There it was, the monster that we had been looking for.
It was currently wandering around on its lonesome, on a cliff underneath us. It was still not alerted to our presence.
Looking at it from a distance, it looked just like the mountain lions that we had faced before in this trip. The only thing that was different was the color of its skin. Like its name suggested, it was entirely chrome in color, from its head to its tail.
Hmm, wonder what it’s doing there...
“So, how about it? Want to test your strength against it? You got me and your mother to go to the rescue if anything goes wrong, so it should be fine. Though it would certainly hurt if you get bitten or clawed by it,” he said with a grin.
Dad, aren’t you being too carefree about this?
“I’ll go first,” Marina answered with a determined look, taking out her wand from her pocket. “I can hit it from here. Would that be fine?” she asked, looking up at him.
Father gave a glance towards Mother, who nodded in return, her staff at the ready.
“Alright. Should’ve figured you’d be skilled enough to just snipe it from here.”
Hey, isn’t that kinda unfair to the monster? Just charging a long and powerful spell before actually entering the fight. You can’t do that in the RPGs I used to play for sure.
Marina then took a few steps forward, before making her wand grow into its staff form. She then started a chant, using her right hand to hold her staff while her left began to shine.
And I knew very well what that chant was. It was her Master-level Earth spell, Crumbling Earth. She intended to just finish it in one blow indeed!
“O spirits of the Earth! Listen to my plea! Let those who stood on your soil be—”
Suddenly, her chanting was interrupted by a gasp. I, who had been looking at her, didn’t realize why immediately. I quickly returned my sight back at the lion.
Only to find that it wasn’t there anymore.
“It’s climbing! It’s climbing the cliff! Right towards us!” Marina shouted.
She quickly halted her current spell and summoned her owlbear instead, sending it down to fend off the lion. It roared at her command, barreling down the sheerness of the cliff without fear.
Only for the lion to jump on top of the owlbear, slicing its skin with its sharp claws before jumping once more, right towards Marina.
“I won’t let you! Rock Blast!”
She sent a rock flying right at it, no doubt intending to stop it from getting closer any further. However, with just a single slash of its claws, it shattered the small boulder entirely, not unimpeded in the slightest.
The horror on Marina’s face told it all. She did not expect this. Not in the slightest.
“Barrier!”
Just before its fangs could land on Marina, it crashed right onto Mother’s Barrier, sending it flying back down.
And then, Father stepped forward, and swung his greatsword towards the monster, sending a powerful wave that it immediately dodged. To my surprise however, instead of running back to fight Father, it instead retreated from the scene, after growling at him for a short while.
Was it really that scared of Father’s power?
I turned my attention back to Marina, who was still shaken by what just occurred. Her owlbear was nowhere to be found. Maybe it had retreated on its own, after being wounded by the lion.
Putting a hand on her shoulder, Father said, “Let that be a lesson to you, kiddo. Monsters, especially high-ranking ones, aren’t so dumb that they can’t detect the shift in mana flow on its surroundings. Your spell was quite the powerful one, right? No wonder it got detected immediately.”
“I see…” She replied, her expression looking as if she just failed an important exam. I felt she was totally the type to be bothered for days for that sort of thing.
“Don’t worry, Sis! I’ll avenge your loss!” I said with a smile, patting her on the back.
Oh, what am I saying? That lion was indeed an A-rank monster. Its power and speed were far different than any other monsters that we have faced so far. How would I defeat such a thing?
But after seeing Marina like that, I felt I just had to beat it to a pulp with my own strength.
-----
We then followed the beast after making sure that Marina was unharmed. Father believed that it shouldn't have run off too far, trusting that this part of the mountain was its territory.
And sure enough, half an hour later, we found it again, sleeping underneath a jutting cliff that gave it a comfortable shade to rest under.
"Alright. Your turn now, my boy," Father pushed me to the front with a grin. H-hey, you nearly saw your own daughter die to it yet you're still this nonchalant?
I gulped. I still wasn't sure how I should initiate the battle.
I probably shouldn’t use my summons. Technically, they couldn’t really die no matter what happens to them in combat, but making them get hurt terribly will cost the summoner their trust. So kinda like Pokemon in that sense.
