My head hurt. I rubbed my head as I woke up. I had no idea where I was, nor do I remember how I got here. My tails told me something was off but they couldn''t come up with anything. It was day 372.
There seemed to be a gap in my memory. I started heading for the jungle but my body felt weird. I did a self-diagnosis and I was a chick.
Hmm, this is unexpected. When did I [Transform] or did I get another curse? I tried to [Transform] back but transforming back to male is notoriously hard. I failed and I failed again. Ugh, this was the same situation after infiltrating that party all over again. I inspected myself, I looked different than the last time I was a chick.
I quite resembled Xelia. Anyways this isn''t important, time to go home! I tried to figure out if there were differences in how to use Dragonvein as a chick. And there seemed to be… what a pain in the ass. I wondered if it was sexist or something. It required more input from the hips in the movements. Do I relearn this or try again to [Transform] back? I tried 6 times again and failed again. I sighed and reached the jungle. I was extremely fatigued for some reason and I was also almost out of mana. Failing all those [Transforms] didn''t help either. The next morning came and I dove into the basin.
All that I needed to do was gain more knowledge about those primal runes and master lightning. My head hurt and information about primal runes from some kind of location flowed into my head. I was curious where this came from but I was too tired. I kept floating on the water and then got out and went to sleep. My hair went into a ponytail and I would try to get back to male tomorrow.
I woke up and the first thing I did was use [Transform], I got it right after the 6th try. I visited Vinny but he was doing funky stuff with his girlfriend.
“Agnis, you’re back!” He said as ne finished. I see you’ve been busy!
“Hehe! Yeah, so what have you been up to?!” I gave him some privacy but told him afterwards about my adventures, about the time capsule, and about my random amnesia.
“I didn''t know spirit foxes could get amnesia.” Vinny said as he saw his girlfriend off to the exit of his lair. It’s fine I forget things all the time.
“That''s not ok…” Anyways I came here to slack and then practice some lightning Dragonvein.
“Hmm, do you think I should visit that time capsule?” I think you should. Not like that though.
“I think I will work on my human form.” I wanted him to show it to me but I had a feeling it looked shoddy. I’m sure it looks like crap, practice more!
“Yes, yes do the others know you''re back?” No, I snuck inside.
“Of course, you did… Let''s go tell them you''re back and maybe throw a party” Ooh a party! Good idea!
I rested in a corner while the dragons were preparing a party. I still needed to shake off this fatigue. Vinny woke me up when the party was set up. There were lots of fruits. No meat but that was fine. They also had me talk about my adventures. The younger dragons got excited and decided to prepare to go on adventures of their own in several months. I advised them to work on their human form. They all showed off their shitty human forms.
Vinny’s human form was by far the best but still bad. The elder then came to show off and turned into a total babe, she still had a green tail though. The day passed and I fell asleep in a corner. I had a strange nightmare. It was vague but it involved all the dragons here getting wiped out. I woke up and everything seemed fine. The dragons were all sleeping. I went outside and looked up at the full moon. I felt a tug as if the moon was telling me to come over. Moonlight makes me slightly stronger but I never felt this tug. I stretched my hand out to the moon.
“Can’t sleep?” Vinny joined me. My sleep is never enough.
“A lot has changed since you arrived, the jungle dragons were never this close.” Stop giving me credit for things I didn''t do. All I did was just a bit disruptive.
“You killed that asshole…” He said as he joined me in gazing at the moon. Ah right, that happened yah.
“Was he that unremarkable that you forgot?” Uhm, kinda, he was annoying, yes but I had humans or well maybe humans give me a harder time than this guy. I think you could easily surpass him.
“Ha, no way!” Strength isn''t everything, you can make up for strength in other ways.
“Hmm like how you fight?” Yeah, make fighting you as much a pain in the ass as possible and they will get annoyed and make mistakes or give up! And you have the added benefit that they’d rather not fight you again!
“Sounds hard, I will stick to what I know. Hey, do you think it’s possible for us to set the world straight or will it eventually collapse?” He said as he extended his green hand/claw toward the moon. Dunno, I like this world so far so I want it to stick around.
“Do you think our contribution matters?” Yours? Certainly, mine? Not so sure.
“Why is that?” Vinny said as he looked at me with his light yellow reptilian eyes. I know what I''m supposed to do but I don''t know how, it''s not like I can go home and ask a random 9t that''s chilling there.
“That''s tricky yeh, I’m sure you will find out. Anyways I have an appointment with my girlfriend so I will have to leave, have a nice rest.” Damn, at least the dragons don''t need to be afraid of going extinct…
Vinny retreated for the night. I looked up to the moon again but it was covered by clouds. It was time to go back home, chill in the waterfall basin a bit, and sleep.
The next day was nothing special. I was doing my best to slack and not do anything besides my basic practice in the morning. Almost a month passed and the temperature dropped a bit. It was time to go north and gather information to find a location that met the requirements for my lightning training. I said goodbye to Vinny and the dragons as I would probably not return after I finished my lightning training.
