“Thorn, watch out. The water is full of crystal jellies.” Ember warned Thorn as he approached the crystal clear pond.
“Yeah, yeah… look.” Thorn said. He then used his staff to point at the water. “There is nothing here. I think whatever you saw left. It's so empty that I can see all the way to the bottom.”
“Exactly!” She snapped back at him.
Thorn raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “Are you sure you saw a crystal jelly out here?”
Ember scrunched up her nose, frustrated by the fact Thorn is doubting her. “Think about it. Why would a clean and clear, freshwater pond be completely barren? Do you see any fish? Water grasses? There aren’t even any mosquitoes on the surface of it or any of their larvae swimming in it.”
Thorn took a second to thoroughly scan the pond for any signs of life. After a moment he turned back to her. “ Okay, it's a little creepy after you point out the complete lack of life. But these are crystal jellies you're talking about here. They aren't exactly known for their ability to fight… or even defend themselves. You fought one yesterday didn't you?” He asked.
“Yes, I killed one and then ran from a herd of like a hundred… is herd right? or do jellies have a unique group name like a murder of crows? A jiggle of jellies? An ooze of jellies?” Ember rambled.
“Ember!” Thorn exclaimed while clapping. “You’re jackalope trailing, now focus. To answer your question though, because I know you won't listen until you figure it out, yes, Jellies have a unique group name, they are called a bowl of jellies. Now let’s get back on track. you fought one yesterday did it attack back? defend? or even run?” He questioned.
“Hmm…” Ember thought back to her fight and to the best of her ability she could not recall the jelly ever making an attack at her. She remembered it just sitting there unmoving, as if her attacks were no more an annoyance than a gust of wind. “No, it never attacked or even moved.” she replied.
“Right, because crystal jellies don’t do anything actively. For example if you put a piece of meat and a crystal jelly in a pin together it is just as likely to starve to death wandering the enclosure as it is to find the meat. My father explained it to me with this,” he cleared his throat and did his best impersonation of his father. “Jellies don't do, they just are.” He gave a small laugh after quoting his dad. “If it helps, think of them like rocks that eat and reproduce.”
Ember took a moment to absorb the information she was just given. “That’s weird, do they not have any instincts?”
“The only things they seem to seek out are water and mana. Other than that I have no idea.” He answered.
“Well, I can't sense mana but I do see a big puddle of water about three feet away from you.” Ember replied with a smirk.
“Okay, okay, I’ll test the water and show you just how empty it is.” Thorn quipped.
With an overly exaggerated flourish Thorn spun his staff in the direction of the pond. He looked back at Ember, “Don't be shocked.” He said with a cheesy grin spread across his face. As soon as he finished talking he launched his attack at the surface of the pond. A blueish silver sparking streak shot out of the tip of his staff and made an impact with the water right after appearing. When it hit they heard a loud boom as the area the bolt hit exploded upward into a shower of supercharged mist.
“See, just water!” Thorn shouted over the ringing in his ears. “I may have put too much mana in that demo…” he mumbled to himself. But when he looked at Ember to see what her reaction was, he didn’t expect the face he received. Her face looked like it was torn between showing two emotions, her eyes were wide and eyebrows lifted out of shock or fear but she also had a smug looking grin.
Ember stared at the results of the electric attack, at first she was surprised by the size and power behind the explosion, but that quickly drained away to be replaced by an odd mixture of smugness and fear. She felt smug after she saw Thorn's poor attempt to prove her wrong actually prove her correct but the same proof also sent a spike of fear through her body. Through the shower of water droplets and mist Ember could see a roiling mass shifting and squirming through the surface. It only took that sight to bring back her memory of the mass of jellies pouring out of the pond water in a direct line to her. This time though she could see the bulging and shifting surface moving in the same direction that Thorn stood.
By the time she processed everything that she saw happening in the pond she noticed Thorn had turned away from the quickly approaching mass back to face her and was giving her a weird look. Before her brain could come up with what to say or ask her body had already started to turn in preparation to flee. “Run!” Ember finally brought herself to shout when she started sprinting.
Thorn could feel the weight of her words when they hit him, and without turning to see what she saw he took off after her. After they ran for what felt like a full five minutes they finally slowed to check if anything was behind them.
