up a compartment of your Mana only to it!"

"A... Compartment? Uh... How do I do that?"

"Wait a bit... Ya're telling me that ya don't even know how to split yer Mana in parts? What kind of crappy mage are ya!? How do ya even make multiple spells at the same time!?"

"Well, I just... Take it out of the main flow?"

"Goddamnit, talk about inefficiency... Look, that's how ya should do it, try feeling yer Mana flow, ya'll notice it is a pretty continuous thing yeah? Well, try to not make it so continuous, make new paths for yer Mana to flow, so that ya have lots of connections on yer whole flow that ya can easily open and close at will without stopping the actual flow.

This would usually be a process that takes more than just a few hours though, I don't think ya have that much time on ya."

"Uhn... To make new connections to the flow... I think I can do that... Let me focus for a bit."

I closed my eyes and started to feel my energy flows again, I could sense it, a calm and a violent river, just like before... I tried making the calm one, that is for the Mana, to expand in another direction, but... It didn't really want to bulge, I guess it wants to keep following the normal flow... Well, time to cheat then.

I started to focus on the violent river, the Chaos Energy one, since it's one that it's adept to mutating things, it's a lot easier to do it with this one, I made it make various branching paths on its own flow in no time, and after that, I had the Chaos Energy infiltrate the flow of Mana to actually force the Mana to go on the path I wanted to, it still took a bit of effort to make the Mana to keep on flowing through the other paths I had made, but after keeping it up for a while, it worked. With the new paths made, I separated the 2 energies again into their own flows and closed the connection... It's funny how the calmer and easier to control flow was the one that gave me the toughest time this once... It's because of the difference in their base function though.

"Alright, I'm done."

"Already!? It's barely been some 10 minutes! Did ya just make a single branch or something? Nah, even if ya did, it should still have taken longer."

"I actually made a few dozen of them..."

"How the..."

"I just used Chaos Energy to make the flow follow through the path I wanted, wasn't particularly hard..."

"Oh yeah, Ya did say you had this kind of thing... It's quite unusual to see somebody with 2 energy sources at once ya know? It's quite a cheat ya have there."

"Teehee, thank you! I got it from Mama!

... Though I almost died on the process..."

"Huh? If ya took it from yer mother, shouldn't ya have been born with it or something?"

"Oh, not my blood related mother... Okaa-san isn't here anymore... Mama adopted me some time ago."

"Is that so? Well, no matter, dwelling on the past will lead ya nowhere, ya should be moving forward, so go ahead and shoot that Master Spark again, will ya.

"Alright, Love Sign: Master Spark!"

This time before shooting, I separated the flow of my Mana in 2, one of them was the main one that circulated my whole body, while the second one was a secondary one that I isolated from the first, I put it on the region around my left hand which was holding my wand. It had about 5% of my Total Mana on this secondary flux.

After shooting it, I could finally understand the importance of separating the 2 flows, the Master Spark was still pretty big and destructive like this, but now, it only lasted for a few seconds, making it not only a lot easier to control, but also costing way less Mana... This was really nice.

"Such a big change while doing so little... Incredible..."

"Yeah, it's a start, now we need to fix the rest of yer spell"

"Eh? There's more!?"

"Of course there is idiot!" She hit my head with her umbrella... It hurts... "Didn't ya notice I wasn't actually expecting ya not to know how to compartment yer Mana"? This was just the prologue, the real thing comes now.

"Got it! I'll do my best!"

"Alright then, do ya know anything about Nature Magic?"

"Nature Magic... I do know someone that does, but... I don't, why? Does it have any connection with it?"

"They are completely connected actually. From what ya've seen, ya can already notice that mah specialty is Nature Magic, don't ya? In that case, it's pretty obvious that mah spells will definitely be related to it. The Master Spark is no exception, when I cast it, it uses mainly Nature Magic.

In other words, ya're not casting even half of what this spell is supposed to be, because ya don't use the other main element of it, got it?"

"Then... This much firepower is... Only a small part of it?"

"Half right, ya can increase your firepower by using Nature Magic on it, but that's not what the main point of it, the main point is in Mana consumption, right now, ya're compensating for the lack of it with raw excess Mana, ending up in a wasting a lot of it.

Firepower is limited not only to yer total Mana, but also by how big is yer maximum output for it, so even if ya do learn how to cast this thing properly, if ya don't increase yer maximum output, yer firepower will remain the same, ya'll just do it by using way less Mana."

"I see... So... I need to learn Nature Magic now, right? Will you teach me?"

"I did say I'd teach ya for these 3 days, didn't I, get ready to get yer ass whooped!"

"I'll make sure to learn it properly Yuuka-san! Please take care of me!"

"Tsc, putting yer life on the line and acting all cheerful like that, are ya suicidal or something?"

