My tails were notifying me about something. Just 2 more days, I haven't slept so well in a long time. My tails notified me 2 days later.
How about 5 more hours? What? I've asked for 2 more days for the last month?! Why didn't you wake me up! I uncurled and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. What was the date? I was still sleepy and almost fell back asleep. I activated my Elgards eyes.
January 39th… It's almost February! I overslept! I tried to get up but my body was still asleep and I fell over. I tried to wake my body up but my body felt like sleeping. I rolled out my hideout into the basin. That woke me up properly. I stretched and floated on the water It felt great! It almost felt like I had gone into hibernation. Technically I did, What have my tails been up to?
Hmm they figured out the magic gramps taught me; I just need to practice. They ordered and re-catalogued my dimensional pocket, made frost marbles, totally forgot about those. Came up with new ideas for skills and more. Hmm, my tails actually get more done when I'm asleep than when I’m awake. Is this why 9t sleep even though they technically don't have to sleep? We only need 1 night per month at minimum. Maybe I should up the length of my sleep and lower the frequency. I still need to figure out that full-moon stuff. I needed to check something too.
I reconnected with the air leyline currents and started to calibrate. 5.7% affinity and 5% authority. I used [Waterfall] and the boost was noticeable. Now time to test the first magic skill gramps tried to teach me. I disconnected from the leyline currents and cast [Pneuma Boreas] but the speed my magic circle appeared and disappeared shocked me. That was fast! A strong wind blew and froze the area around me and created an enormous light blue fox that possessed 9 tails and was made out of frost magic. It reminded me of Ted’s [Bear Avatar] but more solid and probably way stronger. I put my hand on it.
The frost magic was well under control. It sucked up the mana in the surroundings but it wasn't going to me but the [Pneuma Boreas]. I tried to make it hide 8 tails and it did. Now I would like to see what it does but… The jungle was slowly freezing over so I cancelled it. Since I was at maximum mana it had nowhere to go so it turned into a small frost fox and hopped on my shoulder.
Wow, this is adorable, thanks gramps! I could feel how much mana this thing was holding. I wonder if I could clean up the Boshi Town area with this.
So, the other skill [Kryokym] returns all the mana as damage that I had absorbed with frost magic. I always wondered why frost magic was seen as so strong when it had so few damage options but these 2 seem strong enough to put a dent in anyone's defenses. My tails also had worked out the 2 skills I was supposed to teach Hisui if I ever meet her.
One skill is funnily named [Thalia]. I can’t use it but how funny would it be if Thalia could use it. It is illusion magic but its laced with charm too. I tried it out but only the part that was illusion went through.
Yeh, this skill was useless for me, for female 9t who are not as good at using illusions as the males this might be very useful though. I started to formulate a countermeasure for it because I’m sure Hisui will use this on me the moment I teach her this. The other one is [Pneuma Nefriti] which uses nature energy. I’m not skilled enough in nature energy to use this but it seems to do something similar to my [Pneuma Boreas] probably with different properties. It would surely be strong here in the jungle.
I felt so refreshed and so light! Wait, light? I really need a 9t doctor, I don't know if it's normal to keep getting lighter. I wondered what Healerguy was up to. I petted [Pneuma Boreas].
I appreciate the skill gramps but this name is too long. I need a cool name for this fox. It had a nice light blue color so I decided to name it after the primal word for blue, [Nilah]. Nilah seemed to act like a pet, kind of like Ignis. Seems there are still some things about magic I don't understand.
I connected with the air leyline currents. Nilah didn't seem to like it but she didn't disappear. Magic and leyline energy have a bad compatibility so I wonder how this will go. I practiced various water moves to get back in the habit of moving. Nilah behaved and rested on my head since that was the only part of my body that didn't move a lot. After 4 hours I felt like my body loosened up. I was not tired which was a pleasant surprise. I feel overpowered but if this would be enough to kill that tomato bitch… unlikely.
