Thirty-ninth Encounter
*scritch*
*scratch*
I was drawing on the wall.
“Is that a tree?” (Sam)
“Yeah, felt like trying to draw one. I miss trees. Also miss the sea breeze.” (me)
“Did you live near the sea?” (Sam)
“Yeah. It was less than an hour away. I wonder how far the sea is now.” (me)
“Pretty far. We’re on the southern side of the kingdom, and the sea is on the eastern side. West is the great forest, and where the demons are known to live. North is a desert. No one lives there.” (Sam)
“That geography makes no sense.” (me)
“What do you mean?” (Sam)
“Nevermind. Probably not even relevant in this world.” (me)
*creak*
A group of adventurers entered. Two guys and a gal. Not a common mix.
“Wah!” (woman) She tripped. She saw me, looked like she was gonna run towards me for some reason, and then fell flat on her face.
“Uh… are you okay?” (me)
“What are you doing? You aren’t a front liner, you shouldn’t be running towards her.” (man 1)
“Ugh, sorry.” (woman) She got up and brushed herself off, but sounded really nervous for some reason.
“Hey! I thought I told you to stay in the back!” (man 1) The woman was walking up to me again. A bit more carefully this time.
“Can you send them away and let me stay a bit?” (woman)
“Um… you want them to leave without you?” (me)
“Yeah.” (woman)
“What? Hey! That’s not cool!” (man 1)
“Yeah! We’re a team! You can’t just leave us!” (man 2)
“I’ve just been getting this weird feeling that they’re up to no good, and it’s starting to terrify me. Actually, maybe you could just send me alone, and not send them for a while?” (woman)
“Stupid paranoid bitch!” (man 1)
“Was a waste of our generosity to bring you with us!” (man 2)
“... see? The things they say worry me.” (woman)
“Alright, do you want to take a bath first?” (me)
“I’d really like to just get away and get back home.” (woman)
“Okay, hope you feel better when you get back.” (me) I willed her gone, and she vanished.
“Damnit! Stupid bitch escaped!” (man 1)
“This is your fault, monster!” (man 2)
“Uh, no? You’re the ones who scared her.” (me)
“Fuck you!” (man 1) He’s charging me with a large shield, shouts something and suddenly it’s engulfed in flame. Wtf? Is this some sort of magic shield style? The guy in the back just has a standard mage staff and starts chanting. That’s ordinary.
“Wha… my shield!” (man 1) I cut the thing into pieces. It was just a large wooden shield. I’d been practicing carving stone. Wood is easy. The flame doesn’t make it any more durable, just forces me to use more energy to protect myself while I deal with it.
“How does a monster know aura!?” (man 2) I’d cut his fireball in half. I guess that’s an aura trick? I was getting better at this aura thing. Though it felt to me more like Ki from all the anime I watched.
“Do you still want to fight?” (me)
“Uh… no, no, this is okay. We… we’ll just retreat.” (man 2) The other guy just kept staring at the pieces of his shield now laying on the ground.
“It was enchanted! It was stronger than Iron! I spent so much on that!” (man 1)
Really? It didn’t feel that hard. Though I’ve not actually practiced cutting wood.
“Damn it! This was supposed to be an easy job! Just make a stupid girl disappear! This is now a loss! A loss!” (man 1)
Is he crying? Just how much did he invest in that shield?
“It’ll be okay, man, you can get another shield.” (man 2)
“That was a fucking year’s savings!” (man 1)
“Dude, we should leave. She can clearly kill us easily if she wants. Even a year’s work isn’t worth more than your life.” (man 2)
“Fuck!” (man 1)
“Let’s just go back and get a beer. A lot of beers.” (man 2)
“Fine. Damnit, first Vick disappears and now this.” (man 1)
“Can we go?” (man 2)
“Fine.” (me) I willed them gone, and they vanished.
