บท 148: The Tentacle Tree Monster And A Burning Camp (2)
Hey, Shun here!
Have you seen a house burn into nothingness? I remember seeing in my past life's memory that, due to global warming, houses catching fire has become even more frequent. Heck, even forests are catching fire.
There was this one time when my past self witnessed a squatter's area burn into ashes as fast as it came. People were throwing buckets of water at their burning houses but it was to no avail.
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(Shun's POV)
During our travel further east, Miu's attention was caught by the young beasts that accompanies Fenny, Pochi, Tama, Rokuko, and Rikka. She went around hugging each and everyone of them except for three.
Fuyuku, MiiMii, and Yuri had no qualms letting her pet them as long as she doesn't go too far and most especially because of the treats. As for the little hatchling Phi-chan, Fenny was the one who doesn't want to let her hug it too much.
"No…"
"Just a liiiittle squeeze, Fen-chan! It won't be too long!"
"…No."
Miu had a really hard time convincing Fenny to let her pet Phi-chan. Thankfully for her, Rokuko was there to help her.
"There there, Phi-chan. What a cute little birdy."
"Done, yet…?"
"Uh, yeah…" Although Miu is childish, she doesn't like to make a kid cry. She likes kids as much as she likes young animals.
Even though Rokuko was pretty open with letting Miu pet her own animal companion, her animal companion was having none of that. Like any other tsudere slash kuudere characters, it remained alooof while trying to hide from prying eyes.
It's one of the three young animals who don't want to get petted by Miu. The other two was the azure colored snake who's still sticking with his little sibling and the extremely shy white colored snake.
"Uwaa!! This one's a tsundere character! WANT! I WANNA PET IT!" Miu raised a shrill voice.
"Calm down Miu. You won't be able to pet it if you are like that." I said.
"There there, Hakkou. Miu just wanted to touch you a little. She can't?"
"Hey? Is it okay?" Miu asked with a puppy dog eyes. Unfortunately for her, this one's tsundere and kuudere level is pretty high. Hakkou just averted its neck after hearing Miu's question, instantly rejecting her.
"Arara… Myu-chan, was dumped."
"That's as expected. She's scaring them after all…"
"Umm…"
Upon hearing Hino-san and Lucato-san's comments, as well Toutobi-san agreeing with their comments, Miu got even more pump. This girl, as long as there's someone who says she can't, she'll keep on trying, so long as she really likes that certain thing.
"But I will touch!"
"*snort*!"
As usual, my little sister couldn't control herself, but Hakkou's figure disappeared before she could touch it. Miu doesn't have a searching-type Sense so she didn't know where Hakkou has gone to.
Hakkou would show itself further away, however, anyone with prying eyes could probably tell that there's something weird about this Hakkou. Rikka and Toutobi-san seems to have noticed it too as they both have a curious look on their face.
Everytime Miu was just a few inches away from touching Hakkou, Hakkou's body will disappear and reappear elsewhere.
"Fufufufu, to chase someone who's running away is in my nature! It's the beginning of the game of tag!"
Myu is fast, she's probably one of the fastest players I've seen. However, her speed is slower than us who took the [Speed Increase] Sense early on and leveled it up to a high level.
Even so, one would think that Miu is as fast, or heck, faster than these young animals. But reality is different.
Despite still being a young beast, the young white pony took on Myu who held her own against the giant Sweets Tree without getting touched even once. Myu is faster, mind you, but she couldn't, for the life of her, catch this illusive white pony.
Miu's smart as she would wait til Hakkou appears before exploding to her maximum speed towards that direction. Unfortunately for her, it seems like it was just not meant to be.
"Kyaa…"
*BAM*
"Uuu… That hurts…"
Due to her overwhelming speed and momentum, she couldn't stop in time and crashed at a nearby tree. As if Hakkou had accomplished something great, it came towards Rokuko's side with a satisfied look on its face.
Rokuko was smiling wryly as she looked at Hakkou. I gotta say, she picked the right name for this pony. It's as sassy and aloof as Haku.
"You lost 20% of your HP from your stubbornness. You didn't lose that much HP when you were battling that huge Sweets Tree." Lucato-san commented.
"Hahaha, that sounds like Myu-chan alright."
While Lucato-san and Hino-san are commenting about Miu, Toutobi-san seems to be curious about something else. Meanwhile, Pochi, Tama, and Fenny are looking at Hakkou in amazement.
"Hakkou is ama-ziing nodesu!"
"Agureedo~?"
"Mm…"
"Are you alright Miu-san?"
Mutsuko-san was just looking at the happenings with an amused expression on her face while Kaede-san seems to be genuinely worried about Miu. Satania-san, on the other hand, seems to be a little jealous about almost everyone in our group chat having a young beast companion.
"That was an illusion, wasn't it?" Miu asked while applying a heal to herself. The truth was that Hakkou barely even moved. What was moving was Hakkou's illusions. That's why it feels off somehow.
Only I, Rikka, and Toutobi-san saw through Hakkou's tricks.
"Haaa… I give up for today. BUT! You should let me touch you next time!" As expected of Miu. She's not giving up after experiencing such a small setback.
Hakkou responded to her like some rival of a protagonist by showing a, "Come at me. I'm ready to take you on anytime!" expression. It's like one of those weird moments when someone from a shounen manga recognize that from that day on, they are rivals.