"No, I just have plenty of faith on you Yuuka-san! I'm sure you will teach me to the best of your capabilities!"

"Gah, whatever, let's just get on with it, ya damned girl.

Nature Magic is something that deals mainly with life ya know? It's similar to what ya can get from Earth Magic, but instead of dealing with the dead things on the ground, it deals with the living ones, it's very closely related to Life Magic, you can even increase the natural regeneration of other people with it, which was what I did to heal ya on yer half dead state by the way."

"Eh? Really? I thought it was just controlling plants...

But a body shouldn't actually heal like that, should it? Regrowing an arm naturally should be impossible..."

"That's where more advanced uses come in hand, as long as ya understand the structure of an organic body, ya can reconstruct it with Nature Magic, no matter how beaten up it is.

Granted, ya can't force somebody back to life with it, that's already on the realm of Life Magic, but restoring a few lost limbs should be no problem."

"I see... Then... How should I do it?"

"Try feeling the Mana of the life around ya, connect with it, and try to make it work the way ya want. That's the gist of it, the rest comes with training."

"Eh? What!? What kind of lazy half baked explanation is that!?"

"That's the best I can give ya, I've been doing this kind of thing since the day I was born, it's as natural to me as breathing, do ya really think I can teach somebody how to do that? Was already tough enough thinking of what I just told ya."

"But didn't you say you were going to get my ass whooped or something!? What kind of ass whooping is that!? I can't get any feeling of harsh training from that!"

"The train is so harsh that you have to do the whole job yerself! Otherwise yer life will be the forfeited one! So hurry up and get on with it!"

"Fiiiiiiiiiine, geez, you're quite a handful aren't you..." *deep breath* "Alright, let me try it then..."

I closed my eyes again and this time started to try and feel the Life around me. The first thing I felt was the Mana on everything around... Lately this became easier and easier for me to do, specially because of the Elves Ring I'm using, before long I could already identify the Mana of the sunflowers and the grass and separate it easily from the soil itself... Well, since I already knew how to use Earth Magic that manipulated the soil, it wasn't that hard to separate them both, even if they are linked so directly.

After that, I opened my eyes and walked towards on of the sunflowers near me, I could see the Mana flow of it, the intricate details of it, I made a small connection with my own Mana to it and tried to make it move, however, the flower's natural Mana was stopping mine, I could force my way through, but... That wasn't really how I think it should work though... I think I need to try and make it accept my Mana as its own, or at least as something non harmful... Like what I usually did with Chaos Magic.

But... How would I do that? I... Honestly had no idea... In this case I guess... I'll just keep trying! It will surely work if I do!

"Huummm, not like this... Maybe with a bit more Mana... Maybe a bit less... Trying through this other part... Maybe like this..."

[about 5 minutes later]

"Oh, I got a reaction! Then maybe this... And... Yay! I did it!"

"Old hag..."

"Eh? Did you say something Yuuka-san?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, I just figured what is it in ya that resembles that old hag so much."

"Is that so..."

"More importantly, ya did it, ya could establish a connection, that is the first step, from this ya need to move on to do something with it, why don't ya try making it move for once?"

"Oh, okay."

Through the connection I had just established, I tried making the flower move a bit... Oh, it is answering, then maybe like this... Oh, this is fun!

"If ya're done playing, we can go to the next part."

"Oh! Right, sorry, so, what next?"

"... Ya're really hopeless ya know that? No, nevermind, try connecting to the other ones, without touching this time."

"Alright!"

I channeled my Mana through the air and tried to connect to the others... Only to receive an umbrella on my head again... It hurts...

"Baka! Do ya really think you can simply go and spread yer Mana through the air in raw form like that!? How much concentration will that take? And how much Mana will dissipate in the process? There is no way to do Magic like that!"

"Then... How do I do it?"

"You felt how the Mana of the sunflower work don't ya? Ya also had to change yer Mana somehow to make it be accepted by the flower, right? That's the same, make yer Mana something that can be accepted and carried by the wind, like this ya can let it go easily with no worries about excess concentration needed, nor about the Mana dissipation."

"Umu... I'll try!"

I tried spreading my Mana with more care this time, trying to feel how it worked with the Wind and to be spread with it... I already had a good knowledge of the Wind since I constantly used Wind Magic, but... This still seemed somewhat different... Closer to how it worked with the sunflower... I think I can do it... Just... Oh, hey, nice! It worked, it's flowing with a lot more ease now. Didn't really know this kind of thing was possible... Nature magic surely is useful!

I spread my Mana through the air again, since I didn't receive an umbrella on my head again, I guess I did it correctly, as the Mana got closer to the sunflowers, I made them accept the connection as well, and started making them move, there were about 30 sunflowers moving according to my will now.

