《mediocre in another world》 one-anteater druid Cosimo sister''s Maria wasn''t dealing with high school well. He kept to himself, ignoring her as best he could. She''s not his problem! ¡°If I cared more, talked to her more, would I have been able to stop her from killing me?¡± He looked into the whiteless void, the place he came to . Not even white is there. If this is death, it sure is a boring. Cosimo, the type without friends lived with his distant father and sister Maria. His sister and he rarely talked, but there were sometimes in the past she needed some help. So Cosimo helped her out of obligation. Even if it made him uncomfortable. Maria had more and more problems, getting into fights at school, stealing things, and getting involved with the cops.Cosimo thought that he wasn¡¯t involved, even though he was her brother. Her problems were not his. Really, he had a hard enough time taking care of himself and enjoying his hobbies. So when she did ask for help, he thought he had to help her. After all, it''s his responsibility as a brother.Even if it''s hard or he got in trouble. Her problems were serious after all.But, recently he heard Maria got a boyfriend from someone at school. Cosimo was hoping things would get better for her.Cosimo, he just wanted to enjoy himself alone where it was safe. What he wanted to do with his life, he had no idea. He didn''t want any trouble, that is his only wish right now. Cosimo wasn''t going to get that wish. At the endof his life, she killed him in the kitchen with a kitchen knife one night when he went to get a chicken sandwich. ¡°Why, for a chicken sandwich, did I have to die?¡± Cosimo sighed into the whiteless void. It wasn¡¯t his fault, after all. He did what he could, didn¡¯t he? ¡°Maria... couldn''t you just leave me alone?¡± Cosimo went to sleep. <(-_-)< v(-_-)v )''-'')b d(''-''( >(-_-)> Kirby Dance. He got woken up by a wild looking Japanese man with a heavy beard. The wild clothing gave him a feeling of power and disregard for the sensibility of others. Cosimo thought it was cool. "Hey there uh, Cosimo? You made me a bit sad with the way you ended up dying. Good job, It takes quite a lot to get my emotions going. Hello, I¡¯m her new boyfriend." He gave Cosimo a grin."Your sister is absolutely terrible, though, she didn''t even blink when she stabbed you. I seriously thought that her smile looked sinister for a moment there but no, I think she reallyenjoyed it. Do you understand, the appeal of crazy girls?" He chatted with Cosimo with an aimless air about him. Cosimo looked at him wary and asked him his name. ¡°Well, you see your sister Maria offered me your soul as a gift. She said she doesn¡¯t need you since she figured out she can just use other people. You were just convenient. I¡¯m Susanoo, a god, nice to meet you.¡± Susanoo said as he shook Cosimo¡¯s hand being polite."I¡¯m going to send you to another world. I figured I¡¯d give you another shot, you have some regrets?¡± Cosimo sighed. He had enough of the void anyways. Just go along with it. ¡°Another world? I guess, why not. I didn¡¯t have friends or anything else in life. Are you sure you want to date my sister? You know how she¡¯s like right?¡± ¡°Me, I like crazy girls. Your sister¡¯s like that. It just my preference. Nothing wrong with that right?¡± "No, no. It''s not my problem anymore, finally." ¡°She tired you out, huh. I¡¯ll do something nice for you then. How about I make this easy on you? Out of the blue, give you an ability out of a video game or something. Make your new life easier.Here, here¡¯s some abilities. I had a technology start-up program it out. You can pick two.¡± Susanoo said as he handed Cosimo a slick device.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Abilities? There doesn¡¯t seem to be anything interesting here huh. ¡®Mediocre¡¯? Why would anyone want an ability like that?¡± Cosimo whined a little to himself. Sounds like my life. Isn¡¯t this cruel? ¡°So you want it?¡± Asked Susanoo. ¡°I just want to know what it does.¡± ¡°Click on it then.¡± Cosimo clicked on it. He muttered an ''ah I see'' as he pursued the ability description. Bring enemies down to your level? Sounds like a debuff spell, that would be useful. Cosimo selected it, clicking back to make sure he could unselect it. He checked the other abilities and found them boring or situational and by chance tapped ''Average''. He''s curious. Why not check? "Wow... this ability is amazing. I can set my body and energy back to an average condition? If I don''t die, doesn''t this make me immortal?" He handed Susanoo the tablet, Susanoo''s eyes bugged out reading the description. "Not sure how this got in there. If you think it''s that great, have fun with it. I don''t see much potential for that one, what is that useful for?" "Immortality!" Cosimo cheered. "No no it''s just an average condition it says. The best you can be is average!" "And being average is better than being dead." "Hmm... good point. Well, got your choices? I''ll send you off then-" ¡°Um, so what¡¯s this world like?¡± Asked Cosimo. ¡°It¡¯s got magic and monsters. I¡¯m sure you can go be an adventurer and make friends that way. Meet people! Get a job! It¡¯ll be good for you! Now, I¡¯ve gotta go take your sister to see Mt. Fuji. I''ll check up on you later, have fun!¡± Susanoo disappeared and the world went white. Cosimo landed with a thump with hay scattering into the air framed against wood of a barn''s wall.Cosimo felt the sun''s rays warming his body as they peeked through wooden rafters, dust motes flying in the air. He sat up and hay flew about, scattering the sunlight with shadows. As he stood up, he felt a bit weak and ungainly. "I forgot to-" He saw a giant, giant anteater. Giant Anteaters were the species name on Earth. This is a especially giant one, in a stable staring at him. Why did he think it looked grumpy? It''sthe size of anox. "I forgot to ask him how to use abilities." Cosimo rubbed his head. ¡°You, human. You can use space magic? I¡¯ve never heard of someone like that!¡± Cosimo felt sound bubbling up from within his stomach. It was like it was inside his body. No, no way, it can''t be that- ¡°Well? I¡¯m Timothy. I suppose you¡¯re confused, but a pilosa like myself can speak. It¡¯s a special skill.¡± "Uh, sorry. I''m new here. Didn''t mean to port into your barn. I''ll leave now, sorry." Cosimo apologized and made to leave. A pink slab landed on his shoulder. He turned around, looking at the massive tongue coming from the anteater''s long snout to his shoulder. "Hold up there." Cosimo assumed that the ''pilosa'' was saying that. "Look, I''ve had a tough day. Can''t a guy just, come to another world, peacefully?" Cosimo lost his wits staring into the grim gimlet eyes of the ''pilosa''. ¡°After an answer from you. Another world? You think telling me that would make me less curious?" Cosimo sighed. He explained to the ''pilosa'' his situation, among ''hmms'' and ''hmphs'' from the anteater. He also told it what anteaters were like on Earth. "Well. That''s interesting! It gets boring around here, mind if I join you?" "Uh, join me for what?" The pilosapatted Cosimo on the back with his tongue. "I''m a druid. I want to see what you''re going to do with those abilities. That ''Average'' sounds troublesome. My sense of justice tells me you aren''t the type to make good decisions! Someone else like me, stranded alone among strangers- how about it? I''ll give you a ride to Aleppo!" "Aleppo? That sounds familiar..." "There''s a city like that on Earth? How strange. So how about it?" Cosimo rubbed his head, looking at the pilosa. "My name''s Timothy." It told him. "Are you... isn''t that kind of weird?" "Hey. That name is from my people." "Sorry." Cosimo apologized. It looked like a sore topic. Timothy explained to him that one of his abilities as a druid is ''Soul Arts'' and he speaks to Cosimo through that ability. Arts, special skills attained through mastery and practice, were uncommon among humans but common among his people. "Humans can''t handle dreams well." That statement mystified Cosimo but he let him continue as they left the barn, heading for a farmhouse. "I''ll go say goodbye. I worked for a couple here, got them through the winter." Well, he seems nice, Cosimo thought to himself watching Timothy sprint off with his long shiny coat. Isn''t it kind of like a horse? He looked into the field sewn with an orange crop, some frankenstein cross between pumpkin and corn. His hand went out and stopped short, it would be thieving wouldn''t it, to take it like this. He sighed, looking to trees in the distance and vast hill ridden plains. In the distance, a white blur on the horizon. Two- Ad Aleppo Cosimo looked up into the sky filled with pink clouds. He was laying on Timothy¡¯s back as Timothy was in full gallop over open plains filled with a grass carpet rustling in the wind. Small hills were here and there. Cosimo pulled out the crystal that he got from Xana. It had four points, and was colorless. When he saw Xana pull it out, it was blue. ¡°Hey kid, what¡¯s your name?¡±, asked Timothy. ¡°Cosimo. Hey, why did the color of this crystal change when Xana gave it to me?¡±, he asked. ¡°It¡¯s an energy thing. You don¡¯t even know that?¡±, said Timothy. At the very least, Cosimo was from far away, thought Timothy. ¡°What¡¯s this city we¡¯re going to called?¡±, Cosimo asked. Might as well make small talk. ¡°Aleppo. It¡¯s big and white,¡± said Timothy. Aleppo itself was a border city that grew as a trade hub between the city-state of Marscione and the surrounding nation of Grunkirk. There was a sea to the east of Marscione that surrounded it on the north and east entirely, and due to the plains dotted with small hills it was great farming territory. Marscione was the only national power in the country because to the south and west there were treacherous mountains. Naturally people had found safer paths here and there through the mountain ranges and the easiest paths that got the most attention and geoforming to create convenient trade routes formed a border town at the end of them. Aleppo was one of these, and being a small town they would trade with the neighboring powers Grunkirk and Marscione equally, and the mayor of Aleppo would have to have connections with both to be approved. This was a problem. The mayor of Aleppo, Baqashot, was having difficulties. He had his head implanted on the desk in front of him and was half-crying. If only a hero from another world could see him now, they would offer him some sort of administrative cheat from the modern era devised by trial and error of ages of human failure and perseverance. Really though, even they might have trouble with this one. He pulled his head up and you could see his face was screwed up and his hands were supporting his head dutifully. ¡°Secretary!¡± He grumbled out loud. It was more of a whine. ¡°Yes, mayor?¡±, said the secretary. ¡°Just¡­ bring me all of the alcohol,¡± whined Baqashot. He wanted wine too. The secretary knew his mood was sour, so she just went to a chest marked with sigils and started bringing bottles. It was chilly inside the chest. He was always like this when war was about to break out. Granted, Dunkirk was threatening for awhile now so this was nothing new. They were the closest military power covering the surrounding lands outside of the mountains sealing off Marscione and the border towns like Aleppo. They answered to Grunkirk, but had ambitions of their own. Ambitions for conquering Aleppo. The alcohol was not nearly as strong as earth¡¯s moonshine, designed entirely to only affect the mind¡¯s processes with sigils using mental magic engraved on them. The liver and pancreas were spared entirely from negative influence, so drinking was only useful for having a good time and making bad life decisions rather than actually destroying the body over a long, protracted period of time. No hangovers to boot. However, addiction is addiction despite being in another world. Baqashot twisted off the magically sealed tops quickly and took a heavy load into his mouth as his cheeks puffed. It dribbled disgustingly down his mouth into his thick beard and Cherise stood there patiently. Baqashot stared languidly as he slammed the bottle down. He wasn¡¯t even looking anywhere in particular, just imagining his eventual doom and mulling over it. ¡°I think it¡¯s really going to happen this time. Before, the Dunnies were okay with Marcies tariffs. Since that Cromwell guy took power though in Marscione, it¡¯s all been downhill. Really, I wish someone could just take him out. Just walk in there and kill him and maybe take over the city, become a benevolent dictator, lower the taxes and start a pax marsciona, you know what I mean?¡±, said Baqashot. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± the secretary said. The secretary was dutiful and kind and wonderful as a human being. Her homicidal fantasies towards Baqashot was fueling her writing and it was a stable job so her practiced business smile will never waver. ¡°Just what does that fat bastard expect me to do? Tell Marcies to shove off? No, no, I can barely function on the taxes as is, I told him that, why doesn¡¯t he care? Why does nobody care? This is going to be a war at this point, a war. We¡¯re going to be a staging ground, I¡¯m going to probably get killed with a puppet put in place to keep everything running smoothly, and hell, those damn adventurer¡¯s,¡± Baqashot stopped to breath in more alcohol. ¡°Those damn adventurer¡¯s are just gonna sit there and just get even more money. It''s already untaxable! Grunnies don¡¯t tax¡¯em, Marcies don¡¯t tax¡¯em, why do border towns like us get all the taxes! Not to mention they have enough crazy bastards with their ridiculous magic and sigil weapons and Arts and shit like that that they could defend the town for once. What¡¯s an army or two? Would Dunkirk even think about attacking if I could get the adventurer¡¯s on my side?¡±, Baqashot whined as he drank wine. ¡°I should just run,¡± Baqashot concluded. ¡°Um, sir. I know the situations difficult but Marcione isn¡¯t even answering to bribes anymore, Avingon is the nearest border town but there¡¯s no way they¡¯ll accept you knowing that Dunkirk forces will be occupying Aleppo. You have to stay here and attempt to placate them, it''s the only chance I see for any of us,¡± said the secretary. He looked at her with shiny eyes. He knew she was tired of him, but he kept her around because she didn¡¯t quit. To think she was honestly thinking of a way out of this for him. ¡°It¡¯s unfortunate but with this being such a difficult issue, not even the adventurer¡¯s will get involved no matter how much money you give them. I suppose you could cast away your name, disguise yourself in a crowd, and leave all your money to a trusted individual in order to smuggle it to another nation outside of Grunkirk¡­¡±, said the secretary. This was her chance. ¡°Cherise, don¡¯t kid me with that one. I¡¯d have to leave the money with you, and you¡¯d probably just stay here and blow it on whatever,¡± he gestured with the bottle in his hand and took another swig. He slammed the bottle down. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°I¡¯ll end it here. I¡¯ve been running for far too long, if they want to kill me in my city I¡¯ll go down bowing down as hard as possible offering myself as a supplicant to their cause!¡± ,Baqashot cheered. The light from a nearby window cast a shadow on half of his face. He thought he looked cool as he stood up and said that, but Cherise was busy dreaming of the red light district and didn¡¯t even notice. ¡°I¡¯m heading to Dunkirk¡¯s Embassy. Alert him with a sigil bird, I¡¯m gonna bow my head and give him the keys to the city. Here¡¯s hoping that fat bastard is still here eating some decopoda,¡± Baqashot did a mini toast and drained a newly opened bottle for good luck. ====== ¡°So there might be a war?¡±, said Cosimo. He wasn¡¯t too comfortable with that. Couldn¡¯t people in other worlds just be nice and fight against monsters? ¡°Best I can tell, it¡¯s just Dunkirk that wants the war. Sounds fun,¡± said Timothy. They came upon Aleppo in the distance. Towering white walls with a flat top. Images etched into the sides across the entire length, layered on top of each other in squares. A comparatively small gate of white wood to match the walls was visible in the distance with a small line queueing. ¡°Wow, wonder what those images are for?¡±, Cosimo asked Timothy. ¡°History. They must have figured that even if the town get¡¯s taken over, the walls will be preserved because they are pretty,¡± Timothy said. He silently admired that cunning. Timothy pulled into the line and Cosimo slipped off of Timothy. It was a stable and comfortable ride. Cosimo had heard of horses being uncomfortable, but what about pilosa? ¡°I just hand him this right?¡±, said Cosimo. ¡°You¡¯re a farmer¡¯s son. Xana¡¯s son. Just say that to the lady at the guild too,¡± said Timothy, ¡°Also, don¡¯t talk to me in town. You¡¯ll look crazy. It¡¯s not normal around here for pilosa to talk.¡± ¡°Alright, I got it. Thanks,¡± Cosimo said being polite. Timothy really was going out of his way, he thought. Maybe he was starting to believe him. Cosimo got his turn. ¡°Here, I¡¯m here to join the adventurer¡¯s guild,¡± said Cosimo to the gate guard. He was armored in white with a spear. Lots of etching with vines like veins spread out across both. ¡°Xana?¡±, he held the crystal, and it gleamed blue for a second. ¡°That¡¯s my mom, she¡¯s a farmer,¡± said Cosimo. He was good at this, he thought. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s five rukh, cost of entry,¡± the gate guard said as he touched it to a nearby metal plate. Huh, it¡¯s like home isn¡¯t it? Cosimo thought as he received the crystal back. Identification and credit card in one, thats nice. Cosimo took in the city, Timothy following dutifully behind him. A river, extending to the city center. Small submarines putted around the rivers crossing under low bridges. White rock fanned into the horizon, with buildings etched from the pavement to every inch of the building with vines like veins. He saw some strange writing that looked like a rune on a building, a massive glass window filled with them. It the sky, shining metal bird¡¯s flocked about all different colors. Each one seemed to know exactly where it was going, some were carrying small packages. He wanted to ask Timothy about it but kept his mouth shut. Being crazy would be bad. Timothy nudged him silently with his pace to guide him. There was a building near the city center after walking for awhile, full wood with windows that stood out from the mass of white stone of the city. A huge sign with a series of images depicting a battle with a dragon was depicted. The adventurer¡¯s guild for sure, Cosimo thought. On a patio in front of the building there was wild west saloon like doors and cafe seats filled with customers and food. A red-brown haired girl caught his eye. Long hair, tied with a golden bangle with some more of that strange writing. Her clothing was red and brown, with a red shawl that wrapped around her shoulders. Her chin was on the table on the patio, her eyes dull. Cosimo felt a thump in his heart. Something was wrong with her, he thought, even if she was definitely striking. Cosimo looked to Timothy and took off into the building. A group of adventurers near the door caught his eye as he locked eyes with a stone faced fellow in black. The was a girl with a witch hat, another girl in a black robe with gold lining with a staff that had a tiny bat on the top, and an unmistakable dwarf. Cosimo entered the guild. Those people looked interesting. Maybe he¡¯d join a group like that? He wasn¡¯t sure Timothy would stick around much longer, although Cosimo wished he would. Timothy was strong, and his angry side seemed to belie a kindness. Isn¡¯t it exciting? Cosimo held in his anticipation as he approached the desk. ¡°Hello, welcome to the Aleppo branch Adventurer''s Guild. Is this your first time here?¡±, said a clerk. Cosimo felt his heart lighten. ¡°I¡¯m a son of farmer from the countryside. I heard anyone could get an identification crystal here,¡± Cosimo said. ¡°Yes. Put your hand here,¡± she directed him to a small machine with a hole at the bottom. I put it in there right?, thought Cosimo. ¡°The identification crystal to take out loans, store money in a bank, make purchases, add and cast spells, open safe deposit boxes, and register for a local identification which will allow you to register for a farmer¡¯s license. That¡¯s what you¡¯re here for right?¡± Farmer¡¯s need a license here? Wait, maybe farmer¡¯s need a license on earth too. Better fake it for now, Cosimo thought. ¡°Ah, not right now. I¡¯m busy,¡± Cosimo said. He put his hand in the box. He heard a beep and felt a tap on his hand. ¡°I¡¯ll transfer this to the identification crystal,¡± said the clerk. ¡°How do I know more about specific abilities that I have? Does the guild test for that?¡±, Cosimo asked. ¡°That''s another function of the identification crystal. It¡¯s very important for you not to talk about your status with others you know, people that know the abilities of their opponent often get cocky and will take it as an excuse to target someone. It¡¯s a common thing that once people reveal their abilities to each other, that they are often exploited,¡± the clerk warned. ¡°That sounds harsh¡­ but isn¡¯t it common for people to show off their skills to get jobs and the like?¡±, posited Cosimo. ¡°Reputation and a history of accomplishments are really important for that, but the element of surprise is key to being an adventurer. You¡¯ll die horribly if you underestimate anyone,¡± said the clerk. She handed Cosimo a six sided crystal. ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said as she handed it over. ¡°What about?¡±, Cosimo was confused. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just that you''re the lowest quality. Lots of people are six points and do fine though. When you have less points on a identification crystal, it¡¯s like having a higher potential,¡± she said. Cosimo was flabbergasted. He didn¡¯t think much of himself in the first place, but to have proof of it in front of his eyes was insulting. It was glowing blue now that he took it into his hands. ¡°Please don¡¯t look like that, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll do fine. Do you know how to use it to check your skills?¡±, she added. ¡°No, if you mind?¡±, Cosimo urged her. ¡°Just hold the crystal and think status. Your abilities and level should come up in your mind,¡± said the clerk. Hmm, level like a game? Damn you Susanoo! Wait, shouldn¡¯t he be happy? Cosimo thought status. He was level two. Kind of strange, he thought he would be level one. Under level was ¡®magic¡¯ and under that with a blank title in a column all its own he saw the abilities ¡®Mediocre¡¯ and ¡®Average¡¯. ¡°Uh, how do I check out the abilities?¡±, Cosimo asked at a loss. ¡°You have abilities already? Oh, I shouldn¡¯t pry¡­ just focus on them and think that you want a description,¡± the clerk explained. Cosimo followed her direction. No explanation showed up, for either ability. Bug in the system? Wait, if even Susanoo didn¡¯t know what they did, does only that tech startup on earth know? They must be pretty good to design an ability that works in another world. He decided to drop it, as asking would just confuse the clerk. ¡°What¡¯s this color mean?¡±, Cosimo said pointing to his identification crystal. It was then that he heard shouts from outside. Cosimo, thinking that maybe Timothy went on a rampage, burst outside before getting an answer to his question. Timothy was riding off, that girl in red with her massive ponytail tied with a golden bangle trailing behind her balancing on top standing. With a smug grin on her face, Cosimo saw. Should I go after him? After all it¡¯s Timothy¡¯s choice who he hangs out with, just wish he would have told me, Cosimo thought angrily. His first friend in another world had betrayed him, he felt down. ¡°Ah! The pilosa! Save the pilosa! Arge!¡±, the girl with the witch hat was cheering as she ran off after Timothy. Rather high energy isn¡¯t she?, Cosimo thought. ¡°I knew it. I knew this day was heading this way the moment I saw that pilosa unchained¡­¡±, grumbled the stone faced kid that Cosimo saw earlier. He leaped out over the patio and made for the girl, tailing her closely. ¡°Ah, you guys go have fun okay? I¡¯ll stay with Doru,¡± said the girl with the black robe. Why is that bat on her staff so tiny anyways?, Cosimo thought. There wasn¡¯t much point to that was there? The dwarf, Doru, was drinking and already looked drunk. Cosimo saw them running off to go save his friend from the pilosa thief. But, they didn¡¯t know Timothy could think. He wished he could stop them. ¡°Hello there, was that your pilosa, homeless man?¡±, said the black robed girl. That is offensive. I have a home, on earth, Cosimo thought. Must be the clothes? ¡°Uh ah yes. He¡¯s really smart though, so he probably just ran off with that girl on his own¡­¡±, said Cosimo. ¡°No, that girl clearly cast some amazing magic on him. Slo and Arge are already going after them, why don¡¯t you catch up?¡±, said the black robed girl. ¡°Magic? Damn, well I guess I can¡¯t ignore that then. Thanks, bat girl!¡±, Cosimo said as he took off running. Wait, was he always in such great shape? It felt way too easy. ¡°I¡¯m Chel! Please make sure they don¡¯t die, I can¡¯t heal them if they die all the way!¡±, said Chel, the girl with that pointless tiny bat on her staff. Shouldn¡¯t you come with then!, thought Cosimo as he sped off after the witch hat girl and the stone faced kid. Three- Convenient Crystal The Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Cosimo could expect a lot from that. However, Timothy had different expectations for the journey. Isn¡¯t this amazing? After I rode on Timothy and he chased off the bandits and saved John and the woman, whose name appears to be Xana, he turned out to a talking magical beast. A proud one at that. He seems rough to talk to and Xana thought I was insane because he was using some ability called Soul Communication to talk directly to me in my mind, or soul I guess. I really regretted acting over the top and calling him ¡®my steed¡¯ after that. However, we cleared it up and he knows I didn¡¯t mean it like that. He thought I wanted to enslave him, but I don¡¯t feel too good about threatening an intelligent being. If he was a stupid beast, I might just have to do things like tie him to a post and try to some sort of animal training montage. That''s way beyond my skill level. It''s much easier this way, we can just be friends. I made my first friend in another world, and he even gathered food for me while using the excuse of bringing it for everyone. What a tsundere. Then when I asked him if I could sleep on him because the furs in the bandit tent couldn¡¯t compare to his magical anteater fur. I asked him about it mentioning the time where I noticed that it seemed like his body was pushing the trees to the side. He got upset that I was asking about his abilities for some reason but told me after I didn¡¯t let it drop that he can control each individual hair like a muscle using magic. That would explain why the arrows shot at him during the fight yesterday looked like they just veered off as soon as they hit his coat. Amazing. This is a high level companion no doubt. Apparently his species is called Pikefaces in this world as well. I was so excited and overwhelmed yesterday by the sudden death of myself and the transfer by the Japanese God and the realization of my mediocre ability that I must have confused Xana when I called him an Anteater. I need to be more careful in the future, I could easily get labeled insane. Not to mention saying those embarrassing things. I really didn¡¯t want to do that in public. I thought I was alone with a stupid beast so knowing that he¡¯s actually smart made me suffer a bit. Oh, well whatever. From now on, I¡¯ll take it easier. It may be another world, but I¡¯m still the same person I was before in reality back then. When I looked at that bandits corpse still crouching in the clearing in front of the bandit camp in the morning I remembered that. Good thing I have such good luck making a friend like this right from the start. However, it¡¯s worrying me that the Japanese God told me he would give me some money and stuff so I can relax in town. I guess it¡¯s in town somewhere? Why transfer me into a barn? To meet Timothy? I¡¯ll at least have wait for him to sort out the power choosing application so I can dump this mediocre ability, Timothy said something like it ¡®changes the nature of a being¡¯ or something like that. I did save Xana¡¯s life though, I feel good about that. Even though it was a cheat power that I choose from the list, it¡¯s still something I did myself right? We¡¯re heading into town now, Timothy said the Adventurer¡¯s Guild can help me figure out how the power works. I¡¯m laying on Timothy¡¯s back entirely stable as he runs under the bright cerulean sky in another world with pinkish clouds drifting here and there. I hold my hand up and watch the sun peek through the gaps in my fingers I feel like there¡¯s nothing I can¡¯t handle. At least, nothing Timothy can¡¯t handle, and he¡¯s friends with me. There¡¯s no helping his dark past, so from this day forward I¡¯ll do my best to support him as we go on a magical adventure in this new world! ¡°Timothy, I¡¯m so glad I met you! Let¡¯s be friends forever!¡± ¡°Forever? No way. It¡¯s a good thing you don¡¯t sound serious.¡± I heard Cosimo laugh at my comment directed into his soul using my skill Soul Communication. It made my heart lighten hearing that. Although from my interaction from him I do not believe he has any ill will, he¡¯s been quite demanding. At this point, until I¡¯m able to figure out more about his abilities I cannot disobey him. Since he does not seem willing to force me I am actually in a more difficult position than before. Were he to be clear and demand I obey I would have no choice but to protect the honor as the last of my tribe and go down fighting. Against humans when I was in the depths of my hatred and despair before chancing upon the farmers in need, Xana and John, I was playing around and letting them push me to their own ends. However, spending that winter caring for the farmers I found my strength again in repaying their kindness. I won¡¯t let humans force me to submit any longer. Or anyone else. Cosimo seems to have the intention of forming a bond, but his power is far beyond mine. Although he denies it. How else could he use Advanced Space Magic and that strange ability that corrupts the nature of a being that allowed him to revive Xana with no cost to the surrounding life? If I had that ability¡­ No, I wouldn¡¯t have used it to revive my tribe. I wasn¡¯t able to do so back then with my usual magic. I would have simply sacrificed my own life and not even revived a single one of the fallen. The cost of the Transfer Life spell would be far too much. Humans are very good at reading the potential of beings though, they use something called a ¡®Status Checker¡¯ that even converts vague abilities like strength to a concrete number. When I learned of the concept of math I can¡¯t say I wasn¡¯t interested. Was it partly that why I didn¡¯t mind playing along with their slavery game? My curiosity got the best of me, in such a difficult time? Enough of this. I¡¯ll have to wait and see what Cosimo does next. This is more interesting that sticking around those farmers. I really was getting bored. Should I be grateful and play along as his friend, just as I played along with the other humans as their slave? That will do for now. He said something last night that disturbed me though. Cosimo said ¡®there must be something you want to do, I¡¯ll help with that!¡¯. Just what was I looking for? Revenge? I don¡¯t know who killed them all. No, at that time I just felt like I was finally free, and it sickened me. Thats why I ran away to the human world. I sighed as I heard Cosimo doing some humming. What a catchy tune. I¡¯ll find it. Whatever it is that¡¯s in this world that I want, I¡¯ll take it. I¡¯ll destroy it. If I have to, I¡¯ll go down fighting against the being on back if I need to. Come, Cosimo, lets see the truth of your power! So it was like that, the two of them a giant Anteater and a human from another world lying on its back raced towards the city of Aleppo. Aleppo itself was a border city that grew as a trade hub between the city-state of Marscione and the surrounding nation of Grunkirk. There was a sea to the east of Marscione that surrounded it on the north and east entirely, and due to the plains dotted with small hills it was great farming territory. Marscione was the only national power in the country because to the south and west there were treacherous mountains. Naturally people had found safer paths here and there through the mountain ranges and the easiest paths that got the most attention and geoforming to create convenient trade routes formed a border town at the end of them. Aleppo was one of these, and being a small town they would trade with the neighboring powers Grunkirk and Marscione equally, and the mayor of Aleppo would have to have connections with both to be approved. This was a problem. The mayor of Aleppo, Baqashot, was having difficulties. He had his head implanted on the desk in front of him and was half-crying. If only a hero from another world could see him now, they would offer him some sort of administrative cheat from the modern era devised by trial and error of ages of human failure and perseverance. Really though, even they might have trouble with this one. He pulled his head up and you could see his face was screwed up and his hands were supporting his head dutifully. ¡°Cherise. Cherise!¡± He grumbled out loud. It was more of a whine. ¡°Yes, mayor? The emissary hasn¡¯t left his residence yet. There¡¯s still time.¡± ¡°Just¡­ bring me all of the alcohol.¡± Cherise knew his mood was sour, so she just went to the cold chest and started bringing bottles. He was always like this when war was about to break out. Granted, Grunkirk was threatening for awhile now so this was nothing new. Incidentally, they had treasure chests that were imbued with chilling enchantment runes to function as storage in this world. Incidentally, the chest in the other room was filled with alcohol. The alcohol was not nearly as strong as earth¡¯s moonshine, designed entirely to only affect the mind¡¯s processes with runes using mental magic engraved on them. The liver and pancreas were spared entirely from negative influence, so drinking was only useful for having a good time and making bad life decisions rather than actually destroying the body over a long, protracted period of time. No hangovers to boot. However, addiction is addiction despite being in another world. Baqashot twisted off the magically sealed tops quickly and took a heavy load into his mouth. It dribbled disgustingly down his mouth into his thick beard and Cherise stood there patiently. Incidentally, she¡¯s the second most attractive woman in this story so far. The ranking goes: 1)Cosimo¡¯s evil yet forgivable because she¡¯s smiling and cute sister, whose name is Maria 2)Cherise, who is going to die horribly. This is foreshadowing. 3)Timothy 4)Xana, after resurrection via ¡®Mediocre¡¯ Xana would be still be fourth because Timothy is prettier even as male and an anteater. Baqashot stared languidly as he slammed the bottle down. He wasn¡¯t even looking anywhere in particular, just imagining his eventual doom and mulling over it. ¡°I think it¡¯s really going to happen this time. Before, the Grunnies were okay with Marcies tariffs. Since that guy took power though, its all been downhill. Really, I wish someone could just take him out. Just walk in there and kill him and maybe take over the city, become a benevolent dictator, lower the taxes and start a pax marsciona, you know what I mean?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Cherise was dutiful and kind and wonderful as a human being. Her homicidal fantasies towards Baqashot was fueling her writing and it was a stable job so her practiced business smile will never waver. ¡°It¡¯s like, that Dun guy,¡± Dun is the emissary from Dunkirk, a major military faction in Grunkirk. He was the one Cherise was talking about earlier who was going to leave, and give the order to start the invasion. ¡°Just what does that fat bastard expect me to do? Tell Marcies to shove off? No, no, I can barely function on the taxes as is, I told him that, why doesn¡¯t he care? Why does no one care? This is going to be a war at this point, a war. We¡¯re going to be a staging ground, I¡¯m going to probably get killed with a puppet put in place to keep everything running smoothly, and hell, those damn adventurer¡¯s,¡± he stopped to breath in more alcohol. ¡°Those damn adventurer¡¯s are just gonna sit there and just get even more money. Its already untaxable! Grunnies don¡¯t tax¡¯em, Marcies don¡¯t tax¡¯em, why do border towns like us get all the taxes! Not to mention they have enough crazy bastards with their ridiculous magics and sigils and sword arts and shit like that that they could defend the town for once. Whats an army or two? Would Dun even think about attacking if I could get the adventurer¡¯s on my side?¡± ¡°It¡¯s quite sad, sir.¡± ¡°Just¡­ let Dun go. He¡¯s not the type to listen anymore. I can see it, he¡¯s after fame or money or I don¡¯t know what. Tell Pizmonim to fire the guards. There¡¯s only one choice here, and its to flee.¡± ¡°Um, sir. I know the situations difficult but Marcione isn¡¯t even answering to bribes anymore, Lattakyia is the nearest border town but there¡¯s no way they¡¯ll accept you knowing that Dunkirk forces are occupying Aleppo. You have to stay here and attempt to placate them, it''s the only chance I see for any of us.¡± ¡°Cherise¡­¡± He looked at her with shiny eyes. He knew she was tired of him, but he kept her around because she didn¡¯t quit. To think she was honestly thinking of a way out of this for him. ¡°It¡¯s unfortunate but with this being such a difficult issue, not even the adventurer¡¯s will get involved no matter how much money you give them. I suppose you could cast away your name, disguise yourself in a crowd, and leave all your money to a trusted individual in order to smuggle it to another nation outside of Grunkirk¡­¡± ¡°Cherise, don¡¯t kid me with that one. I¡¯d have to leave the money with you, and you¡¯d probably just stay here and blow it on whatever,¡± he gestured with the bottle in his hand and took another swig. He slammed the bottle down. ¡°I¡¯ll end it here. I¡¯ve been running for far too long, if they want to kill me in my city I¡¯ll go down bowing down as hard as possible offering myself as a supplicant to their cause.¡± The light from a nearby window cast a shadow on half of his face. He thought he looked cool as he stood up and said that, but Cherise was busy dreaming of the red stone district and didn¡¯t even notice. ¡°I¡¯m heading to Dun. Alert him with a bird, I¡¯m gonna bow my head and give him the keys to the city. Here¡¯s hoping that fat bastard is still here eating some crab,¡± he did a mini toast and drained a newly opened bottle for good luck. ======== ¡°Heh, so this city is called Aleppo? Why does that sound familiar¡­¡± Cosimo was scratching his nose. He had an urge to pick it but didn¡¯t want to look uncool, this was another world after all so it might be normal, but he didn¡¯t want to embarrass himself yet. He sat cross-legged on his steed and stared up at the massive walls, huge thick chunks of some alabaster like white with engraving across the entire circumfrence. It was like a giant canvas, or a page of a novel covered with writing. As Timothy slowed down as they approached the entrance gate and he could see that there were lines of pictures carved in the stone. They were layered on top of each other, like if you could read it right to left in a line. Each band of lines has separators, like the panels of a manga or frames of a painting. ¡°I wish Maria could see this, maybe the Japanese God will take her here someday¡­ Hey Timothy, what¡¯s with the carvings on the city walls?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk to me in the city unless necessary. Pikefaces like me don¡¯t usually have soul communication. If they use the Status Checker on me the guild would regard me as a rare hunt I¡¯m sure, and I don¡¯t want to kill them all if necessary. The carvings are the history of the city-state of Marscione, I overheard a old man talking about how the nation wanted a place to record their history so that even if the people died and the city fell they would still preserve proof they existed on the city walls. If anyone took over the city, even they would be able to understand the pictures and appreciate their worth as art, and so they wouldn¡¯t destroy them and instead use them as a tourist attraction. Instead of protecting the walls by making them tougher, they made them prettier. Quite interesting.¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.¡°Oh, thanks. You¡¯re right about not talking to you, I made Xana think I was crazy yesterday. You¡¯re quite curious about humanity aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I just- It seemed like if a people were to lose everything, then having something that could survive even in another culture or race would be amazing. Like the something from the people themselves defied death.¡± ¡°Woah, that¡¯s deep. Almost like how I resurrected Xana the other day.¡± ¡°Nothing like that. I¡¯ll be at ease if the Status Checker can explain what that ability is as well¡­¡± Cosimo slid off of Timothy¡¯s back to stand in line. Beasts of burden and carriages were left to the side as a small customs office was set up in front of the gate to check people. At this point, Cosimo was lucky that Xana had offered him some money and her crystal of identification. With that, he would at least be able to get by with a story that he was a farmers son here to purchase goods. Usually this was unforgivable without a crystal of identification, but using that excuse he could also purchase one for himself. It seemed rather important due to what he heard from Timothy. He also asked on the way here about him riding on a Pikeface, to which Timothy replied, ¡°Why don¡¯t you just tell them you¡¯re a monster tamer?¡± That was the first time he heard Timothy use a mocking voice via Soul Communication. He didn¡¯t know what was wrong with that, of course monster tamers existed in a fantasy world. He didn¡¯t know that monster tamers did exist, but that they were rather uncommon. There was a similar occupation, ¡®Enchanter¡¯ but they usually dealt with items. Usually, that is. It was unfortunate that being a monster tamer was a rare enough occupation to attract the attention of another rare occupation that would lead to Cosimo meeting his first harem member. But for now, he walked up to the guard with the spear checking identification and handed over the crystal, a four point star. ¡°Hmm, this belongs to a ¡®Xana¡¯ according to the identification checker. Are you her son?¡± Cosimo balked a little at that but kept smooth in his mind. ¡°Y-yeah, I¡¯d here to buy¡­ seeds.¡± ¡°You seem a little nervous. Is that Pikeface over there your¡¯s? I saw you riding in on it.¡± The guard decided to drop questioning about the seeds as this kid was clearly a bumpkin with no sense as any farmer would have decent enough cultivation magic to extract seeds from their own crops. Couple that with his strange clothing that was basically just a white sheet and the guard could only take him for a retard that this Xana was exploiting. ¡°Y-yeah it¡¯s mine. I¡¯m a monster tamer.¡± Monster tamers didn¡¯t exist to that guard. He dismissed the kid as a retard. There was no known way to exploit the bonding instinct of beasts known as ¡®monsters¡¯ in this world. At least among the people of the northern continents. Of course, that didn¡¯t stop them from being able to use them as beast of burden or mounts, but training for combat was too much. ¡°That¡¯s nice. It twenty rukh to get in.¡± The kid, Cosimo, pulled out a few coins. He was staring at them. He randomly picked a coin that looked like a penny and handed it over. ¡°Twenty rukh. I need three more of those coins.¡± He was being patient. Cosimo quickly handed them over. The guard smiled, he was a good person today for being patient with a retard. He watched the kid walk into the city with no shoes and a pikeface following him. ¡°Well, at least he has a well trained beast at his side. A dumb kid like that, they probably shouldn¡¯t of sent him into a city with one that obedient, thats worth a lot of money,¡± he told it casually to the obviously evil and completely cunning fellow near him who was a fellow guard by day, villain and thief by night. He gave grin of mischief. ¡°Heh, pikeface like that would be enough to retire on. It¡¯d be a shame if someone stole him.¡± ¡°Yeah, I hope he doesn¡¯t get into trouble, this city is pretty rough.¡± The villainous guard gave a sneer as his hard working comrade turned around to handle the next entrant. Oh, that boy would be in trouble indeed. The checker said he had Xana¡¯s identifier as well, she was a farmer that the corrupt guard Villanos knew well. He scammed her husband John once by directing him to sell his crops to a short charger. It was easy enough to recommend a good place to sell which was actually giving you far less than you would get just selling on the street. This wasn¡¯t the only reason John and Xana were unable to get through the winter without selling their land, but it didn¡¯t help. He snickered. Xana didn¡¯t have a kid. He remembered her saying how she wanted to have one when things were stable. Even then, he¡¯s way too old. Too perfect. She must have given the pikeface to a random dying kid and gave him clothes and money to get started in the city. To that kid, that beast must have been keeping him alive. ¡°Heh, Looks like someone¡¯s about to lose their new best friend. I pity him.