NOVEL WEB Chapter 51 - Uh-Oh
Novaris. Quattur. 905. AGC.
Nodel. Waning Crescent 🌘. Day 25.
The next morning, Tesilim met his companions at Lili’s shop and set out toward the willow tree. Tesilim also took another look at the quest's description.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Adventure Goal 🔷
Name: Birds Sitting on a Tree.
Type: Extermination ⚔️ & Collection 🧺.
Rank: D.
Danger: Low 🟢.
Suggested Number: 3+.
Threat: Novarian Monster 🧿✔️.
Goal: Acquire 20 Willow Fruit. 0/20.
Reward: 50 Gold & 1 Chaos Point.
Description: An alchemist wants the cone-looking fruit of the tree known as the Birds Willow. Follow the marker location on your vision to the tree. There, you must collect the tree's fruit while fending off the fruit protectors. Once collected, bring the fruit to the proper guild personnel.
🔷
Seeing that nothing had changed, he began chatting with Alyx about learning more spells. He mainly wanted to learn more elemental spells, which seemed the most common and useful. Tesilim was also itching to throw a fireball. Alyx, however, told him he was going to teach him magic another way. The way Alyx himself learned. This was by first learning a lot of the Language of Creation so he could develop and modify his own spells on the go. Of course, Tesilim argued that-that way was too slow, but his gnome companion had a good rebuttal.
“Tesilim, with your chaotic powers seemingly bringing any possibilities to the table. It would be best if you were adaptable to your magic. You need to be able to react to things randomly happening, and the best way to do it via magic is to have deep knowledge allowing you to have spells against any situation.” The gnome spoke like a teacher, and Tesilim couldn’t argue against the logic, so he sighed and agreed.
As they traveled through the forest on yet another sunny day with a nice breeze flowing, Tesilim moved to spark another conversation with Lili.
“So, Lili, any progress on that wolf potion?”
“Yeah, it's coming along. I just got to get a few other ingredients to make sure you turn back after the transformation.”
“Yeah, I would say that is pretty important,” Tesilim commented. “Hey, so I have been wondering about body enhancement. How do I learn more about it or the sub-enhancements?” Tesilim continued.
“For now, just keep it like it is. Body enhancement takes up concentration, and the more intricate things are done at least in C Rank, just like with techniques. However, it's good you are already working on it and can do the very basic kind. We need to go for longer training sessions to teach you the sub-enhancement methods, but I want you to gain more active combat experience before then.”
“I see,” Tesilim answered as he wondered about these sub-enhancement methods but stopped when he processed the comment on techniques.
“Wait, my. I am speed; Technique is basic!?”
“Yeah. Super basic. Techniques can get super complicated, almost like casting high-level spells. You can also make domains and set rules for activation and all other sorts of things.” Lili answered happily, strolling in yet another white summer dress.
Tesilim had asked why she didn’t wear armor, and she had answered that she only did so when things would actually get serious, and some D Rank missions near the city were nothing. In a way, Tesilim understood why she did it but still felt it was a bit risky. With that conversation ending, Tesilim and his two companions became silent as they enjoyed their walk through the forest.
In their walk, the party was able to scare off most things like usual. However, a pink featherless bird that was floating instead of flying came up to them. The bird looked like a featherless vulture and began sending force blasts at them.
Lili and Alyx did nothing and stood back with shields up, motioning that it was Tesilim's problem. And apparently, the bird agreed as it only targeted him, probably feeling he was the weakest of the three.
Since it was fighting time, Tesilim threw his die, and a few seconds later, a deep blue ray gun appeared in his hand. Annoyed, Tesilim began blasting back with his ice gun, but the bird dodged or deflected the blasts. Tesilim did the same by letting the bird's attacks strike the trees as he weaved around the forest.
The fight went like that for a couple of minutes before Tesilim's patience gave out, and he put a plan into motion.
The plan was simple. It was time to modify his magic missile spell once again.
It took him a couple of minutes of hiding and shooting cover fire to remember and arrange the proper magic words, but eventually, he felt confident enough.
Finding a small clearing for a clear shot at the bird, he stood in place with his shield up, ready to take a hit, and began his chant.
“From my palm, let force take flight;
With unstoppable force, unleash your might;
Force missiles, come to me;
Strike my foes with instability.”
As he chanted, Tesilim opened the floodgates of his inner soul using a small portion of his purified mana while throwing in a decent amount of normal mana. He wanted to make at least 15 missiles.
Soon, his chant ended, but not before his shield was struck with a direct blast, draining some more of his mana. It was not like it truly mattered, and he unleashed the spell.
