I continue to look at Noodle, and he looks at me; soon, we both come to an understanding.
We are the same.
Noodle here is introverted as well, suffering under the hand of his energetic, extroverted child owner.
"Hang in there, buddy," I say. As I do, he sticks out his tongue and swivels it towards me, once again tasting my mana.
For a moment, it also looks like he is trying to reach me, but Isabella quickly hides him, and I can see a hint of jealousy on her face, "Noodle is mine!" she fights back.
Meanwhile, Sophie shakes her head while looking at me, "I've noticed it a few times, but animals really like you. Biscuit, some from the city, now even Noodle, what are you? A Disney princess?"
Too proud to answer, I just ignore her and pass by Izzy. While doing so, I send a bit of my mana toward the white snake, and I notice him opening his mouth a bit and swallowing it. The cute little snake seems to enjoy it.
We introverts have to stick together.
"I will go to the city for a bit," I tell Sophie before leaving, and she nods in acknowledgment.
When outside, I boost my body and lift up into the air, flying over the houses and towards Obelia's guilds.
The Guild House of Storm Brigade is one of the highest towers in the city. It's really wide, allowing nearly anything they need to fit in. A place to sleep, training areas, learning areas, and labs. Just all in one. The walls of the tower are interwoven with circuits that have mana flow through them. The circuits strengthen it and have detection in them. I also long since noticed some nasty traps hidden there, ready to activate.
I land just outside the garden that surrounds the tower from all sides and then walk towards it. The air here is also filled with multiple effects that make flying much more difficult.
At the door, I meet two guards who greet me, used to my visits from before. Yet they still reach their hand towards me, and I send a bit of my mana at them.
Using an item, they collect it and find it in their database, only then allowing me in after greeting me. Apparently, I have one of the highest possible clearances. Either thanks to Tess, who is Obelia's third disciple, or thanks to me being the guild master of Angry Kittens.
After getting inside, I get going and fly through the tunnel made for people with this ability and get to the highest floor. There, I stop in front of the door to Obelia's quarters. As a guild master, she takes up the entire floor, the inscriptions in the wall denser, and the floor has an office, shielded labs, a strengthened training area, and a vault. Anything she would need.
It doesn't take long, and Obelia herself comes to greet me. Knowing it's me, she doesn't even wear the uniform Storm Brigade uses, just some comfortable-looking homely clothes. When dealing with me or Tess, she just does that. Otherwise, she is uptight and nearly always formal with her guild.
“What can I thank for your visit?” she says, dropping formalities.
She then leads me towards the outer wall and then onto a balcony that oversees the city. Here both of us sit, and for a moment I take in the view. No matter how many times I get there, I still continue to enjoy it.
“I just wanted to ask you for a few more pieces of ethercrystal and selenium,” I ask.
From my testing, I found that these two materials are nice to work with, and both are good at holding or leading mana. Sure, there are some that are even better, it's just that they are too expensive for how little I would be able to get.
“I will have them delivered to your house tomorrow morning,” Obelia says without much hesitation, and I just nod.
After a while, I ask, “How is Tess doing?”
That makes her look at me, her silver eyes calm, yet I see them changing a bit. Obelia seems to be proud and maybe a bit jealous of Tess, her disciple for a few months already.
“Tess is amazing, she already dealt with my second disciple, and the first one is avoiding her at all costs,” she smiles just a little bit, “Tess is fierce, and when they started trying to control her, worried for their spot as 1st and 2nd disciples, she just beat them up.”
Obelia then lifts up her hand and red lightning starts cracking on her palm; it's similar to Tess's, but not too much. Tess has white and red lightning that feels purer, and more dangerous than what Obelia is doing.
And the guild master of the Storm Brigade seems to know it as well, “There was progress. Just a little bit, but even that is more than I was able to do in the past 10 years.” The lightning disappears.
She continues, “Sometimes I wonder where you two came from. Also, some of your guild members. Your skills are… something else,” Obelia says, but the tone of her voice makes it clear that she doesn't expect an answer.
“What's with the ants?” I ask instead, to change the subject.
“Three or four weeks at most and they will get too close to the city, so we will push back against them. The lynthari have a territory they won't let them enter, so if that happens, there will be war,” her eyes become distant, “we would attack much sooner, but there aren't that many of them, and they don't even build tunnels. It's all too weird, to be honest, so even the lynthari don't know how to react.”
“I see, it's really a mystery,” I say and quickly change the subject, “Some time ago you did talk about an expedition and auction. Do you still count me in?”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“That's something I wanted to talk with you about. The expedition can start in three days if you are willing to join. If everything goes according to plan it will take two days, if something screws up, it will take three to five.”
“So five days for the expedition.”
Obelia nods, “As for the auction, it's set to start a few days after we finish the expedition, so that is also fine. I have a spot for you and two more people saved.”
“Sounds good. Then a few days after the auction, we can start with the Living Tree. I will be ready by then.” I stand up, “Will you let Myrra know and send someone with more information on the expedition and auction?”
