“Plash! Plush” Ugh, all this mud flying everywhere is getting on my clothes! It’s going to be hard to clean off. Come on me! This is for the COINS. Who cares about dirty clothes if you can buy new snazzy ones. ♪
If only this shovel was a tad bit lighter. Thanks for that Mr Crocker! Well… at least he gave me my reward and actually helped me. Am I being too mean, would mom and dad be mad? Come on Etta don’t think about that! I’m the friendly neighbourhood bubbly child.
That bunny woman told me to find shiny mud to dig out the worms. Step one find the mud, step two get the blue worms, step three profit. But I have to admit the mud is making me kinda cold.
And this smell…… like dad’s fart after a night of spicy quippers and flatbread. Anyway don’t need to mind the details, just trying to find shiny sparkly mud. “MANA DETECTING EYES ACTIVATE!!!” Hey don’t laugh Apita! Me doing this weird pose is totally important and necessary.
“♪Du du du du♪ Just Following the trail of mana ∼♪ Going to get some money♪⁓” Whew thankfully the worms leave very obvious trails in mud when they burrow. Just look at all this pure mana inside the mud! Now that I think of it there almost too much mana here.
Like how did so much mana get transported here? The worms still need a mana source to mix with the ground…. But from where? Did a mana stone rain suddenly occur here a long time ago, even then the mana here should’ve run out a long time ago.
Mana herbs take away mana from the ground, and Heindria’s Swamp has been used for planting for who knows how long! Probably even before than that old cat that the crone that lives in the jungle has was birthed. And that cat has a freaking moustache!
I’m feeling quite silly walking around with a magnifying glass following the trail of magical worm poop, now that I say that out loud that sounds ridiculous! Who follows a poop trail? Wait a minute… Where did this magnifying glass come from!? Eh? Don’t just disappear like that?
Apita there was actually a real magnifying glass in my hands just now! “Huf, Ap. (TR: Ridiculous, that was just your imagination.) No there actually was one, it just disappeared! “Yap! (TR: Get back on track. Stop being so immature.)
Fine…. All this walking is just making me bored. There, we’ve arrived. Wow… Look at all this mana! Like a pond of mana, and just look at the elementals swimming here. Don’t even try to eat them Apita! You’ll just get mud everywhere.
And don’t just go to sleep! Start digging you furball! Like your life depends on it! We must get that reward; imagine all the stuff we can buy. And we only need one worm for the coins, its easy money!
“Hey don’t lay down you lazy meat sack! Fine, how about we make it a competition! First to catch one is the winner, loser gets his dinner taken away. And I heard that tonight’s dish is Shepherd’s Pie.” “Yuf! TR: Thou really think thou shalt win? ” “Of course, and why are you using a weird accent?”
“3, 2, 1, GO!”
Hah, did he really think he would win? That lazy fox winning, never! Why you ask? Because I never said magic was banned! And he because he is a fire spirit he cant use any other magic except fire ones. Also don’t forget that my main attributes are fire and… EARTH.
I cant just pull those worms out of the ground since most of their surrounding mana still has their signature and is blocking my spell, but I can effect the ground nearby! Huuuu…… I tugged at the mana below; my earthen attribute friends answered my call.
Walls, I needed to create walls to direct the worms upwards and trap them. Mud is a mixture of water and dirt, mud is too soft as walls and can be dug through. *SFX Chaching!* Then I have to squeeze the water out!
I placed my flat hands unto the mud, then I clasped them together in a squishing motion. Earth started to group together tightly, water slowly separated from dirt creating compressed dirt walls. I could feel it, a trail of highly potent mana going upwards. A worm got caught and is heading up.
I took the shovel I borrowed, I requested my earthen mana friends to slowly pull the walls towards me. Slowly turning the flat wall into a half sphere wall that is slowly getting smaller. Right now the amount of mana inside the half circle was extremely high, I couldn’t even see the trails anymore. I had to dig.
I plunged the shovel into the ground, fast yet carefully. I could accidentally kill it. “SFX:*Tchk Tcah*” The mud flew up into the air and recombined with the swamp, heh and I intentionally directed them towards that fox, not that he noticed since his entire head is neck deep in mud.