And so, a weird sense of rivalry started between the sassy and aloof white pony Hakkou and my stubborn and headstrong little sister Miu. Find out what will happen next in the next episode of… Nevermind.
Anyway, while all of these antics were happening, we didn't stop traveling. Before long, we arrived at the camp where Tsuka's dot remains up until now.
"What the… What happened to this place?"
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It looks like Tsuka stopped at a player camp just a few ways away from the southeastern lake where we initially were. According to the map, I could only assume that Tsuka is going around places, probably trying to help other players.
Why? Well, that's because the entire player's camp is currently being engulfed in a sea of flames. This camp could only be described by the phrase, 'hell on Earth' due to how hellish the sight was.
"Are people so eager to make campfires so early in the morning?" Miu jokingly said while being in such a tense mood.
"There's fire—"
"—Everywhere nanodesu!"
"Fire… bad?"
"Yes, it's bad when fire is like this, Fenny! Should we go help them, Shun?"
Seeing the serious expressions of everyone, I sighed a little before saying, "We should meet up with Tsuka first before anything else. On our way there, assist whoever we could assist. Give those who are being attacked by the flames some two [Boost Marbles] each, one to increase their magical defense and the other to boost their speed! Mutsuko-san, please distribute some of the potions you have to everyone so that we could help others recover their HP."
While this might sound impulsive, I'm not just doing this to help the other players. The girls would get mad if I refuse to help and it's also a golden opportunity to introduce our items to other players even more.
I know, I probably sound like a lunatic, thinking about how to make our Guild's products even more popular when other players are in danger but this is just a game and people could revive after dying. If this was a death game, I wouldn't act this way but aside from losing the chance to participate in this event, there was no other consequence in dying in this event.
Also, I'm pretty sure that this is just some bastard's nasty plot or something. I could tell that much.
And so, upon hearing my instructions, everyone scattered and went around saving whoever can be saved. Rokuko and Toutobi-san was assisting the three kids who seems to be eager to play the hero role in this incident.
Meanwhile, me, Lucato-san, Mutsuko-san, Rikka, Satania-san, and Miu directly went to the epicenter of this entire event. On the way there, I casted MIND and DEF enchants to anyone I see who needs it while simultaneously avoiding the debris that are scattered all over the road.
Soon enough, when we arrived at the scene, we saw Tsuka protecting some young players using her protective [Air Element Talent] called [Wind Protection]. Nestling on top of her head was a small bird that's only a few centimeters in diameter, with silvery white feathers and a prominent green colored ahoge on top of its little head.
I know that bird. Isn't that a smaller version of the boss I fought? The Humming Tempest called the White Fiend?
The moment Tsuka saw us, she raised her voice and said, "Master, everyone, here!"
Looking around, I saw that there are other players getting engulfed by the flames while some people already turned into digital particles. Being in this situation, you would think that any normal child would cry or something.
However, Tsuka was different. She's a Vorpal Bunny, the strongest of the rabbit race, a warmonger race who've seen the blood of countless enemies on the battlefield.
While the others girls were going around saving other players, I, Mutsuko-san, and Satania-san approached Tsuka.
"Well, do you have anything to say for yourself, Tsuka?" I said in the most stern voice I could muster.
"Tsuka, is, sorry…" She looks genuinely apologetic as she lowered her head, almost dropping the young Humming Tempest who's on top of her head. It was clinging for dear life as it flapped its little wings while clutching on Tsuka's hair.
"…"
I stayed silent for a few seconds before picking up the bird who seems to be thankful at me for saving its life and, while petting it, I said.
"Well, I forgive you. However, there won't be next time, got it? Since you're still young, you should have someone accompany you whenever you want to go somewhere, okay?"
"Pyuruui?" The young Humming Tempest chirped while looking at me.
"Not you. I'm talking to your master."
"Pyui!"
"Tsuka is, sorry, Master…"
"It's okay. I understand that you're just excited about getting a beast companion yourself."
After settling things with Tsuka, I looked at Mutsuko-san and Satania-san and asked.
"Do you see anything Mutsuko-san, Satania-san?"
"Nothing at the moment, Shun-kun."
"Hey [Admin] Shun. Don't you think there's something inside that pillar of flame?"
"That's what I thought as well."
I thought of what to do for a moment and something immediately clicked inside my head. I turned towards Tsuka and Mutsuko-san and said, "Tsuka, cast [Quick Blast] and [Little Tornado] towards the section of the flame I will be hitting with my arrow. Mutsuko-san, get ready to use your [Hawk Eyes] and look at what's inside the flame, I will do the same as you. Satania-san, you will basically do the same thing as Tsuka but please use your higher level spells like [Flame Lance]. Also, could you please enchant my arrow with [Flame Turn]?"
While we were coming up with a game plan, the white and azure colored snakes were looking straight at the flame pillar. It seems like they were worried about something.
Even the Humming Tempest hatchling was showing the same expression. I think I have an idea as to what is happening.
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※~To be continued~※
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Author's Remarks:
※ That's it for today's chapter and for this arc. Man, how time flies. We're already done with Arc 10 before we know it. There's only Satania and Mutsuko who doesn't have a beast companion so I felt like this is a pretty important part of this arc. As for Mutsuko, I think I'll work something out during the final phase of the event. Three or four more chapters and I think I could end this event. I just hope it doesn't feel rushed or anything.
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