¡± Villanos snickered again and got back to his job. He would be busy tonight. ==== I made sighed when I got past the gate and felt a sudden ominous aura from behind me. It was probably nothing, so I just kept walking. I wanted to ask Timothy about money but I immediately remembered his warning. I thought it was strange though, the guard just let it go that Timothy wasn¡¯t wearing a bridle or anything. Its another mystery. The city was full of rounded, white huts and there was a popularity of domes. I kept close to Timothy as he promised to lead me to the guild, so I was self-conscious when I saw people staring at me. Not only was I almost naked with just a sheet for clothes and no shoes, I was following a pikeface who had no restraints. Standing out, isn¡¯t that normal for a world transfer story? I breathed a sigh of relief. As long as everything fits the pattern, everything will be okay. It¡¯s good the road is well-paved too, I was amazed by the detail work in the stone masonry. Well, they have magic here so it''s probably much easier to decorate things intricately. The entire city was full of the same alabaster white stone with dome like tops, and looking closely I could see little designs like the vines of tree etched all over every building. Across the ground were leaf and loam designs, I even saw some worms and bugs designed in too. That''s quite the detail there. There were tasteful partner color stones like beige and light brown to mark the sides of the main roads, with the buildings creeping up to three stories before ending in the dome capping. Up ahead was a building completely out of place though. It was full of windows with glass and shiny metal buckling with rivets driven into a wooden frame. It was mostly wood, I don¡¯t know why it looked like metal was just added onto it. Plating? What, for defense against attack? Beyond that there was no etching at all, in fact the wood used was treated almost like it was entirely clear and the little swirls characteristic to wood weren¡¯t there at all. As I got closer, I saw full length swinging wooden doors and a few types going in and out. There was a guy with an axe as big as him, bald with a scar across his face. He was hefting it on his shoulder easily. The wooden door could swing either way looking at the people going in and there was a patio with tables and chairs with people eating food. My eyes were caught by a interesting looking girl there. Sitting at a table in front of a patio, a girl with a light chest and soft features and a heart shaped face. Brown eyes and messy brown hair that reeked of bedhead, with dark circles under her eyes and a long fat ponytail that looked like a squirrel''s tail. It looked like it was being held together with a shiny golden ring at the nape of her neck. Her clothes were tight and she was wearing a corset with a undershirt of thing looking matierial with a cape that went down to right above the small of her back. She was lying on the table like a log with her eyes devoid of light and chin facing forward. I wanted to help her instinctively, but I kept on walking. She¡¯s definitely quality. I rated her immediately as cute, but obviously my sister was still number one in my heart. Feeling that tug, I got scared when she suddenly looked at me with those lightless eyes with dark circles under them. I looked away and patted Timothy, then headed in. For some reason, I saw Timothy¡¯s gaze direct towards that girl as well. Something inside me told me that she was dangerous. I felt a strange pain in my ribs as I walked into the swing doors and walked into the guild. That was where my sister stabbed me yesterday. I didn¡¯t even take a look at it, shouldn¡¯t I be fine though since I can walk? When I remembered squirrel tail girl, I felt the same pain again. Just what is this feeling? ¡°Hello, welcome to the Aleppo branch Adventure¡¯s Guild. Is this your first time here?¡± Oh, she¡¯s courteous. I feel better now, its a girl that cleanses the heart. Just good enough to wash away squirrel girl¡¯s memory. ¡°I¡¯m a son of farmer from the countryside. I heard anyone could get an identification crystal here and check status.¡± ¡°Ah, so then first you have to register. We can do both at once, the status checker,¡± she pointed to a handheld barcode scanner from a supermarket with a little window on top, ¡°will read your staus and imprint it on a identification crystal. You¡¯re new to this, so you can then go ahead and use that identification crystal to take out loans, store money in a bank, make purchases, add and cast unique spells, open safe deposit boxes, and register for a local identification which will allow you to register for a farmer¡¯s license. That¡¯s what you¡¯re here for right?¡± Farmer¡¯s need a license here? Better fake it for now, I don¡¯t know about local identification but this seems good enough. ¡°Yeah, is there a list of things the identification can do? I also need some local information.¡± ¡°This is an ¡®Aleppo Guide for Retards¡¯ and ¡®Adventuring for Retards¡¯, both are five rukh¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that name a little¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s a very popular series. Its all in images so anyone can understand.¡± ¡°Literacy doesn¡¯t seem very common, in fact, I don¡¯t know why I can talk to you at all.¡± Oops, I slipped there, I got too casual. How will take that though? ¡°That¡¯s normal though, this really is your first time in a city. Long ago, a great wizard cast an extremely powerful spell that united all languages of the world. So anywhere you go, anyone can talk to anyone. There¡¯s even rumors that some people have a skill called Soul Communication that can talk with living beings who normally can¡¯t speak.¡± Ah, she¡¯s great. I wonder why that spell would affect me though, or was this the work of the Japanese God? Either way, I better buy those books. It seems like it destroyed the literacy culture of this world though, oh well. ¡°So, there¡¯s still regular books with written language in them right?¡± ¡°Oh of course, you must have heard of official documents. Its common practice to develop a language for secrets of the state, because only the rich have enough time to devote to learning written words. Also for entertainment.¡± ¡°Okay, thanks. I¡¯ll buy both those books.¡± ¡°Then lets do the status check. Hold out your hand.¡± I held it out and she held the scanner device pointing down towards the top of my hand and clicked the trigger. I heard little high pitched tones like a friendly sounding geiger counter then a final tone that suggested it was done. ¡°I¡¯ll transfer this to a identification crystal. One of the things you can do is review your status with it, it¡¯ll say how to do it in the book.¡± I bet these books sell really well. She clicked in into a small machine nearby and I saw a little light flashing on and off rapidly in small box there. ¡°It¡¯ll be done soon. Did you also want to register with the guild? You can do that with the identification crystal. It¡¯s five rukh to register.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll do that too, here¡¯s the money.¡± I¡¯m glad I had that experience with the guard earlier, although I guess this lady could have helped me too. ¡°Another thing,¡± I had to broach this topic as well, ¡°how do I know more about specific abilities that I have? Does the guild test for that?¡± ¡°Thats another function of the identification crystal. It¡¯s very important for you not to talk about your status with others you know, people that know the absolute strength of their opponent often get cocky and will take it as a excuse to target someone. It¡¯s a common thing that once people reveal their abilities to each other, that they are often exploited.¡± ¡°That sounds harsh¡­ but isn¡¯t it common for people to show off their skills to get jobs and the like?¡± ¡°Reputation and a history of accomplishments are really important for that, but the element of surprise is key to being an adventurer. You¡¯ll die horribly if you underestimate anyone, especially if you think level is everything. Many are like that at first, so don¡¯t be like them. Not to mention that even among skill holders and what the status can tell them, often it doesn¡¯t predict the full range of capability. Like if your strength is ninety, and you need at least seventy to lift a certain boulder, even if you put in all your strength you still might not be able to lift it because you simply don¡¯t have a good enough grip or aren¡¯t using your body properly.¡± She cautioned me. Rather mother like isn¡¯t she? ¡°Also- Ah it¡¯s done,¡± with a ping, she pulled it out of a swiveling box and touched it to a bigger crystal on the other side of her. ¡°I¡¯m registering you now, and, here you go.¡± She handed it over. ¡°Did you need anything else?¡± ¡°No, thanks a lot.¡± I pulled away after being polite and toyed with crystal. This one was six sided. I wonder why there was a difference. There was a pub inside the guild here that served food to my right and I was hungry, but I remembered squirrel tail girl and immediately beat a retreat. I was scared because she was still on the patio, but I shook my head because it was dumb to to be worried about a stranger. With this book I should be fine- Hey, where¡¯s Timothy? Four- And Then Suddenly ¡°Someone ran off with Timothy, my beloved steed and currently only and best friend in the entire world without exaggeration?¡± He tucked his books under his arm and wore the identification crystal on his neck. Clothes, my missing best friend with mysterious abilities and steed, or food. Well, that''s obvious right now. ¡°Hey, hello there mage girl? Did you see a pikeface run off somewhere?¡± ¡°Mage girl¡­?¡± There was a girl with a mage hat eating with some people on the patio. She seemed the smallest and easiest to pick on, so I felt no fear. I got a disgusted look from her friend for some reason but that was normal. Must be the blanket on me. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re the homeless guy that just came here with that stunning Pilosa, I¡¯ve never seen one with such a magnificent aura!¡± ¡°Pilosa¡­?¡± ¡°Oh, you probably know them as pikefaces, but thats just slang for hunters. Anyways, it was really amazing, there was this really interesting looking girl with long reddish brown hair, she did some crazy acrobatic move off of the patio and cast some crazy spell I¡¯ve never seen on the Pilosa and mounted it and made it do a rearing start before it shot off. The guards freaked out and ran after them. It¡¯s lucky no one got hurt, it was running full speed in the city but then it shot up to the rooftop! One jump too! Super amazing, I¡¯ve never seen a Pilosa pull that off!¡± Woah, she looked like she was enjoying it all over again. I checked the place that dour girl from before was sitting. It¡¯s the squirrel tail girl from before for sure. I didn¡¯t think she had that kind of energy. ¡°T-Thanks, do you have any idea about how I can track him down?¡± ¡°Save the Pilosa? Hey everyone lets go!¡± It was almost like the idea had never even occured to her, maybe she was just waiting for someone to say it. I didn¡¯t want to question them as the guy in corner looked like he was going to punch me. She turned to her compatriots. Her friend who gave me the look of disgust put her hand on the mage girls shoulder. ¡°Did you see his identification crystal that he¡¯s wearing on his neck. He doesn¡¯t have any money to pay you at all, plus look at his clothes. Lets leave it to the guards, if we chase after some super power Pilosa rampaging through the town we won¡¯t make it out of town in time to complete the quest¡­¡± Mage girl stared her down. She was her friend, but this wasn¡¯t something she could back down on. ¡°I¡¯m going.¡± ¡°A-Ah¡­ good luck Slo, please hurry back okay? I¡¯ll take care of Doru and the gear okay? ¡°I can¡¯t let her go alone¡± A well boned lanky type stood up, he was carrying a small thick gladius and picked up a shield. He put his hand forward and grasped mine. A handshake for the first time in another world. ¡°I¡¯m coming to protect Slo, my name is Arge. Let''s get that Pilosa back.¡± ¡°N-nice to meet you Arge, I¡¯m Cosimo.¡± He looked like a real soldier, but I couldn¡¯t call him too old. I was intimidated just by his stone faced look. Did he kill people before, no maybe this guy really does it for a living. There was a short angry faced short fat burly type filling up the last seat clearly drunk. No one gave him a look as Slo and Arge gathered a few things quickly. The remaining girl waved off Slo with a worried look on her face. They seem like nice people. ¡°Let''s head the alley over there, I need a clear place to cast my magic. Since it''s that Pilosa, it should light up like a star the moment I cast the unique magic.¡± We entered the alley and Arge motioned for to wait as Slo walked away and sat down on her legs. She took out her identification crystal. This one looked like a triangle. Three point star? What does that mean? I turned to the guy next to me. ¡°Hey nice to meet you Arge, I really didn¡¯t expect this to happen or for you guys to actually help me out, I¡¯m sorry about this.¡± ¡°Slo does what she wants. When I saw that Pilosa get snatched by that beautiful girl I knew it would end like this. I¡¯m surprised she didn¡¯t run off right then.¡± ¡°O-oh so she¡¯s always like this? I hardly think that girl was beautiful though¡­¡± Arge smirked. I didn¡¯t think he could smile from the stone look on his face. ¡°I think you¡¯re the type who has terrible taste in girls. Look at Slo, she¡¯s tiny, loves animals, chases after them and basically hunts down poachers for a living. Completely irrational, but I can¡¯t leave her alone. Do you know what that¡¯s like?¡± ¡°Yeah, definitely. I was being a huge problem for her actually, I did everything for her.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re the clingy type. Now listen here,¡± he clasped my shoulder and slid the gladius to my throat, ¡°You be quiet and follow along, if you pull anything or I think Slo¡¯s in danger or this is a setup, you¡¯re done. I¡¯ve got a few unique magics I can pull on you no matter who you heard from about my abilities they haven¡¯t heard them all, ok?¡± It¡¯s my first time being threatened with death in another world. Hooray. ¡°H-hey, I don¡¯t know what this is I just really want my best friend back. There¡¯s no way I¡¯d hurt the people helping me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± he casually withdrew the dagger, ¡°Personally, I thought you were scum from the moment I saw you. Now I just think you¡¯re an idiot. Don¡¯t take it personally though, you want to survive in Aleppo you¡¯ll need a friend or two.¡± I just wanted to stay silent. Earlier he said something about hunting poachers, I have no idea what that means but that sounds like killing people. Did I just get myself involved with the worst type of person? Slo bobbed up and twirled around with a grin. ¡°Hey! Its this way, they stopped!¡± She shot forward and Arge caught up to her quickly and shot me a mean look. He was stony faced again, as I started running. He slowed down just a bit so he was right behind my left shoulder with his weapon drawn. Of course I was lucky that I was quite athletic on earth and that transferred here somehow, but the spring in my step felt a lighter than before. Although I was breathing, it wasn¡¯t as hard and a felt like some energy was bursting forth. It was surprising. I felt a slight pulse from my neck. It must be because of the identification crystal, maybe you can just call them do-everything crystals if they can do stuff like this. I can¡¯t wait to read that book, Arge and Slo said something about unique magics, what are those? Why is everything tied into the crystal too, you¡¯d think that would dangerous. As we sprinted down the street I heard Slo panting a little but she was making good time. As I took in the vast size of the city we came upon a massive glittering blue river with multiple low bridges spanning over it carrying traffic. Some of the bridges were rather wide, so I got good look at the extremely low profile boats shuttering under the bridge. I could see their dark shapes under the water easily, it looked like a surfaced sub but it didn¡¯t look natural at all. Slo jumped down onto a riverbank walkway and I saw huge arches forming a tunnel under the bridge. There was a string of glowing crystal lamps that gave it a gothic feeling with the ever present etchings on the walls. It was more of those image stories mixed with the usual nature decoration carved into the stone. Arge called for a stop and Slo was catching her breath bent over. ¡°Awh, ahh, I¡¯m tired. Pilosa, wait for me, I¡¯ll save you.¡± ¡°She¡¯s under the city? It¡¯s not too far right, Slo?¡± If Arge was concerned it didn¡¯t show in his voice or face. Slo caught her breath and held onto her crystal. I noticed that she had tied it to her palm and was blowing on it with both palms clasped together under her chin facing up. She had her eyes closed. ¡°¡®Animal Detection¡¯ is still working underground in a city, that Pilosa¡¯s amazing. He¡¯s not that far ahead. I heard you threatening this guy earlier can¡¯t you let your guard down now? We don¡¯t know how strong she is at all.¡± ¡°Hmph,¡± Arge took a look at me, ¡°What¡¯s your battle strength like? Even if you have a six point crystal you don¡¯t look too weak at all. Even during the run when I was pacing myself you looked like you were enjoying the view. We¡¯ll need a plan, and I¡¯ll have to trust you this time.¡± It wasn¡¯t like I was useless after all. Even if I was cracked at the center and believed myself to be flawed as a person, I still put a lot of effort into training for my sister. ¡°I know hand to hand melee fighting, I need to get in close. If it''s an attack, I can probably take it head on.¡± Arge balked at that. ¡°You look tough but what are you, some kind of pugilist? I didn¡¯t think someone could handle monsters like that, are you an enforcer from the underworld or something?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a farmer who practiced in my off time.¡± ¡°Wait, farmer, so you know ¡®Cultivation¡¯? That could help a lot¡­¡± ¡°Uh, okay sorry I just lied. I¡¯m just a farmer¡¯s son, I never learned farming.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re an idiot who can punch people.¡± It''s too much trouble to clear this up, I want my superpowered anteater back as soon as possible. I grimaced. ¡°I am an idiot who can punch.¡± Even if I believe myself to be flawed as a being from the start, that still hurt. Arge noticed that. ¡°Hey, are you okay? It seems like you¡¯re having a rough time right now, but let¡¯s go into battle with a smile on our faces alright?¡± The last time I saw a smile on your face you had a gladius to my throat and insulted my taste in girls though? You didn¡¯t change your tone once while saying that and had a complete stone face voice and tone though?This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Slo had to speak up at this point. ¡°Come on, we don¡¯t know how long she¡¯ll keep the Pilosa there. There¡¯s no way a Pilosa like that would be with a bad person¡­ maybe.¡± ¡°Hey.¡± I had my limits. Arge began to lay out the plan. ¡°Anyways, you and I are going to rush in and try to hit her. She seems like she¡¯s got some sort of acrobatic skill so those types always get cornered if you drive them near a wall or another opponent. Meanwhile, Slo will use her unique magic and stale magics to try to hit her while she¡¯s airborne and force her to the ground. She seems to have some unique magic similar to mental magic, when I saw her use it outside the adventurer¡¯s guild it looked really flashy, big red sigils and a giant magic circle and some strange phantom was hanging above her head. It¡¯s a fast cast, so even if you need to hit the person target to get them out of the way to do immediately. Got it Cosimo, Slo?¡± That was more for me. ¡°Alright, Arge, let¡¯s take her on.¡± Damn squirrel tail girl. We crouched and sneaked towards a tunnel seperating from the underpass into several large rooms filled with giant cylinders. I heard a massive droning sound that was blocked out somehow in the main tunnel. Slo motioned for us to stop and moved to the back so Arge and I could charge forward first. I quickly looped the crystal around my right palm like I saw Slo do and imagined channeling energy into it. If it was something like mana, I just needed to reverse the flow and- I felt it. The energy I felt pushing from the crystal flowed back out, and in the darkness I saw the crystal change to yellow. I clasped my hand into a fist and began to imagine like I was putting everything into it. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but I was kind of out of options. I would have gone here if I was alone. Timothy told me he didn¡¯t want to be enslaved again, and if that¡¯s what that damn squirrel girl is doing, I¡¯ll make sure I pay back that awesome taxi service. I grinned to myself and pushed the energy harder. I was waiting for Arge to make a move but he was pointing at my crystal. He didn¡¯t say anything and just pointed and made a confused look on his face. I just shrugged. He looked like he was going to pull me back but I decided to run out. It wasn¡¯t a good choice I was thinking as I ran and caught sight of squirrel tail girl napping peacefully on top of a sleeping Timothy. Surprised, I turned around and tried to stop Arge but he was already in full charge with gladius drawn and Slo was priming some magic as energy began gathering between her palms and a blue light surrounded her. I quickly turned and ran toward the Squirrel girl and watched as Arge mercilessly stabbed into her stomach. It slid off. At the last second those lightless eyes of that girl opened and she twisted her body upward and propelled her self straight into the air from a sleeping posture. The gladius stabbed straight into Timothy¡¯s body but it didn¡¯t get far at all thanks to his armor like hair. He didn¡¯t even wake up. I got a good look at squirrel girl for the first time as she floated in the air. She spoke up in a surprisingly light and cheerful voice as light began to pool in her eyes. ¡°Dazzling the stage! Flutter! Curtain Open~!¡± She dramatically flashed out her hands with red gloves that matched that tiny cape and her hair tossed about in the wind against the backstage of the giant cold white cylinders. Her squirrel tail hair flash upwards with her hand as she shouted out. ¡°Gobo Contract, First Open, Dancing Lily!¡± A huge circle of light appeared behind her in the sky with seven long boxes levitating around in a fan covering the bottom end of the circle of light above her head. A open smile dazzling her face, floating in the air, it looked like she was dancing. ¡°Oh shit.¡± Arge was upset by this. Yeah, I know how he feels, this is really intimidating. But if it wasn¡¯t for the situation, I think she just leveled up in my mind. The first box to her leftmost cracked open and a roll of something slid out and unfurled into a circle. A bunch of lily shapes were cut into it, although it looked like steel it bent easily and shot up onto the circle of light about her head and started rotating. ¡°Hoarfrost Bubbler! Bombardment fire!¡± I totally forgot about Slo but she let off a flurry of frosted over ice bubbles. They came into range of Squirrel tail girl and exploded sending shards of ice flying all over. ¡°Agh, it hurts it hurts!¡± Small icicles stabbed into her and she grimaced and lost altitude. ¡°Dancing Lily, full effort now! Don¡¯t let me down~¡± I dashed forward putting all the strength I could muster in my legs to see if I could catch her while Arge put all his body into the gladius and prepared to throw it. Without saying anything, I saw a wave of energy gather behind his weapon and with a smooth motion he chucked into Squirrel tail girl like a spear. I felt some serious energy behind me but I was already rushing all my might. As I felt a shockwave and blast of heat throw me to the ground. Everywhere across the floor, huge Lily shaped burn marks were etched in the floor. It was random entirely. The blasts kept on happening so I scrambled across the ground to hide in Timothy¡¯s flank. I kept feel the massive force of some kind of Lily patterned explosions, and just hoped Timothy¡¯s magic fur would be good enough. Everything was burning and blowing up so I couldn¡¯t see anything. As it stopped, I heard the ground sizzling from the residual heat. Almost all the ground was charred black. Slo got hit. I couldn¡¯t see Arge either. He just wasn¡¯t there. I hoped he got out of the blast. To think some random people that just offered to help me today just died to help me find a friend. I was about to cry. Arge was dangerous but it seemed like he knew what he wanted out of life, and Slo trusted me when I looked like this. I noticed my hand and leg got hit, directly, but as I checked them and expected immense pain it only felt as painful as a sunburn. Even though the skin was blackened, it looked like soot. Suddenly, relief washed over me like a cool bucket of water, maybe Arge and Slo were fine too. ¡°Ugh, what was that! Ambush me in my sleep on top of my new ride under a bridge, I could have died twice if I didn¡¯t dodge twice! You have no sense of entertainment, why does everyone always try to kill me when I steal their stuff.¡± She was picking out the small icicles and groaning in pain. Luckily she can dodge with the side effect of her unique magic which allows flight. It doesn¡¯t have the best speed though, since its not designed to actually be a flying spell anyways. It was close though, the Hoarfrost Bubbles that shattered icicles all over would have killed her instantly if the bubbles exploding didn¡¯t scatter the other icicles. It was a flaw in Slo¡¯s unique magic that wasn¡¯t a problem if it got a direct hit, but Slo never thought of it that way. Then the girl remembered. ¡°Ah, wait a second, there were three of them. Curtain doesn¡¯t close if all the actors can¡¯t make call¡­ hey, where are last guy? Its really rude to try to kill someone you know? She walked past Timothy, completely unaware that I managed to hide under his flank. With her back to me, I had to go for it. I wriggled out and shot upwards, putting all my strength into my hand and aiming straight for the back of her neck. I¡¯m sorry, I wish we could have talked this out but- ¡°Ah-¡± She turned and looked me in the eye with surprise as my fist slammed straight into her chin and she took it head on. ¡°Aaah! It¡¯s spinning! The world is spinning!¡± My punch felt really light for some reason. However, even a light tap on the chin can rattle someone¡¯s brain really easily. ¡°I surrender! I surrender!¡± She fell over onto her knees after trying to steady herself. ¡°Oh no I¡¯ve got to tie her up or something, I can¡¯t let her recover!¡± I panicked looking for something but suddenly just decided to tackle her on the ground. She looked flushed and dizzy and the light drained from her eyes. I head her wrists against the ground and tried to think of a way to handle this. ¡°Hey. Why¡¯d you steal my Pilosa?¡± I was looking her right in the face. It was really close but if I let her go she might pull out that crazy magic again. She started to slur and drool. Not cute at all. You¡¯ve leveled down, squirrel tail girl. ¡°Whas a fiolsa?¡± ¡°Uh, are you okay? I don¡¯t think I hit you that hard¡­¡± ¡°Whas a fiolsa?¡± ¡°Um, its better know as a pikeface, the creature you stole.¡¯ ¡°Thas mae neu steed.¡± It seemed like she was pulling it together a little. In my heart, I was rooting for her just a little. I feel awful about this but¡­ She may have seriously hurt Arge and Slo. I don¡¯t know what to do if they aren¡¯t alright, but I can¡¯t leave this girl alone. Should I knock her out? No, I can¡¯t do that. ¡°You see,¡± her tone was completely devoid of energy now, almost a monotone, ¡°there was really awesome, what you said, Pilosa, and it was just lying there on the side of the road. I kept a close eye on it and I could tell it was deliberately placing itself out of the way of traffic. It was walking with some dumb looking kid who was wearing only a white sheet just like you. Woah, you¡¯re real similar. So anyways he left it outside and I was like ¡®thats a damn good Pilosa, he¡¯s probably really smart. We could have a wonderful journey together and he could protect me from all the assassins and underworld people trying to kill me and stuff. We could run far, far away and we could live together in peace and happiness,¡± she looked like she had to add something but she stopped for a second and looked at me, ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Cosimo. I¡¯m that guy with the white sheet as clothing who was walking with that Pilosa, he¡¯s my friend so I came to get him back and got some unexpected help from some adventurer¡¯s outside the guild. It looks like you hit them with some sort of wide area explosion attack, are they okay? I can¡¯t see one of them anywhere and the other one passed out.¡± ¡°You¡¯re awful calm for a guy who roped in some random people and almost got them dazzled by my gobo stage arts,¡± she looked a bit more serious as more light seemed to drain from her eyes, ¡°It¡¯s fine though, I won¡¯t kill anyone if I don¡¯t have to, even though so many want to kill me. Its not mutual ok? With all these men after me, it''s kind of intimidating, but at least I¡¯m popular~¡± Is she joking? I¡¯m starting to feel bad for her, maybe I should get off her. I don¡¯t think she¡¯s going to do anything bad right? ¡°If you want to kil- ah you got off me, that''s good it was my first time having an almost naked man on top of me I thought it was over in more than one way.¡± ¡°Just don¡¯t attack me again, here, take my hand.¡± ¡°What? Why?¡± She was acting like I was going to do something and held her hands close to herself. ¡°So I can help you stand up?¡± ¡°Oh, uh, no thanks.¡± She pivoted her weight under her legs and stood up that way. Seems like she didn¡¯t want to use her hands to help herself up, or touch me for that matter. I watched as she backed away about half a meter after she got up. I decided to ignore it. ¡°Hey Arge? Are you somewhere in here? I hope you¡¯re not a corpse!¡± ¡°No way Cosimo the strength of Dancing Lily is that its a mental attack not a physical one, it makes you believe you got hurt so it''s only really an illusion. However, if you get hit head on it can cause confusion. He probably just wandered off.¡± I walked over to Slo and picked dragged her the nearby wall and checked her breathing. Seems she was sleeping. ¡°How¡¯d Slo go to sleep then? She doesn¡¯t have any wounds. And-¡± I checked my arm, completely fine. ¡°So it doesn¡¯t seem to have a long effective time either.¡± ¡°It''s a great power and is wonderful at distraction and causing mayhem, perfect for running and not dying to assassins. Oh, and she¡¯s asleep because she was probably tired. Dancing Lily¡¯s confusion can also cause people to give into immediate desires like eating that chocolate cake they want or having sex with an ugly girl or multi-level marketing.¡± ¡°That''s¡­ kind of scary.¡± I had to ask about the spell she cast on Timothy. ¡°My Pilosa¡¯s name is Timothy, he told me he didn¡¯t want to become a slave to humans again, did you use some sort of magic to get him to escape with you?¡± ¡°Eh, that¡¯s a secret really. But since I feel kinda close since you punched me really hard in the chin and it still hurts and I¡¯m worried about the brain trauma,¡± she held her head, ¡°so if you promise to keep it between the two of us and not hit me again I¡¯ll tell you.¡± ¡°I need my friend back too.¡± ¡°Alright, alright, so you promise?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Or I could just show you.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± ¡°¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯!¡± The light and seven boxes fanned out instantly, and dyed red. A huge circle like a spotlight appeared under her and light bathed her. She made a dramatic flourish and red light blurred out my vision. ===== ¡°Hehe, that was my last trick really. That''s what you get for punching me in the chin. I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m not the type who likes to fight fair but really isn¡¯t it the world''s fault that I¡¯m always in trouble. All the world¡¯s a stage, and I¡¯m a tragic actor on that stage.¡± She wiped the blood leaking out of the side of her mouth and looked at it and sighed. Even though no one was there to listen, it was soliloquy self composed and acted out on the spot. ¡°Coming at me with a three on one with people my age too, it makes me feel alone and unpopular. That really cool guy almost got me with that unique magic where he turned that sword into a spear, that was scary. If it didn¡¯t learn parry arts I would have died right then. It wonderful isn¡¯t it, when I use ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯? Everyone stops and listens. Its their turn to be the audience. I can tell any assassin to go away after all and report back I died. You¡¯re quite annoying, I couldn¡¯t get too much information out of you and you¡¯re really stinky, so how about you go take a bath and go home? Ah, sorry that was really rude but you did try to kill me and steal my new best friend. Animals, Monsters, I¡¯ve never had them betray me before. ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ is my favorite favorite spell I practice everyday of my life whether I eat or not, I won¡¯t use it to do evil things. I just want the stage I¡¯m on to be a nicer place, what''s wrong with that.¡± She smiled and closed her eyes as she imagined a wind blowing her squirrel tail hair. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with that.¡± Then Arge stealth shield bashed her from behind and she hit her head on the ground knocking her out in an uncompromising position with her butt in the air. Five - Magical Flying Pilosa Earlier that day, after a tough morning chasing down a contact pulling together information for the next target he was tired. He was enjoying a well deserved meal at the guild and thinking about how they were going to corner this Fata guy. It was his duty really, to lead and talk to the slimy types who wanted their fellow monster hunters cut out the picture. Game was quite low, so to make a living some even turned to banditry. The competition often became cutthroat, and with the Guild making and updating limits on what monster you could kill and which ones you couldn¡¯t it quickly got very dicey. If you didn¡¯t check your identification crystal every day, you might be bringing home illegal meat. However, that could change the next day quite easily, so it lead to hunters storing meat outside the town in shacks and bringing it in the moment it was considered ¡®free to kill¡¯ again. So the term poacher was very flexible at times. He had to get a good offer for killing the competition, haggle with the ¡®poachers¡¯ friends or the poachers themselves for a deal to call off the hit or organize counter hits. It''s easy to say everyone wanted to see him and no one did, so the value of human life was simply as much as anyone could pay. Except for those around him. Slo the animal loving mage, Doru the typical angry dwarf with a heart of gold, Chel the healer with a hidden bloodlust and the dark past she didn¡¯t want to talk about. They weren¡¯t good people. He knew that. Neither was he. He accepted them. ======= Arge stared at the completely embarrassing position the squirrel tail girl was in, with her butt in the air and completely knocked out. He put a ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ onto nearby wall so he could gain distance. To think her ability was so flashy, yet so underwhelming. Having been taking jobs from the underworld himself he hadn¡¯t heard of someone like her. Then again, he was only known for killing poachers at Slo¡¯s behest. While he figured she was lying, it looked like it was something to follow up on. Although he was quite ready to kill her when she toppled over, the truth was just that she gained his admiration. Stack that on top of her not harming Slo, being of unknown worth to the underworld, having a unique magic that put most mental magic to shame, having a strange ability called ¡°Parry Arts¡±, and being an attractive helpless entertaining type and a girl his age. One or two of those mattered a whole lot more to him than the others, but it wouldn¡¯t sit right with him to go for the kill on the same sleeping beauty the second time. He tied her up and used ¡®Free Anchor¡¯ to hang her on the wall. Unlike ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ this unique magic was designed so you could attach something to both points instead of just having one point set on you and another on a chosen spot. Cosimo was collapsed in the hallway leading to the river, he might have drowned. Arge wondered as he was carrying back Cosimo¡¯s limp smelly body if he should just kill this guy. He had a good laugh at that. Nah, if he started killing people that ticked him off that would be a lot of killing for free. Cosimo did the exact most awful thing at the worst time by giving Slo the idea to recover the Pilosa from the thief, but he did lead him to the squirrel tail girl. He had to admit to himself that he thought Cosimo was refreshing. Having an idiot around always made him feel a bit smarter. He wondered if that guy came from another world or something like that. Probably some noble who got all his money stolen. There were a lot of things bothering him about what happened today, but the most was¡­ That Pilosa wasn¡¯t normal at all. He spent many nights at camp or in an inn hearing Slo going on about the latest animal book she bought. Slo was adorable so really that was enough for Arge who had a tough time getting to sleep, he remembered falling asleep when she was talking so many times. If there¡¯s one thing he learned, Pilosa¡¯s aren¡¯t that great. What¡¯s more, Slo said it was amazing, and even though she thought all animals and monster types were great the number of amazings she used were limited to that one time Doru almost got eaten by a Minodrake and when Arge nearly got his head snapped in half by a giant Hercules Beetle. Both of them were beasts with magic. Either way her ¡®Monster Detection¡¯ shouldn¡¯t have worked on a Pilosa at all, and she couldn¡¯t possibly find it within the city. Unless, it was as she said, ¡®amazing¡¯. He had three different beings that were dangerous in different meanings that he met today. Hey, isn¡¯t that par for the course. He cackled. It felt good to be alone with himself and a bunch of sleeping beauties. He sat down on the cold white alabaster of the sewer and kept watch, waiting for one of them to wake up when he sharpened his gladius and knives with a whetstone. ====== Timothy felt a vague awareness about him. He knew it was a dream. As his consciousness slowly became more aware he was able to take in his surroundings. Waterfalls everywhere in the distance, greenery flushing the mountain cliffs leading down into a large basin valley. The Valley of Xenarthra. This was his home, and it was written in the Ancient Ancestral Arts scriptures of the druidic order that lived here that this was the origin of all Pilosa. He sniffed the air and it reminded him of his time here. He remembered how often he would stare out towards the waterfalls watching the moonlight shining off them and marveled at them. ¡°If this Valley was this beautiful, just what else is out there?¡± That shining curiosity was the only thing that saved his life. Is now the time to be reminiscing? ¡°There¡¯s something not right here, I would never dream of home like this. I can¡¯t seem to remember for some reason. Maybe I just fell asleep? Usually I could remember clearly what I was doing before I slept though, is my training failing me?¡± He tried to remember home even though it was all around him. The images of the corpses of the order and the valley burning were strong in his mind. He never thought about the waterfalls anymore. He would grow sick even at the sight of pouring water. Right now, he was seeing them just fine though from a treetop platform. Manipulating the absolute top of the treetops into a natural roof was used as practice for the young Pilosa. There was only one druidic order here though, and all who couldn¡¯t pass that trial were exiled from the valley. Given that they were children, often they were raised to maturity in a controlled area and exiled from the valley. This wasn¡¯t a debated practice even among the parents of the child. That was because the Pilosa would have no mind. They were beasts in every sense, and the druidic order regarded them as not worthy of the valley. They were unable to learn the secrets of the Ancient Ancestral Arts, druidic magic, contribute to dream exploration, and even unable to use ¡®Soul Communication¡¯. ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ allowed a being to speak to any other being, and read their deepest intentions and thoughts. Without that, it would be a rather one way conversation. It was just like giving orders to dumb beast. Just which Pilosa would pass the test and which wouldn¡¯t, they didn¡¯t know. Either way, Timothy¡¯s friend Willem constantly reminded him that he barely passed the cut off date. Granted, Willem also barely passed the cut off date so Timothy had to remind him. ¡°Hey, it''s a dream you know? If you think of me, I¡¯ll appear from your subconscious right away. Don¡¯t tell me after all these years you forgot something that basic?¡± It was Willem. He had two broad black splotches on his flank and a gray coat. His hair was way too long. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re just as I remember you, as expected of a dream. I haven¡¯t thought about you for years. Really, even though it''s a dream I wonder why I feel like I¡¯m really back here.¡± ¡°Looks like your memory is shot. Probably some kind of mental magic, you saw that in the human world right?¡± ¡°Oh, yes that¡¯s right. It¡¯s a good thing my subconscious is mixing with you. This will make it easier to get out of the dream. Something¡¯s off.¡± Willem shook his nose. ¡°If you got hit by something like mental magic it had to be quite amazing to take you down. Even back then you never wanted to go to sleep. It¡¯s really hard to go against someone¡¯s will.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t bother me, being here bothers me.¡± Timothy touched his nose to the bottom of the treetop platform and closed his eyes. Even in a dream he could feel the high quality of the sound the wind rustling through the trees. It was always cool here. ¡°You¡¯re lying. I¡¯m your subconscious and your best friend.¡± ¡°Not anymore.¡± ¡°Hey, even if I¡¯m dead we still spent all those years developing shapeshifting magic. You were the only one who could do it right though.¡± He laughed and snorted through his long nose. ¡°Well, I wasn¡¯t going to do dream exploration or that other nonsense. I suppose I have to believe in you, or myself. I can¡¯t stay here forever. Don¡¯t you agree?¡± ¡°What if there was something you could learn being here?¡± He grinned from the bottom of his soul. ¡°By Xernarth seeing your smug soul say that pisses me off. Dream exploration was something I was awful at. The humans, they have this thing called math where they use images to convey complex problems in quantities. I¡¯d rather do that.¡± He knew he had to give in this time though. It was a dangerous state for a druid. The Xenarthic Order especially, since they sought all sorts of dreams and pleasant ones were the hardest to escape. Dream exploration was the study of following thoughts and feelings and letting them build upon one another to create new vistas of the mind. It was necessary for the development of consciousness, and even a small amount of it could lead to mastery of ¡®Soul Communication¡¯. It was considered vital to growth of the order and their knowledge of the world they lived. If he could remember right, to retrace his steps out of a pleasant dream¡­ ¡°You¡¯ve got to think of the bad parts about it, let them consume your focus, then the subconscious will begin to react.¡± Willem had to interject. That was part of his personality that Timothy remembered. ¡°Well, you¡¯re dead. That¡¯s bad. Everyone died, the beautiful valley drowned in flame, and the only reason I survived was because I had flown off in the shape of dragon I saw in a fellow druid¡¯s soul. He was showing it off, really, that thing was so scary. I had to try turning into it, see if I could fly. I never could get it right with the birds but such a strong image of fear and power like that dragon really helped with the shapeshifting. So then I took off, and you were laughing so loud from the depths of your soul that all the druids around couldn¡¯t tune it out and one them even smacked you off the tree platform using ¡®Drudic Force¡¯ centered around their tongue. That was a happy time. Until I got back from touring the countryside taking in the sights. It was dusk and it was like there was a second red sun in the distance. As it got darker, I could see the burning red halo even more. By the time I struggled through the fire using my dragon form to cut through the burning treetops to home, all I saw¡­¡± ¡°You want me to finish?¡± Willem was showing concern. ¡°Not this time. It¡¯s my story.¡± Timothy smiled. It was a long time ago. Things happen, don¡¯t they? Was he glad to be alive? Was the caring he did for John and Xana enough to let him see that he still had a future left? He didn¡¯t want to admit it, but the dream exploration was helping. ¡°There were corpses. Everything, was corpses.¡± Dead pilosa began phasing in all around him. The sky turned dark and the tree started to be wreathed in red. He felt the heat of the flames. It wasn¡¯t that bad in his dragon form though. Oh, wait focus on the bad, he chided himself. This was why he hated dream exploration. ¡°I blamed myself. With my new found power, with my resistance to heat, I could have done something. Perished with you all at least. I never did find your corpse-¡± Willem was gone. ¡°I knew I had to bury everything. The funeral rites were important. I kept yelling at myself as I dug, fighting off the crazed predators of valley as they tried to find food with everything burnt to the ground. Most of them were dying themselves just from the burns. Then I buried the monsters. I built the graves out of burnt wood. I inscribed them with ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. I made a grave for everyone I could remember, I couldn¡¯t identify the corpses. I tried using ¡®Life Transfer¡¯ once but it just tired me out. I remember hating myself for that. Against druidic code, it wasn¡¯t supposed to be used to revive the dead. The balance of nature would preserve itself, we had no business trying to change that too much. For days I kept digging and burying and when I ran out of names I just dug more graves. The next parts too positive though, so I¡¯ll leave it out. The goal here is to want to wake up and escape the dream. Although, what I did next got me out of that hole of a valley. Then I just wandered aimlessly away from the valley, I was running away. Some days were better than others, and when I got captured there were all sorts of attempts to brand me but there was no way with ¡®Drudic Force¡¯ that something like that would work. The negative, focus on the negative. The self-hatred, yeah I slapped humans around and destroyed things. I hope nobody got too hurt. I healed a few of them with ¡®Transfer Life¡¯ when I had enough grass around. I didn¡¯t want to kill anything bigger than grass. There was this one guy who was starving in a field of flowers when I was wandering. I spent the entire evening just looking at him and thinking ¡®If only I was able to use healing magic like humans¡¯ or ¡®if only I had an identity crystal and had access to unique magic maybe I could have learned something that could help him¡¯. It was nonsense. I could have saved him. I just wasn¡¯t willing to kill flowers.¡± Timothy felt the hatred build in his soul. If only I was willing, if only I cared more, if only I could use unique magic. If only I was stronger then I would- He woke up in a foul mood. ==== Arge was about to go to sleep himself. Unable to leave because there were three sleeping humans and one pilosa and there was no way Slo would let him hear the end of it if he just left with her. She was mad enough that one time he carried her back from a tough fight where she hit magical overload, exhausting all the control she had around the energy around her that she was using her own energy directly. It was unavoidable because that was against that damn Minodrake with an hide far above their pay grade and Chel barely kept Doru alive after Slo finally cut him out of the beast¡¯s stomach. Slo kept switching between crying about having to kill the ¡®amazing¡¯ Minodrake to save her friend and being angry at Arge for carrying her back. It was taking a long time for someone to wake up. At least with maybe the Pilosa he could load everyone on it and trot it back to the inn. It¡¯d look weird in the city, wouldn¡¯t it? He wished he was near a bird at least. They have them for transit of small messages, they were too expensive so he needed a public one. Thinking of how that squirrel tail girl could awaken and ¡®Dazzle the stage!¡¯ again brought a crooked smile to his face. ¡°Try it again, just try it.