I yawned, trying to ignore the two voices in my head.
Vanilla is clearly superior, you snake! Who flipped your taste buds around?
That’s like saying that rice pudding is a good food! What type of masochist eats that stuff?!
I rolled my eyes and bopped the floating eyeball, otherwise known as Systie. “I’ll have to stop you there. Rice pudding is an amazing food in general. Definitely not biased.”
Uh, huh. Of course it’s “amazing”.
“You don’t even know what it tastes like!” I argued.
My current situation was quite precarious; my Bond, Mia, and my floating eyeball, Systie, were arguing over what type of dessert was the best, and they were currently on the subject of ice-cream.
As we argued, Treia, my girlfriend (that is the most uncomfortable thing to think and I don’t know why), watched with faint amusement while making an attempt to read her textbook.
Right… textbooks. You may have connected the dots at this point. School is a thing now. And oh how I hate it.
Mia looked up at me suspiciously.
I glared at her. “One, you little glutton: I didn’t choose to go to this academy; Treia all but dragged me there, and two: You most definitely need school. You have the mindset of a child and the body of a child as well. You may be able to use my own knowledge, but you should still go to school. Also, Treia’s the one who made me enroll you in school.”
Treia gave me a betrayed look as Mia glared at her, scooting off her lap. Mia crawled onto my lap and looked up at me as I rubbed her horn. She reached up as far as she could to pat my horn, and, once she did, she gave me a satisfied look, leaning into me as I rubbed her horn. I rolled my eyes and looked back at Treia, who poked at Systie, who “deftly” dodged.
Systie then rammed into the side of my head with a copy of herself, sensing my thoughts.
I am very deft, she snapped, sounding proud of herself.
“Then how’d you just run into him?” Treia responded smugly.
Systie stuttered for a few moments before ramming into Treia and zooming over to my hair, where she went dormant, annoyed with us. Treia shook her head before leaning over to me.
“I should’ve asked four months ago, but how do you like the Capital?”
I didn’t process the question at first since I was still watching Mia rest. Then I blinked and looked at Treia, who was right up in front of me. Unable to control myself, I tapped her nose. She shook her head, the spines in her hair rising up to nearly straight back as her face went red. I laughed.
“The Capital, you say?” I responded. “Well…”
Thinking back on my time in the Capital, I frowned.
Ever since the end of the Dungeon Break back in Mayflower, Treia’s home city, I’d been living in the capital with Treia and her aunt and uncle, the Queen and King, along with my Bond and Systie. For the first month or so, I’d mostly wandered around the Palace, to the annoyance of the Queen. Eventually, she’d gotten Treia to convince me to enroll in the Capital’s Academy while simultaneously enrolling Mia into a school (which, as you may see, she completely was against). So now, we were both going to school, something which I had been glad to never have to go to again ever since Integration. But alas, I had to now.
Speaking of Integration, I hadn’t actually heard of anything to do with Integration for a while. I mean, there were rumors that there were people who Integrated recently already at Level 100. I didn’t care much cause I knew that even if they were, I could probably slap them around a few times and they’d understand their place on my food chain. The bottom.
Other than slapping them around, I thought about trying to meet some of those people. Could be interesting.
I then looked back at Treia and shrugged. “It’s okay.”
She gave me an odd look. “Common, please?”
I realized that I had spoken French since Mia had pulled out an orb I’d dubbed the Deathcore. It was actually a special “reagent” that would help her Evolve when we reached Level 100. It, for some reason, suppressed my Mana partially, and though I’d gotten through that, I still had to make a conscious effort to speak in Common, or English.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry. I said that it’s okay.”
She looked bewildered, starting to stand. “Just okay? Is there something that’s not to your liking? I can do something about it-”
I waved my hands, shaking my head. “No no. It’s fine, really! No need to wave your Princess self around like a flag. I just miss being around Leah. She actually understands some of the things I say.”
She sat back down, frowning. “Oh.”
I sighed. “Sorry,” I muttered. “I honestly find it weird that I’m not with Leah as often. We’ve never been separated this long; I usually saw her every day, so…”
She nodded. “It’s probably easier to get used to a completely new world with someone you’ve known for years, right?”
I smiled sadly. “Yep. It certainly is.”
