The Job specifically said that the Water Elemental was terrorising their river and whilst I wasn’t sure that the river itself was being terrorised, the Elemental would probably still be visible somewhere nearby. In the time it took me to think this through, I’d landed on the ground near the river and walked up to look a little closer at the water.
Do Elementals usually blend into their environment like this? Maybe I should have actually done a little bit of research before I took the Job. It would be embarrassing if I failed to even find the thing.
Something hollow sounding clacked together somewhere in the woods and I spun around to face it. After a few seconds without Sense Danger warning me of anything I relaxed and, after glancing at the river one more time, decided that I may as well follow the path and see if I could ask whoever put out the Job where it actually was.
As I walked, obviously pushing the passive of Lightning Steps to its limit, I noticed that the forest around me was strangely silent, and wondered what that clacking sound was. A minute or so later I arrived at a wooden shack that seemed to be crudely made out of a bunch of logs, so I dropped that train of thought.
It’s probably not dangerous anyway, since Sense Danger didn’t activate.
I knocked on the door and waited, hearing someone drop something and swear as I did so. They didn’t arrive at the door after a couple of minutes so I guessed that I might have accidentally made them drop something important, resolving to apologise once they opened the door.
Whilst I was standing there I noticed that, strangely, the door didn’t have a handle or anything. I kind of assumed that you’d need a door handle to, you know, open it, but then again that Luke guy had some kind of door magic. When they opened the door I was lost in thought, wondering about the likelihood of them also having the same magic.
“Hey? Who the hell are you and what do you want?” When I found out that the person needing help with the Elemental was living in the woods on their own, I admittedly made certain assumptions about their appearance. I imagined that they’d be large and muscular, or at least slightly grizzled from the hard labour of making everything for themselves without being able to just buy stuff.
So I was pretty surprised that the person peeking from behind the mostly closed door was a reedy girl who couldn’t have been much older than me, with long, matted black hair and roundish glasses.
“What? Did you just come here to stare or something?” I felt a slight unease from Sense Danger, but it was gone just as suddenly as it appeared.
“Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought. Do you have door magic?” The girl just looked at me like I was stupid, so I rushed to elaborate, “It’s just that I met a cultist with door magic before, and I was wondering if that was how you opened that door, since it doesn’t have a handle and all.”
“It has a handle on the inside, I just don’t close it when I leave. Is that all?” Oh, that makes sense. What else was there?
“Oh that’s right, where’s the Water Elemental? I went to the river but I couldn’t find it.”
She sighed, though I get the sense it was more from annoyance at herself than me, “I guess you wouldn’t, it’s right at the end of the path but for some reason it only shows itself when I try to get some water. I’ve been getting by with just what I already had stored, but I won’t be able to get anymore whilst it’s still there.”
“... So, how am I supposed to get rid of it?” She fully opened the door and left the house, but closed it before I got a glimpse of what was inside, and began to walk down the path.
“Just follow me, I’ll lure it out.”
“Gotcha.” I followed her as she walked, but annoyingly had to walk much slower than I normally would so that I didn’t get too far ahead of her.
She gave me a sidelong glance as I began to vary my speed, sometimes walking much faster than her and sometimes much slower, but I ignored it. How was I going to improve my Skills if I didn’t practise them?
Maybe three minutes later we finally arrived at the river, but so far nothing had changed. Then the girl brought out a bucket that I didn’t realise she’d been carrying this whole time and tried to fill it in the river.
It was at this point that I realised what she meant, because almost as soon as she got close the water pulled itself into a vaguely humanoid shape and lunged at her. She was barely able to jump back in time to avoid getting slashed by oddly sharp claws that the monster formed as it swiped towards her torso.
“NOW! Do whatever it is that you do!” Oh yeah, the whole reason that I came here.
I felt a switch flip in my Mana Pool and something, for lack of a better term, flipped across my entire body. After it happened I didn’t notice much difference, but the initial feeling was still disconcerting.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I charged a Lightning Bolt, noticing vaguely in the back of my mind that there was no warning from Sense Danger that the creature wanted to hurt me, and launched a Bolt as close to the centre of the Elemental as I could.
