Chapter 16: Chapter 16: It’s Cooler this Way

Chapter 16: It’s Cooler this Way

 

The team led Nara to a smaller group of monsters. This time it was just three of the same Chimeric Forest Monkeys. They hung from a tree, aggressively snarling as Nara approached. She conjured her Moonlight Raiment and Cosmic Path. The raiment resembled martial arts uniform crossed with a more elegant design. The robes were black, with silver motifs of the moon, clouds, and water. The end of the robe near her knees transitioned into a transparent, slightly luminescent silver material. That portion of the robe was entirely immaterial, and her legs could pass through without impedance.

She brushed her hand against her ear, and Nirvana’s bow form manifested in her hands. As she took quick shots to draw the attention of the monsters, she set up her nodes along the ground. One was placed further back, where the group observed, and the other towards the forest, where the monkeys originated. Around half of the shots missed, but after they landed and inflicted their afflictions she casted Entropy on each of the monkeys. Chrome dashed forward to intercept but held back to allow Nara to get practice. He made light cuts against the monkey’s flanks, accelerating the afflictions further. As her mana drained from the invoking Horizon’s Edge, conjuring her armor, path, and nodes, she casted Chorus to increase the potency of her own buffs.

She teleported forward towards a monkey, maintaining her speed. The monkey attacked hastily, and she easily deflected it, gaining the damage bonus from Dream’s Wake. With her increased speed, she swung her sword back, casting Empyreal Retribution to deal additional damage before activating World’s End. The sheer power of her damage bonus from buffs, the accumulation of afflictions, Dream’s Wake, and World’s End cleaved through the monkey. It let out a final death screech, before warping as its separated body was sucked into a black hole and vanished.

Before she could react, a monkey attacked her back, landing a shallow cut. Her cloth armor blocked most of the damage, but she could feel the cut stinging with blood. Gritting her teeth, she swung her sword while spinning around. Her abilities were still on cooldown, and she could only attack normally at this time, shaving away chucks of the monkey’s flesh with her sword. They traded blows, sometimes she managed to deflect, or dodge with Phase shift. With her abilities back up, she waited for another attack before activating her finishing combo once again.

Double teaming with Chrome made short work of the final monkey, with attacks crisscrossing from both directions. Normal attacks were sufficient to finish it off, and it collapsed to the ground, gouged out with strikes that looked as if the flesh had been carved from existence.

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[Chimeric Forest Monkeys] have been wholly annihilated and are automatically looted. You have looted [Chimeric Forest Monkeys].

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She didn’t feel tired, but still took a reflexive breath. She felt her nerves tingling and taut from her first monster battle. She looked down at her hands and sword, dripping with monster blood. When she looted the monsters, she unexpectedly inhaled the pungent stench of rainbow smoke as blood from her body dissipated into smoke. She ended up doubled over and lightly gagging.

“Just block your sense of smell next time.” Chrome said while striding over. He gave Nara an awkward but gentle pat on the shoulders, avoiding her injury, “It was an adequate performance, for a beginner.”

Despite still shaking from adrenaline, she grinned from his clumsy compliment.

She released her sword, and it vanished into starry particles, reappearing at her ear. It was only afterwards did the realization of her current life dawn on her. During the fight, she had leapt into action, without a thought. She wondered even if she fully regained her memory, if she could call herself the same person?

Looking at her temporary companions waving her back and greeting her with similar encouragements, she didn’t think her current state was bad.

 

 

Over the course of several more battles, the group coached her through some of her flaws in her current fighting style. Fighting against mountain-hugging beast monsters, she learned that spacing her nodes vertically was just as important as horizontally. Monsters were typically much larger than their non-magic counterparts, and aerial slashes and other wild moves could be extremely effective. Additionally, Sen told her she needed to rely less on waiting for the monster to make a move to counterattack. Creating a false opening to bait an attack was faster and more controlled. Her fighting style was still new and learning how to bait and feint was something she would have to master later.

They would lead her to monsters that challenged her current ability set, such as tortoise monsters with extremely high defense that her sword would not originally pierce through. While watching closely, they also led her to a larger swarm, a group of 10 spider monsters. She learned to retreat when the fight grew too intense and hang back taking bow shots as they reconverged upon her. Her extreme mobility meant that she count control the location of the battle, making use of her flexible range. They also introduced her to various adventuring tools, such as darts that exploded in a ball of flame or knocked all monsters back. Another important adventurer’s tool was the potions belt or potions sling, which all of them carried. The potion belt was enchanted to keep potions from breaking. Sen recommended she purchase one despite her inventory ability. There was a possibility that enemy abilities could prevent her from accessing her inventory, and then she would be left without recourse. Some other recommendations included a dimensional bag and potion belt for Chrome. Due to his uniqueness as a humanoid familiar, his advantages included the ability to use magic items. Nara added the recommendations to a growing shopping [Note] she had created.

It was a two-day expedition. In-between, they returned to the town to stay at an inn. Even though she could use her Astral Domain, she decided to accept the inn accommodations. While the Astral Domain was connected to physical reality, time would pass within the manifested domain, so there would be no issue in staying there to rest and pass time. But Nara wanted to immerse herself in her growing sense of adventure, which clinched her decision. She would share a room with Lan and Jaina, the icy archer.

The group split off to their own devices. Sen went off alone, and so did Gento, the fiery brawler.

