A Apartment in Earth:
"Is Cecil going to get any better?" Star Tulip asked.
"I'm not sure" Star Rose said, shaking her head.
For the last few days Cecil was in a catatonic state. He had grown back to half his original size but was completely unresponsive and continued to talk to nobody in particular. Just hearing him talk to an Ingrid that was no longer there was hard to listen to.
Not even the familiars could get through to him. The strangest part of all was that he was completely devoid of all Mana and Life Force. Yet he continued to move, to talk, to shout and argue.
"No, I think your problem is that you're so ashamed of dying as a Saturday morning cartoon character that your coping mechanism is to pretend to be an FPS character. How mature and classy of you. I'm so sorry, would you have preferred to have your head bitten off on your third assignment!?" The hollow shell of a slime yelled.
Star Juniper hurriedly left the room, followed by all the other familiars.
Star Rose got up too.
"I'm going to get some fresh air."
Star Tulip was going to say something...she knew what phrase meant. Every time Star Rose claimed to need to go out get fresh air meant she was going to do something.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: WEIGHING IN AT FIFTY POUNDS WHEN SOAKING WET, THE REIGNING BURGERWEIGHT CHAMPYAAAAN AAV THE WUUUUURLD!" the hollow slime mockingly called.
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Star Rose slammed the door shut. Her familiar, Macy; a diminutive fluffy fox with multiple tails looked at the girl in the Crimson Raiment with deep-seated regret.
"We have to say goodbye...we have to let him go." Macy said. "I'll come with you... I brought Cecil into this, I have to take responsibility."
Wordlessly the two of them took flight, towards the one place they once vowed to never return to.
***
2rd Courtyard of the Adventurer's Guild "Fenrir", Teragalia:
"What in the Ten Hells is that?" A Kobold adventurer said.
"Shhh! Keep it down." His companion said sotto voce, "Don't go starting fights, Kvaris!"
Kvaris' tail however, was wagging. "Why not? That thing looks so scrawny, Zardos probably tired it out by letting it waste all their magic. Look at it's aura" he added, narrowing his eyes as he focused his magic into them "It's barely there, like glowing coals."
"Why is it here then? You think Zardos tripped and a stray fireball hit him? Look, if you wanna show off you can just show off how fierce your aura and body enhancement magic is later."
"Oh relax Kinu, I'm just curious about that... damn it's unsettling to look at. Does that thing have bones!?"
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The subject of the two Kobold's gossip was Ingrid Lily, and as nobody has ever seen a Human before, they weren't the only ones staring.
Ingrid however was busying herself with some Yoga and stretching exercises while she waited for her turn for the Magic Aptitude tests. Hovering near her was a small portal leading to some stuck-up aristocrat’s bedroom, where a talking slime lived. Cecil’s Dialogue Window and the fact that he was talking was what got most people’s attention.
The surrounding candidates were highly amused at his apparent displeasure with his tamer; a death sentence if she ever got into a serious fight.
"...I'm just saying, Ingrid..." Cecil said "...your kung-fu test was half an hour ago, it's too late to do yoga unless you plan to punch your target dummy with an elongated fist."
"Train your body, train your mana...Cecil, tell me again how a Magical Girl uses her special powers."
The slime huffed and rolled his eyes. "At least on Earth...and apparently in this world too, we're surrounded with a naturally-occurring source of Arcane power called Ether... people's Mana and Life Force over time also join the flow of Ether.
Mana and Life Force are generated (usually) by all living things, from humble bacteria to Gods. In order to use your powers, one usually draws it from their Mana, which comes from the body. Inanimate objects can also have mana too, usually when someone frequently imbues and/or channels their own into it. "
"Mhmm... that's just how I remember it." Ingrid said as she bent from side to side with her arms extended above her head. Her limber form allowed her to easily touch her toes. "Normally if you want to shoot a magic missile, you draw from your own mana, how powerful it is depends on three metrics which through time and proper training can be increased: Mana Potency, Mana Efficiency, and Mana Capacity."
"Yes, that's correct." Cecil said. "But that's not the only thing you've been doing... you've always been tapping into the ambient Ether around you to minimize Mana cost, you've been using that as "fuel" in a manner of speaking."
"But the thing is, without proper training, using my Ether and introducing it into my Mana is dangerous. Mana eventually becomes Ether as it leaves the reach of my Aura. so a large enough intake of Ether into my Mana can cause a Mana Burn... a chain reaction wherein my Mana is forcibly turned to Ether on a large scale. Alternatively when I'm in the process of mixing Mana and Ether, all it takes is a well-placed energy strike at the right spot and it'll end up blowing in my face."
