Chapter 25: Feeling Like a Villain
“I have an idea, Thanatos. Hop back in my shadow.”
He did, swooping into her shadow in a torrent of black flame. She focused on constructing the astral membrane around her. No matter how much she practiced, the process remained slow, as if she was negotiating with reality to allow even just the shadow of the astral.
Once the membrane was constructed, she stepped through into her astral domain.
With a thought, the blood on her robes and weapon vanished. So did the blood on Thanatos. Reality, or rather, unreality was at her whimsy here. Separating blood from material was basic, especially from her robe which was a construct of magic, not real cloth. The blood too was a manifestation of magic, and not physical reality, since it came from monsters.
“Nice and clean. There we go,” she said, rubbing his happy face with her own newly disinfected hands, “I wonder if I can do this with that Astral Domain projection thing. I’ll have to try that out. It’d save me the effort of traveling here each time.”
Thanatos barked.
“Sassy, aren’t you? Yes, I know this isn’t that much effort. Let’s get on back to reality and claim our prize.”
Thanatos subsumed back into her shadow, and she stepped back through the dimensional membrane back into reality.
She took distance from the corpses and activated Traveler’s Bounty. Rainbow smoke rose from eleven bodies like pollution spilling smokestacks.
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-You have defeated [Chimeric Forest Monkeys].
* 110 iron spirit coins
* 11000 lesser spirit coins
* 11 monster cores (iron)
* 66 monkey quintessence (iron)
* 3 Healing unguents (iron)
* Chimeric monkey meat (iron)
* Chimeric monkey hide (iron)
-Loot has been added to your Astral Domain
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“Loot abilities really are overpowered,” She muttered, staring at her haul, “But what would a game be without a looting ability? Even Dark Souls has loot.”
This wasn’t a game of course, but it made sense to her that an outworlder from Earth would loot enemies.
The lesser and iron spirit coins she looted were used for daily life. If loot scaled the same at latter ranks, she’d be rolling in the cash. She’d have to spend a fair bit on equipment, materials, and rituals. Familiars needed to be resummoned in a higher rank vessel every rank, and the costs proportionately increased, and additional materials were rarer and more valuable.
While familiars offered great strength, it was at a monetary cost. For iron rank essence users that had to juggle acquiring essences, awakening stones, potions, lessons, equipment, and helping at home, it could be a struggle to acquire the materials necessary for a familiar. And, if a familiar was destroyed, they had to be resummoned with the same pricey materials.
While she was taking stock, she heard a familiar voice call out.
“Caspian! Stop right there! Where are you going!”
A red, wolf-like creature bound over, with similar puppy-like joy to Thanatos. It was large, and a saturated brown red. The fur on its body was more feather-like than fur-like, and between the two, fur ending in feathered fluffs instead of Thanatos’ flames. In place of a wolf tail, a long peacock feather bundle tail of red tipped with an eye of purple, green, and blue. It’s paws were wolf like, but with long, large, hawk-like talons that constricted at will, which reminded her of a cat’s retractable claws. The eyes were a curious and pure blue, the sky to Thanatos’ moonlight orbs.
“It's not a monster,” Nara realized, as the creature called Caspian crashed into Thanatos in a playful tussle. The two rolled on the grass, amplifying their youthful energy in a feedback loop, dirt and grass sent flying. The wolf-bird hybrid was smaller than Thanatos, and Thanatos shrunk down to match size. To Nara, it looked like a variation of a Simurgh, a creature of Iranian legend.
“And I just got you all clean,” Nara muttered, but a smile crept onto her face at her familiar’s joy, “Have you made a new friend?”
Nara sensed them with her aura before she saw them—two familiar figures crested the hill. One of the Arlang, the would-be-martial-arts-action-star Sen Arlang in a different lifetime, and his partner, the pursuer of truth and knowledge, Aliyah Sahar.
Sen was dressed in armor—a combat robe of dark brown outfitted with steel grey plates and thick leather with accents of dark red, like his familiar, and muted gold. Even the cloth of his robe looked significantly heavier than Nara’s, pushing against his every step where Nara’s flowed.
Aliyah’s armor was far more mage-like, with similar weight as Nara’s. Her robe draped with heavy cloth, brocaded black, embroidered with silver, and enhanced with jewels glowing with blue energy.
“Sanshi’s greeting’s, Nara,” Sen greeted, always polite. His eyes scanned to his familiar wrestling with her own, “Is this your familiar? I did not see it last time we met.”
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“I didn’t have him last time we met. He’s Thanatos.” Nara said, “I got him from the Awakening Stone of the Wolf.”
Sen seemed pleased, nodding enthusiastically, “A fine choice of awakening stone.”
Aliyah shook her head, “His entire family is fixated on wolves.”
“We don’t all have wolf familiars,” he said. “We only encourage them when it’s sensible.”
Aliyah wasn’t convinced. His sister had a pack of wolves as her familiars.
Sen stepped forwards into Nara’s space, his height and build a bit imposing. Nara was above average in height, but he far overshadowed her.
It seemed as if it took his full self-restraint not to grasp Nara’s hands.
“Would you consider joining my team again? I know I have already asked, but I sincerely request your attention on this request.”
“What’s with this sudden enthusiasm?”
He gestured to the two wolves, “Your familiar is the perfect friend for my bond. They’re already fast friends.”
Nara was almost convinced. It had only been a day and she was feeling like a dog-mom.
“A-ah, you almost got me there, but I’m not joining your team just because of that. We can just be pet—familiar friends.”
The whole concept of joining a team was so alien to her, outside of sports. The closest thing to a team she had been in was high school band.
“What did you mean by bond?” she asked, changing the subject.
