Ouch, what was that? I don''t know, I''m running diagnostics, I''ll check with you guys too. I whipped out 3 tails and started checking various filters on my Elgards eyes to check if something changed or was wrong.
Hmm, I can''t say nothing happened since something is slightly off but I can''t tell what it is exactly. Can you try to explain what it might be?
Hmm not really, the filter that showed something indicates that something was messing either with the dimensional fabric or with the fabric of time and space. I can''t tell the specifics, where, or when that happened. What do you mean? We know when it happened it happened just now! I think that''s the problem Raishin if something messed with time that is completely relative.
Whud? Did it affect us negatively? I can''t say that anything changed for us but we could either expect a dimensional invasion, like what happened before we got kidnapped from home, or whatever we did or going to do will be different than how it normally would go, either time-wise or location-wise. In short; I have no fucking clue what just happened, it might be that there is nothing but this filter which indicates temporal and spatial consistency got a glitch. Maybe it''s just because I''m tired.
Hmm, let''s hope it is nothing then... Can you show the underground map of the area? Ah right.
Hmm, something is off. I vaguely remember this conversation. Also, the last thing I remember was napping in my tail cocoon but here I am in Raishin’s hut showing a hologram of Boshi town and the underground. Hmm, something feels off, weren''t we underground a moment ago? So, I''m not the only one who feels this way. Hmm, so guys we have a problem.
Ugh, what is it this time? So, I don''t know if you remember the first time, we really made plans to escape and went hunting the PB the day after. Yah.
It seems we are back there again. I can see the PB cave, the PB is alive and well. What about the root?
The root is nowhere to be seen, and the cavern is empty as if there was nothing there. But I assume Raishin nuked the heck out of it so it should be a big hole in the ground. I don''t like the sound of it, so it undid our last 5 or 6 days? It seems the root count is now 5 so there is definitely something that has changed. The crater I made is still there. Uhh, Gregory what else happened around this time? The small mall should be in a mess and Charlize’s house should be destroyed. Besides not much happened at that time.
Her house is destroyed yes. So why did you save those spirits?
I thought you one shot that other spirit. Hmm oh, that? Well, I thought so too but the mana I absorbed was mixed with her essence which is apparently similar to her will. But only this morning she started to communicate with me, or well I guess this morning is inaccurate because it is in 5 days. But she was pissed at first but since she couldn''t act on her temper I could just explain and show her what is going on. She wasn''t happy but agreed to temporarily retreat to the spirit world if she could. Well, things worked out weirdly because that big laser her sister shot at me allowed me to set up a portal to the spirit world. I had a delay put on it so it would open when I thawed. Anyways as far as I can tell is that there is some instability in the spirit world and destroying strong spirits will not make the situation better. Gregory claps his hands
Anyways; we beat the guardians and destroyed the root! That is some progress, it was really sloppy but we are alive. Speaking of which... He looks at me.
So, I''ve come to the understanding you burned some lives there! Ugh, you could tell?
Look, I''m grateful that you saved us, and there wasn''t really much choice there and yes it massively helped out, but never do something so reckless again! Even though I know where you coming from, I refuse! Wha! If there is a scenario where one of us dies instead of all four of us, I’ll take that option any time of the week! I’m with Agnis if I had anything like his frost wall, I would also use it to keep you guys safe! But if we combine our forces, we should be able to get through it, we either all live or all die.
That logic is flawed since the process of rebirth exists. As long as one of us survives and we all run out of lives we can still be brought back by rebirth. And in the case of Ted, he doesn''t have another chance once he dies so out of us 4, we should at least make sure he doesn''t die! You do know that setting a rebirth in motion is so insanely difficult and costly on mana and requirements that we might spend 500 years and be unable to?
I don''t think that matters, there are a lot of secrets in this world, I''ve recently discovered a blueprint of some magic weapons which are way more advanced than we have ever seen, there might be things like that but aimed towards easing requirements of rebirth or stuff, you never know! I can''t deny that possibility but there might be solutions that work as well that aren''t as reckless! We kept arguing about this topic for a while until we got hungry. I don''t know if this hunger is from the original day ehh let''s call this day 0. It was the day we made the plan to escape. We defeated the root on day 5. So, what I''m trying to say is, I don''t know if we were hungry from day 0 because I assume we got sent back in time or are in a time loop or if we were hungry from what we did on day 5. I guess these things are a bit complex because it is not something that you encounter daily. It was easy to check though. I checked my dimensional pocket and found that I still had my mountain of gold. I guess that proves it we carried stuff through this time loop. Wait I might be making a crucial mistake. Nothing in my dimensional pocket is affected by time since I can keep food in there for almost forever. So, getting sent back in time might not remove this.