¡± He chuckled. Oh wait, he said in his heart, where¡¯s her stuff. I could steal her stuff. He hadn¡¯t thought of that yet, and immediately woke up fully with stony eyes and a smile inside. ===== Timothy just so happened to wake up in a foul mood, remembering the full darkness of the past full of anger and self-hatred. Someone, probably Cosimo, was going to pay. He was rarely in these moods, but it was times like these that he had began acting out and destroying merchant¡¯s merchandise and upturning carts. He¡¯d always be so sorry afterwards, but if it was a villain threatening some weak types he¡¯d execute them with remorse. After all, if he was a little quicker getting back home back then everything would be different. This was one of those times. He immediately remembered the squirrel tail girl and her magic which interested him more than angered him really, he blamed himself for falling to a stupid trick like that. She was over there hanging from a wall tied up with a thin wire cutting into her skin. He appeared to be in a sewer. As his mental process quickened he thought of Cosimo. He was going to use ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ on him to read his soul. Either he was lying to him and Timothy could reveal his true identity and power and they could fight to the death or he was just some ridiculous person in a ridiculous circumstance. Either way was fine for Timothy. What he couldn¡¯t stand was lying. That wasn¡¯t a thing back home. Cosimo was over there hanging from a wall tied up with a thin wire cutting into his skin. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.Next to both of them was some girl he thought was admiring him. She was hanging from the wall tied up with a thin wire cutting into her skin. That didn¡¯t happen too often, but especially the way she was looking at him creeped him out. Although he wasn¡¯t too against using ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ on humans anymore since talking with John, Xana, and Cosimo and thought to tell her to stop but his instinct told him ¡®avoid¡¯. It was a double ¡®avoid¡¯ on that patio of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild today with the red-brown haired girl. It was then that he saw Arge. Although he had no idea what his name was at that point, he saw him saying something ominous and having a stony face. Using his new found freedom to the fullest with using ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ on humans he used his reading ability on Arge. He just wanted to know the situation, after all two people he didn¡¯t know, two had messed around with him, and he was underground which made him feel uncomfortable due to being used to seeing the sky and feeling the open air. As he looked deep into the soul of Arge, the bounty hunter slash killer slash monster hunter slash haggler slash odd jobs specialist slash stealth womanizer slash person who genuinely enjoyed the pain and suffering of others he felt only rage. He had never used ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ to read a human before. The huge amount of information and the quality of his first human soul that he experienced at that time¡­ The Crimes of Arge, a list: 1)He hates girls 2)He actually loves girls but won¡¯t admit it. 3)He is into girls between the age of thirteen to eighteen. Any older and it''s no good. Any younger is just disgusting. 4)He is a liar 5)He tells the truth only to his friends when he really has to, otherwise he¡¯s teasing them 6)He has pushed Chel to tell him her dark history more than once just so he could know it. Also to make her cry. 7)He has encouraged Doru to drink to the point of bringing him drinks when he did not ask for them, knowing full well that Doru has a drinking problem and that was the major reason he was exiled from his homeland which brought him great pain. Arge enjoys it. 8)He secretly cares deeply about Slo but is afraid to show affection. 9)He secretly cares deeply about Doru and is showing his affection by giving him drinks supporting his addiction. 10)He secretly wants to make Chel cry because he enjoys seeing that. 11)He has murdered people for money a lot. 12)He has also let girls go because they were in his strike range putting his comrades in danger. 13)He is mean even when he wants to be kind and jokes even when he wants to be serious. 14)There was a time where he felt up Slo when he was carrying her back from a tough battle with a Minodrake and acted as if he did nothing but he knew Slo was awake at one point. He almost blushed at that time. 15)His expression is always the same so no one knows what he is thinking. 16)He has had Chel work as a healer at a local hospital to support the group through rough winters while he kept warm and comfy inside the inn and spent all day lying about. 17)Just now, he was probably going to do ¡®something bad¡¯ to that red-brown haired girl while thinking to himself ¡®Oh, where¡¯s her stuff. I could steal her stuff.¡¯ He was not thinking that at all. 18)During the Dancing Lily attack, Arge had secretly judged it mostly harmless and used his unique magic he prepared to deal with mental magic ¡®Hard Headed¡¯. He then hid to see what was going to happen next. It wasn¡¯t until afterwards that he realized Slo could have been put in serious danger. Often Doru is the one who covers for the defense of the party, so he had forgotten that entirely in the heat of battle despite harboring affection for her. 19)- Timothy pulled his mind back by force. That was just the top layer of his soul that he could read. He didn¡¯t know whether ¡®Hard Headed¡¯ would affect ¡®Soul Communication¡¯, or if ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ could even be called mental magic. What he did know is that he woke up wanting to take his anger out on someone or get the truth out of someone. He got the truth. Now he wanted to take his anger out on someone. Timothy¡¯s Morals ¡®as taught by the druidic order of xenarthra list: 1)Life must be preserved until, 2)Balance must be preserved until, 3)Mind must be preserved Timothy¡¯s Pride ¡®from the life he has lived, the rules he lives by¡¯, a list: 1)Save lives if you can, if you can¡¯t try harder 2)Sometimes you can just let go and wreck things, just be careful to not hurt anyone much. 3)Shapeshifting is really awesome. 4)¡¯Mind must be preserved¡¯ is annoying. Dream exploration is for other Pilosa. He set the rules in his head up to make sure he didn¡¯t get too rough. ¡°First, no more reading him with ¡®Soul Communication¡¯, I don¡¯t want to do it. Second, no tongue. Third, no ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. Fourth, leave him injured but alive.¡± He said that with ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ to Arge who was stone faced as usual walking towards the red-brown haired girl. Arge thought it was really strange and noticed the Pilosa standing up. He stopped and addressed it, thinking nothing of the message before. That must his mind going crazy. ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re going to defend your master huh?¡± ¡°Afraid not. Her spell broke on me, I¡¯m just going to rampage a bit.¡± ¡°This voice,¡± he gestured towards the Pilosa, ¡°is this you talking to me somehow?¡± Timothy began walking forward casually. ¡°Yes,¡± Timothy began, ¡°I¡¯m just a magic Pilosa, pay me no mind.¡± Timothy burst forward and used his long nose like a pike slamming it toward Arge¡¯s center aiming to launch him into the ceiling by twisting his whole body. Arge was already wary from his thinking early that the Pilosa was strange earlier and activated the ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ he set on the wall. He was going to use this to escape from the red-brown haired girl in case she was playing dead. He kept it there for the same reason. He shot to the wall like he was flying and oriented himself properly to land with one arm and leg touching the wall. Due to his experience with using it, he was good enough that he wouldn¡¯t put too much force into it after he escaped the nose attack to end up injuring himself on the wall. By using ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ on and off like a bungee cord, it was priceless for gaining distance. Arge checked his identification crystal embedded on his glove bracing against the wall. He checked his crystal it was four pointed. It often happened that your quality as a person determined the number of points on the crystal. The less points, the more quality you were. This is why identification crystals are usually hidden if you have more than four, as four is just average. Arge reviewed his options as he saw the Pilosa righting himself. Kill it? No, Slo won¡¯t like that. Injure it? No, Slo will hate him. Run away? Slo will forgive him eventually. ¡°That¡¯s just how he is, but he¡¯s really a good person deep inside! Sometimes¡­¡± Slo would be comforting Chel in another room. ¡°Don¡¯t ever take him seriously. Not ever, okay?¡± Arge¡¯s heart dropped a bit. That was a dark memory. He knew he deserved it though. He couldn¡¯t get out of here carrying Slo even using ¡®Free Anchor¡¯ cast on himself. If he had ¡®Multiple Ground Anchor¡¯ or left a ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ outside then maybe he could have navigated the tunnels activating it and controlling the energy and weight carefully, but he just wasn¡¯t that good nor did he have the energy anyways. When he checked his crystal earlier, it was still light blue. It only measured your condition. Putting energy into it, like that Cosimo did was just like draining the battery. However, that was also one of the ways to fuel unique magic. He was weighing that option right now on the wall. Compromise his body¡¯s strength to cast the unique magics he was training with, or just using the unique magic he¡¯s mastered to distract the Pilosa and run away. Unique Magics aren¡¯t that hard to acquire, but they are hard to use, or impossible if it''s the wrong magic. Depending on the quality of the person and which magic they are using, they could master it quickly and begin using the spell right away without any cost to their bodies at all. In fact, identification crystals main use when they were first introduced was to allow people to cast magic that they could never cast. It also allowed them to easily master magic that they failed to learn otherwise by forcing the casting with their bodies energy. His best bet right now was his favorite unique magic ¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯ which allowed him to move into a shadow. Of course, this was the main reason he was able to function so well in his job, and the number of people who could use such a costly spell like this were quite low. Even if they had it, it was best kept a secret. That was his sole reason for hesitating to use it. If this Pilosa reported that to Cosimo, who he had antagonized as per his usual human relations. ¡°Are you going to cling to that wall all day?¡± Timothy was losing steam already as his senses were coming back to him. Inside his mind, there was the rational side struggling with his lashing out. In anger, Timothy put all his strength into his right foreleg and shoved it into the ground. Moving only a small amount, he shook the entire room. The cylinders in the corner began to whine a little loud. After all, this room was made to contain these tall white cylinders filled with water reserves. Magic sigils stirred and purified it constantly. Without these, the city would be in dire straights. Arge decided there was a final option, talking it out with the Pilosa. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll come down.¡± The first part a haggle was to give in a little. He lowered himself down with ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ and landed near the three he put in a neat row. He disabled the ¡®Free Anchor¡¯ on all of them and they fell to the ground. The second part of a haggle is to distract. He ran forward and used ¡®Cowardly Retreat¡¯ which gave him an extra burst of speed. He was aiming straight toward the Pilosa. Timothy spread all fours out and jumped sideways aiming his flank towards Arge. A flying magic Pilosa coming his way, Arge made the right judgement and slid. The Pilosa flying over him, Arge attempt to use the momentum to right himself back up but Timothy turned his whole body mid-air and slapped him to the side with his nose. ¡°I have eyes on the side on my nose you know.¡± ¡°Agh¡­ A direct hit. Woe is me.¡± He was a bit sarcastic but his tone didn¡¯t change at all as he played dead splayed on the ground. Naturally, ¡®Hard Headed¡¯ wasn¡¯t exactly designed for mental defense, but rather all around defense. It was with the intention of using it for offense, but that was a different point altogether. ¡°That one surprised me. You know,¡± he stood up ¡°I¡¯ve got a friend who really likes Pilosa, I¡¯m not going to hurt you. In fact, that Cosimo asked us for help you know? He¡¯s going to be mad, he tried to get you back from the thief.¡± The third part of a haggle is a proposal. ¡°Thief?¡± Timothy was confused, who¡¯s a thief here, besides Arge? Although Timothy didn¡¯t know from his ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ that he was a thief, he just naturally assumed that part. ¡°This cute girl over here,¡± he pointed to the red-brown haired girl, ¡°She casted magic on you and rode off on you, then we fought her and Cosimo punched her in the mouth.¡± Timothy looked at her. Should he read her soul? The answer was definitely a no, he¡¯ll have to save the next one for Cosimo. He was still sick from Arge. ¡°Did Cosimo call her a thief?¡± ¡°Oh no, in fact he said something like ¡®my beloved steed and currently only and best friend in the entire world without exaggeration¡¯ out loud on the patio for everyone to hear. I couldn¡¯t believe my ears at all. He¡¯s got to be a fallen insane noble or something right? How about you join us, I¡¯m sure Slo knows how to take care of you. You¡¯re really strong, and I¡¯ve never met a Pilosa that can talk.¡± The fourth part of the haggle is to close. Arge set a ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯. ¡°His behavior truly is odd.¡± Timothy¡¯s logical side was now winning full on against his anger. That was a long time ago, he moved around a bit, and he realized he was hungry. ¡°So how about we kill him?¡± Into that perfect moment where peaceful reconciliation between a broken human being and an honorable pilosa was thrown that bomb. ¡°I forgot why I didn¡¯t like you for a second.¡± Timothy just decided to end it with ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. Wherever Arge was he now needed past a range of at least a hundred feet. Charging his tongue with the ability, it whipped out and took Arge by surprise. He wasn¡¯t able to cover up, and he was shot straight into the middle cylinder in the back of the room. Flying through the air he cast the higher level version of ¡®Hard Headed¡¯ by instinct fearing he would die otherwise. The newly given strength to his body made a bit of an indent, disrupting the sigil inside the barrier. Timothy hadn¡¯t gone all out, but Arge had in his surprise. The ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ that got charged into Arge when he hit the cylinder and the sigil with the identification crystal acting as a connection caused the ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ to slightly rewrite the sigil¡¯s internal magical resonance. There wasn¡¯t anyone there who could have knew this, nor would the magical sigil engineer who designed the system with care. That engineer wouldn¡¯t think that ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ carry the unique magic Arge cast ¡®Stone Self¡¯ disrupting the flow of every sigil in the cylinder. That engineer would drop his head and palm his face when he realized that it''s all connected to one sigil hub to ensure proper control from one location. Then he would grab some alcohol and sit back to watch the world burn as all forty-eight cylinders in the city of Aleppo cast ¡®Stone Self¡¯ and the combined ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ sent by Timothy¡¯s tongue would shatter every sigil at once via sigil resonance and flood the sewers entirely. The water in the middle cylinder got set free almost instantly and Timothy stared up in surprise as a water tornado formed over his head. The other cylinders followed the water tornadoes tripled and shot forward. Timothy was baffled, completely unaware of the complex interaction between the Ancient Ancestral Arts of the Order of Xenarthra, Sigils, unique magic, identification crystals, and finally swirling purified water. However, he delved into Arge¡¯s troubling mind so he was prepared for this nonsense. He leaped towards the three and bundled them with his tongue and ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ to the top of his body, and used all his strength to swim with the current. He counted Arge as dead, by that point. It was a good thing that Arge had ¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯, and he didn¡¯t fall unconscious from the sheer force of the near magical overload. Maybe he was closer to mastering ¡®Stone Self¡¯ than he thought. Timothy steered himself with a combination of brute strength and manipulating his coat with ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. When his mind collected itself he was already shot straight out of the sewer and was surfing down the river with massive water tornadoes propelling him. Riding that wave on sheer ¡®Druidic Force¡¯, he sailed over the low hanging bridges entire engulfed by water. He saw the surfaced submarine ships common in Marscione and Grunkirk get shot out of the river into full view and catapulting into buildings. Timothy finally collected his thoughts seeing that and thought about what he could do. He surfed over to the side of the massive oncoming wave and started the shapeshift into that dragon from a pilosa¡¯s dream long ago. Wings, strength, impenetrable armor plates, burgeoning magical power all got added onto him as he carefully kept the hairs on the top of his body to support the three people on top of him. Unable to maintain his tongue, he hooked into the wires wrapped around them and finished most of the transformation as he burst off towards the riverside buildings and banked with his newly formed wings flying smoothly near the etched alabaster as he used the surfing motion had in the wave to carry his wings on the wind. He shot up diagonally and righted himself and took a look out over the city and saw giant tornado waves spreading out from the sewers in every quarter. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll have to do what I can,¡± Timothy grumbled. Six - Damn Dun Arge was washed out with the flood in his shadow. It wasn¡¯t like there was one shadow, but ¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯ in that situation only let him get into the shadow. With the massive force of the water and the shifting shadows of the light passing through the tornadoes of water, he could only sit in the shadow he pulled himself into and try to nurse his wounds. He was swept out of the city on the massive waves before the oncoming water had spread out far enough to lose most of its force over the plains. He pulled himself out of his shadow on the plains groaning. Since the shadow was in full light, it was only held together by his unique magic so it faded in the sun when Arge flopped out of it. Arge was breathing heavily. ¡°That damn pilosa, I just wanted a new friend.¡± Arge laughed out loud with abandon. Was he serious? ¡°I planned to dive straight into him and use ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ to slam my body down on him and use that as a platform to spring off and start running if things went south. I wasn¡¯t expecting that tongue¡­¡± He deserved it though, he thought. He just couldn¡¯t help being like this, it made him happy. Aleppo wasn¡¯t an easy city to live in, and he had his share of hard times. He didn¡¯t expect pity. Let him fail when he failed, let him die when someone got the best of him. That didn¡¯t happen today, but he was spent. He checked his identification crystal in his glove. It was a deep red, by not crimson. A skin of the teeth victory by escape. That felt like the life he was living, and so he looked up and- Is that an army? ==== === I woke up and felt the identification crystal. Apparently I got hit by ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ and its black after that. I tried to get up and felt bound by something tight and small. I looked up and saw the cityscape spread out before me, huge tornado waves were flooding down the streets and a brown hairy dragon was shooting around moving groups of people on its back to open roofs without domes. ¡°What.¡± I was baffled. That color was definitely Timothy¡¯s but was he really a dragon all this time? To think he has the long snout even in dragon form, it''s really not a very dragon-like dragon after all. He was a action figure sized flying around the other side of the city in a hurry, looks like there¡¯s no way to signal him from here. I felt the books stuffed under my sheet. I was sick of this sheet. I was not going to make the same mistake with squirrel tail girl. I turned and she was bound up like me, silvery loops close to the skin. On my other side was Slo with a happy face. Maybe I should just go back to sleep, this is too much for me. I knew I said I was a hard worker, but thats at running away and loss of consciousness sounds like a good idea. I was on a flat roof with two girls, all three of us were tied up and there didn¡¯t look like a way down. Maybe I could jump to the next building¡­ I¡¯m being too much again. This might be harder than I thought. Oh well, for now, I have that identification crystal in my hand. Earlier, I got it to change to yellow by forcing energy flow into it, so it''s not like it would kill me if I put in as much as possible right? ===== Cosimo in his ignorance and the results of his tragic life of putting too much effort where it wasn¡¯t needed could have caused his end right here by magical overload. Normally there¡¯s a cut off safety built into it but casting it directly with no spell in mind. It was a common rookie mistake that killed many people far too eager just to play with the identification crystal and just see if they could change the color. Like Cosimo did. Which is why the book was sold for a cheap price and the very first page was images depicting the death of a ignorant rookie adventurer who just wanted to charge the identification crystal like it was a battery. However, he had another ability thanks to the power selection program being poor quality. The second part of the list of abilities when he was talking to the Japanese God was ¡®pick 2¡¯ and the first part of the list of choices for abilities was ¡®pick 1¡¯. The technology startup had a mixup with the language they were using in outsourcing the code so the whole thing just became ¡®pick 2¡¯ and the whole power description part ended up getting cut due to time restraints. The Japanese God back then said ¡®oh so you want your first ability to be ¡®Average¡¯?¡¯ and that was the first selection. Voice confirmation was a popular feature that was added by a programmer who was too gung ho at his job, it happens. The second was ¡®Mediocre¡¯. If Cosimo knew this he could have chosen two of the first part abilities which were supposed to be worth two lesser abilities, but the sad truth was that the technology startup had just scrambled all the powers and put them on the page randomly because it took enough time as is to make up the powers and their limitations and ways of use. In Cosimo¡¯s favor, however, and he got two strong cheat abilities. ¡®Average¡¯ doesn¡¯t sound like much of a ability at all though. When Cosimo finally gets time to learn how to check his status, he¡¯ll be quite surprised at what it does. The sole reason he was able to keep up with Arge a experienced fighter and assassin no problem running in the city without losing breath was because of it. The sole reason why he wasn¡¯t about to kill himself because of ignorance was because of it. ¡®Average¡¯ was the ability to remain at a certain specified value for a certain amount of time. It¡¯s limitations were that the value had to be an average value. An average value was what you considered an average person¡¯s value to be, and the length of time was how much you thought an average person could last. Specially for Cosimo, it was actually a much stronger ability since he considered average people to be high worth. An average person would have abandoned his sister, so in his mind, just thinking that way actually allowed him to put in far more energy than the real average person ever could. Moreover, his energy wouldn¡¯t drop at all because ¡®Average¡¯ would keep him in the same condition never expending energy. However, if he ever exceeded that time limit which he had not tested, it would be like he didn¡¯t have that ability at all, and would just be himself. Charging his identification crystal past that certain time limit would drain his stamina like a normal person. ====== I went for the gold and just kept charging it. Raw energy from me flowing into it, until a point where- ¡°Unique magic mastered! ¡®Charge Flow¡¯¡± Sounded off in his head. Was that the identification crystal? It didn¡¯t sound like it was rumbling from the pit of his stomach like Timothy¡¯s voice, just a thought in his head. He just kept charging. This has got to be doing something right. ¡°Unique magic mastered! ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯!¡± ¡°What.¡± I said out loud for the second time as I was lying there on the ground. On second thought, couldn¡¯t I just roll around and try to find something to cut the wires on? Damn it, I always have to take the hard way. It¡¯s a little late though, so I mimicked Slo and said, ¡°Mediocre Force!¡± Nothing happened. I started struggling against the bonds to see if I got any stronger. I began to tug and roll and put all my strength into it. It felt like I wasn¡¯t getting any tired at all, just what was that about? I kept a constant pressure and focused into my muscles and then I thought ¡®I wish these wires were weaker¡¯. Do you want to make them mediocre? Popped into my mind. That was a yes, just like last time with Xana¡¯s corpse. That time I thought I was mediocre, maybe it takes direct contact like before? A dim light surrounded the wire I was touching and it felt like a wet noodle. I pushed against it and it still wasn¡¯t good enough, as I thought I wish I had more strength in my hands I thought about using ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯. Energy charged into the muscles of my hands and they sudden snapped the already weakened wire like a toothpick. ¡°Guess that¡¯s how it works, focus on the muscles then trigger the unique magic¡­¡± I easily snapped the other wires off with my hands only, I didn¡¯t even need to use ¡®Mediocre¡¯. As soon as I was free I went to pull out those damn books to get some idea of how to use my abilities but squirrel tail girl starts spinning off. She¡¯s awake! I jumped up and stood there watching her massive ponytail swinging round and round like a top before she slammed into the end of the roof. ¡°Agu!¡± It seemed like it hurt. She¡¯s trouble. I know that but, I can¡¯t leave her here. She might be able to cast ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ again though. I sat back down and ignored her. I¡¯m not making the same mistake as before. All around me the city was flooding with massive waves, Timothy was probably a dragon right now saving lives, and the girl that knocked me out with some weird spell was groaning in a corner. I needed to read this picture book, and I needed to read it now. I opened the book with the identification crystal picture on it to the middle and started skimming the pages. ¡°Hi.¡± I ignored her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about earlier. I¡¯ve got a dagger in my pocket. Cut me free so I can fly away. There¡¯s a dragon flying around it looks dangerous. This is the second time I met one so I¡¯m scared. Hey? Are you listening.¡± Those eyes with bags under them stared at me with little light and matched her monotone voice. I focused on the book, seems identification crystals can be used at any merchant across the world. I needed to find the- ¡®second time¡¯?- no, ignore her. This will end badly for the second time, even if she¡¯s telling the truth I can¡¯t be trying to save someone again. The whole city is drowning in water after all, I spent my life on one to one service you know? ¡°My name¡¯s Aeschyli. I¡¯ve got a tragic past. You remember the assassin thing I said down there. I¡¯m not lying. It''s bad. I have no friends. I¡¯m hungry. I¡¯m on the run from a noble. It''s really exciting. I can¡¯t tell you my dark past at all if you don¡¯t introduce yourself.¡± You already did didn¡¯t you? She¡¯s good at getting attention. I stood up and shut my book. ¡°You don¡¯t remember my name already?¡± ¡°You¡¯re Cosimo. My energy is low. I can¡¯t cast anymore. I¡¯ll die. I¡¯ll really die. I only talk a little if I¡¯m about to die. Save me.¡± I grimaced at her. Did I learn nothing from my dream? Sorry about this Slo. I charged my muscles across my body with ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ and snapped the wires off her. Arge why did you do it to an ally too? I hefted her over my shoulder and jumped a little. The rush of air of was exciting as I easily flew up a couple meters. ¡°Woah. That looks fun. That¡¯s great. You¡¯re not leaving me right. I swear I¡¯ll repay it somehow. Is marriage and two children good. Just snap these wires. I didn¡¯t know you were so strong.¡± I turned around easily handling the small girl on my shoulder as a practice weight. With this, I can at least leave. ¡°Actually back then I could have used a really powerful ability on you. It might have done something worse than kill you, so I didn¡¯t want to do that. I¡¯m not trying to hurt you, but it looks like you¡¯re high enough here so you¡¯ll be fine.¡± I looked down and checked the waves gushing force and people sticking their heads out just watching it cover street after street. ¡°Plus, I think that dragon is the pilosa you tried to steal and my best friend right now. He might be mad at you for what you did to him. I can¡¯t trust you either, I¡¯m sorry but lets part here.¡± I was really saying that to convince myself more than her. I felt like a bad person but there¡¯s no way it''s the right choice to bring her with me. I leaped to the next building and the next, before groaning and turning around at the sound I heard. ===== Aeschyli was lying there like a pig in a blanket. She grew up in a noble- No, her backstory isn¡¯t in this act. Anyways, There are really tough people in this world who can stand on the level of dragons. If you had to say what the smartest, most dangerous, most crafty being in this world were then it would be them. Even among the common people they would whisper, ¡°Hey, aren¡¯t dragons raising taxes to fill their mountain hoards with more gold?¡± ¡°I hear they can take human form.¡± ¡°That''s pilosawash, there¡¯s no magic like that!¡± However, Aeschyli met one, and for once it wasn¡¯t a lie or deceit. In this world there are rankings corresponding to level. You could only level so much. That was already decided from birth. For people like Aeschyli who had a one point identification crystal, they were able to master far more complex unique magic. Often they could pick and choose highly advanced abilities with many functions. Just being rated a one point identification crystal from your status check didn¡¯t mean much if you didn¡¯t apply yourself, but those who had both could go far. Aeschyli¡¯s stage magic was hard to deal with due to the seven different abilities she could summon from seven different boxes, and her favorite skill which surpassed mental magic but unfortunately lost its power quickly or if she passed out and had only a single target. Beyond that, the ¡®Act 2¡¯ and ¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯ which were high risk high reward spells. In addition she learned Parry Arts out of sheer fear during fencing lessons as a child in her dad¡¯s hose. It was because of ¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯ and her Parry Arts combined, being able to use an enhanced ¡®Sixth Open Rosa Lingua¡¯ to summon a dagger. Parry Arts alone can bring one hundred percent defense if she has something in her hand wielded as a weapon. With an ¡®Act 3 Curtain Call~! Sixth Open Rosa Lingua¡¯ dagger she had offense with every trigger of Parry Arts. Although she won¡¯t last long at all due to her naturally low endurance especially under the stress of ¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯, she managed to put on an act long enough for the dragon to pull back with the impression that she could actually win against him. This had nothing to do with her being pursued though, that was just her family trying to kill her. She had no problem dealing with dragons. So when Cosimo said the dragon and slash or pilosa might kill her, she wasn¡¯t intimidated at all. This was important because she had made the call earlier that Cosimo was clearly the perfect mark to mooch off of. From the start, she had a good sense for story and drama, but with the way he was acting it was obvious. Although he didn¡¯t look like much, he had a nice pilosa. After many, many nights freezing in the cold surviving only with the summon produced by her ¡®Fifth Open, Glande¡± a well trained pilosa was a gold mine. Since Cosimo already proved easy to deal with, she wouldn¡¯t need to steal it at all. For Aeschyli that was great, because the first thing he ever stole was the pilosa and she felt horrible about it. She had already forgotten about the punch because of this, or she was blinded by greed for having a soft pilosa to sleep on. Either way, her life would improve by leaps and bounds from here on. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.¡°Dazzling the stage! Flutter! Curtain Open~!¡± She saw Cosimo turning and grumbling. Just as planned. There¡¯s no way he¡¯ll stop her if she follows by herself. Her eyes filled with light, this high energy mood was reserved for the stage. ¡°Gobo Contract, 3rd Open, Celer Flos¡± She shot up into the air then forward looking like a tube shooting through the sky with the shining circle above her head and the seven boxes trailing behind. The third one was cracked open and a steel like plate unfurled like a flag and fit onto the circle above her head. This one was just a flower and only made her flying speed faster. She banked in the air and quickly used another two, neither switched out her plate on the light sphere.. ¡°6th Open, Rosa Lingua¡± A dagger shot out and she caught angled it to cut through each one of the wires. This was a strange use of Parry Arts because ¡®wielding as a weapon¡¯ also counted if you just summoned it. That saved her life at least three times before. Then finally- ¡°5th Double Open, Glande¡± Two acorns the size of her fist popped out and she handed one to Cosimo while she took a bite of hers and gave him a high energy look. Cosimo took the damn acorn and leaped away carrying Slo. Her 6th and 5th boxes had closed with a slient ¡®Curtain Call~! 5th, 6th!¡¯ in her mind. Naturally it took away her own energy to cast it that way but the look on Cosimo¡¯s face made her think she was on thin ice. ===== Cosimo couldn¡¯t find a place to cross to the other size of the raging flood. Streets on either side were far too wide, both having their own river expanding out from the city center. There was no way even with his new ability he could jump that far. Taking a look, he could either head towards the city center or head toward the wall and hope there was some stairs to the top somewhere. Aeschyli was silently floating nearby with a positive look munching on a acorn. There wasn¡¯t any guard towers at all though. He remembered what Timothy said, that it was more of an art piece that a real defensive wall. These people wanted this place to last. No matter what happened, it didn¡¯t look like this was getting cleaned up anytime soon but at least it was just water. He looked at the massive alabaster landscape. It¡¯d take an army to destroy this place. Timothy was helping people. If that was Timothy. He¡¯d rather wait for him to confirm at this point. He looked down at the flood and wondered if he could do anything. While he did say he would run away, that he was doing too much, if there was a proper time to pitch in this would be it. Aeschyli probably isn¡¯t going to attack him again. He looked at the acorn. Not eating it. He tucked it in the back with his books and was at loss for what to do. ¡°Something wrong? I can help you know.¡± Aeschyli broke the silence. Cosimo believed she was holding back so he inadvertently praised her in his mind. ¡°Can we, uh, I want to help this,¡± he gestured out to the city, ¡°thing somehow.¡± ¡°The Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡± ¡°Oh, right. I don¡¯t know where it is from here and it looks difficult to get anywhere though, ¡° he gestured toward the flood. ¡°I can fly you. I think.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not dropping me in the water right?¡± ¡°Nope. I can boost my abilities after all, I¡¯ve got one that can slow your descent even if I did drop you.¡± ¡°Well, okay. You know, I¡¯m sorry about punching you earlier and pinning you to the ground.¡± ¡°I apologize for the surprise ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯¡± Cosimo suddenly felt like she was a normal person after all. Maybe this could work out. She grabbed him by the back of the neck. ¡°Hold on.¡± He went to grab her hand but she flew back a meter at full speed. Cosimo began to think she didn¡¯t like being touched. He had to be more careful. There wasn¡¯t a change in her expression at all, so he didn¡¯t know if that was the case. ¡°Did you think I was going to carry you princess style?¡± ¡°Um, let''s just head to the city center.¡± Aeschyli didn¡¯t know why he said that at all. ======= Timothy was going full blast with the shapeshift. It really had been a while, he only used ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯ when he was in a pissed mood trying to blow off steam. The reasoning being that he might cause a panic in the local humans who were terrified enough of dragons as is, although now they were going to know for sure. He didn¡¯t know that the dragon he was shapeshifted as looked quite like a pilosa in the first place, and this would actually end up helping him later due to his efforts now. Those who had proper unique magics or healing magics were being shuttled to and fro with Timothy making full use of ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ and ¡®Drudic Force¡¯ to keep people on his back even though he was racing at breakneck speeds. He also didn¡¯t think about how much he was using his tongue to board people on his back and scoop out people who were trapped by the flood. With those with water magic helping direct the flow away from buildings, those with healing magic taking care of the wounded, those with flying playing at Timothy¡¯s role, things were running smoothly. Adventurer¡¯s were using their Arts and unique magic to search out and rescue people trapped in the boats that were surfed into buildings by the flood. Some who were specialized in search magic to a much higher extent than Slo were helping that effort. The high traffic of speech and the constant communication Timothy was doing became a flurry of ¡®Grab the hair¡¯, ¡®Yes I am helping you¡¯, ¡®Yes it''s the dragon talking to you¡¯. He got a few ¡®what kind of dragon looks like a pilosa¡¯ and he just answered ¡®me?¡¯. When asked his name, he gave out ¡®a passing friendly dragon¡¯. There was a chorus of thank yous and well wishing as Timothy¡¯s magic, speed, and communication was making the difference. People were also using sigil creations in the form of birds to carry messages to the other hotspots along the roofline and the higher buildings. It got around the mayor was missing and his residence was underwater. They feared the worst, although he was regarded as a blowhard the general opinion was that he handled the diplomatic job that no one wanted. Stuck in the middle, a rich border town near quarries and a huge plains with lots of food and luxury goods trafficking in and out and on one side a city-state with huge naval power and the other a powerhouse nation that lacked nothing and had a competitive culture. Timothy didn¡¯t see much looting. Although there might have been plenty of thief types around everyone seemed united by the scale of the disaster. ¡°If only it was like this at home.¡± He was mulling. His people were not great at organizing for any effort really. It was a slow, disconnected and introspective life. Maybe because the humans were always in fear of other humans and there were so many trying hard to kill each other in their own cities that they were able to better respond to a crisis. To think that maybe because the Order led such peaceful lives that they perished, it upset him greatly. Of course, he had also passed along word that there was an army on it¡¯s way. He happened to see it when he burst through a cloud on an excited passenger¡¯s request and caught a glimmer off a shield by chance with his enhanced vision. Seems they were using a river and a small grove as cover when coming from the mountain pass. He was amazed that such a large group could get this far unnoticed, even over a mountain? That was another reason why the mayor¡¯s disappearance was a problem. If there was anyone who knew the current political situation or could manage to arrange a proper surrender it was him. The lower ward politicians were all generally just the most popular person in the neighborhood and had no skill in politics. ¡°Should I try to find the mayor? No, even those who have that kind of spell seem to be having trouble, maybe I¡¯ll just fly them around to see if they pick anything up.¡± Timothy asked around and was greeted by smiles. After all, he was pretty much bearing supplies and people with expertise no matter which camp he went to due to ¡®Drudic Force¡¯ he could ferry quite a lot at once, and boats were fairly useless. ¡°This is probably my fault somehow too. It¡¯s too ridiculous to believe, if I ask around they might just blame me though without getting to the truth. These people seem nice, but I¡¯d rather not use ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ on a human again if I can avoid it.¡± That could wait until later. It hadn¡¯t really sunk into his heart yet that maybe he caused a major disaster by acting out. He wasn¡¯t in the right state of mind though, he thought. The ¡®Human Detection¡¯ unique magic users were usually leading groups spread out across the city. They were sending sigil birds to a main communication hub, Timothy dropped the rest of his supplies deactivating the ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ on his tail. An old man greeted him warmly. ¡°Find the mayor? We just got a bird saying he¡¯s at the Dunkirk Embassy. Seemed he went there right before the flood. Suspicious timing too, but if he¡¯s going to do any good he¡¯s right where he needs to be. Say could you go help-¡± ======= Baqashot, the mayor of Aleppo, was taken prisoner as soon as he stepped on Dun Embassy grounds. Dun was really waiting for news from Dunkirk to decide what to do. He knew that just ordering the execution right here was only going to bring trouble if things went south, as they often did with the border towns. Marscione was difficult to conquer precisely because you had to to deal politically with the border towns and military invasion from the sea was too expensive and land invasion was just considered useless. In Grunkirk, the Dunkirk military faction was a collection of nobles collecting around the area nearby the mountain range that sealed off the Marscione plains. Really, the only use for maintaining military power there was to stop the border towns from invading. However, since they all were pretty much just full of monster hunters, adventurer¡¯s, miners, farmers, and the upper crust with the luxury dealers there wasn¡¯t much of a military force. Since Marscione was busy building an amazing mercenary navy to protect their trade routes, there was constant pressure from all the Dunkirk nobles to gain more rights to the border towns land. Of course, Marscione had to respond to support their buffer cites and this was all made worse by the rest of Grunkirk just not caring at all because the sea trade routes were profitable enough. This was why Dun needed Baqashot alive. If the invasion gets sour and Marscione responds seriously, Baqashot was the perfect ¡®It¡¯s alright¡¯ signal. The sea trade wouldn¡¯t get disrupted with Grunkirk. However, if Dunkirk managed to succeed then it would be a question of right to rule and claiming the land with money. If there was anyone who could make this a legitimate claim so Marscione would have to back off, it was Baqashot. Basically in the end the only value in killing Baqashot would be all out war. Which Dun wanted. But he couldn¡¯t kill Baqashot before the invasion, then he was just an inciter and would be everyone¡¯s enemy. He couldn¡¯t kill Baqashot after as it would just be the Dunkirk conquering and razing the ground. It had to be in the chaos of the war, where Baqashot looked like a total failure and Dunkirk was just propping up the state and inviting Marscione to share. Of course, Marscione would have to just agree that Dunkirk had won and to accept whatever they dictated. The next step would be all out war. So when he heard there was a massive flood, he was happy because now Baqashot looked like an idiot, but he was sad that it wasn¡¯t happening when Dunkirk was at the walls. At this point, they would be the saviors of Aleppo and Marscione would now have to accept that Aleppo was already lost to them. Therefore, no all out war. Dun was going through the options. ¡°Can we kill him yet?¡± A stiff guard was waiting for an order near Dun who was fatly ensconced in a grand chair at the head of a long table. ¡°No, not yet.¡± ¡°Can we torture him? ¡°No? Just be quiet.¡± Dun sighed exaggeratedly. He liked putting on little dramatic acts for himself, it made him feel like the star of the show. He wasn¡¯t the star of the show, yet, he thought. ¡°I can¡¯t think of anything really. Aleppo is done and the army was already spotted, the power struggle will be brief, I guess the only way-¡± He struck his hand down. He got it. A once in a lifetime gambit to start a intra-national war. ¡°I need that bastard¡¯s help.¡± The guard had to chime in at this. ¡°Should I get ¡®im then?¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± He shooed him away with a wave. Dun had no idea what to say, so he stared at the ceiling and let everything pull together. Mysterious flood. Dragon. Dunkirk Army. Politics. There was only one role Baqashot could play, it was just convincing him of he dastardly plan. Baqashot was trudged in with alcohol in his hands. They figured it might help to let him have it anyways. ¡°Whatever it is,¡± he gestured with his finger, ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± And so it was that Baqashot giving into Dun without a fight turned what would have been a bloodless war due to a flood into forcing Marscione to defend Aleppo. Seven - Belli Delay ¡°I hate politics at times like this the most,¡± the de facto dictator of Marscione sighed. His name was Cromwell. He loved his city, enough to take it over. He was sitting on a small chair with his elbow on a windowsill in the castle of Marscione, looking out over the wide rivers and small outcroppings of city with touches of trees spanning into the horizon. He turned to look at Vicomte, his chief economist, personal secret savior, and a renowned noble of honor and skill who had no problem helping others at the drop of the hat. Vicomte was annoyed when others didn¡¯t respect his experience though, like Cromwell did. ¡°Remember this for the next time we lose a border town. I told you the tariffs were just like casting a flame unique magic on quicksilver. Giving Dunkirk a casus belli they could show to Grun, that was a huge mistake. I don¡¯t know why or how they flooded the city though, that''s unexpected.