"Ya're getting this pretty fast, aren't ya? That's good, now try..."

We kept on it for the whole day, with a break for lunch, and stopping at dinner time, she was teaching me some basic uses of it, but most of them followed the same principle, make the Mana flow out, connect with the target, make it do your bidding... Surprisingly her first advice on how to make Nature Magic work was the one thing that I kept on doing the whole time... After that we proceeded to a few more complicated ones, study of flowers basic anatomy, a few parts of a human body, and some other theoretical things about plants as well, when I asked her what that had to do with learning Nature Magic, she chopped my my arm off and forced me to regrow it only with Nature Spells... That was terrible... But I suppose it did serve it's purpose... Never again I'll tell someone their training isn't ass whooping after just the first few minutes...

"Alright, ya've definitely gone way beyond what I expected, I wasn't planning to teach ya even half of what I did today actually."

"Eh!? What!? Then why did you go this far!?"

"Because I could. We'll use the next 2 days to focus on the Master Spark, and with the pace ya're learning, ya'll probably learn it with ease as well, so might as well drill as many things as I can on yer head.

"It... It was for my sake then...?"

"Duh, of course it was, did ya even stop to think that I'm not gaining anything from this whole thing? Ya picked my interest, so I thought it would be interesting to teach ya, and ya haven't disappointed, so of course I'll do mah best to teach ya."

"I see... Thank you Yuuka-san... I appreciate it."

"Aye aye, if you finished eating already, go wash the clothes you used yesterday will ya."

"Eh?"

"Ya didn't really expect me to clean the clothes ya used, did ya? Go work already! The longer ya take to do it, the less sleep time ya'll have!"

"Ri-right away!"

She pointed me where I could wash it, and I did it without many issues... When I came back to the dinning room, I noticed all the dishes had been cleaned already... I guess she really is a kind person.

After taking a bath, I took another simple nightgown from the wardrobe and fell on the bed dead tired...

"For how long will ya sleep!?!?"

Why does it have to be by kicking... And with enough to make me fall from the bed at that...

"Morning Yuuka-san..."

"Hurry up!"

She left once again to let me change... When I went to change, I noticed the dress she gave me back when I arrived here was back in the bedroom... I had left it drying yesterday though... Well, I guess I know which one I'll use then.

After eating, we went out again, this time to finally start properly improving the Master Spark.

"Well, ya already learned how to use Nature Magic, now to implement it on the Master Spark.

Ya know the basics of the spell, it's a way to convert raw Mana into pure destructive power, it's a wonderful way to bombard yer enemies with a deadly force and kill them with ease, and the nice thing of it, is that it isn't particularly aligned to anything, so it works on pretty much anything ya want to shoot.

As for the connection it has to Nature Magic... That is, it is actually something that gets power from everything on its surroundings."

"It gets?"

"Yep, it does, ya remember how the Nature Magic idea is to make the energy of other living beings accept yers right? The Master Spark goes a step beyond in that, it actually gets the energy of the other beings and pulls it to itself, so that it can be shot with full power and minimal Mana cost. And since the Mana it gets comes from far too many different things, it ends up aligning itself to none of them"

"Wait... So you actually drain the Mana of all your surroundings whenever you cast it? Isn't that... Way more trouble than it's worth?"

"Not quite, ya're using Nature Magic remember? The whole point of it, is making other living beings do yer bidding willingly, if everything around ya is helping, it suddenly becomes quite an easy thing to do, don't ya think?"

"That is... It seems... Possible."

"Yeah, not only possible, but what ya need to do if you wish to make this spell work properly... Now, what are ya waiting for, get yer ass moving and start practicing!"

"Y-Yes! I'll do my best!"

I started spreading my Mana around via Nature Magic, and then gathering the Mana of every living thing on my surroundings back to me, focusing all on my wand... After a good amount had been gathered, I connected it with a small segment of my Mana flow and shouted.

"Love Sign: Master Spark!"

The spell was shot and I was... Incredibly surprised, the ratio in which my Mana was drained was just way too low, by using the Mana of other things it became just way too easy to maintain it... It's incredible...

"Good, now try stopping it without using yer Chaos thing, make it stop naturally, ya don't need to use the whole Mana that was on that segment, do ya?"

"Uhn, right!"

To stop the spell... But I've never been able to! I tried closing the flow of my Mana, but... It just has too much of a strong pull... I can't really stop it... How do I do it then!?

"Yuuka-san, I can't do it!"

"Ya have a head don't ya? Then try using it for thinking! What should ya do to make the flow of magic stop? Are ya sure ya're using the right method for that!?"

The right... Method? What else would be there to it? I need to stop the flow of Mana to... The Nature Magic!