***
Leah was currently having an internal crisis, like she had been for the last four months. Mostly because she was separated from Jason, but also because she was having a lot of trouble with integrating into the Academy in Mayflower. Mrs. Kia, Jason’s girlfriend’s mom, was helping her out, but it was just much more difficult when Jason wasn’t around for her to spout her problems to. Yes, she had Char, as adorable as the part Wolf-kin was, but she didn’t feel as comfortable around her as she would around Jason.
Shaking her head, Leah glared at the paper in front of her. How in the world was she expected to know any history about Aurora? She’d even told the professors that she was newly Integrated and they’d completely understood!
“Just read the damn book,” Jason would most likely say.
He had a point, since she could probably commit the entire thing to memory in half an hour.
Leah sighed. “Whatever. I’ll read the damned book.”
She ended up spending an hour reading the entire history book, in awe of the history of Aurora.
***
I sighed, moving slowly so as to not wake Treia, who’d fallen asleep with her head on my lap. She shifted in place, muttering something under her breath. Mia laid on top of her, watching me lazily as I tested out Runes, still hellbent on figuring out a way to put some on my sword. The thing was, Runes based on Abyss were pretty, uh, illegal due to how easily it could kill anyone around it. However, Treia’s Mom had just happened to have a few Runes on it. Void Runes weren’t as restricted, but it was still dangerous… if you weren’t a Voidborn Abyssal or Voidling, like me and Treia respectively.
Mia was a bit of a special case since she was Bonded with me. She was an Abyss Blizzard Serpent, which was a unique Race tailored for battle, though she was usually too lazy to fight unless I was with her. Even then, she moved at the speed of a snail unless there was food in front of her.
She looked at me curiously.
Systie floated around my head aimlessly, emitting a sense of boredom. And I’m obviously bored. But will he do something about it? Nope. I want him to go to the Elven Kingdom, but noooo. He’s going to sit around until his girlfriend reaches Level 99 as well.
Agreed.
I sighed as I put down the Rune Scriber and patted Mia’s horn. She immediately snuggled back into Treia, pleased with her current condition. Systie looked down at Mia, betrayed.
~~~
I tried not to sigh as I listened to the professor speak about the dangers of certain Elements, specifically Abyss. Speaking of elements, I looked down at my notes, which I unconsciously put in the style of the System screen.
Basic Elements : Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Abyss, Void, Divinity, Death
Sub-Elements of Earth : Stone, Lava, Metal, Wood
Sub-Elements of Wind : Cloud, Soul
Sub-Elements of Water : Ice, Rain, Life
Sub-Elements of Fire : Lightning
Elemental Gods
Earth : Katrina
Wind : Wendiego
Water : Cthulhu/Luna
Fire : Unknown
Abyss : [Redacted]
Void : [Redacted]
Divinity : Unknown
Death : Death
I found most of this pretty interesting, especially the Cthulhu part. According to some history books, Cthulhu, or Luna, and her Chosen usurped the previous Gods of Earth, Wind, and Fire and replaced them with others a few hundred years ago. They weren’t seen much anymore since they watched over the new Gods, but her Chosen would sometimes descend for a few months at a time, mostly to help with whatever was currently happening, though he always seemed to stay away from politics (He’s got his priorities straight). Some called him the God of Runes, which was a bit interesting.
I honestly found it interesting how people viewed Gods. They were, by technicality, just highly condensed bundles of Attuned Mana with a personality. They didn’t decide who used or who didn’t use their Element. They were just the absolute authority of their Element. You were quite literally unable to use their Element around them if they so wished.
I thought about the prospect of being unable to use Abyss. Well, for starters, I would probably die, since I clearly ran off of Abyss, as evidenced by Mia’s Deathcore.
Other than Luna, I was also interested in Divinity, who seemed a bit interesting, since the only person I knew that referenced Divinity was Leah, who had it in place of Mana. This led me to believe that she was probably the direct descendant of this Divinity God, since I doubted the other Gods used the Divinity Stat.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I wonder what type of Stats the Gods have…
Oh, hell no, Systie interjected. You have absolutely no chance against even the weakest God, even with me. They are so far above you, you’d have a better chance of having a kid.
I blinked. “I wasn’t thinking of fighting a God. I know I don’t have a chance. I was just wondering if they have the Divinity Stat.”
Systie seemed to have an internal fight with herself before saying, They don’t. Only Divinity and her daughter have it.
