Agnisotra: Origin Tails

I got a special request to participate in an escort. They needed me, a water user, to bring a merchant ship safely to one of the islands near Hurricane Path and back.

Some of the islands still needed some assistance with supplies and I felt guilty so I decided to take up the mission. It would take 4 days to get there by ship and 3 to get back. Courtesy of the new wind patterns that I may or may not be somewhat responsible for. This can’t possibly be all my fault, right?

Anyways, I tugged on my [Dimensional Anchor] and teleported to Gavin one of the biggest port cities in Zanyr. I’m surprised it didn’t get named Zanyr Port or something but maybe another city was unfortunate enough to get that name. The mission would start in 2 days but I wanted to stock up some more on fish and visit the old fisherman.

It seemed they were out fishing so I had a lot of time to kill. I made sure to stock up reasonably without drawing attention. I will get the hang of being a human someday.

The city was full of life and seagulls and energy. The salty sea breeze reminded me of the time I trained in the ocean. I wonder if the nymphs got their shit together, probably not.

I wandered around while deep in thought. An object flew at me. An attack?! I dodged and looked for the attacker. It seems that I have wandered to the beach and what I just dodged was a beachball. I guess no attackers.

“Hey, can you throw the ball back at us?” I threw the ball to the group of young adults that were playing some ball game. I found a spot that didn’t have as much sand and looked at the humans play on the beach.

How can they enjoy a place that has this much sand? I looked at the sand in front of me. Maybe I should accept that sand is here to stay and learn how to live near its presence.

I got an idea. I got a spoon out of my dimensional pocket and started digging. I had seen this on tv, people like to create sandcastles. But they always collapse because they don’t have a good foundation! I learned from the Yttroz Industries that buildings need a good foundation.

After digging for 30 minutes, I started to see the flaw of my idea. Creating a foundation out of sand to then cover it with sand… isn’t this pointless? Building is harder than I thought.

I had already dug a hole, might as well make a sand castle that has a dungeon or something. I spent 2 hours building the sand castle. I cheated a bit and used sand and water leyline to hollow out rooms and strengthen some parts. It was built over a hole so I had to be very careful. I didn’t notice that people started to gather around my castle.

Huh an invasion of giants? Can you guys create a more realistic setting?

“We are just here to watch; it looks very good.” I kept building my sandcastle when I noticed a threat. The ocean was creeping up to my castle.

First giants and now a flood, which idiot decided to build a castle on such a problematic spot! Oh, that would be me…

I tried to create canals and trenches to divert the sea but the sea was merciless. I held out for 30 minutes before it mercilessly turned my castle into a pile of wet sand.

I knew the ocean was brutal but this was uncalled for… At least I now know that water beats sand which is something I can live with.

It wasn’t much but I got a bit of appreciation for sand. Sand is ok, just not when it gets everywhere like it does now. I tried to get all the sand off me while the bystanders were showing their support for my destroyed sand castle.

I couldn’t get all the sand off so I jumped into the ocean to wash it all off. The ocean wasn’t as merciless now. At least, I think. I am quite familiar with it now, there would be a low chance for me to drown even if I mess around.

The more I think about this mission, the more I concluded that I would be perfect for this mission. There were warnings about pirates making the area around the islands unsafe and the displacement of sea monsters.

Who knew that changing the path of hurricanes a bit could cause all of this. Note to self: playing god has adverse effects. I discovered this and I’m only 19 years old, meanwhile those actual gods had millennia to figure this out but still didn’t get the message.

I sighed. I got up and walked back to shore over the water’s surface. It caught some attention but it wasn’t super strange, the water users of any country are mostly concentrated around rivers and oceans.

Tomorrow would be a short briefing about the mission and I would meet other adventurers that would be taking up this mission. I’m not looking forward to this. I don’t deal too well with people.

Everyone here is for their own agenda and using ‘helping out’ as a disguise. Some will probably do fuck all, one might be in cahoots with the pirates and betray us, another might be in it for the money, maybe an adventure hungry junkie like me and the list goes on. I’ve embraced the fact that everything I touch will turn into chaos so I might as well prepare myself. I sat down in my room that I’ve rented for the night.

Do I approach this as a human? People might die if I do. If we get hit by 1 pirate ship, we might be fine but if we get hit by multiple…

Pretending to be a normal human will get us all killed. So, the next step is acting like the competent adventurer Silver Torrent. But I don’t want my name to become even bigger… This all would be easy if I wanted to become famous.

