Agnisotra: Origin Tails

Now how do I kick her ass without turning this place into ash?

I decided for my [Fireball], [Staff throw] combo. The weak [Fireball] got blocked by an open umbrella which she closed and took a staff to the face. I ran at her while casting [Hattrick]. After countless revisions I had somewhat mastered using 2 extra hats.

I went for a [Fire Punch] but feinted and grabbed my staff and jumped back. She swung her umbrella and I ducked so that she knocked my hat off which caused me to teleport to another hat floating around and I cast another weak [Fireball]. She blocked my [Fireball] but didn’t notice that the other 2 floating hats had also cast a [Fireball] and torched her back

“Aagh! Where did that come from? Did I miss more vixens?”

I imbued my staff with fire and went for another [Staff throw]. She blocked the staff with her umbrella and blocked a [Fireball] another hat shot at her. The third hat was preparing something cool. I started a long cast to bait her into attacking me and teleported to another hat and hit her in her back. I love teleport bombing! Just prepare strong attacks or those with long cast times and teleport in range when they go off. There is nothing the opponent can do about this.

“Ugh, how annoying! You will never defeat me like this! Greg is mine!”

I looked over at Greg and he seemed concerned. Maybe, just maybe, he’s realizing now that this chick might be crazy.

My hat finished casting a 7 layered [Fire trap]. I collected my staff which was laying on the floor and blocked some umbrella strikes with it. Unfortunately for her I know some swordsmanship so she is not winning this exchange. This is not very Misha-like though. I teleported to another hat and lured her into the [Fire traps]. She used something similar to my [Blindside].

I didn’t cheat and use my Elgard’s eyes but because I fight similarly like this I know where she will appear. I kept aiming my blind spots to where I wanted to get her and like this, I had successfully lured her into the [Fire traps] which all went off.

Crissy directed her attention toward Greg. “Hey, do witches really fight like this?”

They are quite intelligent so there is a high likelihood that Agnis is doing a good job in imitating their fighting style. It still has a bit of an Agnis twist to it though.

I had a hat make more traps because I don’t know how Misha deal with situations like this besides blowing up the whole area. I threw my hat at the stalker which surprised her but the hat was casting [Flare] so she might want to get out of there. I teleported to a hat that was quite the distance and the [Flare] went off.

“Hey, are witches really supposed to have cast times this short?”

Stalker has a point normally the cast times of Misha are slightly longer than the other races but they are also many times more powerful. Unfortunately, I know 1 Misha who doesn’t care about that.

Well at this point you might not believe me but I’m not a witch, anyways, you might want dodge that.

The stalker dodged a weak [Firebeam] a hat sent at her which caused her to dodge into more [Fire traps]

“Wow, he... she’s ruthless, no mercy there…” Brunette said that but Crissy and her seemed to be impressed by my fighting style.

I stopped toying with the stalker and used [Heatwave] while another hat used it too and melted her umbrella. I landed a [Staff Throw] perfectly on her head between the eyes which knocked the stalker out.

Witch 1! Stalker 0!

You are full of surprises.

What do you mean? Did you expect a witch to lose to a human?

That’s not what I meant… You can [Transform] back now…

I [Transformed] back after 5 attempts.

“I see so even in an unfamiliar fighting style it’s possible to use ‘Disruption and Evasion’ as long as the basics are mastered, it doesn’t matter what situation you find yourself in.” Crissy started writing notes again.

“Oh no, Crissy is going nerd mode again.”

Maybe you should do that too midget. Crissy, Francis and Mo are the top of my class, you however… might need some tutoring from Crissy.

“Ugh! It was so easy at the start how and why did you need to make it so difficult?” The midget grabbed her head and despaired.

Someone adjusted his glasses. “That is the reason why it’s so hard to find on this continent. It’s difficulty makes it relatively undesirable. Especially if one wants to take up the role as Silver Torrent, being able to execute this reliably and swiftly is of utmost importance.”

Wait, you guys aren’t going to do anything lame like going for the Silver Torrent role right?

“Of course, we will! It would be stranger to get taught directly by the Silver Torrent himself and not be able to qualify!”