And besides, what can they really do? The earth sprite might be able to generate mud to hinder its movement a little, but it wouldn’t be enough. With how strong its jumping capability and speed is, it could easily escape. It’s certainly faster than Sherry, that’s to be sure.
As for the high fairy, well, she probably would just go into a panic and not do anything worthwhile.
I felt bad insulting my summons like this, but it was my honest assessment of the situation.
Just attacking with a weaker spell might be able to take it by surprise, but it certainly wouldn’t finish it in one blow.
Is there a way for me to set up a defensive perimeter around myself beforehand so that I would be ready for it? Hmm, I don’t think so…
The only option left is for me to take to the skies using my wind spell, hoping that it can never jump high enough to get to me. But that would quickly get tiring. Not to mention that I still can’t cast two spells at the same time. I would fall down when I cast another spell.
Dual-casting was a rare skill only few mages were capable of, as it meant splitting the flow of mana in your body into two and regulating it into different shapes simultaneously. It’s like trying to write with both hands at the same time, writing different words and letters. Even Marina couldn’t do it. Yet. Knowing her, she would certainly be able to do it eventually once she got older and more experienced in magic. I had trust in her genius-level talent after all.
Well, worth a try. I got Father and Mother as backup after all.
Taking a deep breath, I ran towards the beast, before boosting myself upwards with my wind spell. Once I was up a good distance away, I charged up Cold Blast, hoping that it would be able to slow it down with its frost. I couldn’t be too far away, as I might actually miss my target—not to mention the fact that the spell would get weaker the further it was from its target.
As expected, the moment I started concentrating for my Advanced-level spell, it woke up and saw me up in the sky. It immediately jumped, right as I was falling towards it.
Too late! Thanks to my training against Sherry, I finished just in time for it to be blasted point blank by my ice spell. I didn’t wait until it landed to the ground—I immediately boosted myself upwards once again, returning a safe distance away from it.
As expected, it wasn’t taken out by the spell. In fact, it looked even angrier than it already was. It looked up at me for a split second before it immediately jumped again.
Ha, too bad! I was too far high up for it to reach with its claws, even with its amazing jump height.
Like the clever beast that it was, it then decided to use the cliff it had been sleeping under to get to a higher spot. Of course, I already expected this as well. I had scanned the area beforehand and there wasn’t any other higher point around that it could climb on.
“Earthen Blast!”
As it ran away from me, I casted my Advanced-level Earth spell, exploding the ground it was climbing on, making it fall down to the ground yet again.
It then looked at me, growling. Yep, it’s positively angry, all right.
Wait, this growling… don’t tell me it’s going to run away just like with Father!
I was wrong. I was oh so very wrong.
Instead of running away, it suddenly let out a screech in my direction—so loud and ear-piercing that I had to cover my ears out of reflex.
M-my head! I-it’s like it’s splitting open! Aarghh!
It was enough to make me lose my focus entirely. I knew that I was falling down with no wind spell supporting me, but I couldn’t concentrate enough to recast the spell—not with the insane headache I had.
Of course, the lion took the opportunity it had given to itself. It jumped up and opened its mouth wide, intending to bite my leg off in one move most likely.
“Barrier!”
I didn’t know exactly what happened afterwards. Only that I heard a pained roar coming from the lion before I crashed down to the ground.
When I opened my eyes, Mother was standing above me, healing me with her magic. Immediately my headache disappeared as if it wasn’t there.
I looked around and saw Father looking over the lion. Or, to be more accurate, its corpse.
Father had cut it into two.
“Hugo! You’re alright?” Marina ran over to me, looking down with a worried expression.
“I’m fine. Just… got a killer headache. What was that anyway?”
“It’s an ability that the lion has,” Mother explained. “Deadly Screech. It hurts its target’s brain for a short while, enough for it to land the killing blow. You’ve been baited to think that it can’t attack you on the air.”
Seriously? A mindless monster like that can be that smart?
“Well, now it’s proven that you two are still nowhere near A-rank,” Father walked over with a grin. “These things… they’re stuff that you can only learn through experience. So take it easy, and make sure only to take quests that you’re sure you can handle. Don’t be like your idiot father who’s stupid enough to challenge an A-rank monster when he wasn’t ready.”