¡± The dictator rubbed his face with both hands. Just how many times was he going to make the same mistake? He would get all wrapped up in a new plan, be running around doing his best to pull it all together, then something would blow up. When everything was in trouble and his aides were slathering him with lies, he¡¯d call Vicomte. Vicomte could remind Cromwell of every single time and would do so with excruciating detail. In the end, the dictator would silently admit he was wrong and get hailed as genius for pulling everything together in the end. The credit was stolen from Vicomte brazenly, but Vicomte was playing this political game with many, many partners and people for years and years in trade and government. Getting credit for your work was a choice for him, and he made it carefully. Being the emergency call for when Cromwell had messed up again was good enough tender to keep his businesses flourishing and his head attached. Cromwell was about to grumble uselessly when three sharp knocks hit the door. He motioned to Vicomte to open it, usually he had guards to order about but this was ¡®personal advice¡¯ time. A guard with light leather armor stepped in and handed a sigil bird to Vicomte. It was silver, and had the Dunkirk mark. The guard left and Vicomte closed the door. Vicomte gave Cromwell a look asking, ¡®Hey, I can just open this right? You want me to summarize the contents anyways,¡¯ and Cromwell understood it perfectly even without ¡®Spirit Communication¡¯. Vicomte cracked open the bird and pulled out a long paper cylinder. He shut the bird by pure reflex and unrolled the cylinder into a strip. It was in Marscione¡¯s language, from Baqashot. Vicomte kept a close eye on it to see if it was a forgery. Just packaged with a purposely marked Dunkirk sigil bird and being from Baqashot, the mayor of Aleppo which was currently flooded with the Dunkirk army nearby was enough of a statement. He could just toss it aside now and tell Cromwell that it¡¯s as expected and they would have to give up. Except the contents were staggering. Baqashot claimed he had allied with Dunkirk through the emissary Dun due to the recent economic actions of Marscione, he decided that Dunkirk was a better choice. The army was requested to come to aid in aiding the flood. Something was off there, he could see it perfectly. The army had no way to gather and move from Dunkirk to Aleppo in time unless they knew the flood was coming beforehand. However, since it was the mayor saying this that he had already allied with Dunkirk for political reasons it was clearly a setup. Either way, Baqashot was on Dunkirk¡¯s side and it didn¡¯t seem to be capitulation at all. Vicomte did not know that Baqashot was indeed capitulated, but mostly through just being tired of the stress of the job and the actions of Cromwell. ¡°Seems like Baqashot is definitely on Dunkirk¡¯s side. Since you forced the border towns this far already, this is the result.¡± Cromwell already knew what that meant. ¡°So it¡¯s war then. The cost is going to be staggering. If only Baqashot just croaked in that flood we might have just had a silent takeover thanks to that flood. I wouldn¡¯t envy that fight Aleppo would have had on their hands, but looks like it''s ours now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good you understood. With this, the border towns who are already being pressured by Dunkirk and your trade policies will see even more merit in allying with Dunkirk. At this rate, we¡¯ll lose the buffer of the border towns entirely and then it¡¯s only a matter of time before Grunkirk itself calls for an invasion of Marscione.¡± ¡°All my mistakes finally caught up with me huh? Endangering the whole future of the city-state, losing our national sovereignty,¡± he was tired. Vicomte couldn¡¯t fix this. ¡°There is another option, sir,¡± as Vicomte noticed that Cromwell was at his weakest possible point he decided to unleash his final gambit. Cromwell¡¯s pride was the enemy here, his love of the city-state he conquered with cloak and dagger tactics and his constant refusal to take advice until it was too late. Marscione may perish, but the people and culture will live on. Vicomte would see to that. ¡°We can surrender.¡± ===== Arge was exhausted lying on the plain with a red identification crystal. With so little energy himself, he was lucky he could use ¡®Hard Headed¡¯ for no cost to him. He went over his mastered unique magics in his mind. He concentrated on his identification crystal and asked it to pull up the information, also checking his status totals and level at the same time. He was at one health. Looks like the safety for the identification crystal kicked in when he went all out casting ¡®Stone Self¡¯. He figured he was closer to mastering it now, but was disappointed with a brief scan of his list. He didn¡¯t level up. Arge wished this thing talked to him, he heard that sometimes people with a good connection with their stones could hear when they learned new skills or spells. He didn¡¯t know that the only reason why was because it was embedded on the top of his gloved hand all the time.He wanted to keep it in his view. Many adventurer¡¯s had the same misconception. Without extended skin contact and using the energy of the body directly at the same time this was impossible. It was something you had to intuitively discover for yourself. ¡°Argh...¡± He groaned face first into the ground, playing dead in the grass. He had always wore dark clothing for his line of work, even when Slo kept complaining that it was dumb because the whole city was lighter colors. He didn¡¯t want to tell her that it also made it easier for ¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯ slip him into shadows. That was a strange quirk of that skill. Of course that included blackening the shine out of his gladius which he lost and his shield which was still attached to his arm. ¡°Huh?¡± As Arge¡¯s mind was wandering again he saw a new skill. In addition to his usual mastered ¡®Hard Headed¡¯, ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯, ¡®Free Anchor¡¯, ¡®Cowardly Retreat¡¯, ¡®Ardis Claddagh¡¯, ¡®Gladium Scelestam¡¯, ¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯, and ¡®Sword Spear Shot¡¯, there was another category. ¡®Arts¡¯. Were he in better condition to be able to smile and jump around he still wouldn¡¯t but a smile grew wide in his heart and he was face down in the plains hoping an army wouldn¡¯t notice him. He had heard of ¡®Arts¡¯. Earlier when he heard that red-brown haired girl say she had ¡®Parry Arts¡¯ he was interested. That was his first time hearing of that one. He always dreamed of having one, although many would be fine with just ¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯ alone. It was his day, finally. The name was perfect too. He wondered if because he was joking around in his mind during that fight with Timothy he was able to finally make this an ¡®Arts¡¯, because he certainly put the time in to get ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯. He examined the ability closely. It was difficult for him to focus on it in his mind but after asking for a description several times over he was shown it. A several part ¡®Art¡¯? This looks a lot like that red-brown haired girls spell. She had seven boxes, and said ¡®1st Open¡¯ so he assumed that all the other boxes had things inside too. This isn¡¯t a spell though. ¡®Arts¡¯ and mastered unique magic could be used independent of the identification crystal. Plus, ¡®Arts¡¯ were highly valued and were often uncastable even with an identification crystal. It was thought that ¡®only that person could master that ¡®Arts¡¯¡¯ but that wasn¡¯t the case. ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ had four parts, Give In, Distract, Proposal, and Close. Apparently all of them were separate ¡®Arts¡¯ that comprised ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯. He heard that this was another specialty of ¡®Arts¡¯, you could get a few strong abilities just from getting one ¡®Arts¡¯. While he was ecstatic as someone like him possibly could be, a Dunkirk scout rode over on what looked like a giant pangolin. They were known by Arge as Pholidota, and it came with a sneering scout on the top. Arge didn¡¯t see this, as he was playing dead. Maybe he can get an ¡®Arts¡¯ for that if he does it long enough? ¡°There¡¯s some corpse over here! I¡¯m searching it!¡± He called over to a nearby scout riding another Pholidota. The main force was thundering forward in the distance on all manner of heavy beasts, including a few Pilosa here and there. ¡°There doesn¡¯t seem to be any blood, he must have drowned and got washed out by the flood, that was quite a sight, this is why I like the army. Never have to fight out here in Dunkirk either, boy did it ruin my day to see that dispatch order.¡± He was monologuing as he felt like this was a chance to complain to someone who couldn¡¯t talk back. The guard patted down his clothing and pulled out some money, undid the shield, and then pulled out the gloved hand that was hastily stuffed under Arge¡¯s chest using a quick combination of ¡®Free Anchor¡¯ twice on each hand and then pulling them together so that the glove with the identification crystal would flop under his chest. Artfully done, he praised himself, although it felt like he detached one of his shoulders from the socket doing that. ¡®Hard Headed¡¯ kept the pain away. ¡°Huh, you¡¯re still alive, this crystals red. Well, guess I¡¯ll just kill you now then. Sorry about this, you know, war.¡± Arge was now sweating. His quick and brilliant plan had failed. From the start, he thought, wouldn¡¯t he flip him over anyways? Time to go to ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯. It was at this point that he would have died if he hadn¡¯t spoken to someone with ¡®Arts¡¯ themselves once. The easy way to activate them was to just act like you did when you got them, like you were just doing it normally, and the effect would then activate and be greatly enhanced. ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ Part 3rd, Proposal, he muttered in his mind and spoke up croaking a bit. ¡°You already took my money, I¡¯m dying anyways. Just leave me alone.¡± He wasn¡¯t dying. The Health number on his status also went negative, which meant that your condition would likely head towards death if nothing was done. The security measure that caused magical overload to occur would be useless if it injured them past a the point where they could recover on their own. The thinking was that you could carry them back just fine if they needed to make a last stand, and if they really wanted to do a suicide attack they would have to at least shrug off the magical overload. However, the scout seemed to buy it. ¡°This money isn¡¯t enough for your life, throw in the shield too.¡± The scout already had the shield in his hand though. It was like he was buying it at a store. This was a effect of the ¡®Arts¡¯. Normally, a person on the exact verge of almost dying would stop there. However, Arge was who he was and was excited. He also couldn¡¯t feel pain thanks to ¡®Hard Headed¡¯, and was used to Chel¡¯s excellent healing magic in the first place. This was his normal. ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ Part 1st, Give In, he intoned. ¡°You can have 1 rukh for my shield. That''s as high as I¡¯ll go.¡± ¡°1 rukh for your shield? What a steal. I¡¯ll take it!¡± In this case Arge was selling the price of the item which he redirected to his life instead of the shield. The scout would get one rukh, and Arge would get his life. After all, the scout was just searching a corpse in the first place. Arge really wanted to steal the Philodata and his silver armor and use ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ to mimic him to seize a chance to slip into the city during the attack but he couldn¡¯t figure out how. Arge, to repeat, was not a thief. He had never stolen anything. He had haggled however. If permission is given, isn¡¯t it fine? That¡¯s how he thinks. This was merely a desperate time he thought, he would have had to do that if he was able to move at all. ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ granted him the grace to finally live this philosophy to the fullest but- Just how far can ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ go? A burning desire to see the full strength spread in his heart. He could talk, so he could haggle. He wasn¡¯t going to use ¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯ in the Philodata¡¯s shadow. Actually, the truth was that it hadn¡¯t even occurred to him at this point since he was drunk on his new ¡®Arts¡¯. ¡®Haggle arts¡¯ Part 4th, Close. ¡°Here is your 1 rukh.¡± He focused on himself when he said the word ¡®here¡¯. His physical body. As if he was making a transaction with the scout. The scout thought he was buying a shield at a store. The store was a corpse. The corpse was offering 1 rukh for the shield. The shield which he believed was a corpse was now his. The scout pocketed 1 rukh from the coin sack and put the actual shield back onto the corpse and returned the coin purse. These were items that he was not buying. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ had the scout completely confused as to the reality of the situation. The scout lugged the shield up. It was extremely heavy. It must be a really good shield. ¡°Thanks mister corpse, with a shield like this, there¡¯s no way I¡¯ll die in this war!¡± The shield was the corpse to him, so he was looking at it on Arge¡¯s arm. He pushed Arge onto the Philodata and then hefted himself up onto the beast. He thought it was best to keep the shield stored on the back since it was so heavy. Arge¡¯s plan worked beautifully. There was one final part though. As the scout urged his Philodata forwards the scout he called to earlier pulled close with a questioning look. ¡°Why are you carrying the whole corpse with you? Weren¡¯t you just going to loot it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s my shield.¡± ¡°You can just take that shield off you know? Did the sun bake your brains?¡± ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ Part 2nd, Distract, thank you for your business. ¡°I¡¯m a shield,¡± Arge said, thinking of the shield on his arm. The other scout made a face of realization. ¡°Oh, sorry about that, I didn¡¯t see how big the shield was, that¡¯s really strange. Maybe I¡¯m thirsty.¡± He pulled out a canteen as they were racing off the plains in the sun. It was cool outside. ¡°Nah, no problem. Hey, if you want to borrow this shield just let me know okay?¡± Many wondered why there was a crazy scout carrying a corpse around on the back of his Philodata. Some just assumed he went mad from going into battle. When even a general heard about it and sent someone to check it out and report back, he told him ¡°It¡¯s his shield.¡± ==== In the center of Aleppo Aschyli and Cosimo were jumping from roof to roof making their way in a semicircle toward the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Cosimo assumed that Aschyli wasn¡¯t the type to ask questions of strangers but she was shooting ahead of him with her stage magic and and chatting people up left and right. Well, she was chatty, he did have to agree. He began to wonder why he didn¡¯t like her when he saw her making friendly chat on a main central area. It seemed like her personality and even appearance changed when the stage magic was active. Cosimo wasn¡¯t feeling tired at all as he easily carried Slo through the air jumping roof to roof. Aschyli flew on by and motioned for him to stop. ¡°There¡¯s no need to go to the Guild. They have camp on the roofs setup. A passing friendly dragon is helping. I found one over there. Looks like the act is already over. Let¡¯s go.¡± He followed her without complaint. ¡®Act is already over¡¯, guess they were out long enough for the people to organize. That dragon, it became harder to doubt it was anyone but Timothy, probably helped that along quite a bit. He figured he would help where he could though, he did just acquire some sort of body enhancement. At the back of his mind he was worried about how he was becoming comfortable with Aschyli. Cosimo reached the camp as Aschyli flew to talk to one out of a bunch of serious looking people handling a bunch of flying mechanical birds. He marveled at the sight as they glittered in the sun. About evening? It¡¯s still light out. It looked like they were out for quite a bit. He saw the dragon slash Timothy shooting off into the distance. He thought he would stop at the city limits but he skimmed straight over the wall. Where is he going? Cosimo wanted to ask someone but there was just an intimidating mass of metal birds and people casting spells. He waited on Aschyli. Cosimo hefted his body, checking to see if ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ was still active. He flexed his left arm and felt the energy flow, then he flexed his right- Oh wait he¡¯s still carrying Slo. Couldn¡¯t he drop her at the medical tent? He felt bad about leaving her here but he didn¡¯t know when she was going to wake up, after all he had been jumping around through the air and she didn¡¯t budge at all. Cosimo started to wander around. There were a few people carving the alabaster off a nearby dome capped building with some magical light and molding it into makeshift cots. He thought that it would be rather tough to lay on, so what was the point? That was until he saw someone using a green light on the etchings. They were pulling out vines from the alabaster. Then they handed they stacked the vines into piles near some others who were molding it into cots with more magic. He was amazed. Briefly forgetting that he had to put Slo down, he walked over to a young lady who was using a green light to pull on the strands etched into the alabaster. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m from the country. That looks awesome, what are you doing?¡± She looked up. ¡°Uh, hi. The cots are over there.¡± Cosimo realized was she meant and walked off embarrassed. It was a failure. Was it all the years of acting that he completely forgot how to be a normal person? It actually was just Slo on his shoulder, but he wasn¡¯t aware of that. It was much harder to change than he thought, even in another world. He felt a sense of foreboding as he laid Slo down carefully and put her hat under the cot to safeguard it. This was just like before. Aschyli came calling. He thought people would find it strange that someone with such a strange magic was flying around but then he remembered where he was. People were flying around everywhere. ¡°Hey. Dragon went to go stop the oncoming army. Some old guy here said, ¡®If he just buzzes them a little from the sky that might frighten them off.¡¯¡± Cosimo figured Timothy wasn¡¯t invincible. From their short time together he didn¡¯t seem to be hot headed at all. Cosimo had no idea he was wrong. ===== The army was shining in the distance as Timothy flew towards them. ¡°Is that a magical flying pilosa?¡± ¡°No way that¡¯s a dragon.¡± ¡°Sir, should we retreat?¡± ¡°From that? It looks like a pilosa grew wings. Probably some experiment gone horribly wrong. What fearful magics hide in Aleppo¡­¡± ¡°Marscione has the Monodons, they are pretty smart. If we had to invade by sea, no doubt they would be the biggest threat. Wouldn¡¯t surprise me if there was a breed of pilosa out there somewhere that was intelligent too.¡± That was one guy in the corner with glasses talking to his friend. Yes, he was wearing glasses under a silver helmet riding a philodata. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not stopping this invasion just for a magical flying pilosa.¡± ¡°What¡¯s it going to do? Tongue us to death?¡± A great flurry of discussion had broken out. No one was really impressed by what was coming at them. Although they were in low spirits thinking about how the war was basically over with the entire city flooded, the novelty of a flying pilosa coming at them brought joy to their hearts. A certain scout raised his shield with a grunt. ¡°Defend yourselves men! He¡¯s probably got some sort of magic that lets his tongue slice you half!¡± Everyone around him, who thought that Arge was honestly a shield thanks to ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ had a good laugh at that. No one was taking the pilosa seriously. The soldiers further out, who thought that the corpse that was just being carried by a crazy soldier and were unaffected by ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯, had a good laugh at him. They weren¡¯t taking him seriously. Of course, at this point Timothy got a little mad as he saw them laughing at him as he flew in close from the top and began circling around. He couldn¡¯t even a single one of them readying their weapons. But then, a cheer broke out. One soldier, who was seriously hoping that he could just go back home and was in a good mood thinking that they would just act as aid to the flooded city, stood up on his philodata and began to cheer. ¡°Pilosa! Pilosa! Pilosa!¡± His smile grew as he thought he was in such a ridiculous situation, but people started to feel it too. Why not just chant along? The general looked out at his army as they started cheering. ¡°Pilosa! Pilosa! Pilosa!¡± He was old. He¡¯d been through many wars. He had a faced etched with a permanent scowl. He smiled at them. ¡°Just what kind of battle is this. We¡¯re marching on a city you know?¡± He gave a laugh. His aide who was no fun at all wanted to say something. He gathered up the courage after he realized he really was the only one thinking this at all. ¡°Sir, don¡¯t we have to shoot it down?¡± The general went back to his regular look. ¡°Seems that pilosa captured the hearts of everyone within a second. Remember this, you¡¯ll never see something as ridiculous as this again in your life.¡± ===== Timothy gave up a little seeing the spectacle as he still made passes over the troops. He wondered what was the point of him coming here. Arge was being held up at the sky and Timothy and him caught eyes for a moment. Timothy initially was disgusted but he saw the state Arge was in and instantly regretted everything. He then asked himself, imagining Willem, ¡®Well what are you going to do about it?¡¯ His tongue shot forward and looped around Arge. In the end, he wasn¡¯t someone who could ignore someone in pain. He didn¡¯t know about Arge¡¯s ¡®Hard Headed¡¯ ability which could nullify pain, but even if he did he already didn¡¯t regard him as much of a human being. ¡°This is just for myself at least,¡± he said to himself. He slapped Arge onto his back and flew off gaining altitude. ==== The cheering got louder before it finally subsided. There were yells of: ¡°He¡¯s taking the corpse to the underworld!¡± ¡°Maybe he was just hungry?¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t one of us, where did he come from?¡± ¡°General, he¡¯s attacked, should we shoot him?¡± ¡°That¡¯s that corpse that crazy scout picked up to use as a shield, don¡¯t be silly.¡± ¡°My shield! It was such a bargain too!¡± ¡°Pilosa! Come back here and give this man his shield back!¡± ==== Aeschyli and Cosimo were in a sub slash boat that was jammed straight into one of the alabaster domes present all over the city. If you took a boat, turned it upside down, flattened one side and added a deck, curved the other, it would look something like that. Basically just a sub. They were generally pretty small, the standard size was made to get under the low bridges of Aleppo after all. Whichever one was first, Cosimo didn¡¯t know. ¡°Ah, someone¡¯s behind this massive door. I¡¯d need at least Act 2 for this. Can you save me the energy Cosimo?¡± She had extremely good senses. This was why she asked him to go take a bath when he was under the effect of ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯. ¡°Can¡¯t you use that flashy spell of yours for free yet?¡± He jammed his hand into the door. Thick white colored metal. Didn¡¯t even look silver. He made his hand into a spear and concentrated. One thing at a time. He pushed against it, then activated ¡®Mediocre¡¯. It softened like tofu. Surprised by the strength of the effect which wasn¡¯t the same as the other buildings and subs he had bore through, he fell straight down with his head aiming for a wall. ¡°Gobo Contract. 2nd Open. Snowdrop Minuet.¡± He froze in midair. Righting himself, he thanked Aeschyli and noted she was wide-eyed as usual, but it seems like her voice was losing strength. Getting over the shock he pulled up an unconscious man and jumped up with him. As they were crawling out, he had to say it. ¡°Seems like you¡¯re getting tired. This could get dangerous if you continue on, go on and head back. Looks like the worst is over anyways.¡± ¡°You could tell? I¡¯m not used to staying in high energy mode for so long. But if you say so-¡± She had him dead to rights at this point. She wasn¡¯t tired at all, but she was on stage so playing a role was normal. The pilosa was within her grasp. If Cosimo had ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ and chose to read her at this point her dark designs would be quite adorable to him. He watched her fly off with her third open, which sped her up. Leaping towards the next building he felt limitless energy, a result of his ¡®Average¡¯ ability. Thinking he might just join up with the next group, he saw Timothy coming in and Cosimo waved as if flagging down a plane. ¡°Hey!¡± He felt the vocal muscles in his throat and directed ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ into them. He had no idea if that would work, but it was worth a shot. ¡°Timothy!¡± The pilosa heard him. Although Timothy was disappointed that he didn¡¯t get to fight a human army head on, there were still two mysteries left. Cosimo¡¯s identity and what caused the flood of Aleppo. Timothy, with Arge still on his back, cast read with ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ on the tiny Cosimo. Eight - Soulbreak Cosimo was waving to Timothy, unaware that he was about to use a mind reading ability on him. The situation was not good for either of them. He¡¯d been using an extreme amount of magical power directly from his body, and ¡®Average¡¯ wasn¡¯t reaching it¡¯s time limit at all. While if he were to say, get in a fight with Timothy, which was unfortunately going to happen soon, he¡¯d be able to be completely fine. What he couldn¡¯t know at this point was that his health was negative ten thousand. Combined with his overuse of ¡®Mediocre¡¯ saving people from the flood, he was exhausted in a mental sense. Combined with his worrying about Aeschyli and her strange behavior. Combined with his guilt over punching her and that spell that she cast on him which made him completely lose control. Combined with his shame that he didn¡¯t even want to talk about. Combined with his fear rising in his heart about the dream he had when he was knocked out. This wasn¡¯t ¡®right¡¯. This wasn¡¯t ¡®his world¡¯. This wasn¡¯t ¡®Average¡¯. He was failing in his heart and something was wrong at a level that Timothy would easily understand, but Cosimo was completely unable to understand. Intuitively he had been using ¡®Flow Charge¡¯ and ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ without understanding how to manage that load as well, and all of weight was crushing him over and over. ==== Aeschyli was munching on another 5th Open Glande to restore her energy. Now in low energy mode staring out over the city innocently enjoying the view, she saw the pilosa Cosimo said was named Timothy during the small talk they had while saving people from the flood. If you looked at her level and status, just that alone would be enough to take on an army. She munched as she saw the dragon which was apparently Timothy. She thought that was amazing really. So it was really a dragon that could turn into a pilosa? She was wrong, but her eyes were shining a little even her in low energy mode. Then she felt it. There was a change in the wind. She stopped eating and swallowed. ¡°Oh no, not again¡­¡± This was a magic reaction. Someone was making a horrible mistake and something was about to break. It happened all the time back home. She reached for the bangle that gathered her voluminous and greasy hair and flipped the latch. Being level sixty nine, her body¡¯s parameters were supernatural. As potential level that high was extremely rare just getting to the level itself could be called pure genius. In her case, more of an idiot savant. It was also the reason she was hunted by a dragon and her own family from Grunkirk. That was because she stole a bunch of the dragon¡¯s stuff including that magic bangle adorned with sigils, and the latter was because she didn¡¯t want to be a soldier to please her family. If you had to say ¡®What¡¯s the strongest being on this planet?¡¯ that would be dragons. Aeschyli was perhaps one of the weakest. As long as she kept the bangle on. She lived only to have a stage for herself. Today was the first day of her life that she would end up killing. The number was going to be high. She couldn¡¯t escape being a soldier after all. ¡°Timothy, I¡¯ll save you!¡± She stood up and light gathered into her eyes but no smile appeared on her face. Her hair unfurled and she jumped causing the alabaster roof to shatter in a perfect semicircle. The small cape on her back fluttered in the wind as she pranced around the buildings using sheer strength and dexterity. ===== ¡®Average¡¯ kept it impossible for him to die or change. Right now, if you set a number counter he would always be a certain number. He was level six. He had thirty-nine health. That was the truth that ¡®Average¡¯ was keeping. Normally, people of this world had no such abilities that could just simply ignore the laws of numbers. Doing that would affect the soul, and the human world had no such knowledge of that. However, amongst the Druidic Order of Xenarthra it was well known as a common ailment of dream exploration and too much ¡®Soul Communication¡¯. The soul would be dyed a small teardrop of black. While in Timothy¡¯s opinion Arge¡¯s soul was pitch black, that was just a judgement of his character. There wasn¡¯t a known way to get the soul to become entirely blackened. They simply didn¡¯t believe it possible. At worst, you could enter a state of ¡®Soulbreak¡¯ which would cut you off from controlling the magical energy around you. No spells could be cast. Then, what if you were just able to cast entirely When ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ is used to read or communicate, added only a little. Really, it wasn¡¯t enough to break a dam. Unless that dam was already bursting. First of all reading with ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ was going to expose the soul. So naturally, a soul like Cosimo¡¯s which was onyx right now cracked from Timothy¡¯s reading. Timothy fully expected some sort of resistance, that the truth was that Cosimo was lying all along and was a dragon who somehow learned shapeshift which was something even the druids of his order weren¡¯t that great at. He thought at the back of his mind, ¡°If that dragon knew shapeshifting, was he someone I talked to back then? Was there an imposter among us?¡± Cosimo¡¯s soul exploded. The magic reaction between ¡®Average¡¯ and the overload on his soul setoff the soulbreak, with the ¡®Average¡¯ constantly restoring his soul back to normal all the darkness in his heart spilled into his mind all at once. Timothy linked to him took serious mental damage as well, digging up his hatred he had when he was stuck in his dream, his bloodthirst, the army cheering and laughing at him. He wasn¡¯t angry at all before that. Really, he was having a good time. However, he was now completely angry and lost all control. The instinct in Cosimo was let loose and he felt the interference. ¡°How dare you try to get into my head!¡± He was yelling full strength as the identification crystal turned deep purple. It was malfunctioning. ¡°You burned my order to the ground!¡± ¡°Order? What are you some kind of priest?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a druid, of the Order of Xenarthra! The last one thanks to you!¡± Arge flew into the air now that Timothy¡¯s control of ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ was entirely nonexistent. Timothy activated his Ancient Ancestral Arts, sacred rites of his order and shifted back to a pilosa. He dropped like a bomb in an arc straight onto the roof in front of Cosimo growling animalistically. It got worse though. The link wasn¡¯t broken. Timothy was using read from ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ at full blast and he was feeding off of the mental explosion inside Cosimo¡¯s head. ¡°Finally, I waited so long to meet you. You must have brainwashed yourself somehow, I can¡¯t find the memories of my order dying at all! Did you forget, if you forgot that day¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re looking into my head! I didn¡¯t know you could do that! Not my porn folder! Anything but that! Oh, Maria, where did I go wrong?¡± ¡°What the heck is all that stuff? It¡¯s making me sick, I¡¯ll end you to save both of us the pain!¡± Cosimo was blubbering and his eyes were bloodshot. He was making small primal noises and he leaped forward on all fours with all his strength. The result was many times his normal, he was uselessly putting as much power as he could into his entire being, causing his soul to bubble like a cauldron and causing explosions shaking the city. The air pressure was being affected severely, and a whole section of wall on the city limits just took off into the air like a plane and fell, revealing the oncoming army. They had intended to climb the walls, rappel down to a nearby roof and work their way to the city center from there. They halted in shock. Timothy was running forward frothing at his nose and mouth. Cosimo was using ¡®Charge Flow¡¯ and ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ to focus on his fist. He needed to crush everything. He couldn¡¯t let anyone know. As Timothy came in range he used ¡®Darting Tongue¡¯ of the Ancient Ancestral Arts and pierced Cosimo straight through the heart. ¡®Average¡¯ set it to normal right away, cutting off the tip of Timothy¡¯s tongue even though he was concentrating his entire ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ there. ¡°You..! ¡®Form of Sloth¡¯!¡± Timothy even in his maddened state understood that something was wrong with that. His strongest abilities and the amount of energy within his ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ wasn¡¯t something you could just ¡®cut¡¯ through. You needed to interrupt the energy flow entirely with your own, something usually only a druid was capable of doing. ¡°I knew I was right! You¡¯re a dragon after all!¡± Timothy in the form of a giant sloth lost all momentum and cracked the roof as he fell. Cosimo was closing in but he was able to get off a final spell before the punch released into him. Explosions bursting building in apart surrounded them as night suddenly came. It was just a simple sleep Arts. Timothy had never learned regular magic. This Ancient Ancestral Arts was just for dream exploration. However, with the sloth form it was amplified and could instantly put a creature to sleep. It was his last gambit with his last shred of rationality. Cosimo released his punch and all the energy kept focusing and refocusing on his fist over and over again. Since the state kept repeating itself, the punch kept releasing more and more energy. A massive wave of energy cracked the air and sent everything from his fist onwards into the air. Not even causing them damage, just randomly hefting them away from the force the blast. The cities building and gigantic walls lifted into the air along with Timothy and shot off into the sky along with a huge amount of flood water. The whole corner of the city was carried like it was in a massive bubble it looked like it was slowly descending towards the ground crashing into half of the army as they were scattering and yelling. The retreat was sounded but sound wasn¡¯t being heard at all. It was like the whole world got a mute button hit on it. Cosimo¡¯s body began to explode from the inside and his arm vaporized then regenerated constantly. The sheer amount of energy expended seemed to drain something from within, and he flopped into the remaining flood waters. === Going back a bit to before Timothy and Cosimo went insane. To Aeschyli who was fluttering in it was like a bomb went off in both of their bodies. One hundred percent soul and mental damage. Aeschyli thought nothing of it though, she had seen countless strange reactions in the labs, countless strange magics in her travels. They just both needed to be put down and would probably recover after a few weeks or so. While the pilosa was sleeping it would be stationary, so that was a bed for her. Add to that they would probably praise her and be grateful to her for taking care of them, naturally Cosimo would gift the pilosa to her out of gratitude. Or, he could just come along and be a tagalong. Either way was fine. She saw a random body fly off of Timothy¡¯s back. Who was that? She had no idea it was the same guy who snuck up on her and knocked her out, launched his ¡®Sword Spear Shot¡¯ at her and almost killed her with Slo as backup who riddled her with tiny icicles. If she did that wouldn¡¯t change anything. It was a falling target, and a dramatic catch was more necessary to her in priorities than saving a life. She flipped forward and saw Arge plunging headfirst into water. At this rate, wouldn¡¯t he be fine from that level of drop anyways? That was no good. ¡°Gobo Contract! 2nd Open, Snowdrop Minuet!¡± She froze him in midair. Then she stopped on a nearby building, checked the angle, and leaped so her hair would be lit by the rays of the sun. She just caught him out of the freeze when some random burst of air from the nonsensically placed explosions buffeted her into the air and shot her like a cannon in an arc. She enjoyed the view and the pleasant air running through her hair. It was good to be alive. She plummeted straight into the Dunkirk army, briefly activating stage magic to right herself in midair so she would land on her back. It was no good if she squashed Arge after going through the trouble to catch him. Since that was a extremely high speed, anyone below level forty or so without any magic or Arts enabled would have died instantly. For her body, the ground, which was level thirty or so, lost completely. It exploded upwards and gave her experience for an area of effect attack. The unfortunate part was the soldiers hit by that crushing strike. Philodata and humans with bent bodies were scattered around. She popped up holding Arge with a princess carry. The connection in her mind between her falling on them and them dying just wasn¡¯t strong. If you had to say why her past- Was for another time. At this point the fight between Timothy and Cosimo had already ended and although the soldiers were advancing on her in a rage They all got distracted in unison by the surreal sight of the floating buildings. Aeschyli looked on with shining eyes and a open smile lit up her face. This day is fun, she thought. It reminded her of good times at home. As the buildings and water started crashing down she stood there transfixed as the soldiers began to run away. Huge boulders from the building hitting the ground and the air shaking from explosions sending splinters of stone covering the field like shrapnel decorated the sky. Then the water started to flood the plains. Aeschyli realized she should move at this point, so she kicked off the ground and twirled in the air. The soldiers were too busy to see her cast 3rd open Celer Fleur and fly away. She sniffed out the familiar scent of that singular pilosa, but for some reason she came upon a tiny sloth. She collected it anyways. She had no concept of shapeshifting or why Timothy was able to be a dragon, it was just ¡®her smell isn¡¯t wrong¡¯ so she didn¡¯t even consider that it might actually be a sloth or that Timothy was using some sort of Arts. Soldiers who weren¡¯t being swept away into the rivers or bombarded by broken buildings were charging forwards toward a huge chunk of open wall. They thought it would be safe inside. Aeschyli¡¯s thinking at this point was that the army was going to cause trouble in the city somehow. It didn¡¯t occur to her that maybe they would just take shelter there after a routing and surrender. She didn¡¯t like fighting too much, but maybe she should stop them? Aeschyli was losing interest when she thought about a brave hero making a final stand at the gates to a stronghold. Her eyes lit up and she landed on top of the wall, placing the sloth and Arge down carefully. She felt the sloth¡¯s fur and giggled creepily, but luckily no one was there to see that. She was about to use her 6th open to summon a dagger, but then she saw a crumbled stack of wood and thought that would be cooler. This was incidentally about half of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild that landed there by chance. She picked up the stick, and swung it with all of her force with one hand. ¡°Ooh, nice.¡± It sent out a blade of air from the sheer force of the swing and cut a deep slit into the alabaster on the top of the way, disrupting the vine carvings. She swung it around a little bit, completely unaware of actual swordsmanship. It was after all her ignorance of that that formed the basis for Parry Arts. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.Aeschyli easily jumped off the wall and just let herself plant into the ground. It was like a stake went straight into a railroad plank. As she pulled herself up, she stood there and imitated a stone face like Arge¡¯s that she saw just now. The light of the setting sun bathed her already red costume in more red. ¡°Knaves of Dunkirk!¡± She leveled her stick at them like a challenge. A deep heroic voice unlike her full of energy burst forth as her long unbound hair blew in the wind. ¡°Marscione, city-state of the shining blue river delta. Marscione, jewel of trade and protector of the Monodons, who repay them in kind. Marscione, my home. I, Aeschyli Grun, have renounced my former country. They chase me, they assassinate me- wait not yet they haven¡¯t.¡± The soldiers were covering their heads with shields and some were trying to coax the philodata who were running off in shock. The few paying attention were just surprised but kept advancing. ¡°Aleppo is Marscione. You came to conquer this city to obtain a path to Marscione, but here you will only find a trudge home. If you have courage, face me in battle and I will show you the true worth of the so-called soldiers of Dunkirk!¡± They didn¡¯t really have anywhere to go, but no one wanted to attack her. There were whispers about her¡­ among the top crust of Grunkirk. These Dunkirk soldiers had never heard of her but were confused by her using the last name ¡®Grun¡¯. If anything, being so close to the wall and having such a strange encounter deeply imprinted it on their minds. At least one thought she was charming. That may have been Aeschyli herself though. Needless to say, she had a stick. They were tired. They started to try to walk past her but she blocked them with the stick. When one of the soldiers just tried to push her away- He flew. Parry Arts was her most formidable ability for one reason. Since it was one hundred perfect defense, there wasn¡¯t anything that could pass it except overwhelming force, magical or otherwise. The only requirement was that she wielded something as a weapon. So seeing a soldier lose to a stick was humiliating enough, to see even more soldiers sent flying when they were just trying to sneak past was worse. As they began to try all sorts of unique magic to get past it all ended the same way. A few just stood there and watched as soldiers who tried to fly would get knocked down and bounced across the ground, while she would repel another one using ¡®Cowardly Retreat¡¯ at the time she was distracted within the same movement. ¡°She¡¯s amazing.¡± They had to begin to marvel. Others were yelling insults and cursing but Parry Arts is useful against those too somehow. Finally, a reasonable person who had just decided he needed to roll with this came forth. It was actually the aide who chided the general earlier for enjoying the whole pilosa cheer mess. ¡°Hey, Aeschyli is it? Look, listen to reason. Our army is shattered. There¡¯s a flood in the city. We have no supplies or mounts anymore, this is just¡­ showing off.¡± He rethought as her face darkened. She talked about Marscione. Maybe she was insane? He had to play along with her character. ¡® ¡°Dunkirk submits to Marscione. Aleppo is Marscione. Please, shelter us and we will repay with our lives, as that is the only thing we have to pay with. Does Marscione have no honor, that they will kill prisoners of war?¡± This guy, he will go far, thought Aeschyli. There was a small second of joy there on her face before switching back to character. She spun her stick and stuck it in her belt. ¡°Marscione has honor. We will shelter the driven forces of Dunkirk at the Dun Embassy, where they belong. Betray your word, and Aeschyli Grun will finish you all herself.¡± She flicked her cape and leaped to the top of the wall with one movement. Aeschyli collected her sloth and miscreant and flew off with Celer Fleur. ¡°Wait, she isn¡¯t going to escort us there?¡± The aide marveled at her strange magic as she putted through the air. ¡°I, think she¡¯s just playing around.¡± ¡°She said Grun though, no one would use that name unless they wanted to die. But with ability like that, maybe it''s true.¡± ¡°Head to Dun, tell him about the explosion and the girl. Whoever she is, she¡¯s loyal to Marscione.¡± This was an unfortunate misunderstanding. ====== Cosimo awoke with a start. White, stretching out as far as the eye could see. A black ball slammed into the ground in front of him and the Japanese God and his sister walked out. ¡°Hello Cosimo.¡± ¡°Maria?¡± ¡°Seems like you broke your soul somehow. Anyways, I came by to check in really. I¡¯m learning a lot without you around. I can do what I want finally. All those years, it was quite painful at times you know?¡± She wasn¡¯t smiling. Don¡¯t tell me this was another dream. Cosimo thought that to himself. The Japanese God spoke up. ¡°No, not this time. Didn¡¯t mean to read your thoughts there, but it was kind of loud. It happens sometimes.¡± He looked at the Japanese God and struggled to get up. Maria kicked him in the face. ¡°Agh!¡± It hurt more because it was unexpected. ¡°What the? Maria why would you even come see me? I know how you really felt, but I didn¡¯t want to admit it-¡± ¡°I saw some of what was going on in the other world you know. It''s not going well at all is it? But for you to be saying something like that, you¡¯ve grown I think.¡± She pulled out a kitchen knife from a holster on her back. ¡°No, do not pull out knives on me again.¡± Cosimo said that on reflex with his hand up. ¡°At least you¡¯re wary this time. It actually bothered me a bit when you didn¡¯t say anything even at the end. I really wanted the truth you know. Last time I saw you, were you lying?¡± Maria didn¡¯t seem like she was angry. Actually, this just reminded him of when she was young. Since he left, maybe she just returned to that personality. No, that was a lie too. This was the her he denied, the her he tried to save his sister from. To change her into someone else. Usually, he would find that disgusting, but his sister was just unforgivable. ¡°I, I was lying. I¡¯ve always been lying. Even when I got to another world I kept lying. But I-¡± Did he learn anything? What did he do? He got consumed by shame and hatred for some reason, fought with his ¡®best friend¡¯ and blew up a good chunk of the city he spent the whole evening trying to help. It¡¯s just a mystery to him. Just what exactly was he doing? Then he remembered ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯. Aeschyli¡¯s unique magic that controlled him. He didn¡¯t remember it well but it definitely robbed both his and Timothy¡¯s will. That dream he had, ¡°I was running away,¡± he gestured towards the knife, ¡°from this you.