Wait, Crissy, I thought you were an Eternal Desertflower.

“That was Hayley, I had planned to take the route of Hard Light, but I’m quite liking this Silver Torrent role, I’d also like to say that I’m quite good at it.”

Well yeah, you’re the second best of the class after Mo and above Francis. I don’t know what it is with Mo but he seems to just be born for this role.

“But aren’t we getting many recruiters here tomorrow to talk about the places that have jobs for us?”

Ah I forgot about that. Apparently, the humans have a problem with many jobs being understaffed. The only company which doesn’t really have this problem is Yttroz Industries. Almost anyone wants to work for Yttroz Industries or become an adventurer. Both pay very good and are variable in what they would do there. The other jobs are boring and low paying relative to those so the companies and jobs have to hunt for employees.

So, they’re sending a fleet of people to convince and recruit students to come work for them after they graduate. I know that this is mostly futile because most have already made up their mind to become adventurers or work for the Yttroz Industries. The third popular option is working for the Adventurers Association.

They will only be able to catch those unsure about where to work after graduation. Is this continent going to be, ok? The closer I come in contact with the humans the more I realize that their society seems to be held up by a house of cards ready to collapse. Jarn kingdom, Yzs, Yttroz Industries, if one of those goes under, the whole continent suffers. If the dwarves decide to leg it, the humans will also be in deep shit. What else? If Greg, Raishin and I kick the bucket they will also be screwed sooner or later and the list goes on.

The north, where Boshi town was will be fine because slavery is still a thing there but on the south where we are now, slavery is abolished, banned and illegal. So, any big event could cause the human society to collapse. Interestingly enough most of the other races will be fine when that happens, just the humans will suffer mostly. I don’t see anything the dwarves have built up collapsing anytime soon.

Well, I’m rich so at least Greg, Raishin and I won’t suffer under this too much.

“Ugh… Greg is mine…” I knocked the stalker unconscious before she could cause more trouble.

So how are you going to address this problem Oblivious Prince?

Hey that’s not funny! And I will talk to her.

I looked at Greg full of doubt.

What? Why are making such a difficult face?

You know what? Just do that, see how it works out. Right sorry guys but it’s time for me to get my ass kicked by Crissy’s gramps. I said goodbye to the students and got my ass kicked by Teppei.

I had a 50%-win rate now. I outclassed him in speed and physical strength but he still gave me a run for my money. He was still this strong even when he wasn’t out to kill me.

“I think this is enough. I don’t think I can teach you anymore, your style is refined enough to be a serious threat now. To finetune it is something only you can do. I also want to quit while I’m still ahead.”

Selfish old man but thanks, it was very educational.

“Raishin is also doing quite well and I had heard that Gregory finishes his training in a week. Now there is one problem… you haven’t applied the details of your next exam.”

Ugh, is that really needed? Nobody likes exams.

“It is to ensure that they are qualified to finish the course and to ensure they have understood your course. It can be any format.”

And this is where he screwed up, any format eh? This might make things easier.

I will think about it now I will be using my free time cya!

It seems I have completed my training. Everything seemed to have gone so fast. I walked over the campus when I saw a familiar face so I walked over to him

Sup.

He turned around. “What are you doing here? Did you get into trouble again?”

The middle-aged man with neat black hair, glasses and a small scar on his left cheek looked at me with tired eyes.

How rude! I’m a professor here! Now what are you doing here Jerry?

“My name is Jeremiah… I wonder when you will remember and I’m here for the event tomorrow.”

Don’t you guys have more than enough employees?

“Yes, but this is just for appearances.”

Note to self: Jerry’s hobbies involve lying to students.

“Hey come on! It will look bad on us if we’re not even trying to attract students! And what professor would you even be? Of blowing stuff up?”

Hah! I’m a professor in ehh, forgot the name, something with CC, and I also do a bit of seals and barriers but I skipped out on many of those.

“You are a professor and you’re skipping out? The world must be ending… We have identified 3 more ancient structures in the last half year and only one had the warning runes. We buried the ancient structure the moment we encountered those. However…” Jerry took out his tablet and showed me 14 images of ravaged villages and destroyed property.

