"A what?" Clailip asked as he stood up, carrying the doll and kit in his arms.
Collin opened his mouth to speak, but before anything could come out, he instead turned to the window and cast a mid-level protection spell. His hands shook as he quickly drew up an array on the spot, he summoned his staff from the array and reinforced the protection spell, using up a big amount of mana.
Clailip was about to ask what was wrong, when a massive bloody appendage suddenly broke through the walls of the inn room. Clailip staggered backward and fanned at the monumental limb-like thing that destroyed the inn's walls, his face a mixture of surprise and confusion.
Thankfully they weren't hit by it as Collin protected everyone in the room. "Shit, it followed me here. You five, protect the child. There's a C-Class monster outside." Collin said as he jumped through the broken walls and into the street.
Collin dashed through the streets, everyone was asleep, locked in an endless nightmare. A cacophony of crying infants can be heard in the background, the town was burning up, numerous buildings were catching on fire with no one to set it. Collin was sure that this was all the work of a particular monster he spared.
He jumped, and with the aid of vines that shot at his feet, he successfully reached a rooftop and stared at the massive monster that ravaged the town. He couldn't see it from the streets as the smoke and the piled up bodies made it hard to identify the perpetrator, he stared at the monster, not with hate nor malice, but with sadness.
"A Fetal Abomination… I should have killed it when I had the chance." Collin muttered.
The monster was a sixteen foot horror that was a mash of infantile remains, it was red and dripping with amniotic fluid. It had numerous holes in its body where lower ranked tiyanaks—a monster that takes the form of an infant human to lure their victims—crawled out from. It had numerous appendages that it used to destroy the surrounding buildings, it had three mouths, one it uses to scream and cry—which were actually psychological attacks that induce sleep and give those who hear it nightmares—and the two others it used to eat the remains of the dead humans.
It was a great thing that they went through with Clailip's invocation now. The wards must've blocked out the sound and cleansed the effect of the crying. He had five minutes before the remains of the broken wards wore off and the six individuals he considered as under his protection would be subject to the mental effects of the abomination's cries.
"I only need three anyway." Collin said as he stared at the fetal monster.
He didn't want to kill or hurt this monster, as it is something made from the wishes of unborn children sacrificed to the evil gods. A wish to have a happy family, a wish to have parents, a wish to have a mother. Collin knows that feeling all too well, so his heart ached as he held his staff in his hand, preparing one of his advanced magical arrays.
[Longing has leveled up by one. Two more levels to germinate into Witch of Longing.]
A voice rang through Collin's head, reminding him of his condition. He was a witch, one that hasn't germinated and turned into one fully yet, but still a witch. He had to play his cards carefully, he couldn't germinate here and risk the life of the dianian under his protection. He still didn't know what his Witch Factor would do, but if his master was right—and he has so far only been wrong about market prices—then it would be an incredibly deadly factor, one that rivaled the Witch of Storms'.
"Magical array," Collin began his casting, finally deciding on the best array to use in the situation. "Evil Garden." As the words left his lips, he aimed at the fetal abomination and shot a seed-like projectile at it.
As it penetrated the skin of the monster, numerous vines and branch-like limbs burst forth as a gigantic flower bulb grew in the hole that the seed entered through. The vines and branches all seized control of the abomination's limbs and dug deep into it, feeding on and sucking its mana dry, using it as nutrients for the flower bulb that seemed to throb in a steady rhythm.
Collin watched, it was only one move, but a direct hit of his Evil Garden array was a sure-kill, high risk, high reward spell that he had created. It was high risk because if the roots, vines, and branches didn't have anything to latch and feed on it would go after anything and everything around it, even himself. And if the flower bulb was killed before blooming, then it would give back the mana it has gathered so far and heal the wounds of the target. Thankfully, fetal abominations were pretty much harmless if their limbs were bound, the tiyanaks couldn't get close to the bulb as they got pierced and sucked dry by the leaves that surrounded the growing flower bulb.
In other words, Collin won with a single move. Largely due to the fact that the fetal abomination was at a massive disadvantage, Collin was extremely skilled at taking down massive enemies, and a lot of his spells were made to counter big enemies. His master always taught him that size doesn't matter as long as you had the right tools for the job.
