Agnisotra: Origin Tails

Alright guys, you might be all wondering why I’ve all gathered you here…

“It’s a trip, right?!”

“I’m so excited! I wonder where we will be going!”

“Maybe it’s the beach, he is a water user, right? Maybe we will see him in action!”

“Ooh, I like that!”

The students started to chatter. Teppei was here too and He looked a bit grumpy. Crissy walked over to him and cheered him up.

Hey guys do you want to keep talking or do you want me to tell you where we are going?!

They stopped making noise and looked at me in curiosity. I sometimes forget that they’re the same age as me. They do act a bit immature from time to time. Same goes for me I guess but I have a good excuse! I’m only 1 year old! Quite funny, if I was Teppei’s age I would still be 1 year old in 9t. I think this old fart is like 78 years old.

“Are you thinking about something rude? I will cut you down if you bring Chris in danger!”

What is it with people that seem to read my mind? I thought of rubbing garlic butter in his beard to confirm if he could read my mind or not. No reaction. It seems I’m safe.

Right, we will be going to Denga!

“What? Is that a beach?”

“Isn’t that a game?”

Hey Teppei, these guys geography suck! What’s the deal with this?

Teppei rubbed his head. “Denga is a jungle to the southwest of Aquini kingdom. It has dangerous animals and monsters. It also has various tribes of humans who have strange abilities and are demanding independence from the Aquini Kingdom.”

Teppei seemed to have went into lecture mode.

Wait it has people wanting independence from the Aquini Kingdom? They’re not cultists, right?

Teppei rubbed his temple again. “I thought you knew this… but they aren’t cultists as far as I know but we should stay clear from them.”

Ah that’s easy! Anyway, we will be visiting the pyramids, or were they temples? They’re pyramid shaped so I guess it doesn’t matter.

“But no human has ever been in an ancient structure!”

Ha! That’s where you’re wrong ehhh what was your name again?

“Layla…”

Yes! Well as far as I know two humans have been in ancient buildings! They’re right there! I pointed at Crissy and Hayley.

“Oh, shit he’s right! Crissy we’re the first humans!” Hayley got excited.

“I can’t say that I’m too excited about it… we were close to death so many times… you’re telling me we’re going back to something like that?”

The students started to crowd around them and started asking questions. Teppei stepped in to get them away from Crissy. Unfortunately, this caused them to crowd around Hayley.

“Hey, back off, give me some space!” Hayley dove out of the crowd and hid behind me. “Ooh, finally a chance to stroke your tail. So soft!”

Ugh, I’ll let you get away with it this time. Hey clowns! Did you forget that we were going on a trip? You can ask them about it later, let’s go to the teleport gate. I have arranged for a teleport. After that we’re going to play hide and seek with the border police of Aquini Kingdom and then steal… borrow a large coffin on wheels and get to the jungle! Any questions?

“Yoo dude that sounds awesome! What do you mean with hide and seek with the border police though?”

Ah good that you ask Randy! Well, they’re not so happy to let a big group of humans through the border, even after I asked nicely so we have to sneak in.

“Isn’t that illegal?”

Yes, your point is?

Someone adjusted his glasses. “What Randy means I that there will be legal consequences for entering the Aquini Kingdom.”

Well, you see Francis, I don’t care, your education is more important than their stupid rules. If they have a problem with it, I’ll gladly nuke a city or 2. Now any more questions?

“Uhm how do we hide from the border police?”

Stealth!

“Stealth?”

Stealth!

Teppei stepped forward. “Right, let me take over because Agnis tends to stop making sense at some point. I don’t agree with his methods but I’m curious about these ancient structures so I will play along. You see this guy here is full of surprises so don’t overthink it too much. Agnis and I are enough to keep all of you safe. The Sword Saint and Silver Torrent are more than enough to deal with anything.”

Besides deities.

Teppei nodded. “Yes, besides deities. Huh? Hey, why would you bring that up?”

Hmm, no reason, go on Teppei.

Teppei cleared his throat and continued.

We had almost reached the teleport gates in some hall they had in the basement. “I didn’t know this before but your Professor here almost ended up becoming a Silent Night. So, it should go smooth unless any of you are careless.”

Don’t worry, I will make it so that even they can’t mess this up!

“Hey!” I got harassed by some students.