“Aha. So Leah is her daughter. Thanks for the confirmation.”
Whatever. It’s pretty much common knowledge.
“Doubtful: I think you’re technically not supposed to tell me anything,” I responded smugly.
With a one eyed glare, she bonked me on the side of my head, annoyed with me seeing through her.
Well, I don’t exactly have restrictions since I’m not connected with my true consciousness. I do know that there are things I absolutely can’t tell you yet.
“Key word here being ‘yet’,” I said, rubbing Treia’s hair as her spines rose slightly, the telltale signs of her dreaming.
Whatever. Anyways, have you thought about what you want me to look like? She asked suddenly.
“Eh?” I blinked at her, frowning. “Whatchu mean?”
She gave me a mental frown. When I get my body at Level 150.
“First of all, I have to think about that? I thought you’d choose that!” I responded, keeping my voice down.
She suddenly seemed a bit embarrassed. Well, I don’t really understand what you want from me yet-
“Woah, woah. We are not going there,” I said. “I can sense what you’re getting at and I do not need it.”
She seemed confused. But-
“No.”
Now annoyed, she snapped, I can’t be useless forever, you know! I have to do something!
I stared at her for a few seconds before I sighed. “You’re not useless.”
Don’t act like that. I am and you know it. All I do is float around and talk.
“I mean, that’s basically all you can do,” I responded.
Not the point. I just want to be more useful than being an information fountain.
“Isn’t the whole point of your existence to be an information fountain?”
Again, not the point. Now get to thinking!
“I could just make you into another Mia-”
Mia, who I’d forgotten was awake, smacked my cheek.
“-Which wouldn’t be ideal,” I continued. “Plus, we have Ms. Princess here. She’s already sensitive enough. Wouldn’t want her to be giving me the stink eye for just the thought of making you a body.”
You think about others too much. You can do what you want without worrying about what people think.
I looked between the eyeball and the Serpent, remembering that they didn’t have the same mindset I did. “Uh huh. Try to think like a Human for a moment, will you?”
Mia blinked.
I sighed. “Imagine I was helping another Dragon evolve that wasn’t you.”
I quickly regretted giving Mia that image when her own fury ripped its way into my mind and she hissed, shaking the entire room and, with a yelp, woke Treia up.
I groaned, clutching my head as I heard Systie hit the ground, completely dormant. “It… was theoretical, Mia,” I muttered.
Treia flailed as she sat up, eyes wide and spines completely erect. “What is going on? Why is Mia so upset?”
Mia blinked, tilting her head.
“In theory.”
Treia poked my cheek. “What did you do?”
I gave her a hurt expression. “Why are you assuming I did something? She just misunderstood something.”
Treia gave me a suspicious look. “I don’t buy it.”
I shrugged. “Systie was complaining, I tried to tell them to think differently on the situation and clearly I gave Mia the wrong example. Not my fault.”
“I think that would be considered your fault.”
“Details, details.” I waved my hand before picking up Systie. “Anyways, since you’re awake, I’m going to go shopping.”
Before Treia could blink, I was at the door of the library, Mia right behind me. “Buh bye!”
“Hey-!”
I shut the door, knowing that she’d have to deal with her Aunt again. Well, it wouldn’t be my problem.
~~~
I watched the small Wind Elemental with interest, resisting the urge to poke it. “So you sell these?”
The woman behind the counter smirked. “Of course I do. For the right price.”
I frowned. “I’m pretty sure this would be considered trafficking, yknow.”
Her smirk turned to terror. “Wha- who are you?”
I smiled back, shaking my head. “I’m not selling you out. I just mean that some Elementals have Human or better Intelligence, so they can’t all just be sold. Others, like this little lady, are like puppies,” I responded, wiggling my fingers through the Elemental in front of me, causing it to dematerialize and whirl around my fingers joyfully. “You should just make sure they consent to being sold before you just sell ‘em. If they don’t respond to it, they probably don’t even know what’s happening and either want to rest or play. If they do respond, you might want to do a few more tests to see if they’re intelligent or not.”
The Elven woman seemed to deflate. “I didn’t expect a lecture today. I should probably do all that. It’s just that where I come from, Elementals are all pretty dumb and like ransacking things, so I don’t really think twice.”
One of the Elemental cages rattled at her words and she grimaced. “I see what you mean now. Sorry.”