Hmm. Greg, and Ted, do you have your weapons on you? My hand cannon? Of course, I have it. Ted shows his hand cannon and Gregory retrieves his hammer from some shadow pocket of his. He tried to apply the idea of a dimensional pocket to his shadows since he can store energy but it works more than those special bags I got; it can compress volume but the weight still stays the same. Well in his case some weight gets shaved off but it doesn''t disappear completely, also he has room for his hammer and some small objects, like marbles.
Ok, so when we get sent back in time everything on us got brought with us. Hmm, I was thinking, I''m assuming this happened because we destroyed the root right, why would it send us back in time? Because now we gain 5 more days to destroy all the roots and escape, it is only in our favor.
Hmm, I think that might''ve been me. What?
No not sending us back in time. You know how it is impossible to kill Raishin or Gregory by draining their energy to 0 since they manage energy? Something similar happened here. Anything spatial or temporal can’t affect me if its goal is to undo something forcefully that I did or had an influence on. I don''t know the specifics but I''m assuming it tried to send us back and undo us destroying the root. And we still all remember this because we have close relations with you?
I didn''t destroy this root alone; I didn''t even touch it so that is my assumption yes. Hmm if that is so we have yet another problem. Why can''t nothing just go easily?
If the root tries to set us back in time and try to undo whatever we did every time we destroy a root… that means we will have to redo certain events multiple times until all roots are destroyed. What? I don''t get it.
Ugh, what he is saying is that every time we destroy a root we get sent back in time. What! Which sadistic jerk designed this boss? I want to file a complaint against the developers! This is certainly a high-difficulty boss. The issue is though, do we have to make sure everything goes similarly to the original timeline?
Isn''t that impossible though? Since that root is destroyed, we can''t do everything the same. Moreover, your memory is so shit, I''m not even sure you can even remember everything you did in the last 6 days. Wow, rude. Guess I should archive more stuff. Why don''t you just make a diary or something? Just important events and stuff.
Meh, that sounds like too much work. Hey, how many times have we gotten into trouble, or could things have ended up way easier because you forgot something?!
Pass. This is not a game! You can''t pass your turn on this question!
Tss party-pooper. Fine, I will consider it. Sooo, does this mean we get a rematch with the PB? Now we know it will explode we could prevent it and eat it! Raishin and I started to drool at the thought of some tasty meat.
Did you guys forget what it looked like? Do you think that thing would taste delicious? Also, not to forget that unbalanced and corrupted mana it released when it exploded. Oh, right forgot about that. Did something like that happen?
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Why does nobody here have a decent memory? So, what are we going to do this timeline and what root are we going for? I suggest trying to keep everything as close to the original timeline as possible, we don''t know what weird stuff happens if we don''t, I never learned how to correct temporal and spatial inconsistencies so if some paradox happens and things turn out chaotic, I can''t do much about it. What do we do with the PB?
I haven''t seen your [Raishin kick] You could use it on the PB. Oooh, good idea. As for which root to go next… I showed the hologram of the area but crossed out the root in the PB cave.
Let''s see this one goes way too deep, something really strong seems at this one and the root of this one seems a bit off but I can''t tell what it is. Hmm, how about this one, it is one of the closest one and seems relatively simple. I point at a location that is close to Boshi town but seems to be under Boshi lake Major.
We could take a small boat from Boshi lake Minor, pass through Boshi lake Medium and leave the town and enter Boshi lake Major. Objection! How about we take a dry route? And if we''re supposed to be under the lake, I don''t see why we need to take a boat! I zoom in and show that some underwater caves lead toward our destination. I will need either of you to confirm with a seismic scan if these are all the entrances but as far as I could see, the only way to enter it is by diving down into lake Boshi Major and entering the underwater cave. I showed another underground passage I found. The underground passage that is closest is here, which means that you two will probably be digging for a whole day until we can get to the root. I don''t know if your nausea will allow you to dig for so long. Ugh, how about teleporting there?