"Correct. And what about Life Force? You remember that one?" Cecil asked.
"Where Mana is drawn from the body and is what keeps it alive, Life Force is drawn directly from the Soul. Compared to Mana, LF is far more potent but also extremely dangerous when it backfires."
"Yes. also, the usage of Life Force causes a 'Bleed Effect'. You don't just spend say... one unit of LF and that's that. You actually start bleeding out something like 0.05 units every second or something until your Soul is extinguished and unlike Mana, LF has a much, much smaller pool. So any use of LF requires tons of practice and no chance of being interrupted. Instead of throwing a wrench into the gear, this is throwing a piece of paper and the whole thing crumbles."
"Did you notice what Zardos was doing, Cecil?" Ingrid said as she folded her arms. She was now balancing upside down on her head, her legs crossed like a pretzel. A few onlookers were placing bets when this "human" creature would end up breaking its neck.
Cecil paused a bit, trying to remember. "He was using only his Mana.... are you suggesting that he cannot..."
"Think, Cecil!" Ingrid interrupted him."What was the Dark Queen Melrondia's end game?"
"She wanted to corrupt the Starchasers as well as much humans as she could. Grow her army."
"And what..." Ingrid said slower now, the juxtaposition of her upside-down yoga pose and her tone made Cecil stifle a chuckle "...have you noticed all of her SEED minions have in common?"
"For one they sure have a crapton of mana.... ohhh."
In a movement that caused many onlookers to consider magic, Ingrid was back to standing on one leg, arms folded in contemplation. "It's the same phenomenon here, Cecil. It's like only humans can make use of the Ether. Zardos' Metrics is much higher than mine, at least on base form. But that still means that the old Star Lily scales to him, assuming Star Lily didn't use Ether."
Cecil blinked. He didn't notice that.
"If Melrondia is here, it'll be worse. I'm sure there's people out here stronger than Zardos." She learned forward and despite Cecil's window maintaining a relative distance from her face, Cecil pulled back. "We have to be ABSOLUTELY SURE, she is. Not. Here."
The slime nodded.
"What about the other you that's still on Earth? Have you gotten any word yet?"
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Zilch, nada!" Cecil said. "half of my waking hours is spent trying to ping the other me and the other half is trying to get y-"
"I SAID, INGRID LILY!" came the Magic Instructor's amplified voice. "IF YOURE NOT HERE IN THREE SE-oh! Neat telepor- ...what you mean you just 'sprinted'? Well whatever, let's get started."
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Magic Instructor Millarna adjusted her glasses as she surveyed the row of thirty candidates.
"The dummies ahead of you are protected with a barrier, the requirement to pass is to breach that barrier within fifteen minutes. Any idea why? You! The hyoo- err... she looked at her paper again. "Human, any idea why we're doing this?"
"Spell power? To test how big our Mana Pool is? To gauge how efficient we are in spending energy? Something like that. That seems to make sense considering we have fifteen minutes to breach the shield, in my experience you're usually given one shot so I'm guessing these dummies have a pretty tough shield on them."
"Exactly" Millarna nodded, the human wasn't carrying a staff but she opted to go for this test instead of the Body Enhancement one which she found strange.
Well, not her problem. If she fails, she fails.
"Alright, get started! and remember, I see one stray shot you are immediately disqualified!"
"Don't do it Ingrid, Don't you dare-" Cecil said but she did it anyway.
In rapid succession Ingrid channeled her Mana between her open palms, the ambient Ether was quickly drawn in from a vacuum-like effect and created a sphere of energy that rapidly grew until it touched her hands before she thrust both hands forward, firing off a blast of volatile energy.
The rest of the candidates stopped and stared in disbelief and even the currently testing candidates dropped their staves and looked at her slack jawed as her body blurred as she rapidly performed the motion again and again while she said something that sounded like "adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-adu-". It didn't take long for the parade of blasts to look like a steady stream of dragon breath.
Cecil could see why everyone was surprised. As Ingrid said, one only needed to spend a miniscule amount of Mana and let the ambient Ether do the rest of the work. Technically she channeled a good amount of energy for the "vacuum" but only a small amount was spent to actually launch her shots. As a long-time Starchaser; Ingrid had no trouble channeling Mana and bring it back to her body; refunding the cost.
