Ch.27: Cleaned pan But Burning Fire
Turning around I was met face to face with a familiar looking fairy with floating dark purple hair and a green and red dress. This was the fairy I met earlier today that gave me uh attention?
I could see her dress had little prints of red sunflowers on it that looked to be burning within her blazing purple glow. Her floating hair was a mess of wildly moving curled locks while her face was a mess of shadows.
“You two could’ve seriously blown not only each other up but everyone nearby! And Maeve I told you not to go crazy last week!” Raged the purple fairy. As she spoke the wind began to wildly twist while the air around her seemed to shimmer like rippling water. “Maeve I’m seriously reconsidering in letting you join in the flora’s gathering next week.” She said to Maeve with a disappointed tone.
Maeve seemed to wilt at being excluded from this gathering. “No, no, no, no! Please anything but that! I’ll be patient! I’ll bury myself in the ground if I have to!” Maeve begged while already trying to dig a hole. The purple fairy grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Maeve… if you’re going to do something then clean up this mess and apologize to everyone here.” The purple fairy said sounding really tired. She turned to me. “You too new guy, you’ll need to make up for the disaster you helped make.” She said sounding rather annoyed. “Phoebe, thanks for stopping them, for that, you get a little reward.” She said to Phoebe suddenly sounding really happy.
“There’s no need. I just didn’t want the town to be damaged again.” Phoebe said trying to turn her down. Wait did she say again?! I looked at Maeve who nervously chuckled looking away. Oh my god!
“Non-sense. If I don’t reward diligence then I might as well let people blow each other up. Besides, I need to make sure order is kept and this is an easy way to do It.” The purple fairy said to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She then held out a free hand a small vortex of light appeared before dropping a small pouch into her hand. She then placed the pouch in Phoebe’s hand. “Keep up the good work, maybe one day Maeve will follow in your lead.” She said before disappearing into her flickering glow.
After she left, both Maeve and I went around to begin apologizing for the explosion and the resulting shook wave. I spotted a knocked over pot and quickly fixed it to discover a succulent was planted in the pot, it seemed to tremble a little, so not being sure if it could talk, I apologized to it.
Maeve ran over to a grumpy looking non-glowing shorter fairy with a twisted hornet wing it sounded like she was complaining about having to get another wing from a type of bug and how her plans were now down the drain. Maeve rolled her eyes before putting her hand out and a soft light enveloped the wing making it slowly readjust itself into its original shape. The grumpy fairy instantly smiled in a really satisfied manner, I think she might’ve got something more out of this maybe.
We then spotted a pair of wiggling green legs stuck in a building and the sound of a whining murmur as the legs tried desperately to free itself from the wall. I heard a chuckle, turning to find Maeve trying to hold back a laugh, her face was even turning red, I just shook my head at her before rushing over to pull the person out of the wall. Grabbing them above the ankles or where I thought the ankles might be, I then pulled but only got them out by an inch. Maeve rushed into the building where I could hear her saying sorry to I assume the stuck person. After some pulling and pushing we managed to pull a leafy person from the wall who mumbled and grumbled low whistle noises at us before taking off in a dramatic turn.
“It was pretty funny tho.” Maeve said with a huge grin on her face. We both looked at each other for a moment.
“pfft! Hahahah!” we both broke into laughter, breaking the silent stare we shared.
“It was like a NPC glitched into the wall!” I laughed out. Maeve burst out in even more laughter at that.
“You should’ve seen it from my side! He was stuck that it looked like he had a huge gut!” she said out loud with a big smile.
“Come on guys! The sooner you finish apologizing the sooner we can begin hunting for supplies!” Called Phoebe after noticing us laughing. She then gave us a menacing glare which spooked Maeve into rushing off to apologize to more people. Phoebe sighed before approaching me. “That means you too Pinepin.” She said in a commanding voice.
“I’ll get to it then.” I replied realizing she really wanted to get these supplies. If this was important I’d rather treat it as so.
I found a stall where what appeared to be a blue tiger striped gecko was trying to reorganize their misplaced merchandise. Its skin looked like a crunchy leaf and it had large white eyes with black veins. Instead of clothes, it had fabric bands with sliver metal chains that connected to other fabric bands, it looked more like an accessory then clothes.
“What do you want?” asked the gecko in a sharp tone. It didn’t even look at me, instead continuing to sort their wares.
