nro_8

So apparently I made trending yesterday. No idea why or how, but it happened. To all the new people, welcome.

Spoiler

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The raindrops in front of us had frozen in the air and were now gathering at a high speed. They took on the form of a person that was now standing in front of me. That’s not fair. No riding my Blue-Eyes without my permission.

As I was wondering what to do with this intruder, St. Joan flew back to us and landed next to me, holding her sword ready.

“Who are you and what do you want with my Master?” She asked the unknown water person.

The watery form in front of us got better with every second, looking more and more humanoid. It had a clearly feminine body structure and the water that made up her body even made something akin to hair. If Alice was here with me, she would probably put her hands on my eyes and tell me not to look. Maybe.

“Oh, heroes who stopped the sprites, I offer you my gratitude.” The water being said to us. “I shall thank you by offering to you my blessing.”

Blessing? What the hell is she? A God?

(That is no god.) Laura said to me. (It’s a high level water spirit.)

Water spirit? And sprites are corrupted spirits, right? So we just killed it’s friends.

“Are you a water spirit?” I asked her. I already heard about it from Laura, but this way Lucia will hear it too. And I want to confirm it.

“Yes I am, my dear hero.” She told us.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“I come with the spring rains. But this year, the miasma hanging over the great woods corrupted my lesser spirits and they went mad. I wanted to stop them but I didn’t have the power to do it.” She told us. “I asked for help from our Goddess and she said she would send a hero to deal with them.”

A Goddess? And a hero? Don’t tell me I’m the hero. I have enough problems already.

I looked over St. Joan and she finally lowered her sword. I don’t want her pointing it at a spirit for too long.

“Now my mighty heroes, I’ll offer to you the blessing of the water spirits.” She said as the rain rushed to surround us.

We were engulfed in a veil of water. It didn’t hurt or even feel annoying. It felt good. I could feel mana surging into my body from the water that was surrounding us. I also felt the pain that was left from activating the Wall of Revealing Light disappear. I guess she is healing us while at it.

“Oh, heroes. I apologize but I must leave now. The clouds will leave without me if I don’t.” The spirit said to us as she turned back into water and splashed everywhere. 

…. 

“Brian, what was that?” Lucia asked.

“I’m not sure, but apparently we just got the blessing of the water spirits or something.” I said back to her.

“I heard that part. But what about this ‘hero’ thing?” 

“I think the spirit might have meant me.” I told Lucia. “I do have the system support, so it might see me as a hero.”

“Well you already were a hero to us.” Lucia said behind me.

“I guess, but then we need to play the part and find the people we came here to look for.” I told her.

“Yes.” She responded.

“Also, please don’t tell others about the spirit.” I told Lucia.

“Why?” She asked.

“I just prefer not to get any more pressure onto my back.” I told her. “Oh and don’t tell them about the hero part either.” I added.

Lucia seemed to think for a moment before saying: “Fine, but you must call me Lua from now on.”

“As you wish, Lua.” I responded. That was a surprisingly cheap deal. I was expecting it to cost a little more.

(She likely still feels like she owes you for curing her curse.) Laura said to me.

Yeah, I could see that.

I unsummoned St. Joan and we continued our search for the group.

“Over there.” Lua said to me as she pointed at a spot close to the road. The ground there was black from, I assume all the lightning. Laura had also pointed it out to me, but I still couldn’t see what the two of them did.

We could see a little better than earlier as the water spirit had cleared some of the clouds directly above us after it disappeared. It was still raining in most places around us, but where we were, the rain had stopped and the clouds cleared. Almost like we were in the eye of the storm.

I looked at the area Lua pointed at, but I couldn’t see anyone there.

“Lua, what do you see? I see nothing in that area.” I told her.

“There is a shelter made with earth magic.” She responded. “They are likely taking cover in it.”

I still have no idea what she is seeing, but perhaps I just don’t know what I’m looking at. But I’ll trust her with this.

“Ok, Blue-Eyes, let’s land.” I commanded. “Not too close.”

As we were going in for the landing, I noticed the other dragon coming towards us. Red-Eyes is here. Doesn’t seem like Alex managed to lose the card. Or at least he didn’t manage to unsummon Red-Eyes mid flight.

After both dragons landed, Alex and Wolf came up to us. 

“Did you find them?” Alex asked.

“Yes, I saw an earth magic shelter. I think they are in there.” Lua told them.

“Then let’s go take a look.” Wolf said. “Where is the shelter?”

“Just a bit that way.” Lua said as she began to move towards it.

Lua and Wolf began to make their way towards the shelter, but instead of following them, Alex came up to me.

“What will we do with those two?” He asked as he pointed at the dragons.

“I think we should keep them summoned for now.” I told him. “If Lua was wrong and they are not here, we will still need them.”

“Would you take the card back at least?” He asked.

… What would happen if I did? Would Red-Eyes get unsummoned? Or would the control simply transfer over to me? I guess we can try. Even if we lose one dragon, we still have another one.

“Sure. I’ll take it back.” I said to Alex.

“Here.” He handed me the card. 

I made sure to have a good grip on it before he let go of it.

As he did, I looked at Red-Eyes. He didn’t seem to have a reaction to the card now being in my hand. I did feel a small mana pulse from the card when Alex let go of it though. Perhaps that was to confirm the change of control over the monster.

“We should go check up on the others as well.” Alex said and walked into the direction that Lua and Wolf had gone.

“You two, keep guard. We’ll be back.” I said to my dragons. I also moved the card from my hand onto my DiaDhank.

Before making it to the shelter, I took a peek at my status.

A few levels, a new skill and apparently a blessing falls into the same category as my language comprehension. I’ll have to look at that skill closer at a later time.

Now, let’s check out the shelter and hope everyone is fine.