Windere was the most prosperous nation in the whole continent. Three decades after the first election, we could see the results of the change to a democratic capitalist nation. Like all nations, we needed to keep governnt from giving influential groups too much of an advantage against their competition. But the business were booming, generating revenue and wealth that eventually trickled down to the general public.
The bubbling cauldron of cultures and species also helped a lot. We had almost every species in the planet represented here, even a few civilized orcs and goblins. That ant Windere could source almost any task locally, and the cultural and technological exchange helped everyone. Our investnt in education and vocational instruction also boosted the average population level into the first rank. So Goddess giving her followers a 3x Exp multiplier also helped a lot.
But that was huge. Ranking up was a rolercoaster. One could usually quickly level up again after the rank-up and gain ten, fifteen levels quickly, along with the better Perks. The Attribute boosts also helped them work better, and had a profound impact in the overall population health. People in the base Species and Class were almost as easy to injure and kill as people back on Earth. The real benefits of a large HP pool only appeared after the first rank-up. That had a profound impact because we had less injured and maid citizens since only the youngest adults recently-activated were stuck in the base Class. The underground Dungeons, although rather hard to access for the average citizen also helped people earn the Exp they needed.
With that small correction exposing the Senate’s shenanigans and making the politicians accountable for their decisions, I kissed Mirina goodbye for a while and opened a gate to a random fairy circle on the Scorched continent.
Sowhere at random in the Scorched Continent. Totally at Random. Yes.
The man sighed as he watched the stupid drunk Adventurers trash the tavern. It was a bar brawl like hundreds of thousands that ca before and will happen after this one. He felt dirty by reason of the very flesh he inhabited. To evade the hunting dogs coming after him, he was forced to hide inside a mortal’s body. His contacts refused to call him back and he felt trapped.
Hidden inside his {Secure Item Storage} perk, the [System Egg] thrumd with power, teasing him and forever reminding him the power he sought was beyond his reach. His ticket ho, blocked from his touch. An orb of infinite possibilities, the seed of a whole new dinsion. The apex of thousands of years investing energy into the main System Core.
Part of him feared he’d jumped the gun. When he got the ssage that the damn Anomaly was challenging his domain, he feared the other two would help her reach his sanctum at the Core room and then murder him, as she’d done with his friends before. He dropped the Titan Golem on her, hoping to buy ti and force her to spend a lot of her Divinity holding him back. The Titan Golem could not be defeated by mortal ans. Instead, she fed it to his own energy-gathering array. His forr energy-gathering array.
She was unpredictable, and thus dangerous. The man knew he had to stay away from her at all costs. With his Divine Core hidden and sealed, he was no better than the rabble smashing each other’s heads on the furniture. Or the other way around. He didn’t care. He was trapped, forced to wait for a reply from his out-of-planet contacts.
Afraid of being hunted by his forr allies and ever-present enemies, he laid low and bid his ti.
Nenandil and I flew to the nearest roadside tavern to get so entertainnt and news about the current situation. In this border town right at the foot of one of the mountain passes across the range that split the Scorched Continent in twain, only Adventurers dared travel in such dangerous places.
We phased through the door and saw a veritable bar brawl going on. Several parties of Adventurers were at each other, weapons sheathed and fists flying. So patrons and the tavern staff watched the scene unfold, waiting for the Adventurers to burn out their testosterone or whatever hormones drove them to fight so before using magic to fix the furniture, charge them for the repairs, and start serving drinks and food again.
One of the advantages of being tiny as a fairy was that you could sit anywhere you wanted. We flew to the counter and landed on an empty spot. “Is it fine if we use our own furniture, sir?” I asked the bartender. When he nodded, I set us up on the balcony with stuff from the item box. “A bottle of your best wine and the cook’s special, please.”