I stopped using Nature Magic to bring the Mana of the surroundings towards my wand to cast the Master Spark, this greatly reduced the output of Mana and the suction power of it, before it could pick up again by using solely my Mana, I tried to forcefully stop it again, this time it worked, and the spell stopped...

"I did it! I did it Yuuka-san! I really did stop it!!!"

"Yeah, but in a real battle ya can't really take 5 minutes to prepare it, and another 30s to stop the flow, can ya?"

"Right... I really can't..."

"Do it again, now try to make the whole process quicker, quicker and quicker, until it becomes usable in a battle situation, ya need to activate it as quickly as ya do with yer full Mana powered one."

"Alright! I'll do my best!"

After that I kept on trying, the time to close it became only an instant after the first 5 tries, but the time to gather the initial energy... Just wasn't as quick, I was surely getting a considerable progress, in 2 hours I went from 5 minutes to 10s in gathering it... However, 10s is still too much, Yuuka-san said she wouldn't approve it if it was anything bigger than 1 and a half second actually...

On the next hour, the progress was a lot slower, I was only able to get it to 8s... I tried to reduce a little the amount of Mana gathered by Nature Magic, but that just made me receive an umbrella on the head, I needed to do it while gathering the appropriate Mana after all...

I wonder if there was any way that was more efficient to gather the surrounding Mana... I suppose it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?

"Yuuka-san... Am I doing this right? Like... Is there any better way to get the Mana with Nature Magic than what I'm doing?"

"Nope!"

"I see... I suppose I need to keep trying then..."

"Ya're not doing it right! There is a better way indeed!"

"What!? But you just... You tricked me!!!"

*shrugs* "I wanted to see yer reaction, besides, it was yer own fault to take this long to ask."

"I see... Then what is it?"

"Ground."

"What?"

"The ground! Ya're taking the Mana from the wrong living beings! Why are ya trying to get them from the sunflowers when there is so much life on the ground!?"

"That is... But what if I'm flying? Then I won't be able to get it this easily, it will be too far from me!"

"Then take it from the things near you! There is plenty of Mana in the air, isn't there?"

"But... The air isn't really living, is it?"

"Partially true, the air by itself has no life, but there are things that live and are constantly flying in the air, too small for normal people to see, ya can take yer Mana from them."

"Eh? There are!?"

"What!? Ya're not believing me!? Why did ya ask for mah help in the first place if ya didn't trust me?"

"No... Sorry, I do, it was just... Surprising, I never thought this kind of thing could exist..."

"There are far too many things out there for ya to simply believe in what yer eyes can see Hikari, take this as a lesson."

"Got it... Then... I'll try."

I closed my eyes, and ignored all of my senses, the only thing I was focusing on was the Mana flow, I wanted to feel it, the Mana of those things I can't see...

I kept on sensing air... Air and more air... I really don't think... There is anything there... But... I want to believe her, there should be no reason for Yuuka-san to lie to me... I will keep on trying and will definitely...

"Oh! I... It's there! I can... I can feel it! But... It's so small... Can I really gather Mana from those things?"

"Did ya pay any attention to their number?"

"Their number... Ah! There are... Many... Just way too many... They're just everywhere!"

"Yeah, tons of them, this should be enough don't ya think?"

"But... If I'm supposed to get the Mana from them... Why did you mention the ground?"

"To make ya think, and try to search for other possibilities."

"Oh... I see... Then, I'll try it again."

"Old hag's power is surely helpful huh?"

"Yuuka-san? Did you say something?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, focus on getting this right."

"Okay!"

I focused on the Mana of the all those small things around me, it was hard to grasp it, because they were too many... It took over a minute to gather the same amount I was gathering in 8 seconds...

"Yuuka-san... It did work, but... Isn't it a lot slower than before?"

"Baka! How many times did ya practice getting Mana from this many living beings! Keep practicing! Ya can't expect it to work on the first try!"

"Ah! Right! I'll keep at it!"

I kept on practicing it, gathering Mana with Nature Magic, and shooting Master Sparks, and ending with it by closing the flow of Nature Magic...

By lunch time I was able to reach a 2s time to gather the Mana... But I was dead tired...

"Come, let's stop a bit to eat, ya can do it at a slower pace for the rest of the day, tomorrow we'll focus on the last thing ya need to fix of it."

"Eh? There is more!?"

"Yes, but let's focus on what's in front of us, shall we?"

"Okay!"

We ate and talked on a really lighthearted way, about things like the sunflowers, the weather and others similar to it.

After that, I went back to practicing making the Master Spark with Nature Magic, it was quite slow to make progress from the point I was, but Yuuka-san insisted for me to take plenty of breaks in between, even if I could keep on going... When there was about 2 hours left until dinner time, I was able to reliably make it on less than 1.5s, so Yuuka-san decided that I should stop... I could still go on though... I might be able to get a bit better...