The spirits were protecting Clailip, dozens of tiyanaks surrounded them and each and more were coming. They were weak and easy to kill, but their numbers made it hard to defend Clailip, they've fought off three waves of tiyanaks at this point, but they just kept coming.
Clailip, in the midst of the fighting, was fiddling with his own magical mediums. He took a needle and a spool of thread from the sewing kit, he was an amazing seamstress in her past life, actually any kind of housework he was absolutely amazing at. So he was pleasantly surprised after realizing that he had sewing tools for magical mediums. He didn't really know much about the doll though.
He tied a long piece of thread on the needle and started to experiment. Despite the chaos that was unfolding and the very obvious pressure that the spirits were under, he didn't seem to care much. He was focused on his mediums and wanted to experiment.
He let mana course through the needle and it glowed and floated from his hands, it started to become bigger as well as the thread. Somehow, someway, he instinctively knew what exactly each individual part was for. After all, the magical medium was made from his deepest reserves of mana, it is only natural that he'd have a clue on what it could do.
"Dress-up… I used to like dressing up…! my dream as a fashion designer. I get it now! The needles are meant to pierce through spells while the thread is meant to bind and link. With this, I can stitch together and weave spells like dresses. And maybe with this I can stitch together a happy ending, a future where I and everyone can be happy." Clailip had a eureka moment, the tiyanaks were only E-class at best from what he could observe, he could take them on with his new power, he thought.
He summoned a pair of scissors and colorful pins from his kit, "Sever magical connections, and sever the threads that bind. Got it. Pins to hold together cloth, and to hold the shape of unstable magical sequences. Wow, how do I know all this stuff?" Clailip smiled as he poured mana through his tools, enlarging them and making them ready for tailoring.
Clailip ran and squeezed through the circle that the spirits formed to protect him. He ignored their shouts as he kept the needle close by, stitching up a spell by using Dew—a basic water spell—to create a thin sheet of water to use as fabric. "The doll is made to model the pieces, and to… Wait what? To strike fear… huh. Odd." Clailip said as he finished stitching together his first ever spell. It looked like a cute blue shirt, he put it on the doll and let his mana course through the cute plush.
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It enlarged, taking on a more anthropomorphic form, it looked like a mannequin as it was an entirely blank canvas in terms of features, it was also extremely tall, ten feet at most. It was entirely naked save for the simple, but comfy looking blue shirt. It picked up Clailip and held him close as it activated the spell woven into the shirt.
Three rushing blades of water encircled the mannequin and it started dancing, as that would be the best way to showcase the shirt's capabilities. Clailip watched in awe as his newly-woven spell-shirt effortlessly cut through the tiyanaks that tried to attack the mannequin and him. It was sharper than what he could personally do at the moment, and it looked more stable, in short the shirt allowed the mannequin to dance with the water with more efficiency.
"So that's why my magic was so weak… I'm not supposed to be casting spells like my mom. This makes a lot of sense, back then everyone was so much better at me with magic because they all had their own mediums. My grandparents were never able to give me my own because they weren't able to come back home for my fourth…" Clailip realised this fact and proceeded to weave another spell, this time using a sheet of ice, wind, and water. He wanted to know how far he could go and what exactly his limitations are.
"Mama always told me that spells are also dependent on the person's imagination and comprehension. So if I do this…" Clailip said as he wove the sheets of mana together, he wanted to make an accessory, a small and simple hair clip. He had some trouble though, the graceful and effortless dance of the mannequin brought about turbulence that made it hard to focus and sew together the bundles of mana and fabric-like sheets of wind, water, and ice.
But he succeeded, he successfully made a hairclip, it was simple but pretty, it had a flower-like design based on his father's favorite plant. It had eight petals made of wind and water mana, and the more solid parts like the appendage that would latch onto hair was created with his ice mana. He handed it to the mannequin, and for a split second, it turned back to a dainty little doll wearing a hair clip, but it immediately turned back into its majestic tall form, now with shiny and smooth white hair that reached down to its bottom, it fit nicely with the colors of the hair clip which was worn on the right side of the mannequins head.
