Agnisotra: Origin Tails

I woke up and uncurled. The first thing I had to dodge was a happy dog that jumped at me. The second was 2 chicks that wanted to thank me. None of the 3 seemed to want to give up so I took my loss and stopped dodging. Crissy kept thanking me, Woofus was just doing dog things and Hayley… why does she need to thank me actually?

Ugh, ok I get it you’re thankful! You can let go now, is Raishin still knocked out?

He woke up 3 hours ago but I knocked him out again just to be sure, I don’t want him to cause trouble while you’re asleep.

I see, it seems we’ve stopped sinking.

I had to wildly wag my tails because Crissy and Hayley seemed to want to assault them and I had my tails dodge them. It didn’t seem to work so I hid them.

Crissy pouted. “Aww, can’t we feel them even for a bit?”

Asking that is rude! It’s as if I would ask to stroke your butt!

“If that’s what it takes to stroke those fluffy tails you can go on ahead!” Hayley turned around and stuck out her butt. I just stared. What’s wrong with this chick?

“Hayley!”

“What?”

You sound just like Raishin. Anyways I’m hungry, let's eat. I took a buffet out of my dimensional pocket and we started to eat.

“So, Greg, explained to us what you guys are, again. So even Raishin is a mythical beast, eh? He could have fooled me.” Hayley kept eating with a glimmer of curiosity in her eyes.

Crissy was talking to Woofus and feeding him. Woofus only seemed to be interested in bread though.

I had to tell them; Hayley kept asking…

It would be nice if you stopped telling others our sensitive information...

“So, tell me more about yourself!”

I don’t understand why you’re so fascinated I’m just a regular guy besides being a 9t.

Greg almost choked on his food and coughed. Ugh, regular guy? You?!

Hey, no need to be an asshole about it! I haven’t been discovered yet so that means I fall within that can be considered human!

I don’t think that’s because you're a convincing human, they are just at a loss at what else you could be.

Oh, ok then Mr. smartass how have your 4 years been? Did they ever doubt you?

Of course not, how about you? I’m sure you’ve been accused of being an alien once or twice!

Ugh, fine you win.

Hayley's curiosity wasn't satiated yet so she kept asking questions. “So how are you different from a human?”

You’re too close Hayley and might want to put some more clothes on.

“But we’re still at the ocean, don’t you like my bikini?”

It just reminds me of something a bit uncomfortable to think about. That’s all, but if you want to continue walking around like this I won't complain, just don’t complain when that guy wakes up and starts to harass you. I pointed at Raishin who was still out cold.

“Why is he wearing that tiger hat this whole time? I’m curious how he looks, aren’t you too Haroldus?” Woofus barked and ran to Raishin, Crissy followed and took off his ‘hat’.

“Whoa, Hayley look at this, he is quite handsome!”

“Oh, too bad he is a bit too crazy, so Agnis tell me more about yourself!”

How about we start making plans to head up?

This guy is not too big on talking about himself, you might have heard of the Silver Torrent, that’s him.

Hey, stop talking about other people's lives Mr. Obsidian Prince!

“Oh my! You’re the Silver Torrent?! And we have the Obsidian Prince?! We got so lucky Crissy! Jenny won’t believe this hehe.” Hayley had a malicious smile. What is wrong with these chicks?

“So you need to be crazy to become a well-known adventurer eh? I should keep that in mind for after I graduate.” Crissy started to take notes.

Nono. He’s just special, you can be an adventurer and be normal.

Hey, I’m not special I’m ehh. Hmm, I'm not normal.

“Silver Torrent, the talk of the university! Hey, how about studying with us at Fugaku University?”

Those things are overrated and lectures are boring as hell.

How would you know, have you been to university?

I kept quiet, I can’t very well reveal that I spent over a half year living with the Misha or witches as they know them by. That’s one of the many things I haven’t told them because Raishin would get jealous and ask stupid stuff and Greg would scold me for many things I’ve done there.

I don’t need to go to a place like that, there is nothing they can teach me, do they teach you how to make a bubble like this and survive almost 3 hours in the deep sea?

“Ah, you might have a point… too bad, I would love to study with you.”

“Stop lying Hayley, you wouldn’t spend much studying if he was around.”

Right, I will just ignore this because I have no idea what you guys are talking about, I’m not following any lectures. Now let's catch some fish before we go up. I looked around but there weren’t many fish around and those that were, were extra ugly and didn’t seem tasty at all.

Hmm more ugly fish here, nothing there, oh, Greg I found an underwater cave.

This deep down? Is this a good idea? Nothing ever went well after we went into caves.

Well, it's just us and ugly fish down here what else could threaten us? Also, I think we’re way too deep I would exhaust myself before we would reach the surface, can't you like grab this darkness and drag us up?

Don’t be crazy, there is no way I could do that.