"Baka! What will ya gain from even more training!? 0.1s less to cast? Why the crap would ya need that!? Go rest already, or ya won't be able to endure tomorrows training!"

"I... Alright... Then what do we do until dinner?"

"No plans."

"Eh?!"

"Ya heard me, I have no plans for that, ya're supposed to rest through this anyway, so it doesn't really matter."

"But spending time doing nothing is just too boring..."

"Whatever, ya can do whatever ya wants, as long as ya don't force yerself!"

In the end I ended up just tagging along with Yuuka-san, she went around the sunflower field taking care of some plants here and there, we didn't talk at all, but by seeing that, I could see how much she cares about this place... No wonder she acts like that when someone intrudes on it.

After dinner I once again washed over my last day clothes, took a bath and went to sleep in a dead tired state... To think that I'd be this tired even with the big amount of rests I had is... Unexpected, but I at least accepted it as a reward for training hard...

"WAKE UP!"

Another kick... It still hurts...

"Breakfast, hurry up!"

She left without waiting for my reply this time... Once again, the clothes I had washed yesterday were available for me to use right now, so I picked the red dress and went to have breakfast.

After eating we went outside again, I wonder what else is needing fix on my Master Spark...

"Alright, ya've already done the fixing for yer spell actually, what's left is to actually improve it."

"Improve? How though? Didn't we just spend the whole of yesterday doing that?"

"Nah, that was making the spell usable after fixing, to improve is to do this!"

As soon as she said that, she snatched my wand from me.

"Ah! Yuuka-san!!"

"Here ya go, now try to use it again, ya need to become less dependent of this catalyst of yers, what if someone broke it, or it was stolen on yer sleep? Would ya just become defenseless then? Now hurry up and start!"

"I... Got it, I'll try my best."

After that, I tried to cast it, but... Things didn't go so well, without a proper place to focus all of it, I couldn't gather the Mana properly, it kept on spilling, and I couldn't aim the spell where I wanted as well... More than once it got close to exploding right in front of me, which made Yuuka-san need to save me from killing myself.

As I reached the 30th attempt, Yuuka-san finally snapped.

"Hey... What the crap are ya doing!?"

Once again I felt the umbrella hit my head... I think she put more strength than usual this time...

"Trying to... Cast without a catalyst?"

"And is it working?"

"No..."

"Then why are ya even trying!?"

"Eh? Weren't you the one that told me that I couldn't depend on a catalyst!?"

"I told ya that ya couldn't depend on YER catalyst!! Not that ya should try to make a spell without trying to focus yer Mana on anything! That's just stupid! Ya need a focal point to gather the Mana to make pretty much any spell! Even a wide area one would have a focus on its center to spread around later!"

"Then... What I should do is to... Focus less on my wand, but being able to focus on other things?"

"Correct."

"But... There aren't that many things that can endure a heavy concentration of Mana like what is used on the Master Spark, are there?"

"Baka! What were ya thinking of? A stick!? Be more practical, something that can endure any concentration of Mana ya can shoot, and that will always be with ya! What is this thing?"

"Does... Something like this even exists?"

"Of course there is! just try and use yer head a bit!"

"Something this practical... Huumm... That is... I... My...

Oh! My hands! Of course! I can just focus the magic on a specific point of myself!"

"There, ya certainly took yer time didn't ya? Well, get on to it! There are more things after this, so hurry up on it!"

"Eh? Even more!?"

"Yeah, so start casting it from yer hand already so we can move forward!"

"Go-got it!"

I started to try and focus the Mana on my hand now... It failed a few times, but honestly? I discovered that it isn't that hard to make spells without the wand, the wands certainly makes it easier, but it can be done with the hands if you try. I had made an ice spear before, but I hadn't really expected I could do it with a more complex spell like the Master Spark. Turns out I started to get it right after the 5th try, once I had made it properly 10 times in a row, Yuuka-san was satisfied and proceeded to the next step.

"Good! Ya grasped it quickly! Now... Do ya know how to make a Magic Circle?"

"A Magic Circle?" *tilts head*

*sigh* "I expected this much... Like this."

She flicked her hand and a semi-transparent black circle appeared mid-air, on the middle of it were 2 triangles in mixed colors of green and yellow were overlapping one another.

"Oh! There was something similar on Marisa-sama's hakkero!"

"Right, when ya make a magic circle, magic circles are useful because they already have the spell ya want inscribed on them, so ya don't really need to do much more than maintaining it, they work as catalysts for spells when ya can't have any physical one available.

Ya can also make them for more permanent things, like a teleport circle, or a barrier, but these are simpler than that."

"I see... But why would I need it for the Master Spark? I can already cast it pretty quickly, and it lasts far too little for me to need to maintain for a long period of time..."

