Chapter 011: Loli Octuple

…

While walking the forest floor, I detect multiple signals nearby moving our way.

“Wait! A group of monsters is coming, in front of us!” I warn everyone.

We ready our weaponry.

I activate my mana sense. The signals are extremely strong, the strongest I had ever encountered. Each entity had over five times as much mana as I did.

And there were a total of 8 signals.

(These are magical creatures…)

Then we see lights fly our way gently.

In the center of those lights are figurine-sized winged people.

They fly around. Seemingly interested in us.

“Whatever you do, don’t attack first…” Utters Claire.

“I agree, don’t show aggression.” I tell the group. “If it comes down to a fight, we could all die. Don’t act carelessly.”

These creatures look at us from many angles, making high pitched laughs while buzzing around.

Suddenly they come close to each other, and one of them flies away to the south.

Raquel starts muttering. “Are these fairies? No, pixies?”

“Pixies would suit them better, I think.” Says Claire.

“Should we continue moving?” Questions Danielo.

“Since they’re not aggressive we could rest here until they leave.” Proposes Suzy.

“Hum… One thing’s for sure, we must not fight them, they each have five times my mana.” I say, as one pixie lands on my left shoulder, placing a hand on the bloodstain, then drawing scribbles on my helmet with squeaky sounds.

(That’s annoying…)

I continue. “Anyway, we don’t know how strong they are. If they have the Magic Missile spell, we’ll die instantly.”

We sit down and relax.

The annoying pixie starts sitting on top of my helmet, bumping her feet up and down, annoying me greatly.

I pretend to not care.

“Come to think of it, where did that eighth pixie go?” Asks Lin Hao.

“… It’s a bit worrying.” Replies Claire. “Could it be calling for more pixies?”

Knowing we would likely lose the battle already, if it did call for reinforcements, I would really be hopeless. We would be enslaved or killed by the pixies.

With that in mind, I concentrate and take a look at my points. 16. I could buy something with that.

One pixie starts jumping up and down on Raquel’s head, which makes her laugh.

Then the pixie lights up even more and speaks in a foreign language.

Raquel starts mumbling “Oh, what…? I’m sleepy…” Then falls on her back.

The others look at her in fright.

“Are they attacking…!?” Says Lin Hao.

Claire goes to check on Raquel. “She’s sleeping. I think it cast a sleep spell on her…?”

“Indeed, it lost some mana.” I comment.

(I need Mind Protection as soon as possible.)

I take out my apostle slate and search for mind protection.

Damn, still lacking 4 points for Mind Resistance.

Intelligence and Wisdom…? I’d get those soon, but it also felt insulting to purchase. I could see why those would help protect my mind.

Huh? Mental Power Capacity 1? It also contributes to Mind Protection…

(It’s one of the few things I can afford anyway, and it’s useful either way. Buy!)

Mental Power Capacity 1 appeared in my interface, and with it, my mental power pools in my brain and stomach became 40% more concentrated.

I put away the apostle slate and continuously use my Mana Sense.

Claire was trying to wake up Raquel, who after a small slap, still stayed unconscious.

I could sense abnormally high amounts of mana within Raquel.

I stood up and went to her side, observing the mana closely.

(In theory I could use my Mana Control to guide the foreign mana out of her, although I cannot separate her mana from the spell’s.)

I place a hand over her head, trying to get a feel for her mana.

“Edward?” Asks Claire.

“Not now, I’m trying something.” I reply.

The pixie on top of my helmet laughs and hits my helmet even more.

Without touching Raquel, I do not have any interaction with her mana.

I place my hand on her forehead.

The mana does not move with my will at all.

(Well, it is different from Mental Power.)

I had only one other option, that is flushing out her system.

I unleash some mana, which enters Raquel and increases her total amount a little, before her body expels some extra mana.

I can only differentiate my mana from the rest.

Her body exudes both the mana I insert and the other mana.

When I use a quarter of my total mana, I stop.

