Author’s Corner: I swear I’m not a bear, I just like to hibernate.I thought about the offer for a few minutes, nodding my head. “Sure. I need so inco, and this works out perfectly.”The officer flinched a bit when I ntioned money, but I really did need so inco, and he had called this a job after all. However, the other voice seed to understand. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had investigated and knew about my financial situation. “Deal. But we’ll need you on call whenever a situation arises, until our own officers can handle the problems.”I nodded, understanding that. Monsters could appear in the middle of the night just as easily as during the day, so I couldn’t exactly ask for specific hours. This also ant I’d be unable to get back in the ga very easily, since I could be needed at any ti. “Alright. I take it you’ll just be calling when more slis, or other difficult monsters appear?”Again, it was the offscreen voice that spoke. “That’s right. And there’s a few you can take care of now. We managed to corral so slis at the mall on 6th Street, but we haven’t been able to kill them. Head on over and take care of the situation.”With that, the connection was cut, leaving blinking at where the hologram had once been. “Well, he was pretty rude.” Celeste spoke up from my wrist, making smile wryly.“Yeah, but it’s a bad situation. You’ve got to rember not to co out around other people. They might want to take you to study, and we wouldn’t want that.” After I said that, her digital face paled a bit and she nodded. “You can talk to through the Cybernetic eye, and I’ll respond when I can. Now… let’s go play at being a dragon.”Hearing say that made Celeste grin broadly as I walked out the front door. Although I didn’t have my adaptive armor with in the real world, which I didn’t think about until after I shifted. My body hunched over like a wolf, covered in green scales, with large bat-like wings coming out of my back. I could feel as the various spines protruded from my back and along my new tail… and as my clothes were torn to shreds during this process. Well… guess I won’t be changing back until I return.With a brief flap of my wings, I adjusted to the new flight thod and awkwardly took to the skies. It took a few monts before I was able to fly the direction I wanted, but my practice with the lovebird wings paid off. As my mana began recovering, I also added in the aura I had learned from the lesser orthrus to let breathe elental magic. For right now, the elent I aligned it to was Void, as it would do the least harm to the surroundings.New Spell Unlocked!Aspect of the Magic Breath - Nature Magic - ★☆By studying the aura of a creature with a magical breath weapon, you have discovered and replicated the secrets to releasing the power of the elents in your breath.
Mana Cost: 500
I was a bit surprised by the window suddenly appearing, but managed to correct my flight before it caused to tumble into the ground. With a bit of difficulty, I turned my body and flew off towards the mall, located just a few miles from my house. It only took about five minutes for to get to the large square building, and I could clearly see the police forming a blockade around the mall. Each of the two entrances were surrounded by concrete barricades that had been quickly erected.
As I swooped down towards the front entrance, a few of the officers looked up at in alarm and pulled out their weapons. I’m on your side, idiots! I thought to myself as Celeste drew out their trajectories, and I dodged sideways to avoid the hail of bullets while making my way into the mall by crashing through the door. Now that I was inside, I was able to determine that it was more than ‘just a few’ slis.
Everywhere I looked, the slis were covering the floor. They might have duplicated after arriving, but this was still a lot to look at. I estimated that there had to be at least a hundred slis the size of the one that I saw in the jungle planet. Well, that one was almost painfully easy to deal with, so let’s just get this over with.Taking a deep breath, I poured the magic from the small sphere of void mana in my aura into my mouth, preparing to unleash my new attack. However, what I released was not a breath of magic cancellation like I had expected. Instead, it felt as if there was an intense suction force applied to my breath.After releasing the magic, all of the slis in front of began to shiver, their bodies all sliding towards faster than they should naturally be able to move. However, the chairs and loose objects did not show any reaction. With my Aura Sight, I could see that only mana was being drawn towards , so likely only creatures made of mana like monsters would be affected in this way. Still, as I held the breath in place and the first sli was picked up off the ground just a few feet in front of , I began to worry I might be swallowing acid.Hoping that I was wrong, and I an really hoping, I let the sli finish its course and watched as it got sucked into my mouth. I prepared myself for internal burning which never ca. Instead, it was like there was a surge of mana inside of , as sli after sli flew into my mouth. After I was finally done breathing out(in?) with the void mana, I took a look at what had happened. I quickly discovered two effects from this breath weapon. The first one was that it completely refilled my mana pool, but the second was far more interesting.When I inspected my grove, I saw that it had expanded by a full four ters in radius, bringing it up to 15 ters. Though only a third of it was for the ground, that was still a massive improvent for all at once. Sadly, my affinities didn’t increase from this, but I’ll take what I can get. Turning to another group of Slis, I released a second void breath weapon. This ti, I fully appreciated how it was like my mouth had beco a black hole for magic, sucking in slis of every color. Green and yellow, black and white, even a few red ones. Eventually, they all ended up as fuel for my grove.