"What!? What's happening here?" I exclaid in surprise while reflexively withdrawing my hand, "Luke? Firiell? Do you guys have any idea?" I looked at both of them with wide eyes.
"New elent? This is the first ti I've seen soone with two elents..." Jeanne gasped as she covered her mouth in shock.
"Try using your fire. Can you still use your fire?" General Emilio asked in a slightly more rushed tone than usual, which alard since he wasn't usually like that.
"Uh, m-maybe..." I raised the palm of my hand and tried again to use my elental magic.
'Crackle! Fwoosh!'
This ti, a surge of fla appeared on my hand as little shards of ice popped and scattered everywhere.
"Ack! Sorry, sorry. I'm having a little bit of technical difficulty!" I said as I fumbled with the shards that were spilling everywhere.
"Whoa, you really can do both now," general Zhang laughed while grinning upon the sight of his frozen arm, inspecting it carefully until I broke it off, "I wonder how many more elents you can control?" He said as his eyes glinted with sothing I couldn't really pinpoint.
"Is it really a big deal to be able to have both?" I asked while I tried to carefully summon only fla on my right hand, and only ice on my left, "I'm still unused to it, though. It's as if I'm drawing two different things at the sa ti using different hands. With no artistic talent, to boot."
"I don't think we've docunted soone with two elents," Jeanne answered while she leaned in closer to touch my ice shards, and then my fire, "yeah, this is definitely your elental magic... But, how?"
"Wait, I get that this is probably the crest's doing or whatever, but isn't that elf prince's elent wind, though? So shouldn't she get wind elent instead of ice?" Luke tilted his head in confusion. Huh, so he had no idea, either.
"... I think that's possible." Firiell spoke up.
"Oh, how? Can you please explain it, but simply? I have no energy for complex stuff." I asked without looking at her, since I was fully focusing my attention on trying to get these two elents under my control.
"The crest never gives the new owner a new power, but instead, it taps into the new owner's mana pool, enlarging it," she started explaining, "maybe big sister Chae has already been able to use two elents at once all along, but was only able to manifest it just now."
"Hehe, I agree with that~" General Zhang humd, "I know that the crest can only help you unlock your potential. Though, I'm itching to know just how far your potential goes..."
I got goosebumps imdiately after peeking a glance at the grinning eel, because his smile was a little different from usual. Instead of his usual, playful grin, I was being observed with a mysterious, slightly creepy grin.
And so, I pretended to not notice anything and focus on trying to summon both of my elental magic simultaneously while they argued about their theories. Normally, I would join them and try to understand this whole thing as best as possible while also prepare for tomorrow, but I was so tired already and my mind was in a fuzz.
Wait, did we even have a plan for tomorrow?
"Hey, guys. What do we have for tomorrow?" I looked up to ask them.
"We have no plan yet, to be honest. We didn't expect you to wake up so early, so we thought we would be staying here for a bit longer..." Jeanne answered.
"Great. Then can I suggest a plan for tomorrow?" I asked while I tried to freeze the bed beside , which surprisingly worked quite well.
"Depends on what you suggest." General Emilio replied.
"Hmm," I paused for a bit, "yeah, let's freeze their whole castle."
--------
"... I'm not sure this will work." General Emilio said with a little frazzled frown as we hung out in the blacksmith on top of the orc's hideout. It was getting crampy inside, so this morning, when we all woke up after like, 4 hours of sleep at most, I suggested we all go upstairs to get so fresh air.
Well, by 4 hours of sleep at most, I ant for them. I only slept for roughly 2 hours, because I had to do a little workout to increase my stat a bit, and also so magic testing. If I was going to be sleep-deprived anyway, then might as well be sleep-deprived and ward up, right?
That said, my 2 hours workout only earned one point each for strength and agility, making them 39 and 30, respectively. Finally, all of my stats were now at least 30.
"It's a sha that we can't negotiate anymore. Now we have to get their cooperation by force." Jeanne sighed while stirring her cup of warm milk tea that she made for all of us earlier, using the things available from the orc's pantries.
"Huh? I don't plan on negotiating anymore the mont he told us to go fetch him the crest," I raised an eyebrow and turned to look at general Emilio, "were you, general Emilio?"
"No." He replied with only one word. So efficient of him.