“Is that when you’re saved by Myrilla, Father?” I asked. I remembered her saying how she had saved him once.
“Yep!” He replied with a reminiscing smile. “Aah, I was such a fool back then… I went to the Demon Continent, thinking that I was a hotshot enough adventurer to challenge such a dangerous land. Only to nearly die after taking my very first quest there. If not for her saving your father’s behind, we wouldn’t be here now.”
So, Father was around our level back then? So Myrilla was already as strong as his current self? How strong is she now then?
As I thought about that however, I noticed a little smile on the corner of Marina’s lips.
...I think she’s a little bit happy that I too failed to win against the lion. Heh, you don’t want to lose to your little brother, don’t you, Sis?
Before we returned back, Father decided that it would be a good opportunity to teach us how to skin an animal, using the chrome-plated lion as our instrument of demonstration. He had done so with the lesser lions and wolves of course, but the chrome-plated lion was different enough that it would make for a good lesson, at least according to him.
“First of all, you don’t want to just cut a rare monster in two like this if you want the most optimum yield, as it would no doubt harm its bones and internal organs. Every body part of an A-rank monster like this one could fetch a pretty good price, especially at a relatively peaceful part of the world like this where A-rank monsters are rare,” he explained. “And you would need a special knife to cut and skin it apart, unless you have a swordsman in your party that is precise enough with his blade and is willing enough to use it for things like this. Normal knives wouldn’t be sharp enough.”
He then began to dissect it apart, using said special knife that was enhanced by magic to be sharper than normal. And just like all the times before this, I couldn’t help but notice how his cuts were quite messy. Huh, I wonder if Myrilla used to do this kind of stuff for him.
After he finished, he told Marina to take out the jar. It was a magic jar called the Preserving Jar, enchanted so that the inside was always cold even without any ice placed inside. How convenient. It’s basically a magical portable refrigerator that doesn’t run off on batteries, though Mother said that it would eventually lose its coolness as time passed.
He then put in the dissected remains of the lion into it, telling us that it would fetch a good price in Aarom’s market. I like how he wasn’t grossed out in the slightest from touching all that bloody, gory stuff. I saw Mother and Marina flinching from the slight. Even I kept my distance as well. It showed just how much of an experienced adventurer he was.
Once finished, Marina stored it back inside her Dimensional Container. She too made sure that Father washed his hands after all that with her water spell.
And then, it was time for us to return back home.
-------------
For the rest of the summer, I continued my training with Marina. Or should I say, our training, as after her defeat at the hand of the chrome lion, she had begun to think up ways to overcome her weakness.
I, on the other hand, still aimed to reach Master-level. I felt I could've won if I had a stronger spell to use against it, something that could really deal damage. At Marina's advice, she told me to focus on Wind, as she believed I had a talent at the element. She couldn't use wind spells the way I had been using it, to move and fly around like that.
And so I did, focusing on control over power, as there was a certain concept for a wind spell I was interested in. For Master-level and above, you didn't really have set spells written on books. You had to improvise and invent the next stage on your own.
“So, how would you know if the spell you had invented belonged to Master-level?” I asked.
“Well, there’s no exact measurement to it, but a Master-level spell would either have exceptional power or exceptional area of effect. Let’s take an example. Say, Rainfall. You remember what it does, Hugo?”
“It makes it rain, right?” I answered. I still remembered her demonstrating it to me.
“Correct. To be exact, it manipulates the moisture in the air to form rainclouds, so it’s a hybrid spell that combines Water and Wind. Do you remember how much the rainclouds covered?
“Just a small area. Around 50 meters in diameter at most.”
“Exactly. Then I will bring up to you the spell ‘Rainstorm’. It’s the Master-level version of it. Can you guess how much it covers in diameter?”
“Umm, a lot? Much more?” I took a wild guess.
“Indeed! It can cover a much wider idea, to the point that Master-level Water mages are in high demand to farmers in drought. I don’t even know how wide it covers since when one of my teachers used it, I couldn’t see anything else other than the dark skies above me.”
“Wow, that sounds amazing, Sis! Would you be able to do it one day?”