I laughed. “Yeah, you better check. In the meantime, I might just take this one; my girlfriend will love her.”
“Wind Mage?”
“Yep.”
The Elf shook her head. “You might just be right then. They love these things. You can have them for free; thanks for the information.”
I opened the Elemental’s cage and she flew into my air, thoroughly annoying Systie.
Oi! I was comfortable here! She complained. Just because you like him- HEY!
Ignoring the yelling eyeball on my head, I thanked the woman and began to look around for Mia, who I assumed was either eating to her heart's content or staring at some things that caught her interest. I used our Bond to quickly look for her, finding her trying to communicate something to a stall owner by waving her hands around and letting out hisses, clicks, and the occasional growl, who was watching her with confusion.
When Mia sensed me, she turned towards me with a defeated look.
“Well, I’m pretty sure they don’t understand Draconic,” I responded, picking her up. “Sorry about her; I’m pretty sure she just wanted to look at some of the things.”
The Wolf-kin man blinked, his wolf-like ears twitching. “Ah. That makes sense. She was pointing at things at random. Is she your Bond or can you just understand Draconic?”
“Bond. She’s a bit of a special case.”
I frowned. “She was wondering where you got your Dragon scales from,” I responded.
He blinked again, looking at some random charm. “Oh, these? I bought them off some Adventurers. They seemed really happy to get some money for them.”
I looked down at Mia who shook her head at my unspoken question. I nodded at the man and strode away, poking at Mia’s horn.
“You want to eat something?” I asked her.
***
Treia tried not to curse as the Boss chopped off nearly 40% of her Health, most of that from her ignoring the scaling poison still ripping through her insides. She used [Purifying Winds] to remove the Ailment before cleanly slicing the Boss’s head off with her sword.
Gods, why won’t the other students help, damn it?! She mentally hissed as she waved away the one Level the Boss netted her, pulling up her practically unchanged Status.
Status
Name : Treia Kia
Level 73 | Tier 3
Race : Windborn Voidling (Elven Heritage)
Health : 119328/119328 (6090 Health/min | 101.49/s)
Mana : 122848/122848 (9214 Mana/min | 153.56/s)
Class : Princess of the Void II
Stats
Strength : 768 (Base : 349 Effectiveness : 220%)
Dexterity : 1109 (Base : 514 Effectiveness : 220%)
Endurance : 746 (Base : 339 Effectiveness : 220%)
Vitality : 748 (Base : 346 Effectiveness : 220%)
Mana : 768 (Base : 349 Effectiveness : 220%)
Intelligence : 768 (Base : 349 Effectiveness : 220%)
Free Stats : 0
Titles : Princess of the Void, Two Tiers Ahead, Demon Slayer, Mass Destruction, Normal Beasts? Too Easy.
Skills : Wind Manipulation - Level 60 | Tier 2, Wind Blade - Level 57 | Tier 1, Void’s Eye - Level 32 | Tier 1, Storm Eye - Level 48 | Tier 1, Cloudstep - Level 51 | Tier 2, Purifying Winds - Level 45 | Tier 1, Void Manipulation - Level 40 | Tier 1, Void Rip (Portal) - Level 32 | Tier 1, Void Armor - Level 25 | Tier 1, Avatar of the Void - Tier 2, Black Hole - Level 29 | Tier 1, Void Barrier - Level 24 | Tier 0, Void Blade - Level 21 | Tier 0
She tried to ignore the cheering of the ones in her Dungeon Party as she kicked open the chest that had spawned by the Boss and peered in.
“Useless armor… another sword… oh, a battle-axe?” Treia murmured. She lifted the large axe out of the chest it should have definitely not been able to fit in. “Hm… not my style. Plus, it’s too light.” She tossed it back before looking back into the chest and spying the scroll at the bottom.
As the rest of her Party rummaged through the chest, she opened the scroll and grinned.
“Yep, Jason will definitely enjoy this,” she said, shaking her head at the unintelligible Runes. “So would Mom, now that I think about it. They both are Rune fanatics.”
Ignoring the obvious danger of charging up unknown Runes, she put in some of her Mana, placed it on the ground a good distance away and, shot off behind a rock to watch it cautiously.