The bartender laughed and barked orders through the kitchen window before returning to watch the brawl. Our food and drink ca minutes later, a bowl of thick stew we could bathe in and a bottle of red wine. The at was frayed and floated in small strands on the broth. I used Force magic to scoop a serving for both of us and poured wine in enchanted glass flutes that could hold ten tis their volu in drinks.
“There’s a creepy guy staring at ,” Nenandil whispered. “I think he’s afraid of .”
“A Neraidaphobe? Who?” I asked without turning around. My {Fate Magic Affinity} tail popped into existence on its own and throbbed a little.
“The guy wearing leather armor in the corner booth, with a crew cut hair.”
I could see him without turning my eyes, courtesy of {Titan Skin}. Nenandil was right, the guy was staring at her like she’d seen a ghost. “He’s being rude.”
“Leave him. I doubt many fairies co this way.”
“If that’s what you want,” I shrugged and went back to my al.
The bralwers grew tired of beating each other and laid on the floor, each group in their corner, wary of any surprise attack from the others. So ordered drinks and the [Barmaid] went out with five or six mugs of frothing ale on each hand. Impressive.
“The Neraidaphobe is getting away,” Nenandil remarked.
“Wanna chase him? I think it’d be cruel to enforce his phobias but on the other hand, it’s rather rude to be so speciecist,” I offered.
Nenandil waved her hand, “Nah, leave him be. It’s just another bigoted mortal. There’s millions of'em out there.”
After we finished our al, we used a nearby tree to retreat into our Refuge. We gave Vesper her portion of the delicious stew and watched with glee as the silkie devoured two tis her own body weight with lots of gormandizing groans. To kill ti, I checked my Perk list. To my surprise, I had unlocked a new Perk.
Serendipidity (ultra-rare, 3rd Rank)
Requirents: Trickster Class, Luck > 75, Allow chance to guide you into a lucky encounter with odds lower than one in one million.
Effect: 2 Dexterity, 2 Charisma, 3 Luck, 3 Soul. You have 200% greater odds of finding interesting items of low value but great significance.
I purchased it. Vesper finished her food and teleported to the kitchen to wash the bowl. We flew to the upper fairy-sized mansion-floor and my wings bumped against the ceiling. I looked up and saw sothing shiny on the roof beam. It was a silver coin from old Perenneth, around the ti this house actually existed in that city. Turning it around, I saw a peculiar fingerprint on the flat face behind the coin. It wasn't a human fingerprint and it looked too slim to belong to a male. A small claw mark at the top told it was probably a cat-kin's fingerprint.
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Adding the ti, and probable suspects, I narrowed it down to a single person. A cat-kin female that visited this house back when it was part of Perenneth's cityscape ant this print belonged to Lorna.
"What did you find there?" Nenandil asked as she examined the coin.
"Lorna's Lucky Coin," I replied and showed her the fingerprint. My tail throbbed once again. "I think I'm ant to enchant this."
She giggled, excited. "What are you waiting for?"
I took the coin to my workshop at the front of the house and carefully placed the coin on the workbench. I let instinct guide . First, I sprinkled pixie dust fresh from my wings on the fingerprint, causing the glittering powder to stick to the greasy print and fill the claw mark. I tilted the coin and tapped gently, watching the excess dust pour off the coin, leaving the stuck dust firmly in place, causing the fingerprint to glimr slightly when it caught the light in the right angle.
I started a burner and filled a round flask with rmaid tears, then added ground unicorn horn. I sealed it with a stopper and let it boil for a while, turning the horn into thick glue. I added a few stabilizers and powdered sapphire. The corundum would magnify the glimring effect of the pixie dust and also increase the hardness of the enal. While it boiled, I wove a band of silk around the coin edges, guiding each thread to infiltrate the coin and form a lattice inside of it. With the enal ready, I coated the coin with it and let it dry suspended by a localized gust of WInd magic.
I took a delicate platinum chain and guided the living silk to grow out of the coin, weaving itself through the loops and wrapping around the chain across its entire length. I added small diamonds around the frontal clasp and turned the coin into a pendant. With the jewel ready to enchant, I added what I felt was best for it.