Ok ok! I’m sorry you guys are way too responsible for that! Hey stop touching my tail!

The teleport gate got ready and we stepped in. This was my first time stepping through one. It felt as if I got sucked in and made weightless. Well, My weight is quite low so I got sucked in way faster than the rest and I arrived at the other side. I was the first one to arrive.

I recognized this as the hall where all the teleport gates are in Hiena. I waited for 10 minutes before the first student got through. Did it always take so long for people to get transported through? Is it weight related? The first student who got through was the short blonde chick that was friends with Randy. It did seem they got out in order of their weight. It took 3 minutes after shorty arrived for the rest to arrive. Teppei was last. I assume it’s because he is carrying his katana. That thing is heavy.

“Wow that was fast! How come it took so long for you guys to take so long to get here?” Shorty asked her friends.

“Dunno, it felt instant to me.”

Someone adjusted his glasses. “These Teleport gates spit you out with the speed of it depending on your weight, the lighter you are the earlier you arrive.”

Shorty looked at me. “But he was here before me.”

All the students looked at me.

Uuh, malfunction? Hey guys backoff!

Hayley grabbed me and lifted me easily.“Whoa, he is super light! He almost weighs nothing!”

Hey! Not cool Hayley let me go!

“Ok, Crissy here!” I got handed around. Everyone treated me as an attraction.

“It seems that you’re getting more and more popular with your students, how long have you been waiting for us?”

Hey, old fart can you help me out instead of just watching? And well I had to wait 13 minutes in total for your heavy ass to appear.

“I see, do you want me to cut your weight in half?” Teppei shot bloodlust at me. I easily broke free from the students, got Shirayuki out and parried his sword strike.

“Gramps! Be nice!” He complied to his granddaughters request and sheathed his sword.

Thanks Crissy.

“And you be nicer to Gramps!”

Ugh, you say that because you don’t know how he treats me during sparring, he’s a demon!

Teppei ignored me and dragged his old bones out of the room and the students and I followed. It was quite the spectacle, the Sword Saint followed by 61 students and a beast kin. We certainly drew attention in this AA.

Everyone was focusing on Teppei. It was nice for people to not pay attention to me for once. Maybe I should always hang around with someone who’s more well known than I am. Maybe that’s how I can return to being invisible. Although my passive still works, so I can walk in public and not be instantly recognized. We moved to a place that was quiet and I dropped some illusions around us.

And time for our vanishing act! I cracked my knuckles and dropped us in stealth.

“Ooh! How cool!” Most of the students acted as if they’ve never been in stealth. Which is true but that wasn’t particularly helpful.

Seriously guys, shut up, we’re in stealth… follow me.

I walked toward the edge of the city aiming for the mountain pass but my students were being idiots and tiptoeing and walking all sneakily. It made them quite slow.

Hey clowns, you see how I walk? You don’t need to do that stupid shit, your weight, smell, sound and presence are erased, the only way you can fuck this up is by being loud, attacking someone or getting hit by something hard.

They finally stopped being silly and we made it to the pass. There wasn’t any border police presence but some bandits. I swiftly assassinated them without the students noticing. It took 2 hours but we made it through with no problems. These students were lacking stamina though. Even the old fart was perfectly fine. Only a handful of students were fine.

I’m going to steal… borrow a coffin on wheels to bring you all to Denga. Old fart, make sure they are ready to depart when I return.

“Do you have a license?” I showed Teppei my adventurer’s ID.

“Not that card…” I showed him my noble ID.

“Not that one either, wait you are a noble?”

Ehh, long story, don’t worry I got this.

“Wait Gramps! Stop him! He sunk a yacht! I don’t think he knows how to drive either!”

But it was too late as I already was descending the mountain and heading toward the small city nearby. I swiftly spotted several big coffins on wheels and inspected it. It can only hold 32 people. I guess I need to steal… borrow 2 of these. I made a shadow clone and covered them in illusions and ‘borrowed’ them.

The door was locked. How boring. My magical lockpicking skills are unrivaled. A barrier stands no chance against me, what makes them think that a stupid coffin door will stop me?

I sat behind the wheel. I know in theory what to do but how does it start? That yacht had a button. I pressed all the buttons. Nothing happened. I got up and went through the big coffin on wheels to find a manual.