“It didn’t explode, so that’s a good sign,” she muttered, ignoring the strange looks she got. She walked back to it and lifted it off the ground. “Well, I guess it doesn’t do any-”
The moment she tapped it again, a barrage of hot water blasted into her face, causing her to let out a shriek and throw the scroll across the room as her skin steamed. She fell onto the ground, glaring at the scroll as it ran out of Mana.
“Fuck you, stupid Runes!” she yelled at it as the last of the water squirted out the scroll.
She shook herself dry and stomped over to the scroll, rolled it up, and put it into the bag she dedicated Jason’s sometimes explosive Runes to, which she was only ever going to use in emergencies, since they were all charged with enough Mana to blow up a mountain each.
She remembered when Jason had shown her what each of the runes could do by taking her to a faraway mountain range and tossing them through a portal above a mountain, immediately blowing the top off of it with a bolt of lightning as thick as a cart. Then he flash-froze another one before showing her a cocooning one that would surround her with about seven layers of reinforced stone before exploding the outer layers with enough force to level about half a mile of forest in every direction.
To put it simply, her boyfriend was clinically insane. Neither him nor Treia’s mother had any sense of destruction and would blow up a few continents before realizing that what they were doing wasn’t small explosions. Then he showed her his arsenal of Runescripts even he called dangerous and backed out of the room before he could finish a sentence. From what she remembered, most of the things in that room held a few million Mana each.
Treia shook her head as she realized that her and the rest of her temporary Party had already gone up the exit and were having their loot be evaluated. She placed the scroll onto the counter and watched carefully as the woman frowned at it and turned it over a few times.
“Runes?” She asked. “I don’t understand much of this, so it may sell for more. Would you care to sell this to the Guild-?”
“No. It’s a gift,” Treia interrupted, still a bit lost in thought.
“A… gift?” The representative muttered, handing the scroll back to Treia.
Treia had already walked away, and was nearly at the castle when she realized what she’d said at the Dungeon Exit.
“Shit!” she hissed. “I told her it was a gift! Also, I need to stop cursing. Jason has too much of an influence, especially when he blows things up. I’m still a Princess, not some random civilian.”
She shook her head and was about to continue her way to the castle when a small form ran into her side, nearly knocking her over. Treia looked down at Mia, who seemed a bit dazed as she looked up at Treia. Then Mia’s face lit up and she jumped up into Treia’s arms, nuzzling into her chest.
Treia blinked. “Mia? What are you doing here?”
An eyeball rose from Mia’s hair and shook itself, clearly not happy with being dragged around.
Running away from Jason and his “gift”, Systie grumbled. At least, I am.
“‘Gift?’” Treia tilted her head, trying to gauge what Systie meant. “For who?”
You apparently.
Treia blinked and tried not to blush, but, based on Systie’s mental snort, she failed.
“What a coincidence…” she muttered.
At that moment, there was a yelp as a portal opened nearby and Jason tumbled out, followed by a few dozen objects like rocks, papers, and what she assumed was a few things from his Storage space, most likely courtesy of Mia and her being able to open it as well.
He laid face-down on the ground for a moment as an unnatural wind spun around him, picking up random objects and throwing them at him, with the faint sense of giggling. He then groaned.
“How’d this lady catch a Level 78 Elemental?” he muttered. “And- OI!”
Treia flinched as he looked up and yelled at the piece of metal floating in the air. He quickly sat up and shook his hair out, his elf-like ears poking from under his hair that he kept saying he’d cut, but kept forgetting to.
“Do. Not. Drop the Script. That will blow all of us to the next universe and beyond. I do not want to be reincarnated yet,” he hissed, slowly standing while portals to his storage space opened below the dropped items. “So… gimme that!”
He seemed to teleport as he launched himself at the metal chunk, grabbing it out of the air and throwing it upwards into another portal. He then grabbed the air and seemed to reel it in with some very angry looking Runes.
It took a few seconds of watching him struggle to realize he had a Wind Elemental with him.
“Wha- Why do you have an Elemental?!” She exclaimed. “Are you insane?!”
Jason rolled his eyes. “My name is Jason, isn’t it? Jason and insanity go well together.”
She gaped at him for a few moments before looking at Systie. “Why?”
Remember that gift I mentioned a few moments ago? Well… Systie looked in the direction of the Elemental.
Treia simply sighed, defeated. “What is wrong with him?”
Everything.