August 21, 493 U.C.
The sun continued its cheery attitude, bathing us all as we walked out of the school. I embraced it with a matching attitude. The classes had been a little disappointing, but I didn’t care. I’d had time with all sorts of people. It felt great. I paused a moment. Hi mom. I hope you are doing well. It was fun. Miss you!
With that thought, I headed down the streets.
Daniele sighed. “I hope they don’t hate us.”
“They won’t. You’ll see.” It reminded me of the guardians at the aquarium. I felt a little bad for the three. The swarm was behind us, gathering around them in a fury. The buzzing filled the streets as it slowly moved toward Guardian Command.
Within a minute, the noise slowly drifted. A light breeze blew through my hair. I spun and looked at the new shop. “Daniele! Look!”
“Full immersion VR?” Daniele asked. “I haven’t tried it. Have you?”
“No, but it looks cool.” I wanted one. Peering through the windows, I studied the posters and displays. It seemed like a fun thing. A sleek pod sat out front. They’ll leave. No one stays on Vuln.
Leaving the shop behind, we walked down the streets. Daniele kept glancing over at me.
“What?” I finally asked.
“Nothing. I was just wondering.” Daniele paused. “You know that you can’t tell anyone about my magic, right?”
“Never, Daniele. I vow that one.” I smiled at her. “And don’t be gloomy. I’m not jealous. I’m excited for you.” I bumped her.
“Thanks.”
That seemed to perk her up. We walked through the airlock. Waving goodbye, I headed home.
“Dad!” I exclaimed as I walked inside. “What happened? There are fae here! We have a noble!”
Dad shot me a stern look. “It’s expected. You know that. The fae and lords are investigating to try to understand. We’ll need to cause some chaos to push things further. Do not let it get tracked back to you.”
“What a mess.” I sighed and took off my bag.
“I certainly agree. You need to work. Go make potions and make a meat run. I need to get some things done.” He turned and headed for the door.
“See you, Dad.” I decided to get a little snack as he walked out the door. Then Ela joined me. To my utter shock, my quest to meet with guardians faded. Then it got replaced.
Quest: Reinforcement! – High Urgency. A guardian and squad are struggling to deal with a new hive on earth. Rewards: 1000 reputation. Additional reward based on contribution.
Level: 11 Mana: 8035 / 8501
“Forget it!” I replied. “I’ll get caught. There are guardians there!”
“Please, Casey! They need help.”
“Can’t others do it?” I asked.
“They are dealing with other hives. Please help.”
“They’ll hunt me down. You know that. And the reputation doesn’t matter anyway!”
“They need help! You will lose Australia!”
“So?”
“Do you really want to lose earth?”
Ela had me figured. I didn’t really want to lose Earth to some crummy bugs. “How bad?”
“They don’t have the firepower. They are slowly retreating. It will be established before they can get firepower. Please. The strongest are dealing with other threats. They need help.”
“If this is a trick, I will never help you again.”
“I promise never to trick you again!” Ela proclaimed. “No tricks! And Quest Immunity!”
“Deal. Don’t break it.”
I walked into my room and pulled out a drone. Then I activated it and put it on my chair. A replica of myself appeared. That was my safety in case my cousin stopped by.
Time came to a halt. I didn’t know what to do. We were supposed to make them struggle, but losing Earth was a surefire way to have a very crummy life. I did not want that.
With a sigh, I pulled off my necklace, put on Platinum’s, and used my magic girl spell. Then I used Haste and Teleport, appearing in the outback somewhere. I looked out at the giant mound. It was crawling with rotten bugs that were far too big. Magic had done a number on them, turning them into some hive of horror.
The hive was currently battling. Twenty-four soldiers and Fanged Fury were fighting. Drones whirred overhead, firing when they got a clear shot. The soldiers were in your standard camo uniforms.
Fanged Fury was cleaving a bug in half; his blade was slowly moving through the near-stationary bug. In the distance, there was a city that had likely called it in. I added it to places to visit.
With a sigh, I turned back to the task at hand. Fury had almost finished his bug. One of the men was yelling something at him.
I couldn’t understand a word. The sound was way too distorted. With hatchets in hand, I slammed both into one that looked like a beetle with jagged mandibles. It was disturbing. Its head came off, and bug-gunk splattered.
I sidestepped the burst of goo and hacked into another. Swinging at that speed did deliver a lot of power. Another bug exploded as my axe punched into it.
