C49-Worn Out Wings
Alright… okay, okay… cool as having, er, forty percent increases to my speed is, I don’t suppose this lasts forever. And, even still, having continued off and away from the town all day, I haven’t heard… well, a screech from Screech. I figure there’s nothing actually wrong with them, given [Featherguard] can be “dismissed”... but it is still mildly concerning.
“Jasper, do you think I’m far enough away by now?”
“Mmm… Mm-mm.”
“No??? How are we NOT far enough away? I’ve been moving for almost an hour now!”
“Mmm…”
They have tracking abilties!?- Actually, no I guess I shouldn’t really be that surprised. They’ve got magic and a lot of it from what I saw, magic to track something or a skill to track something really shouldn’t be that far out of my expectations. So, yeah, I suppose I should keep on going either way, but… I can’t imagine I need to be moving at full force like this for the entire time.
“Well, the sky isn’t going to fall down if I move slower than this, is it now?”
“Mmm, mm.”
“Ohhhh my, no, it will not. The sky is an immutable law! It won’t simply stop existing!”
…I mean, it might not be, but it probably is.
“Right, no ifs ands or buts, I’m getting rid of [Featherguard], I know she hasn’t been around for long, but Screech being silent is kind of uh… weird.”
“...Mhm.”
“Oh, right… before I do that, Jerry, are you alright?”
Oof, not even the contemplative silence I’d usually get. I’ll suppose I can take that as a no.
“Well, if you wanna talk about it. Anyways, let’s get right into the news! Screech, wakey wakey!”
Yeah, similarly, no response. Kind of what I expected, so how do I go about turning this off? I… don’t think she’s permanently stuck like this, that’d be… alright I guess, but also a serious waste of potential. As much as making me this much faster is like, borderline broken for a few reasons I’ve come to believe, I think Screech’s agro capability is way, way better than buffing a single person.
They’re both good, I’d like to have both, but I’d rather have the latter if it came down to picking an option. So I’m just hoping that she didn’t, you know, lock herself out of playing that role by doing whatever it is she’s done. So! I’m just gonna go through a few possible options here, see if I can’t pry her out of whatever she’s gone into!
“Give me a moment, Jasper, keep an eye out for any monsters?”
There were a few that I ran by, and I’m not sure if they’re actually following me or not…? Better safe than sorry, don’t wanna get snuck up on or anything.
“Mm.”
[Summon]
Yup, that’s good ol’ reliable right there. Jasper doesn’t ask many questions, and while I’d be perfectly capable of answering them, just having somebody listen to what you say without back-sass is nice. Stark contrast to when we first met really, though I can’t say I miss it.
Now… dismiss! Dismissed! Cancel! Remove? Screech B-gone?
…[Recall]?
Oh, yeah, there we go! Don’t know why I didn’t try that first. Might not be the sharpest tool in the shed.
Immediately after casting the skill, the feathers lining my tunic vanish into thin air, and although faint, I can intuitively sense the new presence in my… mind, pocket, realm, thing. I’m just gonna call it my inventory at this point, but I really need an actual name.
Ahem, and although faint, I can intuitively sense the new presence in my inventory. Which is, less than great, because Screech has never been “faint” in any way. It’s actually uh, moderately concerning as far as I’m concerned.
“Screech? Are you alright?”
“whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
“Screech?”
“hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
“...Screech!”
“Huh?”
“Oh, okay good, you’re not braindead!”
“Wait, wait, where am I?”
…Screech pausing in a sentence? That’s not good.
“Uh… in my inventory, I [Recall]ed you-”
“No whyyyyyy am I not s-still using my skill that’s not righhhhht I should’ve been continuing tooooooo figure that out… Why did you stop me???”
Hah? Hell does she mean I stopped her? And why in the world is her speech slurring? She didn’t even do anything all that taxing, did she? …Did she?
What, is, her stamina right now?
15/121
…Well that’s not right.