"The simplest use to it, would be to attack from a different position than ya're in, since the circle doesn't need to stay close to ya, ya can attack from yer opponent's blind spot.

But the real use of the circle is this."

Suddenly, Yuuka-san summoned 50 of those circles all at once, all aiming at different directions, and made them shoot Master Sparks simultaneously.

"Incredible..."

"Granted, this kind of things takes a lot of Mana, and the amount of concentration needed is also stupidly big, as ya need to control the activation of 50 spells in different spaces at the same time, but if ya can pull it off, I don't need to tell ya that the damage ya can cause is humongous, do I? Specially because ya can aim them all at the same place as well, making the power merge together into a big boom."

"I see... If I can do this kind of thing, then..."

"Before that, ya need to learn how to make a Magic Circle don't ya!? Get on it!"

"Uhhhnnn... How should I do that?"

"Think of the spell ya want to make, try to translate it into a form, it can be pretty much anything, a drawing, words, a pattern, anything goes, as long as ya can make that represent yer spell!

Ya can also copy existing ones if ya wish, but self made ones usually work better, as they represent the way ya make the spell.

Once ya've got the concept done, just use yer Mana to create it on the air."

"Got it... I'll try it then."

I started to think of what could symbolize the Master Spark... It was a simple, but intricate spell... Incredibly destructive... A memento from Marisa-sama, as well as what brought Yuuka-san closer to me... How could I put that into a circle...?

After thinking for a while, I came up with something, it wasn't anything fancy, but... I think it fitted, I basically copied Yuuka-san's design, it already showed well, the simple and intricate part of it IMO, the destructive part I considered as the gaping hole in the middle, the only things I really changed, were adding 2 new layers of triangles, a white one to represent Marisa-sama, and a pink one for my own... I think it became a bit too cluttered, but it serves the purpose, it's easy to associate the Master Spark to it.

I focused my Mana with this design on my head, and tried to materialize it... Oh, it worked! On the first try!

"So that's what ya came up with huh? Not bad, mainly a ripoff of mah own though."

"Teehee, yours was just too fitting Yuuka-san."

"Well, what are ya waiting for? Shoot it already!"

"Alright! Love Sign: Master Spark!"

It shot the Master Spark on the direction I wanted, I'm surprised it worked so smoothly right on the first attempt...

"Huh? No trouble at all? Guess ya really chose a good design for it after all... Keep going then, try to make more circles and shoot from them all at once, discover what is yer limit and surpass it!"

"Okay! I'll do my best!"

After that was just more and more practice, I discovered my limit was 3 circles and another one from my hands, after 2 hours of practice I raised it to 4 circles, and with other 4 hours, I could use it with 5 circles... At times I could make it with 6 circles, but most of the time it just end up messing with the other circles and making the whole thing fall apart.

"Alright, stop for a bit, let's have lunch."

"Okay!"

We ate peacefully, without really talking... I thought of starting a topic, but the sight of Yuuka-san was... Lonely perhaps? I wondered what was that feeling...

After we finished, she started to talk again.

"Well, that's pretty much it, congratulations Hikari, ya were able to fix yer Master Spark and improve it considerably in just 3 days, I'm honestly impressed with all that, I'll open up the path for ya to leave."

"Eh? Won't we continue it for the rest of the day?"

"Baka! What would ya gain from that!? Ya're basically training by yerself right now, there is no need for me to oversee it, do the rest at yer own place! It would be just a waste of time to remain here!"

"That's true, but... I wanted to stay by Yuuka-san's side for a while longer... I really appreciated these last 3 days with you..."

"What kind of nonsense are ya spitting!? Ya have yer own people to come back to don't ya? Don't go wasting any more time here than ya should!"

"Then... Will you come visit later?"

"I'll... I'll think about it."

"Thank you Yuuka-chan!!!" *hugs*

"What the crap are ya doing!?!?"

I felt a kick on my stomach that threw me away from her... This really did hurt... When I looked at her though, she was definitely smiling... I guess she isn't good at expressing her feelings after all. Teeheehee.

"Then I'll be going, please make sure to visit Yuuka-chan! I'll be waiting! I live at the nearby big Chaos Temple that has been abandoned for quite some time!"

"Aye aye, hurry up and leave!"

"Okay! I'll be seeing you!"

I flew away from the field, looking back once, I could see that Yuuka-chan was still gazing at me... She really is kind after all, isn't she?

Before long I could see that the scenery went from sunflowers back to the proper Great Plains, after I went through it, I turned back only to see that the flowers I had just passed through were no longer there... I suppose I went through the barrier then... Ah! The clothes! I forgot to give them back to her... But I couldn't really give them back with the way my own clothes were... I guess she thought of that too? And... My wand!! I need to hurry back and... What is this weight...

I looked at my bag, and noticed that my wand was there... When did she give it back to me though? Mysterious... Oh well, no point in worrying about it.