Cleaning up my hideout came up next and the collected fur got stored in my dimensional pocket. I already overslept by a month so I can’t waste more time. I will go to that village, Girai, that I found last year and set up a small blacksmith shop there and then figure out how I'm going to balance blacksmithing and collecting materials but I first have to get there. I also just realized I spent my birthday sleeping, Happy belated birthday to myself, I guess. Why am I always sleeping on my birthday? I started running and arrived at Girai the same day.
Good evening, sir, I am planning to move here and set up a small blacksmith shop, is there any place you could recommend?
“Ooh, I remember you, You're the nice guy that sold us those weird yet useful items last year. Hmm, there is an abandoned house near the river over there, I don't know if you can see it.” I looked at where the old man pointed. Yes, I see it. Can I use it?
“Well, nobody is using it, we were thinking of breaking it down but I don't see why you can’t have it. You will have to make it habitable yourself though. That is a very cute fox you have by the way” That is fine and thank you.
“I will tell the others that we have a new person in our midst and that you’re using that old house, come and say hi in the morning.” The old man left. I inspected the old house. It had seen better days. I could probably fix it up all nice and well by using some shadow clones and working all night but that's gonna look weird when the villages see a fixed-up house in the morning. I have to look normal. Even if I have slept for so long, I decided to sleep again. Nights are quite boring without anything to do. I curled up with Nilah in my tails and blended in with the old house.
The next morning, I went to greet the villagers. It was a warm greeting; I got a lot of free stuff to help renovate my house. I was wondering how to renovate it without looking out of place. I don't know how long it takes for these things normally. I also don't have experience in building. Luckily, I know people that do. I guess having connections is quite useful. How long would it take to get to Gittrian from here?
“3 weeks by foot, 3 days if you take a boat and follow the river." Another old man pointed at the river. "It is called the Gittrian river for a reason, it connects many villages like ours to Gittrian, while anyone can send materials easily to Gittrian like this, skilled water users are needed to bring boats upstream." And I assume there are not many water users so the boats return infrequently?
"Yes, once every 2 weeks so Gittrian sends supplies over once a week with a truck to compensate." A term that I don’t know, what is that?
"Oh, it’s fairly new, based off ancient technology, I don’t know how it works exactly but it’s a bigger version of a car. You must have seen those." Uh metal boxes on wheels, there is a city that's full of them.
"These trucks are made to carry a lot of materials. " Ooh I know! They sent one before to pick up something I sold. So that thing they sent was a truck. But it's not new then. Then again, I don't know how long it takes before something isn't new anymore. I decided to pretend to take a boat so that I only had to be away for 6 days instead of 6 weeks. Hey, mind if I borrow a boat? I'm a water user, I will see if I can take another boat back.
"Ohh how reliable! Talk to Gregory over there he owns most of the boats." Gregory eh… I walked over to Gregory who was obviously not the Greg I know.
Yoo Greg… I mean good morning, Gregory, I heard that you own most of the boats. I was wondering if I can borrow one to head over to Gittrian and bring some boats back. I'm a water user. I showed him my adventurer's ID card.
"Ooh that's a lot of help. I have loaded this boat here with lumber. The boat is a bit heavy so watch out it might capsize if you're careless but you should be more focused on your own safety first. Don't get yourself into trouble over some lumber, there are many trees but just one you." Thanks, I appreciate it. What about the person that was supposed to man this boat? Gregory pointed to the fleet of boats that were waiting on the riverbank.
"Our ability to send these off can't keep up with the amount of materials we produce. We are relying mostly on the water users that go back and forth between Gittrian. Anyone can bring a boat there but getting back is the problem." I see, suffering from success, eh? I will see what I can do.
"Thanks. Whenever you arrive get this boat to dock 12. It is the dock where all Girai's materials get dropped off and where all our boats are waiting to return. Our shipwright or well more specifically boatwright is getting tired of making boats. He is supposed to be our carpenter but everything slows down if we can't exchange products. So, we dubbed him Boatwright, he hates the name but it's good to have a laugh once in a while." So, we have a boat situation. Dock 12 gotcha, I will probably be back in a week or so.