After a long session of mud throwing, thrown into the air was my prize, a shiny blue worm. I quickly snatched it out of the air with a leap, it wriggled fiercely in my hand; nothing that a bit of mana enhancing cant fix.
“Hehe, I won Apita! Your dinner is mine now!!!” The fox realising his defeat stared at me. “Hyaf Yap Yap!(TR: Thou must have cheated! I was clearly a machine of superb digging!”
Hahaha! The fox is clearly mad! Look at him growling, but alas ALL OF HIS DINNER IS NOW MINE! MUAHAHAHA! Finally, maybe that will teach him a lesson.
“HEY! DON’T THROW MUD AT ME YOU LAZY FOX!” “Don’t even try to run! I’ll catch you, I swear it on this mud filled swamp!” “Ayp! *laughing*” As my target was running away, I called forth the wind to push me forward in a sprint. We ran and ran and ran till even my stamina (that I prided myself in) was almost hitting rock bottom!
Damn it! All this mud is just making me slower, hey why are you wagging your tail like that huh?! That’s it you’re just asking for a beating! I can feel all the other animals laughing at me because of that lazy fox! You beast core begging muddy lazy not-even that fluffy sack of fluff and meat! And I know you can hear what I’m thinking because of our link.
What? Your heart getting sad that I’m insulting you? Well you deserve it! Take this! “*SFX whuuuf*, Tang!” “Straight to the noggin!” Haha I actually hit that shovel throw! I totally knew that I was strong enough to do that, and I totally didn’t doubt my abilities.
I walked up to my defeated opponent, the more mud than fur furball. Wait a minute, where are we? Uh oh. I think we maybe got lost, I don’t think I recognize all these ruined stone brick pillars. What is that pattern on that wall? It look like looks like a person, with winged dogs surrounding him.
“Tap, tap, tap” I walked towards it, to inspect it further. The sound of my footsteps became ‘taps’ after stepping of the slightly muddy stone floor, right in front of the picture. Woah… Its so detailed, and the maker used crystals to line the mosaic. Expensive ones probably.
“*click*” “W-what?! AAAHHH WE’RE FALLING DOWNNNNN!!!”
Author’s note: The style of wording for the storyteller and Etta is a bit different. Her dialog has repeated words, and it’s a lot simpler and more casual. No using Canidae to refer to Apita. I also tried to represent her personality as best as I can, she should be grudgeful and usually isn’t smart(for now)
The girl looked up, thankfully her fall was cushioned by an orange magical cloud? (it’s a fox) Though it didn’t do a great job at being soft as her bottom was truly sore and pained under her clothes (she landed on the fox but isn’t acknowledging it). She couldn’t see the hole where she came from, ‘Damn, the trapdoor must’ve closed shut when we fell.’ She thought; mentally linking herself with her beast.
‘Thou has dirtied mine honour. Hah, but such is the normal behaviour of a hairless monkey.’ It seems Apita had gained an accent after his most recent power spike, inheriting the behaviour of the original owner of his origin beast core.
‘Shut up, you never had any honour to begin with. And can you tell me why you are talking with that accent’ She glared at the fox as she sent the mental message. She already started walking forward, after all there was only one way she could go, forward unto the shady path lit by magical torches.
‘It simply feels more natural that way after I evolved, as if it was mine own nature.’ He followed the girl, his power level was a bit different from before. Before he had two tails in his full form 1Reference side story ‘A fox’s hunt’, but that untamed power was now gone. He now only had a single tail in his best shape.
Before he was bursting with wild mana bloating his body and giving him a two tailed form, but it was temporary. After awhile his extra mana compressed or leaked out, now he was still strong but his true form was a evolved one tail incarnation. The same height as a wolf but a bit more longer.
‘So you just got it after evolving, wait you evolved? Did you keep beast cores in your mouth as snacks!?’ Her mouth was agape, she didn’t even think that the fox would be so gluttonous as to keep extra beast cores on him always. In her mind she shockedly thought ‘So that’s why my fire attribute just got stronger in the middle of our trip! He was snacking while walking!’
