Chapter 272
Passing the Buck, and Other Natural Disasters
“I thought pixies weren’t allowed to lie?” Penelope asked.
“She’s not, by keeping everything she says at a broad level, she is making it so her words could theoretically be possible. As she said, it could have been anyone. With that statement, she is one hundred percent correct and factual, it could have been anyone, but we all know what we saw.” Mallory stated her voice calm and commanding.
There was a moment of silence, before Jhonny had to fill the silence.
“Wait, there is something more important, Dr. Spiritlight, did you get a fourth class?” Jhonny asked.
With that, I immediately answer truthfully, “no, I have not accepted the class.”
I was about to say yet, or look for a sign of praise from Mallory for showing discretion, when Mallory just turned to me and shouted, “why not!?”
Hearing her obvious anger in her words I cringe slightly and feel myself drifting backwards the way only a weightless body could do while changing their body posture in mid-air.
“Um, because I didn’t want to be in charge of pets? I mean, I can barely take care of myself,” I answer truthfully, though it might have come out as more of a question than anything.
Mallory held up a finger like she wanted to protest, but then quickly realized that I made a good point.
“Okay, good point. Especially considering your attempt at a doggy litter box was labelled a mythic level sacrificial altar, I can’t really refute that claim,” Mallory said lowering her finger at me and instead turned her attention towards Penelope and Jhonny. Then pausing for a moment, she began speaking to Penelope and Jhonny like I didn’t exist.
“You two know what this means, right?” Mallory asked.
“That there is an unclaimed super pack in our backyard waiting to be directed by an official Tamer?” Jhonny asked.
At that, I just turned to Kujo and gave a look that all but swore he would be in for it, if he accepted another master.
Kujo for his part saw the gesture and apparently understood enough of the conversation going on to bow his head and come over to me, making sure to lower his head enough so that my outstretched hands would begin petting the creature.
“Well, that is something that we now also need to be concerned with,” Mallory began. “But no, what is probably the most concerning factor is that any Tamer could now theoretically find a way to getting the mythic level class first. That World First announcement that we saw was a warning not only to the world, but also to us, that since Cass is not taking the class, the Mythic level class is available.”
Then after a brief second of waffling back and forth on the subject, Mallory then added, “and as Jhonny noted, the obvious reward for gaining the class would be the noted super pack. Made up of the Kujos, who are set to expand to a pack of fifteen, and the four dragon guardians. Guardians that have for whatever reason decided to be in Pomeranian form this entire time.”
With the last part about the Guardians staying in their Pomeranian form, I couldn’t help but feel slightly judged.
“I mean, they do take up less space in this form and are easier to deal with. Well, mostly.” I state.
Mallory just glances at me from the side of her eye, but then ultimately turns to the others.
“Do any of you want to try for the Mythic Tamer class?” Mallory asked.
“Sure, but what should we do?” Penelope asked.
“Well, as has been noted, it seems the easiest way would be to get Kujo to accept you as a leader. Then from what it seems like the rest of the pack would follow.” Mallory noted.
All this time I was just petting Kujo, rubbing just under his ears in the way he liked. From what it seemed like this would be easy, I just keep Kujo’s attention long enough for someone else to bond with the big lug, and then I’m done pet sitting. Well, done once the pack of puppies are born, I do not want to miss that opportunity. I can only imagine a litter of thirteen tiny Kujos running rampant, tails wagging excitedly.
“Yeah, I’ll try first,” Jhonny said, as he began approaching the backside of Kujo.
There was the slightest of hesitations to his movements, that hesitation easily caught both mine and Kujo’s attention. Again, fortunately, I was there to pet Kujo under the ears, and keep this opportunity alive, but it was pretty touch and go there for a bit.
“Jhonny, you need to be more confident in your approach,” I stated.
Hearing me, Jhonny paused for a moment, his arm half outstretched towards Kujo’s backside, but then seemed to take my advice and dial it up to eleven as he charged forward and tried to pet Kujo’s backside.