I reached a small village on day 407 and tried to get some information. There was a city nearby named Itris and there was a high possibility I could find the information I needed there. The farmer gave me some cheese for my journey. I had to restock. I completely forgot but I put a huge dent in my stash on the time capsule. I will have to clear out some stores in this city.
<hr>
The city was extremely busy. It looked different from the other cities I''ve visited. It had these strange metal boxes on wheels driving around. They looked quite dangerous. The people living here seemed to be used to them. I saw people stepping out of the boxes. I inspected these things.
They seemed purely mechanical and didn''t need mana to run. They were running on some highly combustible liquid. Quite interesting. I noticed that this city wasn''t relying much on mana to get things done. But it still had an enormous electronium plant nearby. I decided to ignore it for now and headed toward the stores. Well, there was 1 store. It was gigantic. I felt so out of place. It was as if I was in a different world or something.
I approached a clerk at a counter. Good afternoon, where can I get fish?
“Ooh, you take the left there then go all the way to the back then take the escalator up till the 4th floor then you go right through the food court, and then it’s on your left.” She said as she kept ointing in random directions. What? Escalator? I already forgot where to go.
“Oh, you are a tourist. I apologize! We here in Itris are very technologically advanced and have many things that aren''t seen in other places, it''s a stair that goes up automatically.” So why not take an elevator then?
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Escalators are more efficient.” So instead of making elevators more efficient, you made moving stairs?
“Ehh, yes.” Thank you, I will just jump up.
“Ehh mister wait!”
I hopped from floor to floor and arrived at the 4th floor. Where did she say I needed to go? Was it left? Or right? I activated my Elgards eyes and spotted a large section that had fish. I took a dozen of everything. And went to pay for it.
“Do you have a card?” I placed my adventurers'' ID card on the counter.
“No not the adventurers ID’. I put my normal ID on the counter.
“No, I mean a member card.” What’s that?
I shouldn''t have asked, the clerk gave me a long-ass explanation and tried to convince me to get some random service that cost me 1 silver and 99 bronze per month. Why not just 2 silver per month? What is this pain in the ass system?
“You will save money in the long run!” And lose time by having to mess around with the change! Stop wasting your client''s time!
“Oh no, you don’t understand it will get subtracted from your credit card.” And what the fuck is that supposed to be? Card this card that! I just want to buy fish! Give me my fish!
“Do you want to pay with a card or cash?” You look like a smart guy, what do you think…
“Ehh, you get points when paying with a card which you can exchange for a discou…” Please shut the fuck up!
I put 41 silver and 50 bronze on the counter and took my fish with me. What a bunch of scammers. I don’t know what they were trying but it sounded like bullshit.
I hauled my stuff to a corner where nobody could see me and stored it in my dimensional pocket. I then went over to the next section. I got all kinds of bread. Then had to go to another section for fruits and vegetables. This place was a pain in the ass, why isn''t everything together at one spot like any other store. I got another mountain of food and some woman was paying in bronze coins even though she needed to pay 6 silver. The cashier and everyone in the line were starting to get impatient. She was halfway and I flicked 3 silver to the counter. Please stop wasting other people''s valuable time.
The line sped up and I could finally pay for my stuff.
“That is 9s40b.” Excuse me?
“9 silver and 40 bronze.” Ah, here you go.
I found another corner and stashed it in my dimensional pocket. I had most basics now. A line for some weird-looking food caught my attention. I decided to try it out and stood in line.
“Good day sir, how can I help?” What can you recommend for a first-timer?
Another waterfall of words and I didn''t understand what he was saying. Am I dumb? I looked over at other people in other lines and they seem to understand what these people were saying. Maybe it sounds like Kaledonian but it’s actually a different language.
“So, which will it be?” I totally forgot to pay attention. Uhh, that last one sounded good.
“To eat or to go?” I will eat it and then go, I guess?
“Are you going to eat it here or take it with you?” I will eat it here.
I got my food and sat at a table. All this was weird. I got an almost spherical sandwich and what''s this? I ate some light brown salty sticks and I spat it out. Are these jerks trying to poison me? They didn''t tell me they would give me potatoes!
People looked at me.
Calm down Agnis, you will make a scene if you turn the potatoes to ash, just ignore them.
I decided to leave the potatoes be. I was wary, who knows what these assholes would try next. I tried to flush the potatoes away and spat out my drink. It was all fizzy and I detected acid in my drink. I was clearly the center of attention by now. What happened to normal food? I created an illusion of me eating all this junk and left. I will never go back to that place again!
Something interesting caught my attention on the 3rd floor. It had a lot of mechanical devices. I admired the technology and it kind of reminded me of the technology in the time capsule. It wasn''t there yet but getting close. They had TVs but also other stuff. None of them seemed to be running on electronium though.
I approached an employee of this store. Excuse me what do these things run on? I don''t see any electronium connection.
“Oh, you must not be from here, they run off the power grid, just on electricity.” Aha, isn''t that quite outdated?