Getting my tails out and all would be a no-go unless I somehow manage to piss off the god of the sea, although I will probably get brutally killed regardless so that might not even matter.

I decided to just be as competent as I could get away with. I can’t have them doubt that I’m a human. I will become that one adventurer that hardly talks but gets shit done when the need arises.

With that sorted, I started to brush my tails and prepare to sleep. I had to break my normal sleep schedule a lot since I decided to go back to taking missions and not sleeping before or during them might exhaust me faster or it might be suspicious to other adventurers.

The briefing was short and unimpressive. They did however stress that the ship we were protecting was full of food and valuables meant for the islanders. Any pirate would be a fool to ignore this ship. Any hungry sea monster would be a fool to ignore this ship.

I asked them if they have ever considered air travel and they looked at me as if I’m crazy. They are not wrong but I don’t think the technology is there yet to have air pirates and flying monsters are a thing but less common.

All they need to do is call the Yttroz Industries and I’m sure they can figure something out. I guess that that is unrealistic so a ship it is. It just reminded me how weird the state of technology is on this continent. Same as that stupid city that looked down on magic. Maybe it is hard to balance technology with magic. It does sound like a nightmare. I sure am glad that dealing with this problem isn’t my responsibility.

Only 4 adventurers would be participating on this dangerous trip, excluding me. One looks like he’s doing it for the money and would probably be in cahoots with the pirates, I can check that one off. One seems like the stereotypical ‘I want to be a hero’ type. I guess there is at least someone who really wants to help.

There is a Golden Angel that seems like she got dragged into this. She didn’t seem unwilling but she seemed uncomfortable with this mission and the last guy…

“Hey! We meet again! I had the feeling that I would meet you on this wild mission!” There is the adventure junkie, Wild Fang.

It has been a while, how is the water magic going?

“It is trickier than I thought, a lot of mana control is needed, I’m a bit too wild for that so I have the rough basics. I can make my own surfboard now though!” He gathered the moisture in the air and created a surfboard out of ice.

It was just a slab of ice. It wasn’t graceful but it should have no issues acting as a surfboard.

Don’t tell me you put all your effort in mastering water magic just to create a surfboard…

“Oh, you could tell?! It is wildly useless on land so I’ve been taking more missions that are around the water!” Of course, let’s hope you won’t have to use it.

“I can smell a wild adventure! I’m sure I will have to use it!” I unfortunately agree with you.

Wild Fang and I left the briefing before it finished because we got bored and nothing of interest was being said.

So, what brings you this far from the Aquini Kingdom?

“This mission had been open for a while and I wildly ran to here to get a chance to participate. It looked wild and important enough to grab your attention.” I left that big of an impression on you, eh?

“Haha! You have no idea! I told my friends about that wild adventure but they didn’t believe me! Only after that video got released did they believe my wild story! Most of my missions are easy and boring so that was a breath of wild air!”

Wild Fang told me that his kin told him to be very careful because he can’t hide his ears and tail well so that he might get into trouble with the humans especially this far west.

I agree with the assessment of his kin. People were looking at him. Some out of curiosity, some seem to be used to it or don’t care but a lot out of disgust. Wild Fang didn’t seem to notice or care though. I might have to add an asterisk to my mission. I will have to make sure he doesn’t get assassinated before the mission starts or during the mission.

I know that you’re here for exactly this but just be warned, weird stuff happens around me.

“Hahaha! Perfect! I’m itching for an extremely wild adventure! Look!” What’s that?

“No clue, but a friend told me that this floating crystal can record my wild adventures. They will have to believe me if I show them the video!” Right, so I can’t do crazy stuff. Thanks for the warning.

“Noo! You need to be free!” He put his hand on my shoulder and pointed at the ocean. We were at a vantage point looking out of the ocean.

“Look at that! The ocean holds so many wild adventures but moreover! Anything goes! It is the perfect place to run wild and free!” That is exactly what pirates are about.

“I don’t necessarily disagree with pirates but disturbing other’s freedom is a problem, I will show them no mercy.”

I agreed with Wild Fang. The pirates can do whatever they want but if they mess with me, they have a problem. I will be fine if the ship sinks, they will not.