¡± ¡°It''s the truth?¡± She was looking at the Japanese God. ¡°Yeah. That took some courage to say. I¡¯m glad I gave you a chance, Cosimo.¡± ¡°¡®Gave him a chance¡¯?¡± Maria was confused. I could go for the knife right now, thought Cosimo. He knew that this was going to end in him getting stabbed, and his identification crystal was gone. Beyond that, he had tried to use ¡®Mediocre¡¯ on her already and there was nothing. There was one ability left to him. Martial Arts. He had studied several, but his favorite was jiu jitsu and aikido. He could go for the leg sweep, but the Japanese God could end it in an instant. He needed to confirm what his reason for bringing him here was, or at least how he got here. ¡°Cosimo¡¯s actually fairly amazing. I was initially interested in you, because I like crazy girls, but then I realized you¡¯re pretty dead inside. There¡¯s no fire to you. It¡¯s just enjoyment of perverted hobbies that would disgust any normal person. I¡¯m not interested in a girl who can¡¯t keep me guessing. Honestly, if Cosimo left you alone I bet you would just be in jail for life and have done fine in there.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not surprised. I was thinking you felt that way about him,¡± Maria said. Cosimo didn¡¯t miss the hand gesture and chin shake that the Japanese God did. Fight her for your entertainment? Is that it? I¡¯d take her down if it was just me and her. I¡¯ll run away with all my might this time. There¡¯s this guy I met in the other world named Arge who¡¯s not that different than you. I spent probably less than an hour with him and he threatened to kill me with a knife but I¡¯d¡­ I was going to say trust him with my life, but no way. I like him more than you. At least I don¡¯t know enough to decide that I absolutely need to run away. Arge would drop you in a second. You¡¯re on your own, Maria. ¡°This guy? He fought a lonely battle for so long. For nothing really either. If he just ran away when he found out, told your parents, and didn¡¯t take responsibility he would be a normal person. He made a poor decision, and followed it for his entire life on earth. That¡¯s dedication!¡± ¡°So, I¡¯m the one who was wrong then? Is there something wrong with me?¡± Maria wasn¡¯t putting the knife away. I inched closer. ¡°No, you¡¯re just normal to me. People all have their preferences really. But, hey, as a human there¡¯s limits in society. If you want to stay in society, you have to play along. Cosimo tried to do both for you. Stay in society, teach you to stay in society, if anything the person who has something wrong with them-¡± I hooked her leg with mine and snatched her wrist. She turned around with an angry face. The first time I¡¯ve ever seen her like that. She didn¡¯t expect it from the bottom of her heart, is what I thought. She toppled to the ground where I was. If I can¡¯t win, I¡¯ll bring you down to my level. I twisted her wrist and pushed against her thumb. ¡°Aagh!¡± The knife fell point first into the whiteness. I moved to pin. I grabbed her shoulder, forced her arm up, and put my knee into her back. If I left you alone, a policeman could have done this for me. On top of her like she was just a criminal and not my sister, I teared up. ¡°I¡¯m¡­¡± I¡¯m sorry? What am I sorry for? I messed up. I did too much. That¡¯s true. It¡¯s over now. ¡°It¡¯s over. I don¡¯t know what you were going to do, but I¡¯m going far away. I won¡¯t see you again. I¡¯m glad for that.¡± ¡°Cosimo!¡± She was upset. I don¡¯t want to hear anymore of what she has to say though. I¡¯m heartless? No, maybe I¡¯m worse than you. In law, there is a question of intent though. Objectively, I would get sympathy for trying to protect someone. The means to that end were criminal though, I¡¯ll admit that. Who will judge me? It¡¯s¡­ Myself isn¡¯t it. My code, from now on, I¡¯ll figure it out in another world, without you. ¡°Hey, Japanese God, send me back.¡± ¡°To earth?¡± ¡°You¡¯re joking right? To the world I was in, I still don¡¯t know the name yet. It¡¯s been awful busy there. Still haven¡¯t read those damn books yet.¡± ¡°Afraid I can¡¯t do that.¡± What? ¡°What?¡± Cosimo was surprised. ¡°There¡¯s this really complex reason why, but basically the whole insanity thing was kind of like a magical explosion. It¡¯s why Aleppo flooded too.¡± ¡°Okay, can you send Maria back at least?¡± ¡°To earth?¡± ¡°Yes, please, I swear I¡¯ll get into trouble other ways even if you don¡¯t do anything at this rate.¡± ¡°Yeah. Yeah you¡¯re right. You¡¯re doing a good job with that, to even mess with a God¡¯s power to email your soul places.¡± Maria was quiet, but she suddenly spoke up. ¡°He¡¯s right. We¡¯re better off apart. Cosimo? I¡¯m sorry.¡± I didn¡¯t want to hear that at all, Cosimo thought. It¡¯s like her to twist the knife, but at this point he was doubting if it was a lie. Had she ever lied? I¡¯ll run away with all my might. That doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t try though. I¡¯ll make mistakes. I¡¯ll apologize too, I¡¯m sure. At least to Timothy, to Aschyli for not trusting her, wait she¡¯s not trustworthy at all, to Slo for getting her hurt? To Aleppo? Ah, I¡¯ll figure it out later. The Japanese God opened a console in mid-air and said, ¡°okay now attach maria_medici.exe, subject line, uh Italy? I guess? Whatever, she¡¯ll be fine anywhere. and now click send¡­ message? I¡¯ll just type a bunch of words, maena. Okay, that works.¡± She disappeared from under my knee mount and I caught myself with my hands. The knife was still there in the whiteness. ¡°Hey, what''s your name Japanese God? I think I figured it out already though.¡± ¡°Susanoo, nice to meet you. Since you might be here awhile, I guess you can read those books?¡± Cosimo pulled out the books and the acorn Aeschyli gave him. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s that acorn, I missed that part?¡± ¡°Some crazy girl I met. Probably want to keep an eye on her, she seems to like attention.¡± ¡°Ooh, I¡¯m excited. Anyways, those are spirit versions of the items you actually had but I went ahead and put the original contents in them as a bonus in english. Some of the images seemed kind of vague, I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡± Cosimo was wondering about two things. He figured that he had to bring them up now that Maria was gone. ¡°Oh, I heard that one, you must be angry,¡± said Susanoo, ¡°I¡¯m really sorry about the power application. Seems like this whole soul transfer to the whiteless void was all the fault of your ¡®Average¡¯ ability.¡± ¡°I have an ¡®Average¡¯ ability? I thought I had ¡®Mediocre¡¯.¡± ¡°The power application was glitchy. You have both, it''s a bonus now, so I¡¯ll let you have two if you want to change it up later if things get dicey. I¡¯ll make sure they get it to work this time. Also, the whole money thing and welcome gift I said way back when, I forgot. I¡¯ll give you that knife, so use it to cut grass or something okay?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want it. Especially since it was Maria¡¯s.¡± ¡°I already blessed it as a gift to Maria when I was still into her. It¡¯s pretty awesome. Give it to a friend. As for money or an item box or something like that-¡± ¡°Clothes?¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯ll just give you money. We¡¯re good right?¡± Cosimo then thought of the most pressing question that he just assumed would happen somehow. ¡°How do I get back?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know really. If you stay here long enough, I¡¯m not really sure what will happen. I can¡¯t take you out with my level of power. That knife could probably help though, it''s pretty amazing for some reason even though I just blessed it.¡± Cosimo had a feeling that the knife would be too important to throw away. Oh well, he can¡¯t just walk away from past just like that. ¡°Why do you think it can help? Does it do something?¡± He wanted a clue at least. ¡°Uh, at the very least it''s standing point up in the ground of a whiteless void. Maria killed a komodo dragon with it. One bite and she would have died, it was kind of scary.¡± That was almost useless. ======= Nine - Lucky Knife Cosimo had the Aleppo book over the top half of his face in the whiteless void. He was lying down. He had read the identification crystal book a few times over. Luckily it was in english, he was worried about how you would depict some of the explanation in images. Then he slept. Then he image trained just to get the whole thing in his memory better. He had a lot of things he wanted to try after all. Remembering that his crystal actually went purple when was in a full rage, he wondered what that meant about the power of ¡®Average¡¯. Purple itself wasn¡¯t even mentioned in the book. The crystal just got a crimson to show that you were in negative health and were going to die if you didn¡¯t get some sort of healing. Unfortunately, it would be easy to get a description for ¡®Average¡¯, his full list of abilities, a description of ¡®Mediocre¡¯, his status, level, if he had something called ¡®Arts¡¯ or not, find out how to better use ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯. ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ was his second ability he found out about. At this point, ¡°I¡¯ve got three abilities.¡± He thought that. He was wrong. Cosimo will learn that later. Aleppo¡¯s history was interesting. More interesting than Maria¡¯s kitchen knife which was still stuck point down into the whiteless void. He didn¡¯t want to think about that. He didn¡¯t want to think about that embarrassing fight either. ¡°Is Timothy okay? I can¡¯t believe I did that. What the hell happened there?¡± Cosimo was not aware he could level a city either. The truth was that it was just an unfortunate combination of events. ======== A flutter of red passed through the air. Aeschyli was delivering Arge to the main camp, with Timothy in his ¡®Form of Sloth¡¯ on her shoulders. ¡°He comes with a carry size. I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d be this great. Surprising. Need to get him to a healer. Excited to hear what they say. A Sloth? Why should I heal that Sloth, Sir!¡± She said having mindless fun as usual as she flew. Timothy wasn¡¯t heavily damaged. Shapeshifting was like putting a massive defensive shell over the body using the soul. Since Timothy had already heavy mental damage anyways, the only thing left would be destroying the soul which wasn¡¯t possible even for a God. Souls themselves were just parts of the universe after all, the base collection of existence that was contained to a living body and mind. Aeschyli wasn¡¯t worried much because she had seen that before. Cosimo got the worst of it though. That reminded her of Cosimo. She was already hovering over the nearest camp but decided to turn around. ¡°Wait, I have to finish the scene.¡± The story of Arge¡¯s rescue was like this. Act 1)Our heroine entered beautifully and saves a random boy falling from the sky, who is heavily injured and will drown. She was reminded that although the flood water would stop his fall softly enough, that he would have drowned. She didn¡¯t think of that. Aeschyli can miss details easily. Act 2)The boy is carried princess style. It¡¯s interesting because usually it¡¯s supposed to be a girl that¡¯s getting carried. The heroine runs through the action, attempting to get the boy to safety. Will she protect her charge? Needless to say act 3 was the homecoming. She floated down and some girl with a black robe ran up to her waving a staff with a bat on the top. ¡°Arge! Oh no, it¡¯s always like this. You come home bruised and beaten and bloody without any explanation. Thank you. What¡¯s your name?¡± This was Chel, Arge¡¯s personal healer. She was blushing for some reason staring at his wounds while she invoked bright yellow magic. ¡°¡®Medico¡¯,¡± she mumbled under her breath. A new character? Aeschyli saw the flow of the story changing. It wasn¡¯t act 3 yet? Time to introduce herself. Incidentally, it was this kind of thinking that led to her revealing her location, if it wasn¡¯t her appearance. This led to her naturally thinking ¡®I¡¯ll just stay outside of towns then¡¯ and sleep in the open. It was fitting for her role in the story to suffer a bit. ¡°I am Aeschyli Grun. Where do you want this Arge?¡± She said in hero mode. She hadn¡¯t put her bangle back on yet. ¡°Wow, such nice acting. This really isn¡¯t the time for that though? I¡¯m Chel, follow me please.¡± Aeschyli made a move to hand Arge over but Chel had already turned around. Chel had caught Aeschyli up in her flow instantly. Aeschyli would get her to heal her sloth, she thought, and deactivated stage magic. She didn¡¯t want to hit anyone with the boxes after all, that would disrupt the flow of the story. Chel lead her to the cot making area. Aeschyli frowned as she saw a group of people using magic to pull vines out of the alabaster from the etchings in the stone. Don¡¯t think about it, she purposely turned her head away. ¡°Here. Right next to this slim type girl, her name is Slo.¡± ¡°Ah, she tried to kill me earlier.¡± While Aeschyli couldn¡¯t recall Arge at all from that fight, she got a really good look at Slo when she cast ¡®Hoarfrost Bubbler¡¯ at her. She was familiar with all sorts of magic, but there was something strange about that spell. It looked like original magic. The fact that Slo almost killed her and she got pelted by a shower of tiny icicles didn¡¯t bother her at all. After all, that was normal for her. But original magic¡­ ¡°What? Are you joking? I almost believed you because of your tone.¡± Chel didn¡¯t take her seriously at all due to how they met. Aeschyli laid Arge down and made sure to complete that story with a fake loving look as well. She had to do the cheek thing too, where the hero or heroine would look lovingly into their romantic partner¡¯s closed eyes and stroke the cheek. However, the original magic was her primary focus. ¡°I got attacked by three people including someone who looked like that girl when I was sleeping in a sewer on my pilosa. It is a magical beast,¡± she pointed to the sloth on her back, ¡°it can take the form of this sloth here. Could you heal it first before we go any further? I¡¯m worried about him.¡± Chel wasn¡¯t the type who would turn down people easily. However, there was a clear problem here. ¡°Slo and Arge went after a pilosa at the urging of some strange homeless man, it was stolen by some red girl, now that I think about it. Was that you? I can¡¯t imagine them attacking anyone but a thief.¡± Aeschyli played thief characters before, but being directly called a thief when she wasn¡¯t acting a role felt wrong to her. ¡°It was me. Heal my pilosa?¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± Chel was weighing her options here. Arge was usually the one who would handle the tough stuff. Her mind was pretty much one track anyways, and she knew it. Cast healing on whatever she could really. She felt the gears clanking in her head, wasn¡¯t this person an enemy? She wasn¡¯t attacking. If she took out Arge, Slo, and that homeless man then why would she bring Arge to her? She was a good person and a thief. The answer clicked into her head. She defended her life but had mercy on Arge and Slo, being a superior being she then felt the need to save their unconscious bodies from the flood. She thought that this was definitely correct. ¡°Okay. Thank you for taking pity on Arge and Slo. They could have died without you from the flood after all. I¡¯ll heal the pilosa.¡± Aeschyli was interested in her word choice but the phrase ¡®I¡¯ll heal the pilosa¡¯ was her main concern at this point. It seemed like she could find out about the original magic too if she let the misunderstanding stay. She laid the sloth down on an open cot. ¡°Wait, we need those for people, put the sloth on Arge¡¯s cot.¡± Aeschyli put the sloth on Slo¡¯s cot. ¡°Why there?¡± Chel started crouching and casting ¡®Medico¡¯ on the sloth. She had a hard time finding damage but her immediate sense was ¡®something''s wrong¡¯ so she continued casting. This was often a sign of mental trauma or damage. She wasn¡¯t specialized in healing that. Chel was wondering what happened to the sloth. First of all, she thought sloth¡¯s were much bigger. Aeschyli waited a bit perched on the end of the cot. It was her thinking that she needed it to be an off handed remark about the original magic. Cosimo could wait, after all he had three weeks at the least for recovery. In addition, someone might save her the trouble and pick him up anyways. She started a soliloquy in her mind trying to work it out. ¡°Wait a second, he¡¯s useful though. For once it¡¯s the completely defenseless type who just gets pulled around by others, and that strange power. More importantly, he might come after me again to steal the pilosa from me. In fact, you could say that although the pilosa would be good protection, I was too afraid to get a mount before. It¡¯s only because this one is smart that I figured it¡¯d be easy to control. After all, I can¡¯t rely on ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ ¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯ too much. It made me really sick the last time I did it. I¡¯m just like Father if I pull that again. I won¡¯t take a chance. He¡¯s out for three weeks too. He can¡¯t do anything. Even if he was awake he wouldn¡¯t do anything. Completely safe. Even though he blew up a city? Hehe, I like it. It¡¯s good. it¡¯s good, it¡¯s good. I never got to play a loyal act before either, maybe this is a chance? I¡¯m excited. This time a knight? I just played hero, that was a good one. This time a lover? No, that¡¯s not an act for me. Maybe I¡¯ll let the situation flow according to someone else this time? That¡¯s good, that¡¯s good. Cosimo, let¡¯s spend some quality time together. Chel, she¡¯ll be useful too. What about when Arge and Slo wake up? Huh, that¡¯s tough. Seems like they are close the way she looked at the boy. Which one was Arge and which one was Slo? Ahh, who cares, maybe they won¡¯t be mad when they wake up after all. Isn¡¯t it their fault? Isn¡¯t it? Original magic, ask Chel about it. Big threat.¡± Aeschyli twirled the golden bangle with sigils emblazoned on it on her finger as she thought. ¡°I want to put it on already¡­¡± ¡°Hey, Chel. How¡¯s my pilosa look?¡± ¡°Heavy mental damage, there was light physical damage but that¡¯s healed. I can¡¯t do much for him, you¡¯ll need a mental magic specialist who also can handle healing magic. Even if I were to use my own energy I can barely grasp mental magic as is, I¡¯d hit magic overload right away.¡± Chel was chatty, this will be an easy one. ¡°That reminds me, Slo cast some really cool looking magic at me. It almost got me. Good thing she cast it out loud, ¡®Hoarfrost Bubbler¡¯? It was pretty amazing, never seen anything like that.¡± ¡°Sorry about that. Even though she used that spell right away, you were fine? She get¡¯s carried away when it has to do with beasts or animals.¡± ¡°Yeah, I was wondering what unique magic it was. I¡¯d like to try it myself.¡± ¡°Oh, she made it up herself though. She¡¯s really smart. I don¡¯t know how you beat her.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got a spell that confuses in an area, I didn¡¯t want to hurt anyone too much. After it hit her, It probably convinced her that going to sleep was a good idea.¡± ¡°Wow, thats amazing. Isn¡¯t it too easy on the target?¡± ¡°I try not to kill people if I can.¡± Chel figured that maybe Aeschyli had such overwhelming power that she could choose to kill or not. She wouldn¡¯t do the same in her position. Aeschyli noticed Chel went quiet and decided to finish this quickly. ¡°I¡¯m worried about Slo then. I have experience with original magic. It¡¯s quite dangerous.¡± ¡°Huh, that¡¯s strange, Slo never seems to have trouble with it at all.¡± Aeschyli frowned in her heart and her face. The anger was building. That wasn¡¯t possible. She¡¯d need to intervene directly at this point with Slo, or run away. This was getting too delicate for her. What about the pilosa and Cosimo? Ditch them both? Ditch Chel and carry the pilosa and Cosimo out of the city? That was the usual option. ¡°Are you okay? Why do you look angry all of a sudden?¡± ¡°Slo¡¯s playing with fire. I¡¯m worried she might try to kill me again, and end up killing herself in the process. Original magic isn¡¯t something you toy around with. Too much trouble to deal with. I have to take care of the pilosa and Cosimo now.¡± Aeschyli inadvertently voiced her real thoughts. Chel was used to people telling her their worries though. ¡°Doesn¡¯t sound like much of a problem to me. You saved her and Arge¡¯s life after all. I¡¯m sure you could just let her agree to leave you alone if you give back the pilosa to the homeless man. Who¡¯s Cosimo?¡± Aeschyli was twirling the bangle faster. Chel had no idea that Aeschyli was weighing whether or not to skip town this instant. She came to a decision. She gathered her hair and snapped the bangle on. Light drained out of her eyes. Chel who was watching this was confused. I guess Cosimo is her lover or something, she looks like she¡¯s sad now. ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯ll follow your lead. Thanks, Chel.¡± Chel figured that she didn¡¯t want to talk about her lover, Cosimo, and let it drop. ===== A half a month went by as Aleppo rebuilt. Baqashot the city mayor declared publicly that Aleppo was surrendering to Dunkirk¡¯s rule. He had discovered that his secretary Cherise had drowned, and was drinking himself into a stupor. While there was resistance because the remnants of the Dunkirk army were merely hiding in the embassy, the residents were simply overwhelmed by three mysteries at once and the work of the reconstruction. There was a rumor of a hero who repelled the remaining Dunkirk troops whose name became popular and the story was told again and again. She was hailed as the champion of Marscione, but her last name was Grun. Many told various interpretations of this tale, some were hitting the mark. This was because of Aeschyli¡¯s discreet involvement. The second and third mysteries were the reason for the flood and the massive explosion. The magic sigil engineers couldn¡¯t figure it out at all. It was just like every sigil had exploded. Were Aeschyli, the only one familiar with this kind of thing due to her past able to check it out she would still be entirely lost. The explosion was just a mystery. The amount of energy needed just left experienced magicians opening and closing their mouths. In the end, everyone decided that a dragon was involved. There just wasn¡¯t any question, from expert to layman they were the only ones who could pull something like that off. However, the only dragon there looked like a pilosa, although it called itself a dragon there were few who could say that it wasn¡¯t putting forth heroic efforts during the flood. So the second dragon theory was made. Marscione sent word that they would be preparing an army to repel Dunkirk. All of the border towns expected this and it forced them to remain neutral as they waited for Dunkirk¡¯s reinforcements to Aleppo. Marscione was going to be late. It was going to be an uphill war against Dunkirk, who was smelling victory at the chink in Marscione¡¯s shield. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ===== Arge was running down an alley with Aeschyli. Aeschyli had made herself a full black costume to match Arge which even covered her face, as she was famous. Her massive amount of hair was braided and stuffed into the costume. ¡°Take my pilosa. I¡¯ll show you.¡± ¡°Have you got his scent yet? I swear you¡¯re better at detection than Slo¡¯s magic.¡± She sniffed again under the facemask. ¡°Nothing. Never lost a trail. Use Slo.¡± ¡°She¡¯ll want to come with. Let¡¯s just keep searching.¡± He didn¡¯t want a repeat of before. Chel was busy working like usual supporting the party with money. Doru was salvaging stone with stone magic particular to the dwarven race. Slo was sleeping. Someone had snuck into the inn they were staying at where Cosimo, Slo, and Timothy were sleeping. He was still in ¡®Form of Sloth¡¯ so it was an easy steal. Arge and Aeschyli ¡°Okay. What contacts can you use?¡± ¡°None?¡± ¡°Should I do something?¡± Arge knew it was ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯, he hid that he had gained ¡®Haggling Arts¡¯ from everyone as a matter of course. ¡°Er¡­¡± He was conflicted. There was only one guy who was into this sort of thing. A buck at any cost type of stealing. That guy was a jack of all trades, but he was definitely someone that he didn¡¯t want to piss off. What would he want with a sloth? How did he even know they had one? What bothered him the most was that Slo could have easily been killed. ¡°Let¡¯s do it. Maybe you¡¯ll pick up the scent on the way there.¡± They raced off toward the center of the city. ===== Villanos the sinister guard who saw the strangely behaving pilosa with some dumb farmer at the city gate was always looking for his cut of the deal. He had went to Felix, the local thief lord who dwelled in the center of the city that night to do his usual duties as a thief. At that time he told Felix of the pilosa. Felix ran a operation bribing guards specifically to get a handle on incoming trade goods. It was one of his many scam projects, like short charging farmers who weren¡¯t familiar with the city for their crops, brothels, intimidation, and supporting Baqashot from the shadows. There was a lot of distrust amongst the monster hunters due to a difficult shortage of game right now, so when Villanos had told him before the flood that there was a ¡®intelligent pilosa¡¯ he kept that in mind. A small amount in the grand scheme of things, but then the flood happened. He lost most of his men, businesses could easily skip out on paying him due to the immense costs and stress they were already under. The weirdest thing was that there was flying pilosa. He had unique magic that let him ¡®mark¡¯ a living being or place, so it was easy to find the sloth hanging out there. ¡°Some kind of changing your body magic? Never heard of that. Unless you''re really a dragon in the first place, in which case I¡¯m out of luck when you wake up.¡± He was drinking lightly with his feet up on his desk. He was talking to the sloth which was curled up on the desk. ¡°Still, I¡¯m glad I¡¯m the meticulous type. Details are the most important thing if you want to do it right. How many men have a got left? Feels like I¡¯m starting all over again. The good old days are here again.¡± ¡°Hiding my tracks with ¡®Thief Arts¡¯, it used to take so much more effort. I feel like I¡¯m cheating these days. I remember telling that shadow dipping kid that he¡¯ll go far if he just joined up with me. Don¡¯t know why he¡¯s sticking around with those group of louts. He¡¯s black hearted. But he¡¯s young. No doubt there¡¯s a soft spot in there just waiting to be crushed the moment he gets dumped. That, or age will get to him and he¡¯ll realize it''s just money that matters in the end. Everything else comes from that. So many hits he turned down, so many failures. If he didn¡¯t have that useful magic, if I couldn¡¯t control him, I¡¯d have to take him out myself. When I showed him my ¡®Arts¡¯, he didn¡¯t even blink. I really wonder sometimes what he¡¯s really thinking. Now, look at this city, sloth. The whole place working together in harmony and I just have sit back and wait or I¡¯ll seriously get the people after me this time. They are all desperate. Just like thieves, just like me.¡± He took a drink and Aeschyli burst in through the window after waiting politely for him to finish. Years of experience being ambushed let him fend her dagger off with his bottle. The moment the bottle hit he felt a strange energy, and the bottle burst showering him in glass as he threw himself to the floor from his chair in surprise. He spun around and stood up, pulling out a shining white dagger that was knit under the desk. ¡°No introduction? That¡¯s so like girls like you.¡± Within an instant Felix had appraised her with his mind from years of picking girls off the street for brothels. Even if she was entirely clothed and had bound her already small chest, his perception was supernatural. Aeschyli was glad that someone finally saw through her disguise and hefted the summoned Rosa Lingua dagger at him. ¡°Give sloth back,¡± she said. ¡°How about you put away the dagger first? I¡¯ll lower mine if you lower yours. It''s not much to ask for a little payment in return for giving your creature back right?¡± He had no intention of doing that. This sloth could be enough to get him out of town. Despite what he said, he didn¡¯t feel like sticking around after the flood and his cash reserves were low. ¡°I¡¯m really strong. Like, really strong. I have a mind control ability. I have a bully with a heart of gold heading in through the door. I¡¯m unattackable if I¡¯m holding anything as a weapon. I could end this right now, but I¡¯d rather stall for time so he doesn¡¯t get mad at me again.¡± ¡°Mind control? Mental magic isn¡¯t that great, you must be bluffing. Here, let me show you something.¡± Her dagger disappeared. She went to cast ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ but a huge chest appeared right above her head. She looked up out of curiosity and the chest planted into her face. ¡°¡®Thief Arts¡¯ is great isn¡¯t it. Everyone thinks you can just play around when you''re fighting, once you get a little experience it''s no big deal to just go for the kidney with a double edged blade. It¡¯s all a matter of surprise, got to stay on your toes and look for the right opening. It''s usually the first and last chance you get.¡± He walked over to her and drove the dagger into her back. ¡°Felix!¡± Arge burst through the door as Felix was crouched over Aeschyli. Seeing the dagger in Aeschyli, he noted the chest. Felix never did tell him exactly how ¡®Thief Arts¡¯ worked, but if Aeschyli was down he wasn¡¯t sure he had much of a chance. Felix stood up and faced him. The chest was still covering Aeschyli¡¯s head. Rosa Lingua was in a corner for some reason. Felix didn¡¯t notice that there wasn¡¯t any blood coming out of Aeschyli as he withdrew his dagger thanks to Arge showing up. ¡°Nice to see you. Your girlfriend here doesn¡¯t look well,¡± said Felix. Arge wasn¡¯t about to correct that right now, he was goading him anyways. He decided that he needed to use ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ immediately to get Aeschyli to a healer as soon as possible. ¡°Can I buy that girl? I won¡¯t go higher than one rukh,¡± he used Part 3rd, Proposal. The sloth would have to wait. ¡°Oh, no no, you¡¯ve got to pay a bit more for that. It comes with a chest after all,¡± said Felix. He was entirely caught in the ¡®Arts¡¯. Just what was the limit here? ¡°Any more than one is too high. I just want the girl. Here,¡± he flicked him a rukh and used Part 4th , Close. ¡°Thanks for your business. Now, how about you tell me what this is about?¡± Seems like he had the girl, but he couldn¡¯t distract him he could leave. Time to kill two birds with one stone, Arge thought he was a genius. ¡°I left my sloth here. I really do have to be going. Thanks for the girl,¡± he said as he activated the 2nd Part, Distract. ¡°Oh, okay. Sorry about keeping you for so long,¡± Felix made a business smile. Arge figured he could leave the Rosa Lingua sitting in the corner but went for it anyways. Aeschyli was nothing but trouble sometimes. He stuck it in his waist and didn¡¯t see Felix charge him from behind. A huge crack thundered out and a tongue shot through Felix¡¯s body. It seemed to freeze him for a second before whipping him straight upwards through the roof. Timothy was in pilosa form standing on the remains of a broken desk and shattered floor. The light from the hole in the roof showed his coat gleaming. Arge whipped around with Rosa Lingua in his hands in a start. He dropped it immediately, calculating that he might be grumpy again and beat him up like last time. ¡°Just what the blazes happened,¡± that was all Timothy said to Arge. Arge needed to confirm. ¡°Where¡¯d Felix go? I didn¡¯t see anything.¡± ¡°Threw him into the sky. What happened to me? I can¡¯t believe I acted like that,¡± Timothy whined in Arge¡¯s head. ¡°Later, unless you have a healing spell. Aeschyli got stabbed.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± ¡°This girl? She robbed you from Cosimo.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember pledging myself to be his property in the first place. I¡¯ll get us out of here.¡± He used ¡®Tongnado¡¯ one of the Ancient Ancestral Arts and cut off the entire roof and wall in one go by extending his tongue like a whip and twisting it in a perfect circle. Timothy collected the both of them jumping off into the air while activating ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯. ¡°Hey Timothy, I left her dagger there can you grab it with your tongue? It''s the silver one.¡± ¡°Little late,¡± Timothy was already at full speed by the time he heard it, ¡°The girl¡¯s more important, where¡¯s a hospital?¡± ¡°Damn it, I can¡¯t figure it out from this high up, can you get lower?¡± Timothy went skimming over the ground and cheers broke out from people who remembered him from the flood. ¡°There¡¯s Chel¡¯s hospital, guess we¡¯ll head there.¡± Arge quickly went to check Aeschyli wound by lifting up her clothing. He did that even though he saw no blood. He wasn¡¯t about to tell Timothy that though. ====== Aeschyli was sleeping. The chest had knocked her out, so after he got Chel to check her out to skip paying the hospital fee he breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about hitting you into that water cylinder thing. I wasn¡¯t myself. Thats happens sometimes. How long was I out?¡± ¡°Two weeks. Aeschyli said there was a magic resonance or reaction thing that happened between you and Cosimo. She said it happens all the time back home. And don¡¯t do that tongue thing to me again,¡± cautioned Arge. ¡°Magic reaction? Maybe that¡¯s why the flood happened too, extremely unfortunate. I¡¯ve never heard of it. Even though I travel a lot, recently I¡¯m getting unusual surprises. I assume Dunkirk owns the city now thanks to the army.¡± ¡°The mayor caved anyways even though the army got taken out with a quarter of the city.¡± ¡°There was that huge chunk of destroyed buildings when I was flying, is that his fault?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± said Arge. ¡°Seems I¡¯ll have to wait for Aeschyli to wake up to question her.¡± ¡°Well¡­ actually could we head back to get that dagger we left?¡± ¡°It''s just a dagger, you can¡¯t be that stingy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not mine. Although I do want to raid Felix¡¯s place for loot since I chased off all his guards, I can do that later. I don¡¯t want Aeschyli to wake up without her dagger.¡± Timothy gave him a gimlet look. This was not the Arge he knew. ¡°I¡¯m not using ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ to read you again, but I don¡¯t need that to know it¡¯s not like you.¡± ¡°Haha, you got me. She¡¯s extremely jumpy. Seems to act out if she doesn¡¯t have her things, if you don¡¯t stay at least one meter away, if you ask her about her bangle, if you ask for a Glande, if you walk in while she¡¯s bathing, if y if you try to stop her from producing a play featuring her with the money she got by a week in a quarry, or ask her too many questions.¡± Arge looked tired all of a sudden. Timothy put his tongue on Arge¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Sounds tough. Shouldn¡¯t you see someone else?¡± ¡°She¡¯s not my girlfriend. Everyone else likes her, but they don¡¯t have to spend the day with her. Also, she was the one who hit you with that mind control spell and rode off on you.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t she really dangerous? To think she knows about magic reactions too¡­and why was she wearing all black?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a wanted fugitive,¡± said Arge, ¡°so can we go?¡± Timothy was adamant about standing up for yourself. Arge was being bullied. That much was clear. ¡°No, I won¡¯t help you get the dagger back. This sounds like a relationship that needs to end to me, I want no part of that.¡± ¡°Oh come on, you almost killed me that one time. Probably started a chain reaction somehow that flooded the city too,¡± said Arge. ¡°That¡¯s just ridiculous,¡± Even though he thought of the possibility himself, ¡°I¡¯ll help you this once, but you have to promise me you¡¯ll stop hanging out with her.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± lied Arge. ====== Cosimo was staring at Maria¡¯s knife. He had eaten the acorn and finished the books. After running around and sleeping for a few days he realized he would need to have to use it to get out of there. It can¡¯t hurt can it? Just because it was Maria¡¯s? He grasped the handle. He felt a surge of energy, like his heart was being cleansed. He felt a deep peace. Is this what Maria felt holding it? He tried to push the knife deeper into the whiteless void and it cut through it easily. Susanoo said ¡®use it to cut grass¡¯ but he had no idea what he meant. Cosimo cut a perfect circle into the ground and a little white sheet fell revealing a black void. Since there wasn¡¯t any white in the whiteless void, he guessed there wasn¡¯t any black in the blackless void but he was wrong. Should he go in? He was bored. It¡¯s worth a shot. He carved open a hole big enough to fit through and slid into the darkness. ==== He woke up. His whole body was sore. He tried to move but it was like pulling on a cinder block. Slo was in his bed. It was natural for Adventurer¡¯s, who trusted each other with their lives, to be able to share a bed. He didn¡¯t know her like that though. Cosimo decided to accept it for now. Ten - Bath Scene It¡¯s about two weeks ago the evening after the flood of Aleppo. Aeschyli is afraid of the original magic that Slo possesses. After confirming the facts through Chel, she decides to attempt subterfuge in low energy mode with the ¡°I saved you¡± excuse that Chel had given her. She didn¡¯t even consider that a possibility, so Chel¡¯s misunderstanding smoothed the way for Aeschyli and Slo to have an easier talk when she woke up. Aeschyli had taken her to an inn. The higher levels of the building were livable for now. Chel was out. Even if things went sour, there was ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯, she kept reminding herself. Aeschyli stood there with a small baked bread on a plate with a glass of water and a Glande summon on the side. She would not hesitate to share. She had planned this to be her opening move against Slo. She¡¯d wait for her to wake up, and act like she was just waking in bearing food. It was flawless. ¡°Hmm¡­ Chel is that you?¡± Slo was barely awake. It was night. ¡°Don¡¯t be startled, there was a flood. I saved you. Arge and Cosimo are fine. Chel told me to bring you and Arge back here to watch over you.¡± Aeschyli was unsure if she was able to comprehend her in her state. Cosimo was in another room sprawled on a bed senseless. ¡°Chel, can I have some water?¡± Aeschyli was confirming her doubts and gave Slo the food. She summoned a Glande for herself as well. Slo didn¡¯t react to the light show of stage magic. ¡°Thanks Chel, I¡¯ll go back to sleep.¡± Aeschyli couldn¡¯t let go of this chance. If she was to secure a buffer and her pilosa to vastly improve her living conditions on the run, it would be this time to go all in. She mostly made this decision based on ¡®Slo is weak right now¡¯. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to take a bath?¡± Slo blinked as energy seemed to gather within her and her eyes fully opened. ¡°Ah, it¡¯s the red girl! Did you knock me out and plan to use me for ransom!¡± ¡°Listen,¡± she gestured as Slo jumped back. ¡°There was a flood, I saved Arge, you, and Cosimo after I defeated you all. I won¡¯t do anything to the pilosa that it doesn¡¯t want done to it. I¡¯ll return it to Cosimo.¡± Aeschyli was making a convincing act. Her information from Chel was good. ¡°Ahh, well Arge is over there looking completely fine. Where¡¯s the pilosa?¡± ¡°It''s in sloth form right now. My smell led me to it.¡± ¡°What, do you have some smell detection magic?¡± ¡°Just good sense.¡± Slo sighed. ¡°Hah, that¡¯s unbelievable. You just smelled out the pilosa and found and sloth and took it with you? Aren¡¯t they huge?¡± ¡°This one¡¯s small,¡± she gestured to the lump of fur in the corner. ¡°Ah!¡± Slo ran towards Timothy and hugged him to her. ¡°It¡¯s great~ I¡¯ve never seen one!¡± She began to fawn over the sloth and tell Aeschyli about her. Aeschyli was waiting for the perfect time. ¡°Do you want to go to the bath? We should probably clean him off. I could use one too.¡± ¡°Ah, I guess we could. So there was a flood you say?¡± ===== ¡°Ahh~ I feel alive relaxing in a bath after sleeping. The warm water reminds me of a Aptery, with their huge ball of warm fur, upright on two legs and that long pointed beak. Arge wouldn¡¯t let me buy one. He said there was no where to keep it at all, I had to sneak out and jump into the stables when I saw one while we were hunting monster hunters. Arge almost killed the farmer in the morning who found me and chased me out with a pitchfork. I was trying to ride it away after all. It¡¯s a good thing Arge has that skill that lets him protect someone from one hit if they are an ally though. Oh, it wasn¡¯t good to tell you that so easily. Ah, Arge will scold me again. ¡®You¡¯re the only one who can¡¯t keep their mouth shut here, if rumors get out on the street someday that might be the reason we end up dying!¡¯ I don¡¯t believe it¡¯s a big deal though. Everyone can keep their secrets quite easily with the identification crystals.¡± Slo was leaning back against a layer of stones of varying sizes setup for atmosphere in the abandoned bathhouse. She was quite chatty like Chel, so Aeschyli was pleased. She maintained a five meter distance as security protocol though. Slo started up again. ¡°You know, I¡¯m really sorry about going all out there back in the sewer, I lose it when animals are involved. They don¡¯t backstab you like people do. Like Arge does. He tolerates it for some reason, probably because I¡¯m a really good mage. He¡¯s got issues though. Oh, is that a one point identification crystal, I¡¯ve never seen one! Why are you so far away?¡± Slo was holding the sloth and petting it in the bath. Aeschyli hadn¡¯t removed her bangle either, but even she had to take off her gloves in the bath she thought. It would just be rude to the crafter in Grunnkirk who custom made them for her. On her left hand a silvery red metal chain was crisscrossing the back of her hand and tied at the identification crystal in the center of her palm. It continued in a loop around her wrist for decorative reasons. Slo made a small comment of ¡®That chain¡¯s so pretty~¡¯ under her breath. ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s hard to get near people. Feel vulnerable. Battle thing.¡± ¡°No, no, no need to apologize. After all you just stole a pilosa. People die for a lot less here you know? It¡¯s great that you saved me and Arge and Cosimo too I guess, although I just met him. Is there anything I can do to repay you? Actually, why didn¡¯t you just leave us with Chel?¡± An opening. Aeschyli was glad that Slo had her guard down completely. Her plan was a success. She showed off her left palm to Slo. ¡°I was intrigued by your magic and questioned Chel as I was worried. As you said earlier I¡¯m a one point. I was worried when she said you made it yourself. In my travels, I hear of people doing that who end up exploding or worse.¡± ¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry about that. Hey, weren¡¯t you even using much more amazing spells anyways? Some kind of mental magic that was strong enough to get a beast under control in one hit, I could tame beasts with that! Maybe I¡¯ll try to make it¡­I wish we could have just tried to talk it out, you¡¯re really nice. I feel really bad remembering that Arge was about to stab you to death in your sleep.¡± ¡°Well, I was a thief. I fully intend to stay near the pilosa though. Since it is interesting. I want to be it¡¯s friend.¡± Aeschyli was surprised when the word friend came out of her mouth. She didn¡¯t expect the calming effect of the bath to affect her too! Wait, isn¡¯t Slo calming her as well! It¡¯s dangerous. As Aeschyli began to ramp up into danger mode with light pooling into her eyes. Unleash bangle? ¡°Hey, hey, that was unexpected too. When you told me about how this one her could turn into a dragon I couldn¡¯t believe it. Lots of things happen when I¡¯m sleeping though, but never this much!¡± Slo¡¯s calming voice and sheer mass of speech broke through Aeschyli¡¯s oncoming guard. Parry Arts isn¡¯t effective if she isn¡¯t wielding a weapon. Due to that and the buildup of stress over the day she couldn¡¯t take any more. However, she had to press on. Original magic was at hand here. Even if it¡¯s this girl? Aeschyli denied that in her mind. Original magic is bad. ¡°I¡¯m sorry but I¡¯d like to clear up the matter concerning your magic. After all, I¡¯ve made friends with Chel,¡± which Aeschyli thought that unfortunately it wasn¡¯t a lie this time, ¡°and still have to apologize to Arge.¡± ¡°Are you serious? Why bother apologizing to him! Knowing him, he probably did something bad anyways. Anyways, my magic isn¡¯t a big deal. I just think about feelings that I have when I¡¯m around animals, and just put energy into it. For some reason, I was able to master spells like that. I¡¯m sure all sorts of people have figured it out. Oh! Don¡¯t tell Arge I told you, he¡¯ll get mad.¡± ¡°Thats..¡± Aeschyli would usually not speak until her mind had worked over the intention of the statement thoroughly. This didn¡¯t seem like original magic at all. At least the kind she was familar with. She scowled, breaking her act. ¡°That¡¯s a lie.¡± ¡°Huh? No, it¡¯s not. You saw me cast it earlier right? I suppose someone could combine spells or use ¡®Arts¡¯ to create the effect, but I¡¯m just telling the truth here,¡± Slo looked over after opening her eyes sensing some sort of change in the flow of energy and saw Aeschyli¡¯s scowling face. ¡°Hey, are you okay? I¡¯m not belittling you. I¡¯ve just been doing this for a long time, no one¡¯s ever asked about it before.¡± Aeschyli was surprised she let that go. Usually, if she broke the act- Wait, she hadn¡¯t broken her act in a long time anyways. It was back then though. Before she had the act, it was painful. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean anything by it. I¡¯ve seen people die because of this. I was angry that you might kill yourself over a misunderstanding. It seems I was wrong. I apologize.¡± ¡°You apologize a lot. You must a be a knight lady or something. Strong and pretty, she wanders the land protecting her honor and fighting for what¡¯s right! Oh wait, you stole the pilosa, so aren¡¯t you a thief? That makes you like Arge. Like an Arge that was actually enjoyable to be around. Is that Arge anymore?¡± Aeschyli was still bothered by it. Along with that, the magic reaction, and having to take off her bangle today it was a mess. One last try, if this didn¡¯t work she¡¯d give up and let it slide for now, it was getting dangerous. ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ was too risky now, Slo would realize she blacked out. ¡°How about we show each other our magic? I want to see some more of yours too, it was really pretty. I want to make sure it¡¯s not the magic I was worried about. I¡¯ll be able to tell if I see a few more spells.