The unfortunate thing was, that the part where Jhonny chose to place his hand and scratch was the part that had the least amount of fur on it, I’m assuming Jhonny’s mentality was that this would be the easiest part to clearly pet and get noticed.
Pet, pet, scratch.
However, it was too easily noticed as the reason the spot had the least amount of fur on it, was that it was a scarred patch of flesh that instantly caused a survival instinct to sink in for Kujo.
“GRRR!” All that could be heard was the echo of a growl, before Kujo snapped at the offending appendage that tried to touch his weak spot while he was distracted.
What happened next was a textbook case of what a Combat Lifesaver’s job was.
The bite from Kujo was so quick and precise that all I could do was react.
Telekinetic Push.
Healing, Regeneration, Regrowth, Re-Attaching Limbs.
Instantly, I separated the two, forcefully pushing Kujo away from Jhonny and myself, while grabbing the arm from Kujo’s mouth. Only to be stopped by the flailing arm to be caught up in the teeth. Then rather than fight for the mangled arm, I in turn created a new arm from the mangled stump that remained and within a matter of seconds, I managed to get the arm back to its original, albeit momentarily bare form.
Jhonny was in shock, at least at first, then by the time the arm grew back before his eyes, he then began to half swim half crab walk backwards away from Kujo who looked somewhat shocked at what had ultimately happened.
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“Bad Kujo!” I say, and at that admonishment Kujo just lowers his body to the ground and places his head between his paws, a clear sign of submission.
With Kujo cowed, even the Guardians that heard me snap at Kujo all seem to cower back in fear.
Once again, I can all but see the notification for the system all but begging me to take the Tamer class. But again, the last thing I want is to be accused of creating multiple sacrificial altars, for animals that decide to stay in my dwellings that I claim as home.
Realizing, this process needs to be expedited if I am ever going to not be forced to be an official pet handler, I try to get Mallory to try.
“Mallory, why don’t you show them how it is done,” I say to the fearless leader.
Mallory just looks from me, to Jhonny who is still clutching his newly regrown bare arm, and then over to Kujo.
“He still has the arm in his mouth,” Mallory noted, a slight shiver washing over her body as she looked at Kujo.
“Are you afraid of Kujo?” I asked.
“No, I mean, he just bit off the arm of Jhonny in less than a second.” Mallory hissed, gesticulating wildly and ultimately pointing to Jhonny who was only now getting to his feet, now that he had scooted well behind Mallory for protection.
“Let me guess, you are more of a cat person?” I ask.
“What, I mean, yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?” Mallory asked.
At that, I just shook my head.
Fortunately, Penelope was there.
“Give me the arm,” Penelope said, her voice and posture confident as she went over to interact with and deal with Kujo.
Kujo for his part looked offended that we were taking away his new snack, but then a quick glare from me, and the overly confident nature of Penelope made it so he just acquiesced and opened his mouth.
Then without any hesitation, as if Penelope placed her head within the mouths of gators for a living, Penelope reached in, and then after a few crisp tugs and pulls was able to remove the appendage from Kujo’s overly sharp teeth.
There was a slight stumble at the end, as the last remaining vestiges of arm were removed from between the serrated blades in his mouth, but Penelope just used that to turn and present Jhonny with his now mangled and broken extra arm.
“Here, never say I didn’t give you a hand,” Penelope said, as she tried to give the appendage back to Jhonny.
“No thanks, I’m good,” Jhonny said, holding up the same exact arm in a halting gesture that was being offered.
With that Penelope just shrugged, then continued with the terrible jokes, “way to leave yourself hanging there.”
Before anyone could say anything she dropped the appendage on the ground in front of Mallory and Jhonny, then proceeded to walk back to Kujo.
Kujo for his part still had his head down, but no longer flashed his giant maw of razor-sharp teeth.
“Poor, Kujo, so misunderstood,” Penelope said, as she went over and began petting Kujo right behind the ear, the way I had earlier. Her voice in that deep way you get when trying to comfort animals.
“Kujo’s a good boy, its just that no one else sees how good you really are,” Penelope continued.