Nara wandered the town at sunset with Lan, Jaina, and Chrome. Gradually, soft lantern light illuminated the stone walkways of the tow. Jaina played impromptu tour guide. North River Junction was a town that she had traveled to before; it was often an intermediate stop for adventuring parties heading north. Jaina explained any moderate sized town had dedicated Adventurer inns and other facilities. The town similarly had a portal plaza, while it was less grand than that of Sanshi’s. The riverside port clamored as day-end checks were expediently concluded. Laborers, artisans, sailors, and other professionals made their way to bustling bars, inns, or into the warmth of a home hearth.  

When Chrome wanted to, he could manipulate his aura to seamlessly blend into his surroundings or use it to emphasize his presence. He performed the latter, calmly following the group as they made their way into a riverside restaurant.

The group placed their orders and chatted as they waited for their food to arrive. Sen and Gento were still otherwise occupied, but they would all meet up later at the inn, so there was no issue.  

 

“So,” Lan leaned in with interest, “what sort of familiar are you?” Lan had been burning with curiosity the entire trip but refrained due to Sen’s presence. Now that they were separated, she was unrestrained.

“Hand of Time, as her ability decided to surreptitiously call me.” Chrome said, lounging comfortably at the dining table. He was clothes in the Sanshi style that Chelsea had purchased for him. He was dressed not unlike some arrogant ‘young master’, a silken gown of black embroidered with golden dragons.

Nara’s Guide ability used terminology according to her own experiences. Erras had no concept of terms like “Empyrean”, while her ability freely used mythology and religious terminology to name abilities. She thought conclusively, since her Guide was her own ability, that the references to mythology was simply because she felt “it’s cooler this way.”

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“I haven’t heard of a familiar like that, even in the Magic Society.” Lan’s fingers drummed on the table in thought. “Do you have any relation to one of the Great Astral Beings?”

“You think you’d find a being like me anywhere else?” Chrome responded haughtily.

“Familiars are their own topic of study.” Explained Lan, “even now we’re still finding different familiar abilities. There was even an adventurer who had an apocalypse beast as a familiar.” When it came to topics of magic, she lost her apathy, explaining the topic in an academic tone.

“Apocalypse beast?” Nara asked.

“World-destroying, all-life-consuming monster. If you let it get out of hand.” Jaina responded smoothly in Lan’s place.

“The Adventure Society doesn’t have an issue with it?”

“As long as it’s a familiar, and you aren’t using it to end the world, it’s not a problem.”

“If the Adventure Society had a problem with every questionable ability,” Lan added, “there would be a lot less adventurers and a lot more criminals.”

The food arrived. The local cuisine was freshwater fish with mountain veggies, as well as a variety of noodle soup dishes made with local wild herbs. Chrome ate with relish and yet somehow with grace, leaving his attire, hands, and table (and plate), spotless.

 

 

The next day went similarly. Nara would observe the team fighting, as well as receive her own coaching. Afterwards, while moving to the next target, the group would meditate to consolidate their gains. Towards the end of the trip, she joined in on a few fights as well, although the chaos of team abilities was a whole different beast entirely. She had to keep trap of traps laid out in advance, beams of magic and arrows of ice, as well as her own positioning and spacing to the rest of the team. But benefits included receiving healing and mana regeneration or other buffs from Lan, Sen, and the combined aura effects of four others. 

She could phase shift out of major failures, such as getting caught in one of Jaina’s ice traps. Although through this accident, Nara did become aware that her ability to Phase Shift made her a spectacular bait for a variety of situations, should they come to pass. She could lead enemies into what would otherwise become friendly fire, only to avoid the damage and effects herself entirely.

 

“Do you feel bad,” Nara said, glancing at the body of a slain wolf monster, “killing monsters that look so similar to many familiars of your house?”

At her side, Chrome scoffed at her question.

Sen shook his head, “Monsters are monsters, familiars are familiars. They aren’t similar at all.”

Amara and the others had explained to Nara how monsters worked. Monsters were one of the many forms of magic manifestations. Since they do not possess souls, their magic bodies break down, driving them into a frenzy. Monsters of iron rank start with only a lifespan of a few weeks and are immediately enraged by their inevitable and imminent demise. Far out in the wild, these will break down and dissipate without harming others, but near civilization, they need to be immediately destroyed, lest they release their inconsolable rage of their inevitable demise onto others. Gold and diamond rank monsters can persist for years upon years without any degradation and are often left alone unless they manifest too close to a town or city.

On the other hand, familiars possessed something like a soul. Like her, their magically manifested body was maintained by the presence of her soul. It would otherwise break down into magic as well.

Thinking it over, Nara agreed with the delineation, but didn’t see the line as nearly so distinct. In the same way that some animals were pets and others were food, and some were both. Monsters could be made into familiars, and familiars took the forms of monsters.  

They stepped away from the ravaged wolves, and she looted them. She received the same assortment of coins and materials as usual.

“Here.” Sen tossed her a stone. It was an Awakening Stone of the Wolf. “I got one from your looting ability just now.”

“This is yours to keep.” Nara said, not understanding his intention.

“Mine to keep and give.” Sen said. “The rest of us don’t need it. We’re down to our last few abilities, and want something more specific. Sell it if you don’t want it either. Consider it bribe for your good graces. It never hurts to be friends with a looter.” The group nodded in agreement.

“Thanks.” Nara used her ability to Inspect the stone and pocketed it in her Astral Domain.

 

 

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