Chapter 104: Monkey Business
"Let's go get the storage item next," Emma decided, watching from Sir Bearington's back as the bank faded into the distance, replaced once more with the idyllic scenery of the Sherwood Gallery.
[No complaints here; the jingling of coins is pleasant in short doses, less so as a constant reminder of every step taken.]
"Yeah, I honestly prefer the crackling flames over the jingling," Emma replied absently, then processed what she'd said.
Spinning around to face the front once more, Emma found the entire river up in flames, burning pitch black in a scene that reminded her of videos taken amidst oil spills.
"Ew."
The flames were clearly unnatural, and the less said about the smell wafting from the plumes the better. Emma reached for Null and Void, feeling the familiar drain as five percent of her anima went up in smoke. A small stretch of fire faded, barely wide enough for Sir Bearington to pass were he so inclined.
[The spell that caused this has run its course. The remaining flames are sustained by magic running wild; its never easy, cleaning up these messes.]
A faint tremor rocked the ground; as dirt and gravel rose up to smother another section to the left. Squinting, Emma could barely make out Saint as the cat darted to and fro, commanding the earth to do her bidding. On the right, Noah clutched a staff tight in both hands, doing his best Gandalf impression. The nearest flames were being hoovered up, a far slower but more consistent process compared to Saint's evocations.
"The hell happened here?" Emma wondered, as she activated Null and Void again and again, adding her own efforts to fight the fire.
In another departure from her undead state, each cast added a small but noticeable level of fatigue to her homunculus body. After the fifth cast, Emma felt like she'd just finished a class of PE. By the tenth cast she was wobbling in place, and her vision was greying by the fifteenth. Thankfully, that was enough for the trio to beat back the last of the flames, leaving the central clearing charred but the surrounding buildings intact.
[100 EXP gained, for helping save Noah from a hefty repair bill.]
Indeed, Noah looked rather sheepish as the trio reconvened, Saint taking a running leap to land on the back of his neck.
"Thanks for the help; that was the first time I used all my abilities together with Balefire. I wasn't expecting the flames to be quite so stubborn."
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"What were you even fighting?" Emma had to ask. "It's been completely peaceful on our end until now."
"I'm honestly not sure. A big water elemental grabbed me as I was crossing the river; the name just read Undine though, no fancy title or even a proper name like most people have."
"Not intelligent enough to qualify?" Emma mused. "Or maybe a summoned being, similar to Antipode."
[Now that's strange, Noah hasn't been active long enough to mortally offend anyone, nor is he well known enough for enemies of mine to target. Most Water mages don't venture this far inland either, preferring to live by the coast for obvious reasons. Eh, I've assigned him a quest to track down the summoner; it can be a learning experience.]
Emma waited patiently as Noah digested the details of his quest, culminating in a small burst of energy she barely felt.
[Noah Knight - Level 15 Invoker (Forbidden Arts)]
"I feel a bit inadequate; three levels behind when I've been doing this for longer."
[The more powerful classes have more stringent levelling requirements. An Invoker can grow steadily just by reading magical texts, but he won't receive the same opportunities you will as my Apostle.]
"Well, that's me done for the day," Noah declared happily, in a very fine mood after leveling up. "What's left on your shopping list?"
"A storage item, some fancy clothes, and a θεϊκό λείψανο for Saint."
"What was that last one?"
"A Divine Relic for Saint," Emma repeated, making an effort to speak in English this time.
"Huh," Noah stared at her, bemused.
"All I had to find were a load of books, and a set of robes; nothing special, if you don't count being ambushed. Well, might as well stick together for the home stretch. Maybe we can all meet up once we're done. Hopefully Liz is having an easier time of it than us."
---
Elizabeth grimaced as her talisman crumpled to dust the moment she affixed it to the wooden cup. Grade A talisman paper didn't come cheap, and fresh, stasis-sealed Wendigo blood went for over five hundred Thrones an ounce. It would have been well worth the expenditure though, had her gambit proven successful. Three identical cups continued to taunt her, indistinguishable in every way except for a single ball hidden under one of the cups.
"Lift a cup at your discretion, one cup only. Find the ball and your item is free; reveal empty air and pay twice the price."
The animatronic monkey sat behind the cups on the table repeated the same warning as it had, every five minutes without fail. These were hardly the highest stakes Elizabeth had faced in her decades long career as a magical girl, but that didn't make it any easier to swallow. Fifty thousand Thrones represented a decent chunk of her savings to date; one hundred thousand, if she lost the game, would consume a big majority.
Thankfully, there was no time limit to this carnival game; the creator was a bored Master who enjoyed seeing novel applications of magic, and would happily give a king's ransom away to anyone who impressed him (or were simply lucky, and thus proved that Fate was on their side). Elizabeth was far too jaded to trust her hard-earned wages to a one-in-three chance however, so the game continued.
"Simultaneous lifting of all three cups failed; telekinesis simply doesn't grip the surface at all. Penetrative vision sees only darkness and eyeballs, general diagnostics can't spot the difference. The monkey is ethereal and can't be interacted with at all; but it keeps repeating the same warning even though I've been here for over an hour and it should damn well recognise that nobody else needs a refresher. I'm missing something here, I just know it."