Cherry was the most reluctant to board the limo, especially after seeing me sharing the driving-front seat with the Gnomes, but she finally relented after we stared at her until she couldn’t take it anymore, and she touched her ‘dérrier’ on a separate seat from Sheeno and Undine with a huff.
There really was little to talk about of the interiors: The cloud-stuff and bits of purple metal made the whole thing almost undescriptive, except for the area I could call a cockpit and the solitary seat in the middle that the Elf had coincidentally chosen as her own, not knowing how apt it could turn out to be later.
Speaking of the cockpit, it was arranged so on the left side there was me with my yolk, and the right side had cloudy panels where all three triplets could put their hands at the same time, similarly to how I had seen them control their [Cloud construct] previously, and the middle had a smattering of buttons, switches, and nobs that all four of us instinctively knew how to use.
“So, it appears I have control over speed and directions…” I stated, leaving the discourse open so they could continue it themselves.
“…And we seem to have the controls for obfuscation, remodeling, and something called ‘ejection’…” Twid was the one to respond this time, seeing as his two brothers were still focused on tapping the panels in front of them.
“Ejection?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Some sort of mechanism that self-destructs the [Mount] and uses the generated force to launch us in a predetermined direction”, Twad absentmindedly said, taking the time to wave one hand in the air in an attempt to discourage further distractions.
“Huh, a self-destruct button? I just hope there are no platypuses around here to foil our plans”, I humorously said, drawing blank looks from the Gnomes, who promptly decided to ignore me until I decided to start driving.
Do not worry, even if there were platypuses around you would not think anything of it until they pulled a hat out of nowhere.
“…I mean, I’m not dumb. But that seems like a very likely scenario, somehow.”
Jokes aside, I thought we had familiarized ourselves enough with the new controls, so pushed my hand into the cloud-stuff to my right and it came out with a purple receiver that I already knew how to use.
“This is the pilot speaking: We seem to be having a sunny day with spring-adequate temperatures for now, but such things around to change rapidly in the [Wild Area].
We expect a smooth ride, but sudden [Monster] attacks are almost a given within our line of work.
So buckle up your seatbelts, if you have them, and get ready for an exciting ride!”
Apart from a ‘what in the [Abyss] is he talking about’ from Cherry, everyone else seemed ready for the ride; so, without actually waiting for people to get ready I threw the receiver back in place, where it disappeared, and I suddenly pushed the stick to full-throttle.
Unexpectedly we all got pushed against our backrests, and even though both I and the Gnomes had expected it we still almost got slammed back just as violently, barely hanging on to our respective controllers by sheer necessity.
I gradually got the speed back to normal levels, making sure to not drop it too much at once so to avoid us getting launched forward, but that was certainly not enough to save me from the expletives born from the previous actions.
“Darwin! I thought you had fixed this thing!” Sheeno shouted while righting herself.
“Who put the lunatic on the damned wheel” Cherry had reignited her fury, so I avoided mentioning that the car didn’t have a wheel.
“I don’t think he has a wheel…” Undine unfortunately decided to attract her ire, but she didn’t seem bothered when receive her scathing glances.
“Is she doing it on purpose?
I feel like she’s doing it on purpose.”
“Have we hit something?” Twad asked worriedly while trying to look over the hood.
As if that would help.
“I hope not!” Twud exclaimed, but refuse to look around and instead focused on his could-panel.
“The flight is very smooth”, and Twid seemed more interested in watching the scenery go by from the side window.
I reassured the first two that no, we did not hit anything: I did angle the vehicle upwards before blasting off. And after that, I took a page from Twid’s book and took in the view.
You know when they say that watching things from above can be magical? I never thought that I could do something like that after having experienced actual [Magic], but something it’s the littlest things that surprise you. The view was breathtaking, from the seemingly endless rainbow forest that took most of the horizon on one side of our field of view, to blue ice-stricken tundra and yellow flappy-cactus deserts that were starting to take over the other side, we had front-row seats to the chaotic beauty of the [Wild].
At that very moment, with my heart filled with awe, I wished that my [World Within] could eventually evolve and have a tent of the magnificence that I was witnessing.
