Novaris: Adventure in the Shattered Fang Continent

Novaris. Sax (June). 905. AGC.

Nodel. Waxing Gibbous 🌔. Day 11.

The day after their little sparring session, they were meant to meet up at the adventuring guild. Arelion had spent the previous night after their small party conversing with his sister. They both knew that the full moon was approaching and once it came by, their true identity would be hard to hide. Not that they would tell anyone other than Alyx or Rose about their truth, but at the very least, they would have to come up with a very convincing lie.

A lie that wouldn't be hard to come up with if they were being honest since innate magic was capable of all sorts of things. The main reason why they talked was to see whether they wanted to keep going with the party or break away. In the end, in a rather hasty decision, they had decided to just come up with some excuse or another for the change in appearance and personality. Even Arelion had enjoyed their little get-together and sparring session. There were also little downsides to traveling with the party, at least for the moment. One of the only big ones was the fact that they would still have to hide their ability to absorb mana from entities. However, the upside would completely outweigh the downsides, as having a party to rely on while progressing in power was something that couldn't be matched.

Traveling as a party would offer them more safety and allow them to take more risks, allowing for faster power growth. So, by the start of the next day, they had to come up with a reasonable idea to tell Tesilim and Lili. Essentially, they had some innate magic that caused them to have double personalities and two different sets of powers. The whims of magic could explain away any other things. However, they were sure that if any of the two paid enough attention, they would notice that it wasn't random and that their transformations followed some pattern. Hopefully, by then, they were both integrated enough with the team that enough trust had built up to share real details. Or they had decided to abandon the team completely, not feeling it was worth the hassle.

Another reason to stay was to make sure Rose was safe. They knew of the contract she had made with Alyx, but it was better to be there with her best friend and spend some time together. Overall, following the group would be better than trying to progress along, at least for the time being.

So, with that decision made up, they headed to the adventuring guild early in the morning to meet up with the rest of the party. They were going to do a few more missions to get a better hang of their fighting capabilities.

At the guild, Tesilim was ready to go on a mission. Not only was his Chaos Mana getting rather full, but he felt like he had spent enough time lazing about. He was ready to start slinging spells and hitting things. He had gotten there with Lili and Alyx and was waiting for Rose and Arelion, who he had just seen enter the guild proper. The half-elf was looking for them, and Tesilim waved them over. They all greeted each other and decided to continue their plans.

Tesilim wasn't sure how they always got Penny, but she was once again talking to them. They quickly sorted out the issue of adding two new members to the party. Once that was done, they were talking about going up to get a new mission, and Penny stopped them with some good news.

“Wait. You guys already have a mission here.”

At this comment, Lili, Alyx, and Tesilim looked at each other in questioning confusion, wondering if any of them had taken a mission without the others' knowledge. Thankfully, Penny cleared the confusion.

“Sorry. I meant a mission has been requested for your team to take specifically.” Penny corrected the embarrassment on her face. Meanwhile, Tesilim had forgotten the issue already and was static.

“Holy Crap! We are already this famous that we are getting personal requests!” He shouted and went to high-five Alyx and Lili, only for them to look at him with admonishing looks for being so loud. Of course, this also meant he was left hanging, and his spirit quickly dropped, though not by much, as he turned to look at Penny with a grin.

“Great! Whats the mission?”

Penny, who was trying to hide a smile from her face as she watched the interaction, went through a folder of papers before handing one over to Tesilim, causing a notification to pop up with a jingle.

🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷

🔷 Adventure Goal 🔷

Name: Fertilizer for a Dryad.

Type: Extermination ⚔️ & Collection 🧺.

Rank: D.

Danger: Low 🟢.

Suggested Number: 3+.

Threat: Earth Realm 🗿✔️.

Goal: Collect 10 Pounds of Fertilizer.

Reward: Fruit from a Dryads Tree & 1 Chaos Point.

Description: A dryad has requested that your team collect some of her favorite fertilizer. This fertilizer can be collected by defeating mindless stone golems in the forest, which, upon defeat, transform into magically infused dirt. The dryad has provided a map to a location where golems are known to appear.

🔷

Tesilim, not wanting to look like he was staring at blank air, placed the notification right on top of the papers and began to read it. The mission itself was relatively straightforward, though he questioned who had requested that they do it specifically. Additionally, he was wondering what the heck a fruit from a dryad's tree actually did that it replaced the gold reward. Not wanting to waste Penny's time, he just asked the first question, knowing that his party members would be able to answer the rest.

“So, who requested it? I don’t really know any other dryads outside of Jolly,” Tesilim asked, oblivious to what he had just said. For her part, Penny’s eyes went a bit wide as she stared at the purple and yellow-haired elf. Meanwhile, Lili and Alyx blurted out their own surprised answers.

“Wait! You know Jolly!?” Lili questioned surprise and doubt all over her face.

“Ah, crap. Did she look at you know what?” Alyx added, a bit of worry on his face before continuing, “Wait, don’t answer that right now. As a matter of fact, don’t say anything else,” The gnome finished while giving a “let's do this later” look at Lili.

Meanwhile, Rose and Arelion stared at the interaction as they tried to figure out what was going on.

Eventually, things returned to normal when Penny explained it was some dryad named Pudin whom Tesilim had struck with a bolt of flames some time back. Wincing at the memory, Tesilim quickly agreed to take the mission as it was a good way to appease the dryad.

They quickly left the Adventurers Guild and made their way through the city. Finally, once outside the city, Tesilim showed Lili and Alyx his chaos meter, and they both realized that he had to discharge them sooner rather than later. It was a bit problematic as they had two new members, and they weren't sure how they would react to testing these powers, but they would rather tell them now rather than later.

As such, they all made their way to Tesilim's chaotic area, where he often discharged his mana. On the way there, they had a conversation about Jolly inside Alyx’s privacy screen. That was a bit awkward as Rose and Arelion were kept out of the conversation, but the two didn't seem to mind as they talked on their own.

“So, how do you know Jolly?” Lili repeated her earlier question.

“Yeah, and does she know about your soul?” Alyx followed up, a bit irritated.

“Well, I was taken to meet her in what I assume was her private realm?” Tesilim answered while looking at his two companions questioningly. Then, seeing Alyx nod, he continued.

“There, she wanted to see into my soul.”

“And let me guess, you just let her?” Lili said, a bit exasperated.

“No.”

“Great! So, she doesn’t know about your soul!?”

“No, she does,” Tesilim replied, seeing Alyx’s face go from being filled with hope to a crushing look of defeat.

“How!?” His two party members questioned.

“Well, she was curious but didn’t want to pry. However, she wanted to make a deal. In exchange for letting her look, she would let me stay at the inn for free until I left the city for good.”

An answer that caused both of his companions to essentially face-palm before they spoke back up.

“Tesilim, I thought this was obvious, but for god's sake, don’t let random powerful entities peer into your soul so easily. Mind you, many won’t care, but at least if they force their way in, we can hunt them down. However, if they ask, make sure you speak with us first so you get paid an amount equal to what they will learn about you. Yeah?”

“Okay, sure. Also, how would we hunt them down?” Tesilim asked.

“We wouldn’t,” Alyx pointed at all five of them before continuing, “Others would hunt them down. Should I remind you that I am in charge of you to some extent and of who I am? I can leverage my power to ensure you don’t get crushed because some overpowered idiot wanted to take a peak at your soul.”

“Alright, that's fair. I will keep it in mind.”

“Also, please tell me you at least upgraded to a better room,” Lili asked, breaking into their talk. She was not pleased with Tesilim’s flushed cheeks of embarrassment after realizing he could have been living much better this whole time.