บท 13: Wayward Techniques, And Serving A Spicy Lunch!

Cast upon the unnatural glade between the ruinous forest, the battle of four humanoid entities and the Natural Calamity raged on, uncaring of the surrounding nature and ecosystem.

"RAAAARGH!"

Sharp stalk-like quills protruded from the surface of the behemoth's biomass hides, before launching themselves like heat-seeking missiles towards the nearest entities brimming with ohr.

One of the foreign warrior was a nimble and athletic martial artist, with sharp gaze and flowing twintails that wrapped the foundation of her fox-like ears, she quickly weaved her hands empowered with ohr like a hurricane, creating a natural barrier made from winds and ohr-virus that deflects and infects all of the quil-like projectiles back to its sender.

"Woahoho!" Yroa quietly exclaimed in excitement. "Is that one of the examples of this martial art that a Cultivator used, Azel?"

"Yep! And those moves aren't the craziest you will ever see!"

"That aside, do you have any idea what their deal is, Azel?" Yroa's face was filled with expectation. "Are they that, you know, Adventurers who trailblaze into dungeons and the ruins, fighting monsters to fulfill the task set by the guild~?"

"What are you on about, Master?" Azel snickered. At the same time, perturbed by this adorable creature breathing heavily with that much interest on the topic. "Adventurers, like their name, are people who enjoy or seek adventure. Sure, some of them are sponsored, but most of these groups or individuals act independently from place to place."

Like a cat that had been basked under a bulk of water, Yroa smiled, but with disappointment.

As the martial artists charged forward, one of the melee warriors halted his offense as he appeared to be charging some kind of energy into the surroundings, resulting him to be surrounded by prismic apparitions.

It felt like ohr from afar but not at the same time. Unlike a spell, it didn't possess any lingering ohr signature, as if the existence of ohr that was used had been converted into something else entirely.

"Activating Wayward Technique—Astral Resonance!"

As soon as this warrior screamed that sentence, the prismic apparitions scattered and began to coat his three other allies in it. Within the duration of this effect, all of them appeared to be moving faster, attacking harder, and even producing much more ohr signature than before.

"... Do people in this world tend to scream out their moves like that?" Yroa asked Azel. He was confused, perturbed, and cringed seeing an armored full-grown macho man shamelessly screaming their power move like that in fiction or Tokusatsu series.

"Fufufu, looks like it's the perfect time to introduce Master to the second most well-known branch of Ohrmancy!" Azel proudly exclaimed. "When it comes to uniqueness and head-to-head open confrontation, some Ohrmancer have access to bizarre and personalized abilities referred to as Wayward Techniques!

"Wayward Techniques are unique abilities possessed by Ohrmancers, derived from the essence of their existence itself! These techniques vary widely in nature and function, reflecting the individual user's understanding of existence, reality, their experiences, innate talents, and even their very aspect of obsession!

"Unlike Spellcasting, Wayward Technique is much more efficient when it comes to ohr management," Azel said as she made a money hand-gesture. "It also completely converts the ohr into a unique element of energy that correlates the individual ability of the said user, which can be very hard to sense and predict than that of a Spellcaster, as someone of higher Lvl can sense the ohr activity from a distance…

"They are also much scarier than spells most of the time, since Wayward Techniques can greatly vary between a simple elemental-bending with no ohr signature, to straight up conceptual killing device that combust any sentient entity into flame if they utter a single lie if perceived as so by the user."

"Won't it just mean that the user can just deem anyone as liars and combust them the moment they speak?"

"Exactly! That's how terrifying a Wayward Technique can be!" Azel exclaimed with hype.

Just as soon as Azel said that, one of the four warriors that dressed like a battle priest deployed numerous giant sewing needles, stabbing each of them onto the ground. The gushing wind of the battle entered each of those holes at the end of the needles.

"Activating Wayward Technique!" She then proceeded to perform a peculiar hand sign with both of her hands. "Karmic Needlework: Hazard!"

Immediately after, numerous strings of unique energy signatures began to burst out of the hand sign into all of the holes at the opposite end of the needles, before converging with one another and traveling towards the nearest land and the Natural Calamity itself.

The strings then stopped becoming visible to the naked eyes.

Few seconds later, some parts of the Natural Calamity began to collapse, while the chunks of ground that were connected to the invisible strings rose to the air for a few seconds, before hurling itself towards the Natural Calamity's direction—blasting the behemoth with the power of unnatural cataclysm.

'No wonder why there were a lot of boulders thrown around,' was what both Azel and Yroa thought.

"Do they really need to shout out their moves like that though?" Yroa wryly asked. "Or is it just a way to tell your ally that you're using the Wayward Technique?"

"Yes and yes!" Azel answered. "Just like how foreign sentient beings with ohr can communicate with one another despite the absurd gap of nomenclature and proficiency of language, ohr-infused sounds are most often used as an instrument in the world of Ohrmancy.