“Hmm, so we’re stuck, eh? But you will protect us right Agnis?”

“How can you be so calm Hayley! We’re on the bottom of the ocean and we can’t return!”

“Do you see these guys panic? They must have something or at least be able to find out how to get out of here, panicking won’t get us anywhere.”

Hmm, maybe I underestimated that university thing a bit, you seem to have a good head on our shoulders, about us having a solution… we don’t really have one but things always work out somehow else Raishin, Greg, and I would have kicked the bucket a long time ago.

Ugh, my head, what happened? And where is my tiger hat?!

You don’t need it, if you cause trouble again, I will knock you out without mercy.

“Ok, so what do we do now?”

Investigate that cave!

Oh, I smell food, I want some too! Raishin ate and I tried to figure out what we would find in this cave.

Oh, guys! I have good news and bad news!

That’s one of the combinations of words that I don’t like to hear from you. What is it this time? Give us the good news first.

We found a dungeon!

“And what is that? And what’s the bad news?” Hayley genuinely didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. I knew it! Uni is useless!

The bad news is that we found a dungeon.

Elaborate.

Well, normally we could breeze through this but we have 2 humans with us and the dungeon might be highly hostile to them. I don’t think leaving them behind or letting them die is a good option so this might become many times more difficult.

Hayley still seemed confused. “Hey, what is a dungeon? They don’t teach us this at uni.”

I don’t know what humans call it but it's those ancient buildings that appear from time to time and that can't be opened.

“Oh, ancient monuments, I’ve heard of those yeah. Knowledge of ancient languages is needed but those languages have gone extinct so nobody can open them, we learned that in history.” Crissy tried to sound smart. She might be smart but unfortunately that’s incorrect. It seems the human education system is failing.

And this is why uni sucks, because the language isn’t extinct, just highly endangered. I’m confident I can get in and loot the place, the treasure is mine!

You sound like a pirate.

Hayley got closer, uncomfortably close. “Ohh fascinating! That’s so cool!”

I know right!?

I can't believe that you don’t realize what she’s doing… how can you be this dense…

Hmm, what is that? Do you want to swim?

Let's go investigate that cave!

Anyways, I have no time for this stuff Hayley, come on guys let's go! I made a bubble and used [Pressure] to keep us on the ocean floor.

Yuck, there's goo everywhere.

Probably dead ugly fish watch out where you’re walking. Greg stopped Raishin from slipping and falling into goop.

“Haroldus wait!” Woofus ran forward.

Hey Woofus chill, you'll turn into a dog pancake if you step outside the barrier there is a limit to how many times, I'm going to save your ass. This seemed to work and Woofus behaved.

We went into the cave. Raishin saw an ugly fish pass by near the bubble and he wanted to poke it with his spear. Greg [Shadowbound] him and took his spear away and threw it at me.

Store this for him please, he's not allowed to use a spear as long as we’re underwater.

Are you sure you didn’t train to become an assassin? You keep finding methods to almost kill us. I made the bubble extra sturdy and we walked into the cave.

“Yuck, so many ugly creatures!”

“Stop clinging to him, Hayley! Do you want this bubble to pop?”

“It’s fine! Right?”

Ooh, guys were there look! We had been walking for about 20 minutes inside this cave but there it was. Our eyes were met with soft blue light.

“Hey, what is this?! Aren’t we supposed to be on the bottom of the ocean?!”

What is a dungeon doing down here…

Woohoo our first adventure! Raishin wanted to run towards it but I tripped him.

Hey! What gives!

Well, firstly you’re in a bubble so he just saved you, secondly…

“Wow, look white dragons!” Hayley said as she pointed at 2 creatures that for sure weren’t dragons.

More like water snakes but these surely are big yeah… This dungeon though, is massive. Not as big as the underwater city I found but still big…

“Underwater city? What?”

Never mind, long story.

“Tell me!”

Do you think that this is our ticket to the surface?

No clue, it’s worth giving a shot.

We carefully got closer and the sheer size of this dungeon started to impress us more and more as we neared closer.

What do we do with those snakes? Do we blast them?

“But we’re underwater! How are we supposed to fight underwater! Hey! Haroldus come back!”

Greg and Raishin looked at me. What? You guys didn’t also practice underwater combat?

Of course, not…

I did some swimming in the river if that counts!

“Wait? You know how to fight underwater?” Crissy and Hayley said in unison. One of the few times they seem to be in synch.

Of course!

Yeah, I have to remind you 2 that nothing makes sense with this guy, you could think of the weirdest conditions and this guy can probably fight there.

“Ooh, how about a volcano!” Does a magma pit count?

“A tornado!” Hurricane path comes close enough.

“Uhh, complete darkness!” Oh, Greg did you know that shadow behemoths are lactose intolerant? You had to see Vinny’s face when the shadow behemoth got one shot by over 1000 liters of poison hahaha!