Narrowly avoiding the mess, I leapt away and hit the next, continuing my swath of destruction for a good few minutes. Pausing, I gave a look of confusion to one of the horned beetles.
Seriously? You’re charging me? I thought. The ludicrous horned-beetle-thing was headed my way at a slow crawl. In fairness, that meant it was moving fast in real time. Since I was already getting bored, I simply swathed elsewhere so that it would charge into its kin.
I leapt onto one and took its head off. Like popping a zit, gunk exploded out of it. I took off another head and danced away, slicing between the joints of the bug. Twirling to the side, I continued my dance of death among my stationary opponents while boredom started to grow. Like the impending night, it crept in, slow and steady. Its unyielding claws began to surround and ensnare me. Within a few minutes, the feeling hit me like a hatchet; I was completely bored.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an adrenaline junkie. And I’m not one to fight fair, but it was mind-numbing. After minutes of chopping, I teleported to avoid a flying glob of venom. It could eat through the insects that remained. Standing next to the spitting beetle thing, I hacked it open. That was repeated to the dozen bugs on top of the hive. Using my heightened skills, I avoided getting splashed by the things that were exploding under my hatchets.
Turning away from the dying spitters, I swathed down the hill like some deranged bug harvester. I made five stripes through the bugs before I was bored beyond all reason. This wasn’t some high-stake battle of will and passion. It wasn’t some life-or-death situation. It was like clearing a forest, except the trees were bugs that exploded when you hit them. It was utterly boring and gross. Convinced that had been at least ten minutes of Earth time, I took a look at my clock.
“Betrayer!” I yelled at it just to make me feel better. It has been six seconds according to the treacherous thing. With a huff, I sent my hair flying and looked at my backup.
The soldiers were nearly stationary. Their guns were moving, but they were not. I started doing mental math, calculating how long this would take. I concluded that they’d likely need a full minute to kill a few dozen. Fanged Fury would likely handle sixty in that time. That did not improve my mood. I let out a high-pitched wail.
Spinning, I vented my frustration on its head. It exploded while I began doing more math. At the current rate, it would also take at least two hours of my time. That was two mind-numbing hours of bug-chopping! There wasn’t enough reputation in the world! I let out another audible cry of anguish. Not unlike the digging, there was much weeping, wailing, and cursing as I spent the next seven earth-seconds chopping things.
As the seventh second ticked painfully by, I let out a full-powered scream, blowing the ears out of the bug in front of me. Then I turned elsewhere to vent.
“Ela, I’ll never make it!” I said with a groan.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m bored! I’m so bored! And I don’t even have music!”
“You are doing great! They need to finish killing it all and the queen.”
“That’s like hours and hours! A thousand reputation isn’t enough for this agony!”
“I can get you better weaponry.” Ela grinned. “You just need to say ‘yes!’”
“No! And no to this!”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Contribution: 131 mutated insects slain. Reward increased to 2310 reputation.
“That is nothing, Ela!”
“I have a quest with way more!”
“NO!”
With a flourish of my axe, I watched another head explode like a dropped watermelon. Then I spun and surveyed the place. It appeared that some spitters were trying to file out. That wouldn’t do. But I was way too bored for this. So, that meant it was time to speed things along. I reached into my subspace and pulled out my handy flamethrower. Then I ran up and just engulfed the place. It didn’t take long to light the corpses of the old.
Wanting no part of the oncoming explosion, I jogged down the other side, cleaving as I went. Then I turned and chopped my way up. To my glee, the horned beetles wrecked their own as they charged carelessly.
Stealing a look at the clock, I let out a long groan. It had only been four more seconds. The bugs up top were just starting to get hit by the flame. The explosion hadn’t happened.
“Rotten, no good clock!” I yelled. In frustration, I turned and kicked a scorpion thing. It went flying through the air like a small plane. It flailed while soaring. Then it smashed into the top of a charging beetle. The scorpion exploded into chunks of carapace and green goo. The beetle flipped like a jacked-up SUV, crushing a smaller one under it.
“It was a mistake beetle friend! Get up and help me!” I pleaded. It just flailed its slow-moving feet. Aiming my next shot, I punted a bug with massive pincers to roll it back over. The bug went through it instead, resulting in an explosion of goop.
Forcing myself to cut a new path back towards the soldiers, I groaned. That was when I made a horrible mistake. I was too distracted. My axe smashed into one. The bug exploded under the high-speed impact, covering me in bug gunk. The bug glop smelled and felt horrible.