“I wanted to see if you needed help after that explosion I made.” I said trying to sound apologetic. I screwed up big time, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people here didn’t like me.
The gecko turned to me and bared its teeth, its pupils becoming pinholes, it looked like I really did piss this guy off. “This is great news! You don’t need to cover for Maeve though, she’s the only one to be so brazen with her power. Anyways! I would love some help clearing out some of the debris that’s blocking some of my stock.” The gecko said pointing to a pile of sticks and rocks boring a few boxes.
“Alright no problem but I really did pla-“ I said before trying to correct the gecko but…
“Right-I-o! If you finish up quick enough I’ll even consider letting Maeve access to my special wares again!” the gecko said cutting me off and opening its jaws wide enough to swallow my upper torso.
Being spooked by the gapping maw I quickly rushed over to the mess of debris and began to pile them away from the stall, it was going pretty well until I found a larger stick that was too heavy to move.
“What the?” I said confused. A stick like this shouldn’t be much of an issue to me, my new body should be able to carry way more than that. My dragon body shou- right… I’m not in my dragon body right now. I guess that body has more uses than I thought. Sighing to myself, I looked at the stick and noticed that it was slightly tilted which meant if I leveraged it then maybe I could push it off the boxes. But it still bugged me that I couldn’t just lift it up, I’m sure I could’ve done it even in my human body.
Deciding to just get it off the boxes, I pushed at the side that was in the air, it barely moved but I put more effort into it as I dug my feet into the dirt. Little by little the stick was pushed upright before falling away from the boxes. The moment it hit the floor a white box appeared in front of me floating in the air.
‘You have gained +3 to cunning’ |
‘You have gained +7 to wisdom’ |
Wait-what’s going on? I looked around to see if someone was pranking me somehow but everyone nearby seemed focused on cleaning up. Now curious, I poked the screen to see what would happen, maybe it was something like Edmond or that british voice? My finger pressed against a solid surface that felt like polished wood, curious at what might happen I dragged my finger to the right. The white box moved along with my finger like a cursor holding a page on a computer. I dragged my finger all over the place making the box zoom around me leaving after images as it moved. It was kinda satisfying to play with and wondered how people resisted the urge to play with these boxes in different anime I’ve seen.
“Well done! Thank you so much for removing that unsightly debris! I’ll let Maeve see my wares as long as she behaves.” exclaimed the gecko. His sudden loud voice spooked me as my finger dragged the box quickly downward before letting it go. The white box zoomed off like a bullet before disappearing into thin air.
“Oh, uh, you’re welcome, it was no-“ I began but the gecko opened its mouth again showing off hundreds of pointed teeth, stopping me mid-sentence. It then returned to managing its wares as if I wasn’t there anymore. Well that was really creepy, did geckos grow teeth like sharks here?
Before I could walk away another white box appeared in front of me almost slamming into my face.
‘Congrats on completing the quest, Maeve’s After Math!’ |
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‘You have gained +10 to persuasion and +2 to wisdom’ |
‘Due to facing your fears and not running away you have gained + 5 to strength’ |
What the heck! It appeared again! Reading the message I raised a brow in confusion. People can give me quests? So if no one is screwing with me, then this mini world is set up like a RPG? Hmmm… maybe there’s some way to see my stats then? Usually there’s some key word or action to bring it up, lets try thinking it first. ‘STATUS’ Nope, nothing happened. ‘MENU’ Nothing again… maybe it’s some different word? ‘CONDITION’ still nothing, what about, ‘APPEAR STAUS SCREEN’, and no white box.
“Why won’t my status open.” I mumble to myself in slight annoyance.
Right as I said those words a white screen blinked into view almost smacking me in the face again.
NAME: Pinepin | ||
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LV: 2 | ||
Stats | Exp to Next Lv: | |
Cun: 7 | str: 8 | 10,000/4 |
wis: 19 | pers: 14 | |
SP/MP: 100 | Spe: 9 | |
Status | ||
system’s status: |
Annoying and thoughtless Penalty: slower Exp/stat growth |
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That was mean but I guess not uncalled for considering what I did with Maeve. I guess whoever manages this town, probably the purple fairy feels this way with me. I guess I’ll really have to be more careful unless I get something worse than a slow stat growth.
“Hey Pinepin! We’re done here! Let’s go do some questing!” Called Maeve.
“We’re gathering materials from the plunder’s cove!” added Phoebe with an excited face.