I guess I'll go home now... It's been 3 days already, Mama might be getting worried for me... And I want to eat Eun-chan's cooking again!

Alright, let's go and... Ain't I forgetting about something? I'm sure it was something important... Huuummm...

Oh yeah! I got some quests from the guild! I completely forgot about that!

But I want to go home already... No, I can't dirt my record with a failed quest this easily... I'll go and finish this as quickly as possible, and then I'll go straight back home to Mama, Onee-chan, Rea-chan and Eun-chan!!!

With this decided, I went to the Gallant Mine.

Once I arrived there, I went straight away to the deposits of the Refined Ice Crystal, on the way there were some lesser Ice Elementals that I promptly disposed of with a Fire Beam... They are a bit too weak, I wonder why they are put as B-rank targets... Well, no matter, I made sure to corrupt and absorb them, since almost all of their being is Mana, and it would be a waste to simply let it disperse.

After mining, I thought of checking how were the things with that Sentient Ice Golem going... I don't think anybody checked it ever since I got the info from the Goblin Elder, so I'd better make sure it isn't getting out of hand.

As I got closer to where it should be, I started seeing more and more of the poor brainwashed goblins... I didn't know anything about Mind Magic, so I couldn't really help them, I made sure to get rid of any that tried to attack me though.

When the distance became smaller, I found a huge number of Greater Ice Elementals and Greater Ice Golems... I have plenty of trust in my ability to kill a few of them, but... This many? There might be over 50 in this small room!

...I mean, sure, I could just Master Spark them, but that might make the whole mine fall on my head, so this isn't really a feasible solution... Troublesome.

Then... Let's try this... I slowed their time down, made a some roots quickly spread through the whole room, the amount of Mana it took was surprisingly high! Probably because of the really hard ground.

They noticed the roots spreading and tried to react by going after the source, but their movement was too slow for that, once I finished spreading them, I made them all entangle the enemies at once, as soon as I did that, I released the Time Magic because I wouldn't be able to sustain it, just the roots won't really lock them in place though, so I also used the shadows of the roots to lock them in place with Shadow Magic... Maintaining those 2 was quite problematic though, way too much Mana, this wouldn't last long.

I thought about shooting fire at them, but I didn't have enough for them all, so instead... I tried a new thing I focused my Chaos Energy into a condensed ball and shot towards the core of the nearest of the golems, once it connected, I made the concentrated ball instantly start corrupting the Golem's protections up to the core into pure Mana that I absorbed, leaving the core out in the open, which I simply threw out with the Golem's own shadow that was above the core.

After seeing it work, I promptly started doing it for all the nearby golems, getting rid of all 23 just a moment before running out of Mana to sustain all that, which let the Ice Elementals loose... This is bad.

They rushed towards me while throwing ice spikes towards me, I used the last bit of Mana I had to make a huge gush of wind throw me towards the path I came from, dodging most of the spikes, leaving me only with a few grazes here and there... At least it didn't make any cuts to Yuuka-chan's dress...

Now how to deal with them... I need to gain some time before anything, so I put my hand on the ground and started to change its form, I made it go from an open path to a 1m thick wall. Good, this will hold them down for a while.

I then took out a Mana Potion from my bag and drank it, the first thing I noticed, was that I only had a single one left... I should craft some more later, I have been completely neglecting my alchemy recently.

I could hear their blows over and over again on the barrier, it would soon break... When I saw the first hole on it, I drank an Invisibility Potion and got close to the natural wall of the cave, just in time to see the rest of my temporary wall break.

They started to move forward, probably thinking I had retreated to closer to the entrance, but what I actually did was simply let them go past me, and once they did, I proceeded to attack them from behind.

I connected 3 Fire Crystals at once to my Wand before shooting my Fire Beam, usually this would overload the wand and make it melt... But since it was specially reinforced with Dragon Scales, it could do that just fine!

The overloaded with Fire Energy beam shot forward and instantly went through 2 Elementals and hurting a third one, nice!

I was able to shoot 2 more beams before the crystals ran out of power, which left me with 8 dead Elementals and 20 alive ones... Still too many!!!

By now, they had already noticed the invisible me behind them, so they started to shoot on blindly, so I ran towards the room they were before to make sure to avoid them... As I ran, the noise of my steps led them to follow me, but that's what I wanted anyway.

I took more crystals from my bag and kept on shooting Fire Beams, I'm glad using the Crystals for it make it cost almost no Mana.

When I arrived at the room, my invisibility had already faded, and I had used 3 more Crystals, which were all I had with me, at least there were only 12 Elementals left...

As I got into the room, I threw two of my Fire Potions back at the Elementals, since it was small space, I didn't really want to risk using them while I was within it, but now that I'm out, I have no reason to worry at all!