"Negotiating isn't exactly fun~" General Zhang, who was sitting beside at our round table, agreed.
"Eh? I really thought we were going to negotiate?" Jeanne asked, obviously confused.
"Ehhh? too, I can't even begin to imagine betraying uncle Erenduill." Firiell frowned.
"Negotiating only works when both parties have sothing valuable to offer, which we didn't actually have. He just made it seem like they needed us, when in fact, he was simply using us," I shrugged, "and Firiell, snap out of it. Don't be under the control of your elvish instinct of always obeying your king. Instead, control your instinct."
"Um! I-I'll try!" She enthusiastically nodded.
"Good. Define yourself, and decide for yourself what you want. Don't be caged by what your species dictates," I smiled and ruffled her hair, "I'm only saying this because you're our comrade, though. I hope the other elves have a strong instinct, since we're going to take advantage of that elvish instinct you guys have."
"I-I'm your comrade?" She stared at with wide, sparkling eyes that made her look like a Poranian puppy.
"Yeah, of course. What else are you?" I laughed happily, seeing how innocent she was, "you're not an idiot sandwich like this spooky white-haired general, so of course you're our comrade."
"... Uwahhh! I'm so happy!" She cried out and threw herself on , which surprised .
"Eh??" I grabbed her and hugged her tight so we wouldn't fall off of our chairs, but what was I supposed to do in this situation? Huh??
"Hahaha. She sure likes you, Chaerin. I could understand why, though." Jeanne giggled as she saw the predicant I was in from across the tiny round table.
"... I have no idea why, but I appreciate it?" I said as I awkwardly caressed Firiell's hair. Man, elf hair sure was beautiful. I wonder what kind of shampoo they used? Hey, they would be perfect models for shampoo comrcials! ... Wait, I needed to stop thinking about how to capitalize on everything. Ehem.
Anyway, this morning, while I was doing sit-ups on top of a tree branch, I took the ti to skim over my inventory. As expected, I got a few drops from killing so elves. They were pretty useless, though.
[Elf's Boots (equip: feet) x3]
[A pair of boots that were once worn by an elf. Made out of organic material, so they're fragile unless the wearer is an elf. 10 Agility for elf species, -5 Agility for other species]
[Elf's Tears (material) x5]
[Made out of an elf's agony. Might or might not give an extra benefit if incorporated into an equip or armor]
[Elf's Hairpin (equip: accessory) x2]
[A hairpin from an elf. Very fashionable and attracts attention. No effect on status]
I unconsciously let out a deep sigh once I rembered the bad loots that I got. The equips were useless, and the materials were pretty vague. The boots might be useful for Firiell, but I had other plans for her equip later on, so the weapon and armor from downstairs should be enough for now. anwhile, I decided to keep the Elf's Tears just in case it would be useful to craft sothing. Also, the na was kinda tal, so why not?
The rest of them imdiately went to the shop to get converted into so sweet, sweet gold for . Surprisingly, they sold for a solid 1200 gold, which was way more than I had expected. Kiiiinda tempted to farm the heck out of the elves, but I probably should wait until we finish rescuing the hostages first.
But, that wasn't everything I did with the shop. I also searched for sothing that I was sure I could find.
A buffing scroll.
[Low-grade Intelligence Buff Scroll (consumable) x3]
[A scroll that can be used to increase the user's intelligence by a small amount for a short ti. Can be stacked with other buffs. Max stack count is 5. 20 Intelligence. Duration: 5 minutes]
And sure enough, I was able to buy three of them for 300 gold each. Perfect. I wasn't sure if this would be enough for to freeze their whole castle, but I was pretty confident in my ability. It should be okay...ish.
Now that the preparation was more or less complete...
"Alright, shall we get going?" I asked as I sat up from my seat and stretched my body.
"So in the end, we're going to have to force them into submission, huh..." Jeanne stood up with a sad frown.
"No. Who said we're going to force them? They're going to listen to us willingly, so don't worry, Jean-jean!" I gave her a wide grin and a few taps on the shoulder to cheer her up.
"They will?" Her face brightened up.
"Definitely," I nodded and turned to look at Firiell, "you."
I pointed at the little girl who was looking at with excitent.
"I'm going to make you the elf queen."
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