Thoroughly disgusted with myself, I continued my bug-felling duties. As my boredom reached newfound heights, I turned on some music just to see. It didn’t work. I needed better software to get it that fast.
Glancing up, I could see that the crater was finally starting to burn. The spitters were panicking. To add fuel to the fire, I ran up and chopped four of them. Then I resumed cutting more swaths through the bugs.
During that time, I turned to cursing. I won’t repeat my uncouth language here. I don’t feel proud of it; it was just something to entertain myself during the monotony of bug chopping.
Spewing out a stream of profanity, I failed to summon a storm or even bother the bugs. They didn’t seem to care at all, which disappointed me greatly.
Ceasing my stream of ill-mannered language, I turned back to my allies. The soldiers were moving with the haste of a growing redwood tree. They’d killed maybe thirty at this point. Fang was swinging a blade at one. On the positive side, his blade was moving. At least he was trying to get something done during this endless drudgery. Then my focus was pulled. One of the chopped spitters exploded in a beautiful growing ball of flame.
It lit the field, highlighting the beetle next to me. I pulled out a large mallet. Then I punted a charging beetle. It launched off the ground and soared upwards while trailing bug-glop into the air. I willed it to hit something. It hit a tree which wasn’t what I had in mind at all. The tree trunk exploded, sending wooden shrapnel everywhere as it toppled.
Cursing the tree, I started my new career as a bug launcher, sending them flying towards their own. It was something to do to stave off the boredom. I turned and kicked an overgrown pill bug. The bowling ball crashed through the pins, creating a wave of destruction and glop. It coated the sandy soil in a horrible, sticky mess.
“How many points is that, Ela?”
“You got ten bugs. So, ten points?” she said.
“Do I get bonus reputation for a killstreak?”
“No.”
“Damn it!”
“There is a way to get a lot of reputation. You -”
“No!”
I swapped back to the hatchets. They were the fastest. Thus, I became the bug-tree lumberjack, yelling timber as they exploded.
After several eternities, I glanced back at the soldiers. My lying clock said it had been twenty-two seconds. I refused to believe that while I marched towards my backup.
I raced over to the soldiers and borrowed two guns, ten grenades, and several ammo cartridges. I placed them into my pocket dimension after giving one of the guns a test drive. It was disappointing. I resumed bug chopping.
“Stealing is wrong.” Ela acted as the morality police.
“I need them to make this work.”
“You aren’t using them.”
“I will. They are my exit strategy.”
“Oh. You should return them if they survive.”
“I’ll drop off what remains when I’m done.”
“Okay. I’ll trust you.”
In growing boredom, I rotated to singing. I embraced cliches and sang songs that you can find at the beginning of princess movies. It only seemed fitting to bemoan my fate while goop splashed across my face and splattered everywhere. Over the next thirty earth seconds, I worked through every possible one that had ever been made, letting the world know that I was destined for something more than bug goo. It helped my own sanity greatly.
By the time the earth minute had passed, I was anxious, twitchy, and bored at a level reserved for a dad lecture. Just like the aforementioned princess films, I was on the brink of falling on the ground to rethink my life choices.
A glance to the side revealed that the soldiers had used the minute to kill roughly seven dozen bugs in the most slow-motion action movie ever. I, on the other hand, had committed mass genocide on the bug forest. My outfit was no longer pretty. It was covered with green and yellow bug slop. My skirt dripped. Gunk was sticking to my face. Worse still, I could feel that goopy mess squishing between my toes. It was so gross. I would have taken care of it, but it was hard to care anymore. My muscles were on fire. I vowed to work out more. Maybe I could figure out that exercise high. I needed it.
With the end in sight, I plodded into the tunnel up top while my digestive system decided to act as the brass section once more. I hacked bugs while descending. My once swift and graceful movement had been reduced to the movement of a lumbering troll who just wanted to drop the club and sleep.
Relying on the ocular computer to see things, I descended while chopping; the bugs exploded in horrible, horrible glory. It just made me feel more like a troll. I roared and bellowed at the next one. Then I squashed it and groaned, standing there in dismay.
I forced myself to push onward since I felt a thousand urges to do anything else. Who wants to spend their life as a bug-tree-chopping troll? It was just depressing and exhausting.
After another absurdly long second, I reached the queen, who was sitting there. Looking like a massive grub, she had a face that only a mother could love and that terrified me. The clicking mandibles, large bug eyes, and horrible grub body made for a disturbing sight.
