Chapter 177
The Dependability of Familiars
Well, I guess I should have been a bit more forceful in my decision to dislike the idea of being considered a fairy godmother for the pups. Especially, as I was almost immediately rewarded with the ability to be a fairy godmother in general.
“Maybe.”
Yep, with that one word reply to Kujo, I might have set myself up for a lifetime of shame.
Why would you say this?
“But of course,” Kujo replied answering for both he and Ms. Kujo. Normally I would warn him about making such decisions about the children without the mother’s consent, but since I want this to happen, so I didn’t say anything.
Perhaps it was karma for not warning Kujo about the veritable faux pas he made by agreeing to something as large as the godmother of the children without Ms. Kujo at least being part of the conversation that caused my instant karmic feedback.
See, as soon as I got that reply that I would be allowed to be fully involved in being able to handle and cuddle a litter of thirteen puppies, I received an update to a quest that I didn’t know could be updated. At least I didn’t think it could be updated in this manner.
Hidden Quest Updated: Saving the Litter of Godpuppies (Ongoing): You managed to save Ms. Kujo’s litter by preventing a pup from dying due to prenatal deficiencies. You have also proven yourself to be a stable member of the Kujo family, and have asked for the ability to be the fairy godmother for the future pups. Continue looking after the litter as time goes on to earn an even greater reward. Current remaining pups in the litter (13 / 13). Rewards: Experience, Bloodline Evolution Perk (Fairy Godmother) activated, variable.
Yes, I was both excited and repulsed by the update as soon as I received them. I was excited as it was exactly as I wanted, a viable reason to be forced to be next to so many cute and irresistible puppies, and also repulsed by the fact that I had inadvertently unlocked a bloodline marker related to being considered a Fairy Godmother. Honestly, I should have expected something wonky to go along with my bloodline, as it always seems to try to make me even odder every time I evolve. I can’t just be super pretty and slightly creepy like Mallory, no, I need to have blue skin like a smurf, a third eye like a circus freak, and glow like a magical beacon to anyone with any form of magical senses. Really hard to be an expert thief and burglar when your entire body all but radiates a million watts of energy like an inferno to those with magical senses.
There is a good thing to my bloodline, as it makes finding my family members excessively easy, as they all glow like miniature furnaces to my Angel’s Sight. Now it seems that it is a good thing that Gwen and Trenton are both stuck with just the Legendary version of the bloodline.
Honestly, I am kind of hesitant towards actually accomplishing this quest now, as I don’t know what Fairy Godmother bloodline perks would be? Would it come with a wand? Also, could it be something cool, like the Maleficent sort of godmother? Or would they assume I’m a ditzy fairy? You know, I don’t even want to ask that, as I am fairly certain I know the answer that will get assigned, and it is not the Angelina Jolie in black leather version.
Now I am set with the conundrum, of letting puppies die to avoid being turned into a fairy, or save puppies, be able to snuggle with thirteen cute little pups, and eventually be forced to turn into a running joke for the world to scoff at.
Yeah, of course, the puppies aren’t going to die. I don’t care how ridiculous I look as a result, I would not be able to live with myself if anything happened to these puppies. Especially now that I have a vested interest in their wellbeing, being a godmother, fairy or otherwise. Still, I hate that the world gives me these ridiculous settings.
I take in the fact that my wish has been accepted, but then just as I finally come to the conclusion that being a Fairy Godmother, via bloodline might not be so bad. That is when the terrible thought hits me.
And sadly, it is a sign of how comfortable I got while being separated that made it so I could miss something this important. But it is only now, about ten minutes after waking up from my nap inside the super dreamy-soft fur of Ms. Kujo that I realize I am missing someone. Well not just someone, but part of my very soul.
“Everything okay?” Kujo asks in my mind, apparently feeling my sudden stress from our Telepathic bond that is holding us together.
“Where is Zero?” I ask.
At that Kujo just pauses, looks at me like I am crazy and then points to Ms. Kujo, who is still snoring on her side, with her bulging stomach extended, and tongue dangling out and resting just on the lip of the giant bowl I had created for her in the ground.
Then with a pause, I look at Ms. Kujo and see a slightly dark form on the otherwise glowing body of Ms. Kujo. Instantly, I realize the dark silhouette is Zero’s as he apparently is still sleeping in the soft fur of Ms. Kujo. For a second, I am jealous that I didn’t stay there, as I know that if I tried to work my way back into the fur once more, I would probably end up waking Ms. Kujo.
Still, I find it odd that Zero seems so dull in comparison to Ms. Kujo. Seeing the two, I realize that while Zero might have part of my soul, he might not have awakened all the perks of my bloodline within him. No wait, he should have his own bloodline, as he is a super rare spirit dragon that we were asked to visit by the giant turtle tower.