Level 0 Queen Lorna's coin of Fate
Price: Inestimable.
Materials: HIdden.
Slot: Neck.
Durability: Indestructible.
Effect: This item causes no resonance to the one ant to wear it. When worn, this coin guides you to the one you are Fated to et. If lost, you are Fated to find them again.
Lost for centuries, it made its way back to its rightful owner. May they always find each other.
It was simple yet awfully powerful. I knew most would dismiss this item as junk because it granted no nurical value. I put the necklace on and it shrunk to my own size.
Heart pounding, the man ran away from the small mountainside village in the dark of the night, heedless of the danger. Of every single tavern in this rotten world, why would SHE appear there? Was she tracking him? Was she hunting him down with her legendary stealth? Was he about to be murdered and then his soul bleached like she did to Bundeus? A monster appeared, a cross between bear and mantis with too many legs. He threw a chunk of at from his pack and kept running.
Two weeks later, he still couldn’t let his guard down. He felt stressed, nervous, tired. She was after him, he was sure of it. Anyti now, she’d murder him like the cold-blooded [Assassin] she was and he’d lose everything he invested so far. Money, power, his friends. His only hope was the System Egg. Alas, it was locked.
He wished he could go back to Wisconsin, to his stupid young adult students he could boss around. That path was closed to him. All he could do was keep running and dreading.
“Goodness, this thing is ugly!” I cringe as I shoot arrows into what could only be described as a four-ter-tall by seven-ter-long mantis that wore a bear pelt as a hooded cloak. The vacant eyelidless holes in the bear pelt displayed the multifaceted bug eyes popping out of it while the overgrown insectoid mandible dripped goo as it jutted from underneath the bear's upper jaw, with yellowed fangs as just decoration. It had no lower jaw and the pelt seeed to be wrapped around the monster as if so deranged taxidermist decided to challenge H.P. Lovecraft to a monster design horror jamboree.
Each arrow shocked the monster and wittled down his HP pool. The monster had a fear aura and was the target of a Quest at the nearby Adventurer's guild. The bounty had piled up in recent years as travelers and disgruntled Adventurers who fled the beast added to it after their encounters.
It had the regeneration of a werebear, the hardened carapace and agility of a bug.
Level 192 Dinsional Mantursine (Abomination, Insectoid, Demon-Tainted)
A demon mantis that stole a magical bear's pelt and now wears it as a second skin.
It jumped up, waving its claws around as they multiplied and split into several possibilities, each attacking on its own. The damned demon-beast-bug would then coalesce its probability field into the one that would hit you, almost always achieving a critical hit. It did the sa when it was attacked, basically forcing the attacker to re-roll their attack a few tis and use the worst result.
It had good defensive abilities. Its hard carapace combined with the bear pelt ant it soaked physical damage very well. It also had a high resistance to magic of all types and no discernible weakness. If anything, its lack of a ranged or magical attack was its true weakness. But even that was arguable. A determined group of Adventurers would need a very good tank specialized in holding aggro and several healers to keep said tank alive.
Basically, it was a world raid boss. I could tell why this monster was so dangerous. You needed an almost absolute advantage against it or you would be screwed. Even with my ridiculous evasion only survived because I regenerated more HP than it. And I had a ridiculous mitigation.
"Want so help?" The elder water fairy offered.
"Nah, I'm good," I zipped north, pushing a mighty gale-speed wind against the Mantursine and firing twice with my pixie bow. One shot missed, the other scraped its chitin, delivering its lightning charge. "This monster is perfect to train my Proficiencies."
A high-level challenge ant quick growth. So long the arrows I missed landed inside my item box range, I could retrieve them with but a thought. The Mantursine was pissed. Each ti it clawed , a jolt of primal electricity would fry its appendages but it also forced to play defensively while my HP recovered. Instead of learning to respect its betters, the creature grew angrier.