“Many strange creatures, probably similar to that demon you’ve fought, have been breaking free and running amok on the continent. I hate to say this but we need adventurers more than ever. I will attempt to get students into Yttroz Industries but we’re over saturated so we will create a special department which will equip competent people with our newest and best equipment. We have made an arrangement with the AA.”

Cool, and you’re telling me because?

“We thought that maybe you wanted to lead that group,”

Oh hell no! but I do know someone who might be able to do so hehe, he goes by the name of Toxic Donkey.

“Oh, you haven’t heard? He had gone missing almost half a year ago.”

I stopped. No… not again. Where was he last seen?

“Tyung, not so far from here, it’s near the Aurelia river at the seaside.”

Thank you, Jeremiah, I would love to chat but I have to find out what happened, cya!

I teleported outside the university and started running across the shore and headed toward Tyung.

This was like a bad dream.

I looked through this city. It was a small and lovely city but I couldn’t enjoy the city like I normally would.

According to some sources in the Adventurers Association (AA), Toxic Donkey and someone who matched the description of Io had encountered someone who matched the description of Arby and had a 2-day long fight on the Boulevard. The aftermath was still visible. Poison puddles everywhere. Most seemed to have been cleaned up but it was still work in progress to clean it all up. Some spots seemed to have corroded.

Toxic Donkey is a Silent Night so it would be near impossible to find him if he’s alive. Why do the few humans I care about all disappear? Are Crissy, Hayley, Old Bones and even Jeremiah also going to disappear? Is this my fault?

Thalia’s disappearance. My fault. Toxic Donkey’s disappearance, also my fault. I sat down on a couch. Am I ruining lives? In that case it’s even more important that I distance myself from humans.

I would rather that they hate me then them ending up dead in ways and places unimaginable. I tried to think of where or what Toxic Donkey would do after an encounter with Arby. I assume he had won or at least a draw. Maybe the sewers? Besides that I have no idea.

Tyung’s sewer system is absolute garbage. I would give it a D-tier. Alledra and Boshi Town scare a perfect S rank on the sewer tier list. The shittiest town known to mankind has one of the best sewer systems on the continent, that’s when you know that humanity is doomed. Well Boshi town is Ash Boshi town now so that automatically makes Alledra number one.

The sewers were messy and no traces of Io. I don’t think I will easily find traces of Toxic Donkey, but tracking down Io shouldn’t be too hard. Either she got better or they were never here. I sighed as I climbed out of the sewers. Can these people stop disappearing? It’s making my overpowered eyes look silly. I looked at Shirayuki at my hip.

You’re not going to disappear on me, right?

No response. I guess she’s not going anywhere. I had nothing to off on. Both the Silent Night and Toxic Donkey are better assassins than me because they can’t rely on cheats like I do. But I’m not completely useless either! If I can’t find any trace of them here that means they’re not here anymore. If Toxic Donkey could get away alive, I’m confident nobody can catch him. I can make the bold claim that he has the best stealth of any human on the continent, possibly the planet. He also isn’t stupid. This will be fine.

As I made plans to go back to the university, I saw a wall poster. Sichar was holding some mock tournaments to prepare any who’s interested for the big tournament in 2 years. I thought for a bit. Am I going to entertain the cliché of having a school arc and a tournament arc? Jokes aside the students can find out their skill level compared to other adventurers.

I also don’t have to think off stupid rules and do troublesome stuff because this tournament seems well planned.

I grinned. This is going to be easy and fun!

Who knows maybe Toxic Donkey will appear there too. It was quite absent after he learned that Vinny and I were mythical and legendary creatures but he does have an ego, maybe he wants to show off. Two harpies with a single fireball! I went to the AA and got some flyers for the tournament. It tried to attract attention by stating that some well-known adventurers would be there to scout talent for their parties or to just participate or watch. I don’t know any of these adventurers.

I did try to find out who the Golden Angels were, because if Healerguy is there I will have to unfortunately cancel this cool idea. After skimming through some names, I came to the realization. I have no idea what Healerguy’s adventurer’s name is… Is this why Greg keeps telling me to put in more effort in remembering names?