“Well, I sure hope I could.” She smiled, patting my head. “If you don’t get it before me first, that is,” she added with a chuckle.
Another goal for me to reach, I suppose, though I really prefer offensive spells instead. Turning the sky dark and making it rain might be cool but it can’t do anything against monsters, can it?
“Now that I thought about it, ‘Rainstorm’ is pretty standardized for a Master-level spell. If you know how to manipulate water and wind well enough, and if you know how rainclouds work, you can perform it just fine. And they taught the latter in the Academy. A not-so-smart water mage might think that you would have to produce all the water falling down yourself, but a smart one would realize that you just need to trigger a chain reaction in the atmosphere, saving yourself a considerable amount of mana while at the same time keeping up the spell for much longer.”
Suddenly, she paused in her explanation.
“...Hold on, that method on how to produce a better Rainstorm—that was developed by Selendia Brine, one of the Council mages! It was one of her inventions back when she was younger! Even then, she was already a genius at Water spells. And now, every Master-level water mage follows her theorem to cast Rainstorm.”
“Are all the Council mages geniuses like her?” I asked, out of curiosity.
“Hmm… well, if they can reach Grandmaster-level, that already makes them geniuses beyond geniuses. I don’t know much about them, really, other than the common knowledge. It’s not like I go to the library to read their biographies.”
“Why not, Sis? You don’t find them interesting?”
She paused again, before sighing. “As you already know, a friend of mine is a granddaughter of one. And judging by what she told me about him, and the rest of the Council, they’re… well, how do I put it? Selfish?”
“Selfish?”
“They only care about themselves—their influence and their magic. They certainly didn’t care about their family the way Father and Mother did. They expected their offsprings to continue their reign of glory, and that led to them treating their sons and daughters harshly.”
So, basically, the usual asshole nobles you often find in fantasy stories, only with a dash of magic superiority added in, I thought with a grim look.
“Though I’ve met one of their daughters who certainly didn’t mind the treatment, since she seemed to be a bonafide genius, just like her mother. Oh, I haven’t told you about her yet, have I? I think I omitted her in my letter to you about Sherry’s visit.”
It was there that I knew about Elunmidis Brine, the daughter of Selendis Brine. The bubble genius, whose trick actually managed to fool Marina, though not Myrilla, being the far experienced mage.
“Producing bubbles itself is already a hybrid spell, since you need water and wind combined. And she could do it so quickly and stealthily, while still having them be far tougher than the average bubble. I suppose you can call her the bubble genius. I wouldn’t be surprised if she one day writes a magic theory book about how to use bubble magic more effectively, just like her mother, advancing the study of magic once more.”
Bubble genius, huh? Don’t tell me that she’s going to be Marina’s future rival?!
Don’t worry, Sis! I’ll cheer for you all the way to the end!
2 chapter violence max.
Aaw, that would ruin her character though.
It's okay. She's not going to be that violent. At least, I don't think she would.
@ForestDweller You can let her be violent all she want but for hide her shame or jealousy.
Hugo react would be like "a tsun in the real life, i want know her more" just hope for him to not become a M.
@Stonelight
The reason why he will tag along in the first place is because
Nicole is there as her bodyguard and he doesn't want Sherry's old friend to die if he can help it. Because
he will meet them being attacked by assassins and they would've died from them, if not for his help.
I do have her attitude problem explained in my head (hopefully in a satisfactory enough manner), but I'm not planning to reveal how she thinks at all until really late into the story. It's part of the mystery of her and I think that adds to her charm. So no POV from her perspective either.
Also,
she would be the opposite compared to Sherry on embarrassment. She's never embarrassed, even if Hugo sees her naked.
imo the classic violent tsundere is and should only be a starting point for a character. no one in their right mind should be around someone's who's abusive, so obviously my tolerance is near zero. that being said reformed tsunderes are nice, and generally well grounded character wise after reforming. (thus why eris was best girl in mushoku)
as for how hugo would react, well i could see it being possible for a form of rivalry. i think if this was done to another in front of him his hero complex should kick in. thus causing him to butt heads with the classical tsundere. if it was directed at himself... he'd probably still take the sherry approach and blame himself stupidly. however this is all based off the current hugo, so hopefully future more mature hugo will be less of an idiotic white knight. not that he's been much of a white knight as of yet (aside from saving sherry which in all fairness wasn't white knighting really as he did observe and minorly interact with her well before he did anything to interfere with her life), but i see the makings of one in him.
not that his white knighting should escalate much since the end of this arc will end in a tragedy... then again that could be cause for his white knighting to escalate further couldn't it... i REALLY hope it doesn't though.
