NOVEL WEB Chapter 1665 Cave Stories
--- Kat ---
"Does anyone have any like stories? Or things they want to chat about while we're stuck?" asked Kat as she stirred the pot. As in the literal pot for the stew. She wasn't trying to create trouble at all even if she was a touch board.
Meg shrugged, "I've always got more stories if people want to hear them… but not everyone finds them all that interesting… nor palatable,"
"I have similar issues with my own retellings. Much of my hunts are simply a matter of finding the monster and killing it with various degrees of difficulty. I am aware of bards that are able to turn simple fights into epic tails but I have never been one of them. I can only recount my hunts, and while many were engaging and enjoyable in the moment most are not so in the retelling. I believe I have already mentioned most of the more interesting ones at this point," admitted Hunter.
"Hmmm… um… even though it's not my story I suppose I could retell a few from my sisters? I can think of one involving the triplets and one for Elmony. Though um… with Elmony's powers her stories always did get a bit bloody…" mumbled Kamiko.
"Wait you're related to the Bloody Wraith!" hissed Meg.
"Oh… um… maybe? I think that's a title she has… but um… she El doesn't really brag at home and I don't really… socialise all that much. But um… it sounds right?" offered Kamiko.
"She's got blood wings and blood control powers? Uses a few different weapons but mostly that… oh what's it called… the scythe chain thing when she's getting serious?" asked Meg.
"Oh… um the official name is a Kusarigama but technically El doesn't use the standard setup. Because she can regenerate and naturally bleeds more to help fuel her abilities the chain is less of a chain and more of a series of spikes weaved together. It hurts quite a lot to wield if you're a normal person but El can just turn of her sense of pain in specific body parts," answered Kamiko.
Meg nodded, "Yeah I've heard rumours about her. Is it true she took down a rank five demon in one of the Wrath Arenas?"
"Oh… um… maybe? I think that was before I was born, but people have asked me that before. I… don't really remember to follow up on it? I might have had it confirmed at one point or another but… eh," Kamiko finished with a shrug.
Meg sighed, "Well I suppose if you don't know you don't know… but huh. Who would've thought you'd be related to such an interesting character. I considered modelling myself off of her before I decided on knitting needles… well that and the injuries were a bit much for me at the time. I wasn't afraid of a good dust up but intentionally bleeding buckets? Not my style just… too messy,"
"No I understand. I remember my Mum mentioning it took her quite a long time to get used to El's antics when she committed to the blood thing. It was in one of her speeches about how abilities don't force you to do anything, and they can be ignored if you really want… but ultimately that you'll never be given anything you won't use…" said Kamiko.
Meg nodded, "Right well now we've confirmed who she is do tell the story! I'm invested now!"
Kamiko shivered a bit. "Oh… um… alright then. I was going to tell the one about my triplet sisters because it seemed funnier but I guess if you want to hear about El that's fine too. Um… so it all started when she got called in for a contract. Specifically this one was for a combination escort and hunting mission. It's why I thought you might be interested.
"Um… so the reason why it was a combination was because she was being hired by one of those cultivation sects. The heir to the school needed to pass a certain challenge by going out and killing a dragon. They were the like… um… it was some silly name like 'The Ancient Heavenly Dragon-slayers' or no… it was something else but it was sort of similar.
"Anyway we'll just call them the Anti-Dragon sect because it's easier. See these guys had a thing where to become an inner disciple you needed to kill a dragon, no exceptions. Which might sound hard… but these guys totally counted like… drakes and wyverns and stuff. So it wasn't too bad, and the heir could probably do that…
"But there was two major issues. The first was that… um… as I said earlier they were an old sect so all the dragons nearby had been rendered very dead or moved away because they didn't want to end up dead like the rest of them. Now, that combined with the fact that the nearest place with dragons? Had some like… rather powerful drakes and one that was Rank 5 itself.
"It had been making a nuisance of itself because whenever one of the younger drakes got in trouble it would show up and cause issues. The sect thought it might be a proper dragon at one point, so they got all geared up for a hunt… but nope still just a drake. So they decided, who better to prove their worth then making the heir go hunt it. At least, that was the elder's opinions and the patriarch went along with it. He was kind of weak compared to where he should be, and his father or grandpa or whoever was in closed door cultivation and not running the sect anymore so he couldn't run to HIM.
"So anyway… they set off and things go south immediately because it turns out the heir… his name was Qíbīng by the way. So immediately the heir wasn't all that interested. They wanted to go off and see the world and explore… but well that wasn't the contract. Apparently he was pretty alright for a cultivator though.
"So they bicker a fair bit. El's pretty clear on what her contract is. Go there, let Qíbīng kill a decently strong drake and then take out the big one herself, perhaps with his help if they can swing it.
"Takes a bit of travelling and a few different adventures. You know the way it is. Attacked on the road by bandit cultivators, stumble onto a town in the middle of an uprising. Twice surprisingly. Stuff like that. All the while El is feeling worse and worse about this because Qíbīng really does seem like a chill helpful dude. Overly prideful, but that's quite standard for cultivators.
"Still they got the drakes… he kills one… and no big drake shows up. Weird. El isn't really sure what to do. Qíbīng is bummed because he went through with it, and it comes out that he actually really likes dragons. Wanted to have one as his Spirit Beast when he was younger. So it really hurt him to do…
"But no big drake. So El isn't sure what to do, The people back at the sect were certain it would. Everyone in the nearby area says it's weird the drake didn't show up. So what's more important? This was a double contract. Protect Qíbīng and kill the drakes. Ostensibly the same mission but apparently not.
"So El has to reach a decision. Does she take Qíbīng back to the sect, explain what happened and then head out on her own? Or does she look for the drake. Qíbīng insists on staying, El tries to send him home. In the end he wins the argument and they both head out.
Enjoy new adventures from empire
"It takes a few days of searching but the find the drake. It's in the middle of transforming and El goes to kill it… only for Qíbīng to stop her. They argue back and forth, and end up in a real fight. El has to go easy on him because of the whole 'keeping him alive thing' but he does not hold back. They fight a bunch and eventually El smacks him into the drake, causing him to bleed over the thing…
"And completely disrupting its transformation. Instead of transforming into whatever it was meant to be, the drake instead binds itself to Qíbīng and upgrades itself with his affinity. Qíbīng was an ice user, and both he and the dragon became frost-fire cultivators. It's also capable of speech now. So technically a dragon…
"El wonders what she's going to do. She's worried because killing the dragon would now kill Qíbīng, or severely injure him… when Qíbīng asks for the wording,"
"Oh I bet I know what the ending is!" jumped in Meg.
Kamiko startled at the interruption. "Oh… um… yeah I'm sure it's not hard to figure out… if you want to try go ahead,"
"I bet it was something like 'Defeat the strongest drake in X area' and now that it was technically a dragon your sister just needed to go off and find another strong one and call it good right?"
Kamiko nodded, "Yup pretty much," Meg smiled like she'd just one a prize for some reason. Kat of course just kept stirring the stew.