Immediately after delivering my one-liner, I paused. Ah, wait. Maybe sap-thirst would have been better? Fucking tree.
After incapacitating the Summoned Forest Protector’s right arm, it slashed with the left and ripped out a vicious 17 of my Health, putting my total at a precarious 51. My flippancy vanished; The combination of my Recovery and the Weak Healing Secretions meant my Health ticked up one every few seconds, but it would not last long against continued aggressive assault.
Yet I felt confident now that one limb was out of commission. It was still wickedly fast, so fast it managed to retract the first slash and throw out another one. But the action took another second. And in another second, I could use my tail and fang to safely block. It growled at me and I chuckled. A moment later, I felt regret.
Pah, this is what I get for feeling superior… Mana coiled through the air and flowed into my Protector, causing its body to mend before my eyes. The right arm began to creak.
Yet while healing, its movements became stiff. It could not move quite as well while being mended. Mana surged through the limbs and held it still.
One second is enough.
I moved, not giving myself time to think up a more pun-y one-liner. My tail flicked out and grasped the wrist of the remaining arm. I yanked, just enough power in my body to keep the Protector off balance. Before its other arm knitted together, I kicked low with my tortoise legs, shattering its knee joints. It collapsed on the ground, its arms flailing.
I stepped forward and stomped on its last remaining limb. It glared hatefully up at me with its emerald eyes.
But that was all it could do. One arm was whole and the other was rapidly healing, but I just pressed my tortoise legs on th joints, keeping them in place.
“Do I not give you space to breathe? Sounds like I give you a bad case of-” As soon as the Protector had been neutralized, I felt the severing-- the Shaman’s of Retribution in the distance had cut off the flow of Mana.
Pleasure surged through me; I had won. And yet I frowned. “...because you’ve got a bad case of branch-itis…”
Almost a pyrrhic victory, because these assholes also grant no experience.
Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 25(+12).
Even if you rain on my parade now, System, so what? I won.
I quickly refocused on the situation around the clearing; my anxiety eased to see that the conflicts for both Nightshade and Sage were well in hand. When Mana had been cut off to my foe, the weaker Protector fighting Nightshade also crumbled. And Sage had rendered her Lvl 20 Protector armless-
Your Skill (Earned) Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 25(+4).
-right as it seemed Sage would finish off her Protector, all the Mana withdrawn from my and Nightshade’s Protectors slammed into the armless one growling at Sage. The light from its eyes brightened. Its whole body trembled as the arms grew back in only an instant, thicker and more powerful than ever.
Ah, I guess it doesn’t matter if it needs to remain still for the healing if the process is supercharged…
It loped forward. My System eyes caught its shift in power. I took a few steps forward as worry filled me.
Empowered Summoned Forest Protector Lvl 21
Yet both of my lives were blessed with reliable older sisters.
“Six Tailed…” Sage spoke, pausing in her movements. Beneath her, two froglegs compacted. Her tails stretched outward. A whip-thin tortoise tail, three snake tails, a bird wing functioning as tails, and fluffy squirrel tail stretched out to their full height.
From her exultant jelly, I could feel Sage’s smile. “...Extinction.”
I didn’t see her move. One moment she stood in front of her foe, the next behind.
I just saw the Empowered Protector’s torso split in half, from its head down to its waist. Those powerful arms didn’t even get a chance to act. The Forest Protector took a few more steps forward, its leafy knuckles dragging on the ground. The Mana within the being’s body writhed, trying to repair the damage. But it weakened midway up the torso.
The summon wheeled around, its eyes crackling with leaking Mana. Through the fissure in its branch flesh, I saw Sage, standing smugly-
But I didn’t miss the small trembling in her limbs.
“No! You mustn’t be allowed to proceed!”
The Shaman of Retribution we had captured rushed forward. His squirrel hands crafted hand seals as he went. Mana gathered around his body. “So long as you die here… soon, the promised one will-”
I responded on instinct, guided by protectiveness.
Due to your actions, your Blessing Launch Clay has earned +1 Proficiency!
