“So,” My face was implacable, hiding my true feelings. We had moved within the fluttering confines of Sage’s ‘palatial’ dwelling. Inside, the mystique crumbled further; woven materials made it hot enough that even my Chimera Core reacted and the interior smelled horrifically of dead bird. I hid my smugness deep down in my heart at these minor environmental defects. “The true reason you created this small vacation home-”
“Ugh, that fool Nightshade, obviously,” Sage’s body sagged, her many tails fluttering around her body. She had bird feather tails, snake tails, and even squirrel tails. I spotted the thin whip that probably came from my tortoise. “He’s just so… well, you’ve spent some time with him. My Great-Uncle would have said he does not fear the one true flame, you know?”
I thought about the bloodlust that had filled Nightshade and the reckless abandon with which he threw himself toward the horde of Fae Squirrels. Obviously, my loyalty would not slacken. No matter what, he was my brother.
But also…
See self? All that pointless worrying… pointless! Self-evidently! Sage didn’t leave because of the stump home; her appreciation for my homey-stylings is implied. She, indeed, is my sister in this next life. Instead, it was Nightshade that drove her away. A completely understandable reaction-- being a Maou in his previous existence was bound to leave a few quirks.
Personality, this just goes to show that leisure is the way to live. Why bother getting so reactionary and expending all that effort when you could just relax and find out the whole truth before you-
Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 19.
SEE?!!? Dere I say it? Even the System cannot help but acknowledge the superiority of leisure. So, cool as a cucumber, let’s talk through this issue…
“So, what should we do?” I said
“Kill him. He will only drag us down.” Sage said.
I twitched. We stared at each other. Sage’s gaze didn’t waiver.
It occurred to me, at that moment, that perhaps both of my monster companions had quirks. I released a small cough. “There are surely other methods.”
All of Sage’s tails flexed and straightened, practically filling her side of the tent. “I have been repeatedly harassed and disrespected by that rotting glob of empty heads. Do I seem like the type of royalty that takes kindly to these repeated transgressions?”
Well, no. I had to admit to myself.
“I will speak to him and make the situation clear,” I said in my most authoritative voice. I raised my squirrel claws to make a threatening gesture, realized that circumstance had conspired against me to transform them into surgeon’s dainty digits, and then did my best to crack my slender knuckles in as threatening a manner as possible. “For at least the luck of being… ahem, ahem, born in the same cohort as us, he deserves this small boon.”
“Ah, Tallum, what would I do without you?! Truly-” Sage threw her gooey body across the intervening space and wrapped her tails around me. They undulated and traced the contours of my limbs, until, of course, the point where she drew back in horror. “What happened?!? Your tail is gone!”
I suppressed another twitch. I felt like I should earn a Skill Level in Body Manipulation for today’s controlled and restrained performance. Also, I decided that part of leisure is being to rely on white lies to avoid trouble. But I did allow some of my very real sorrow seep out of my tone. “...I spent the previous evening with Nightshade. There were… body part casualties when he antagonized far too many Fae Squirrels.
Sniff, RIP, serrated forearm…! You were, you will always be, my ideal arm…
Fuck, and now my best attack is open hand slapping with these dainty mouse mitts?!?
By the time my small mental sojourn had run its course, I had come back to a Sage with a stormy expression. “Your kind spirit of generosity might be willing to forgive these foolhardy debacles, but the sacrifices you have made are too much! I will make a gift of his corpse to you, so that your grief might be sated!”
Why are both of you so insistent on processing emotions via slaughter?! Take up a hobby! My alarm left me briefly stunned; it turned out that my small lie had only made more trouble. My non-leisurely, traitorous heart offered a smug snort at my predicament.
Perhaps… I should just be more direct with Sage?
However, in that moment, fate interceded. A loud whistle came from outside the tent. “Mistress! That forbidden one has returned. Claiming to have brought gifts!”
“Gifts?” All of the animosity melted away from Sage. she straightened her tails, schooled her expression, disentangled herself from me, and then flowed out of the tent. “Hmph, these better be good.”
I blinked at the sudden change. Mental note: Sagacity is weak to bribery. Definitely worth it to try honesty in the future… but at the very least, bribery can always be a fallback.
I followed Sage outside, curious about what Nightshade could have brought as a gift. The two bird guards flanked our indigo companion, who stood proudly with one head tucked behind his back. Before anything else, he looked over at me and winked.
With all of the squirrel heads on his new arm at once.
“You come groveling back with a gift?” Sage folded two snake tails in front of her body. “How pathetic. Let’s see what pittance of mud and desperation you have managed to dredge up. Because Tallum has spoken on your behalf, I will endeavor not to vomit on the offering out of sheer disgust.”
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Is this really the same individual who hurried outside to receive her gift…?
“It is my great luck to have discovered these small drops of wondrous liquid, caught in some nearby reeds. Please, taste them. I am sure you will be pleased.” My Mana Core twinged in warning me as Nightshade moved, but I was wholly unprepared for him to offer up several very familiar spheres of liquid.
My shameful lavender excretions sat in his hand, still glittering like jewels.
“Pah, if you insist. How droll, I have a dozen liquids just like these. Do our current forms even allow for the possibility of libations?” While Sage prattled off nonsense, she slithered forward and swiped three drops. Her green interstitial flesh parted and she pressed the liquid into her ooze core.
The drops released a soft lavender light and instantly dispersed through her ooze.
She shivered and released a low moan. “Oh… oh…!”