From his hand, light blue semi-ethereal missiles shot out and began their flight toward the bird. The bird decided to stay still as the missiles were not directed at it and were more targeted all around it, which was what Tesilim wanted. The missiles all exploded in delayed blasts, rocking the bird about a bit. Not expecting that, the bird was caught off guard, and its levitation gave out for a brief few seconds.
Then, all it saw was a bright blue beam of ice that pierced its shield and soon after struck it, freezing it completely.
Holding the frost-covered weapon in his hands, Teslim smiled. He had spent most of the guns mana, but the thing was definitely Mid D Rank, and he felt like he needed all the power he could muster.
Walking towards the spot where the bird had fallen, Tesilim found it shattered on the ground, its body broken into iced chunks. Not caring to deal with it, Tesilim and his companions walked off.
“Not bad, Tesilim. See, spell improvisation is the best.” Alyx commented, and Tesilim just nodded while also smiling at the look of respect Lili gave him.
After another hour or so of walking, they finally made it to the willow tree, which was an odd sight in the middle of the forest. The tree's leaves or vines drooped, and pine cone-looking fruit grew from its branches. On the branches were also three large birds that looked like toucans, except their beaks were red, and they were the size of dogs. The birds also had brown feathers like the pine fruit's color and stood out against the tree's green canopy.
The party stopped about 200 feet from the tree, and could see the toucans tense up as they stared at the party. As they stood there, Lili and Alyx spoke up.
“I don’t think you can take all three of those alone. They are around the same strength as the vulture.” Lili said first.
“Yeah, I agree. We should probably help you.” Alyx commented, agreeing with Lili.
However, Tesilim shut them down. “Nah, it's alright. I have a plan. Though if I pass out, I hope you guys got me.”
“Of course.” Lili answered without hesitation while Alyx questioned the plan, “What's this plan?”
“Well, I still have some chaos mana left to boost my spells and still got plenty of regular mana,” Tesilim answered with a smile.
“I see. Well, carry on then.” Alyx replied as he and Lili stepped a bit back.
The plan was simple. Tesilim had been wanting to make another magic missile spell except with lightning for speed and power. So, during the walk toward the tree after the fight with the vulture, he had asked Alyx for lightning-related words and had created a new version of the spell. His plan was to boost the spell with Chaos Mana while also infusing it with all his purified mana for that extra humph and take out the birds before they could blink.
So, he stepped forward and began his chant with his hand outstretched in front of him.
"From my hand, let lightning fly;
With thunder's roar, pierce the sky;
Lightning missiles heed my plea;
Strike my foes with electricity."
As he spoke, he unleashed all his pure mana, barely diluting it, which caused his body to burn. Of course, he also used his Chaos Mana and was notified that using it would trigger a Chaos Event. However, he ignored that and focused on his spell and the image of lightning bolts flying at impossible speeds, holding incredible power and striking the birds on the tree.
The incantation finished, and he felt the power build before it was unleashed in a thunderous roar. The trees around them rustled, and dust was sent everywhere. The birds, in turn, tried to take to the skies, but before they could be a foot off their branches, Tesilim saw a flash like that of lightning on a stormy night and was followed by squawks.
When the dust and light cleared, he saw three figures in the shadows of the willow tree, and soon after, he was hit with a woozy feeling before a notification popped up in front of him.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
Warning! Chaos Event Imminent, prepare yourself.
Rolling d20. Overridden.
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As Tesilim stood there waiting for something to happen, the edges of his vision grew dark, and he felt like he was getting shorter, but soon enough, everything went black.
Standing there watching Tesilim decimate three Mid D Ranks in one blow, Lili and Alyx just looked at each other. That was super rare, almost impossible for a normal Low D Ranker like Tesilim, no matter how much-purified mana they had. This showed the power of Tesilim’s Chaos Mana Boost, regardless of the consequences.
Still, they stood ready to see what would happen next.
Lili, seeing Tesilim begin to fall, was about to rush forward and catch him but was stopped by the wild change she saw.
Tesilim began to shrink as his gear melded into his skin as if a druid was transforming. His skin began turning purple and yellow, and he grew fur all over. The transformation continued, and brown horns started to pop from his shrinking and shifting forehead while his body continued shrinking, taking the shape of a familiar animal.
When the transformation finally finished, Tesilim had turned into a purple and yellow goat with a goatee and horns, and was laying on the ground, deep asleep.
Lili and Alyx stood there, too shocked to speak, having just watched their companion turn into a goat.
Alyx had seen lots of weird soul transformations, but this was just something else. A goat, out of all things? Just why?
Lili had lived for 300 years, but she could confidently say that she had never seen a yellow and purple goat, much less someone transform into one.