Then Kujo slightly lifted his head up and nodded his head in agreement. Then after a few more seconds of being scratched and cooed at by Penelope, the unthinkable happened.
Kujo turned its massive head and faced Penelope.
Then before I could do more than cringe, as I knew what came next. Kujo opened its maw and flicked out its massive drool covered tongue and licked Penelope from head to toe.
“Bleh!” I let out, in sympathy for Penelope.
Seeing the act for what it was, I realized why I disliked pets. Not only did they get fur, dander, and ultimately mess up the house, but then they showed their appreciation by licking and drooling all over you.
Giggle.
Rather than being disgusted by having Blight kibble breath and rancid saliva spread all over her clothes, Penelope actually laughed.
Shiver.
Personally, I could not get over where that tongue had been and most importantly what it had chewed through recently. I mean the scent of Jhonny’s blood and viscera would be part of that lick and fresh wet coat of drool that was just applied. Yet, Penelope, rather than being disgusted by the act just seemed to laugh it off, while cooing at Kujo.
“Oh, such a good boy. Such a good boy.” Penelope said, as she then began vigorously petting Kujo, despite the fact that the drool now seemed to act as tar, and Kujo’s fur the feathers that were now definitely coating her clothes in the mother of all lint roller nightmares.
While I was being disgusted, an odd thing happened.
A number of the golden threads that bound me to Kujo began to shift, switching from me to Penelope. There was a moment, where I could see that the these moving threads all but begged for me to tug at them, to pull them back to me and bind them to myself.
Yet, in this case I didn’t mind.
I realized that by giving up these threads I was giving up a lot of potential future power, or maybe future karma that I could call to act on my behalf. But I honestly didn’t mind the loss of this transferring of karma from myself to Penelope.
I’m not going to lie and pretend that I was some saint that easily gave up the chance of blatant power before her. But I realized that there were worse options than Penelope for gaining the respect of the Kujos, and Kujos pack.
Also, I was not ready for the complications that came from being a pet owner. Especially as I prefer to just rent them from time to time and hand them back when it is time to clean up the messes that they invariably made.
Ding.
Finally, after enough time and enough golden threads were passed from me to Penelope, a sharp crisp ding was heard, followed by an explosion of golden light.
Or at least, I could see an explosion of golden light erupt from Penelope.
“Oh,” Penelope said, shock clear in her voice as she either didn’t notice the threads of karmic energy binding her to Kujo, or she was playing dumb. Honestly, it was kind of hard to miss the transfer of energy, for me at least, but I guess the others didn’t notice either, or were placating her, as they asked the obvious question.
“What happened?” Mallory and Jhonny asked in near unison. Both seemed to take a step forward. Mallory took two, but Jhonny stepped midway through his second one as his toes inadvertently stumbled across his mangled arm that was still just laying on the ground.
This was why Jhonny did not react the same way as Mallory did, when Penelope spoke out excitedly, “I’ve got my first Mythic Level class!”
World First Notification: Congratulations to Penelope Tailor who managed to receive a mythical level class, while only having an awakened Royal Bloodline. The sky is now the limit for what is possible.
“What the heck?” Mallory asked out, her voice incredulous as she seemed to read and then reread the prompt, before looking to an excited Penelope.
“I did it!” Penelope shouted excitedly as she raised her hands in the air, then quickly turned around and lovingly hugged Kujo. “I mean, we did it, and we will continue to do it from here on out as a team.”
Then with that, golden threads proceeded to flow from Penelope to the four Pomeranian Guardians who by now had finished eating their offered meals and were just staring on in silent awe at what was happening before them.
“What, the?” Mallory asked, her voice incredulous as she seemed to try to take in everything that was happening right in front of her.
“Oh wait, I get the whole pack?” Penelope cooed in a high pitch that I’d swear dogs would bark at. But nope, instead all of the Pomeranians all seemed to smile and wag their tails excitedly as Penelope came to give them all pats and scratches. Some even going as far as wrestling the other pack members away as they fought to get as close as possible to Penelope.