"Take your time, our village would not be so flourishing if we needed one youngster to work his ass off." I stepped into the boat. It had enough space for 2 people and the rest was cargo. There was enough room for me to move around, which was perfect. Nilah jumped on my head while I connected to the air leyline currents and [Flushed] the boat into the river. The currents took the boat and I was heading toward Gittrian. I didn't have to do much; the strong currents carried the boat at a comfortable speed. As Gregory said anyone could do this, just sit back and relax. I petted Nilah while looking at the scenery. I passed some villages that also seemed to have the boat problem and waved at some of them.
2 boats approached from the opposite direction and I saw 2 water users working hard to go against the current. They moored at the village that I just passed because it was getting dark. I had no intention of doing the same nor do I need to. This boat ride was quite pleasant if not a bit boring so I sent Nilah to fish. She dipped her tail in the water and froze the fish when they came near.
Does this magic fox eat? I chomped on the fish while Nilah ate the other. Magic is so strange. At one moment it follows a logical set of rules and at another moment it does something completely unexpected. How does this small fox that's made out of magic eat? Is this why it took so much effort and time to master this? Just forming a fox shape out of frost is easy but I wouldn't get these results. How fascinating. Nilah awakened my interest in magic again.
I studied her behaviour for the whole night. She seemed to be acting as I would expect a fox to act. I don’t know much about foxes so that doesn't say much, even though I'm a fox myself. Nilah didn't give off mana just like me. She was made out of frost magic after all. I poked her and the fur seemed to be made out of snow so it wasn't unpleasant to touch her. I wonder how long it took gramps to make this magic skill. I wouldn't be surprised if it took a good 100 or 200 years.
The next day arrived and I could see Gittrian in the distance without my Elgards eyes. I might have to do this quite often, just to help the village out. I’ve only seen 4 boats come back upstream in total and there is no guarantee that Girai was their final destination.
Girai seems to be the last stop though because further upstream and the river becomes extremely rough for boats and it becomes mountainous and has cascades. A fleet of boats in front of me was moving slowly. I activated my Elgards eyes. Most of the people on the boats seemed to be adventurers. They might have Gittrian as their destination and are helping the villagers out in exchange for a fast ride. My boat seemed to be going slightly faster than theirs so I might catch up by tomorrow.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Is this boat just faster? Of any reason I could think of the one that made the most sense is that my boat is lighter because I am lighter.
These villagers seemed to have figured out how to load these boats with about the same weight of cargo regardless of what type of cargo it was carrying. I guess they found out what would be the most efficient. Maybe that’s why these boats aren't that big. A lot of thought must have gone into this system.
Realisation set in if I was a normal human this would have been a problem, I wanted to go to Gittrian to get supplies, and I would have normally had to put them on the boats to get them back. If these boats have a weight limit, then that would have never worked. I analysed the boats and cargo. It seems I could add more than 200 kg before the boats would run into trouble.
The boats that had 2 people on them didn't seem to have issues and since Nilah and I don't weigh anything I could put 2 people’s worth of cargo extra. I guess that’s not as bad as I don't shop lightly so this was good news. We were getting close to catching up to the fleet in front of me on the third day of my boat ride but Gittrian was quite close but it might not become an issue. I only saw 6 boats go upstream in total and I see 1 more approaching. Meanwhile, there was a fleet in front of me and several boats behind me. The ports where these boats end up must be an enormous chaos.
Our boat was nearing an enormous gate that had the function of pre-sort the boats. I used the rudder and steered the boat toward the section of the gate that would lead toward docks 11-15 and arrived at dock 12, 10 minutes later. I tied the boat to some sort of pier.
Lumber from Girai.
“Thanks, I will register its arrival.” I am a water user and I will bring a boat back or multiple, if possible, is there anything I should know about this process?
