NOVEL WEB Ch.21: Boiling Stones
When the time for lunch came, the whole class rushed the door with eyes full of hunger, I had a feeling some of them would be going for some of the foods I mentioned. Actually I think I want some sea food right now… maybe some pasta too? Hmm…
As I left for lunch, Belle followed me with his uncle who floated in a sitting position in-between us.
“Your descriptions of food could be its own magic.” Phil told me as he licked his lips. He patted his stomach as it growled at him to feed it. “I’ve met many races that magically empower their words but you have some ability if even I didn’t sense any magic use.” He said with a purr.
“I know! Now I really want some seafood! Maybe a few potatoes too!” Belle said as he jumped in the air. I guess my joy for food made him super excited to eat.
“You guys are being too kind, all I did was describe what my mother cooks up in the kitchen. If anything she’s the one working any magic….” I froze for a second, I never invited friends over mostly because the storm would make me uncomfortable but they’re not here anymore. Maybe I can…
As we sat down with our food, Phil asked Belle to get something for him, so I left alone with Phil for a moment.
“I appreciate that you’re friends with Belle.” Phil said turning to me. “He hasn’t had much luck with it before he converged and after… well people see his cute appearance and only want him to give them attention.” Phil shrugged. “I know he’s adorable and quite the sweet heart. Plus he’s super helpful and I wish I was bigger to give him all the hugs in the world….” Phil froze as he said that last part before clearing his throat with his eyes looking away. ”A-anyway, the fact you talk to him like anyone else is great. But I ask that you watch out for anyone who might be hungry for his attention and keep Belle safe from those uncaring people.” he said with blazing eyes. His eyes were literally on fire. “No one is allowed to approach My charming Belle unless I and his mother approve of them.” He said with the determination to kill a god.
“How am I supposed to do that? I can’t be around him all the time. Also… if you’re worried about other people then what if he wants a girlfriend one day?” I asked him not sure how to react to his worry?
“Oh, no you seem to not understand. I only ask this when he is in your sight and when he’s not, your mana with take care of the rest.” He said trying to explain himself to me. Wait how’s my mana going to help stop hungry people? Also is talking about guys too, I know with Belle’s looks he could probably give guys the same reaction girls give them.
Before I could talk more about this, Belle came back with red bottle with the words written on it, ‘snap-dragon’. “Here’s your juice Uncle! I didn’t know they had this brand here so it took a while to find it.” He said as he lowered his head in frustration. I was surprised how this made him feel, he didn’t fail to save the world.
“It’s fine Belle, neither of us knew it would be hard to find. Don’t beat yourself up ok?” Phil said to Belle trying to encourage him.
“Ok.” Belle said trying to look tough but looking more pouty as he puffed out his cheeks.
After that I went to P.E. to do more training with Jaque, as I was about to open the door I heard a huge explosion and the sound of something being crushed into stone. Pulling the door open I found the room to be smoking with a black ash all over the floor with a small crater in the middle.
“Jaque! Are you in here?! Don’t tell me you did some warrior sacrifice thing!” I shouted into the room as rushed in, looking around for anything. Anything but an arm or other body part, please be alright!
“Cough” came a sound from the middle of the crater. Turning to it I found something vaguely child sized, mushed into the ground. Without a second thought my hands shot into the crater as I tried to pull away the rock, my body heating up as I did so. Only when I pulled at the ground, I pulled out a huge chunk of rock with the child shape in the middle of the rock.
“Could you s-stop strengthening the earth with your mana?” came an exhausted voice. Putting the rock down, the moment I let go of it, the rock crumbled as a black thing fell to the floor. “Thank you kind Oliver.” it said.
“Jaque? You don’t look so good, should I get a nurse?” I asked, worried that Jaque was disabled or worse.
The black thing stood up before doing a full body shake, removing all the ash from its body, revealing the muscular frame of Jaque. He didn’t look all that harmed at all as he cleaned his ears. “Thank you for your concern but I have out lived blasts far worse than this messily candle.” He said pointing a thumb at the crater.
“But you were buried under a good amount of rock.” I stated flatly. I don’t think most people would survive being planted into solid rock without some damage, magic world or not.
He stared at me for a long time not realizing what I meant, his face leering at the ceiling, turning a little red. “Ah! I was in the middle of mediation, nothing more.” He said with a big smile after figuring out what I was getting at. I stared at the crater dubiously, not really believing he chose to stay in the crater to think to himself. “You see a new technique I was working on excided my expectations.” He said pausing to take a dramatic pose. “Heaven’s reflective palm!” he said using a deeper voice to pull off the cool factor.
“You’re telling me a counter made you explode? Should I be worried about you learning this?” I asked with a confused face.
“No, not at all Oliver! This is a fairly advanced move I stumbled across on my travels. I had to explore some underground dungeons.” He said in thought. “The Twin dungeons had eaten another dungeon. Not a place to walk into on a full stomach.” He said turning a little green. “Regardless! I activated the technique only to discover that mere movement released a huge eruption!” he said holding his chin like he finally understood the universe.
“Maybe I can practice some less disruptive magic?” I asked. I wasn’t too sure why he was trying to learn this and I’d rather go without blowing up my clothes. “Maybe something more basic to help me figure out how to use my mana?” I added.
“That is my intention after what happened… the other day.” He said trying not to remind me of it. “This is something I do on my own, discovering moves old and new and trying to take them a step beyond.” He finished, pointing a finger into the air. “For now we will practice mana strengthening! Just as you pulled me out as a part of the stone, what was your intention?” he asked, turning his head.
I thought to myself for a little bit, what was I thinking when I pulled him out… “That I wanted to get as much of the rock out of the way as fast as possible.” I said thinking out loud. “I was worried you were in pain so I just acted…” I added, tapping my chin.