It lodged into its chest and began to send out rippling waves of strangely tinted Lightning that seemed to cause the water to lose its shape and fall to the ground as it passed. The Elemental looked at me, then seemed to realise that I’d done something and desperately clawed at the Bolt that was still stuck inside of it.
Its water seemed to begin boiling as it became more and more desperate, until eventually something like a mouth opened at around where its head must have been and it released a high pitched whistle. Because it sounded like a kettle I had trouble figuring out what was causing it, then it occurred to me that, if an Elemental was effectively made out of its Affinity like I assumed, that would mean that I was slowly burning every part of it.
That whistling sound was probably it screaming in pain.
Oh Gods.
I scrambled around my thoughts, or whatever it was I was doing to activate the Skill, and desperately tried to turn it off. After a few seconds I managed it, but the Elemental’s screams didn’t abate so I rushed towards it and tried to pull the Lightning out of its body.
As I neared it swiped at me, probably thinking that I was trying to inflict more torture on it, but I ignored the painful cut that it scored across my face. I was probably feeling a lot less pain than it was anyway.
I was able to get close enough to touch the Lightning without it trying another attack, and grabbed it with both my hands and Channel Mana. Technically the Skill wasn’t supposed to help with this, but if I just formed a Channel and used that to pull it, then it should work just fine.
Thankfully the Lightning came free without much resistance and the Elemental fell limp, expanding and contracting in a way that seemed reminiscent of breathing deeply. It was much smaller than before I hit it, and I felt my guilt weighing on my conscience like an anvil.
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that would happen, I’m sorry. Oh Gods, I’m sorry.” I wanted to do something to help, but I wasn’t sure what. Just seconds ago I literally tried to kill it, but now I felt too guilty to finish it off.
Why do I feel so guilty now? I would have killed it with no problems, but after seeing it in so much pain… that’s just taking things too far.
The Elemental turned to look at me then flinched as it realised how close I was before jumping straight into the river and, presumably, swimming as far away as it could.
Combat Cleared 1 Water Elemental Defeated [Level 18]
You Have Reached Level 21
“That was pretty impressive, to be able to send such a powerful monster running like that. I think you should have probably just killed it, but I guess I should have specified in the Job description. Here’s your coin,” She tossed a sack at me, but I just let it hit the ground as I stared at the river, “Hm, whatever I guess. Don’t ever come back here by the way, I rather like my privacy.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw her fill up her bucket with water and walk back up the path to her hut.
Does she not care about how much I hurt that thing? I guess it’s no surprise that it targeted her specifically, huh?
Absent-mindedly, I picked up the payment and just dropped it into my satchel. I could sort it out properly later, but at that moment I couldn’t care less about it.
I Lightning Stepped back into the trees, noticing a flash of something white within the bushes but ultimately ignoring it in favour of focusing entirely on the next jump.
I need to be more careful with my Skills, I don’t want to do something like that to Kaelan. Or Render I guess.
----------------------------------------
For the rest of the journey I was lost in thought, barely noticing as it got darker, and not even setting up a camp to sleep in overnight. I felt… weak. Not physically (or technically magically, I suppose), but emotionally. That girl didn’t react like this, so why was I? Why was my Willpower so high if I couldn’t even handle accidentally hurting someone a little more than I intended to?
I suddenly stopped as I realised what I just thought.
My Willpower’s high, so it can’t be that I’m weak. I shouldn’t be just ignoring my guilt, that’s not the right way to fix this. I just need to make sure that I don’t make the same mistake again.
As I realised this, the guilt lifted off of my shoulders, just little, and I felt a sense of surety overcome me.
Man, that was pretty wise, wasn’t it? Maybe even enough for another point.
Robert Zeneki Lightning Adept 18 Level 21 Willpower 20 Wisdom 9 Strength 5 Agility 8
Path Skills Lightning Generator 15 Lightning Bolt 14 Lightning Cloak 7 Charge 12 Chain Lightning 1 Grand Skewer 2 Scorch Affinity
General Skills MAX Lightning Steps 8 Breath Of Mana 6 Sense Danger 8 Channel Mana 9 Meditation 6
King Slayer
Affinity Scorcher
Despite the events of that day (or the previous day, as I realised a few minutes later), a small smile crept onto my face.