Once I was back in the ga, I called my parents. I’m not a typical whiner, but when you find out you’re no longer human, that’s sothing you tell the folks, right?
“What’s up, dear?” I heard my mom’s voice a bit more clearly over the link this ti.
“Well… I’m not really sure how to explain this… But… have you heard what’s been going on in the real world?”
“What do you an?” My dad was the one that spoke up this ti, obviously confused. Guessing they’ve spent all their ti in here, and haven’t bothered to go to the net community to hear the news.
“Extra long story incredibly short… the ga turned into a half-elf.”
“...Yes, we’ve been over this, we know what race you chose.” He still sounded a bit confused, and was clearly a bit dense if he didn’t get what I ant, or maybe I just wasn’t clear enough.
“No, I an out there. In the real world, I’m still a half-elf. Still a druid, still able to grow wings out of my back and use all of my magic… Apparently everyone that has a Seed is being turned into their ga character. Even got a call from the police to make sure I was okay.”
This ti it was my mom’s turn to chi in. “The police, dear? Why would they bother calling you?”
“Apparently Manifest Industries has gone off the radar, and they are getting reports of every tester changing. Since I was the only one in Oakland, they gave a call.”
I could hear the concern in my mom’s voice as she logged out, but since she was just going to the net community, the call didn’t drop. Fun fact, when soone in the net community is on a call with a ga that has ti dilation, the ho of that person adjusts to match the ga. “Oh, dear, it’s true.”
“What, really?” My dad was obviously surprised by this. “How is that even possible? I an, it’s just a ga, right?”
“Not anymore, it looks like.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m just hoping it ends with players getting changed and people getting magic. I an, if it’s just that then we should be able to make all the amazing things they have here in the ga. But if monsters start showing up, too…”
There was a slight gasp, I’m not sure from who, but it was my mom that spoke up next. “What are you going to do, then?”
“Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Until I know that monsters aren’t going to start appearing in my ho, I’m going to train here and get stronger. Besides, it might be cool to be able to use magic in the real world, you know? Should have seen the look on the officer’s face when I suddenly grew wings.” Unfortunately, thinking about that reminded what Jarl had said the next step in training for Xeno-Shifter would be… and since I thought about it, Yin and Yang perked up and looked at expectantly.
I could hear a chuckle coming from my dad. “Well, we’ll let you get to that, then. There might be other testers that haven’t logged out and learned about these changes, so we’ll go spread the word and see if we can’t get their attention.”
Part of was concerned about this. Essentially, they were going to play a massive scale whisper ga. You know, where you can whisper to soone that you like apples, and they pass it along in a circle, but by the ti it gets back to you it turns into sothing obscene. And that’s when you start with sothing as mundane as ‘I like apples’.
Anyways, back to the ga. I had a few hours left until it was ti to sleep, so I devoted them to increasing my Wind Affinity. Maybe after I had the basic seven affinities all at 5% I would go with the next step for Nature Magic. At least then I’d be able to save my chastity against these damned birds.
By the ti I had gotten to sleep, my Wind Affinity had only increased to 4%, though I felt like it was on the verge of a breakthrough. When I woke up, I imdiately resud training, deciding to prolong breakfast until I had gained the ability to manipulate wind. Speaking of which, I had never tried to test out my Earth Manipulation either. I’d have to at least get familiar with both of them before I was able to use them to hunt.
About two hours after I had woken up, I was finally greeted with the ssage I had been waiting for.
New Ability Unlocked!Wind Manipulation - Wind Affinity - ☆
Through focus and the appropriate use of mana, the user is able to manipulate the air around them.
Okay.. now for a bit of practice. There was sothing I had wanted to try now that I had the ability to more freely manipulate wind. Even though it was still only a half-star rank, that should be more because of a limit to the power I can exert.
Sending out a bit of mana, I attuned it to the wind like I normally would for Wind Magic or cultivating Wind Affinity. This ti, I was able to pull in much more air with far less mana than when I only had the forr skill. I was also able to control it at a greater distance, which is what I needed most. In a way, it felt in part as if my mind had rged with the wind, letting my control it as I would any other muscle, though with more difficulty.
Having confird this, I pulled out my bow and quiver from my inventory, and aid at a distant tree. Using my Wind Manipulation, I set up a thin gust going from my arrow to the tree, and fired. Like I had expected, the arrow perfectly flew along the corridor of wind, piercing into the tree. It even seed to gain speed after being fired.
I waited for a system ssage saying I had learned sothing new from that, but I received nothing of the kind. I was a bit surprised to find that such an act only took a total of 20 mana to achieve, which was about 5 per second. But, this was only really useful for hitting a stationary target, so I kept practicing.
My next ‘wind corridor’ only lasted about 75% of the distance between and the tree, but still seed to be good enough to work with. I was a few inches off in my accuracy, but still would be considered a good shot, and it was better for sniping since the target wouldn’t feel the wind on them. Next was sothing I was a bit curious about after my first two attempts. This ti, I set up a winding tunnel of wind, with the goal being the side of the tree I had just targeted.
When I fired the arrow, I watched it moving through the path I had set up, gaining a bit more speed at every curve. Unfortunately, about three turns before the target, it had picked up enough speed to shoot out of the tunnel of wind without following the rest of the way, making it miss its target.
Even though this failed, it was still quite good. It went through several turns before ending up shot out of the tunnel, which ant that I would still be able to use it. Sadly, by now my mana was being drained a fair bit by creating and shaping the paths of wind, so I’d need to recover… after one last test. And this one was going to be a doozy.