“Good! For us monsters, mana can feel our intentions, so magic comes easily. Unlike human mages and wizards who need to tell the whole world what they want.” He said. He then picked up a rock from the floor, he stared intently at it before his hand glowed. He then slammed the rock into the floor, instead of breaking, the rock pierced the ground like a sniper round. “Try to focus on making the rocks stronger. So just picture something that is equal to your needs, for me I think of my fist turning to black iron.” He said with a serious face.
For the next hour or so, I practiced putting my mana into a rock, I tried picturing metals like steel, iron and titanium but nothing seemed to work. One rock went from frim to all wobbly like a dead flower, another grew a bump on the side while one burnt to a blackened crisp. So I tried thinking of the invincible Wav Cube the only console to survive a drop from a ten story building and still play games like nothing happened. The rock seemed to become sturdier so I tried to plant it in the ground only for it to explode into a flash of bright light. I swear the scorch marks looked like the words, ‘Thank you for playing’, was my mana playing games with me?!
This pissed me off, as I grabbed another rock, my hand started to heat up as my anger was starting to boil. I was able to do it before like it was nothing but now it’s just avoiding me like an annoying kid! I clenched my rock as my frustration built up. This is stupid! I’m super powerful and yet a small stone is my better! My mana makes people shake, my heat melts stone and my subordinates shrugged off that silly minotaur’s mana! My blood was cooking now as my mind kept screaming in irritation as more anger started to well up out of nowhere. Suddenly the rock shined like a bright light, catching my attention.
“Huh?” was all I said as I looked at the stone. It became clear like a marble but also glowed like oil lamp, it felt a little heavier too like someone switched out a five with a fifteen pound weight. The surprise of the rock made me forget about my anger and the thoughts that came with it, disappearing behind a haze.
“Interesting. You crystallized the mana in the rock to a high purity.” Jaque said as he looked at the stone. “I haven’t tried making mana ores in a long time! Your fists carry the vigor of youth!” complemented Jaque as he gave me thumbs up and a proud smile.
“That’s interesting…” I said. Maybe I could use this in the future. “But I still have to figure out how to strengthen regular rocks.” I said with determination. I wasn’t sure why but I felt I needed to get this down or else… something will happen? All I knew for sure was it was super important.
The next day I woke up to sudden sound thundering into the house, my eyes popping open instantly only to find the house was super dark… wait how did I get into the living room?
RAAAHH!
A powerful noise erupted to my left, turning my head I saw the TV was on with the image of a golden giant fighting giant monsters. Wait is it! Without further thought my vision was covered up by two hands.
“I don’t know if you remember what today is. Sooooo you’re going to have to guess. Get it correct and I’ll give you these gifts three!” said a familiar cheery voice.
“Hmmmm…” I mumbled out loud, getting a giggle in anticipation from behind me. “I think it’s marathon time with my mom.” I said out loud.
“Close but nope!” she teased. “Had you said watch Deluxe-man then you’d have won a huge reward! Please settle for these three instead.” She said happily.
She removed her hands to reveal a mannequin wearing a gold and blue colored hoodie. The main color was gold with blue markings across the chest, connecting around the shoulders and the ending as an arrow on the forearms. The hood was big enough to eat two heads, perfect for my two horns that poked out from the top of my head.
I jumped to my feet, rushing over the hoodie, touching the fabric of the hood. It was a soft cotton like material while the inside was all fuzzy like a puffball of a puppy. Wasting no time I pulled off my blue pajamas and slipped into the warm and soft hoodie. It went down to my knees and was the right amount of baggy, it even had short sleeves for my wings. It was sooo soft that I bet clouds would be jealous of it! I gave myself a hug to further enjoy the soft fabric and it felt amazing! It was like I was hugging all the sweetest puppies and kittens in the world. “Oooohhooh.” I sighed in relief.
“Don’t forget this one Oly!” called my mother from behind. Turning to her I saw she was holding up a blue stocking? Wait! “I saw how you liked that tail stocking so I might’ve made one to go with your hoodie.” She said looking at her nails. “No biggie.” She shrugged. I reached to grab it but she pulled away, giving me a smirk. She really want to do this huh? Fine then. I stretched out my tail and immediately she put on the stocking with a giggly smile.
“Please give me a twirl!” she begged after putting on the tail stocking. She was hopping in place. So I obliged doing a slow spin before ending facing her with my arms crossed into an X, posing in Deluxe-man’s Celestirum Blast. “ Oooooh!” she cheered as she pretended to hit by the blast.
“Now before we start!” she said as she rushed off down the hall, returning with a big banana Sunday, the kind you share with two or three people. “bum-a-bum! I present the deluxe Sunday, done mom’s way!” she said as she set it down on the table in front of us and handing me a spoon.
“You spoil me too much you know that.” I said with a smile.
“Yup! And no one’s going to stop this mother from showing you her love!” she said trying to sound like an anime hero.
Pressing play on the show, the theme song began to play as I looked at my mother. Our eyes met, I raised a brow and she smiled. We jumped off the couch and began to pretend battle, changing who played the role of Deluxe-Man after every few lyrics. We threw out punches and pretended to be hit. Near the end of them theme song I acted out my death as I tried reaching for the air as my mom posed with her fists on her waist and laughing.
Sitting back down as the episode began it was obviously a higher budget. OH! This was the series that looked a lot better! I haven’t seen this one! The monsters’ designs got a huge upgrade and even brought back some of the series favorites!
“I pulled some strings and snagged a copy of the complete season!” she said with a big toothy smile.
“The one with the crossover movie?!” I said barely holding back my excitement.
“The one with the crossover movie.” She said trying to play it cool and failing with style as she shook her fists with joy.
Today was going to be the best day ever!