There is a lot of water and different types of rock which will constantly throw off my pings, teleporting underground doesn''t go well most of the time, getting out is generally less of a problem but I don''t want to teleport into solid rock. How about a dimensional teleport?
You want me to try something so risky after scolding me for doing something risky? Ugh, fine I''ll take the boat, can one of you knock me out and wake me up when we arrive? We might need you, Boshi lake minor and medium are safe but major has monsters in it. Fuck my life. A boat trip! It will be fun!
Noo! Yeees! We will have to wait with going there though, we first have to fight the PB.
Alright, give me a second, I''m making a list of the series of events for a certain forgetful person. Hmm? I''m writing this down so don''t lose it! I''m only writing down important events and things I remember that you did.
<hr>
Day 0 (today): making plans in Raishin’s hut
Day 1: Raishin and Agnis encounter Dunkey and fight Charlize, escaping through the sewers. Fight with the Pheasant Boar (PB) and discovery of the PB cave. Two men were investigating Raishin’s hut and Agnis and me, Gregory, went with them and revealed the sewer problem, we discovered that Charlize got minor mana poisoning. Agnis and Gregory did shadow clone training.
Day 2: Agnis and Gregory were at Gregory’s house making potions and looking through Pietro’s books. Cecilia visits and apologizes. You encounter Dunkey and his group again. The fight against the pink broccoli. You sell your rubies to a merchant.
Day 3: You finish your transaction and receive payment for your rubies. We make a new plan here in Raishin’s hut. We return to the PB cave and encounter Nayani Ingrei and Guyani Ingrei which we fight and you “one shot” Guyani after which we flee. You start analyzing the energy you absorbed from one shotting Guyani.
Day 4: Gregory and Agnis encounter Dunkey and Munkey. We meet up with Johnny (his real name is Gianni, don''t forget!) and we get our gifts, notable gifts are Ted’s hand cannon, Gregory’s portable lab, and your magic sword. We met up to discuss the analysis that you completed and we sparred. Raishin and Ted lost the sparring match. You started making frost marbles.
Day 5: You met Charlize and her daughter and visited me to perfect the frost marbles. We fought Nayani and destroyed the root. We got sent back to day 0
<hr>
Keep this and don''t lose it! Gregory shoved the note in my hands. Hey, can you also make one for me?
Do you remember what you did the last week? Yeah, why?
Then you don''t need it! Meh. Thanks so next up is fighting the PB?
The note is right there! Read it! Wow, chill, hmm let''s see, oh were going to meet with Charlize and Dunkey! Who is Dunkey by the way? Let''s go Raishin!
Ugh, really. I feel that my movements get restricted by [Shadow bind]
I''m not letting you go before you read the note! Here it says here day 1! Today is day 0! Ok ok sorry! I was just joking! I''ll behave. Gregory released me and I carefully read the note and archived it. You guys are so exhausting sometimes. Let''s go eat and relax for the day.
<hr>
We left Raishin’s hut and I went home to eat with Philip and Hera. It feels like it has been ages ago since I last ate with them. On today''s menu was soup. I dislike soup. It can''t decide if it''s food or a drink, same with cereal. What is wrong with just solid food? Philip and Hera were talking about some townspeople and trivial events. Since they weren''t paying attention I freeze-dried my soup, turned it into powder, and took out some fried pheasant out of my dimensional pocket. I used the powder as seasoning. This is the only use I''ve found of soup. I cast a simple illusion so that when they would look in my direction it would look like I was eating soup. And technically I was, it is just powder now and acting as a seasoning for my fried pheasant. I was wondering if there was any need to make more frost marbles. I put a tail on duty to make these. I finished my food and went to my room. And then I heard a voice. I looked around but I couldn''t see anyone. I heard the voice again.
“Hey, ice brat!” Whud Guinea?
“My name is Guyani!” Ugh, I must be tired I''m hearing voices.
“My sister was right; you are hard to talk to. Since I can contact you means you still have some of my essence stored up.” Do you want it back?
“Nah I''m fine, listen I have a question. If you find a place of power, could you link us to it? Since you still have some of my essence it should be easy to do.” Uhh, I have no idea how all that works, I just winged it when I sent you two to the spirit world, and how do you even remember us? We kind of got sent back in time so you shouldn''t even remember us, you might not even exist in this timeline. “I don''t know the spirit world isn''t affected by much which affects the outside world.” It must be really boring there if you want to return here after only half a day has passed.