With this, Raquel’s body now contains half of my mana and half of the other amalgam mana.

“A spell would be more efficient.” I comment.

I shake Raquel’s shoulder and she mumbles. “Uhnnn…”

“Oh, that’s a good improvement!” Exclaims Claire.

“I’ll continue once I regenerate my mana.”

The pixie on my helmet claps her hands.

(So annoying.)

…

Minutes pass.

Members of our group had mostly unclothed themselves to resist the heat and humidity.

Even I had removed my one piece motorcycle suit, leaving a shirt and thin pants underneath which I would have wanted to remove if I didn't have Body Enhancement 1 helping regulate my temperature.

Suddenly, lots of leaf rustling sound out from a distance, coming closer and closer.

“What is that?” Asks Suzy, distressed.

I use my newfound senses. There are two signatures. One identical to the pixies, and another completely different mainly composed of mental power rather than mana. Its energy is in an elongated shape, multiple meters long.

“Don’t worry Suzy, there’s only one enemy, I think it’s the pixie from before returning with a pursuer, let’s see if the pixies help their own. If they don’t, we kill it.” I reply after analyzing the situation.

Soon, the departed pixie flies back in the temporary camp and mixes with the other, as they laugh and clap.

On its trail, a giant anaconda appears, swirling about and hissing.

The beast is huge enough to swallow multiple people, it has the diameter of an entire arm.

Lin Hao had his gun ready and shot the snake three times with reinforced bullets.

(I have to ask him about that.)

The anaconda hissed angrily and lifted itself up in the air, overlooking the group.

As arrows would not damage that snake very well, I shoot one full powered magic missile.

“Magic missile!” It quickly hit the anaconda, who collapsed and died. The pixies laughed at us and clapped for me. “I only have enough for two more shots like that. The pixies are calling enemies. We should move and hope they leave us alone.”

“Agreed.” Replies Lin Hao promptly.

The anaconda gave me four points.

By pinching Raquel harshly, she finally wakes up.

The group agrees to move. We eat snacks and drink water before packing our things to leave.

Now on the move, the pixies sit on our heads or shoulders.

Interestingly, only Suzy does not have a pixie on her, while I have four, with one per shoulder and two on my helmet.

This was really unnerving.

I don’t understand the mechanisms of spells like Sleep but I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist four of them at once.

(Are they attracted to mana or combat power?)

Regardless, we had to move until these little monsters left on their own.

The other option I could think of was to leave on my own for a little while and one-shot a pixie with a high-powered magic missile, but with four of them clinging on me, that option was now eliminated.

(As if they knew.)

I still had my new trump card, telekinetic grab. It could slam the pixies into the trees or throw some nails at them. But my confidence at hitting such small targets was low, especially under duress.

The only other one that could perhaps do the same was Lin Hao. With a single, well-placed surprise shot a pixie would be pulverized.

The issue is whether or not Lin Hao leaving on his own would make the pixie on him doubt his intentions.

Worse yet, what happens when Lin Hao returns without the pixie? After a loud noise that the pixies have already associated with the gun?

As I kept thinking and walking, my frown apparent, Suzy comes to my side and holds my hand.

“It’ll be alright, I’m sure.” She says.

Raquel, following Suzabeth at her other side, looks toward our raw hand-holding with jealousy.

She tries holding Suzy’s other hand, which Suzy accepts anyway with lighthearted smile.

Suddenly the two pixies on my helmet fly up and leave.

As the first to notice, I warn the group.

“Watch out, two pixies just left. They’re going to bring more monsters!”

We start walking faster while I make sure to keep my Mana and Mental Power senses active.

After close to twenty minutes, I pick up the two missing pixie signals and a dozen of other, weak Mental Power signals.

“They’re here! A dozen of enemies this time!” I warn, turning to the source of danger.

“Alright, I’m ready!” Says Lin Hao as he aims his gun. We drop our bags on the ground and reposition ourselves towards the incoming monsters.