It activated the hair clip, making it glow a beautiful steel grey before it summoned a pretty flower made up of ice above the mannequin's head. It deactivated the shirt's capabilities and stood completely still, letting the tiyanaks attack. When the infant monsters got close enough, they were suddenly shot with one of the flower's petals. Despite its delicate and gentle appearance the petals were surprisingly sharp, it killed the tiyanaks before they had a chance to injure Clailip or the mannequin. After eight shots, though, the flower flurried away and the mannequin turned back into a doll, leaving Clailip vulnerable to attack.
Realizing that he might be in danger, he quickly wore the hair clip on the left side of his head before the tiyanaks could injure him. The hairclip could only fire eight times before having to be 'reloaded'. In exchange for continuous fire though, the projectiles were powerful enough to slice through the tiyanak's bodies effortlessly. Clailip then wore the blue shirt quickly and summoned the water blades, dancing with them.
"The mannequin stops working after two minutes of continued use. I wonder how long the downtime is…" Clailip wondered as he danced, pranced, twirled, and sliced through the tiyanaks that tried to maul at him. Fortunately, after a minute or so, they stopped coming and Clailip was finally safe.
"That was exciting! With these powers, I can finally weave a happy ending for me, and for the spirits, and maybe for Collin too! A happy ending… happy… happiness, yep, I can stitch together a happy ending, like the fairy tales… like the fairy tales." Clailip whispered, the words were accompanied by heavy breaths.
[Limitations of the system fully lifted through—Invocation Ceremony—Pending important announcements that could not be accessed earlier will now be made.]
[Witch germination skill Despair has been revealed, full level achieved, germinating.]
[Notice:Unique Skill Harmless Sweetie eating up despair and negativity. Incompatible with witch germination skill, Despair. Despair swallowed up by Harmless Sweetie causing it to gain additional effects.]
[Rerolling for germination skill…]
[Witch germination skill Delusion has been picked, one level to go before germination.]
[Error, germination skill, Delusion, was swallowed up by skill, Harmless Sweetie. Witch seed has no germination skill, subject Clailip Diancia will now undergo rerolling for compatible germination skills.]
[Germination skill, Terror, has been gained. Seven levels to go before germination.]
[Limitations of the system fully lifted through—Invocation Ceremony—Titles have been unlocked. You have been given the titles, 'Delusional Witch of the Masquerade', 'Dress-up Witch', and 'Witch of Horrors'. By the Council of the Witch Mother. Title 'Hoarfrost Witch of the East' awaiting approval.]
[Gift two of five has been unlocked—Unqiue Skill Spirit Manipulation.]
[Gift three of five has been unlocked—Unique Skill Perfect Optimization.]
[Displaying current updated status... Pending approval.]
NAME:Clailip Diancia
TITLES: Delusional Witch of the Masquerade, Dress-up Witch, Witch of Horrors
AGE:5
RACE:Dianian Divorakk
VIT:220/220
MANA:207,500/207,500
INT:145
STR:30
AGI:69
SPD:58
RES:23
CORE ATTRIBUTE(S):Ice | Wind | Water
SKILLS:
Unarmed Arts - 2
Advanced Mana Recovery - 5
Mana Control - 4
Water Magic - 6
Wind Magic - 3
Ice Magic - 4
[Notice:Unnamed Water Arts has been replaced by, "Tailor-made Fears" and "Hallowed Tailor"]
[Notice:Due to subject Clailip Diancia's actions prior to Invocation, "Hallowed Tailor" has been replaced by "Dollmaker"]
Tailor-made Fears - 1
Dollmaker - 1
Sewing [NEW!!!] - 1
Crafting:Accessories [NEW!!!] - 1
UNIQUE SKILLS:
Harmless Sweetie - 6
Spiritual Manipulation - 3
Perfect Optimization [NEW!!!] - 1
[???]
[???]
"What's with people calling me delusional!?" Clailip's voice was full of irritation, why did the system give him a skill called 'Delusion' and why was he one level from germinating? He was also called delusional by this so-called Council. "Can I put up a complaint or something, this isn't fair. I'm insulted."