Seeing Zero like that, I once again realize that he is frail. Or at least that is my concern for him, that he might be frail and suffer if he tries to follow along with me.
I have this thought, then instantly dismiss it. He is the same level as I am, though I honestly don’t know what class he is, or if there is just a generic Familiar class that gets assigned to all familiars. Truthfully, I have never asked him, as I don’t want others asking me about my classes. Though mine are easily noticeable as I am the undisputed trainer for each, which is good, as it means I can choose how the classes evolve.
That is my one concern with allowing Gwen to have my primary healing class of Ethereal Healer, because if she ever got a higher level than me in this class, then she would then be responsible for how the class evolved in the future. While that might not be a bad thing, as I have been terrible with keeping up with my class upgrades, I still like the idea of being able to choose how I evolve.
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That is part of the reason why I will never teach someone my Ethereal Simulacrums Master class, as I know that if others understood the class, they could find ways to limit its effectiveness. Also, people would probably create one person armies that would continually go around killing everything in sight, not worrying about having to focus on profit sharing or other factors. No, my classes are all broken, a fact that I am immensely grateful for, and something that I will make sure to keep to myself from here on out.
Seeing Zero sleeping, I first wonder if I should wake him up. I know I have been sleeping, but it is hard to determine exactly how long I took as a little power nap.
Then in the next second, I realize that I might actually like timed quests, if for no other reason than they help me keep track of the time of the day we are currently in.
Guild Quest Updated: Unclaimed Land Acquisition Charter: Your guild has managed to claim twenty acres of land. Continue to conquer more habitable swaths of land but realize your guild will now be forced to defend the land you now claim from the indigenous peoples. Nearest faction: Ancient Deolar Empire. Time left to defend your land (14 hours 25 minutes 18 seconds). Acres of land claimed (295 / 20). Rewards: Experience, Guild Title, Guild Land, variable.
With that update, I realized a few things. First, that we were at 9:35 AM, as I still had fourteen hours left in the day. Second, I realized that none of the other mages had completed their second connecting link to my grouping of five core connection points.
Sigh.
I let out a long-frustrated breath, as I kind of figured something like this would happen, which was why I originally took on the idea of performing eleven connection points. Of course, I was shut down by all the other mages claiming they could easily perform three connections each. Which gave them roughly eight hours per connection event, so they still had almost six hours and change to make the second link that would synchronize a direct route with the central points I had amassed.
Of course, this is all assuming that nothing else will go wrong. And by go wrong, I mean other monsters appearing and trying to destroy the lands we are in the process of cleaning, converting, and claiming for our guild.
That said, I do feel slightly tired in my bones, especially as I see how comfortable Zero looks right now. I want to take a nap and join Zero, but I can’t as I think we still have too much left to do. Especially, as I am the reason we are doing this quest here today, and not waiting until later. Meaning if we don’t hit all the goals that I had for us, then it will be like I let the guild down. With that pleasant thought, I decide to end nap time for Zero, so he can follow me.
“Wake up.” I mentally shout into Zero’s mind.
Shaking.
“What? Huh?” Zero squirms about, then finally realizes that I had awoken him from his deep slumber.
“Come on sleepy head, daylight’s burning.” I reply.
“What? How do you know?”
“My quest tracker.”
“Oh, stupid tracker,” Zero answers in a huff. “How much time do we have left?”
“Just over fourteen hours,” I reply.
“Fourteen? You mean over half the day left?”
“Yes, now come on.” I insist.
With that I see Zero squirming about, though he does appear to be stuck in the thick and soft fur of Ms. Kujo.
“Uh, I’m stuck, help me out.” Zero says, raising one clawed paw from the depths of the fur.
“Fine,” I reply as I Teleport right next to him, and grab his paw and lift.
Or at least I try to, though I forgot I still had my spell for being weightless on, aka Spectral Drift. With that, Zero easily manages to pull me down and into the thick, soft, and oh so warm fur of Ms. Kujo.
“Gah.” I send mentally to Zero.
“Looks like we are both stuck now.” Zero says, as I realize this was something he clearly wanted to do from the start.
“If this is how you are going to be on quests, I might rethink my want to take you with me.” I think, and unfortunately that thought gets transmitted to Zero.
Jolting upright, Zero gets up and swims so that his snout is right in front of my face. “Look, you might not see it, but you are tired. I can tell. You only had a two hour nap, and once we get up from here you are likely going to push yourself until the end of the day, when your timer runs out.”
“Yeah…” I respond, mentally.
“Well, as your familiar, it is my duty to make sure you take care of yourself. As such, I want to point out that this is the softest bed we are going to get for a while, and that you should trust in your guild members to do the tasks assigned to them.” Zero responds.