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.This process repeated for a few more tis, before I was done with the slis in the imdiate vicinity. Making a quick run of the mall, I found a few stragglers around, and quickly took care of them. The most interesting was a sli that had appeared in the clothing store. Well, I call it a sli… but it was like its body was made of sticky threads. I’ll call it a cloth sli for now. That one didn’t help my grove expand any, but by the ti I was done clearing the mall, I had gained another six ters of radius.While I was in there, I decided to help myself to an outfit. The security cara just ‘happened’ to be on the fritz as a small dragon walked in, grabbed so clothes, and went to the changing room. After I left, I made sure to ‘fix’ it, so kind of right?When I erged from the mall, I let out a light burp, and felt as if I had eaten a full al. The officers on the other side of the barricade stared at , so with their weapons aid in my direction. “Identify yourself!” One called out, and I let out a sigh.“I’m John Hulett, your chief sent over to clean up. You can check with him if you want.” The officer blinked, but got on his radio to verify. After a few monts, he looked up at . “What about that other monster that just flew in there? Did you take care of that one too?”Again, another sigh. “That was . I was in a hurry to get here, so I decided to fly. Check with Officer Faraday, he’s seen change before. These are clean clothes, so I don’t want to ruin them by doing so right now.”Once again, they verified the information with their headquarters, and then the officer lowered his weapon, signalling the others to do the sa. “Well, thanks for the support, then. I take it you got them all?”“Well, I couldn’t check the air vents, but I got all of them I could find.” I nodded, though really I did check to see if there was any sli on the vent covers. I just didn’t want to go digging around in them. Also, wasn’t I the one doing all the work here? Since when was that simply support?Turning to the side, I walked off to head back ho. I had considered flying, but I just got these clothes. I didn’t want to ruin another set so quickly. On the way, I noticed a number of people had already been changed by the ga over the last day and a half. Although I had expected nobody to choose a non-humanoid race, since it was already public knowledge, I did see a few. For instance, shortly after leaving the mall, I saw a woman slithering down the sidewalk with the lower body of a snake. There were also plenty of elves, especially among the won, and a couple of orcs.
The strangest person I saw on the way ho looked like he belonged to the balloon-headed race of the pet shop clerk I had spoken to on Hascion. I could understand people choosing elves because they wanted to look younger, or even a naga because they have an attractive upper body, but why would anyone choose that when knowing that the choice would carry over?
Suddenly, a ssage appeared in my Cybernetic eye from Celeste. Your world has so many different species, Falenel. It’s like we’re back at X-23..I chuckled dryly, shaking my head. “Call John out here. And we were all humans once. This is a new thing that you wouldn’t have seen a couple days ago.”Wow.. And sure, John. You have a different na here?“Yeah, I chose the na Falenel on a whim, and then was unable to change it. Here, I’m just John Hulett.” Talking to Celeste wasn’t a problem here, because people were far more interested in looking at the balloon head or snake woman to notice one elf that might be talking into a headset.Wow.. I never thought I’d be able to see so many races living together, even if they were all once humans. But, you’re seriously going to go around hunting monsters for those people? They didn’t seem to appreciate it much at all.“They’re the local law enforcent, so they might see as so kind of rcenary, which wouldn’t really be wrong. And there are so perks to it, aside from just the money.”There was a line of question marks flooding my Cybernetic eye, making laugh. “I checked my grove, and it had a massive expansion after I sucked in the mana from those monsters. If I keep at this, it shouldn’t take too long for to be able to make my grove pretty big”Ahh...But mostly it’s for the money, right?“Naturally. I’ve got to be able to pay the bills, after all. And once the cops train themselves up, I can head back to the ga and work on getting that spell to transfer you over for good.”I could feel her excitent as the bracelet buzzed slightly at that. Yay! I hope they don’t take too long.“Sa. But, whenever I have downti, that gives the ti I need to train my affinities. I should be able to get everything up to 10% within a week, if I’m really lucky.”By now, I was turning the corner, and able to see my house. I could sense a disturbed flow of mana, rushing into my yard. Running forward, I got there in ti to see the mana starting to condense, a pair of cloven hooves touching the ground. This one seed far bigger and more powerful than the monster that would have spawn before, but I just grimaced, activating the Aspect of the Magic Breath again to send another void breath towards where the mana had been gathering.Like with the slis, the hooves(and the mana that had been trying to construct the rest of the monster) began flying into my mouth, disappearing into what must have been an infinite void. “I really, really like that spell.”I heard a giggle from my bracelet after I said that, and turned to head into the house. Sitting back on the couch, I pulled out an enrichnt fruit to eat while getting back to work cultivating my Void Affinity. I was determined to get to 10% in that, so that I could once again sleep in the comfort of my bed.
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