The queen disregarded the lumbering troll in her midst. Lumbering forward, I started chopping. That’s when the bug started her high-powered song. The sound vibrated my skull, sounding like some horrid jackhammer.
Time ground to a halt. I pulled out the guns and unloaded into her ugly mug. It was her own fault for opening her gob to emit that horrible noise. After spraying in some bullets, I pulled the pin on a grenade and put it into her throat. It just hung there.
Now, don’t judge me for this next part. With a blushing face, I stuck another in the queen’s rectum and a final one in her stomach. It was open enough to just leave it there.
“Don’t judge me, Ela,” I said.
She didn’t respond. I moved over to the rooms with all the eggs. Then I pulled pins and tossed grenades. Finally, I polished it all off with a coating from my flame thrower.
On the off chance that I needed more to finish the queen, I tossed a dozen enchanted wooden blades at her neck. Then I moved to the room entrance and released the spell. I was hoping for confirmation.
The queen tried to keep that horrible noise going, but my work put a stop to it. Gross fluid began running from wounds on her neck. Then the explosives went off. Like popcorn on the stove, she popped. Not wanting any part of the exploding kernel of goo, I didn’t stick around to watch the madness further. Nothing was living in this mess. I teleported out of the fire pit. Text displayed as I did.
Quest Complete! Reward: 5000 Reputation. (7000 total).
Quest: Redemption. – Turn yourself in at guardian command. (Additional quests available). Rewards: 10,000 reputation. Friends! Food! Fun! Forever! Just do it, Casey!
I ignored almost all of it while letting out a joyous screech. Freedom was nigh! I raced back to the troops. Dumping their weaponry on the ground, I blasted forward in complete glee. I was less than a second away from teleporting. I think Fang tried to yell something. I certainly didn’t stick around to hear it.
I teleported home, stripped, and went to shower. The warm water felt amazing, and I wasted a lot of it. Once I was finally done, I swapped clothes. Then I walked back to my room and pulled up the news.
Australia in Peril! - Fanged Fury, Platinum Princess, and Royal Marines React!
I clicked on it and began reading.
“Viewers, we have footage of a confirmed hive removal! A group of marines and Fanged Fury were dispatched. We also have confirmation that Platinum accepted a system quest to aid with the new hive in Australia. Together, they were able to destroy the hive. We have footage below.”
I watched in fascination. The outside observer had a completely different experience. They watched me zip through it so fast that you just saw a blur with bugs dying. Gunk was exploding around me. Bugs crumpled as I raced through it like some deranged bug swather. Bugs began shooting away from me, exploding through others. It was about a minute of a blur racing around with a bug-gut wake. Then the woman started talking while they slowed it down.
“This is a slowed-down version of the fight. We have a further slowed version below which attempts to show things from her perspective. We do warn you that the frame rate is not sufficient for the quality footage that we prefer to provide.”
“Speculation about the Platinum Princess and the first known supervillain, the Viper, has been high. With this confirmed footage, one must ask if they are one and the same. We also must ask about the growing need for registration. It is very clear that Platinum is now an extremely powerful speedster. Voice your opinions on registration and the draft below!”
A smile crept onto my face. While it had been horribly boring, there was something very nice about helping. It felt good. I enjoyed the feeling while doing homework.
Current Level 11 Current XP 5.36% Current Max Mana 8623.12 Regen per minute 13.07 Reputation 7000
Tier Skill Cost Tier 11 User Time Dilation (Haste)
- User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second.
- Force transference limited to 25%. 1 mana per earth second. Tier 6 Pocket Dimension
- 128 cubic meters of pocket space.
- Rapid stash and rapid draw.
- You may tether objects to your pocket space.
- Your pocket space preserves items inside. 32 mana Tier 6 Time Stop
- Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime.
- You may control the flow of time in the demiplane.
- You may summon in willing living creatures.
- This automatically triggers if you take significant damage. 200 mana to cast.
Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 6 Teleport.
- Teleports the caster or a willing creature.
- You may cast this on an unwilling creature if they are within ten meters.
- You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward.
200 mana for the caster.
400 mana for a willing creature.
1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance.
- Short range casts cost less mana.
Tier 3 Attire Swap
- Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform.
- Attire cleaned on swap.
- Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body
-Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting.
- Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions.
- Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 1 Free casting
- Cast any spell you can replicate. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana. Tier 1 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast. 1 mana for each additional minute.