“Oh, more help is always welcome. Follow me to the hangar.” I placed Nilah on my head and followed him to a big building on the water with a large 12 on it. He opened the door and hundreds if not thousands of boats were loaded and ready to go. There seemed to be different areas clearly indicating how much extra weight they could carry. There were even empty boats. Whoa.
“See that counter over there? Whenever you leave tell them your destination and what boat you take, look next to every boat there is a pole with a number. You state your name, destination, and boat number. Skilled water users tend to take one cargo boat and one empty boat so make sure to make this clear too. That’s all. I would recommend taking lighter boats if it’s your first time, people tend to underestimate the force of water, and depending on your destination you will be at it for 5 days or more.”
I will be taking that into consideration, thank you. I looked around for a bit and then left and tried to navigate toward the Yttroz Industries headquarters. It was a large and well-known building so it shouldn't be hard to find it it's just… Gittrian is huge. So many streets and buildings, even more people, most streets looked similar. I tried to find my way without cheating with my eyes but I got lost so I had to rely on them once again. I tried to sneak into the building because I didn't want a VIP welcome like the last time but I forgot about the anti-shadow guards.
“Hey! Who goes there? Wait isn't that?!” Ugh, this buddy system is a royal pain. The guards were excited and escorted me to the VIP section.
“Hey, Jeremiah, guess who we found sneaking around!” Sup Jerry.
Jerry had just arrived in the VIP section and was wearing a neat suit. “And why were you sneaking around?” It was a failed attempt to avoid this VIP treatment…
“I see you haven't changed, what can I do for you? And that is a cute pet” I’m setting up a blacksmith workshop up in Girai, I got an old house but it's… old, it needs to be fixed but I don’t know anything about building. I also need supplies. I gave Jerry a long list of things I need. My tails compiled with this list while I was sleeping.
I don’t care how much it costs; I will pay for it.
“Hmm, I can speed up this request for construction, most of these materials we can send out whenever you need it, others might take a while. There is the problem of transportation to Girai but I assume you will be involved as a water user?” Yup
“And you don’t need to pay for anything.” Uhh, why is that?
“Well 10% of whatever the Hourai Rubies as a currency earn and 1% of those processed into jewelry, trinkets etc. will be collected by Yttroz Industries and will go to you. You are 18 now so you are entitled to it now but I assume you have more than enough gold on you already. So, my suggestion is that we will just subtract from whatever we’re holding for you and cover the costs from that.” Oh, that sounds like a good idea, just curious, how much gold are we talking about? Jerry gestured to an assistant who gave him a tablet.
“Let’s see at the moment we’re holding 41 527 gold for you.” … Hey, if you guys are ever in need of money just use that. I give permission. Also, if I ever cause problems, you can pay damages from that because you guys will probably have to fix that.
“Ehh, ok I will keep that in mind. We did have to subtract some to fix the hole you made in the ground some months ago and to redesign the sewer system in Texiha, apologies for not notifying you about this.” Ehh, it's fine.
“Also.” Jerry gestured to the assistant again. “We forgot the last time you were here but this is for you, it is the very first Hourai Ruby that was made as a currency, every Hourai Ruby has a number, this one has the number 0. A recent trend has come up that prices the lower numbers even higher than those with higher numbers.” Ugh, can these guys just stop, all I did was sell some rubies… I accepted the Hourai Ruby. It had its usual inscription proving its authenticity and it had a number next to it indeed.
“I know that this annoys you to no end so I will just tell you for how much the Hourai Ruby with the number 1022 went 2 weeks ago. It went for 7089 gold.” These idiots… don’t they run out of gold?
“We are trying our best to keep the worth of them low but that’s hard when they become scarcer and scarcer because more and more people use it as a collector’s item and a status symbol. We might have to take action and stop using it as a currency. The initial idea was to keep their value at 1000 gold. We didn't expect it to be this popular.” A hypothetical, what would happen if I give you more ruby crystals and you make more Hourai Rubies, would their worth decrease?