“Jeeze!” Ember shouted in exasperation, “What the hell was that? I thought you were going to stab it with your staff or you know, launch a REASONABLY sized attack at it. How much mana did you even pump into that attack?”
Thorn winced back not expecting Ember's outburst. “I'm sorry…” He said meekly. “That wasn't the result I was hoping for when I launched the attack though. it was supposed to spread across the surface, shocking anything in the water. That explosion made it look like I hit something solid though.” He let out a sigh in defeat. “But you were right, poking it with my staff would have been much safer.” After seeing Ember's expression soften from his answer he tried to brighten the mood. “But would it have been as fun?”
Ember’s scowl returned as she glared up at him. “Fun!?! What's fun about running away from something trying to attack you?” She stomped up to where he stood and pointed past him in the direction of the pond. “Do you even know what we ran from? Did you see the mass start to rise out of the water? It looked bigger than any of the other crystal jellies I've seen.”
Thorn let out a sigh. “No, I didn't see anything. I turned back to face you as soon as the explosion went off and then I followed you when you shouted to run.”
“Bah!” Ember yelled out in frustration. She then lowered her head to face the ground and started massaging her temples. Ember released a defeated sigh and dropped her arms to her sides. “We have to go back again.”
“Why?” Thorn asked.
She let out another, longer, more exaggerated sigh. “I don't want to return to Sabel and tell her that on my second job all I did was blow up a pond and run from something living in it. We should at least figure out what the bigger thing was. Do crystal jellies get larger with their level?”
Thorn nodded in agreement. “You're right, we should at least go back and figure out what all is in the water. I'm a little worried about the bigger one you saw. yes they do grow with their level but they shouldn't get so much bigger than the others that its super noticeable. If you saw one that was notably larger than the rest we may have a much harder foe on our hands.” Thorn walked over to the closest tree and placed his back against it before sliding down to a sitting position. “I know you have been spending your nights studying under willow, have you learned anything about beast evolutions?”
“Evolution? Like a pokemon?” Ember asked, puzzled.
“What is a poc common?” Thorn asked, trying to pronounce the English word as best as he could. “Is that a beast from your home?”
Ember burst into laughter. “Thank you. That helped me destress a bit. Also I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at your pronounciation or the fact that you don't know what I'm talking about. I was laughing at myself for assuming you would get a reference to TV or video game. And to answer your question, no, they are monsters from a story I know. I'll explain it one day when we aren't in the middle of a job. It will take way too long right now. Now, this sounds weird coming from me but let's get back on topic.” She giggled at her self-jab. “No Willow hasn't brought up evolution yet. We mainly talk about language and the town. Why?”
“Ah, right. I ask because I'm worried one of the crystal jellies may have evolved. When beasts get to a high enough level they go through their own trials similar to the ones us humanoids have. But the difference is that when we pass our trials we are given a class or class advancement. When a beast passes their trial they evolve into a more powerful version of themselves. Most beasts simply evolve into the next stage of their current evolutionary path, like a crystal jelly will typically evolve into a greater crystal jelly. However on rare occasions a beast may take a branching path if it has done something special to unlock it.” He took a deep breath then released it. “That is what I'm worried about. If the pond is hiding a greater crystal jelly or something even more powerful. When we go back we should be more cautious than before.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Ember glared at Thorn.
“Okay, okay.” He raised his hand placatingly. “I need to be more cautious than before.”
“Thank you!” Ember said, happily accepting the apisment. “But… uh, what else could it turn into?”
“I'm not sure.” Thorn replied, shaking his head. “It could be anything in the jelly family. Well… almost anything. It wasn't big enough to have become a gelatinous mass, but the pond could house a blob, ooze, or queen.”
“Wait.” Ember raised a hand. “I need context. Can you explain what the difference is between a jelly, gelatinous mass, blob, ooze, and queen?”
Thorn raised an eyebrow. “Really? This is common knowledge though. Even the kids know around here. Was your homeland so inhospitable that not even jellies could survive?”
“Yeah.” Ember answered shyly. “Really. I have never heard of any of those monsters before.”