‘Well, at least you look a bit more presentable. Even if your big belly puts you in the negatives’
‘Thou must focus now, now matter how tiny the amount for your monkey brain. We must return before nightfall, and ensure the worm is given to the bipedal bunny’ His body was slowly fading into nothingness, his mana signature crawling around the mudball which housed the blue creature.
‘Got it, got it. I focus on trying to get us out of here, you focus on protecting the worm. Even I know to be serious at times like these, especially when money is on the stake.’ The girl summoned her axe and created the a guiding ball of floating fire; the magical torches lit the path but not enough.
There was only one path, made of dirt and stone, tree roots covered the walls and roof to hold it all together. As a contractor with a high tier beast spirit she could roughly sense low tier spirits hanging about, even without any training. Water, earth and plant based elementals moved around as they maintained the path by encouraging the tree root to grow or moving dirt. And small magical beast worked in tandem with them.
Several smaller paths branched out from the main path, but they weren’t alit with any source of light, so they just followed this main paths. Like the clueless insignificant beings they were, only following the afterwaves of stronger things.
‘Hey look over there! That’s sunlight coming from above ground! Come on lets go.’ She dashed forward into the spacious room, clueless of her surroundings.
‘Thou must be careful, heh since thou isn’t anything but a feeble stick.’ But still the fox followed behind her dragging along the mudball the so called ‘feeble stick’ created to maintain the blue worm’s health.
There they stood in the middle on a spacious room. It was akin to a miniature underground oasis, sunlight poked through the thick mess of roots that was the roof, feeding many plant life that inhabited the beautiful space; peaceful was this sliver of flowering paradise.
In the middle there was a giant stone engraved with symbols of lettering, in front of it was a bed of blue spider lilies equivalent for this world……. Well, that is the best comparison I can make. Its size was of an adult human laying down, this was clear to even the stupid brown hair. This was the grave site of the master of all those elementals and beast from before, that was why it’s so wonderfully maintained.
Walking to beside grave she touched the tall stone boulder, it was engraved with symbols she didn’t recognise or know. But as if calling people to understand it, it called to the world to make people understand. When she placed her eyes on the words the voice of world made her realize their meaning;
|
I am Heindra. And this is my body’s tomb, the place I shall reside in forever till forever. I am strong to the weak, but to myself and some others I am the weak. As one of the legends that participated in that war, I have caused great harm to this must be cherished world. So this is my tribute to this world, a blessing to those who reside within it as a way for me to ask forgiveness from god. I have created a bountiful swamp, perfect as a nursery to critters and plants aplenty. And I have created its caretakers, creatures that maintain its fertility for everyone and everything to have. Then I have created tunnels underneath it for them to feed on the corpse of my ‘enemy’, so it could contribute again to its mother even after death. Its mother conjured it from the ground to punish us, and I had slain it without any right. Forgive me world, for murdering your child. Finally, I impart unto you who has come here after being chosen worthy by my magic, my ars magna. This is an art that I have created after learning from my mistakes of the past. This is my message to thee, coexist, not plunder. 「Listen」 |
When she placed her eyes unto the last words, the circle of runes surrounding it glowed fiercely. An idea and an ideal flowed into her mind and imprinted unto her very soul. The ars magna imprinted unto her only because of their compatibility. And the end, at the words place was three lines like claws destroying the magic so it never was to be used again.
“WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?!” She jumped cartoonishly the sudden headache. Completely dispelling the melancholy atmosphere I had worked to create, damn you Etta you brown haired devil.
“Yap Yip (TR: Thou possibly has placed a curse on yourself! I have never thought thee to be that stupid!) *Laugh in fox*” The Canidae’s head materialized just to make fun of his owner, spouting a sentence I also agree with, everything but the curse part.
“Grrrrrr” “Grr” “HUF!” “Woof!” “GRR”
Forms of multiple canines emerged from the shadows awake from their slumber, attracted by the commotion. Winged wolves growled, enraged at the intruder’s disturbance of their original owner’s tomb.
“Crap. I think we woke up the neighbourhood” “Yep! (TR: I think thou and I only has a single option.)”
The tomb guards flapped their wings. This time Apita wasn’t fuelled with strong emotion for his flames, there wasn’t any fire that will help him kill wolves this time.
“RUN!” ”YAP! (TR: RUN!)”