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"Based on my observations, assuming that Ingrid is being truthful of being a fairy, she is most likely a species of greater fae, even possibly an Oberon-class fae." Millarna quietly told the Guild Master.
The Guild Master licked his paw contemplatively before running it through his head fur. Closing one eye, he purred. "The only information we have of Oberon-class fae is highly apocryphal at most. Don't start jumping to superstitions just because you've seen new magic for the first time.... anyway, what is she doing?" The guild master put his fore paws onto the railing so he could have a better look of the second courtyard below, his tail swishing with curiosity.
Shortly after her test, Ingrid had encased herself in ice. A bunch of candidates and even some guild members had come over to gawk, with the latter wondering who froze this poor rookie. Some of them looked up at the Guildmaster and Millarna above but they shook their heads, indicating that they leave Ingrid alone.
Meanwhile, Ingrid's slime familiar Cecil for some unknown and long-going slight inflicted on him by his master, has been hopping around and addressing the observers in a loud voice.
"Step right up and see the freak show! The missing link! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the neanderthal with a stunning Eye-Que of three point three three three three...!"
"Why did she freeze herself?" The Guildmaster said.
"She said, she had... overheated herself after spamming like a scrub." Millarna shrugged. "I'm not familiar with the figure of speech, unless she seems to imply there's some kind of dryadfolk that possess massive reserves of mana to replicate what she has done."
"Mrrwww... if she lived in such an environment that would explain her exceptional abilities. About her familiar, The two of them seem to be bickering a lot."
"Of that I'm not exactly sure." Millarna said after some thought "The slime's name is Cecil and he claims to be an assistant of some degree. It appears that in his judgement Ingrid is in a state of u-"
The huge block of ice crumbled. Ingrid shook herself off.
"I know that's the coolest way to cool off, but does 'Thermal Shock' not mean anything to you?" Cecil asked but who was he kidding. Pre-Isekai Ingrid Blair grabbed an energy blast from the Dark effing Queen Melrondia with her bare hands and crushed the energy core out of it.
"Worth it." Ingrid replied.
"Impractical as hell but dammit that was cool."
"Obligation, met." Ingrid pumped a fist.
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Guild Instructor Roger and a few candidates were candidly talking to each other at the back of the Guild Hall when he noticed what could only be Ingrid Lily. He gestured at her to hurry up and before he could finish, one step she was right over there and the next step she was sitting on the front row. In response some inched away given the unnatural cold she was still radiating.
"Alright now, listen up" The grizzled Orc veteran said. "As you know, Orcish Tribes are nomadic by nature, and in ideal situations our riders go about in teams with people we've come to know well and synergize with. However, that is not always the case. Sometimes you will need to team up with people you've never met before."
The man continued by telling them a few anecdotes when he was still a Rider Brave from his tribe the Red Foot. "...the long and short of it is, I have an actual quest for you guys. Right now. With actual rewards being paid out. I will randomly pick a team, and I want you to turn them in tonight. Hu'ugh!"
"Hu'ugh!" the candidates chorused in the Orcish version of the Navy Seal "Oo-rah!" or at least that's what Ingrid thought.
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"Well this is just my luck." Ingrid said as she followed her team. "When it comes to knowing my whereabouts I don't know anything."
"So there ARE things the great Ingrid can't actually do." Kvaris snickered as he led the way.
"I think that's part of the test" said a lizardman named Erath, "you're going to run into situations where either one or a few party members know something. Languages, cultures, societal norms... and then in another situation the shoe will be on another foot."
"No, no...no... I don't want to be the first slime that develops an aneurysm." Cecil muttered, shaking left and right.
"Well, it's just that, what I'm really looking for…" Ingrid began "...it's got to be something only Cecil and I can take care of."
"What's that?" Kinu asked.
Ingrid exhaled "This is going to sound even more ridiculous, but Cecil and I belong to a completely different world. I... we... we were fighting this really strong opponent."
"Oooooh... Ingrid the legendary hero." Kvaris's tail wagged as he chuckled.
"What's your problem, Fido? Didn't get enough kibbles and bits this morning?" Cecil called.
"Aaanyway..." Ingrid continued "...that's how we ended up here. My top priority actually is to ensure that I killed it. If there's a way to get back, that'll be nice too. But I want to make sure that it's not here either."
"You got a name for this enemy?" Erath turned to her "That will definitely help."