Thorn's eyes grew wide. “Those are no monsters. Well the gelatinous mass is close but still classified as a beast. Monsters are unique, legendary or mythical evolutionary paths that a beast can unlock. They usually spawn from disasters. The last monster I learned about was the flame dragon Sala Zaezard. It was a conflagration salamander that caused a massive wildfire that wiped out half of the cities built around the forest where it lived and everything within the tree line was turned to cinder and ash. A few days later a party of hunters went to check for survivors but only found the flame dragon and his domain of ash.”
“Okay, this place is terrifying and I want to go home now…” Ember said shakily. “N-nothing that powerful could have spawned here right?”
“No, We are in a safe zone. Something would have to make it through the Red Desert, climb over the great divide, and then face her.” Thorn said nonchalantly. “So yeah, definitely not a monster or mutation, possibly rare or unique, but most likely we will find a Greater Crystal Jelly. The standard evo.”
Ember paid close attention to everything she was being taught. “Okay. So I think I only have two more questions before we start heading back. First, what are mutations? Are they similar to evolutions? And lastly, who is Her?”
“Right, I guess I did skip over mutations. It's pretty much the same as an evolution except a mutation will unlock a new affinity or cause a minor affinity to become the beast's major affinity. So a mutation for a Crystal Jelly would be something like turning into an Acid Jelly. But since we didn’t see any acid trails or other signs of elemental damage I'm willing to assume it's not a mutation. Lastly, ask Willow about the zone guardians. I don’t know nearly enough to explain about them. Just know the guardians are said to be somewhere between levels ninety and one hundred and twenty.”
“Holy…” Ember started.
“Yeah, that's why this is considered a safe zone in our kingdom.” Thorn interrupted. “Until you make it to the dividing wall the highest level we should see would be thirty, but this deep into the safe zone plus being as close to the town as we are we shouldn't see anything over ten.”
Ember held back asking all the questions popping into existence and dancing through her mind. ‘I have so many things I need to learn now. Dang it. Zone guardians, evolutions, the other zones thorn mentioned. I wish this world had electricity and wifi so I could use my phone to look stuff up again. Ha. I don't even want it as a communication device, just a portable search engine. hmm… Back in high school my buddy Jake always called his phone his crystal ball. I wonder if there is a magic tool like that here.’
Ember shook her head to clear her mind. “Sorry, I got a little lost in thought. Are you ready to head back to the pond, or would you rather wait a little longer so you can regenerate all the mana you wasted?” She jabbed playfully.
“Hmm? let me check.” He replied.
“Eh, I might as well check too.” Ember thought out loud. ‘Metatron how’s my mana level looking?’
[Lifeforce: 50
Mana: 42 / 90
ki: 49 / 60]
‘Excellent.’ Ember thought to herself. ‘I'm almost back up to half mana, and if worse comes to worst so long as I scrimp on mana usage I should be able to keep anything from chasing us with my Ensnare skill.’ Ember swiped her notification away and looked up to see Thorn. He looked like he was flipping through the pages of an invisible book. If the book was floating in front of him as if it were on a podium. She let out a chortle watching him. “Thorn… is… is your status screen a book?”
Thorn stopped what he was doing and shot his attention to Ember. He looked at her with his face riddled with confusion and curiosity. “Is yours not?” He asked nonplussed, while he tried to keep his voice steady.
“Umm, no. Why is that weird?” She replied nonchalantly.
“What? Weird, no, it isn't weird.” He said sarcastically, before yelling “IT IS COMPLETELY UNHEARD OF!!!”
“W…what?” She asked slowly, feeling slightly put off from his yelling.
Thorn held his head, he felt tired after trying to process everything odd Ember managed to do or ask him. “Sorry, but it is a documented fact that everyone that has ever been questioned about what their status pages looked like all answered the same. A book or tombe where each page is a different section. The only differences being in the ordering of the information contained therein and the personal aesthetics of the cover or paper color or quality. Take mine for example. When I call forth my status I see a green and brown leatherbound book decorated with vines made of light that are barbed with cracking sparks of lightning. What do you see?” He asked while leaning forward in anticipation.