The result was good, another 6 Elementals down, 6 left... I have 2 Fire Potions with me and now they're spread out shooting spikes at me in the room... Great.

I used the little Mana I could recover in the meantime for my Love Shield, it would break soon as I had only a little left, but it was better than nothing.

I shot my 2 potions at 2 different Elementals, which killed them, while trying to avoid the spikes... I was surprisingly avoiding most of them with my flight on this small cave room filled with 4 Ice Elementals shooting me... I guess playing Danmaku with Yuuka-chan that one time did pay off after all!

I couldn't just keep on dodging though, my shield would soon run out, which meant I'd be quickly skewered.

I shot more Chaos Bullets, not towards the Elementals, but to the ceiling just above them, I made the Chaos mold that part of the ceiling to become more fragile, which ended up with a rockfall on them... Just as my Mana ran out... Haa... Dangerous, definitely dangerous. If I had messed up on how much to corrupt, I could make the whole cave collapse, or make too little rocks fall which could make them survive it... I'm glad it worked.

I wished to just rest, but it would be no good if I did it, I could be seen by more Golems or Elementals, and I'm in no condition to fight more of them.

So, I started to absorb them as quickly as I could, so that nobody could track their Mana signature, and also to increase my own Mana pool of course, I was in a hurry, but who knows when would be the next time I'd have an opportunity of absorbing this many Mana heavy beings? I just had to.

Luckily, nobody came to check while I was doing it, I guess there aren't many beings on the surrounding of this room... Well, I already finished my quests, but this many enemies on a single room probably mean they are protecting something important, I'd better check it...

How would I do it though? I didn't really wanted to be seen, but I was out of invisibility potions, and even if I did drink a blurriness one, I'd definitely throw up again after a bit of it... Oh yea! Shadow gave me a Stealth Robe some time ago! And I never used it! Guess this is a good time to do it!

I took it out of my bag and put above my body, I could feel some magic on it, and when I tried to move, I made no sound at all... Good! I hope it's also making me harder to see, so... Let's go!

As I delved deeper into the cave, I could notice a really big Mana signature getting closer and closer... That must be the Sentient Ice Golem... The Goblin Elder mentioned.

When I got close enough to see it, I finally understood why the signature was so big. The Golem had thousands of Refined Ice Crystals stuck on him, all of them powering it up like crazy, it's ridiculous! Its body mass is probably composed of more Crystals than what it had on its original body!!! It was at least 20m tall!

The Golem was with it's back to me, in front of it was a big Summoning Circle, I head the Golem saying some strange words and before long, the Circle shone bright enough to fill the whole room, and out of it, an Elemental just as tall as the Golem came out, and bowed to it... It seems the Golem was able to control it after all...

Well, nothing I can do about it, those Mana signatures are just ridiculous, they might be even bigger than Rea-chan's! Though I'm not sure on that... Either way, once I saw that, I simply ran away as quickly as I could and went back to Aeternus, had to kill some more Goblins and Lesser Elementals on the way, but nothing really troublesome happened.

As soon as I dropped my report, I went back home straight away to show Mama my new dress and to rest a bit at home... Home definitely feels the best... What? Undead army? Directly attacking Aeternus? Leave them be, I just got home, I need to rest a bit, I stayed away for too long already...

[If anybody is curious, the whole report has 12329 words, 309 are for the first 2 quests, about 10k for the sidequest, and 1-2k for the last 4 quests.

Learned Nature Magic and Got a big upgrade to my Master Spark, also made a new friend!

The Sentient Ice Golem that was in the Gallant Mine finished summoning the Ancient Ice Elemental, both of them have Mana Signatures of about the same level as Rea-chan... Their abilities are unknown, but they'll probably summon plenty of other smaller ones with time.]

@shad12ow

 

*Half crying*
HIII!!!!!
*glomp*
Hiiii!!!
Hii!!!!!!
*cry*
where was you!!!
what happened!!!!
are you okay!?!
you stupid girl....*cry*
....I-I....was soo.... *cry*...worried....
*cry*
Please.....
....Don't leave me....
*cry*

 

*hugs* Sorry Mama... I made a new friend, and she was helping me improve my Master Spark... When I left, I didn't expect I'd be away for more than a day... Sorry...

I won't leave you... I swear I won't... I missed you as well... I love you Mama, I'll never leave you, no matter what, I'll be sure to always stay by your side... I promise you.

 

*cry*
*lose strength on my legs*
please....
please....
....don't leave me... *cry*
I-I.. don't.. wantt to lose you...
I want *cry* to be with you...

 

*crouches down and hugs tighter*

We will Mama... We will definitely be together... Forever and ever... I will never leave you... Never... For I as well... Want to be with you, I really really do... So I will definitely stay with you.