“Are you sure? You really don’t look happy about this.” (Sam)
“I’m not sure. I don’t really know what they were planning, but it’s probably bad. I just don’t feel comfortable killing people when I have no real proof of anything, and don’t even know if their intended crimes are bad enough to warrant it. If I could turn them in to authorities, I would.” (me)
“I doubt that would help. We don’t have any proof of anything. Only if there’s an existing investigation would anything come of it. I’ve seen too many people get away with horrible, horrible shit.” (Sam)
“Maybe if I actually became a lord, I’d be able to figure out a way to set up punishments and investigations to deal with this crap.” (me)
“Hey, you did still manage to punish the leader. He was really distraught over the shield being broken.” (Sam)
“Was he telling the truth? Is it really stronger than iron?” (me)
“I don’t know, but if he is telling the truth, then it must’ve been an enchanted ironwood shield. That sort of gear is normally only used by very successful adventurers.” (Sam)
***Author Note***
My writing speed has really gone down. I think this chapter was written over about 3 or 4 days. Too much time spent dealing with life, and not enough time spent daydreaming. Ended up rolling a lot of dice to help with making decisions and figuring things out (mostly at the start of the chapter). It’s why she tripped… she rolled a 2.
I suggest you make a schedule.
as long as you regularly update this series, I'm fine with that. even if it's slow.
there are too many discontinued series here. if you have regular release schedule, I won't have to worry too much about you going MIA.
I've been maintaining a two week buffer. It's currently down to mondays and fridays. I should be able to keep at least one update a week, I think, and if it does drop that low, I plan to have updates on mondays (monday 4am by site time, not sure what time zone it actually is).
Thx for the chap.
I wonder one thing. If she can destroy the wall with aura tentacle skill, can she just go through this and exit the dungeon ?
Like : Official exit don't work ? Create a brand new one !! Guaranteed to repair itself in the day.
The main reason she hasn't tried, is that it'd be like digging with a sword or pick-axe. It'd be very, very slow. If not for the room reset, she'd probably try it, but it'd take hours just to carve out a few feet.
@Kldran If Lily can't dig a way out or go through the open door herself, what about being carried out the door by one of the visitors like the hero's party?
Love that you follow D&D rules. I like using D&D rules when doing things, I keep a D20 in my purse at all times.
((this one https://i.imgur.com/ttCOEft.jpg it's my lucky dice tend to roll high. Well tends to roll high for me, I have no luck, most of it's bad.))
I mostly use dice to help me decide how to have things unfold. It helps a lot with making a story less predictable. It also helps when I only have a general idea for what I want, and need help with details. I can just roll dice to decide on details.
I appreciate the details in the beginning. Is she getting a bit of cabin fever now?
If in doubt, roll for initiative.
Thanks for chappy!
Which anime did you base the use of Lily's aura on?
Thanks for the chapter
I'm not basing it on anime. The blademaster/auramaster is largely coming from a translated novel I forget the name of, that had magic cultivation and aura masters as two separate paths to power. I've also seen Aura or some variation on it in a lot of translated japanese isekais. It's really just learning to use Ki to attack and defend.
I'd note: Aura and Mana in this setting are the same thing, just different names, due to very different methods of use. One of the reasons people don't realize this, is that mages typically rely upon mana from items and the environment, rather than internal mana, while aura users rely on internal mana, not from items or environment. It's difficult to make internal mana do things outside the body, which is why being able to use aura to coat a weapon and make it more effective, is seen as amazing.
Selectively applying an aura coat to her tendrils only when needed, is how Lily is able to block blades. Also why she's vulnerable to well coordinated attackers: Her body is pretty soft, and she must actively block with aura to avoid being cut.
Oh, and the reason it's called aura, is because some of the first people to master it, learned to see how much others had as a kind of aura glow around them. So they'd describe people as having more or less aura, and thus it became known as that.
@Kldran I understand. So in this world, aura/mana is the only energy that humans can manipulate, right?
@Gin0001 Yeah.