Closing my screen, I rushed over to them wondering what they meant by this cove. “Are you saying there’s dungeons here?” I asked them as we walked out of the town and entered the more grass area that looked almost like a bamboo forest.
“Artificial ones, yeah but don’t you already know that? Unless the grand fairy asked you to test me!” Maeve said looking worried.
“He’s just new to the DRP system here at school. And I don’t think Sumire is testing you, considering she’s next to be a system lord.” Phoebe said, chuckling to herself. I guess that purple fairy is a going to be a bigshot here.
“So what should I do in this dungeon?” I asked them. I wasn’t sure if we had to fight Mors or some sort of puzzles. Actually much more different is it fighting a mor? Are then intelligent or more animalistic?
“Since you kept up with me then I think you should help by blasting them away with your magic!” Cheered Maeve, clearly excited to blow up her foes.
“Maeve, he’s new here, you know, low stats. He’ll stay in the back picking off the weaker ones and helping when he can.” Phoebe corrected Maeve who lowered her head in sadness.
“Awwww! I wanted to fight side by side with Pinepin! Vanquishing all the pirate fiends and their beady hooks.” Maeve fussed full of irritation. “I’m sorry Pinepin, I guess we can’t do any combo moves today.” She said while looking at me with wet eyes. She looked like a sad puppy who lost her bestest friend in the whole world.
“Well we can still make plans for it though and maybe even plan out a team attack too.” I suggested trying to cheer her up. Her face instantly lit up after hearing my suggestion.
“Really!” Maeve asked looking at both me and Phoebe. Phoebe and I looked at each other before we flashed Maeve a big smile as we nodded in response. “Yes! This opens up so many options for us! We might even come up with something so Over Powered that our opposition WILL get wiped away!” she cheered before glowing orange and jumping several feet into the air. She floated in the air before spinning and releasing hundreds of orange sparks above us, making the area feel exciting. I felt like I was a kid finally seeing the movie he waited forever for.
Phoebe and I watched the light show Maeve was making in the air and I couldn’t help but feel my body relax and my mind felt more calm or happy? “I wish I could see things like this all the time.” I said to myself, lost in the lights.
“But then it’ll lose it’s beauty if that happens.” Phoebe said watching Maeve’s spin in the air.
“Maybe you’re right.” I said releasing a content sigh. Watching the lights made me wished I could watch with my family, my mom would definitely take a few pictures and my brother would just watch lost in thought, he might even record it and make it into his phone’s wallpaper.
Finishing her display, Maeve slowly landed in front of us and giving a deep bow, while we clapped and cheered her on. She then skipped over to us as we continued on our way to the pond which probably looks like a lake.
“So I thinking what we could do with your magic is lead our foes into exposing their weak points and then you use your magic to bash through any defenses. Then I come in and stab them in their weakened or stunned state. After that, Phoebe comes in and attacks its opposite side when its distracted with me and fries it extra crispy!” Maeve suggested to us as a team attack.
“But what if we’re in a narrow area? And can’t maneuver around it?” Asked Phoebe. Maeve immediately raised a finger as if it was an obvious answer. “Blast through them isn’t going to work every time.” Phoebe added, predicting the answer. Maeve lowered her finger and grumbled to herself.
“Limit it’s movement maybe? We could make the floor harder to move across or drop part of the ceiling around or on it.” I suggested which Maeve excitedly nodded her head pointing to me.
“What he said.” She said agreeing with me.
“What are we going to do when that limits our movements too?” Phoebe asked, not dismissing my suggestion. She was asking what we had more to this plan.
“Well I can enforce the rocks to throw at them?” Maeve said out loud. She sounded like she had the winning answer.
“We could use debris as a shield and throw the messed up floor as a distraction?” I said trying to figure it out.
“Not bad ideas but they might work better together. Maeve strengthens the protective debris while you use the flooring to get its attention.” Phoebe said before pausing to see if we’d add anything else. I’m not as strong as I am in my dragon body and I wasn’t sure what else to do. Maeve just waited for Phoebe to continue her planning with earnest eyes. “You can add attacks with the distraction and even use the distortion to hide your incoming attack. You’d want to either cripple or blind one of its senses, like sight of hearing.” Phoebe said sounding like a teacher. She seems to know a lot…maybe she’s more experienced than I thought! Who would’ve thought Belle was good at tactics, I wonder where he picked it up from.
This made me excited to see them in action at the cove dungeon, they might be even be really good at fighting!