I split off from Wild Fang because he wanted to try out the local booze and I returned to my room to simulate the best ways to make boats sink. Just punching a hole in the hull is lame. Can I [Surface Flip] a whole ship?

Hmm that seems very effective. How about making a [Dragon] and disguise it as a sea snake and make it crush and swallow their ship. I grinned maliciously as I got more and more ideas on how to give these pirates hell.

The day of pirate sinking… eh ship escort came. I was ready, Wild Fang was ready, the shady looking adventurer looked like he was up to no good, the Golden Angel looked sleep deprived and the wannabe hero was shaking in his boots. Just go home if you don’t want to… What people will do to be a hero. Heroes are overrated.

There is something like the 7 legendary heroes on this continent. Apparently, everyone knows who they are. I don’t but apparently the name Beatrice Manarune, that I keep hearing, is one of them. Is it because we’re from Hourai? Whenever the title of that specific hero gets passed on everyone will know. Beatrice is a witch so it will probably take a very long time before someone takes that. Maybe Shelly will someday. The heroes are strong yes, but that’s all, they aren’t necessarily heroic it’s more like a title.

Humans just like the word ‘Hero’ and that’s why. I think Beatrice has burnt down some human villages for whatever reason and is still looked up as a hero. At least the race doesn’t seem to matter if you’re a hero. Maybe I should try and make Wild Fang a hero. I have no idea how to though… I don’t know who the other 6 heroes are but none of them are beast kin. If that was the case beast kin would have been looked on more favorably.

I’m guessing that most of them are human with the random witch or elf mixed in. Those 2 are so far the only 2 races I know that are looked upon favorably. Maybe throw in some dwarves too but they’re more builders and are a great boon to society. Without dwarves there would be no Yttroz Industries and this continent without them would be quite… primitive, I guess.

We got to the ship. It was huge. I immediately saw something that’s concerning.

Excuse me, I’m not that knowledgeable about ships but can this ship outrun ehh outfloat? A pirate ship?

A salor turned around. “Hahaha of course not!”

Can it safely pass through stormy weather?

“Unlikely! But the weather report seems favorable for today and tomorrow!” But the trip takes 4 days to and 3 days back…

“We can’t predict the weather but you will be fine!”

This ship… does it have sea monster deterrent or can it survive a sea monster attack?

“Don’t be silly! Of course not!”

Then why are you putting us on this floating treasure chest?! I pointed at our ship.

It was big and pretty and that was it. I had more confidence in the old man’s fisher's boat in being storm worthy than this floating treasure chest. It was screaming ‘Pirates! Over here! Here is the loot!’ and it seems nobody cares. Can this ship even turn?

“That is why we have requested for water users!” My old friend 'headache' returned.

The more I think it the more it sounds as if this mission was planned by someone who knows nothing about the ocean. I secretly made a shadow clone and sent him out to investigate.

It didn’t take long for him to discover that this mission was funded by some noble that wanted his name to be associated with benevolence. This floating treasure chest could be easily be recognized as his property. All this was seemingly to gain respect form the public for some reason.

I rubbed my temple. Is there any chance that there is a more suitable ship available?

“I’m sorry, this ship was custom made to carry the enormous load it has to carry, no other ship will be able to stay afloat with this cargo.” Then send multiple ships!

“I’m sorry but the client has set a specific deadline. This mission has to be completed by the end of this month which is in 9 days.”

So this is why the mission was open for so long and nobody had seemingly taken it, a look at this ship would make anyone want to get out…

“Anyways! We’re counting on you guys!” He wanted to smack my back but I evaded.

This feels more like a targeted assassination than a mission now… it is unlikely we will survive on this… floating coffin. My words got ignored and we were all herded on board.

I can’t believe this… are we actually doing this?

“Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! Woo! Let’s show those pirates how wild we are!” Wild Fang seemed to be the only one excited. Even the ship’s crew seemed to be uncomfortable.

“Good morning, my name is Captain Morgan, I will be in charge of this… vessel, for lack of better term. Does anyone by any chance have experience steering an object like this over the ocean?” He looked around.

“What do you mean!? Aren’t you the captain? Shouldn’t you know?!” Some merchants that acted as passengers and the sneaky adventurer said and started to complain.

“I know this looks bad but… this ship has no rudder… I have never been on a vessel like this…” I felt for the captain, I spotted nothing that could help this floating coffin navigate. It had sails at least.