Due to your actions, your Blessing Launch Clay has earned +1 Proficiency!
The first projectile collapsed the squirrel’s trachea, the second cracked open his skull.
You have slain a Lvl 12 Fae Squirrel Shaman of Retribution.
You have Leveled Up! Health +5, Mana +3, Free Stat +1. Please select which Stat will receive the free point.
“Ah. I have two regular Stats right now.” I said out loud, even as I looked at the collapsing corpse of the Shaman.
The Summoned Forest Protector took a step forward, but the wave of Mana the Shaman released dissipated into the air before it could connect to its wounded form. Which meant that the damage proved too much. The empowered version collapsed, unable to recover before its energy leaked out.
Suddenly, the trees around us became very quiet. And I-
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Is it because you were so like Mr. Gains? I looked at the squirrel corpse. My emotions stirred, not leisurely at all. My flesh tensed. I… honestly, I didn’t want to kill you. Even if you were a know-it-all.
I didn’t regret striking to protect Sage. But also, I felt a keening sense of frustration. Suddenly, the gap between my capability and the one required to live life as I desired ached. I had taken a step or two forward today, but I would need more.
The Level-Up notification continued to blip incessantly in front of me, so I put the point into my newly earned Insight Stat.
“A decisive intervention, Sir Tallum,” Violala fluttered over next to me. “Based on their desperation, they do not have much Mana remaining to them. Can you tell how far the central point of the forest is?”
“Before that, Tallum,” Sage bounced over. From her tone, I understood for the first time, she pointed her sharp anger toward me. “You intervened in Nightshade and I’s duel. Do you think I’m weak? That I am pathetic enough to require help?”
I blinked, trying to follow her logic. The previous exhaustion from Inferior Adrenaline Rush, the parade of fighting, and now this inexplicable grief toward the squirrel left me confused. “...Sage, you had already cut the Empowered Summoned Protector in half. You are definitely strong. I just wanted to stop our captive from-”
“Sage,” Nightshade slithered forward and spoke in a growl. “Had Tallum not intervened-”
“Do you think I don’t know?!” Sage spat on the ground. Behind her, her tails hung limp, dragging across the ground. I realized it was the first time they weren’t in constant motion, undulating behind her. “Do you two take the name of Sagacity lightly?”
Even through my own confused sorrow at slaying a reminder of my human existence, I could hear Sage’s frustration and insecurities as she whipped around and turned away. “Pah. This is your victory, Nightshade. Give me a few minutes to grieve the tarnished legacy of the Skyfires.”
Sage rolled into the trees, but I felt with my energy senses she didn’t go far. Still, I felt a strange sense of loss.
Is this… our first triumphant fight where we don’t do our victory dance? It was dumb, but that upset me more than Sage’s anger.
“She…” Violala opened her mouth. But at the same moment, Nightshade and I both gave her warning looks. After reconsidering, Violala wisely chose not to comment.
“So we wait?” Nightshade looked at me.
I reached up and rubbed my forehead with my tiny squirrel hands. At times like this, they proved quite convenient. “We wait. But… was she really so frustrated that I tried to help?”
“Ah, sometimes, due to your wisdom, I forget Brother Tallum walked a path of temperance, in your first life.” Nightshade hummed. “Reading her ‘intent’ when she unleashed that move… the name of the Skill was her aim. Truly, had Sister Sagacity been in her original body, her unsealed power would level the forest and precipitate a total extinction. For such an aim to be so mired in the shackles of her newfound flesh… She lashed out because she is frustrated with her own weakness.”
…truthfully, expectations are the source of disappointment and the enemy of leisure. And did he say intent? Like… martial intent? She- haaah.
Well… setting aside the fantasy elements, maybe my siblings have the same worries and insecurities that I do. It’s finally hitting us how far we are from our original lives.
Your Skill (Language) Bestial Comprehension has grown to Level 9.
With Sage bouncing off her frustrations in a nearby grove, Nightshade, Violala, and I settled down to recuperate. My high Recovery and Constitution began to knit back together my torn flesh. I happily accepted the break; my attention turned to my newly earned Stat.