He let her have her way, relenting. “Bonds are uncommon compared to summoned familiars, so you may not know. They’re not summoned, but rather magical beasts of this world. With a ritual, we can form a connection with them.”
“Magical beasts? How is that different than a monsters?” Nara quickly covered her mouth, but Sen had already heard her question.
He gave her a look, but answered. “They are creatures born, not manifested.”
So, magical beasts were a natural part of this world’s ecosystem, and it seemed they possessed a higher than normal intelligence compared to normal animals. Although, the magical beast Caspian was demonstrating any particular intelligence as it sniffed Thanatos’ butt.
“I don’t think that has a smell buddy, although I did use death to make him. Might smell like death.”
Thanatos stared daggers at her.
“Probably doesn’t smell like death,” she corrected. “Probably smells like last night’s dinner.”
Somehow, that satisfied him. He turned back to his tussle with Caspian. She conjured a chair and idly chatted with Sen and Aliyah for a while, letting the two familiars wear each other out in the background. Neither would piss on the furniture if they didn’t take them for walks, but both Sen and Nara were committed to the happiness and well-beings of their familiars.
“C’mon Thanatos, it’s time to return.” Nara called out to him, “We’ve got dinner at the retreat and late night meditation and aura training.”
His ears perked up at the mention of dinner. He bounded over in a smooth flash of shadow, melding into her shadow with a ripple. Turns out, like her, Thanatos was a foodie. Like familiar, like summoner.
Left without a partner, Caspian scrambled to his feet, soft red ears drooping in adorable disappointment. Nara felt a little like a villain. The Simurgh had been much smaller when Nara first saw him, dangling from Sen’s hair like a mascot character. Nara wondered if he possessed a similar size transformation ability as Thanatos.
“Until next time, Sen, Aliyah. I’ll seriously think about the team thing after I pass the adventure society exam, okay? If I pass,” she absentmindedly added.
“Alright,” Sen conceded, “Until next time, Nara. Sanshi’s blessings.”
***
Of the four of Innovation’s Retreat, Nara spent the most time with Amara. Amara oversaw most of her adventurer training, except for what the other three handled.
The next was Redell, who she often played music together and discussed her time in Erras, acting as her therapist-friend.
“You hesitate to accept an offer to join a team, why is that? Teams do not have to be permanent; you can join then leave, if that team does not suit you.”
Their half-jam-half-therapy sessions occurred at the lakeside, where Nara enjoyed the quiet comfort of nature, removed from the hustle and bustle of Sanshi and training. Thanatos laid at her side, dark fur melding into green grass, eyes closed but not asleep. She didn’t think astral beings needed sleep. He ate like the meal would be his last, strange, for an entity that did not need to eat. Or was his nature like that of his form, a hungry dog—no, wolf?
She wondered if it was like that theme in stories; your nature is influenced by your form. She thought of her new form—an outworlder, not a human. Then, an essence user. How had that changed her?
“It’s not that I’m afraid to form any permanent connections. I’ve already decided that I like this lifestyle better than my previous one. Wage slavery sucks. I don’t have the energy for it.”
“However, you have the energy for training and monster killing.”
“The agency is different. All I’m doing now is for myself. I’ve never felt so fulfilled in my life. I haven’t saved any people and I’m already satisfied.”
She was, after all, easily satisfied. Good food, good people, good schedule, and a good purpose. What more could she want? A house? That was the lost dream of everyone in her generation.
“Is your decision premature? You have only been on this world for a few weeks.”
“If you had to work an 8 to 5 job for your capitalist overlords, you’d probably think differently.”
He did have a point; likely, she was in the honeymoon phase of her new relationship with Erras. Of course, why wouldn’t she be happier in a place where she didn’t need to work to pay rent, or worry about healthcare? At iron rank her body wouldn’t just develop diseases.
For the normal folk here, life may not have been any different than the 8 to 5 she dreaded. She didn’t know, but that wasn’t her life right now. She had no aspirations to overturn the status quo in this world, and she wasn’t politically savvy nor genius enough to pull it off. This wasn’t some novel after all, where she could overturn classism with gumption, liberal ideas, and a passion for the betterment of mankind, nor was she in any position to do so. She was an outsider. Their society should develop organically from the needs posed from within.
Her view of capitalism was negatively biased, but it was true she enjoyed her life now more. Who knew free housing was such a relief?
“Once I figure out a way to return to my world, I can just visit my family during the holidays. It’s what I’ve been doing anyway. The culture of my country was not particularly close. Families live separated, at least for the average American family. It differs by culture, but that’s the culture I come from.”
“You may want to pay a visit to the temple of knowledge to seek the goddess of knowledge or the temple of the traveler to seek the god of travelers. These two temples are the most likely to have information on targeted cross-dimensional travel.”
“…Did you say, gods?” She felt like her vibe got hip-checked, grinding her mind to a startling halt.
Redell looked mildly confused, then understanding. “Do gods not exist on a magically barren world? I suppose they are a manifestation of magic, in some ways.”
Nara rubbed her temples with her fingers, “I’m trying to figure out if my translation ability is on the fritz. Gods like, a supernatural being with power over aspects of nature? Or like a god like, an all-powerful being that created the universe?”
“I would say the first is more accurate than the second definition,” Redell said, “Your world has an all-powerful god that created the universe?”
“Some people believe we do.”
She paused, her gut reaction was to discount religion on Earth, but maybe something had created the universe, just not the beings traditional religion believed in. She had met supposedly the being that presided over death itself, The Reaper. Correspondingly, would there not be a being that presided over creation or life?
“From your confusion, I expect the gods of our world are not the same as the gods of your world. Why don’t you visit the divine plaza of Sanshi and have a look?”