¡± ¡°Ehh~ I¡¯m tired. I¡¯ll do it for you though, after all for some reason I¡¯m feeling like it makes you really uncomfortable. You don¡¯t have to show me yours, I saw one earlier. Hey, I just blacked out back then. Was that a spell of yours? Now that I think about it¡­¡± Aeschyli figured at least one open couldn¡¯t hurt. Arge and Cosimo already saw it anyways. ¡°I¡¯ll show you. Make sure to stand back a bit, I¡¯ll aim for the wall over there.¡± The bathhouse was ruined from the flood but it didn¡¯t bother either of them that they were destroying it further. Light pooled into her eyes and a smile graced her lips as she called out, ¡°Dazzling the stage! Flutter! Gobo Contract, 1st Open, Dancing Lily!¡± A bunch of shadow marks in the shape of lilies bombarded the ground until it was black. ¡°Ooh! What does that do?¡± ¡°Makes people think they are burnt. The injury isn¡¯t real though. It also can confuse people. That¡¯s what happened to you. Confused people just do whatever seems like a good idea at the time. You went to sleep.¡± ¡°Ah~ That¡¯s definitely me. Definitely. Ok, my turn.¡± Slo¡¯s full armament of spells was ¡®~Brenna¡¯, ¡®Haagen Jofurr¡¯, ¡®Hoarfrost Bubbler¡¯, ¡®Dyrr Dovendyr¡¯, ¡®En Don¡¯, and ¡®Animal Detection¡¯. She figured she should blow a hole in the roof to get look at the stars. She figured it would be nice. She activated ¡®~Brenna¡¯, which could modify her next spell to change it¡¯s size, output, and area of effect. Slo didn¡¯t know it was abnormal to be able to do that. She cast out loud, saying ¡®Haggen Jofurr¡¯ in a small voice. A bunch of red yellow lights like fireflies appeared surrounding her and then shot off into the ceiling burrowing in like bullets. Each one cast an explosion of air from their center at once, shattering the entire ceiling and sending it upwards without a single shard of alabaster falling down. It looked like it was slowing in midair as it shot upwards. The lights framed the alablaster in the sky like stars. ¡°A-amazing,¡± Aeschyli was caught up in the moment. Someone else was seizing the stage. ¡®I know right?¡¯ was what the smug look on Slo¡¯s face was saying. The lights then shot toward each shard of alabaster floating in the sky and exploded it into dust. The night sky was shining through to the bath. ¡°What was that, it seemed like you could control the lights for a second there after they went into the ceiling,¡± Aeschyli was stunned in several different ways at once. ¡°Yeah, of course. Doesn¡¯t everyone control their magic? Can¡¯t anyone do that?¡± ¡°You-¡±, Aeschyli was about to cry. She didn¡¯t expect it at all, but she was breaking down. ¡°Hey, are you okay?¡± Aeschyli was losing it. The bangle wasn¡¯t working, her anger was peaking as light filled her eyes and they turned gimlet. Her mind went into overdrive as the bangle snapped off. If it was like this, then at home- What would Grunkirk look like today? What horrifying original magic could they have built? This was a monstrosity beyond what she knew at home. If her dad got a hold of whatever Slo¡¯s secret was- Wait, it could be ¡®Arts¡¯. Couldn¡¯t it be magic based ¡®Arts¡¯? She had never heard of that but the world was wide. Moreover, she felt that she couldn¡¯t kill Slo at this point. There was something wrong in her mind about killing her, but she couldn¡¯t find the answer. In her rage, she tried to think of a story this was like and calm herself but it was no good. Did she ¡®trust¡¯ Slo now? It was only one evening. From earlier today, she thought about Chel. No danger. She thought about Cosimo. No danger. She thought about Timothy. No danger, probably. He helped many people. There was the chance his good deeds could lead to him hunting her down. She thought about Slo, who was looking concerned. This was why she knew avoiding contact and just being polite, correct, and entertaining was always the correct move. No one can touch you then She had failed her decision earlier when she decided to just snap on the bangle and give in. She was not okay with trusting people. She needed to control this situation. Slo was not a target for elimination. Slo was the opposite of her. Her insight told her that much. Rather that wanting to keep everyone away, she was knowingly involved with a monster who would protect her one second and would ignore her the next. Chel talked a lot about him earlier. Aeschyli needed to confirm that he was safe, and the result was obvious. The question in her mind turned to leaving or not. At this point, she had to make the decision again. There was a bigger problem that she managed to finally see in her mind at overclock. Slo¡¯s power needed to be confirmed right away. If it was ¡®Arts¡¯ then Aeschyli just could pass this off as the end of a bad day and ask for Slo to forgive her. She didn¡¯t want her to see her cry, and that caused a huge mental load that was already on Aeschyli to get heavier.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. If Slo¡¯s power was original magic, then there was a great chance that due to the war that was one hundred percent coming according to her knowledge of politics and geography- She could not leave her alone. If she could not kill her, then there was a small but viable chance that the Dunkirk army could collect Slo in the incoming war. They already had control of the city, and since Slo had loose lips- The percentage of Slo being discovered as having a completely new form of original magic was probably around zero point zero zero five percent. In Aeschyli¡¯s mind, that figure was as high as twenty percent due to knowing how her father worked. Were she in a normal state, that would be the percentage. As of now it was one hundred percent. ¡°Slo. Listen to me carefully,¡± she activated stage magic and silently summoned Rosa Lingua as the wind blew her unbangled hair under the stars. ¡°Tell me your entire Status this instant. I will take you out of this city by force if necessary. I cannot detect lies but-¡± ¡°Aeschyli, what¡¯s going on? You¡¯re scaring me,¡± Slo was holding ¡®Form of Sloth¡¯ Timothy close to her body and he wouldn¡¯t be awake for two weeks. Aeschyli¡¯s brain was overlocking again to figure out how to put this in a proper way to get her to understand. This could get difficult later if she messed up here. In the end, she gave in again. No lie would do here. ¡°I cannot see your status. That is the common law of this world. No one can know the extent of someone¡¯s abilities or their full list without them openly sharing it or using it. Pay attention closely. I will not hurt you. This is why I am doing this. I am Aeschyli Grun, daughter of Grunnir of Grunkirk. He is not a madman. However, he uses original magic to the ends of his country. I grew up seeing the horrors that brought. I need to confirm one hundred percent that you are not using a extremely rare ¡®Arts¡¯ user. The other alternative is that you have inadvertently discovered a new form of original magic that could easily be discovered in the oncoming war.¡± ¡°There¡¯s going to be another war? You just said they had one!¡± ¡°It¡¯s very complex. Dun has already claimed this town and it will be filled with spies in a few weeks. In order for you to stay in this city and stop me from abducting you to prevent my father from gaining yet another tool. You must prove to me without a doubt that you are not using original magic. In order for me to believe you, I want you to use every single ability you have on me. In order for me to believe you, I need to believe that you are truly pressed into a corner. We will fight, and I will press you into a corner yet not hurt you too much. Do you understand?¡± Slo did not have the insane processing speed that Aeschyli had. Even then she was tormented by how many words and concepts she was throwing at her in the first place. In the first place, what¡¯s original magic? She had original magic? Aeschyli didn¡¯t believe her? She wanted to determine if she had ¡®Arts¡¯ or not? She was going to fight her to a point just so she could believe that Slo wasn¡¯t faking? Abduct her? Slo didn¡¯t know what was going on. Slo was in danger. Slo knew how to deal with danger. ¡°I-I¡¯m very sorry! I¡¯b sowwry!¡± Slo was crying vigorously and shaking as she was scared out of her mind. She was just having fun with Aeschyli just a moment ago. She hugged Timothy tightly. ¡°Do you understand?¡± ¡°A- abul - uwwaah!¡± Slo lost it and ducked under the water. Arge usually handled this stuff. She got into trouble, he rescued her. Doru would inevitably take the worst hits and Chel would restore Arge from the brink of death like always. If she needed to cast magic everything that needed to die would die. If she could help not killing, especially animals, she would just wound them with ¡®Dyrr Dovendyr¡¯. Aeschyli¡¯s extremely logical part of her mind was on full show right now. The Aeschyli who would be able to understand this in a story form was just gone. Slo is not attacking. Slo must attack. I must attack Slo. Slo does not understand. Slo is emotionally distraught Slo will not reveal her status. Slo does not comprehend. If I attack Slo, then will Slo be able to respond properly? In the end, the answer was no. Her personality was not like that. Slo is trustworthy in her stupidity. Slo is trustworthy in her glibness. Slo is trustworthy in her magic, she showed it off without a care in the world. Especially when most would conceal it at any cost. ¡°I¡¯m taking you out of the city. Get up.¡± A miracle occurred. Slo deep within her heart felt betrayed. She had always sought people who she could trust no matter what, animals she could trust no matter what, so that unlike with her mother in Marscione- ¡°No! Just who are you huh? That¡¯s it! I¡¯m beating you up okay! You can go stuff your crazy words up your ass! This is my home!¡± This was the first time Slo swore in her life. At this point, Aeschyli said the exact wrong thing. ¡°Come to Marscione with me, I¡¯ll make you a home there.¡± Away from Arge? Away from Chel and Doru? She¡¯d kill her. Slo would definitely kill her. What was waiting in Marscione was scarier than anything else. Who was going to Marscione? Just who? Slo threw Timothy away with her full force as tears streamed down her face and she yelled: ¡°¡®~Brenna¡¯ Singularity Bombardment - Excelsus Maximus - ¡®En Don¡¯¡± Countless spikes shot up out of the water at a diagonal angle. They were coming from all over the bath. Some even shot in straight from the walls. Each one was gleaming in the moonlight. Aeschyli immediately silently cast ¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯. It was too late to use ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯, she was already overburdened with her ¡®Parry Arts¡¯ activating and cutting each of the incoming spikes. They were taking all of her energy and focus even with her advanced status. Every single one was heading for a kill shot, and she couldn¡¯t just knock them away either. If she only went up to Act 2, or didn¡¯t activate Act 3 in time she would have died instantly. Each one of them needed to be cut off before they hit her. The only way to do that was one hundred percent offense gained from Act 3. She couldn¡¯t move at all, and time slowed down as the alabaster spikes kept pouring in from the ground like rain. From the spikes that were cut, another spike came. From the spikes that fell, they were absorbed into the earth and became another spike. Aeschily couldn¡¯t even breathe at all. When she fought off the dragon, it had no attack like this. It was too much. ¡®Parry Arts¡¯ failed for the first time. A hundred percent chance turned to a zero. ¡°Gwah!¡± She was pierced hundreds of times and the piercing kept happening. Rosa Lingua got knocked away. At first, even though she was getting pierced from every side in her body there was no blood at all. A testament to her fulfilled potential, her level of sixty nine. It didn¡¯t matter though. At a certain point the mass of ¡®En Don¡¯ spikes with an ever higher ¡®~Brenna¡¯ was just crushing her. Slo¡¯s only chance of winning this fight was this exact combination. The only reason she used this spell was because Aeschyli mentioned Marscione. This spell was a remnant of Slo¡¯s only happy memories there. Slo had no idea about Aeschyli strength at all. She was just mad. As Slo was watching blood flow out of Aeschyli¡¯s mouth and the horrific scene in front of her she cut the spell off by reflex. Aeschyli was trapped in a circle of countless spikes pressing into her body. A few were actually piercing her. The damage from the crushing was worse though. Her mind went white. This wasn¡¯t the first time something like this happened to her, but it was more painful than usual. She couldn¡¯t breathe, but that wasn¡¯t enough to kill her. She started choking and thrashing violently and Slo screamed. Slo ran in a panic to escape, when Chel showed up in a towel. ¡°I saw you blow off the roof of the bathhouse and it sounded like it would really ni- oh my.¡± Chel saw the most beautiful sight in her life. Slo was blubbering and crying and pulling on Chel¡¯s towel. ¡°Geez, what are you doing playing around like this without me around. You know this is my favorite thing. I¡¯ll forgive you though. She looks amazing.¡± Chel enjoyed her job very much. She enjoyed the smile on people¡¯s faced when they were healed, and thanked her. She enjoyed the wounds and the feeling of vulnerability she saw in people. It made her feel alive, you could say. She fell in love with the sight of Aeschyli. This was going to be the best healing of her life. Chel ran forward excitedly taking it in before rapidly casting ¡®Excelsus Maximus Medico¡¯, her strongest healing spell. Slo when traveling with Chel had taken the name ¡®Excelsus Maximus¡¯ and used it to specify a certain setting of her ¡®~Brenna¡¯ , which would combine all available energy of Slo¡¯s body to the point to right befor she would lose the ability to travel normally. She didn¡¯t want Arge dragging her tied up with wire like always after all. Her identification crystal however was crimson. In her sudden rage, she had hit magical overload and was now running around blubbering on the last traces of her energy before she face planted into the ground. Chel took a brief second away from ministering to Aeschyli to notice Slo was out. ¡°My, looks like a double. I can¡¯t wait to take a bath after this one.¡± ====== Aeschyli¡¯s bangle was in her eyesight as she awoke. Slo was sitting on a bed next to her looking over her as the sunlight streamed in from the window. Aeschyli had all sorts of casts and bandages on her. Aeschyli couldn¡¯t move. She tried to speak gathering her thoughts over and over as even her overclock wasn¡¯t functioning. I lost. When was the last time she lost? The last time she could lose? She just wanted to save Slo and stop her father¡¯s whims. Was that the case? Or did she just want to run away? She tried to process that but failed. Slo needed protection. End of line, she thought and sighed. She felt strangely good though, like she just took a bath. Slo noticed she woke up. She was watching over her and waiting for this. Chel had misunderstood completely and Slo was in no state to correct her. Aeschyli had just went insane and looked like she was going to stab her. Slo¡¯s head hurt a whole lot from thinking it over. Don¡¯t call her dumb, in the first place Aeschyli is the one with the ridiculous intelligence status. However, in the end Slo felt she went overboard. That Aeschyli had survived was amazing. In fact, she was wondering all night why Aeschyli suddenly turned into a blur right before her eyes cutting down every single ground spike with unbelievable speed. She had heard later that night of a great hero, named Aeschyli Grun, who had defended the city with a stick. Slo had fought a hero and won. With one attack. Slo thought she was amazing now. She had been alternating with being torn about going overboard on Aeschyli and thinking she was the most amazing person in the city. Arge asked her that morning, ¡°What¡¯s that smug smile about, and why does Chel look so happy.¡± She wasn¡¯t going to tell him the truth about what happened either. Normal people would probably want to get as far away from someone who just snapped and said they were going to take them away after one evening together. Slo however, was guilty and proud of her power at the same time and in a rare mood. She was holding Timothy in her arms and addressed Aeschyli. ¡°Hey, how ya doing?¡± ¡°Ugh¡­¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯m sorry about last night.¡± ¡°What?¡± Aeschyli was as lost as Slo. Shouldn¡¯t she be the one apologizing? ¡°Chel was there because she saw my explosion, you were really scary while you were dying from my amazing spell. She saved you and me, I went into overload and passed out too.¡± ¡°O-original magic?¡± Aeschyli was trying to form some semblance of an understanding. Slo just decided there was something a little off about Aeschyli, and she could accept that. After all, didn¡¯t Arge accept her? ¡°It¡¯s original magic I developed myself!¡± She said it proudly. She actually had no idea what original magic was. ¡°Heh¡­ I knew you were hiding something¡­ let¡¯s go to Marscione¡­ escape from father¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll never go to Marscione again,¡± Slo began to talk about it, ¡°Last night when you told me you were taking me there, I couldn¡¯t take it. I can¡¯t go back.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ I¡¯ll protect you.¡± ¡°From you father?¡± Slo was doing her best to follow along with her setting. She would become great friends with Aeschyli. Aeschyli needed someone after all. ¡°...yeah.¡± Aeschyli in her hazed mind began to understand something very simple. It was because of her state that she was able to process it in this way. Slo was, one adventurer, in a city of people, which was just flooded and was going to be the setting for another war. There was a zero point zero zero five percent chance of her dad finding Slo. However, her abnormal focus on Slo had completely robbed her of the fact that her actions at the wall and openly declaring herself made her a perfect target. That Slo just happened to be with her now and that that could up the chances considerably slipped her mind until Arge told her to cover up later. However, that still didn¡¯t impact her paranoia one bit. Slo needed protection, for the rest of her life if need be. Maybe she could trust her? Suddenly, it didn¡¯t sound so hard. ¡°...Slo, put on the bangle¡­¡± Slo put the bangle on her wrist. ¡°...on me¡­¡± ¡°Oh. Okay.¡± She put it on her chest. Aeschyli stayed silent a moment. She was seeing a whole new world at this moment that she had never experienced before. ¡°...my hair... bundle the hair up...and open the bangle..and snap it on my hair¡­¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯ve never used one of these before. I can¡¯t seem to open it. It¡¯s really heavy too. How do you wear this all the time?¡± Aeschyli never thought she would say this. ¡°...forget it¡­¡± ===== Later that day, Aeschyli was fully recovered thanks to Chel who kept coming by to look at her. Chel, for some reason, gave her the creeps. This was a first for Aeschyli. She had dealt with abominations and all sorts of terrifying things growing up but this was the first one with a beautiful smile on their face. It drained her of energy. She clasped on the bangle and sighed as she looked at Slo who was sleeping with Cosimo on her recommendation. There was a perfectly understandable reason for this. Slo could heal her mental damage, she observed in the bath last night. So she figured it might work on Cosimo too. It was also an excuse to upset Arge, who was on her case about something. She had eventually convinced him to buy her clothes but there was something incredibly strange about the way he was talking. He kept saying things like ¡°I¡¯ll buy your clothes for 1 rukh¡± and salivating. It was extremely confusing. Had she not known better now that she was recovered, she would think that he was trying to ogle her. However, having regained her stage side of herself and her mental clarity, she just assumed he was trying to sell off her expensive clothing. Why else would he say 1 rukh? Did he think she was poor? ¡°Hey, I¡¯m back, here¡¯s your clothes for 10,000 rukh.¡± ¡°You want me to pay you for clothes you bought for me? 10,000?¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯ll trade you this 1 ruhk for your bangle.¡± ¡°No way, this thing is priceless to me.¡± ¡°Okay, you can have the bangle. But I want your clothes.¡± ¡°How greedy are you?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t settle for less than your body. Not a ruhk more.¡± ¡°Wait, are you hitting on me?¡± Arge¡¯s innocent attempts to mess with Aeschyli ended in failure and he earned her ire. If you had to ask why, that was obvious. From her small amount of time with him, she already had pegged him as being the most untrustworthy person in the group. She was also bitter about losing and angry over how she acted towards Slo, worrying about her father and the war, so Arge became a stress release for her. ======= Doru was salvaging wood and stone with his magic, the result of Cosimo and Timothy¡¯s magic reaction. He was a dwarf who was exiled for drinking too much and causing trouble. For most people, having another dwarf around wasn¡¯t that big of a deal, but he was one of the few in Aleppo during the reconstruction after the flood. He waved to Arge and some red-brown haired girl that was suddenly at the inn one day, her name was Aeschyli. She was dull eyed and low energy. He knew the type. Probably crazy. ¡°¡®ey! What¡¯re yew two doing out ¡®ere?¡± Arge¡¯s face was stone. Arge¡¯s face was always stone. That reminded Doru of home. He really wished that Arge would stop giving him drinks though. However, he knew a ¡®sad¡¯ look that Arge had. Years of dealing with stone magic and tunneling deep underground through the vast shining tunnels of the dwarven meritocracy were not useless in reading Arge¡¯s soul. Doru smiled. Just like home, that sadness. ¡°I¡¯m going to the quarry. Gotta mine. Gotta mine for money. Money for the play,¡± said Arge. Doru decided that he was whipped by his new girlfriend. He was just glad that the boy had moved on from Slo. That wasn¡¯t going to end well he figured. ¡°Wel, have a gud time wit yer girlfraind deir!¡± He laughed. It was a joyful laugh, full of the memories of his misery he left at home. ======== Aeschyli and Arge were mining in the quarry. It was the first day. ¡°Why are you getting tired. Slo might die if you¡¯re this weak.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve known her far longer than you ok? We fought together, I saved her life like a lot. A lot!¡± He stabbed into the stone with the mining pick. Incidentally the money from the trade of the quarry was much more necessary at this point than the actual materials, refugee heading to Avig- ¡°Damn it Aeschyli. You know, I¡¯m not trying to be an asshole here. I¡¯m not. I know you¡¯re paying for the inn and everything for everyone but you don¡¯t have to treat me like this. It tough. It¡¯s really hard on me. Just drop the Slo stuff at least okay?¡± ¡°Chel told me quite a lot.¡± She was naturally low energy mode with a emotionless voice. Arge hated how she would just drop little comments like that. He grunted and got back to work. ¡°You¡¯re really passive aggressive. You ever think about how that makes people feel?¡± ¡°No, you¡¯re actually the first one I¡¯ve been honest with besides Slo. You kind of make me happy, hanging out with you.¡± Arge took this as sarcasm. ¡°Do you have to keep doing that? No, you know what, I¡¯m getting back to work. I¡¯ll just grind this out.¡± ¡°Usually, your character arc would be something like I save you, you fall in love with me, we get married, we have kids, haven¡¯t you read any stories like that?¡± Now, she was teasing him. ¡°Wait, you knew I was awake back then?¡± ¡°Not until now.¡± Arge was talking about the time he fell off Timothy¡¯s back pretending to be a corpse when the magic reaction happened. ¡°Ugh! You know what? Fine.¡± He got down on his knees and picked up a small rock. Arge was pushed extremely far to be driven to this level. This was his final gambit. If anything was to be gained today, it would be this. He was kneeling and proposed. ¡°I, Arge, the best haggler in the city of Aleppo, ask you, Aeschyli Grun,¡± he said that name very loud, ¡°To be my lawful wife!¡± He said that with his stone face. It is coincidence that the marriage customs of this world and earths were the same. Arge couldn¡¯t have possibly predicted that this was secretly a role that Aeschyli always wanted to play. It was like he had the ability to activate her stage magic. ¡°Arge, honey, I love you... I- I¡¯ll do it!¡± She held her finger out and did a full face blush. In all black. Arge threw the rock down and stormed off to go sit on a bigger rock. He cast ¡®Hard Headed¡¯ to numb the embarrassment. He had lost. One of two miners who was being responsible nearby observed this. He pointed at them. ¡°What¡¯s up with that?¡± ¡°Newlyweds?¡± Answered the other miner. Elven - Carpe Scaenam Cosimo was immobile on his bed with Slo sleeping next to him. He thought it would be a good time to finally review his abilities. His identification crystal was luckily still tied to his hand, and it looks like someone changed him into a brown robe. Finally, clothes. He had to find Timothy and apologize after this. After that, he figured he should gather some money and leave. After his experience with Maria, he wanted to be alone. Susanoo said what happened was ¡®like a magical explosion¡¯. He had plenty of time to think of how he wanted to leave Timothy, and figured that his last act as someone who wanted to be his friend was going to be to have him join the Adventurer¡¯s Guild if he was up for it. It would just be a suggestion. He didn¡¯t know enough about him after all to make that call for him, but hopefully he could end everything on a good note there. It would be great to get Aeschyli off his mind too. He didn¡¯t know why Slo was here though. Did she take care of him all this time? He would have to repay her for that- No, get out of here. That was the firm part of his mind right now. Cut all ties, find something else to do. He had power now after all. He closed his eyes and opened his status. ======== A large mansion complex in Grunkirk was Aeschyli old home. Someone getting too close would be turned away by guards who kept watch night and day. There were constant shots and explosions going off. To the city to the south, it was regarded as the Dragon¡¯s Den. It was rumored that a dragon had taken human form and was conducting experiments in magic. They were half right, the dragon was a human though. Grunnir, heir to the old royal system of Grunkirk, was now a noble. He was pacing the hall with glass to ceiling windows filled with cracks and holes. There were few waitstaff here, as most of the people who lived in the mansion were conducting experiments in original magic. Grunnir held a red sigil bird and it message in his hand. He stopped in the center of the corridor. Suddenly feeling like it, he chucked the red sigil bird with the mark of Grunkirk out of the broken window, breaking it even further. He read the message a third time and began to talk to himself. ¡°What a strange combination this time. It can¡¯t all be her fault. The amount of energy needed for that explosion, the dragon¡¯s appearance, and another magic reaction that could cause a flood. I¡¯m missing too many pieces of the puzzle. Someday she¡¯ll have to stop running. Is this her battle call? Too strange. It¡¯s not like her at all. She would stay away from town if she could. Maybe she got bored? I need information. Send someone with the Grunkirk army? Can¡¯t figure it out. How about I just let it go?¡± Grunnir tore the message in one stroke. ¡°I wish they would just let you go. I was too hard on you. Actually, just what was I thinking, raising her like that. Especially here. She could have been amazing anywhere else. Ruined her. All my fault. With all the original magic we¡¯ve tried to make here you made the only one that counted. It¡¯s useless. About the only thing we can do is build shock troops.¡± He ran downstairs on a whim. He wanted to check the newest one. There were tubes filled with various monsters and magical sigils were applied to their bodies haphazardly. Some were human. ¡°It¡¯s no good. No magical resonance. If you can¡¯t even get a magic reaction, then how can you get an original magic? Unique magic is just magic you can learn if you¡¯re the right type after all, and you try to master it. Original magic, oh, that''s just adding a new page to the book. New things to do. New things to master. It¡¯s wonderful world for everyone when we get it right.¡± He flicked a switch and cast a unique magic on a creature with a nine foot long horn growing out of it¡¯s head. ¡°Monodon¡¯s should react better with heat magic. Causes implosion in the water unique magic they usually have. Maybe this one was too young. Could build a type of steam magic next. Abomination¡¯s are so useless.¡± He ran over to a table with a human meshed with sigils and a crystal at the center. It was an identification crystal. ¡°Shocktroop. Horrible indeed. Wasted your youth here Aeschyli. ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ is such a beautiful one. Original magic composed of unique magics. Instead of going for the magic reaction and trying to control the extremely powerful result, you just went with amplifying the parts of unique magic that you could master until you made a new spell. Absolute genius. Result of upbringing? No doubt. Failure as her father? No doubt. With that kind of thinking, she could have gone much farther. Look at all I struggled for, just a corpse that activates its own magic from when it was alive. Abomination. To think I worked so many years just for this. If I could find another way to build original magic like Aeschyli did, that was actually useful, sorry Aeschyli but that only works for you. Too exceptional. She couldn¡¯t learn the magics normal people could, had to adapt.¡± Gunnir leapt down a staircase and ran down to the cellar. There was a guard there who handled useful abominations. ¡°Follow me.¡± The guard came with him. ¡°She can¡¯t be left alone with that mess around here. Not her. At the very least, those magic reactions and the dragon are enough reason to use it right? I don¡¯t want to have to pull strings at the noble council. They think I¡¯m mad. They¡¯re right, its not that I¡¯m disagreeing, but I have so many reactions setup to go off here and there¡¯s no clues for the ones in Aleppo. Personal unit is the best unit. Aeschyli won¡¯t stand a chance if the capital gets serious. Maybe they already plan to send the dragon hunter units out with the next invasion to get rid of her. They must be wondering what¡¯s going on there too.¡± He reached a door a knocked several times. An abomination opened the door. It was covered in red leather armor with a huge red cape. The head was covered with a helmet of the same color that just looked like a flat plate over the face. ¡°Hunt down Aeschyli. Find out if she knows anything. Then kill her.¡± ==== ¡°No, no. Heal her again. She needs to learn the discipline of the sword. After all with this much potential she can¡¯t even learn a single magic,¡± there was a dignified fencing teacher with a sword in hand. He was out of place in the mansion that was falling apart. A small girl was watching him intently with dull eyes. ¡°Just what are they thinking raising her here of all places, I haven¡¯t stopped hearing the moaning and strange explosions since I got here¡­¡± The healer was getting the girl back into shape. She had been stabbed several times and was clutching a sword. She had a one point identification crystal placed in a choker on her neck. ¡°It¡¯s quite simple. Grunnir is a madman. The noble council lets him get away with this nonsense because he produces interesting results. That spell you¡¯re using right now, it was added within the past five years to the identification crystal you know. Someone¡¯s got to make the new ones. Original magic isn¡¯t an easy process, you¡¯ve basically got to do trial and error, and this is the one place where it happens.¡± He easily launched into an explanation to comfort the girl and the new healer. They had to kill the last one, hopefully this one will take to it? ¡°Those creatures though? I saw a few walking around, they look like corpses.¡± ¡°Just ignore it. I do that all the time.¡± An explosion sounded off outside like usual and a eight foot horn shot straight through the already broken window aiming at the girl. The healer couldn¡¯t react at all but the girl easily slapped it aside with a flick of her wrist. ¡°Huh, that happens way too much to you, Aeschyli. I swear they must be aiming for you.¡± He said it smugly. ¡°Okay, you¡¯re ready enough, come at me.¡± Aeschyli was still bleeding in her vital point of her armpit and the thigh and had bruises from when he deflected her back with his hands or feet. He was fighting seriously. ¡°Tabil, can¡¯t you try to teach her more? There¡¯s something wrong with the way she¡¯s acting. I can¡¯t explain it, but it¡¯s like she knows she¡¯s going to lose.¡± ¡°Healer, I won¡¯t learn your name at this rate. Of course she¡¯s going to lose. She¡¯ll get back up stronger. How many techniques and skills do you think I spent so many long years to acquire, that she can master in a day? How do you expect her to die, with the strength of her body alone? Healing her is just so she can continue. When I look at her, she makes me proud to be her teacher.¡± He had said that many times as well. Aeschyli had memorized it, had practiced it in front of a broken mirror. She mimicked his voice. She wanted to be able to beat him. She mimicked everything. Everything she saw in books in the library. Every magic that she always failed to use. Every attack and shock of the explosion would cause her to react. The same with every blade thrust. It was normal. An explosion rang out again and a hail of spikes went through a window down the corridor and stood up planted into the weather carpet. A giant sloth¡¯s head followed and crushed them, completely shattering the window. ¡°So this is why the pay was so high¡­¡± The healer didn¡¯t believe she was going to live past today. After being on the battlefield numerous times, hunted monsters and even survived a dragon attack she decided that she would have to fight her way past whatever sorts of things they had dwelling her just to get out. Aeschyli moved forward and Tabil sneered as he jabbed straight into her heart. She twisted her entire body and snapped the blade by bracing against the ground. ¡°Good! ¡®Fencing Foil Replicate¡¯! He stabbed her again with a sword he pulled out of thin air. Aeschyli turned again. The sword broke, and she got within her much smaller striking distance. She got in close and threw her sword straight up into the air. ¡°¡®Foil Rain¡¯¡±, said Tabil as a bunch of fencing sword pierced her from above. ¡°You can rest now Ae-¡± He began to say, but he saw her tense her whole body and snap every single foil stuck in her. ¡°Good! So you want to continue!¡± Aeschyli gathered the fallen foil parts like needles and tossed them indiscriminately at Tabil. ¡°¡®Defense Arts¡¯¡±, he called out his attack. He wanted her to know which ones he was using after all. All of the oncoming foils that Aeschyli sent at him were neatly gathered into a bundle by a skillful whip of his foil. ¡°¡®Foil Rain¡¯, ¡®Fencing Foil Replicate¡¯!¡± He sent another batch of Foils from the air. Aeschyli didn¡¯t move. All the foils went straight into her hitting all the parts of the metal that was still inside her. She snapped them again. ¡°You¡¯re doing good today, but that¡¯s enough get some healing,¡± said Tabil. The healer was afraid to go forward until then but she saw Aeschyli gather the broken foils up again and throw them at Tabil. ¡°¡®Defense Arts¡¯,¡± he said as he whipped the broken foils into a bundle and tossed them aside. ¡°I got it.¡± Tabil was surprised that Aeschyli said something. It was the first time he heard her voice. Her eyes pooled with light and she smiled. ¡°I got it! I got an ¡®Arts¡¯! I¡¯m like a hero now! Tabil! Prepare to die! Dazzling the stage!¡± A circle of light opened above her head. She reached up and put her wounded hand into it. ¡°What¡¯ll come out, I wonder~¡± ¡°Hmm. If you truly learned an ¡®Arts¡¯ then I indeed might be at my limit. You¡¯ve grown incredibly strong. I¡¯m satisfied, if you can win that is, ¡®Cutlass Cutter¡¯ come to my aid!¡± Tabil pulled out a wicked cutlass full of pits in the blade out of his scabbard on his back. Up until now, he was only using foils. The healer wanted to yell that it was insane, nobody needed to die. They just had to stop the fight. She didn¡¯t believe a single bit that it would matter to them. It was like the dragon attack all over again. ¡°Tabil! Don¡¯t look down on me! If you were holding back I¡¯ll find a way to revive you and kill you again! Maybe!,¡± she yelled as she pulled a long box out from within the sphere of light. She jumped at Tabil. ¡°Flutter!¡± She began a flurry of attacks with the box, each one with such force that Tabil couldn¡¯t even say his ¡®Defense Arts¡¯ out loud. He was able to manage taking one hit, but the next was perfectly lined up to oppose his next move. She only got faster. Aeschyli threw the box into the air at the last second before a attack and punched him with glee. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°1st box open!¡± The box in the air cracked open and a roll of steel felt out and hit the ground. ¡°Huh? I don¡¯t get it... ¡° She was confused. Tabil regained his balance. ¡°You¡¯re awful chatty today. Is that your ¡®Arts¡¯? It''s strange indeed.¡± ¡°I picked and tried so many magic spells and helped dad with the explosions. There was nothing in the books like this though. I don¡¯t know why, but it feels like it¡¯s something I unwrap¡­¡± ¡°Get a heal then. We¡¯ll pick this up later.¡± ¡°No! I want to kill you today! I promised myself I would!¡± ¡°You just gained an ¡®Arts¡¯ and you¡¯re not even using it. It doesn¡¯t seem like you to not investigate your own abilities with you identification crystal.¡± ¡°It¡¯s uh, I¡¯m sorry but I don¡¯t get why I got it after all.¡± ¡°You can reveal it to me. I plan to die by your hand anyways,¡± Tabil said. The healer ran away in fear and got impaled by another flying horn. ¡°A shame. We can¡¯t get another one until tomorrow. How about we end it for today?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯ll finish you!¡± She jumped forward and picked up the steel cylinder. It was like a piece of paper, but made of a thin steel that bent easily. She thought of the circle above her head. When she was reading stories she would always imagine herself as part of it. After all, if you could be anyone, she didn¡¯t have to be here. Right now she was a hero. Tabil was playing the evil villain that was bullying her. She would kill him and get married. That was how all the stories she read in the moldy library went. There were some though that talked about theater. There was a light, and when she thought of that spotlight, she felt alive. ¡°If the light¡¯s on me, I¡¯m the hero! I¡¯m someone else! What¡¯s there to be afraid of then! It¡¯s someone else¡¯s world!¡± What couldn¡¯t she do if she could play around? Could Tabil stop her? Could the explosions that kept her awake at night until she passed out and woke two hours later stop her? Would father pay more attention to her? Would the healer¡¯s stop putting her back into the fight? When would the fear end? When would she be loved? The light above her head was a spotlight on her. She could decide what she wanted from it right? If she just pulled out something else¡­ What about this though? She unfurled the cylinder. It was a sphere shape, cut like a lily. She thought it was like a sort of stencil for the light, to change object projected. As her spotlight grew dim from being blocked out, other parts would open. Maybe if she put it on then looked inside? She blocked the circle of light with the steel plate. The identification crystal told her ¡®Cast word, stage magic, ¡®Gobo Contract¡¯. So that¡¯s what the box and light were. It¡¯s all to shift the spotlight¡¯s shape. ¡°Gobo Contract!¡±, she yelled. The sphere shot out a single lily burn that hit the ground. She put her hand inside and pull out another box. She swung down with all her strength and examined stage magic in her head, realizing that she needed to use all the commands at once to piece together her original magic. ¡°Dazzling the Stage! Flutter! Gobo Contract, 1st Open~! Dancing Lily!¡± A huge amount of lily shapes started to burn into the ground as she hit Tabil with the 2nd box. He took Dancing Lily full on. He immediately turned the cutlass on himself and stabbed it in. ¡°What!¡± She was confused. Although the effect was to confuse the other person and cause the mental image of burns, she didn¡¯t check the effect of Dancing Lily itself. Just that it required all the command parts. Aeschyli disabled her magic and stood over Tabil¡¯s body. ¡°Awh~¡± She began to tear up. This was supposed to be a play. Why was she fine when he was dead. She sat down and sobbed silently thinking it was all her fault. She was glad he was dead, but she couldn¡¯t help feeling incredibly alone as she sobbed over his body. The light had drained from her eyes again. ====== ¡°Seems I¡¯ll have to get a new instructor. Good job beating him. You did it with your body alone? That¡¯s amazing. You would tell me if you mastered spells. ,¡± said Grunnir. She was following her father around now after getting tired of crying. She experimented with stage magic too as it took her some time to find father. He was checking and twisting this dial and that, casting a magic and watching if it exploded or not, then haphazardly writing down notes on the walls. She was looking down. Aeschyli was afraid of the other researchers, so she often carried her foil and chased them off silently. Grunnir turned and noticed the foil was gone. ¡°Hmph. You broke your sword? Where¡¯s the healer, you look like you¡¯re going to die. I¡¯ll get Tomas to help heal you, he¡¯s got ¡®Medico¡¯ at least.¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°What do you mean no. You¡¯re a mess.¡± ¡°Tabil is dead so I should die too. It''s a double love suicide.¡± ¡°What nonsense are you spouting. Come with me,¡± Grunnir said as he grabbed her and dragged her off to get healing. She didn¡¯t want to meet them. All of them were scary. Father was scary, but he was less scary. No new people. Stay alone. If the spotlight isn¡¯t on her, she was experimenting for a situation like that. It was a spell she made before stage magic. If she wasn¡¯t going to be the hero, let her tell the hero what to do who was in the spotlight. She would take over the stage. ¡°¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯¡± She cast it on father. It wasn¡¯t a spell she tested yet. Just like with stage magic, she wanted to use it against Tabil. It was mental magic, but used elements of her stage magic. When she was toying around with stage magic trying to find father, she found out that Dancing Lily was quite similar. Maybe it was because she wanted to master ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ so bad that she developed Dancing Lily the way it was. ¡°Let go of me. Spend time with me,¡± is what she told him to do. However, there was no way something like that could work on first casting, especially on someone as intelligent as her father. ¡°Is that a spell? That was a spell!¡± He laughed and hugged her. ¡°I¡¯m so proud of you. So, tell me, what does it do? How¡¯d you learn it?¡± He was looking at her with pride for the first time. She started to cry again. ===== Her newest instructor arrived a few weeks later with a healer in tow. Aeschyli had told father about all of her magic that she had at that time he challenged her. It was painful to her that he cared about that. She also felt good about it. It was difficult. She spent the next few weeks training it and reading. She discovered that she could use the concept of ¡®Acts¡¯ to increase her power by making herself feel that the end of the story was near. That was because to her, when the story ended she was herself again, so she could expend far much more energy at once. She had so much though. When she was hungry and exhausted from overusing magic, she happened to pull out the fifth open from the fourth cylinder used on the spotlight above her head. She didn¡¯t understand why the fourth open did nothing. She was just feeling lonely at the time. The fifth open just produced a large round brown hard food. She ate it, and it felt like some sort of destiny was fulfilled. Her heart would heal with the Glande food summon. She was eating it everyday. So when the new instructor arrived she made the excuse, ¡°I want to go train right away,¡± and her father let her go to meet him at the gate. Really, she could have just done that anyways, but she felt like she had to say goodbye. She cast ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ that she had been practicing on researchers on them. The healer resisted, so she used it again and again. When it was apparent that it wouldn¡¯t work, she just took her hostage and hijacked the carriage. Casting ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ on the instructor she ordered him to go inside the mansion. In the carriage was the healer and Aeschyli as it returned the way it came at breakneck speed. The soldiers keeping up the border to the mansion thought it was weird that the carriage was leaving so soon but by the time the sigil birds came back a few hours later they were long gone. Aeschyli was staring at the healer. Learning her movements. As she acted out polite conversations she read in books. She went with the truth. She figured the healer would sympathize like last time and she was right. ¡°I¡¯m Duvessa. I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s true. To think I might have easily died in there from the constant barrage of monster parts¡­ that sounds insane. How many died like this¡­¡± Aeschyli did her best to follow up. ¡°Go places. Fight dragon. Become a hero.¡± ¡°You want to be a hero?¡± ¡°Really strong,¡± she pumped her arm. ¡°You mean you¡¯re really strong. No one knows where dragons are though, and even if you did-¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°What, really? That¡¯s amazing! You could gather a party of really strong people and subdue it! No doubt there would be a lot of treasure there!¡± She saw the value in a healer for the trip. ¡°You come.¡± ¡°Eh, no I don¡¯t want to-¡± She wanted a friend, badly. She was lonely. So it was only natural that used ¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯ in hopes that she could make her a friend. She cast ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯. Duvessa would be her hero on the stage. ¡°Be my friend. Love me,¡± she said. Duvessa just stayed silent. It wasn¡¯t that the mental magic didn¡¯t get through. It was that the command was too complex. She had only tried simple commands on the researchers. ¡°Hello?¡± Duvessa didn¡¯t respond. Aeschyli pulled her cheeks. Aeschyli slapped her. She didn¡¯t move. The magic worked too well. She was her ¡®friend¡¯, she loved ¡®me¡¯. But that was all. That was the only the only thing repeating in her mind. She suffocated from not breathing. Aeschyli panicked and ran out of the carriage while it was still moving. She had seen countless deaths, but she only killed two she tried to love. ======== Aeschyli was wandering and eating Glande. She was able to sniff out water and sleep on the ground no problem. She avoided the cities. Eventually, she decided to go in for clothes and other things. The allure was too much. She also needed maps. The real dragon¡¯s den was waiting. She was going to be a hero loved by the people. She had plenty of money and power to shove around. The noble council of Grunkirk had long caught wind of her and was sending assassin¡¯s. She would with by a hair¡¯s breadth. Sometimes she would just run. She tried disguises but there still was magic to find her. Often she would get woken up by people trying to stab her and have to fight back. She looked to the animals, but remembered Duvessa. She wanted something that could respond a bit more, easy to control though. She kept thinking that over and over. I just don''t use complex commands. Simple, like ¡®go and take a bath¡¯, or ¡®leave¡¯ or ¡®stay¡¯ or ¡®follow my lead¡¯. ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ didn¡¯t last long, but she practiced it everyday. Sometimes, she would use it just to get people to talk to her. She built her knowledge base this way. And finally- She found the dragon den. ======== In her father¡¯s lab there were many charts for the collection of monstered. To Aeschyli who read everything, she was able to easily map out the probable population of game based on the amount of captures of monsters made over time. She was looking for a dragon. Dragon¡¯s are greedy, so they need to eat. Dragon¡¯s are picky, so they need to have good game. She made up rules and followed them. She had at least a hundred possible locations that she had discovered through careful analysis of maps. If they were underwater, she was out of luck. If they were in space, she was out of luck. She found one though, coming back from a hunt one day through the sky. It was the thirty ninth spot she tried. It was a lucky break. She snuck into the dragon¡¯s den to defeat it. She came upon a massive hoard of items and gold. She passed it. She entered the main chamber and saw a room that was human sized. Interested in the story, she went inside. Inside there was a shining golden room, with a golden bangle sitting on a bed. She picked it up, interested by the sigils on it. It was full of ¡®curse¡¯ sigils. It was just written over and over. She knew what it meant, and stole it. It would reduce your status. It had major effect on intelligence. It could cause memory loss and bad decision making. It drained energy. She tried it on with her massive unkept hair. She felt happier, like she didn¡¯t care anymore. So she stole it and treasured it always. The dragon was able to easily sniff her out as she was running away with its treasure, and the battle begun. ======= ¡°What the heck are you doing stealing a curse bangle? Out of all the things! You probably can¡¯t even read that!¡±, said the dragon. It was sparkling gold with heavy plates of scales that looked like slabs. It had a twirling snake head with a tongue as long as it¡¯s body, and wings spanning the sky. It could communicate to you directly from your insides. ¡°I used to build sigil golems all the time, and repair equipment in the dragon¡¯s den,¡± Aeschyli said. ¡°Okay, whatever, go put it back and I¡¯ll give you a real prize for managing to sneak past me okay? I was busy mind you, I blacksmith in my spare time,¡± the dragon roared. ¡°No, It¡¯s really nice. It makes me feel comfortable,¡± Aeschyli said. ¡°It just makes you weaker, I don¡¯t understand,¡± said the dragon. ¡°I¡¯ve always been strong, but it was always hard on me. I want to take it easy and have some fun, but I¡¯m afraid of everything. Even after it¡¯s been so long I was at home, I feel like I¡¯m still there,¡± whined Aeschyli. ¡°Afraid? If you¡¯re really that strong that you¡¯re more worried about your fear than your strength, then why are you still afraid?¡±, said the dragon. ¡°Strength isn¡¯t enough for me,¡± said Aeschyli. ¡°Is the curse bangle¡¯s effect enough for you?¡± , said the dragon. Aeschyli paused. ¡°No, but it helps?¡± , she said. ¡°Then what you are looking for isn¡¯t that bangle, come back and choose from among my treasures, ¡° said the dragon. ¡°Uh, I don¡¯t want to, you¡¯ll probably kill me and take my bangle too,¡± said Aeschlyi. ¡°I¡¯m offering you all the riches of the world, in exchange for that bangle you could have anything,¡± said the dragon. ¡°Then can I have the bangle? No, it¡¯s my bangle now. Fight me for it if you must,¡± said Aeschlyi. The sun shined down onto his massive frame spanning the heaven and earth. His golden scales sized like slabs glittered in the sun. There was no stronger, except maybe Slo. ¡°You humans are so impudent. You throw away what you truly want. You seek the easy road. Where¡¯s your pride? Your accomplishments? Where are you great cities of peerless culture? You want none of that? You don¡¯t want to stand in the heavens like I do?¡±, said the dragon. ¡°Not at this time no. Actually, I think I just want some friends, maybe? My new bangle can help with that. Isn¡¯t that enough for someone small to you like me?¡± ,said Aeschyli. ¡°Hmph. Fine. Be off with you, I could crush you like a bug but it doesn¡¯t feel worth it. You are but a child,¡± said the dragon.. ¡°Hey dragon?¡±, said Aeschyli. ¡°Can I see how long my ¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯ and ¡®Parry Arts¡¯ works against you?¡±, said Aeschyli ¡°For fun,¡± said Aeschyli. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll humor you for a bit. You did catch my interest after all,¡± said the dragon. And so a thunder cracked the now darkened cloud filled sky and rain fell upon the earth. The dragon used his ability ¡®Victory¡¯. ¡®Victory¡¯ destroys any opponent¡¯s will to continue. The state of victory is declared for the dragon. There would be no fight. However, with both of her strongest abilities activated the ¡®Victory¡¯ was reflected and the dragon lost. ¡°Huh, well good job there. You only won because of my ability choice though, so don¡¯t get cocky,¡± said the dragon. His will to continue to fight destroyed, the dragon took to the sky and dismissed the thunder full clouds. He went back to his den to blacksmith. It is his hobby. Aeschyli stood triumphant and put the bangle on her hair and felt a long awaited sense of peace as the wind blew across the now empty plains. ======== ¡°So, that¡¯s my dark history,¡± said Aeschyli. ¡°Really? I don¡¯t buy it, sounds too crazy,¡± said Arge. He was drinking, now. She gleefully punched him. She couldn¡¯t do that to Slo. Twelve - Ill pass In the bed at the inn Cosimo was trying to get up and get Slo off of him. He was now fully aware of his abilities. It was surprising to say the least. ¡°What kind of ridiculous joke is this? I come back to this world a second time and now I¡¯m totally powerful? Well, at least it¡¯ll be easy to make it on my own. Super strength was pretty fun, but this¡­ isn¡¯t it this too suitable a list of abilities for someone like me? What the book said about unique magic only being easy to learn if it ¡®feels natural¡¯ or ¡®fits your psyche¡¯ is fitting for me. I didn¡¯t even get to choose the abilities really, but I remember Susanoo talking about how he had that power picking application made to suit the person¡¯s psyche. Guess that¡¯s why he emailed me here. There must be something interesting to him about people manifesting their personality in some kind of magical way in the real world.¡± He was thinking to himself like that. His level was six. He was however, effectively invulnerable for a limited amount of time that he was going to have to test. It was only active for ¡®a certain amount of time¡¯. Based on reviewing what happened with Timothy, he thought that ¡®Average¡¯ had just run out of time. Cosimo was mistaken. ¡°Now that I understand the full extent of ¡®Mediocre¡¯, it was a bad idea to show that off in front of Aeschyli. Well, hopefully I won¡¯t meet her again. Who else knows about me? Timothy, really. He saw me get portaled in and saw ¡®Mediocre¡¯. I¡¯m sorry Xana. At least you get to live on though. I think many would pay that price easily if you could say they could live, but I don¡¯t want to use it like that again.¡± He sighed out loud. Cosimo¡¯s head was swimming as he was trying to piece everything together. There was a coin exchange to deposit money into your identification crystal at the Guild. Since it could be used for transactions, he wouldn¡¯t have to carry any coins if he didn¡¯t want to. However, he had nothing. Cosimo figured that the ¡®welcome gift¡¯ Susanoo promised wasn¡¯t coming. He had to make some money. Before that, he had to end things with Timothy and make sure he can get away from Aeschyli. ¡°Hey Slo are you up yet? My, I have to wake you up every time...oh, hello, Cosimo was it? You seem really comfortable with Slo there.¡± A girl with a black habit had walked into the room. ¡°Hey, I think I saw you on the patio when I met Slo. Thanks for taking care of me, how long was I out?¡± ¡°Two weeks. I¡¯m Chel. Aeschyli saved you, I¡¯ve been personally taking care of your body for the last two weeks. It would be expensive usually, but Aeschyli cleared your debt.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a nurse?¡± Cosimo began to understand that she had probably done a lot of very personal things to him. However, his knowledge from earth gave him comfort. After all, isn¡¯t it natural that someone has to clean up after you when you¡¯re in a coma? He was still embarrassed though. ¡°That¡¯s a strange word to use. I¡¯m a healer. You really should get up and walk around. I know it¡¯s probably nice enjoying Slo, but you¡¯ve been taking advantage of her for two weeks.¡± In his mind, ¡®taking advantage¡¯ did not sit well with Cosimo. He had pressing matters at hand though. ¡°I can¡¯t move.¡± Chel came over and put her hand on his heart. Cosimo was in a down mood so decided to enjoy the presence of two women on him to the fullest. This is okay for now, he thought, I¡¯m having a hard time. ¡°Hmm. That¡¯s a nice smile on your face. It¡¯s strange, Aeschyli said it would be full mental damage. You¡¯re up earlier than she said though, but I can¡¯t understand how she got the three weeks number. Maybe you need more time to recover?¡± She was inspecting his circulation. ¡°¡®Cruor Circen¡¯¡±, Chel said. Cosimo finally understood that the reason why people were calling out spell names was to increase their focus on controlling the energy while using the spell. That time alone served him so well, he thought even more would be fantastic. Cosimo thought of a brothel. No, no, that¡¯s too shameless. Then again¡­ ¡°What¡¯s that spell do?¡± Now that Cosimo was aware that he could expand his inventory of unique magic quite easily thanks to ¡®Average¡¯¡¯s effect, it would useful to learn more of them. The book only had so many. ¡°Allows me to see understand and repair the blood in your body. Also good for circulation if someone¡¯s sedentary. I don¡¯t get it. You should be able to move. I took care of everything so your body is in perfect condition.¡± Cosimo made an ¡®oh¡¯ face. He was starting to consider and connect the full understanding of his abilities and what had happened to him, and what was occurring right now. ¡°It¡¯s an ability of mine. Thanks a lot for taking care of me, I¡¯ll have to figure it out from here.¡± ¡°Oh. Okay,¡± she respected his privacy. That was normal for people of this world to not dig into another¡¯s abilities and status unless it was work or between friends. ¡°Slo, it¡¯s time to wake up, ¡®Cruor Caedis¡¯,¡± casted Chel. Cosimo saw Slo¡¯s body jerk and he got a bad feeling. Is that any way to wake something up? ¡°Ah~ Chel, it¡¯s you. You need me for something?¡± she said completely awake as she got up off Cosimo. ¡°Cosimo¡¯s awake,¡± said Chel. ¡°Uwah~ Are you serious. I¡¯m losing out now. I got so used to the warmth. Hey there Cosimo. We slept together a lot for the last two weeks. Last time I talked to you we were saving the Pilosa, you¡¯ve been great. I wouldn¡¯t mind keeping it up, you know.¡± Cosimo thought she was serious. Cosimo was quickly drawn into a entirely different line of thinking than before. This was even more dangerous. ¡°Ah, why were you sleeping on me? For the warmth? Is that a normal thing here?¡± ¡°Here in Aleppo? No, no, it¡¯s reserved for best friends, family, and lovers naturally! However, I spent many nights sleeping on animals whether they wanted my company or not. I¡¯m different! Sleeping with another person was quite uncomfortable at first, but I got used to it! You¡¯re just like an animal to me now!¡± Cosimo got the sense that she was not trying to be rude. ¡°You are adorable,¡± he said in half disgust and half truth. He wasn¡¯t sure which came off to Chel and Slo the most. Chel was smiling on the side watching. ¡°Chel! It finally happened! Someone said it! A boy finally say it! Besides Arge!¡± she clasped her hands to cheeks with a blush. ¡°I believed in you,¡± she silently closed her eyes and tilted her head down. Good for you Slo. Good for you. ¡°Ahh~ Thank you so much Cosimo! Even if its marriage if it stays as good as the last two weeks I¡¯ll be fine with it!¡± And so Cosimo and Slo lived happily ever after, that didn¡¯t happen. Cosimo entered full contemplation mode. She was probably more like an animal herself. He said he would run away but- No, just what is he thinking! I need to get out of here and finish things with Timothy. ¡°I¡¯ll pass for now. I¡¯m going to try to get up, and once I figure that out I¡¯m moving on.¡± ¡°Oh no, it¡¯s as Aeschyli said,¡± Slo deflated and said that. Chel put her hand on Slo¡¯s shoulder. It¡¯s okay. ¡°He did say ¡®for now¡¯ Slo. After all, once you get to know him he might be a horrible person when he¡¯s awake and could destroy your life. There was no way it could continue like this,¡± comforted Chel. ¡°Let¡¯s leave him alone okay? You can sleep with me any time you know?¡± ¡°No~ you toss in your sleep, there¡¯s no way I can trust Arge, Arge won¡¯t let me keep a pet, and Doru is Doru,¡± Slo said as she was sighing while talking. ¡°Come on,¡± Chel said as she guided her out of the room. Cosimo felt a bit of shock from that after they left. It was like a piece of him was no longer there. No, no, it¡¯s just the two weeks of pressure on his body! He spent a total of definitely less than one hour with her conscious! The two weeks sleeping together meant nothing! Ah, he¡¯s lying again, he realized. He stared at the ceiling and looked sad. I¡¯ve got to end this. ¡°¡®Ancient Earth Arts¡¯,¡± he said out loud. Nothing? Shouldn¡¯t that move him at least? He was so glad he got an Arts, too bad he got that other spell that had Maria¡¯s knife in it. He was disguised that it was inside out of his skills. Maybe he could pass it off to Arge as thanks for helping him. He seemed like the type to enjoy something like that, he said remembering when he had a knife to his throat. That was fun, Cosimo thought. ¡°¡®Liar¡¯, I can move!¡± he tried to keep it down. He didn¡¯t know in Chel and Slo were around. It didn¡¯t seem he could move. ¡®Liar¡¯ could let him change the truth, but it seems like it wasn¡¯t as good as ¡®Mediocre¡¯. He had no idea it was a much weaker form of ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯. Cosimo thought it was strange that he knew that spell already, he guessed because it was second nature to him? ¡°¡®Flow Charge¡¯, ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯,¡± he casted. He felt energy charge through his body. He could move it around. ¡®Flow Charge¡¯ allowed him to move energy to a place, which was going to be insanely useful when used with ¡®Average¡¯ instant power restoration. That was how he was able to blow up a city after all. ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯, Cosimo didn¡¯t know that this was a strange cousin of Timothy¡¯s much stronger ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. Timothy didn¡¯t have an identification crystal, so he was actually using ¡®Arts¡¯ from the start. The reason why Cosimo wanted Timothy to become an adventurer was mainly because of that. He saw Timothy trying so hard for other people, with unique magic, just what else could he do? Cosimo wasn¡¯t sure if it would work with Timothy though. Both of the ¡®Force¡¯ abilities created a layer of energy that could permeate and pass through the body into the world. Cosimo used it for super strength intuitively during the flood. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The final one. He didn¡¯t want to use it. Moreover, he didn¡¯t understand how he got it. This was something he could only piece together if he had Aeschyli¡¯s and Timothy¡¯s magical knowledge. He didn¡¯t even know that they knew. ¡°¡®Soulbroken¡¯,¡± he casted. A black hole opened on his chest and Maria¡¯s knife rose out of it. Blessed by Susanoo, it gleamed with a blue light with a wide blade and a short black handle with stylish rivets. He wanted to give this away right away. Who cares if it¡¯s blessed by a god? His body suddenly jerked as the knife was rising out of him. When the knife fully came out he grabbed it. Just leave it here? Arge will probably find it. What if someone else did though? He felt a chill the first time realizing that it might cause a whole lot of trouble. He¡¯d give it to Arge as an apology for dragging him into the pilosa recovery effort with a caution. Would Arge turn down a blade blessed by a god? =========== Cosimo had left the inn and was wandering around the city. He wanted to check out the city center before he left. He needed money, but realized ¡®Average¡¯ meant he wasn¡¯t going to get hungry anyways and at least he had a robe on instead of a white sheet. Shoes would be nice. Slo and Chel weren¡¯t there when he finally got up in the inn. With the power of ¡®Average¡¯ he realized that his potential and power was extremely high, but given what happened with Timothy earlier he was afraid and curious of what happened. Did he really just lose it? It felt strange. There was magic in this world. He knew that. After all, Aeschyli had that spell that controlled his mind, why couldn¡¯t that have happened again? The anger didn¡¯t feel like real anger. ¡°I can just leave now, if I wanted to¡­,¡± he thought walking through the etched alabaster city. That was until he spotted Arge and Timothy using ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯ flying towards in him the city center. The effect of ¡®Soulbroken¡¯ had another part. It would react with Timothy¡¯s soul read from ¡®Soul Communication¡¯. This was the same magic reaction as before during the war. The reason why it would react, and the only thing that Cosimo knew from his identification crystal about ¡®Soulbroken¡¯ besides the knife summon was that it said his soul was ¡®stained black¡¯. Cosimo had no idea what that meant. ======== Arge was laying on Timothy¡¯s back as he flew through the air. Timothy seemed like a good person. Aeschyli hadn¡¯t mentioned that at all. Wait, did Aeschyli know that Timothy could talk? Arge mulled over that. Aeschyli was undoubtedly an evil genius. He had experienced that first hand. However, he had talked to him first during their sewer fight. He didn¡¯t know that Timothy had talked to countless people during the flood. He never saw Timothy with Slo, Chel, or Doru of course. Except when he was asleep in his ¡®Form of Sloth¡¯. Aeschyli just didn¡¯t know what she didn¡¯t know. Arge had an advantage. Aeschyli was sleeping at the hospital. Arge had an advantage over Aeschyli. Joy spread within his heart. He looked to the blue sky with the passing pink clouds and the mildly raging sun as the wind whipped around him. How can I use this? He couldn¡¯t figure it out. He thought of asking for Timothy¡¯s advice, but he knew he would just say something like leave her alone. Timothy wasn¡¯t the vengeful type- No, wait he totally was, wasn¡¯t he? When Arge fought him in the sewer he realized that. Deep inside, Timothy was grumpy and angry, he just also happened to have a newly discovered nice side. ¡°Hey Timothy, can you give me some advice?¡± he asked. ¡°Hmm, there¡¯s Cosimo. He¡¯s running for some reason,¡± Timothy said. Timothy thought that he really wanted to beat him up. Before even sorting out that whole magic reaction mess where they fought each other he didn¡¯t like that he lost control again doing a soul read like that time with Arge in the sewer. Cosimo was the start of his problems. Cosimo was not at fault. Cosimo punched him really hard. Cosimo blew up a part of the city. But hey, that happens. He remembered Cosimo yelling at him to get out of his head. He never thought soul read would make someone angry. Maybe it''s a privacy thing? He saw how humans always wanted their own little closed places everywhere. There was also the issue of Cosimo being a god being and lying about it. Timothy was just convinced now that he finally showed his true power. What if he caused the magic reaction to punish Timothy for looking in his head? Then that thing he said about ¡®Maria¡¯ and the ¡®porn folder¡¯ didn¡¯t make any sense. Cosimo wasn¡¯t at fault. Timothy still blamed him. He wanted to fight a wandering god. He didn¡¯t get to take on that army either. Timothy is going to ask for a rematch. He¡¯s going to go all out and show Cosimo that he can¡¯t be pushed around, called ¡®my steed¡¯ or something like that. ¡°Cosimo? Guess he woke up. I can finally beat him up now that Slo¡¯s not around him!¡± cheered Arge. Timothy was confused. Why would Arge hate Cosimo? Oh wait, maybe he was two timing. He then remembered that time he looked into Arge¡¯s soul, and remembered the name ¡®Slo¡¯. He was two timing! Just like him, Timothy nodded in his mind. ¡°We have something in common then. How about we go beat him up? He¡¯s a god you know, I hope you¡¯re prepared to die.¡± ¡°God? He couldn¡¯t even find you, he got Slo started on her crusade to save you when Aeschyli took you. Cosimo can throw a punch, and blow up a city, but that doesn¡¯t make him a god. He¡¯s probably just really strong like Aeschyli!,¡± he got excited ,¡± we can beat him up, and then beat her up! Timothy, are you with me?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pass, on the Aeschyli part. You really are stuck on her, huh? Besides, Cosimo is my target,¡± said Timothy. Timothy was circling the air keeping his eye on Cosimo who was running at an ¡®Average¡¯ speed. ¡°Okay, whatever, as long as someone hurts him, it¡¯s good,¡± Arge neglected to use ¡®Part 4th Close¡¯ at this point. He missed a good chance. ¡°Wait,¡± said Arge, ¡°drop me off at Felix¡¯s place first, I don¡¯t want Aeschyli to go ¡®Act 3¡¯ on my ass.¡± ¡°¡®Act 3¡¯? Now I¡¯m curious, is that an ability?¡± Timothy said, easily distracted from his ¡®Druidic Rage¡¯, an ability he had no idea he was activating and didn¡¯t know he had. After all, he only understood his ¡®Arts¡¯ through usage among his people. ¡°Just drop me off so that you can kill Cosimo for me and I can stop Aeschyli from killing me, she¡¯ll come for you anyways even if you don¡¯t do anything,¡± he usual stone face had a feeling of fear and sadness about it. Timothy couldn¡¯t see that face. ¡°Dear me, she¡¯s quite a handful huh? I¡¯m not looking forward to that,¡± he said as he dived toward Felix¡¯s place. He slapped Arge into the opening that Timothy made with ¡®Tongnado¡¯. ¡°You¡¯re going to steal everything you can and continue seeing Aeschyli despite what you promised, aren¡¯t you?¡± said Timothy giving him a gimlet look. ¡°Yeah? And?¡± said Arge. Timothy sighed and took off to go finish things with Cosimo. =========== Cosimo was running through the streets at an ¡®Average¡¯ pace. Since he couldn¡¯t get tired, there was no reason to stop. ¡®Average¡¯ unfortunately couldn¡¯t let him go any faster either. Since it would reset his speed back to ¡®Average¡¯ if he did. It was a strange double edged ability in his mind. It was only with something like ¡®Flow Charge¡¯ that he could use that reset portion of ¡®Average¡¯ to it¡¯s fullest. Cosimo thought he was going to end things with Timothy when he saw him, but his mind and body took off into a sprint instead. He had never run away like that. Thinking of what happened, he just decided, ¡°you know what, forget this. I¡¯ll do everyone a favor if I just get out of town.¡± He forgot about Maria¡¯s knife in that moment, which was stuffed into the robe¡¯s waist string He forgot about apologizing. Just let everything fall away into a whiteless void. Cosimo entered a mansion grounds. It was Baqashot¡¯s ruined abandoned de facto city hall cum living quarters. There were many abandoned places like these all over Aleppo. If you were wondering where Baqashot was, well- Cosimo ran into the garden in front of the place. Timothy was slowing down on purpose above him, showing him that if he wanted to, he could catch up to him in an instant. Cosimo watched as the ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯ Timothy circled once over him, and dropped onto a fountain with a crash. Water sprayed into the sun with shattered alabaster rocks. Timothy began to wash himself impromptu with his tongue and the water as he deactivated ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯. Cosimo had stopped and was watching him. Timothy clearly wasn¡¯t going to let him go for some reason, but he wasn¡¯t saying anything. Cosimo stood there a moment as Timothy bathed. . ¡°Uh¡­ Do you still think I killed your order?¡±, said Cosimo. That was the last thing he remembered Timothy saying. Timothy was silent as he used ¡®Druid Force¡¯ to grab large globules of water extending from his tongue and dropping them on himself. ¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry okay. I don¡¯t know what happened, it was like, I just lost control you know? You did too right? I mean, I only just spent a little time with you but I don¡¯t think you would yell at me like that. That isn¡¯t like you. I¡¯m sorry. I did my best to get you back from Aeschyli after she rode off with you. I made friends. It was just some random people I asked for help really, but they did a lot for me. I¡­ just want to leave. Just let me go,¡± said Cosimo. Timothy stepped out of the fountain and shook the remaining water out of his hair with ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. He shot his tongue out and slapped Cosimo in the face. ¡®Darting Tongue¡¯, one of his Ancient Ancestral Arts that he was using on skill and intuition alone. Cosimo staggered back from the hit, but it wasn¡¯t enough to ground him. It was more shock from the attack. Cosimo thought it was just like he destroyed the order after all. He didn¡¯t deserve this, he thought. Cosimo knew Timothy was much stronger too. Why wasn¡¯t he going all out? If he thought he destroyed the order, wouldn¡¯t he just kill him? Isn¡¯t this just torture? Anger was building in his heart. Timothy hit him again and again. Cosimo stood there this time and took the hit full on. Pain shot in his mind, then it returns to normal. He gets hit off balance, Then it returns to normal. It¡¯s ¡®Average¡¯ to get hit around by a giant anteater after all. The attacks have strength, so why wouldn¡¯t he get pushed around? Anger was building in his heart. Timothy burst forward using his legs and ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ and slapped Cosimo into the air with his nose alone. Timothy touched his tongue to Cosimo¡¯s leg with ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ and slapped him into the fountain. Timothy stared at Cosimo, who was under the water. Cosimo felt anger building in his heart. It was ¡®Average¡¯ to get angry at this. It was ¡®Average¡¯ to drown in water. It wasn¡¯t ¡®Average¡¯ in his life for him to die. That was ¡®Average¡¯ for others. Why can¡¯t Cosimo run away? Why won¡¯t Timothy talk to him? Had he closed his heart again? Why do we need to fight? Can¡¯t we be friends? The fountain exploded. Timothy watched as the water shot up into the air like a geyser. It shined and sparkled in the sun framed against the pink clouds. Timothy grinned deep inside. ¡°Come on,¡± Timothy thought ¡°Show me who you are! Show me what you¡¯re made of! I¡¯ll bring you down to my level! You think people like you can just do whatever you want! I¡¯ll show you!¡± he was yelling in his mind in joy. Today he was going to bring justice. Let no order of druidic pilosa burn again. Cosimo was looking Timothy in the eyes and not turning away. Both of their eyes were sharp. Cosimo charged his body with ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ with ¡®Flow Charge¡¯. Cosimo would not use the knife. Cosimo would not use ¡®Mediocre¡¯. He was going to show Timothy that he wasn¡¯t someone you could bully. He was going to show Timothy that he could talk with him. Timothy was going to be an adventurer. Cosimo couldn¡¯t run away, because his new home was here in this world. He sprinted forward and punched Timothy in the nose. Timothy just stood there with ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ waiting for a real attack. Cosimo used ¡®Ancient Earth Arts¡¯. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t anything special. It was just what he knew from home. ¡®Arts¡¯ were only achieved when you did something special. Cosimo came to another world. From his investigation with his identification crystal, it was just that. Cosimo punched and punched Timothy agains and again taking deep breathes and imagining a target dummy. Every single hit was spectacular for Cosimo, but for Timothy it was average. Timothy was looking down on him as the punches fell upon him. He wanted he egg him on, but he didn¡¯t want to break the silence. He wanted Cosimo to show him his real power. The power of ¡®Mediocre¡¯. The power he saw him use to revive Xana. Timothy didn¡¯t know the name though. The power of him portaling into the barn. Isn¡¯t he a god? ¡°Cosimo, stop playing around. Fight me for real,¡± he finally said. Cosimo stopped punching and said ¡°If I were to get serious, you¡¯d be destroyed in an instant¡±. ¡°Really? I¡¯m curious. How about you show me?¡±, said Timothy. ¡°Not on you. How about I show you on something else?¡±, said Cosimo. ¡°You don¡¯t want to hurt me, huh. That¡¯s usual of you. Lying and playing games. It was your fault when we fought during the flood. You used magic to anger me. You destroyed a city and failed to kill me. Then you act like you¡¯ve passed out like you are far less than your real power. Show me everything you got. If I die, I die,¡± said Timothy. Cosimo was tearing up. ¡°I just want to be your friend. I¡¯m not lying. Not this time. Not this time!¡± he was losing it a little. ¡°I can read your soul. But if I do that, you might just use your strange magic again. I can¡¯t trust you,¡± said Cosimo. ¡°Look at everyone else, okay? Look at this whole city! I saw you helping everyone during the flood, that was you right? I didn¡¯t know, but it had to be you. You looked like a flying anteater! You trusted all of them, just because I¡¯m from another world that changes everything? Give me a chance! Nothing¡­ I did nothing wrong this time. I don¡¯t need to apologize to you. It just happened. Things can just happen okay? Someone can get portaled from another world in front of you! I¡¯m just ¡®Average¡¯,¡± he wiped his eyes embarrassed he was crying in front of an anteater. ¡°I¡¯m a pilosa. Timothy, of the Druidic Order of Xenarthra,¡± he said, ¡°Fight me¡±. Cosimo was at a loss. It was simple, he should just run away. Timothy can¡¯t be his friend. He just wasn¡¯t looking at reality. He¡¯ll end it. He¡¯ll use it. He wiped his eyes again and said it cleared eyed. ¡°Don¡¯t blame me for this. I did nothing wrong this time. I wanted to stay here with you. I¡¯ll leave. I¡¯ll find something by my own,¡± he said. ¡°¡®Mediocre¡¯¡±, Cosimo said as he touched Timothy¡¯s trunk. A dim yellow light spread out from his hand and enveloped Timothy. Then it burst off of his in small particles of light. Nothing changed. Truly nothing changed. Timothy was the same. ¡°Well? Come on, that couldn¡¯t have been it,¡± Timothy said. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ the ability it should work. It¡¯s my strongest. It can bring anyone down to my level,¡± Cosimo was whining. It should have worked. The description of ¡®Mediocre¡¯ was that it ¡®brings the target down to your level¡¯. It diminishes the quality of a being. Why did Xana live? Her health got reset. Her level went down to six. Her charm was lessened. Timothy was level six now. Arge¡¯s wires that bound him were level six so he could tear them. The door on the boat was level six. Cosimo didn¡¯t know that. He was just baffled. It should do more. It¡¯s because you can¡¯t read another¡¯s status in this world. Anyone down to his level?, Timothy thought. Maybe he was wrong. He reviewed the facts in his mind. Was he just being a jerk? Timothy remembered the fight in the sewer against Arge. When he asks himself if he¡¯s being a jerk, he¡¯s telling himself he knows it¡¯s wrong. That is not justice. That will not save his dead people. Revenge brought him nothing. Timothy sighed looking at Cosimo¡¯s face. He went too far a long time ago didn¡¯t he. He didn¡¯t wan to let it go. There¡¯s magic here, it¡¯s that simple. This was just more magic than usual. Even if there were mysteries hidden in them¡­ He thought of the flood and when he hit Arge into the water cylinder. Of how he went mad. That wasn¡¯t the truth in front of him now. It was a crying kid. Timothy, the druidic bully. Timothy breathed in through his nose and let out a big sigh. He was hungry. Time to end this. ¡°You know what? Forget it. Let¡¯s go get something to eat. I¡¯m sure you tried your best, okay? I¡¯ll be waiting for you to show me your true power,¡± said Timothy. He didn¡¯t believe that this kid was anything special. Even if he was, that didn¡¯t change that he was trying to be friends with him. Timothy was alone for a long time. He felt great helping people during the flood. It wasn¡¯t like it was with Willem at home but- It was enough. It was good enough. ¡°Wha-what? I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry okay,¡± Cosimo apologized out of reflex. ¡°I was the one who started this. I¡¯m the one who should be the one apologizing. I¡¯m not going to though. I¡¯m hungry. You want to be my friend, you¡¯ll come eat with me. Trust isn¡¯t earned in a day,¡± said Timothy. Cosimo began to realize he was serious. He got through. He won! He hugged Timothy¡¯s nose and started crying full on with a smile. ¡°Get off me,¡± he shook him off a little roughly, ¡°Let¡¯s go. ¡®Form of Man¡¯¡± Timothy didn¡¯t want to use this ability the most. Humans were annoying. They lied. They were like Arge. He was a hero among them now. That was the truth. The city would cheer when they saw him flying with ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯. He was a druidic pilosa, but he could walk among humans too. ¡°I feel like going for a stroll. After all if I fly back Arge will probably want to use me to help him move stolen furniture,¡± said TImothy. He was a hairy humanoid still with the long pilosa nose and tongue. He looked like bigfoot. ¡°Okay! Let¡¯s go,¡± Cosimo followed after Timothy who was already walking away. Thirt - Tongue Hard Work ¡°Thanks a lot for the meal,¡± said Timothy as licked his soup using his tongue combined with ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. He was collecting the globules on his tongue and eating it that way in his ¡®Form of Man¡¯. ¡°Good soup,¡± said Timothy. ¡°A anything for ¡®a you, mister pilosa! I wouldn¡¯t ¡®a dream of ¡®a chargin¡¯ you! You saved my daughter!¡± , cheered a random italian accented chef. Cosimo balked at that, it reminded him of home. The waiter went to attend to other customers, a smile on his face. They were at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Timothy was having a soup that looked like they just put everything possible in it, and Cosimo was having a giant ant. When he saw it on the menu, he said ¡°Timothy! This is it! You need to eat this! It¡¯s what your species on earth eats! Don¡¯t you want to fulfill that destiny!¡± and was turned down. Timothy said something to the effect of ¡°if you want to see me eat it that much then it feels like I would lose if I gave in,¡± in a huff and declined. So Cosimo got it for himself out of spite. And a hope that Timothy would desire it on some level seeing him eat it. It tasted like lobster. Timothy checked his arm to which was tied with an identification crystal. He had gotten it at Cosimo¡¯s urging. He didn¡¯t want give in and was still looking for an excuse to take his anger out on something, but in the end curiosity won over. ¡°By Xenarthra Cosimo, the lady was so excited to see me she didn¡¯t even question my looks. I guess my ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯ really doesn¡¯t hide my identity that well. So, you said I imagine ¡®status¡¯ in my head¡­ Hmm¡­well seems like I knew everything already. You said ¡®Arts¡¯ were supposed to be rare though. Then again, I couldn¡¯t use magic in the first place. I wonder why it¡¯s so hard for humans to get them. Level six? That¡¯s a little low isn¡¯t it?¡±, rambled Timothy out loud. The number of things that the identification crystal could do were hilarious to say the least. Word had already gotten around that the magic pilosa that saved the town had become an Adventurer, with sigil birds glittering through the sky. They were sending him donations for some reason. Identification crystals were mostly for commerce, identification slash status reading and ability description, and spell casting after all. ¡°Oh no¡­ so that¡¯s what ¡®Mediocre is¡­,¡± sighed Cosimo. ¡°¡®Mediocre¡¯? You yelled it like was some kind of spell when you looked like you were trying to end our fight earlier, it was flashy but all that happened is a felt a little weaker when we were walking,¡± said Timothy. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Timothy. It¡¯s one of the spells I got from the god who transported me here. My level is six too, it brought you down to my level quite literally,¡± apologized Cosimo. ¡°You do like your apologies. Amongst my people, if you had a problem, you just fought it out. If I get taken out become of some dumb thing concept like what level I¡¯m at, that just means my skills weren¡¯t good enough. Wait, it¡¯s ¡®Arts¡¯. My ¡®Arts¡¯ weren¡¯t good enough,¡± Timothy grumbled. ¡°Levels are really important though. I was worried when I saw your identification crystals number of points on it too,¡± Cosimo said. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the number of points? Don¡¯t all of them have six?¡±, said Timothy. ¡°My and your¡¯s do. From the book I read when I was in the whiteless void about identification crystals, it¡¯s your quality as a being that determines how many points you have. Six is the lowest,¡± said Cosimo. Timothy pointed at Cosimo with his ¡®Form of Man¡¯ finger and arm. ¡°Are you saying I¡¯m poor quality? Me? I¡¯ll have you know, there wasn¡¯t anyone else in the order that was even into shapeshifting. I¡¯m special. If I¡¯m not, then my skills definitely are,¡± he said that grumpily as he choked down a globule of soup. ¡°Also, you were in a whiteless void? Dream exploration?¡±, asked Timothy. ¡°I don¡¯t know what dream exploration is, that¡¯s where I met the japanese god Susanoo the first time and then this time I fought against my inherently broken sister who I failed to save from her own brokenness. Also, level is important because-¡±, Cosimo said. Timothy held up his ¡®Form of Man¡¯ hand. He had seen humans do this, it was a ¡®Stop¡¯ ability. ¡°Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just what the heck is that? Sister? In a magical whiteless void? How is a whiteless void even whiteless? Isn¡¯t that just black? Broken?¡±, he questioned. Cosimo considered how to respond effectively and put his hand to his chin. Telling the truth is the best way, right? Even if he¡¯s too honest, at least he isn¡¯t using ¡®Liar¡¯. ¡°My sister killed me. She made a deal with Susanoo, the god I talked about, because she wanted to go have fun and she thought I wanted to go to another world. She was correct about that. She is homicidal from birth. I put my pride and shame on the line trying to protect her from society. They would throw her in jail for her crimes. I covered up for a murderer, basically. I thought it was the right thing to do. The void is white. I call it the whiteless void because there isn¡¯t any white in there but it¡¯s white. That¡¯s how I got here, also level is important because-¡±, spouted Timothy. He pointed at him again with his ¡®Form of Man¡¯ hand and interrupted him, ¡°You. I like you. First human that told the truth even when it was hard. You remind me of home. Great job, human.¡± He continued making hand gestures to emphasize his points, ¡°That sounds like an awful, awful past. It was tough I bet. Bet you wish you had ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ like me. Could have sorted that right away. You aren¡¯t a pilosa. You¡¯re human. You messed up, I messed up. You¡¯re like me. I messed up harder than you. My whole order burned to the ground when I was off having a good old time flying around the countryside with ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯. I still don¡¯t forgive myself. But let me tell you kid, the balance needs to be preserved! I regrew my people¡¯s valley by tongue hard work alone after I buried their corpses and fought off the burning beasts driven to starvation. Life¡¯s tough. Want to fight again?¡± Cosimo was put off by the anger and openness combination. ¡®Soul Communication¡¯, I guess this is how his people like to talk? It¡¯s kind of refreshing. Maybe everything with Maria wasn¡¯t that big of a deal? Well, now that he¡¯s in another world and it¡¯s over at least. Cosimo didn¡¯t want another fight though, he¡¯d just be able to tank hits with ¡®Average¡¯ in the end and that didn¡¯t sound fun. ¡°I-I¡¯ll pass. You¡¯ll just be wailing on me. I have this ability called ¡®Average¡¯, it returns me to setpoint of what I think ¡®Average¡¯ is, it¡¯s a really unpredictable ability. There¡¯s also some time component that I haven¡¯t really tested. Also, level is important because-¡±, said Cosimo. ¡°That reminds me. When we fought, you know the first time where we went insane simultaneously? I was talking to Arge earlier and he said Aeschyli called what happened between us a magic reaction. I lost it right after I read your soul with ¡®Soul Communication¡¯. What spell were you using?¡±, Timothy asked. ¡°Nothing. But now that I think about it, ¡®Average¡¯ is a passive type of ability. I remember feeling like you stepped into my mind, I got really angry. I think I said something like ¡®get out of my head¡¯. Then I remember just using ¡®Flow Charge¡¯ and ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ to charge my hand up with nigh limitless energy and cause that explosion that leveled part of the city. That¡¯s all I remember before I passed out. Also, level is important because-¡±, Cosimo said. ¡°I¡¯m going to let you get to the level thing. Okay? I want to know that too. Not being rude. Just curious. Just one more thing. ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯?¡±, said Timothy. This was an insult to his people. ¡°It¡¯s an ability I have. It lets me put force into something. I can¡¯t really use it well though, so I use another ability called ¡®Flow Charge¡¯ to move the ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯ through my body. I used it to help people during the flood along with ¡®Mediocre¡¯ and Aeschyli was with me too. You know she was the one who took you? Anyways, level is important because it toughens your body and mind up. Certain attacks, spells, ¡®Arts¡¯, they just won¡¯t affect you at all. You can¡¯t go past a certain potential level depending on how many points you have on your identification crystal. People like you and me will never level past twenty or so, if we ever get there. Also, my ¡®Mediocre¡¯ may have permanently lowered your potential level since you also have a six point identification crystal,¡± Cosimo said. Timothy was pondering with his ¡®Form of Man¡¯ hand on his chin. He was pulling everything together. ¡°Arge told me about Aeschyli. She¡¯s trouble. It seems like your ¡®Average¡¯ reacted with my soul read. I don¡¯t know how though. That ability sounds like it¡¯s much worse than ¡®Mediocre¡¯. I won¡¯t begrudge you the whole lowering my potential part. From the start, I only seek truth and justice. One mystery is solved. Now, onto the next one,¡± said Timothy. ¡°There¡¯s another mystery? Oh, and what happened to that army?¡±, asked Cosimo. ¡°I may have caused the flood,¡± he was lucky he was using ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ as the people around him would have gasped. ¡°Also they won, somehow. Despite the nonsense you pulled. Humans,¡± Timothy shrugged. ¡°You may have caused the flood? When did that happen?¡±, Cosimo said. He was lucky the restaurant was busy and the people were leaving their hero alone to dine with his friend out of respect. ¡°I hit Arge into a water cylinder. Right after, the whole city flooded. I used ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ on my tongue. It may have been another magic reaction,¡± he said as he sipped his soup. ¡°¡®Druidic Force¡¯? Is that like ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯¡±, asked Cosimo. ¡°It¡¯s a lot better. I hope it¡¯s better. No, it¡¯d better be better. It¡¯s my favorite ¡®Arts¡¯ after all,¡± said Timothy. ¡°So you want to know the truth then? What are you going to do if you¡¯re responsible?¡± asked Cosimo. He was wondering how Timothy would deal with guilt, seeing as how he already had the guilt of not being able to save his people. ¡°Hmm. That¡¯s a good question. Probably just hate myself. I don¡¯t think the answer is to stay here and repay my crime with the rest of my life in servitude. I¡¯m going to help people wherever I go anyways. The truth is necessary though. If it wasn¡¯t my crime, I can¡¯t hold onto it. If it is my crime, I need to remember it. It is necessary to respect that. Even though I can do nothing for the fallen,¡± Timothy answered. Cosimo was trying to process Timothy¡¯s answer. In the end, Timothy couldn¡¯t do anything about it. He had already decided what he believed, and what he was going to do. It just happened to him, he didn¡¯t choose to flood the city, but he did choose what to do from then on. He wasn¡¯t running away. He wasn¡¯t necessary taking responsibility either though. ¡°What about the people here? Wouldn¡¯t they deserve to know the truth about what happened? I think¡­ they would want to punish you for sure,¡± Cosimo said. ¡°Humans. If they found out the truth on their own, that¡¯s fine with me. If someone, like you, were to tell them, that¡¯s fine with me. I¡¯ll fight all the battles I need to fight. Even if it¡¯s against the people I saved,¡± answered Timothy. Cosimo was stunned. He couldn¡¯t have imagined Timothy was like this. What¡¯s this feeling? Cosimo tried to parse it out in his head. Timothy shouldn¡¯t get away with this, is what he thought. This is wrong, how can he think this way? But Cosimo couldn¡¯t blame him due to the circumstances. After all, that was just a freak of this world, the magic reaction, that Timothy had no idea about. Timothy was strong. Timothy was really strong. That didn¡¯t mean that Cosimo thought that Timothy still wasn¡¯t wrong. However, Cosimo decided in his mind that he wouldn¡¯t punish him. ¡°I won¡¯t tell anyone. I can¡¯t really understand your beliefs¡­ but I¡¯m your friend. I¡¯ll stand with you if it comes to a fight,¡± Cosimo said with a grin. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so,¡± Timothy grinned with his eyes and heart. ¡°After all, you might level the rest of the city you know?¡±, Timothy slurped his soup. ¡°Can I have some of that Vespoidea?¡±, Timothy said, pointing at the ant Cosimo was eating. ========== Arge was at the hospital returning the Rosa Lingua to Aeschyli. He ran into Chel. ¡°Oh, I forgot to tell you earlier but Cosimo woke up today,¡± said Chel. ¡°Yeah I saw him running in the city center earlier. He looked like he was scared, he should be!¡± said Arge. ¡°My, he¡¯s up already? Good for him. If you want to hurt him make sure I¡¯m nearby okay?¡±, worried Chel.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Please, if I do that how will I kill him?