"For example, one of the main catalysts of a Wayward Technique is 'Empowered Declaration'. It's unlike incantations used to maximize the imagery of conjuration for Spellcasting per se, since it's an integral part if not the foundation to actualize the technique into reality.

"Because unlike Spellcasting and many other conjurations, the nature of a Wayward Technique is most often complex and unnatural, so any Wayward Technique User needs to declare the existence of the technique, letting their epithet-infused sounds to reverberate the nearby space and time or even people so that they can be affected by this abnormal ability!"

"I see," Yroa said, still mesmerized by the battle displayed right in front of him. "To summarize, this 'Empowered Declaration' acts as an instrument that connects the existence of things to be capable of interaction by the Wayward Technique.

"Is this why it's using less ohr since shouting epithet-infused words only requires you to have some sort of voice box organ?"

"Yep! And that's why they are shouting it as hard as they can so that it covers a lot of space that their Wayward Technique can access!"

"... You said that it's hard to detect a Wayward Technique because there is less ohr activity and signature, but won't it's detectable otherwise if you shout it from the top of your lungs?" Yroa asked with a skeptical smile.

"... I can't refute that."

"Pfft. One more question, though."

"Bring it on!"

"Your ability to induce and invade someone's dream, is it part of the branches of Ohrmancy? Or is it technically your species' Wayward Technique."

"Well, it's part of the Ohrmancy since I need some ohr to do it, but I said that it's more of a biological trait of my kin instead of being part of the Ohrmancy's branches." Azel then put on a nervous smirk. "Kinda like your natural demands for sadistic tendencies, Master."

"Now that you reminded me," Yroa began cracking his fingers, as he put on the most devious smile under his half-lidded gaze. "I'm craving to taste the EXP of a humanoid as of today."

"HIIKH-!"

And just like that, Azel became Yroa's source of EXP by just teasing her everyday.

Obviously, Yroa was referring to the party that was fighting the Natural Calamity when he said that he wanted to taste some EXP, but he didn't want to go ahead and kidnap the four of them now since there was still the danger of the nature behemoth still raging around.

Not to mention, casting Basic Appraisal on those fours would likely make them much more wary of their surroundings, or even finding out both Yroa and Azel who were hiding somewhere in the perimeter.

'The answer is obvious,' Yroa thought, 'I'll act like a passerby who just happens to be here by chance and help them defeat the Natural Calamity, before commencing anything that can give me a fat chunk of EXP afterwards.'

But before he could carry his plan, one of them cast a barrier while the priest began chugging a vial of bright yellow liquid. Immediately after, a large activity of ohr could be perceived as it swirled violently, encapsulating the party who huddled together under the dense barrier spell that was cast.

And before Yroa and Azel knew it, the party had already disappeared.

'They ran away!' was what both of them thought.

With no competing force to engage with the Natural Calamity, the Soil of Beginning appeared to be very likely in meeting with its demise.

"N-now that your curiosity is sated, it's time for us to leave this region, Master! Quickly, I saw a lot of the animals migrated to the east already!"

"Aren't you planning to go to the Town of Ariah on the west, Azel?" Yroa snickered.

"That's not needed anymore!"

Glancing a side eye on the Natural Calamity, Yroa felt safe enough to cast a Basic Appraisal without anyone somehow finding it out.

[Name: Unnamed]

[Lvl: 600 Malkuth]

[Domain: Physical]

[STR: 80.4]

[DEX: 4.5]

[CON: 197.1]

[INT: 2.2]

[WIS: 0.2]

[CHA: 0.2]

Yroa then checked his current stats once again in comparison.

[Name: Yroa Ingram]

[Lvl: 225 Malkuth]

[Domain: Physical]

[STR: 3.0]

[DEX: 3.5]

[CON: 7.9]

[INT: 60.4]

[WIS: 21.1]

[CHA: 43.9]

"Master… I saw you glancing at the Natural Calamity and the empty air for more than five seconds…" Azel began to worry. "Don't tell me that you're comparing your stats to that monster and are planning to fight it!?"

Yroa then glanced back at his troubled familiar, replying to Azel with a silent smug and shrinked gaze.

Azel broke down once again.

But before her Master could blindly jump into the fray, numerous serpentine flying creatures arrived at the site, unleashing a barrage of venomous projectiles at the natural behemoth.

At the same time, lightning struck the Natural Calamity numerous times, before a 10 meters-tall bear-like creature entered the frame, followed by tumultuous searing of the surroundings by the deadly level of electricity that coated the beast.

"Gyaah! Those damned flying snakes!" Azel immediately cast a simple barrier to protect both of them from the splashing rains of venoms that ensued. "Out of all the timing!"

Yroa chuckled. "It's perfect timing really." He then proceeded to do a short warm up as if he was going to attempt an athletic feat. "Hazardous environment as a difficulty handicapped, reminded me of Souls-like games that I used to play back in the past."

"... Souls-like game? What's that?" Azel wryly asked.