“Not really, it reduces the reliance on electronium and frees up a lot of money to spend on other things. Moreover, the powerplant can switch between generating mana with electronium or just providing electricity." Aha, and how does the power get generated?
"Well with lightning spirits of course, running on electricity puts a bigger strain on them though so we need to keep up a steady supply of them from Mount Thunderpeak." Spirits… hey isn''t there another way to generate electricity?
“Ha! Of course not! Unless you want to put people with a lightning affinity to work.” I see… so where is Mount Thunderpeak exactly?
The employee walked behind his counter and took out a map. “Trying to earn some extra by helping transport, eh? I’ve done it before, it pays well but it’s dangerous, See here is Itris, and this is Mount Thunderpeak here in the Penumbra mountain range. I would advise you to go to the 5th floor and get some gear that protects you from the lightning.” Thanks.
I saved the location of the mountain in my archive and left this cursed place. The desire to burn this place started to come up but I controlled myself. I heard a loud sound and almost got hit by a tin can on wheels.
"Hey watch where you''re going!"
These things are dangerous, they''re like coffins on wheels. People were waiting on the side to let a stream of wheeled coffins pass. What is going on here? I don''t like this city. It started to become dark and I tried to look for an Adventurer’s Association but I couldn''t find one.
"Hey look what we have here, are you lost kiddo?" I got surrounded by 3 tough-looking guys. I''m looking for the Adventurer’s Association. Can you show me where it is?
They looked at each other and laughed. "You must be new here, there is none here, magic gets frowned upon here so it only makes sense that there is no Adventurer’s Association. Go and take your magic bullshit somewhere else!" Ah, that explains a lot. Thanks!
"Hey not so fast kiddo, are you mocking us, don''t you see you''re getting robbed?!"
I checked myself but I still had everything. Nope I still have everything but thanks for the warning.
"He is trolling us, get him!" Oh! You''re the ones robbing! Two guys ran at me, they were fast for humans but slow for me. I easily evaded them.
"Checkmate kiddo!" The third guy pulled a weird metal rod out of his pants. It looked similar to that "Desert Eagle" thing and the weapon that guy in Cnidaria forest had. It made a loud noise and shot something small at me. I caught it and inspected it. Why are you shooting junk at me?
"What?! A magic user! Get him!" They all got their sticks out and kept shooting metal junk at me. I got the message that I wasn''t welcome so I dashed away.
"Hey come back!" I''m clearly not welcome here so I''ll pass!
I sat down on a tall building and looked out over the city. It looked like this city was from a fantasy. Nothing here seems to abide by common sense. It seemed that the coffins on wheels had more importance than the people. A lot of people similar to those 3 guys were attacking others with their metal junk shooters in this city. Humans in obnoxiously loud and flashy coffins were everywhere. they were wearing strange uniforms and all had junkshooters. There was probably more that I don''t know about. Is this how the world would look like without magic? A minimal amount of magic was used in this city. I wondered what would happen if people got injured here.
At that moment some coffins on wheels collided as if I spoke it into existence. People freaked out. The coffins did their name justice and 2 people instantly died but 2 others were still alive and injured. I observed and nobody seemed to go and help. Normally someone who knew healing spells would assist or at least people would attempt to get them out but I guess that doesn''t happen here where magic gets looked down upon.
10 minutes passed and some extremely loud flashy coffin on wheels appeared. Funny clothed people got out and helped the victims. Because it took so long, one of them seemed close to kicking the bucket. They got loaded in the flashy coffin on wheels and it drove off. It reminded me of something, didn''t those guys with Rock also have one? It looked different though, what did they call it? That one didn''t look as dangerous though maybe it was an older model and it still needed mana to run.
The victims got brought to what I assume is a hospital. And they got subjected to a series of procedures that were too complicated for me to understand. All this took so long that one of the victims passed away. I have seen enough. In their pride and hate for mana they intentionally inconvenience themselves in more than one way and somewhere in this their coherence as a race falls apart. Normally members of the same race have some form of solidarity, ignoring assassins and bandits of course, but mostly they would care for those of the same race. This seems to be lacking here.
They even prioritize inanimate objects like these coffins on wheels over their own race. It annoyed me a bit, the 9t would never do something like this. I decided that if I had to choose to nuke 1 city it would be this one. This brought my attention to the electronium plant. A normal city would be inconvenienced if it fell out. Ainahs got crippled for several days when I sabotaged it but it still worked fine. People had to rely on their own mana to get stuff going and the efficiency went down but they still did ok.
This city however would be screwed. I could see they know that because this plant is guarded as the king lives here. So many anti-shadow magic guards. It was also a very complex building. It took me a while but I found out where the spirits were held. There were a lot and every 10 minutes a spirit got completely drained of its energy and returned to the spirit world. They even had 4 medium lighting spirits. They looked exhausted. The humans in that room all had special thick goggles on. I assume this allows them to see the spirits. They tortured a medium spirit to create more lightning… I''ve seen enough. This plant is going down.