Nothing. I found a slot that seemed to require mana. I dumped mana in it and it started. Ha this is easy!

I drove this thing, maybe a bit sloppy to where the students were waiting. I might have knocked over some poles and other non-human objects. I haven’t hit anyone yet! These coffins were covered with illusions so it just looked like something invisible rushed past. I don’t know exactly how these things work so my illusions can only make them invisible at best.

These things are relatively slow though. I can run way faster than these things. It took a while but I arrived at where the students were waiting. I made them appear and the students approached.

“Oh, you got 2 buses!” A random student seemed excited.

Is that how these coffins on wheels are called?

Someone adjusted his glasses. “Out of curiosity, why do you refer to them as ‘Coffins on wheels’. Buses are quite safe.”

Its more dangerous than walking, running, flying or teleporting.

“Well, yes but not everyone can do those or at a prolonged period of time.”

Sounds like a skill issue to me, now hop in.

Crissy tackled me. “No not again! I’m not going through this again! Gramps you can drive right? I will drive the other bus!”

“I can drive one bus yes but you can’t drive a bus Chris…” Teppei shook his head at Crissy’s suggestion.

Crissy looked into the group pleading. “Can anyone drive a bus?”

Nobody was able to. Don’t worry, I got this.

Crissy ran at Teppei. “I’m with gramps!”

Hayley and some students followed suit.

How rude, let’s go guys to the coffin on wheels for winners!

“You do know that that sounds like we’re going to die right?”

You too Randy? Don’t you have faith in my abilities?

“I’ve never seen Christina so terrified so I’m starting to doubt.”

Christina? Oh Crissy, she’s just a bit of a scaredy-cat, let’s get in!

The coffin on wheels which was apparently called a bus filled up and the students instantly put their safety belts on. It’s good to see that they take safety seriously.

I peeked into Teppei’s bus and these lazy students didn’t take safety seriously.

Teppei rolled down a window. I fumbled and struggled to find out how to do the same but I finally managed.

“What are you doing… ahum. I don’t know the directions so I will follow you. Please… be careful.”

I know exactly where to go so don’t worry! I injected mana in the mana port and started the engine.

Let’s not waste time!

I went ahead full speed. The students were being wimps and started to grunt or scream. I was leaving Teppei in the dust. I guess I’m going too fast for his old bones. Some students prayed to Sarian gods and other gods. How rude! there are certain things you shouldn't do near a 9t and praying to gods is one of them!

It took hours to get even close to our destination. They prayers to the Sarian gods have yet to stop. It annoyed me a bit. Praying to the gods in front of a mythical beast? Do they want to get [Vaporized]?

Calm down Agnis, they don’t know that you’re a mythical beast. Nor do they know that gods suck. Nor do they know that the gods will do fuckall for random students that get scared from a simple bus ride.

I swerved to evade a monster that popped up.

“Agnis! Why did you go off the road!”

The road makes a boring detour. Going through this forest is faster.

“But this forest is infested with monsters! And there are so many obstacles!” I swerved again and everyone screamed.

Where is their sense of adventure? I ignored the wimpy students and exited the forest. The forest route saved us 30 minutes. The mountainous area came in sight and the prayers increased.

The roads on the mountains were quite dangerous. These roads are narrow and had many turns which seemed quite impossible at this speed. I tugged at the wheel to make this coffin comply to my demands and something familiar happened; the wheel broke. More students started screaming and I think some fainted. I keep forgetting that these things are made for humans and that I’m stronger than most humans. I guess no more acting normal.

I teleported to the top of the bus, connected to the air leyline currents and used [Drowning Pulse] to create a large volume of water under the bus causing it to float and then used [Waterfall]. The bus was rushing forward on a mass of water and I had way better control over this coffin like this. I froze my feet to the roof so that I wouldn’t get launched off and sped up.

Using [Waterfall] goes many times faster than this slow ass bus. The previously hard corner was super easy now because I could let the water climb up the rock wall and rush through the turn at an angle. It’s good that the students were so big on safety because the seatbelts would keep them in their chairs. The path went southwest through a mountain ridge.

The mountains to my right and a steep drop to the left. This didn’t deter me. I can create enough water to catch us in the case we fall down.