“Uhh. Well mine doesn't sound nearly as cool looking as yours does.” Ember said feeling slightly downcast. “All I see When i call up my stats are notification screens and little information pop ups. I don't get a physical book. I have to flip through, I just think and the info pops up. There is a major downfall to mine that a book would solve though. I have to swipe away or think about closing a screen for it to go away. Speaking from experience I pulled up my full status, my skills page, the individual skill information and I already had like four pages open at once. Oooh!!! I wonder if I can make it work like a computer and combine them into tabs!?! I'm SO trying that out tonight!.”
Thorn stood still only blinking for a moment. “You have to report this! Or better yet, let me do the reporting and I can document everything while we test the differences between the standard status everyone knows and your new upgraded version.”
“That’s fine.” Ember replied. “Now that that is settled, let's head back to the pond.”
Ember started walking in the direction of the pond. She was soon followed by Thorn, after he needed to take a few seconds to gather up all the pieces of his blown mind.
After a short but quiet walk back to the pond area Ember started to notice a few oddities first was the missing water in the pond. It looked like it had over half of the water drained out of it. Next was some movement off in the distance close by the pond’s edge. On a closer inspection after they approached a little bit more, she could see that the movement she noticed was what looked like almost a hundred clear blobs of crystal jelly.
“Hey.” Ember whispered while tapping on Thorn's shoulder. “Do you see them, there is a lot of movement around what should be the water’s edge if the pond wasn't missing over half of its water.”
“Yes.” He replied quietly. “This is strange though. The Crystal Jellies are acting together in a coordinated manner. That shouldn’t be.”
“Do you think someone is controlling them?” Askd Ember.
“No, most beast taming skills only allow you to command one creature per Ten personal levels.” He replied.
“Is there an evolution that could command them to act as one?” She asked, quickly running out of ideas.
“Yes… Technically. But if this is what I think it is, we are not enough to handle this. We would need at a minimum two more guild members to join our group. I can cover damage fairly well for my level, you are an excellent utility mage in the making with your ensnare and aura skills, so I'm thinking we need a turtle and other damage dealer. I'd suggest an ice affinity holder for the damage and an agro skill holder for the turtle. Most of the turtles are fairly solid with their biggest differences being whether or not they are Lifeforce or Ki dependent and if they are pool heavy or regeneration heavy.”
“Okay. I trust your judgment on this. you know beasts and party management much better than I do.” Ember answered as she spun in place. “But I am curious.” She said as she started walking back to town. “What is it you think the crystal jelly evolved into?”
Thorn didn't notice Ember had turned at first while he was observing the jellies, until her voice started to sound more distant as she spoke. “OH… Wait up!.” He exclaimed with a stifled shout. He caught up to Ember’s walking pace with only a few running strides. “A little warning next time would be appreciated. Now what were you asking?”
Ember barely fought back a laugh before she replied. “Heh, uhh, I asked what it is that you think the crystal jelly evolved into, if we can’t handle it and it can command other jellies?”
“Oh.” thorn replied. “Well I’m really hoping I’m wrong, because if I’m right that means that there is a rare evolution jelly on the loose deep in the safe zone. But, I'm afraid we may have stumbled across the spawning pool of a Crystal Crown. A Crystal Crown is the queen evolution for a Crystal Jelly.” He released a shiver before continuing. “Crystal Crowns have given up most of their mobility and elasticity in exchange for a much higher physical defense and the ability to lead lesser jellies.”
“That’s crazy, I had a hard enough time trying to kill a regular jelly. I don't even want to imagine how many times I'd have to whack that thing with my beat'n stick.” Ember said playfully. Her mood was finally returning to a high spirits now that they would be making their return to town with actual information this time. “I know Sabel will be happy to have some more information to add to the job posting at the guild. But I was wondering, when we get back, did you plan to start trying to recruit new party members or should we start tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow.” He answered quickly. “Today has been tiring to say the least.”
“Ah understood. Then after we report back with the guild I'm going to run off to the clothes store again. I need another back up hoodie and it never hurts to have a set of emergency un-” She stopped talking and blushed a little “clothes… emergency clothes.”
After her near embarrassing slip Ember spent the remaining walk back in mostly silence just listening to thorns plans for recruitment tomorrow and party member role disbursement.