“Maybe, sometimes, a change of view is what you really need…”
We kept on flying for a couple of minutes, with me idly chatting with the Gnomes from time to time, and Undine and Sheeno ‘ooh’-ing and ‘aah’-ing at the appropriate sights, even Cherry looked on with wonder whenever she thought nobody was looking at her.
Our flight’s speed was constantly at a level that could be considered cruiser-like, even though it might have been equivalent to speed-crafts back on Earth, only because I didn’t want to push it too far and because our first [Quest] wasn’t far enough to necessitate ‘ludicrous speeds’.
Adventurer’s delight:
(Quest: 0/25)
Reach the target area and hunt for Regal Beeches, retrieve their bodies, and then bring them back in an edible state.
Exceed target goal for extra bonuses.
Short, direct, and to the point {Also ‘beech’, hehe}.
If only every [Quest] I got was only of this type, but alas powerful being loved being cryptical and mysterious, so there was no fucking chance of that happening.
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“This is you pilot speaking: We’re rapidly approaching the [Regal Beeches]’ territory. Prepare for landing”, I relayed into the speaker.
After a few moments of last-minute equipment checking everyone was as ready as they could possibly be.
“Should we deploy ourselves through the ejection-“ I tried asking my impromptu co-pilots.
“NO!” Literally everyone loudly exclaimed at the same time.
“Ok, ok, man, I get it. No need to shout”, I muttered while inching the Limo-Nimbus downward.
Damn, everyone in this party must have a calcium deficiency solely localized specifically right in their ‘funny bone’.
As soon as we touched down all the doors swung upward, with Sheeno exiting first as the [Guardian], then Cherry second as the [Damager], and lastly Undine followed in the rear as the [Healer], all three of them automatically setting themselves in formation on one side of the car, all cool and professional.
Meanwhile, I was sharing an awkward moment with the triplets.
“So… how do we dispel this thing?” I asked, after failing to do it normally.
“We’re not sure”, Twad sounded perplexed, probably by having experienced that same weird sensation of having what was technically your [Spell] not responding to your instructions.
“Well, how do you normally cancel the activation of something you conjured together?” I ventured, at least to get some sort of idea.
“We just send the command at the same time”, Twid simply replied with a little shrug.
“But the timing is a bit finicky”, Twud admitted, and his brother nodded at his words.
“I guess it is the only thing we could safely try with a new person in the mix”, Twad accepted that it was the best way to move forward for now.
“Ok. Then I’ll count to three-” I tried to go for a simple plan, but someone thought that it wouldn’t be clear enough.
“Do we go after three, or right as you’re saying it?”
“Maybe add a ‘go’ at the end, to make it clear that we have to go?”
“Fine. Then I’ll go from one to three, then say ‘go’, and as soon as I said it we all dispel our relative sections of the [Spell], ok?” I was kind of running out of patience at how nitpicky they were, but they were the experts in this case so listening to them was the smart thing to do, even when they argued over the most inane thing.
Thankfully we managed to untangle our [Spells] with the first countdown, and interestingly enough only the [Rune] of the change tried to keep the [Matrix] together, while even their individual parts unraveled from one another easily enough.
I guess that goes to show the difference between someone experienced and someone that makes it up as he goes. Although, in my particular case, it’s almost as if I’m ‘destined’ to remake magic in a form that properly suits me, through constant experimentation. Sometimes the result is bad, and sometimes it’s good, but I have to admit that I find my method far more interesting than simply having a more ‘normal’ [Class] and following a guideline to go along with the ‘meta’.
“Any signs of life we should be worried about?” Sheeno asked me as soon as she saw that we managed to dispel the car.
Obviously, I had already pinged various things with my [Unavoidable Detection], since I had it constantly running in the background, but I decided to restrain the search parameters to directly hostile, territorial, and target [Monsters] and [Beasts].