After I collected the arrows that I previously fired, I went back to my firing position, and nocked another arrow. Like before, I created a wind tunnel roughly 75% of the distance to the tree. But this ti, I also tapped into my Wind Magic, and cast Lesser Spiral Arrow. Waiting until I could feel the spiralling winds moving around the arrow, I then fired it into the corridor. There was a slight tearing sound as the two magics interacted, but the arrow nonetheless flew through the corridor at a blinding speed.
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For a little while, it looked like I had managed to overco the accuracy issue behind this spell, at least until it exited the corridor I had established. At that point, it imdiately went off course, and crashed into the side of the tree. And then kept going… having left a small hole where it impacted. It seed that the increased acceleration from the wind corridor combined with the penetrating power of the Lesser Spiral Arrow gave it a rather terrifying destructive ability. If it could be properly aid, it would be devastating…
Unfortunately, aside from extending the corridor all the way, I had no thod to further increase the accuracy of the arrow. And when I went to try to retrieve it, I found the arrow I used had been shattered on impact with a stone roughly fifty ters away. This made even more reluctant to use that tactic, though it did give the idea to make arrows with Plant Affinity if I managed to get that to 5%. Then I could simply load the arrows with poison and launch them.
This idea had wanting to practice Plant Affinity right away, but first I needed sothing to eat. Today would be my first ti hunting wolves, and the only reason I wasn’t going for rabbits was because I would have to pass by the wolves’ territory anyways to get back to them. “Celeste, which was is town?”
I had long since forgotten which direction town was in, and could only rely on my companion AI to guide . And, as requested, she appeared as a hologram above my wrist. Though, this ti she seed slightly older than her previous appearances, and a bit more developed. She was standing in a safari costu hunched over a holographic map. “Hmm, let’s see… that way!” She pointed with a wide grin, and a glowing arrow appeared above her.
Your Companion AI has developed a new Skill SoftwareCartography - Basic
Through repeated use of calculating distances and directions, your companion AI has gained the ability to chart maps based on your travels.
Well.. that’s useful. I noted how her ‘Skill Software’ didn’t have levels or experience, just the tier. But this also ant that, given enough ti and practice, Celeste would be able to develop utility skills of her own.
Taking off my shirt, I put it into my inventory and activated Aspect of the Bird. Though I wasn’t particularly adept at flying, I was able to go up to the branches of the trees. From there, I just needed to glide from one branch to another, while using Wind Manipulation under my wings to guide .
Thanks to this thod of travel, I was using a bit of mana with every jump, but also took a few seconds between jumps to recover it. By the ti I was nearing the wolves, five minutes had already passed. Yin and Yang were both happily circling around as I clutched my bow, looking down at the wolves below. Thanks to using Wind Manipulation in small amounts, I was able to prevent my scent from being carried down to them.
I didn’t need to be too worried here, since wolves can’t fly. As long as I didn’t do anything stupid like jumping off, I could pick them off one at a ti until I either ran out of arrows, or that big snake above ca in for a-- wait, what?
Looking up, I saw a rather large snake, its body as thick as my waist, wrapped around the branch above . Its eyes were passively looking at , its tongue slithering out every few seconds. Why the fuck did I not notice that before? Glancing around, even Yin and Yang had apparently fled from the imdiate area.
Think fast, think fast. Could be poisonous, but I have an antidote spell. More likely to be killed by a lethal bite or it constricting to death. Would rather neither of those happened, to be honest. Too close for to pull my bow on it, too high up for Earth Manipulation to help. Can’t hide, snakes see heat, or was it movent? Damn, I should have paid more attention in class, this is going to hurt. My mind was going at a mile a minute, while the snake just continued to stare at , as if it hadn’t noticed that I saw it. Perhaps it didn’t see as a threat? Either way, it was looking at like I was food. I was the one that was supposed to be hunting here, dammit!
I’d have tried poisoning it, but if I killed it then I was eating snake today! I didn’t want to poison my own al. If I didn’t kill it, well.. then I’d be in trouble and wouldn’t have the right to complain anyways. If I lost a level now, would I lose my class? I didn’t really want to find out. So, I very carefully put my bow and quiver back in my inventory, showing the snake that I was just a harmless winged half-elf.
Then I pulled my dagger out instead. Tarzan, you at! Coating my blade in mana, I lunged at the snake. I didn’t really expect the mana to do anything, but several gas I had played before used this as a thod of strengthening lee weapons, so I could only hope. Seeing my lunge, the snake hissed at before its jaw opened almost impossibly wide. The thing looked like it wanted to jump directly into its mouth!
Well, who am I to pass up such a tempting offer? I haven’t played it sane so far, so why start now. Using the wind on my wings to guide myself, I stopped right inside the massive mouth, planing my feet on its jaw. As it tried to snap its jaw shut with inside it, I quickly raised my dagger up to carve at its upper jaw.
I heard sothing cracking, and was fairly certain it was . Had I been thinking, I would have rembered that snakes exert a much more powerful force closing their jaws than opening it. While my dagger had managed to cut through its mouth, and even stab into its brain, I still considered myself on the losing end of that exchange.
You have walked into the jaws of death... and survived.-90 HP, Broken bones(Arms x2, Legs x1)
Fatal Blow inflicted.
You have leveled up.
Pain… it hurts. I unhesitantly began casting Alchemic heal on myself over and over, crying out as my bones were forced back into their positions before they were able to nd, and once that was done, I triumphantly crawled my way out of the snake’s mouth. Which way is the exit?
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