I am about to argue, but before I can make a complete thought, Zero continues. “If anyone needs you, they no doubt know where you are. If an emergency comes up, Gwen can Resurrect people, while they wait for you, and we both know that Mallory will be the first one here to say you should take a nap while you can. Particularly as you will need to go all day after this.”
“I hate it when you are right,” I answer. Though I do feel guilty for resting now, I do see the point. If anything exceptionally bad will be thrown at us, it will be towards the end of the quest. Meaning that the monster that we already fought would be considered a light warm up to what will finally come.
“Just shut off your mind and take the nap while you can.” Zero says.
“Shut off my mind?” I ask, then realize this is likely for the best. “Fine, but next time we awake we both go, no arguments.”
“Okay, deal.”
With that, I begin the long process of trying to slow my mind down, while I enter a slow Meditative state where my mind and the details that I observe around me slowly go from bright and vibrant colors on a black backdrop to completely black. Then once it is at the calm state of utter darkness, I let my mind shut off and fully embrace sleep.
I go to sleep ready to let my mind and body fully commit to sleeping for as long as possible. A part of me even hopes that I can go to sleep and wake up after this quest is over.
As my mind begins to drift away, I mark this as one of the few times I feel truly content. I am in a fluffy cloud blanket of Dire Phase Wolf fur, by my familiar, on the land I personally cleansed from the Blight, and helped to claim for my guild. Honestly right now, I was fully content.
Deep sleep.
***
(A Long Nap Later)
My mind awoke to full blast. One second, I was deep in the throws of comfortable darkness and the heat of a pregnant fur blanket, and the next my mind was fully awake and revitalized.
Then minute I awoke, my mind instantly realized everything I still needed to do.
I awoke with my Cassie-Do list up and loaded.
“Come on Zero, up and at ‘em.” I say mentally, ready and feeling fully recharged from having slept so long.
“Gahh.” Zero mentally moans to me, but I can feel him actually trying to awaken. “Did you actually sleep?”
“Of course I did. Why do you think so much time has passed?” I ask, then with that I mentally bring up the quest to see exactly how much time had passed. I was thinking that it had to be hours given how refreshed I felt.
Guild Quest Updated: Unclaimed Land Acquisition Charter: Your guild has managed to claim twenty acres of land. Continue to conquer more habitable swaths of land but realize your guild will now be forced to defend the land you now claim from the indigenous peoples. Nearest faction: Ancient Deolar Empire. Time left to defend your land (13 hours 48 minutes 10 seconds). Acres of land claimed (295 / 20). Rewards: Experience, Guild Title, Guild Land, variable.
Oh, thirty-seven minutes, apparently it was one of those power naps that makes you feel fully recharged as if you had a full night’s sleep.
I was a little sad to see that no further progress on the combined lands had been made, but then again, I realized it had only been a little over half an hour. Though, that didn’t help me with the lingering pit that I felt within my stomach at the seemingly stagnant quest marker. This was our one and only day to do a land grab like this, after this, we would need to go to war, or go through long drawn-out land purchase agreements with the locals. Which might not be terrible, it could still be a painful process that would eat up a lot of our Guild’s capital and likely stymie our current growth rate.
“Have I told you that I hate morning people,” Zero replies as he starts swimming his way out of Ms. Kujo’s fur, showing that he could have easily done so earlier.
“It’s not morning, it is already 10:12 AM,” I reply.
“Which is before noon, ergo morning.” Zero replies finally getting his way out from the fur.
Poof.
I Teleport to a spot not a dozen meters away from Ms. Kujo who still seems to be sleeping through everything. Seeing her, I make sure to fill up her water dish with more mana infused water. Then give a bow and a salute to Kujo, before forcing Zero to go with me as we make our way to the next nearest spot that I was to hit.
Then before I am about to Teleport away, Zero stops me.
“Wait, I need to do something.” He transmits mentally.
“What?” I ask, as I sit still and wait as he does his flying swim towards me.
“This,” is all he says, before he continues to swim at full speed towards me. I am about to brace for impact, when I see a weird ripple of distortion on him, as an odd form of Spatial Magic engages.
I see it, then before I can react, I feel his energy merge with my own spirit.
I watch as his three-dimensional body gets molded into a two-dimensional image that resides just below my skin.
“Did you just become a familial tattoo?” I ask, clearly confused about the glowing mass that is both Zero and me that now rests on my skin.
“Yes, now go do all your craziness, while I finish my nap.” Zero replies.
And like that, I was both jealous of Zero’s ability to sluff off duties like a champ, and happy that I didn’t have to get angry about him holding me back.
“Okay then,” is all I responded verbally to myself more than anyone as I tried Teleporting only to realize that this time Zero had in fact traveled with me.
Shrugging at the change, I figured I’d ask Zero about this change sometime later, as for now I had a quest to complete.