“Hmm, I can''t blame you for thinking that but 2 years have passed over here.” Ah, I see, so time there flows differently.
“Well normally time flows similarly but the spirit world is unstable so almost anything here is subject to change. And jeez Nayani stop it! What? Fine, I''ll ask him. Nayani asks if you can teach her ice tricks when you manage to get us back.” As long as she doesn''t shoot any more lasers at us, I’ll see what I can do.
“What? Didn''t I tell you already? Fine, I''ll ask him. Nayani asks what you are since we normally don''t take damage from living beings on that side. It might be better if you explain so I don''t have to repeat it to her.” Uhh hello, I''m Agnis Hourai, a nine-tailed spirit fox, my hobbies are blacksmithing, sneaking up on people, and gaming and I like to fish and make cool magic and skills.
“Yes, this is what I told you before! Nayani is shocked that you are a spirit.” Believe me, so was I.
“I can''t believe you were fighting a spirit and didn''t notice. It doesn''t matter if he looks like a human or a common mortal, so do we! And the number of tails didn''t tip you off? No, Nayani, I''m not expecting you to remember every race but surely those that you have to watch out for!” I don''t know what Nayani is saying to Guyani but judging by what I hear her saying it is clear how their conversation is going. I kind of feel like I''m eavesdropping but since I hear Gulana’s voice in my head I can''t really help it. “What I''m trying to say is, Nayani, we are lucky to get off this easily after fighting a nine-tailed spirit fox!” I''m sorry to interrupt your chat but do you know anything about nine-tailed spirit foxes?
“You don''t know anything about your own race?” Well, I lost my hometown 5 years ago and my mother was more in tune with her phoenix side and both my sisters were phoenixes too so I only know stuff about phoenixes.
“Wait you’re also a phoenix? Wait this sounds familiar. Oh! You’re from Hourai, now it makes sense! Are you Edea’s son?” Do you know my mom?
“Not personally no, I also never met her but her name is well known. Hey Nayani, you hear that, we’re super lucky we’re still alive, a phoenix could make short work of us.” You say that but I think it''s us who got lucky to survive. Anyways what do you know about nine-tailed spirit foxes?
“Hmm, I don''t know much about it but I do know that there used to be some here in the spirit world. But they moved out a very long time ago, I don''t know why though. I think it had to do with that they were spirits but they also had physical bodies. They didn''t really belong with the spirits but also didn''t fit in with the humans or beast kin. They are the only bridge between the spirit world and the corporeal world, spirits have a non-intervention policy, and it''s not like we really can anyway, unless we find a good power spot or have to put up with a contract. But spirit foxes don''t have to deal with all that because if I remember correctly their own body acts as a vessel and as a mobile power spot or contract. I''m not sure which of the two. But basically, if you would master spirit magic you can abandon your body and still live. You will have to deal with finding a contract or power spot then though, which I wouldn''t recommend but staying here in the spirit world sucks too. What? No, I don''t think spirits can make contracts with other spirits. Nayani asks if you would make a contract with her.” I would rather not, at least not now, because I don''t know if I want to at this moment and if I can.
“I guess, for you, it''s fresh that we tried to kill you. Be more considerate Nayani!” It is fine, what do you guys know about the roots?
“It has a lot of energy.” Anything else?
“Not really sorry, there was a woman who showed me that spot though, she was a massive bitch but she helped me get an energy spot in a cool cave so that worked out.” Do you know if this purple barrier was surrounding Boshi town back then?
“I don''t know, I''m sorry.” That is fine, even though we needed to, sorry for destroying your home.
“I know how it feels to be stuck in one place, we can''t change that but you can. I''m not saying that I''m not upset by the fact you destroyed our home but I would probably do the same in your situation. What? Oh, Nayani apologizes for almost killing you guys.” Alright, I will try and contact you guys when I find a power spot, I''m warning you though, I get told a lot that I have a terrible memory.
“Yes, I''ve noticed. In case you forgot I’m Guyani and my sister is called Nayani.” I will do my best. I archived this conversation because it had some useful information. I thought of making more weapons because I had no more swords in my dimensional pocket. I decided for once to just go to bed early since if all of the oncoming days go the same way as the last 5 days went, then I would need all the rest I could get.