Hmm, white knight, huh? I do plan to make his kindness and determination to be the thing that attracts the other girls...
@ForestDweller
it's not the kindness or determination per say that puts me off from the white knight trope. rather it's needless or spontaneous insertion of the character into other people's business that bugs me. it's like i can see that form of hero complex as being egocentric rather than simple good will. like that character will only accept something similar to their standards or sense of justice/fairness that they feel the need to impose on others. and in worst cases needlessly so rather than seeing a conflict that has no chance in hell of being resolved by itself and attempting to play mediator. but hey that's just me and my screwy perception of people.
@loshi1505 No bothering into other people's business, huh? Well, there goes my idea of him stealing an expensive slave just because she looks miserable.
I would be really interested to see how you would react to a certain harem member's arc I got planned. That would probably be the ultimate act of white knighting from him. Too bad it wouldn't happen until much later.
@ForestDweller
more like barging in on others business. but yea, that does sound like a pitiful excuse to save an unhappy slave when there are thousands more just like her out there... hell for all he knows the slave could just be looking miserable for some irrelevant reason, or she's a horrible person who's reaping what she sowed. details are important.
i'd probably react more negatively than positively, then again it all depends on the factors of who's business he's butting into, did he look both ways before he crossed the street, and other such details.
thinking about it more i think my biggest issue might actually be the act of glorifying white knighting rather than the act itself...
@ForestDweller
Maybe having Hugo interact with their sibling/friend/village mate who was concocting a plan to save them after having been in their care? Needs to have some kind of justification as to why he is jumping into the situation. Or, if you're looking for a challenge, you could try to write two different plots that eventually come together with Hugo and slave Harem member meet up. Dunno how that would work, but it would be interesting if pulled off properly. I'd say to ask on a forum how to pull that off.
@ScholarOccultCauldron My original plan is to have him be part of an escort mission with a d*ckhead merchant that turns out to be a slaver. And he'll be abusive to her as she isn't willing to play nice with potential customers, snarling and growling and even attacking them. He had paid a pretty sum for her and yet his investment wasn't paying off.
Hugo will witness these abuses for days, until he eventually snaps and decides to save her, betraying his client.
Well, it doesn't matter. I've decided to put her on the shelf for now, since Hugo will have different girls to travel with, and adding her to the mix with them wouldn't work.
Might as well tell you now that
I do plan to make Hugo be all pathetic and mopey for some time after the tragedy happens. He'll need to be slapped out of it by the new girls he would travel with
And I also plan to have
another tragedy in the future if I can find a way to make it fit with the story. It most likely would involve one of his wives, one of his kids, or maybe even Marina.
The whole thing with old Rudeus' diary in Mushoku Tensei? That's my jam right there. The way it all goes downhill is just tragically delicious.
Most likely I wouldn't go that far obviously, since I don't plan on this story ending in a tragedy, but it's something big enough that would disturb his happy family life.
@ForestDweller Thanks for the story thus far, but I'll probably be stopping the ride here. I can take one or two tragic events, but more than that and the story usually turns into a downward spiral of tragic event after tragic event where most people would rather just give up and run away.
@zamu
Just planning for two so far. And I don't even have any details for the second one yet.
@ForestDweller Don't take my previous comment as a detraction. You obviously can write well and with polish and editing can make a very good story, but I read for escapism and fun, not character dramas and emotionally tolling stories. I'm just giving you my opinion and a heads up that maybe you don't want to tell your readers your plans since some of them might be happy enough to read through tragic stuff if it plays well into the story. For me, I don't need any more emotional tolling stuff in my life, my life is tragic enough for me.
@zamu Ah, I understand.
Yeah, this story will definitely have character dramas. It's not one of those fluffy, happy-go-lucky isekais.