“I wasssss tr-trying really hard and you just sssst-stopped me for no reason why the heck would you do that you’re so-”
Stolen novel; please report.
Even speaking non-stop like she usually would, she’s not quite pausing, but it’s clear she’s struggling to even form the words. It’s not really that difficult to break through her diatribe, and break through I do.
“Okay, take a second to breathe, please? I mean, not literally, but you also do kind of literally need to stop? Have you taken a look at your own stamina? You’re practically about to have a heart attack!”
I mean, I’m not sure if monsters can have heart attacks, but I’m very not enthusiastic to check the find out scale on that one.
“...”
“Yeah, ya dingus. What the heck were you even doing to get yourself sloshed like that? I know you have [Atrophied] as an issue and everything, but you weren’t actively consuming MP either. I know [Morrigala Metamorphose] costs twenty MP, but at the same time, it ONLY costs twenty. You only used the skill twice, as well as a fireball earlier. So, you used… what, fifty something MP? I somehow doubt the conversion rate of MP to stamina is more than 1:1, so at most you lost fifty to sixty stamina from when you woke up, so you should be at forty still, at the least! The hell happened?”
I’m not sure if that’s curiosity or a bit of genuine concern… Well, it’s definitely curiosity, but I’m not sure if “concern” is in the mix there or not. She’s probably fine, but still. What’s she got to say for herself hmmm?
“...Uhm.”
…Not much apparently! Well, she seems to be taking the time to contemplate her words for once, so maybe she does.
“I… was experimenting?”
“...Experimenting.”
“...Yes! It was r-really interesting actually I figured it www-would’ve been possible to transsssform into an object instead of j-just changing shhhhape but I haven’t actually tr-tried it until now so-”
“Chill, take a breather, slow down.”
“...So I was using my magic… while transformed, trying to understand why and how it worked, and also why it gave you a passive.”
“Wait, so you could hear me while you were transformed?”
I mean, maybe she just intrinsically knew that she gave me a passive by doing what she did? Despite not having done this before? I dunno, maybe assume innocent before guilty or something, the right thing to d-
“...Yes?”
Nevermind.
“...And you could respond?”
“I… guess so.”
“You just, chose not to?”
“...”
“...Alright Screech, alright. How about you uh, take a nap, yeah? We can talk, all you want, right after you wake up!”
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-”
“Non-negotiable! Go ahead, no problem with you going to sleep right now!”
“...”
She doesn’t bother to respond again, and shortly afterwards that presence in the back of my head fades, being a rather obvious indicator that yes, she is dead tired. I’m so yelling at her when she wakes up, but for now she’s fine I suppose.
“Well, Jasper, suppose we should-”
+5 exp!
…Oh.
“-uh, get going!”
Wasn’t really paying any attention to the outside world, focused on my current domestic issue and what not, but Jasper is putting in work as usual. Not like, slaughtering hordes amounts of work, that was her first kill so far, but there she is, staring down like… twenty different monkey monsters! Or, I dunno, maybe they’re baboons? I’m no specialist.
“Well, do you wanna wipe those things out or, just keep running?”
“Mm.”
PFff- alright, she wants to get out of here, got it, got it. Absolutely no desire to stick around for the supposed trackers huh?
“Okay, just keep running it is!”
Turning on my heel, and almost falling over again before I remember I’m suddenly a whole forty percent slower than I was before, I start sprinting full speed ahead on the uneven path before me, [Recall]ing Jasper a moment afterwards before she manages to take any damage.
“Seeya later suckers-”
“MM!”
Oh, right, trackers. Probably shouldn’t be shouting and announcing my presence, huh?
“(My bad.)”
Should probably get as far away from here as I can, haha! Really don’t wanna die after all, that would suck! Not because of the level loss, but because I’d get sent either back to the town over yonder, or all the way to god, damned, Resiala. After a multiple day-long trip.
Yeah, really not enticing to dip the moral coil right now! So, keep running I shall.