It was also capable of flight and the act of opening their wings was frightful. The back of the bear pelt would rip apart, strands of collagen refusing to part but eventually yielding as the quad-wings popped out of the slits. The first ti it beat, a shower of gore and acidic reddish-green blood would spray all around it, intensifying its fear aura and dealing mild damage to its surroundings. Even the bear pelt would hiss and boil before it regenerated a second later. The Mantursine then used its wings to boost its already ridiculous speed and chase airborne targets. Like yours truly.
We danced on the night sky of the Scorched Continent, the Mantursine illuminated by my {Lightning Elental} form. As I drew the monster up and away from the ground, I used {Weather Magic} to summon thunderclouds. Sylvis vanished along with the stars as the forest beneath us beca pitch-black. Then I let the monster work as a lightning rod. Dozens, hundreds of thunderbolts rained down on it as I spent a hundred million Energy on the spell. But without the ridiculously high [Spellcaster] multipliers of yore, all I could do was brute-force the damage through quantity instead of quality.
The Mantursine shrieked, expanding its fear aura to its maximum and causing the sleeping wildlife to flee or die outright in a few kiloters around us. Its bear pelt was burned and naked, all the fur turned to dust by the coursing electricity. The sll of burnt hairs caused to gag. Then the multiplying scythes ca, a flurry of fury as the forrly furry fiend fended its foe. , in that case.
While desperately trying to dodge and fly around the monster's body delivering electrified punches and kicks, I noticed a flap of flayed fur flopping against the fried freak. Recalling the monster's description, I found the key to defeat it.
I clung to the monster, and started to work. I never thought I'd use [Dismantler] in combat but that was what I needed to do. I started to cut and tear the pelt away from the insect's body, needing to bactrack and pull it away least it regenerated and reattached itself. {Force Tongs} ca at my bidding to keep the peeled pelt put in place as I parted the poignant protective piece off and out of the Mantursine's possession.
My attempt at reversing the taxidermy disaster proved an old point. When a monster is too dangerous to fight from without, dive under its skin and fight from within. I reached the Mantursine's neck and with a mighty pull, hastily tore the bear head hood off its hideous host. The Mantursine shrieked and showered everything with acidic blood, as it shook its body and lanted the loss of the shorn pelt. Alas, it was already in my item box.
As I pumled the scything pundit into pudding with my polaryzing fists, I kept an eye on its HP pool. Each pound from my pixie fists put an indellible dent on it, proving that my probable assumption was the pertinent path to put the beast out of its misery. We parted and I resummoned my bow. Aiming at its eyes, I shot a finishing arrow that split into a dozen probabilities and veered off-target.
The less beary Mantursine slashed , pushing its scythe through my semi-corporeal elental form and frying the blade as it went through . It did not regrow. I darted away, hailing it with hastily arrows ant to harry it and hold it back. Finally, it ticked.
You gained 7 points in Mobility
You gained 1 points in Physical Mastery
Archery [ 205 / 217 ]. Select 1 Ability.
> Piercing Arrows: Your shots ignore (P/5)% of the target's physical armor.
Spellcaster (**) [ 301 / 310 ]. Select 1 Ability.
> Wizard's Mind: Gain (P/50) Mind, Willpower, and Charisma.
Playti was over. I stowed my bow and replaced it with the [Unicorn King's Spear]. I dove at the Mantursine, clashing with it at close-quarters. My spear multiplied five-fold, only to beco sixty once the Mantursine used its probability shuffle ability. I still scored dozens of blows as each one shocked and staggered the monster. Death by a thousand jolts, I sentenced it.
The monster's carcass vanished into the item box as it was my rightful loot. Recalling Nenandil, I darted back to the Adventurer's guild to collect my fee. Inside the monster, rested the precious Core that would allow to turn this formidable enemy into my shock troop.
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