Obelia just nods and I step towards the balcony. [Resonance] activates, and I jump from it, the skill allowing me to ignore my anti-fly safeguards.
Hopefully, there will be some strong monsters on the expedition. The ones around or a bit further away from the city are way too weak for me currently. But something tells me I will have my fun soon, the Living Tree, then the Colony, and after both are dealt with, the Fallen Hero. I totally won't deal with one Calamity only, I will get rid of these three and then find the fourth one.
When I land, I start walking again, this time towards a huge training area somewhere near the middle of the city. The entire area is built on weird gray polished stone, remains from times long past.
The gray stone that covers the area is indestructible. Literally. I have tried everything and was unable to even scratch it. No one knows what kind of stone it is, or what purpose it is for, so they just decided to turn it into an area where people fight without constantly creating craters.
I think I would like whoever decided to do that.
Unsurprisingly, I find there Isola, a short, pale, black-haired woman. The guild master of the Obsidian Circle.
As she often does, she duels and trains there, wearing a tee that shows her pale, yet muscular body and a big piece of her slim belly with a hint of abs.
Isola likes to fight, no, she loves to fight and lately, she has become my go-to punching ba... training partner when I want to test something. She doesn’t seem to mind and, scarily, I noticed her getting better and better at countering my skills. We haven't gone full out yet, but it’s clear that she has an immense talent for battle as well as a strong competitive spirit.
She is easygoing, always bored, and looking for fun things to do. She is also a total musclehead, yet weirdly smart when it comes to fighting.
“Feral angry kitten, welcome!” she immediately ditches her sparring partner and comes rushing to me, a big smile on her face.
Unlike Elydor, she says our guild name without ill intention or contempt, so I don’t mind it that much.
Isola is already preparing to fight and I can see her mana starting to activate, strengthening her stupidly strong body even more.
I give her a short greeting and then [Regalia] activates as I use it to surround myself with armor. Unlike the old one, this one is even more dangerous looking. It's not as bulky, being nearly skin-tight, yet its design is improved by the skill itself and then even more by my Pride sub-class. Simple, but beautiful and somewhat regal feeling.
“Oh, this is a new one!” Isola says excitedly, her skin-tight barrier already surrounding her body and she adds to it even more as a reaction to my improved skill.
She attacks first and I stand there, watching as her fist is about to hit me. Before it does, I decide to use kinetic energy and send it through the armor with the help of [Infusion].
Her fist hits the middle of my chest and that's all. On the blue armor, a ripple appears, sent through its entirety. Like a stone thrown into a calm lake.
At the same time, I feel the effect of [Infusion] that combined with [Regalia]. My mana rushes into the armor at the point of hit, strengthening it and then using infused kinetic energy to absorb the energy of Isola's attack.
I feel nothing, my body doesn’t move at all. The armor absorbs it all and kinetic energy flows through it, instead of being sent inside my body.
“Interesting!” without hesitation, she switches stance, mana appearing from intricate tattoos on her forearms and she hits me with an attack, switching to attacks that use mana.
Again and again, she hits me, yet the result is similar. The kinetic energy of her attacks gets absorbed and mana attacks just crash against the armor. At places where they damage it, more mana rushes there, filling the cracks and repairing the armor.
The drain on my mana is noticeable even with the amount of mana I possess. I start moving as well and using the kinetic energy I've collected, I punch at Isola. She dodges it, and we continue to exchange punches and kicks, moving all over the area.
The more we fight, the more I realize how amazing the skill is, especially in combination with [Infusion] that adds properties to it.
Closer to the end of the fight, I disable the armor and start creating projectiles using [Regalia]. Even they are much stronger and unlike those from our spars before, Isola isn't able to disrupt or destroy them. The decision I made seems to be really good so far.
----------------------------------------
When I return to the house, I find that everyone is back inside.
Ignoring the front door, I carefully pass through Sophie's web, able to do so without triggering traps or alarms, thanks to my extensive help in creating it.
After jumping onto my balcony, I look at Tess, who is standing there. She is resting against the railing and looking down at the city that is already filled with colorful lights as the night came. Tess seems to be thinking, so I just join her in silence.
The wind continues to blow, and unlike most of the time, her hair isn't tied into a ponytail and just waves in the wind, even at night showing its pretty blonde color.
When she turns to me, her steel-gray eyes are serious, and I see a hint of excitement and worry in them, “I was able to combine two of my skills,” she says simply, “[Lightning Armor] and [Lightning Manipulation],” she names her old skill and the skill she was able to get around two weeks ago.
Tess uses her mana to feed her new skill, and the moment it activates, I realize how powerful it is, not dissimilar to my [Regalia].
Slowly, red and white lightning moves and collects over her head, at first creating a halo that hovers there, then the halo changes its shape a bit, turning into a crown made from red and white lightning. The tips of that crown turn slightly yellow as if heated metal. The power of her new lightning is extremely pure.
“It’s called [Storm Crown],” Tess says, red and white lightning lighting her blonde hair and face. Even before she continues, I know what it means, “Nat, I can now enter Beyond 1st trial."