“What?!”

See, I told you…

Right, time for these snakes to say byebye! I said as I took out a vial.

“Ooh, what’s that smell?” Crissy started to sniff around. Maybe she is taking over traits from her dog.

I aimed and shot a drop at the snake and… nothing happened.

Hey, Agnis, what was that? Don’t tell me you tried to poison a water snake from here, there is no way that would’ve worked…

Right, uhm Woofus stinks so I needed some air freshener.

“His name is Haroldus…”

Yes yes, so let's go beat up those snakes! Christina, do you want a white leather purse?

“Ehh, sure…”

Gogogo Agnis!

Meh, don’t wanna, let's sneak in.

Boo!

Do you want to make your own bubble? My bubble, my rules!

Meh fine.

“Hey, Greg, does my hair look good?”

Hey Greg stop flirting with Christina! I saw her first!

Wha? I didn’t even do anything.

Right, let's stop clowning around and move on you might also want to be quiet or else we will end up as water snake snacks.

We got closer and closer and I noticed a nest of water snake eggs nearby. I gestured to be quiet and I gestured to Greg to make sure Raishin stayed quiet. Water snakes will get extra aggressive near their nest. We just need to silently sneak in and… ‘Woof! Woof woof!’

Woofus seemed to have found something and was barking the place down. I facepalmed. The water snakes instantly reacted.

Right, what was I expecting? Greg bring them to the entrance of that dungeon; I will send a shadow clone with you to open the door I will keep these things busy.

“How did they even hear him? We’re underwater!” Crissy beckoned Woofus but the stupid dog ignored her.

Sound travels better underwater, come on let’s go, we don’t want to be near those snakes!

Crissy grabbed Greg's shirt. “Ugh, yeah I hate snakes!”

It’s not the snakes I’m afraid of, I’m afraid of what Agnis is going to throw around.

I made a shadow clone that led them to the door as I got out of the bubble and shot toward the water snakes. Unfortunately, I'm quite familiar with this environment. They seemed to focus on Woofus for some reason so I blocked their path with [Ice Mines]. They went off but the snakes took no damage. That is strange, are these frost snakes or something? I shifted stance and used [High Voltage] but they didn’t seem to take damage. I can understand that they have magic resistances but leyline resistances too? Can life stop throwing overtuned monsters at me?

I used [Waterfall] to evade a multitude of attacks. They were finally focused on me. My shadow clone had an easy time solving an obnoxious puzzle that prevented easy entry. The doors opened and my buddies, the chicks and the wet dog went inside. I spread some more [Ice Mines] and then used [Waterfall] to rush inside. I made it inside with time to spare, unfortunately one snake managed to follow me inside leaving the other behind outside. We seemed to have arrived at an enormous open space, I could see something akin to a maze further up and some caves to the side. I sped up and entered the bubble of my buddies.

So, we have a series of small problems, which you can see on your right-hand side!

“Aaah! Why is it here!” Crissy was screaming the place down.

Problem number 2, it seems to take no damage!

Hey Agnis it’s coming for us!

Problem number 3 this place is a labyrinth and my eyes are relatively useless here due to all the ancient technology!

Ok thank you Agnis for the heads up but can you do something about that approaching snake?!

“Aaah! We’re gonna be eaten!” Crissy grabbed Woofus and crouched down while looking away.

“I’m too pretty to die! Hey Agnis…”

I swapped us, bubble and all with some rubble to the side of this large space. The snake crashed its head into the ground. Jeez, why are you guys so on edge?

“Ugh, my heart.”

So ehh you two what are your combat specialties? I don’t think this snake will leave us alone if we ask it nicely, we will have to kick its ass ehh tail.

“I’m a Grump… Eternal Desertflower if I would be an adventurer! I’m aiming to dethrone the current Eternal Desertflower and make my to-be-determined adventurer name the new role name.”

Good luck with that, no offense but she’s the same age as you and already S rank, that’s a steep hill to climb, how about you miss Woofus?

“It’s Cristina! And I’m a Hard Light!”

Great so both do no damage, Raishin, you’re up and I swear if you pop our bubbles, you’re gonna fix it!

Aye sir!

I moved the bubble out of the various water magic attacks the sea snake was firing at us.

Right, guys, this is going to suck for me but I will have to make water veils for each of you, don’t expect much offensive support from me, it’s just you Raishin.

I gave everyone a water veil so they had more freedom to move in the water. The 2 chicks and Woofus would be at the back, Greg and I were in the middle and Raishin was the vanguard. Raishin used his tails as propellors so he was fine, Greg was moving clumsily around and the chicks were practically immobile underwater. I used [Water Dragon Festival] and made dragons swirl around them to protect them in case the snake did something funny. The buffs started to roll out. Is it me or are they quite weak? Hayley has a long way to go before she can catch up to Thalia, I could fight a demigod with Thalia’s buffs, but I can't with these. Raishin started chucking lightning left and right.