Detected various signals matching parameters:
· 12 [Earth Divers]
· 2 [Fire Gnawers]
· 8 [Regal Beeches]
· 3 [Leaf Avatars]
[Earth Divers] were pretty much oversized and armored moles, but since they were strictly territorial we could avoid them easily enough, [Fire Gnawers] are fire-breathing rodents that weren’t native to this biome, so they should only be passing through and should ignore us as long as we don’t get too close, but I had no idea of what [Leaf Avatars] were, except that they were some kind of naturally formed [Elemental Golems].
I told them what my scan had revealed and Cherry swore when she heard the last one.
“A [Leaf Avatar]? Are you sure?” She asked, probably to make sure.
“Yes, my [Skill] is unfairly accurate when I concentrate”, I replied, to which she swore again.
“What’s the problem with [Leaf Avatars]?”
“The problem is that, while normally seen as one of the most pathetically weak versions of other similar creatures, inside the Rainbow Forest, where a multitude of differently [Affinity] aligned trees lie, they will have access to every single one of those [Affinities], which they can and will use against us!” The Elf apparently was better learned than any of us on this matter, showing that maybe, just maybe, her boast of being an expert compared to us wasn’t that much of an exaggeration.
I, personally, never thought at how natural-born [Traits] of [Beasts] and [Monsters] could interact with their surroundings, besides simple stuff like [Fire]-bending creatures being extremely dangerous when around a volcano, or such extreme cases.
Who could have ever thought that something as ‘neutral’ as the Rainbow Forest would prove advantageous specifically because it was a forest so differently attuned that it normally gave no territorial advantages to any indigenous species?
“Do we have a [Quest] for those things?” I asked, not remembering if we had.
“No, but there is an open bounty for those things when they appear within this forest: They’re too dangerous to be left alone”, Cherry replied, this time too professionally focused to try and sound offensive.
“Got it, then we hunt both ‘leafies’ and beeches”, I nodded and promptly indicated the closest of our targets.
The group of [Regal Beeches] a mile or so in the opposite direction of where everybody was looking. That caused some awkward shuffling but we soon all got into a new formation with Sheeno in front, followed by me, then Cherry and Undine, and at the end, the three [Sky Gnomes] bringing up the rear.
The pale amazon was already donning the weapon I made and through them, she channeled her usual axes, only this time they felt appreciatively more ‘corporeal’ in a way that I couldn’t really put into words… maybe ‘dense’ is somewhat apt, but it still felt reductive of the difference I felt and saw.
The [High Priestess] had brought out a silvery wand, but on closer inspection it appeared to be made of bone with very thin but dense inscriptions made of mithril, showing a degree and skill in craftsmanship that was still way beyond me, if it wasn’t for the various cheats that enabled me to accidentally make even better stuff.
The [Tree Elf] had simply brought the mini-gun to bare, wielding it just like Rambo would, except Rambo’s didn’t shine a bright yellow from the muzzle even when not in use, nor was his made completely out of wood.
Lastly, there were the Gnomes, and each one of them was floating on their personal cloud construct, with every single one having two ‘arms’ coming from the sides resembling ray guns, they hovered just about at eye-level for someone like Cherry and Undine in a triangle formation.
Of course, there was me, but I was simply twirling my scepter whilst already having summoned [Kenny] above my head, and an [Auromon] right on my shoulder, because I thought it looked cute while kicking its legs.
“Imminent contact!” I warned the front, causing our whole formation to tighten a bit.
An instant later eight purple peacocks burst out of the foliage, screeching up a storm, which could be interpreted literally since the wind around them started kicking up as soon as they made themselves known.
“Remember, we need their meat intact for it to count towards the [Quest]’s completion!” Cherry reminded us.
I took the opportunity to [Gaze] upon them.
Name:
Regal Beech
Affinity:
Wind; Fire; Nature
Danger:
Low
Behavior:
Pack; Territorial
Info:
A bird commonly hunted for its naturally succulent meat, it has adapted to travel in sizeable groups to turn the tables on the predators attracted by their delectable aromas.
Their tactics are based upon circling their enemy and peppering it with small but endless attacks, using mostly tiny localizing cyclones that they then light up on fire, causing localized explosions.
They are weak towards physical blows.
That is…uh, some sort of compendium of ‘info’ I gathered about them, put into an organized format?
Neat.