“See, it is not just me,” I state, feeling a bit vindicated at the fact that Penelope also had similar acts of randomness happen to her, letting her actions get outed by everyone.
Mallory who had been taking in the whole situation just paused and stared at Penelope who was petting all of the animals. Even going so far as to have to keeping her left hand firmly on Kujo while she used her right hand to quickly scratch between the four other Pomeranian guardians.
Looking at her, I could only shake my head. That was both a lot of elementally infused fur that was getting on her clothes thanks to the elemental Pomeranians and bad management. That pack will have a harder time following her lead at this rate.
“Wait, did you do this somehow?” Mallory asks.
“What no? I wouldn’t wish drool or elemental fur lint on anyone, let alone my favorite Tailor who I am in charge of watching.” I respond almost indignantly at the accusation.
Mallory hears that and nods in agreement for a moment, but then pauses as she seems to realize something.
“Could you have done something to stop this?” Mallory asked.
And like that, I could all but feel golden threads of fate coming from Mallory and constricting around me. They were loose threads, easily avoided, but somehow I knew that by answering them with a lie would cause these good threads to somehow turn evil, or maybe just weigh me down? Either way, I knew that answering with a direct lie would turn these threads against me, whereas by continuing to answer Mallory in a truthful way, I would essentially regain the golden threads of karma that I lost to Penelope and the Kujo pack.
“I mean, we all could have done something to stop this, Jhonny could have kept his hands away from the old scars. You could have taken your chance as a pack leader. And yes, I could have done quite a few things to avoid this, like not rescuing Kujo. Not helping the Guardians of the area reach their true potential that they have now, and not taking it so personally to help Penelope become a stronger more self-sufficient person.” I answer truthfully.
Golden flash.
With that truthful answer, the golden threads that had been waiting to hold me down as a prisoner, suddenly clung to me and showed that I still had chances of fate left to work with.
This was good.
I was still learning about this odd Pixie only, or maybe Fae-people only type of boon from not lying, but it was an interesting system that I very much wanted to keep in my favor.
Mallory of course just looked at me and bit her lower lip. It was clear from her reaction that she knew she left the question too open ended, which I masterfully answered.
“Well, what about…” Mallory begins, and as she speaks I can already see more golden threads appearing from her and lashing out towards me.
“Wait, before you ask any more questions. Isn’t it time you ask the real question that you want to have answered?” I pose.
With that Mallory opens her mouth, then closes it as she stares at me. It is clear that she knows I am planning something, but then curiosity gets the better of her.
“Okay, fine then, what question do you think I want to have answered?” Mallory asks and as she does the thick chains of golden potential surge out from her and wrap around me, the same way a giant anaconda would when I happened to fall into its lair.
Fortunately, I now controlled the flow of this conversation and could get us back on track to what really mattered.
“Simple, you want to know how to finally unlock your Killing Intent before we head back and get ready for the wedding, that is going to happen in under,” I look at my bare wrist for effect, but I have no clue what time it actually is.
“Under ten hours, it is currently three AM. Well, Two-fifty-nine and…” Jhonny said, pulling out his pocket watch that he was given so I could make my appointments on time.
Then before anything else could happen, I felt a sudden shift. As part of my soul seemed to suddenly grow denser. It was at this exact time that I received a chilling system message. One that would all but make any action I did today both extremely obvious and hard to disassociate from myself.
Congratulations Birthday Girl. Today is your 15th birthday, marked from the time zone of your initial acceptance to the server eight years ago in the Maltese Empire. For today and today only, you will get to wear the Birthday Crown. Birthday Crown (Temporary Item): A crown given to a birthday girl with an awakened Legendary or above bloodline. While in use all experience gained is increased by 10%, all knowledge gained is increased by 10%, and all feats of accomplishment will be increased by a further 10%. Duration: Next 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59...58... Congratulations, now go out there and enjoy your day to the fullest. But beware of birthday spankings.
And like that, I realized that we were now apparently three time zones ahead of the Maltese Empire, while also wondering what the warning was about birthday spankings.