Her tails moved lightning fast. All of the remaining drops that Nightshade held were snatched up. Just as quickly, she absorbed all of them but one. Then she hesitated and turned to me. “Tallum, you simply must- well, they are a diverting experience.”
“I’m… I’m not hungry…” My spirit had left my body. I felt so ashamed. Why was I so foolish to activate the Blessing upstream from Sage’s summer home?
“Don’t be silly; it is liquid, not solid,” Sage happily rolled up to me and slapped the drop against me before I could react. It popped and released its glittering aura. I felt a rising tide of revulsion-
Oh? Despite the disgust at the core of the feeling, the edges of that were blunted. I felt surprisingly relaxed and refreshed. The lavender glitter seemed to dissolve all my stress. The shadowy corners of my heart, from which the stressful whispers emerged, now were soaked in soft illumination. I settled on my tortoise haunches. This… is actually not so bad? No wonder those glutinous little spiderlings are so desperate for this stuff…
“A low-quality offering, but coincidentally my own stores of this liquid are rather low at the moment. So long as you bring me more, you will be pardoned,” Sage flicked at tail at Nightshade. He bowed in response. He then very obviously winked (eight times) at me again, but I did my best not to consider the implications of him knowing the source of those drops.
The sun had almost reached its apex in the sky, indicating noon, and finally, we started the return journey to our stump home. Sage even deigned to join us, especially when I asked for her help in clearing out the snakes that had set up by the wild strawberry patches I had planted. She even got her bird guards to bring cuttings of the cranberries, so I could try and grow the fruit a little closer to our ‘base’.
When we got home, I sated my Anima needs on the buzzing flies. Then I got to work, leaving Sage and Nightshade to bicker over who would take the lead in subduing the serpent invaders.
I began working.
If I got the request on a Sunday, I did some mental calculations. I worked Monday and Tuesday, went out for a Nightshade adventure on Wednesday, and am now back on a Thursday. I have Friday and Saturday to finish… Still definitely doable.
I mined mud and shaped bricks (it is difficult to admit how better my corners became with an actual pair of hands). I left them to dry in the sun while moving onto digging little trenches and ridges necessary to cultivate cranberries. Surreptitiously glancing in every direction, I snuck off behind the spiderlings growing web-marsh and activated my Seep Blessed Oils. The experience of touching my own secretions still filled me with a little bit of horror, but I could at least appreciate the appeal.
My hands once again fluttered through hand seals as I activated the Blessing. A ridiculous amount of liquid fell out of my body. The proliferating spiderlings happily picked up the drops in their forelegs and carried it all away to hide within the depths of their web area.
With that task out of the way, I walked back South to the mud field. A toad sat at the edge and croaked at me, at least proving that whatever strangeness of the clearing had passed. I charged and the toad hopped away. Leaving me to consider the two layers of completed bricks I had erected.
My gaze rose and I tried to imagine how high I wanted to make the temple. Then I considered cutting some bricks to create the window on the far wall-- Even through the haze of leisure gifted by my oils, I began to feel the stirrings of panic. The amount of labor remaining began to daunt me. Halfway through the week, I had maybe a fourth of the temple finished.
This… my Kami can’t be a vindictive sort, right? If I don’t quite make it…
Tch, who am I kidding? If I fail, the Kami will definitely refuse to give me a second Blessing… and then I’ll just be a gooey squeeze-sponge for the rest of my life, every time Nightshade needs to get into Sage’s good graces…
I returned to the mud beach. A few frogs had hopped closer and I attempted to defeat them by making a dainty fist with my holy squirrel hands. It was… almost completely ineffective. Poking their eyes out and then stomping their bodies with my tortoise legs was far more efficient.
With aggravation in mind, I moved the dried bricks to the side and then laid out another batch to dry. Perhaps the evening sun would be enough to complete them. I could even get a head start on a third batch, before morning.
Despite my frantic actions, there certainly was a calming satisfaction in the labor. And honing my repetitive motions earned me quite a few Skill Levels. Construction seemed like a fruitful hobby.
Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 16.
Your Skill (Temp) Dig has grown to Level 11.
Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 17.
Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 18.
Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 20.
Your Skill (Temp) Dig has grown to Level 12.
Your Skill (Temp) Dig has grown to Level 13.
Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 19.
Midnight came and went, taking from me its tithe of Anima for remaining awake. I scuttled over to the fly pond and gulped down almost more flies than I needed to, finding it comically simple to use my small hands to just snatch the lazy fuckers out of the air and gulp them down.
Your Skill (Species) Absorb Anima has grown to Level 31.
Feeling particularly motivated, I also carved up my flesh and allowed it to slowly form back. I swallowed more flies to replenish my Anima and did it again.
Your Skill (Species) Interstitial Flesh has grown to Level 9.
A little extra effort now, I reasoned to myself. So tomorrow can be that much more leisurely.
Your Skill (Species) Interstitial Flesh has grown to Level 10.
At the end of a day of furious activity, I felt entirely spent. Still, I mustered up all of my focus and turned my gaze inward, back toward the faulty array animating this body. For a few seconds, I felt a previously impossible level of clarity as I peered into my own secrets; clearly, Wisdom gave me a bit of extra processing capability.
The energy arrays spun and refracted. I could observe the way power flowed in spirals through my animating array.
Your Skill (Species) Basic Array Knowledge has grown to Level 9.
Your Skill (Earned) Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 17.
Your Skill (Species) Basic Array Knowledge has grown to Level 10.
Your Skill (Species) Basic Array Knowledge evolved into (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge Lvl 1.
Eventually the pressure proved to be too much even for my pittance of Wisdom. My eye rolled up and I collapsed into oblivion.