Insight: A quality relating to mental perception and understanding. Increases familiarity with all Skills and Blessings. Gives a boost to the development of new Skills. Assists in spotting connections between [Redacted]. As Insight increases, greatly increase experience gained from higher Level foes. Slightly decreases the experience penalty while fighting lower Level foes.
Oh? Maybe that’s why I gained another Level so soon… Insight reduces experience penalties from fighting weaker foes. But also… another mention of Redacted… I frowned at the notification. Somehow, I suspect this is related to the same redacted in Wisdom. Just what secret waits behind the Second Growth Threshold…?
I took a glance at my full Status, meaning quickly to scan through my accumulations, but something else caught my attention. “Oh…? So soon?”
Mana: 109/200
Waiting back at the stump home was a small crystal, formed after I isolated the poison of the Albino Python Baron with my First Blessing. I felt a spike of anticipation as I imagined what my Hybrid Monster Core would evolve into, once it incorporated an Emerald Aspect.
Sage returned to the clearing a short while later. Very pointedly, she did not look at me. I felt sad, feeling her frosty attitude, but also I could read the ripples coming out of her jello and understand how vulnerable she felt right now.
Is this growth, Mimi? I turned away from Sage and pretended like she didn’t exist. Aging until you end up on the opposite side of every shitty thing you’ve done?
“Let’s go,” I said. Violala nodded and hopped onto my back. But from the long look that Nightshade gave me as we began to move…
Just as I could read Sage’s inner turmoil, he could perhaps read mine.
Is it more painful to be misunderstood or be totally seen? Haah…
We all kept our thoughts to ourselves as we headed deeper into the forest.
As the trees grew taller in front of us, the small brush that had clustered the ground receded. Now the darkness caused by the woven canopies above was almost total. Combined with the absolute silence of the surrounding forest, we seemed to be walking through an ancient graveyard, rather than a lush forest.
Occasionally I paused and checked the Mana signature, but with each step, I became more sure-- our target was directly ahead. The dense Mana cluster, along with the familiar burn of life energy, marked our target.
Despite the approaching confrontation, I felt my mind wandering. A memory dominated my attention. I must have been twelve, Mimi sixteen. Of all things, we were riding a train, watching the landscape go by through the wide windows.
With the innocence of childhood, I asked. “What’s it like being a big sister?”
Mimi cackled for a while at the question. When she calmed down enough to speak, she grinned at me and said. “A lot like being a little brother, probably. Except… I’m burdened with the knowledge of being right.”
Twelve-year-old me had rolled my eyes. “You don’t know everything, Mimi.”
Imp that she was, Mimi reached over and tapped my nose. “I don’t need to know everything. I just need to know more than you, little Lumlum.”
In the darkness of the monster forest, I released a breath. “We should accelerate. It’s just a short distance more.”
“Indeed,” Violala nodded. “Let’s make our preparations. What method are you going to use to extract the Mantle, Sir Tallum?”
“Huh?”
“The Mantle of the enemy Kami,” Violala continued. She tapped my side several times. She seemed at first at a loss, then increasingly worried as I didn’t understand her question. “You know, the purpose of our journey here. In order for To and Fro the River Wanders to spread His influence, the Kami’s Mantle is necessary. You…”
Violala faltered as she recognized your confusion. “...do you truly not know? After our meeting in His temple… the Kami dismissed you to your own matters. Then he discussed the various methods of harvesting a Kami’s Mantle at length.”
I could almost see the satisfied smirk of the Kami’s left head as I felt a prickling sensation across my body. This foolish Kami…!
On cue, a notification popped up in front of me.
Special Quest (Notable): Kamis are powerful beings tied to the land, existing as three layered Aspects. The Plasm, or the manifestation. The Seed, or lifespring. Finally, the Mantle, or the proof of the Kami. The Seed may grow within the Mantle. Once the Seed has successfully formed, a Kami may use it to nourish the Plasm, to protect its territory.
Slaughter the Fae Squirrels and Subdue the Plasm of the Neighboring Kami to retrieve its Mantle.
Reward: ???