Suzy steps behind the group but stays close by, near our bags.

I notch an arrow.

Two pixies fly by first.

Then bushes rustle and we see a giant red ant, as tall as my waist, running over.

Soon, the other ants follow. Lin Hao opens fire with his enchanted bullets as he fires in semi-automatic mode.

I loose an arrow, see it bounce over the chitin and immediately start chanting Magic Missiles.

(I need to keep at least half my mana in case anything unexpected happens with either the pixies or this forest.)

Since my mana was back to full, that meant I had three and a half shots of half-powered Magic Missiles to spare.

“Magic Missile!”

One giant ant dies, giving me a point.

I lower the power to one third of a normal Magic Missile and shoot another. “Magic Missile!”

This time the ant has spasms, but doesn’t die, and it gets shot by Lin Hao.

Danielo chants a spell. “Fire Weapon!” His sledgehammer catches on fire and he swings it at an ant.

On contact, the fire bursts upon the ant and the enchantment holds on. He hits again and the same effect happens.

The pixies applaud at each fiery explosion.

(These bursts happen at each hit!)

The ant succumbs to those wounds, burnt and crushed.

“Water Arrow!” Raquel launches a water arrow and decapitates another ant.

The pixies laugh after the red ant head rolls on the ground.

I launch another magic missile, killing one more.

Lin Hao shoots more and Claire swings her spear to cut off a few of an ant’s legs, before stabbing into its head.

The ants seem to hesitate coming any closer, but Lin Hao shoots them down one by one.

(Look at him getting all the points. Can’t wait until he runs out of ammo. We might be here a month, buddy!)

It hadn’t been a day but I believed Lin Hao had used a magazine’s worth of ammo.

Danielo pummels the last ant with his fiery sledgehammer.

“Alright, we’re good. That wasn’t too bad.” Says Danielo.

The pixies applaud and laugh. They all simultaneously fly above us.

My muscles tense as I ready myself to chant a Magic Missile.

The pixies wave and all fly away.

“Is this the end?” Asks Claire.

“Could they be gathering an even greater group of monsters?” Wonders Raquel.

“In any case, we should leave and fast. Let’s hope they can’t track us.” I say, urging our group to hurry.

We grab our bags and leave hastily.

…

Evening.

The sun hidden by the canopy barely lights up the forest floor.

After the last fight with the ants, the pixies did not come back.

That did not stop us from encountering a group of goblins, which were exterminated without injury.

This put me back to 17 points.

I had decided to wait and get Mind Resistance 1 for 20 points.

Then I’d probably let my points accumulate again.

Being put to sleep by a spell and getting killed, unable to retaliate, was too scary to think about, so I had to rush getting that passive skill.

Everyone set up their tents. This time, Raquel had her own tent, for herself. She set it up without bothering Suzy.

(There’s no way she’ll tell me to go sleep there, right?)

We start fortifying the camp.

I had a small axe in my bag and Danielo had a chainsaw. We started cutting some wood to block access to our camp, or to at least help make noise before a creature would be upon us.

We lifted up pieces of wood and placed them across trees in unstable positions.

The branches should fall if anything hits them.

We also clear out the bushes inside our camp perimeter and place them where the forest floor was clear of vegetation.

Now, anything coming close ought to make some noise.

If some goblin jumps from one tree to another, that would also rustle some trees enough to warn whoever would be on night duty.

“… Speaking of which, it’s time we decide turns for night duty. Night watch, as you know it.”

“I’m tired, I don’t want to do it…” Claire starts complaining.

“I’ll do it with Suza.” Raquel announces.

“No, no, we can only do it alone… Or in couples, in order to make sure no one falls asleep. However that would cut up sleep time too much.” I comment.

Lin Hao exchanges his thoughts. His idea is to have four people on night watch throughout each night, leaving two who can recover completely with a good night's sleep. The people sleeping and those on watch would change each night.

The group approves of this setup.

Needing to guard two or so hours wasn’t too bad.