“In theory yes, practically… we might get a shortage of gold if you do that so even though we appreciate it, please don't…” So, what if I sold you guys gold to turn into coins?
“We would be able to control the worth of gold because nobody knows how much gold Yttroz Industries possesses so that could be a solution yes.” Right, I kinda caused this mess so I hope I can help out, bring me to an empty warehouse or something with a lot of room.
“For someone who doesn't care about money you sure do keep getting richer…” Just use whatever gold you have stored up for me to pay for it, it probably won't stay at 0 for long anyways… Jerry brought me to an empty storage space. I dumped all the golden items I don't need in this room.
I don't know how much this is worth but just add the difference back to whatever gold you were holding for me if it’s more than that.
“Wait, you want to pay for this, using your personal saved-up funds, and if it’s worth exceeds that number to add the difference back? You do know you are trying to pay us to take this gold off you, are you truly insane?” I guess that didn't work…
“We will add the worth of this to your personal savings.” He snapped his fingers and 5 appraisers went to work. “I will arrange for a team to help you renovate your house as well ready the supplies, where should we drop them off?” Hangar 12 for the small boats.
“How long will you be staying? We need at least 2 days to get everything you need.” 2 days is fine; I can kill some time.
“We also need to hire some more water users because we need several boats.” Oh no I got this. Jerry looked up from his device.
“Sure… come back here in 2 days. The supplies will be ready by then, there are just some things I want to discuss; the team won't be ready yet but they will be in Girai by the end of the week."
I left and had to take detours to avoid important-looking people. I tried to leave through the normal entrance but I got spotted by guards and they all wanted to talk to me.
I don't like this celebrity vibe. I might have to develop some kind of illusion that makes me appear as a forgettable background character. I have done this before but it needs to be more of a passive effect. I escaped the guards and put a tail to work. Gittrian is a city where race doesn't matter but I still can’t walk with at least 1 tail out. Because the fox beast kin has gone extinct so even as a regular fox, I will gain attention. Nilah was gaining quite some attention though.
“Oh my god! It’s so cute!” 3 chicks approached me.
“What is its name? Can I pet it?” Her name is Nilah and sure. The chicks petted her and Nilah stole some mana from them. Right, she likes mana so be careful, she might steal it all.
“Ooh, interesting! What type of fox is she?” It’s a magic skill.
“Wait really? She looks and behaves so real!”
“I’m getting a bit dizzy…” Then stop petting her! I told you she loves to steal mana.
“But she’s so fluffy!” Nilah didn't seem to like the excessive petting and stole more mana. I had to pull her away from the chicks and they acted like I was taking their baby away.
“Wait! I still have mana left!” Don't let her steal more of your mana! I escaped. Nilah seemed satisfied with her mana snack or well more like a buffet. I entered the Adventurers Association and the first thing I did was to check if Healerguy was here. The coast seemed clear. I wanted to ask if he was in Gittrian but I forgot his name.
“You have a mountain of personal requests; you might want to check them.” Was what the clerk said.
I checked them, most were just people interested in having the new role in their party, and a lot were expired. There were 3 that were valid or didn't involve teaming up. One read: Good to know you didn't kick the bucket yet. Written by Gregory Sheru. I see so he’s doing fine. Another one was anonymous and just said: Die! I guess my first hater. And the last one read: I did it!
I headed over to the area where the new adventurers liked to hang out and looked through the role names. Nothing changed except for one role name. Eternal Desertflower. I thought she wanted to change it to Alluring Desertflower but Eternal Desertflower suits her too. So, she finally did it. I wonder what Thalia was up to now. Her next goal was even harder.
Nilah and I sat down in a small restaurant inside of the Adventurers Association and relaxed. Nilah was destroying a paper cup so I had to put her on my head, far away from anything that could be destroyed. It was quite late; I could go shopping but I would only have an hour before most places would close. I decided to get a room with a game console and do some gaming.