The jungle appeared in the distance. At this speed we would reach it at the end of the day. The problem is that the old fart is nowhere to be seen. I looked for him and he was already behind by 9 km. what is he doing?

I made a shadow clone and sent it to tell him to stop being so slow.

Another turn. I think this turn has a specific term. I think it was called a hairpin turn. It looks tricky. I didn’t entertain the restrictions of this hairpin turn.

I froze ramps to allow me to take this turn as wide as possible. Hairpin turns are for slowpokes!

After completing this hairpin turn, we got to another one half a minute later. What’s the point of 2 hairpin turns? The only thing it does is slow people down. We were descending in altitude though. Maybe it is to bring us down gradually. I looked at the roads ahead and it seems that was its goal. How boring. I decided that these roads were uselessly slow. I sped up more and created a ramp in front us and sped up.

More screaming students and more fainted. We got launched over the edge. It was quite a long way down so I froze wings to the side of the bus and started to use [Howling Updraft] and then [Hurricane path] to steer the bus in the air. Now that we were airborne, we could pick up even more speed and ignore the restrictions the roads put on us.

Teppei was giving my clone some bullshit about safety and speed limits. The clone just hijacked their bus and also launched it in the air and gave the bus wings. We crashed ehh landed at around 18:30 near the jungle. Teppei’s bus crashed 5 minutes later, that old fart needs to work on his landings. These coffins are so fragile.

“Are you trying to kill us?!” The bag of bones activated his magic katana and rushed at me.

I swapped places with him and he cut down several hundreds of trees.

Wow, deforestation is not cool old fart!

I used [Eternal Winter] to freeze him in his tracks. He tried to break free which I let him but I managed to make I’m slip after sending some [Frost balls] his way. He didn’t wear pants but some sort of kimono or robe so my trademark move wasn’t very effective on him.

Cool down, we arrived safely.

“Ugh, I’m too old for this shit, you almost killed me by giving me a heart attack!”

So dramatic, you wouldn’t be the Sword Saint if this could make you kick the bucket. Let’s set up camp here. I froze houses with frost magic.

“Really? Can’t you make anything warmer?” I kicked the random student into one of the houses I made.

I noticed something strange. All the students from my bus were sleeping. Lazy students. Or did they all faint? The mountain air was quite thin after all.

“Hey, this isn’t actually cold, it’s quite comfy in here!”

Thought so. Anyone who doesn’t like ice can sleep outside. Hey guys! What the fuck do you think you’re doing! Of course, you can’t stay in the houses with the chicks.

I pointed at Teppei I can mess around because this guy can’t kill me but any guy that comes close to Crissy, oof, good luck with that one!

Teppei directed his frustration at the guys who thought they could share a house with Crissy and Hayley. It made them reconsider and they behaved.

Teppei headed over to the wreckage of my bus and woke up the lazy students. He thenwent to the ice house meant for him. He would be the only one in it as nobody wants to spend the night with an ancient relic like him.

“Agnis, why does this house have a walker for the elderly?”

To accommodate yo… I ducked to evade a sword strike.

“You are doing this on purpose aren’t you! You won’t influence my temper!”

But I’ve been quite successful…

I had to evade a [Hakidashi] before he slammed the door of his house. I made sure that everyone found a house they could rest in.

“Hey Agnis, where is your house?” Hayley looked around to spot a house that wasn’t occupied while Crissy and some of her friends salvaged their belongings from the bus wreckage.

I’m going to keep watch I don’t need a house.

“Isn’t that lonely?”

No?

“How about you join our house!”

Absolutely not!

“This ice looks sturdy, what could be a danger to us while we’re inside?”

Oh, you have no idea a lot can get through that if it wanted. Luckily, they are unlikely to appear but it’s always good to be careful. Go help your friends and rest up. It’s not that late but going into the jungle when night is falling is a very bad idea and an easy way to lose students and have some die.

“Ok, and hey, that flight was quite exciting, make sure you rest up too!” Hayley waved and started to help her friends.

She got scolded by Crissy for slacking. Crissy shot me a mean look. Everyone was cozied up in their houses by 19:00. I had provided everyone with enough food so that wasn’t a problem. I left 3 shadow clones in this small ice village and I headed to the jungle. I found a good spot and sent out a wave of nature energy, sat down and waited.