The evening goes on. Everyone opens their bags to eat their rations.

Suzy and I have jerky, boiled egg, raisins and some water.

Suddenly I hear Raquel intone a spell.

“Water Condensation.”

The heavy, uncomfortable humidity disappears for a few moments and a ball of water forms between Raquel’s palms.

As the spell finishes, the water ball falls inside her water bottle through a sieve.

“Ta-da! The new spell I bought! I’ll never go thirsty ever again!” Raquel asserts happily.

“Not a bad choice, especially since we have yet to find any source of water. The best we could do is to either dig up a hole or squeeze up some vegetation and boil or purify it. I do have the purify spell, so I hope no one eats or drinks questionable things without asking for my help.” I reply.

“Oh right, I could understand well enough Danielo’s enchantment from before, but what about Lin Hao’s? You know, that thing where your bullets shine.” Asks Claire.

“Oh, that’s called Chi Enforcement, it adds inner force into objects. It’s also called hidden force.” Explains Lin Hao.

(Why am I not surprised the Chinese guy took the mysterious martial arts related skill?)

Before sleeping, night guard turns are decided.

Since Claire and Suzy were the most tired due to their inferior physiques, they were allowed to sleep the whole night. I had the second watch so I immediately went in the tent to cuddle and kiss Suzy before she went to sleep.

Lin Hao had asked for the first watch and stayed in his tent, sitting.

After my watch there was Danielo’s and Raquel’s.

I was happy to see Raquel more stable on the mental side of things.

I fell asleep.

…

CRUNCH

I wake up, very tired, as I hear one of the branches we placed get broken.

I hear another tent opening up in a hurry.

I get out my tent while using my sixth and seventh senses. This, of course, wakes up Suzy, who stays silent.

“…” I could only feel five other signals.

“Is there a monster?” Asks Danielo as he goes out his tent.

A familiar voice, five meters away whispers.

“S-Sorry! It’s me! Go back to sleep, I… Forgot there were these branches, so…” Explains Claire.

“What are you doing!…” I accuse her, annoyed I’ve woken up. Looking at my phone, it’s my turn in half an hour. That's all lost sleep time.

“… I just wanted to pee…” She says.

“…”

It was true that with the whole camp surrounded by noisy obstacles, no one could go some few meters away to do their business. I look at Danielo, whose silhouette I can barely see in the dead of the night. I feel like he looks back, probably feeling as dumb as me for forgetting this detail.

I sigh and go back in my tent.

After a while, Lin Hao comes to tell me it’s my turn and goes to his tent.

I get out of my tent to go sit on the ground, sensing around mana and mental power.

Nothing.

After half an hour of waiting, my eyelids are heavy.

The good surprise is that there were no mosquitoes.

If there were, they might be as big as those ants we fought earlier.

But at least those wouldn’t suck your blood stealthily unless they used magic.

…

I sense a strong mental signal coming close, slowly.

(That’s a monster! Not a magical type.)

I look towards the monster's direction, seeing only darkness. I take my lamp torch in my hand, and point my other palm towards the monster, ready to fire a Magic Missile.

Since there was only one monster during my entire watch, I could afford to use lots of mana in one go.

I actually don’t need to turn on the lamp to lock on my magic missile.

The missile can track a mana signature, however it won’t avoid vegetation or objects on its own.

That’s why I turn on the light to see two eyes shining brightly some twenty meters away and immediately chant “Magic Missile!…”.

A full powered magic missile flies at the monster, who jumps to the side as the shining white missile closes in on it.

It gets hit and dies, as I surmise from hearing the sound of a body falling and the mental signal disappearing.

I turn off the lamp after a minute, and sit back down. That got me three points, putting me to twenty.

(I’ll buy Mind Resistance before going to sleep.)

I check the time, dead tired.

Soon, it’s Danielo’s turn. I wake him up and go into my tent.

I fiddle with my bag and finally buy Mind Resistance 1.

I fall asleep, hugging Suzy.

…