Normally this would be a problem but I know exactly how to handle this. The sea snake started to create nasty currents and since Greg couldn’t do anything about this I also had to use [Pressure], don’t tell me I’m the Hard Light here now, Crissy and Greg need to step up! Oh, a [Shadow wall] blocked a tail slam I only now notice that his [Shadow wall] is way bigger than I remember.

Some light barriers were cast on Raishin. Yes! that’s more like it! I will just make sure these guys don’t drown and they do the rest! Good good.

Hmm, the currents are picking up debris, hey, this is dangerous! I tried to kick the debris out of the currents to make sure to give Greg and Crissy an easier time.

Raishin didn’t seem to be putting a lot of damage on this snake. Is it invincible? Do I have to pull a cartoon stunt and go into its mouth and cut it from the inside? I drew Shirayuki and I sent a slash at the sea snake. It evaded. I didn’t expect this thing to evade, let’s put more effort in it. I used [Waterfall] and sent another slash at it.

A gash in its scales but that’s it. What Hourai’s name is this snake? It’s as tough as a dragon! Why do we always get these bullshit monsters? Physical attacks don’t work, leylines don’t work, magic doesn’t work.

Does it have an elemental weakness? Greg is using the debris to attack the snake, Earth, ineffective, Raishin is blasting it with wind and lightning, ineffective. I sent [Water blades] and some of the [Water Dragon Festival] dragons at it, ineffective. Greg’s [Shadow bolt] and Crissy’s [Light Ball] don’t do anything either although those 2 seem to have low attack power. I sent a primed Dawnlight and threw it at the snake. Nope to dark and the Dawnlight lit up the whole area but no damage. I had it with this thing it’s just immune to everything!

-Greg, do you have any ideas? This thing is immune to everything?- - I have nothing sorry, I have tried to curse it but it seems to passively shed these.- -This thing is sturdy! Why aren’t we trying fire?-

-Well that’s obvious, fire doesn’t work underwater…- -Hmm, but maybe that’s the key!-

- Not you too…- -No listen! If you would have to design a monster. Raishin watch out!- Raishin evaded a snake bite and a tail slam. I used [7th Waterfall] and pushed the snake into a wall.

– If you had to design a monster and make it as strong as possible, wouldn’t you give it a well-covered-up weakness, Greg think about it, this is like making a seal! Give a monster a fire weakness and put him under the sea where fire doesn’t work!- -Ok, you convinced me but how are you planning to use fire underwater?- -Can’t we just use that super lightblue almost invisible fire?-

- Ooh, I like that idea Raishin, can you use it?- - I can, it is a bit too reckless even for me but it’s fine to use underwater right?-

- It should be.- - What? Wait? I don’t know much about fire, please explain!- - So I was messing around with different color fires and there was this one super strong color that almost killed me and burnt the whole area down. It's super impossible to control, I just know that it can burn anything, I know because I tried to put my hand in the river but it just burnt the water… crazy stuff. Then I just stopped feeding it mana hahaha. –

- Uhm Agnis translation? - - Uh, this fire likes to burn anything that contains oxygen so in open air it's extremely dangerous. It will rip out the oxygen atoms and use them as fuel and leave behind whatever is left, mostly carbon or methane, and hydrogen if you’re unlucky, it will then instantly react with either the methane or hydrogen and cause explosions so 0/10 would recommend using it out in open air, in water it will just burn and create stupid amounts of hydrogen.-

-Right and what is it going to do to this snake?- -Probably turn it into a large volume of hydrogen gas a lot of carbon and maybe some nitrogen gas here and there.-

-As long as you guys don’t torch yourself then that’s fine.- - Uhh, Agnis, this fire, scares me I will leave you in charge. You’re our fire master.-

I had never used this fire before exactly for the reason that I just explained to Greg but it would surely do tons of damage. I swapped Raishin and Greg with some rubble and sent a shadow clone to create a magic circle to amplify fire. I gestured to Raishin to start small and I would take care of controlling the fire. The fire needs a lot of mana to start but it's relatively easy to control, underwater that is. Raishin went for it and he was acting uncharacteristically, overly cautious, I don’t blame him he could lose an arm or a life if he gets careless.

Aaand he missed, but not by much. I made my shadowclone [Flush] the snake into the fire. Its head caught fire and it was hissing loudly and started to trash. It seemed to work but there was not enough fire. I activated the magic circle and the fire blazed. Countless bubbles rose up and I caught them together and stored them into my dimensional pocket. Not often when I got a chance to store hydrogen. I will make good use of it, someday. I never tried to make a cool bomb and as an assassin, bombs are crucial! I think.

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