Ok this is not a problem; I will just go disguised. I can go as Agnès Oures and be fine. Yes! That’s a brilliant idea! Because I’m sure that the random appearance of the Silver Torrent is going to cause me problems anyways.

I returned to the university with this brilliant idea. I barged into the old fart’s office and slammed the flyer on his desk.

This is my exam!

He drew his sword and tried to cut me. I easily evaded his slash and a large cut appeared in the wall behind me.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop barging into my office!”

Hehe, what are you gonna do about it? Kill me? I parried several sword slashes with Shirayuki.

“I’m slowly starting to think that training you was a bad idea!”

Nah, maybe you wouldn’t get into trouble if I kick the bucket, because you’re old, but Crissy might have to live through the world going to shit a bit sooner than normal.

Teppei sheathed his sword. “Ugh, let me see what kind of headache exam you’ve cooked up.” He looked at the folder and confusion set in.

“What is this?”

I smiled. Exam!

“This is the mock tournament in Sichar…”

It’s perfect for an exam! They can beat up other adventurers and see how skilled or lacking they are compared to other adventurers; most will pick up adventuring anyways.

Teppei rubbed his temple. “This is a joke, right? You must have watched too much tv like the youngsters do these days.”

Look I know it’s quite cliché and this happens a lot on tv series but hear me out. All the students here are fighting in a safe educational environment. When they get released into the world, they won’t have that. You agree that our trip to the dungeon was useful right?

Teppei seemed to have trouble with my reasoning because he knows I was correct. I decided to give the final push to make him agree.

Don’t you want to see Crissy absolutely destroy every adventurer that tries to mess with her? She is the second best from my course you know.

Teppei glared at me and seemed to be biting. “On one condition, I will come too.”

Well, that was the plan, you need to take care of the troublesome procedures.

Teppei sighed. “I can’t believe I am agreeing to this. I will take some time to think about this and discuss this with Sebastian but for now you get my approval. I will notify your students in your next class about how this is going to work. Now go before I get annoyed by you and cut you down.” He chased me out of his office.

I was already happy that my brilliant plan had been approved. I made some shadow clones and sent them to Sichar to gather information and become familiar with the place.

Teppei appeared in the next class and told us about the exam. Most of the students were excited, the rest were nervous.

“These tournaments are held in 3v3, or 6v6. The exams in this university are normally held at a later date but your professor had the idea of letting you participate in this tournament as a test of your skill so you will have only 3 weeks to prepare instead of 6. Luckily for you, this is not a problem because of the practical nature of this course.”

Yeah, you guys are free to make teams yourself, I would recommend to pick a healthy combination of roles and people you know well.

“Yessir! I have a question though!” What is it Mo?

“Don’t we have 61 people in our group? How are we going to divide that by 3 or 6?”

Hmm, who wants to 1v1 me and get an instant pass if he or she does well?

Silence fell. Someone stepped forward and adjusted his glasses. “I would like to give it a shot, I’m unsure if I will be able to thrive well in a tournament setting.”

I think you will do fine but I will give you a fair chance. You will have 2 weeks to prepare for this unfortunately, is that fine?

Francis seemed like he was doing calculations in his head. “That should be no problem, do you mind if I go meditate a bit?”

Sure, the rest of the classes will be preparation for the exam

“Hey, aren’t you just being lazy? “

You bring up a good point Hayley. Yes, this is me being lazy but the fact still remains that you guys need to form groups so chop chop get to it. Make me proud and get to the point where you one-sidedly beat up anyone you face in that tournament.

Old fart stepped in. “Oh, you won’t get a relaxing run you brat. I have entered you into the tournament too for the solo’s.”

Wow not cool!

“You can’t worm your way out of this, you will be less of a headache if you’re busy.”

Hey, can you at least change the name of who you have applied?! My name will cause problems anyways!

“And what do I need to change it to?”

I [Transformed]. Nilah! Hat!

Shirayuki turned into a hat and I put her on my head.

The name is Agnès Oures.