I sighed; I was about to volunteer when the Golden Angel said that she could blow wind in the sails. The captain’s face brightened up and he ordered the crew to get ready.

“Hey Silver Torrent, aren’t you going to help out? I’m sure you could do something wild about this.” I will just wait and see, moving this ship won’t be easy and they can’t expect me to do this for 4 days straight I will collapse from exhaustion before the first day passes.

“Hmm, that’s true, I guess our wild adventure has a bad start.”

The Golden Angel started to blow wind in the sails but the ship was so heavy that nothing budged. She tried for 10 minutes before she collapsed to the floor of mana exhaustion.

I swear, humans are so selfish from time to time, this floating coffin was a bad idea.

I was about to connect to the air leyline currents to move the ship forward when I got a better idea. I could work my ass off to get this ship moving but there was another alternative. I remembered the time back in Boshi town when I fought with Bunai. What if I can do the same with this ship. I can use primal runes and language now. Most of the functional parts of this ship was still made out of wood. I would use the same format like ' Advance! Turn left 40 degrees!' Something like that. I will need to draw the appropriate runes though.

Right, move over! I drew a large circle on the centre of the deck.

See this circle? Nobody come in here. I need this to steer the ship. Only the navigator, Wild Fang and the captain are allowed, now Captain and navigator come here, which direction do we need to go? Be specific please, preferably in how many degrees we need to turn. I got ready to draw primal runes as the captain and navigator approached.

“My name is Jeffrey, I will be our navigator, we need to head that way, which translates to 67 to the left for you.” Thank you, Jeff, that’s very helpful, keep me updated if we need to readjust our course, please not too complicated because drawing these runes is a pain in the ass. I started to draw the runes for 'Advance! Turn left 67 degrees!'

Agredi! Verna vastro Sestihdescasapta amsuu!

The ship moved forward and turned and headed in the right direction. I almost messed up the pronunciation for 67 just as it’s easy to mix up the numbers and get 76 it’s the same with this language.

Saptadescasestih would be 76. It doesn’t seem like numbers were around back then so I would have to do with this. I hope I won’t have to turn this ship for more than a 100 degrees…

The people seemed to be amazed that this floating coffin was moving. I drew another rune. This ship was going slow like a turtle.

Acla!

Finally, an acceptable speed. I made a chair out of ice and sat down in the circle while the ship accelerated and kept up a decent speed. Nobody is supposed to bother me in this circle besides Wild Fang, the captain and the navigator. I enjoyed the 0-effort trip.

Jeff requested several degrees of corrections but these were mostly single digits of degrees.

The weather looked nice and nothing had happened for the last 5 hours. Wild Fang seemed to be the only one who had problems with this. He came over into the circle.

“Hey, when do you think our wild adventure will start?” Don’t worry, we still have a good 3.5 days where shit can go wrong, rest up or prepare for when that moment happens, because it will happen.

Some people seemed to have an issue that I claimed a spot on deck for myself. I sold them the lie that these runes needed to be big and that if a part of the rune overlaps with someone, they will get flung off the ship.

I don’t know what happens in this case but better not risk it. The runes could be smaller but I won’t have space to myself if I tell them that. It was quite warm but it wasn’t noticeable because of the sea breeze. I felt like jumping in the ocean and see if I can find some orcas but I had to refrain from doing that.

Not sure how well these people would handle it if I suddenly jump overboard. We enjoyed our first day of relaxing sea breeze and I got brought dinner to my circle.

I had allowed some chefs to enter the circle. Of course, more seafood. I enjoyed the dinner. Wild Fang did enjoy it too. I wonder if there are any carnivorous beast kin that don’t enjoy seafood.

Greg and Raishin love it too.

The day ended without any incident. I had a problem though, I was to share a room, is it called a cabin on a boat? Anyways I was supposed to share them with like 5 other people but my circle was empty. So, I decided to stay in my circle.

I don’t need to sleep. Jeff approached me and asked me to alter the course a bit. Jeff went to sleep after I did so. Only very few crew members were left on the deck. The sky was dark but clear.

I enjoyed the beautiful night sky when I sensed something under the surface. Nothing threatening yet but it seems some sea monsters have smelled this Floating Snackbox. Let’s hope they stay away.