"Melrondia, sometimes goes by the pompous title of 'Dark Queen Melrondia', has a nasty habit of corrupting people around her into SEEDs. You see back when I was a Private Contractor, I was leftenant then, doing some wet work. Cherno-"
"No! No! No! Denied!" Cecil interrupted. "Stop it." he had grown in size so that his face filled up his window. "Bad!"
"...Cecil and I were part of a team that were hunting down the Dark Queen as well as her SEED minions. So... if you know anything about people being like, corrupted into something and it turns them into subservient thralls that are packing like tons and tons of Mana...anyone? Anyone in mind?"
The rest of the party shook their heads. Erathh spoke up again.
"I've heard of old temples that supposedly are gateways to the Godsrealm. But a lot of towns and cities use them to bring pilgrims so they can bilk them for their money."
"Oh that's an idea" Kinu added, tail wagging "Maybe with your Fae magic you could get those to activate."
"Oh Kinu, you're starting to sound like those cone-hat crackpots." Kvaris laughed.
"Scared of a little walk, Fido?" Cecil, jabbed.
"You talking to me, Cecil?" Kvaris turned his head in confusion "Why would I be scared of a walk?"
"Sorry, my familiar's in a bad mood right now." Ingrid glanced at him with a 'chill, man!' look.
"If you want me and Kinu and accompany you to some Gate-To-The-Godsream. Pay up. We're adventuring to make coin, not be a hero." Kvaris. "Kinu's my pup brother, by the way."
"Don't call me a pup!" Kinu added a bark at the last. "I can fight as well as you do."
"You're reckless!" Kvaris barked in return "someone needs to watch your back, you runny-nosed..."
While the two kobolds barked at each other, Ingrid walked closer to Erath
"So what's your story? Why are you taking a job that could get you killed?" she asked.
"Succession." came lizardman's answer. "A fitting head of my house requires a man who is well-versed in the ways of the world and not just his little den, and so most of my missions will be like this."
"This goblin search mission?" Ingrid asked "What IS a goblin search mission?"
"Tunk and his crew were last known to be digging tunnels in the Aste Mountains." He explained "they haven't returned yet, despite being close enough to be here in a day. "
Kvaris stopped his back-and-forth barking with Kinu and added "I suspect they're roaring drunk and waiting to finish their stocks of wine before they return to town and check in."
"What's the worst that could happen?" Ingrid asked, her candor starting to fade.
"Cave-ins, a possible stumbling in a Deep Dragon's Nest, a lair of bandits..."
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"Wine... pay up" Kvaris held out his paw at Ingrid.
"Let's wake them up and make sure they all get back to town first." Ingrid said. "Still..." she noted, admiring the tunnel work of the Goblin crew. These guys sure put any tunnelling in my world to shame."
"You don't have Goblins where you're from? How do you even get around?" Kinu wondered.
"Heh, in our world it's the Goblins that get arou-"
"Shhh! Cecil!" Ingrid admonished "this is a Chr-"
"Alright guys! Wake up! Wake up! We're here to get you out!" Kvaris called. "If you don't do it, the Fairy will eat you!" he joked, as Tunk and his crew ambled their way, bleary-eyed back to New Gorpisal.
"Come on, guys, I wanna get paid!" Kvaris added.
"What? ...what?" Cecil said, trying not to laugh as Ingrid looked at him.
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A Certain Skyscraper in A Financial District, Earth:
"Just calm down..." Star Rose said as the elevator brought them up to the top floor. But the little kyuubi fox was pacing back and forth like a distressed, caged animal. Star Rose herself was rapidly tapping her foot.
The elevator finally opened up and the dark-suited security men simply nodded to the girl in crimson and her familiar, one of them gesturing at the set of double doors.
As they entered the otherwise empty meeting room they heard a voice talking on the opposite end, the occupant's high wing chair had it's back to them.
"...of course, of course. Well what are our options, Bernard? Who do you think is next in the line of succession? Oh? Oh! OH!? REALLY!? You want us to get another? Really? And is this what, for Immediate Hiring? You want to throw more into the meat grinder, that's what you want? Oh sure! If you want handle things that way why bother fighting them, you're no different, you goddamned piece of sh-" a smartphone was hurled into a wall with enough force that it embedded itself.
The chair turned around, revealing it's occupant, a small unicorn.
It glared at both of them with such hatred it felt like Melrondia herself was looking right at them.