¡±, cackled Arge as he walked off. Chel watched him walk off. ¡°He¡¯s having fun. I hope he doesn¡¯t kill Cosimo too much,¡± said Chel. ========= Aeschyli woke up in a start and grasped Rosa Lingua. Good thing it was right there, she might have torn up the city trying to find it. Arge had guessed that much right. Aeschyli caught Chel on the way back. ¡°Hey, Aeschyli. Cosimo woke up this morning. He¡¯s running around the city scared for some reason according to Arge. He brought you your Rosa Lingua, he said he forgot it. How was the fight?¡±, said Chel. Chel had naturally assumed that Arge had finally snapped and knocked Aeschyli unconscious. ¡°I¡¯ll have to thank him. Arge is good about the small things. I wonder why. We fought some Felix guy. He was cool,¡± Aeschyli said as she fondly remembered waiting outside his window for him to finish his long soliloquy. ¡°Felix? He¡¯s the thief lord of Aleppo. Arge always has to deal with him. I guess Arge finally defeated him battle, proving that he was truly superior to his role model,¡± Chel said. She had no idea that Timothy impaled Felix with his tongue and threw him through his own roof. ¡°Wonderful. I knew you could do it Arge,¡± she sniffed herself on instinct. She smelled like the pilosa. ¡°Why do I smell like pilosa?¡± asked Aeschyli. ¡°Oh, earlier Arge flew in on that pilosa that saved the city with you unconscious. I wonder why he was there,¡± said Chel. She was not aware that the sloth that was being carried around was the same person in a different form. She naturally assumed that Slo had picked up a incredibly small sloth and Arge had permitted it because he was too busy with Aeschyli. ¡°Thanks Chel. I think I¡¯ll find that pilosa,¡± said Aeschyli. ¡°Take care,¡± she said as Aeschyli ran off. ¡°I guess she likes animals like Slo does?¡±, wondered Chel. ============ Slo had a job. A part time job. Rubble needed to be cleared, and her destructive power was immense. She was helping where Doru was salvaging the buildings that Cosimo had blasted away after the flood. There wasn¡¯t many mages who could do that in Aleppo. Doru was hiding behind an entire building. This wasn¡¯t the building slow was aiming at either. He had his blackened wooden shield that was tall as him and square bunched up against the wall. It was double protection, in case her ¡®Haagen Jofurr¡¯ caused shrapnel to fly his way. ¡°I¡¯m starting!¡±, yelled Slo. Everyone was running away. Even the people who were already far away, they were ducking and hiding. ¡°Today¡¯s my lucky day, right? I don¡¯t want to end up like John¡­¡± said a random woman. Incidentally, John was fine, mostly. This was Xana. She recovered her identity crystal which had flowed all the the way out into the plains with the help of a sigil bird designed to locate her identification crystal. It was expensive though. ¡°¡®~Brenna¡¯ Full Bombardment! - ¡®Excelsior¡¯! ¡®Haagen Jofurr¡¯!¡±, she cast. ¡®Excelsior¡¯ wasn¡¯t as strong as her ¡®Excelsus Maximus¡¯. It was really just the power setting on her ¡®~Brenna¡¯ which augmented the spell. However, she wasn¡¯t aiming. Thousands of tiny red yellow lights shot out. Normally, she would have them stop, then explode, then shoot off again and explode again. That was just ¡®Haagen Jofurr¡¯ in the first place. There was no aiming this time. There was only explosions. Each red yellow light shot off in many different directions and blew up the surrounding countryside along with the buildings. There were precautions taken. No one died. They had asked her to do it really. There was a lot of buildings to break down and not a lot of mages to do it. Doru had said to the foreman, ¡°¡®dis wee lass ¡®ere, she¡¯ll blow ¡®da ¡®hole plains ¡®ta ¡®ihg ¡®eaven¡±. They thought he was joking. The foreman had urged her, ¡°Hey, I know you¡¯re doing a good job already, but don¡¯t hold back on us. Just don¡¯t deplete your own energy, we wouldn¡¯t want you to get hurt!¡±. Slo smiled, and waved to Doru who was climbing out of the rubble of the building that had fallen on top of him. ¡°¡®Das a good ¡®un lassy! Keep ¡®er up!¡±, he cheered. He was glad he brought his shield today. ======== Cosimo was wandering the city. Timothy had flown off saying he was going to find a sigil magic engineer. He had borrowed money from Timothy after they ate, as Timothy was now extremely rich due to donations from his admirers. Cosimo had a tight grin on his face when he heard that, as it was a good chance that Timothy was the spark that light the fuse here. He was trying to let it go. After all, he had bought clothing finally, and was feeling good about himself. It was a dark red loose shirt tied by a belt, a black undershirt, some pairs of black tights and boots. He got a round red hat too. It seemed like a good idea. He had collected a knapsack and various goods he read about in ¡®Aleppo for Retards¡¯ during his stay in the whiteless void. The thing he wanted most was a sigil bird. That was doubtless going to be useful somehow, since he saw them everywhere flying around. They would glitter from the sun and have various stamps on them. He was lucky that Timothy had just gone, ¡°hey, take it¡± and transferred him a bunch of money. This was going to be pretty expensive. He was amazed that a sigil bird shop would even be open so soon after the flood, but he figured that the economy still needed to keep going. He was never good at understanding that kind of thing. He entered a large shop emblazoned with hundred of sigils etched into vast glass windows. Guess that¡¯s how they show off their skill? There was a culture of images in Aleppo after all. A short studious bespeckled type with white hair and a bald head greeted him. ¡°¡®Ello ¡®der ser. Whaddya lookin¡¯ ¡®fer?¡±, he said in a lower class british accent. Maybe it was something wrong with the translation spell that wizard cast? Maybe it was just him hearing it that way, he surmised. He looked like a dwarf though, and dwarves were always scottish right? ¡°I¡¯m looking for a noble-class sigil bird,¡± said Cosimo. He wasn¡¯t going to cheapen up here. Although he had no idea how he would pay Timothy back, Cosimo figured that with his ridiculous level of sheer power he¡¯d make it up to him somehow. Besides, who knew how useful the bird would prove to be? He was thinking of learning sigil magic himself. ¡°And I¡¯m looking for books on sigil magic,¡± he decided to add that. ¡°Ah, we don¡¯t sell book¡¯s ¡®ere ser. Sigil magic is usually apprentice based you know?¡±, said the shopkeeper. ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know. I just assumed anyone could just try it out,¡± said Cosimo. ¡°No, no, you¡¯ve got to have an artist¡¯s touch. It takes a lotta skill to get the sigil looking right, it¡¯s not just magic, you also need to learn the language itself. Here, let me show you our noble-class sigil birds in the back.¡± Cosimo was getting down about sigils already. It sounded like being an artist and computer programmer at once. He was a hard worker, his history proved that, but he was already losing steam. Give up? He¡¯ll try it another day at the very least. He was too sure of his art skill though. As he was lead into the back Cosimo saw the large variety of them. Some of them could be used for battle. It was possible to capture unique magic in sigils, given that you had someone who could cast it. It was impossible for spells that used your own energy though, as that would destroy the sigil in an instant. In ¡®Aleppo for Retards¡¯ he read that they usually considered them far too costly for combat, especially since once you had one it could last for quite awhile. ¡°These are them. You¡¯re using it for mailing right? All of these are unpainted and have no emblazon on them. We decorate them too for a fee,¡± said the shopkeeper. Often people just decorated them themselves, but a noble house would have special artistry on the sigil bird. The sigil birds in front of him were slim and pointed, like blue jays or pigeons. There was even a few weapons in the cases. He read about sigil weapons and armor, the reason why they were in the back was that only nobles could afford them. He¡¯d pass on that, he didn¡¯t want to be getting in fights anyways. Wait, wouldn¡¯t it happen for sure in the future? He put it out of mind. One thing at a time. ¡°What¡¯s this one over here?¡±, Cosimo pointed out a thick fat light metallic gold one. It looked more like a canadian goose without a head and neck. ¡°That¡¯s my special,¡± he lit up with a smile. ¡°I¡¯ve been doing this for years, everyone who does this sort of thing long enough wants to make their own personal type of bird. Nobody even looks at them though. They take countless years of hardship to make an original version but no one¡¯s willing to invest in something specialized like this. This is result of my experience and preferences. Really, you could just say I made it for myself. I wanted something that someone who had the same thinking as me would appreciate,¡± he laughed. ¡°It¡¯s more my personal professional joy you see. An amateur couldn¡¯t build it at all, wouldn¡¯t even bother to try. I don¡¯t see why anyone would want a sigil bird that can run on the ground, swim and dive, and fly all in one. ¡®Why did you make it do that?¡¯ people would say, ¡®you¡¯re sacrificing speed, it¡¯s fat, the magic flow efficiency is low, why no head? It¡¯s supposed to be a bird!¡¯ and I just had to do it anyways. It¡¯s noble-class of course, but you probably wouldn¡¯t want this for mailing, it''s more of a pet or novelty item. It¡¯s got a bit of a mind of it¡¯s own you see. I wouldn¡¯t recommend it if you want something that¡¯s reliable,¡± the shopkeeper said. Cosimo was interested to say the least. He admired the tenacity to do something new. Beyond that, he had read that Marscione was filled with canals. Wouldn¡¯t this be great for that? Or what about the sea? Wouldn¡¯t this be fun just to have around? ¡°I¡¯ll take it. I want one that can follow me around, it would be nice not to have to carry it,¡± Cosimo said. This was something special, he could tell. He had no idea what he would do with it, but the potential was there. Lots of complexity to delve into, he thought. ¡°Okay then. I usually have no returns, but for this one I¡¯ll waive it. After all, this thing might just wander off on you and come back suddenly. You¡¯ve got to be careful. It¡¯s 45,000 rukh, I¡¯m assuming lump sum?¡± said the shopkeeper. Cosimo was wondering if he should investigate it more but he had a lot of Timothy¡¯s money to burn right now. This was awfully interesting. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Cosimo, as he followed the shopkeeper who picked up the fat goose sigil bird and lead him to the register. ====== Cosimo was playing around with the sigil bird. It was walking after him, registered to his identification crystal. It felt like he had a dog now. It would cut behind him as if it could see people coming at it. They must have a motion detection spell in a sigil right? Otherwise how could they fly? He was amused at the jerky motions it would make and he ordered it to fly to the top of buildings and back down. It seemed more and more like an animal to him, more like a flying fat basketball than anything else. He laughed. It was cheering him up. It had been a rough day. He was heading back to the inn when he bumped into Arge. ¡°What the heck is that,¡± Arge said. Cosimo completely missed him approaching distracting by the sigil bird. ¡°My new sigil bird,¡± Cosimo said. ¡°What, you really are a noble aren¡¯t you?¡±, Arge said. He was convinced his earlier theory was true. Cosimo was a mystery. The only feelings he felt were the need to punish him. ¡°Nah, Timothy¡¯s rich now. He gave me money. I heard he got angry and beat you up. I¡¯m sorry about that, he¡¯s really rigid you know? He beat me up too. Twice. He¡¯s pretty violent, isn¡¯t he?¡±, Cosimo sent the sigil bird into the sky. He felt a kinship with Arge. Cosimo had the knife on him, so this was a good time to give it to him. ¡°I want a sigil bird,¡± said Arge with a sad smile in his heart. Arge didn¡¯t really have a plan. There didn¡¯t seem to be a way to use Timothy¡¯s sentience as a way to get back at Aeschyli, so he dropped that. Let her have the damn pilosa. Beating Cosimo up was his only goal for today. At least making it clear that he did not approve of his behavior, even though Cosimo did nothing. Now he wanted a sigil bird really bad. He then considered using ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ to haggle one for himself. For a reasonable price of course. The thought had not occurred to him before because Aeschyli had run him ragged ever since he got restored from pretending to be a corpse and getting retrieved by Timothy. He looked up at the flying fat sigil bird. ¡°You wait here Cosimo. I¡¯m getting a sigil bird,¡± said Arge. Cosimo felt a sense of danger in that statement. What was he mad about? Arge ran off to the sigil bird shop that wasn¡¯t that far away from the inn. ¡°Hey shopkeep, I want a noble-class sigil bird. Make it black. For 1, no 10 rukh,¡± Arge said. ¡°You¡¯re going to need to go higher than that¡­¡± said the shopkeeper. If there was anything Arge learned from the talk with Felix it was that ¡®Haggle Arts¡¯ wasn¡¯t all powerful. ¡°Okay, twenty rukh, you can paint it black if you want to, you can choose make it a noble-class or regular one if you want. Someone like me, I prefer noble-class. I¡¯ll give you five rukh to make my noble-class sigil bird black. Here¡¯s your money,¡± he gave him 1 rukh, ¡°I left the rest in the sigil bird,¡± said Arge. He had just decided to use everything at once. He confused himself saying it, but when the shopkeep went into the back to get it he thought himself a genius. I¡¯m getting a sigil bird, Arge thought. Isn¡¯t this thievery? No, really this was all Cosimo¡¯s fault for suddenly getting a rich friend and showing off his sigil bird. Arge thought he wouldn¡¯t bother trying to con Timothy though, he had enough trouble with Aeschyli and it drove him mad. He raced back to Cosimo sending his black and silver sigil here and there with verbal commands. ¡°Okay Cosimo. Let¡¯s end this,¡± he said as he called his sigil bird to float above him Cosimo looked up from checking how the legs on his sigil bird worked. It was just a simple lever system, but there were sigils at certain parts that did who knows what. ¡°End what?¡±, Cosimo said. ¡°My sigil bird¡­ is going to beat your sigil bird!¡±, Arge said, as he ordered it to attack the golden goose. ¡°Um, fight back golden sigil bird,¡± Cosimo said halfheartedly. He didn¡¯t want to play with Arge. Moreover, how¡¯d he get money for a sigil bird anyways? Arge¡¯s feelings of uselessness and frustration surged forth with his noble-class sigil bird that was black and painted with silver sigils. It¡¯s victory would be his victory. They smacked into each other. The golden goose won by sheer weight. Arge fell to his knees and then on his palms. Just who was he kidding? Slo¡¯s always been like this anyways. He was just being dumb. It wasn¡¯t the sigil bird¡¯s fault. It was his feelings that lost. ¡°Hey. Arge. What¡¯s wrong?¡±, said Cosimo. Isn¡¯t this the perfect time, he thought, standing over the fallen Arge. He held out the knife handle first, pinching the handle himself. He didn¡¯t want to touch the blade. ¡°Here Arge, It¡¯s a blade blessed by the god Susanoo. My sister killed a dragon with it. I want you to have it. I have bad memories thinking about her, so you¡¯d really be doing me a favor. It¡¯s actually an ability of mine to summon it, but it just paralyzes me when it¡¯s inside so it¡¯s kind of useless. Just be careful with it okay? It¡¯s supposed to be amazing somehow,¡± said Cosimo, being as honest as he could. It wouldn¡¯t do to lie. He neglected to mention the dragon was a komodo though. Arge looked up, tears in his eyes. There was a knife with a blue shine in the blade, undoubtedly of noble origin, a sigil blade. That story was obviously false. He knew that. But the effort put into it made him think, ¡°This guy, he understands what he did. He¡¯s giving me a sigil blade! He¡¯s apologizing!¡±. Cosimo did not understand at all. Arge took the handle in his hand, the blade was strangely broad, isn¡¯t this a kitchen knife? He then felt a dark energy seep into him. Take revenge on Aeschyli, it said, stab her, kill her, it said. Naturally, he had already thought of those things. Her body was literally too amazing though, as he saw on Timothy¡¯s back after the fight with Felix. Also, his murderous rage was only really expended when he was in danger, he wasn¡¯t homicidal by nature. Probably. Unless his friends were in trouble. Did he really even want to actually kill Aeschyli anyways? It felt like he wanted to show her he couldn¡¯t be pushed around more than anything. The dark energy seeped away and Arge felt a new strength within him as he stood up. Who cares about Aeschyli? She could bully him all she wanted. He could take it. He¡¯d defend Slo to the end! Arge hugged Cosimo, who was surprised. ¡°Thank you,¡± Arge pulled out the hug. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure this gets used for good!¡±, he cheered. Arge was weird today. Was he always like this? Cosimo didn¡¯t know him for long, so maybe he had a weak side? ¡°You¡¯re welcome?¡±, said Cosimo. While Arge wasn¡¯t going to kill Aeschyli, there was definitely someone who was coming to do just that. ============ The sky was pitch black and thunder rumbled in the distance. Trees without leaves swung in the night wind. A lone abomination garbed entirely in red stalked across the land. There was a trap set for him up ahead in the nearby mountain, he could tell with ¡®Detection Arts¡¯. His skills were many. You could say it was just many people stacked into one being, the ultimate Grunt of Grunnir. Merely a shocktroop, it was comprised of the flesh and identification crystals of many different adventurer¡¯s. It could invoke most of their spells, and had a total level of one hundred and sixty-nine. The noble council of Grunkirk had allowed Grunnir¡¯s madness, but hearing from the security they had stationed at the border of the Grunnir estate to keep things in as well as out, they had no choice but to try to contain it with the reserves they had. Where was it going? What was it doing? They knew Grunnir had control over a small army of shocktroops but that was it. The only kind of people who went there never came out. ¡°Captain, target sighted! Begin ambush?¡± ¡°Fire, Fire ¡®til it¡¯s a black stain on the ground.¡± A palisade of concentrated magical fire rampaged toward Grunt, who chanted ¡°¡®Thirt¡¯¡±. Thirteen blades of shining glass sparkled into existence around him in a fan. They all converged in front of him, interlocking by stabbing past each other. The magical wall of energy dissipated when it hit the swords, some particles and fireballs floating off to burn the countryside. ¡°Captain!¡± ¡°See, this is why I brought the alcohol. Keep firing!¡± The troops spread out in a fan formation and kept barraging Grunt with magical menagerie. They surrounded him on all sides, neglecting the danger of friendly fire and aimed for his legs. Grunt just took it all, sword or no. The captain of the troops had gathered his strongest melee fighters together with sigil blades and armor. With all of the combined experience there, they were level one thousand five hundred and forty-three but not a single one of them was one hundred sixty nine. A few were ninety eight. Grunt charged forward towards the melee line and smacked into them scattering them into the sky. The few stronger ones managed to stay on the ground, and those he targeted with ¡®Foil Rain¡¯ which he just kept casting over and over. From each of his identification crystals, he could cast an additional spell. While the soldiers who were level 98 could individually take on any of the humans that comprised Grunt¡¯s being, they couldn¡¯t stand against it coming against them all at once. They each fell from the sheer number of foils, and Grunt waded through anyone that was remotely weaker. Soldier who flew earlier were just fleeing if they could, completely void of hope. The magical attacks continued. They achieved nothing. ¡°Captain! Call for retreat! ¡°Fine, fine, sound the retreat! Just what is the council doing allowing that madman to run amok?¡± Grunt saw them fleeing. Killing them was not in the orders. Finding out what Aeschyli knew and killing her was. ¡°Aeschyli¡­ fight me¡­¡±, Grunt groaned. Fourt - Grunt of Grunnir One day during the two weeks Aeschyli spent with Arge, she revealed her plan to him. It was after she setup the play and showed Arge the script, and told him her dark history and Arge said he didn¡¯t believe her. Arge was nearing his limit. Aeschyli was aware of that. It was necessary for his cooperation, but she was enjoying being herself around someone a little too much. She was clearly aware she had gone too far. It was the last day of them working at the quarry, and Aeschyli was working behind the scenes gathering information. It was time. It was sunset, Arge was taking a break on a leveled stone in the quarry ¡°Hey, Arge,¡± she started, and Arge recoiled in mild horror. Her empathy for him was rising as she imagined he was feeling sad inside. She snapped off her bangle, her face full of malice. Only Slo had seen that face during her fight with her in the bath. It was a sign of the trust she built with Arge to show him this, after all. ¡°We need to go to Marscione when Timothy and Cosimo awaken. I don¡¯t want Slo to be dragged into the war that¡¯s coming to Aleppo. It won¡¯t end well, and there¡¯s another reason¡­¡±, she started. ¡°Why are you so stuck on Slo anyways?¡±, Arge said. ¡°She invented a magic by herself. It¡¯s extremely dangerous if my father finds out. The world could really burn you know?¡±, she said as she was surprised that Arge wasn¡¯t more taken aback. Maybe he was more used to her than she thought. ¡°Aren¡¯t you just making up stories again? You said you fought a dragon and lived you know! I don¡¯t doubt that¡¯s a curse bangle, but you¡¯re rich. It¡¯s easy to buy sigiled stuff if you have that kind of money,¡± Arge grumbled. ¡°I don¡¯t lie to you or Slo. It¡¯s new to me.¡±, said Aeschyli. ¡°Okay, so you¡¯re dad¡¯s a mad mage, why are you stuck on Slo?¡±, Arge said. ¡°The original magic-¡±, Aeschyli started saying. ¡°The feeling, Aeschyli,¡± Arge interrupted her. Arge continued talking, ¡°You could walk away tomorrow, you could have walked off at any time after the flood, yet you¡¯re sticking around me and my group. You got some guy I met on the same day sleeping with the girl you know I like, and the talking animal who beat me up and probably flooded the city sleeping with us as well.¡± ¡°Marscione, and, abomination, the war,¡± Aeschyli said as she started to cry. ¡°Oh don¡¯t give me that. I know you¡¯re an amazing actress, always playing games and setting me up. It doesn¡¯t bother me that much, don¡¯t get me wrong here, I just-¡±, said Arge. ¡°Not. lying.¡± Aeschyli said as she started crying harder. This is what happens when you open up, isn¡¯t that right? She should have stayed behind the lie. Arge was beginning to doubt this was an act. That, or she was winning against him again. Either way, he felt like he couldn¡¯t respect himself if he let her lose here. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to keep everyone happy,¡± said Arge, ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened between you and Slo that night in the bath. Actually, I really want to know. But, I¡¯ll leave that to you girls. How do you feel about Slo? Is my group, safe, with you?¡± Arge suddenly realized as he said that perhaps all the lies she told were true. If that was the case, he was actually endangering Slo. And the others, he added. Aeschyli processed that. Wasn¡¯t she always afraid of everyone else? Arge was just like her, he wanted to be- ¡°I love you both,¡± said Aeschyli and she hugged him smiling. ¡°Okay,¡± said Arge. He needed to confirm one thing though the most. ¡°In a sexual way?¡±, said Arge. ¡°Nope,¡± said Aeschyli, ¡°I¡¯ll help you get with Slo though, if you get everyone to lie to her where we¡¯re going and lead all of us to Marscione. If Timothy and Cosimo are up for it, otherwise, forget them.¡± ¡°Lie to Slo? That¡¯s easy. Why didn¡¯t you just say that in the first place?¡±, she said as he returned her hug. Arge had one more question though. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t Slo want to go to Marscione?¡±, asked Arge. =========== ¡°So you want to go to Marscione? Why?¡±, asked Cosimo. They were resting in the inn. Cosimo was messing with his sigil bird as it walked around on his stomach on his bed. ¡°Maybe I should name it,¡± he thought. ¡°There¡¯s the war, thing, and Aeschyli said Slo was probably going to get targeted because she¡¯s got some super special secret magic. It¡¯s hard to make a living in Aleppo anyways, well, Aeschyli¡¯s paying for everything anyways. She¡¯s rich. I like her,¡± said Arge. ¡°She¡¯s dangerous,¡± said Cosimo. That was his impression of her, even when he was with her saving flood victims. She also upset him because he felt protective towards her. It was like his sister all over again. Aeschyli isn¡¯t a psycho too, right? ¡°You were right about me,¡± Cosimo continued. ¡°After I fought my sister in the whiteless void, I thought I could just run away. It¡¯s not that easy, huh,¡± Cosimo said. ¡°Ah, I called you clingy and threatened with the knife then. I was just protecting Slo, you get that?¡±, said Arge. ¡°Yeah, the clingy part. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m going to end up clinging to Aeschyli like I did my sister,¡± said Cosimo. His honesty seemed to be working for him, he thought. It feels like a breath of fresh air. ¡°I don¡¯t know what kind of nonsense you¡¯re talking about, but if it¡¯s sticking to someone that¡¯s nothing but trouble I can see your point. You know what, you just gotta ask yourself, ¡°is it worth it? Do I want to put up with it?¡±. Yeah. I am smart. That was a smart thing to say,¡± Arge said as he complimented himself. He was in a rare mood with a new knife. ¡°Well the whiteless void thing is kind of complex. I guess you¡¯re right though. In the end, I could have just walked away from the start anyways. Hey, have you spent any time with Aeschyli? What¡¯s she like?¡±, asked Cosimo. Timothy trusted him, maybe he¡¯d have to trust Aeschyli? He simply didn¡¯t spend enough time with her. All she did in his mind was ride off on his friend and then make an about face. It was just a mystery. He was fully aware at this point that he was probably walking into another trap. Was Aeschyli worth it? Hey, maybe he really needs to get out there and meet other people he thought, this just stunk to him. Just what was he doing? ¡°She¡¯s afraid. She¡¯s very, very afraid,¡± Arge said, ¡°She¡¯s got friends now though. Me and Slo. I don¡¯t think she likes Chel and she hasn¡¯t talked to Doru much.¡± ¡°Oh great. Just the type I want to save. Think I should give it a shot?¡±, Cosimo said. ¡°If you want life advice you¡¯d be better off asking Timothy, he¡¯s a smart one. Me, I¡¯m dumb. I just keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting it to change somehow,¡± he sighed. He didn¡¯t realize that until this conversation. Cosimo was annoying for bringing this out of him, he thought. ¡°Yeah, Timothy seems like he know¡¯s what he¡¯s doing with life,¡± said Cosimo. ====== Meanwhile, Timothy was walking out of the Dun Embassy. He had just tried to talk with Dun, the emissary there, trying to gain access to the magic sigil engineers behind the flood. When he revealed his ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯ just to prove that he was the hero of Aleppo, Baqashot the city mayor got upset and shoo¡¯d him out. He didn¡¯t know that Baqashot had capitulated to Dun and had no interest in ¡°Why the flood had happened¡± at this point. After all, the engineers Timothy wanted were all busy rebuilding the system. He was walking in his ¡®Form of Man¡¯ thinking over what to do next. ¡°Damn Baqashot, if only I knew someone that was a magic sigil engineer.¡± Aeschyli was there. Aeschyli was smiling at him with light pooled in her eyes. He just noticed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, did I just randomly talk to you with ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ by mistake?¡±, he said. He knew it was her, he just didn¡¯t like how happy she looked right now. ¡°I¡¯m a magic sigil engineer! I¡¯m Aeschyli!¡±, said Aeschyli. ¡°Yeah, great. Arge told me you knew about magic reactions. Care to explain them? I¡¯m trying to figure out why the city flooded, and there¡¯s this sigils and the water system and me slapping Arge into a water cylinder.¡± ¡°What happened exactly?¡±, Aeschyli said as she shifted mode. And so things were explained. ¡°Sounds like you used an ability on Arge. Arge then used an ability to receive your attack. Whatever spell Arge used had to have to gone to a central sigil hub. There¡¯s no other way the whole city''s water supply could blow up like that,¡± said Aeschyli. ¡°So it¡¯s Arge¡¯s fault. Good. Well, then see you later,¡± Timothy made to leave. ¡°Wait,¡± she said as she held his arm. Now that Timothy knew the effect of ¡®Druidic Rage¡¯ which was an ¡®Arts¡¯ of his that increased his anger when he was angry and boosted status, he was aware that he needed to let this go. ¡°What is it?¡±, he said. ¡°Let¡¯s be friends,¡± she said. She was planning on saying it to him before she knew he was sentient instead of just smart for a pilosa. Aeschyli thought back, she was really lonely then. ¡°You really look like trouble. What¡¯s with all these humans wanting to be my friend suddenly anyways? Well, I did save the city. Tell me, how can I trust you after you hit me with a mind control spell?¡±, Timothy asked. At this point he was just expressing his anger. He was spoiling for another fight inside, but not with this one here.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°I was lonely. Grew up in magical experiment house. Very bad home. I hit you with the spell because I was lonely and afraid, on the run from assassins,¡± Aeschyli said. Timothy thought to himself, she¡¯s the opposite of Cosimo. Cosimo wanted to run away, but only after he gave up. Aeschyli ran away, but always wanted a relationship. He saw where this was going. He palmed his eyes above his nose in ¡®Form of Man¡¯, imitating a facepalm. ¡°Why did you want to make friend¡¯s with me?¡±, said Timothy, removing his hands from his face. It was just curiosity. ¡°Bed and company,¡± Aeschyli said. Timothy thought to himself, ¡°Well you are a hero after all. This is your lot in life. Want to just ditch Cosimo and let him sort it out for himself?¡± Timothy couldn¡¯t do that. Cosimo was being honest now. Moreover, he wanted to beat him. He knew Cosimo was holding back for sure now. If he was being honest he enjoyed the company too. ¡°Okay, fine. You¡¯ve got to take care of Cosimo for me though. I¡¯m going to be hanging around him for a while yet. I¡¯ll leave it up to you how you want to handle that,¡± said Timothy. ¡°And no mind control¡±, Timothy added. ¡°Leave it up to me? I can do the no ¡®Carpe Scaenam¡¯ part but I don¡¯t understand that part,¡± Aeschyli said. ¡°Just try not to kill him. I¡¯m the one who¡¯s trying to kill him.¡± said Timothy. ¡°Try not to kill? But I¡¯m not even trying to hurt him? Why are you trying to kill him?¡±, said Aeschyli. She was dense, Timothy thought. He could believe her story a little bit more now. Then again, she didn¡¯t know him as well as Timothy did. ¡°Cosimo tries really hard, a little too hard. He might become overprotective of you. The boy is looking for an excuse to become dependant on something else. He could be easily controlled by you and end up doing something dumb. Me, he¡¯s just holding back his true power. I want to fight him at full strength,¡± said Timothy. He asked himself, ¡°Why did it have to be Cosimo?¡± Because he thought Cosimo could win. Timothy wanted to get shown he was wrong about something. He put it out of mind. ¡°I don¡¯t get it. I was only interested in him and you in the first place because you both were easy to control,¡± Aeschyli admitted. ¡°Just think about him once in awhile okay?¡±, said Timothy. Aeschyli took that literally. ========== They had gathered provisions with Aeschyli¡¯s and Timothy¡¯s money. They got a cart, as Timothy said that he didn¡¯t want to fly all the way there. It seemed like he was mad about something as usual. They set out across the plains to Marscione. Arge deceived Slo, Chel and Doru by saying the were going to Avingnon. Aeschyli had explained that because of her hero act, Marscione was the most vital place to go. The other reason was to clear Slo of her problem there. Aeschyli figured that it would boost her mental toughness for the future, since she was planning to stick around. And then it came for them. ========== Aeschyli looked out over the setting sun. She saw the mark of her family on a red humanoid target racing towards them, and instantly snapped off her bangle. ¡°So it¡¯s time, father, did the noble council get to you?¡±, she thought. There was full malice on her face, her true face. Arge and Slo were the only ones who saw it before. Slo immediately went, ¡°Not again!¡±. Cosimo, Chel, Doru, and Timothy were seeing it for the first time. She wasn¡¯t alone. Slo would need to fight. Target must be eliminated. Today she would play a new, old role. Aeschyli, herself. Rally the troops! ¡°Dazzling the stage! Flutter! Gobo Contract 3rd, 6th Open! Celer Flos, Rosa Lingua!¡±, cheered Aeschyli. Everyone was looking at her. There was a consensus of ¡°uh-oh¡± among them just by feeling. ¡°¡®That¡¯, in the horizon is an undead Abomination racing towards us at top speed! It is comprised of dead adventure¡¯s corpses and their identification crystals! It can cast many spells and ¡®Arts¡¯ at once! It undoubtedly is a level between from one hundred to four hundred depending on the quality of its parts! If we¡¯re lucky, the corpses won¡¯t be too high quality! I need each of you to work together and support each other to the best of your abilities! I¡¯ll launch the first attack, be ready for anything!¡± Aeschyli sped off in the air to meet Grunt. ¡°If I was alone, maybe I would have died here. Like that time against Slo, I won¡¯t be able to handle too many attacks at once. Hopefully father didn¡¯t get good parts, if it¡¯s too high level there¡¯s nothing I can do,¡± she thought. Death. Her seventh open. It was a non-lethal poison. If the abomination was low enough quality, she might be able to stop it right away. She flew in over Grunt, keeping maximum distance. ¡°¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯ Gobo Contract 7th Open, ¡®Tsuga Conium¡¯!¡± Green lights painted over red filled plains. It was like christmas. Nothing appeared to happen to the rushing Grunt, but she was already making a beeline back to her party. Running away wasn¡¯t an option. It was too fast and strong. It could hunt them all down. Aeschyli had no idea Grunt was just looking for her, and even if she did, she did know it would try to get Slo¡¯s secret out of her. Or, just kill her, if the noble council was involved. There was no winning move for them but killing it. ¡°Cosimo, I hope that you¡¯ve got something that can help here!¡±, she thought, thinking back to the magic reaction. It couldn¡¯t be all that energy was just from one magic reaction, right? Back before right after Aeschyli flew off. Timothy said to everyone, ¡°Huh, that¡¯s really high level huh, We¡¯re only level six right Cosimo?¡± Cosimo stared off at the the red speck getting bigger in the distance. ¡°That abomination¡¯s about to be level six,¡± Cosimo smiled, ¡°Arge, I¡¯m going into melee with that thing. Don¡¯t help me no matter what, I can take it.¡± Arge knew that look, it was how Arge felt a lot of the time. He believed him immediately. ¡°Doru, protect Chel, I¡¯m on Slo, Timothy please help where can! Cosimo you better pull out that city buster right away or I¡¯m not going to forgive you!¡± Everyone had let the level six comment slide out of fear. ¡°I¡¯ll blow it up! I¡¯ll blow it up okay!¡±, panicked Slo. Everyone got into formation, and Cosimo walking towards the front. This was going to hurt a lot, wasn¡¯t it?, he thought. ¡°Slo don¡¯t fire until I give the command! We don¡¯t want Cosimo to get caught in the blast!¡±, said Arge. ¡°Hey, really, don¡¯t worry about me, I can take it too,¡± said Cosimo. ¡°At least for a ¡®certain amount of time¡¯, can¡¯t the description be a bit more specific there?¡±, he thought. They saw the red plains dyed with green spotlights. ¡°Oh! It¡¯s pretty! Good luck defending me Arge! I¡¯m rooting for you this time like always!¡±, said Slo, trying to put on a brave front. She didn¡¯t like seeing Aeschyli like this Chel was smiling. Made of corpses?, she thought. Doru slammed the wagon with his shield the size of his body. The whole cart rocketed forwards giving them some room. ¡°¡®Ei Arge, I got ¡®e good outta ¡®e way!¡±, he said. ¡°Just what is she doing,¡± grumbled Timothy. He was shrouded in ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ and was in ¡®Form of Dragon¡¯. ¡°And just when I¡¯m feeling weakened by Cosimo¡¯s strange spell. No, don¡¯t make excuses, what will Willem say?¡±, he thought. They took up positions as they saw the red dot quickly growing larger. It was running as if the full weight of its body was being stuffed into every step, swinging it¡¯s entire frame haphazardly. More animal than human, more monster than a monster. Cosimo felt heat at the top tip of his stomach. Could he defend them? He reviewed ¡®Average¡¯ in his mind. Without something like that, he would be running away. This wasn¡¯t a fight he thought he could run away from even if he wanted to, watching the red blob charging with all it¡¯s wobbling force kicking up grass and dirt across the red plains. He made a fist. ¡®Ancient Earth Arts¡¯, ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯, and most importantly ¡®Flow Charge¡¯. Just how much energy could he put into this? He watched Aeschyli flying in at top speed. He pulled all the energy he could into his fist. It just kept coming. Every time he felt it flow to his fist, he just felt the same as before. He could do this. Grunt lumbered in at high speed and Cosimo rushed to meet him head on. Taller than any of them, shrouded in red velvet and a red metal plate on his face with Aeschyli¡¯s family mark emblazoned there. Etchings covered the mask, the design was just veins. Cosimo¡¯s blood ran hot. Grunt was right on top of him and he slammed his palm into him. ¡°¡®Mediocre¡¯¡±, he yelled, feeling the immense weight pushing him back in mid-air as he shoved all the energy in his hand to his arm touching Grunt in a panic just to keep it from snapping. It was like a steel rod appeared between him and Grunt. Cosimo wanted to hit him with ¡®Mediocre¡¯ then release his city buster. Grunt was pushing forward against his arm, forcing Cosimo back and knocking him away. Grunt charged forward as he was covered in a dim light and then it broke into sparkles. Cosimo yelled from the ground watching Grunt speed away from him, ¡°I got him! He¡¯s level six! Take him out!¡± Aeschyli returned to the group as Timothy took off to meet Grunt. He just ran straight at him. ¡°Hey there! Sorry about my friend there bringing you down! Show me what you got left!,¡± he cheered at Grunt. He built his ¡®Druidic Rage¡¯ and channeled his ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ into his tongue and whipped it as he was charging. ¡°¡®Darting Tongue¡¯¡±, he thought as it cut straight through the center of Grunt. Aeschyli got startled and spouted, ¡°No way¡­¡±. She flew in toward Grunt with Rosa Lingua ready. Timothy extended his ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ and attempted to throw Grunt into the air with his tongue still in it¡¯s body. ¡°It¡¯s too heavy!¡±, Timothy thought as Grunt closed their distance. He retracted his tongue as he charged forward and heard Chel and Slo cast out loud. At the same time, Grunt casted too. ¡°¡®Cruor Caedis¡¯!¡± Chel aimed her staff with the tiny bat on top towards Grunt. ¡°¡®~Brenna¡¯ ¡®En don¡¯!¡± Slo aimed the spikes at Grunt massive stumbling legs. ¡°¡®Thirt¡¯ ¡®Foil Rain¡¯ ¡®Foil Rain ¡®Foil Rain¡¯ ¡®Foil Rain¡¯ ¡®Foil Rain¡¯¡± Five groups of foils ¡®Foil Rain¡¯ appeared above the group and shot down into them.as ground spikes from the plains shot into Grunts legs as he felt his muscles twitch a bit. A fan of glass shining sworded bathed in red fanned out behind Grunt as ¡®Cruor Caedis¡¯ was damaging his flesh from the inside. The spikes snapped with Grunt¡¯s charge as holes were stabbed into his legs and a few ground spikes snapped off at the tip and he carried them with him as he threw himself into the charging Timothy. ¡°¡®Act 2¡±, Aeschyli casted in her mind as she intercepted the waves of shining foils pouring down on them like hail. ¡°Hello again, Tabil,¡± she thought as a grin creeped to her face as Rosa Lingua moved at an unnatural speed to knock away the ¡®Foil Rain¡¯. Doru pulled Chel under and behind him with his shield up as foils poured into it. Arge used ¡®Stone Self¡¯ while backing into Slo and set a ¡®Ground Anchor¡¯ to avoid getting shot away. ¡°The things I do,¡± Arge mused to himself, feeling proud as foils poured into him. ¡°¡®Foil Rain¡¯ ¡®Foil Rain¡¯ ¡®Foil Rain¡¯...¡± Grunt was muttering as Timothy smashed him backwards. The sheer force of Timothy¡¯s charge and his ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ was enough now that Grunt was lvl six. Cosimo was run towards them, watched the scene bathed in red as he charged his fist again. ¡°Timothy! City buster!¡±, he called out. Grunt¡¯s ¡®Thirt¡¯ stabbed thirteen shining red glass swords into Timothy flank. Timothy shifted his nose, put ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ into his neck, and pitched the nose carrying Grunt backwards with his charge as he pitched the nose up with vigor. ¡°Now you can fly like me,¡± Timothy laughed to himself. Cosimo put energy into his legs as well and jumped. He¡¯d finish it in mid-air. Grunt¡¯s ¡®Detection Arts¡¯ went off. An attack he couldn¡¯t take, from the boy flying at him. ¡°¡®Tingere Tenebris¡¯¡±, he croaked from under the metal plate. Grunt turned into a shadow and sped into the ground. The ¡®Foil Rain¡¯s didn¡¯t stop appearing as Arge watched Cosimo fall to ground. ¡°Curse it,¡± said Arge as he cleared the foils that managed to lodge themselves in him. He¡¯d have to tell them right now. ¡°He¡¯s in a shadow, don¡¯t ask how I know!¡±, he called out as more foils poured into him. Aeschyli processed as fast as she could. She knew of the ability, Arge didn¡¯t need to say anything. ¡°Cosimo, the ground! Everyone retreat!¡±, she yelled out. Timothy caught up to Chel as the group started pulling backwards out of the hail of foils. ¡°Heal me, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± he said to Chel as she was inching backward while crouching under Doru¡¯s back. The foils were bouncing off of Timothy¡¯s coat. Chel shook her head up and down and cast ¡°¡®Excelsus Maximus Medico¡¯¡± on him. Cosimo heard Aeschyli¡¯s call and wavered an instant before punching the ground. He stood there, fist in the ground and legs spread and released all of his energy he charged into it. He yelled. The dirt where Cosimo was turned into a dense upwards hail. The expanding force of the blast sent wind barreling the group''s way. Aeschyli turned mid-air as foil¡¯s rained into her back and surfed the explosion at max speed with ¡°¡®Act 3 Curtain Calling~!¡¯¡±. Timothy spread his dragon wings and snapped his ¡®Druidic Force¡¯ to Chel, Arge, Doru, and Slo. ¡°Hold on tight,¡± he said. Right away Timothy felt the wind picking him up as he surged forward aiming for Aeschyli. Cosimo, in a mist of dirt was watching as the ground bubbled and shook below him buffeting him upwards. ¡°Hey, aren¡¯t I flying away right now instead of running away!¡±, he thought. The ground shook and cracked as a roar echoed out. Huge pieces of the red plains started to lift up and cracked in mid-air. Cosimo was flying ever higher. He felt the wind shake around him as his cap blew away. Rumbles and groans of the earth below echoed out. Dirt rained from the sky as the explosion passed. Timothy and Aeschyli who landed on top of him made a circle after they rode the wind of the explosion far out into the horizon. ¡°Hey, think Cosimo¡¯s dead?¡±, said Arge, half hoping. He was still mad about Slo. ¡°Nah, he¡¯ll be fine. Too bad, Arge,¡± said Timothy, understanding his heart completely. ¡°Why would you want Cosimo to die! He didn¡¯t do anything! I didn¡¯t do anything!¡± complained Slo. Aeschyli was laughing as she watched the earth rain down over the red sunset. ========== Cosimo was looking upwards flat on his back. There was a red light far above him. It was a valley of his own making deep in the earth, with cracked walls of dirt spanning high into the sky. ¡°Wow, I got to do this more often. What a fluke. I didn¡¯t expect to even get a power that could do something like this,¡± he checked ¡®Average¡¯ again. Nigh limitless energy. It felt good. What was the limit? It said time but- Grunt appeared out a shadow. ¡°¡®Thirt¡¯, ¡®Foil Rain¡¯, ¡®Foil Rain¡¯, ¡®Foil Rain¡¯...¡±, he kept chanting as new glass blades now showing as clear against the dirt fanned around him. Cosimo got on his elbows and stared at Grunt dumbfounded. He sighed as foils poured into his body. ¡°Looks like I couldn¡¯t get out of this that easy huh. I¡¯ll have to work a bit harder then,¡± he thought as he felt the sharp pain of the foils stabbing into him disappearing thanks to ¡®Average¡¯ over and over again. Cosimo stood up. He concentrated with ¡®Flow Charge¡¯ into his fist again as he walked forwards with the foils pouring into him. Grunt was closing into him, and Cosimo was leaning forwards with and pushing again the wave of steel with the might of ¡®Mediocre Force¡¯. ¡°A clear, honest hit,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll show you the ending,¡± he said. Grunt came into view through the ¡®Foil Rain¡¯. ¡®Detection Arts¡¯ said in his mind that Cosimo wasn¡¯t a threat. It changed in an instant. ¡°¡®City Buster¡¯!¡± shouted Cosimo in jest as he slammed his fist into Grunt¡¯s chest above him. Cosimo let the energy transfer into Grunt. The force was much lower this time. A hole burst open in Grunt¡¯s chest and small pieces of identification crystal mixed with floating scraps of flesh that blew into the air behind him. ¡®Thirt¡¯ deactivated. Grunt stood there. Cosimo balked for a second. Is he still not dead? He charged his fist more but realized it was over. Grunt froze stock still, his flesh missing the energy source that powered it¡¯s movement. ¡°Aeschyli¡­¡±, Grunt said. ======== Timothy flew into the massive valley after dropping everyone off to search for the supplies they brought in the cart. They were scattered all over the plains by the explosion, so collecting them would take a bit of time. ¡°Cosimo, you awake down there,¡± he directed his ¡®Soul Communication¡¯ towards the bottom of the valley. Cosimo was waving near a red giant with a big smile on his face. ¡°It¡¯s dead! It¡¯s dead!¡±, he snuck a look at the giant again. ¡°I hope it¡¯s dead¡­¡±. he thought. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go. Your ridiculous power managed to scatter everyone¡¯s stuff,¡± he looked at Grunt. ¡°Huh, I probably could have easily died fighting it. His swords went straight through my ¡®Druidic Force¡¯. Good thing all of you were here. It¡¯s a shame though, I wouldn¡¯t mind going out that way,¡± Timothy grumbled to Cosimo. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s nice to have friend¡¯s isn¡¯t it?¡±, said Cosimo, beaming. ¡°Yes, yes,¡± admitted Timothy feeling like he lost again. He slapped Cosimo on his back with his tongue and flew off into the sky.