"Let's just say," Yroa then appraised his handgun, ensuring that it was ready for usage. "It's a dance with death—and learning with resilience."

"... What?"

After two seconds they awkwardly gazed into each other's eyes, Yroa suddenly disappeared from Azel's view.

"But it appears to be more of a roguelike in this case, heh."

By compressing the nearby air at fast pace and great volume, Yroa blasted a propelling shockwave right under his feet in concentrated way before keeping up the momentum by having the his body pushed by the wind in the same manner to prolong the wave—launching him approximately 60 meters into the sky with an efficient ohr usage that didn't even trickle 1% of ohr used to make the handgun he carried with him.

And now that he was abruptly outside of Azel's range of initial influence, the invisible spell was removed.

Together amongst the billowing clouds and the packs of flying serpents, Yroa angled his wind propulsion spell to push him towards the nearby flying snake.

And then rode one of those serpentine avians.

"Hss, be a good boy, now."

Roughly gripping on the nape of the flying snake, he sunk his nails deep into the spinal bone of the beast until it had no more option but to follow the wave.

"Huh, so it would drastically use more ohr if I were to tamper with anything that's coated with ohr."

Yroa planned to experimentally morph the scales of the snake into something, but it appeared to be inefficient cost-wise to do so, even if they weren't high in Lvl as long as they possess a certain quantity of ohr reserve connected to their living vessel.

"Welp, not like the plan will change anyway~"

Yroa then used his new reptile stead to lunge directly towards the head of the Natural Calamity. Since he collected the aggro of all of the flying snakes by invading one amongst their ranks, all of them began to spew their bile projectiles towards him.

Consequently, the Natural Calamity responded fast by amassing all of its ohr-seeking quill-like projectiles towards the incoming snake rider.

At the last second before Yroa was sandwiched between both types of the projectiles, he used his wind manipulation spell to vacuum the nearby air and used it to sharply change his general direction, avoiding calamity before it happened—leaving a disastrous cacophony of poisonous mist amongst the neutralized accelerating quills.

Yroa ingested a faint tint of the poisonous mist, but it only resulted in a devilish smirk that stretched across his cheeks.

"Now give me some of those~!"

Yroa hurled his own serpent stead onto the 10-meters tall lightning bear, incurring its aggro that resulted in a strong if not deadly electrocution of him.

The Living Dungeon Core fell from the air in between the horde of flying serpents in the sky, the lighting bear on the north, and the gargantuan Natural Calamity on the south.

"Hueeeh!! Master!"

As Yroa gracefully fell to the ground, a screeching electricity discharge was blasted to the surrounding area, violently obscuring the fate of Yroa that seemingly roasted to oblivion by the thunderous ursus.

At the same time, the surrounding venomous mist appeared to be absorbed by the center of the electrical chaos.

The chaotic explosion of electricity only lasted for a few seconds, before revealing Yroa with his newly upgraded handgun.

Its once matte black surface now shimmered with electric blue veins, crackling with electricity that arced across its surface.

The barrel emitted a faint green glow, hinting at the insidious presence of poison coursing through its interior. The dagger bayonet appeared equally dangerous, with jagged bolts of lightning clinging to its edges while droplets of venom dripped from its razor-sharp point.

Every few moments, the weapon would emit a low hum followed by a sudden spark.

Without a warning and in a fast paced manner, Yroa aimed the new gun towards the Natural Calamity's head.

"Lunch is ready~"

The gunshot rang out with a deafening crack, followed by a brilliant flash of blinding light accompanied by a shockwave that rippled outward, sending leaves and debris flying in every direction.

What was coming out of the end of the elongated barrel was a stream of molten green energy, shaped like a bullet and imbued with the destructive force of acidic bile and venomous lightning.

"GRRRRRAAAAARRRGHH!!"

The projectile bursted like a concentrated thermite upon impact, releasing a toxic cloud of noxious fumes that spread quickly and capable of incapacitating anything unfortunate enough to breathe it in.

Meanwhile, the electrical charge surged through whatever it touched and electrocuted everything in its path, clinging further into its victim like a paralyzing spell to subdue any sign of resistance.

"... What the hell did I just see?" Azel muttered.

Even after the venomous projectile left the snake's body, it still possessed some lingering ohr that was connected to the snake's influence.

But after it collided with the Natural Calamity's projectiles that was equally ohr-influenced, the connection got disrupted, making it easier for a foreign ohr to interact without using the initial amount of expensive ohr cost.

It was the same case with the lightning bear.

Its lightning were still heavily influenced by the thunderous bear's innate ohr. But unlike the snake's spewn venom, it won't linger for long after it strikes something.

So to get access to it, Yroa used his body as a conductive battery, casting his own version of interpretation for the physical amplification spell that Azel displayed few days ago, allowing him to capture the devastating electricity with his high pain threshold.

And after that, it was only a subject of elemental and matter manipulation. Just like how Yroa bend the wind to propel him mid-air, he could also do it with any elements or material by inserting his ohr into it.

Then it was only a matter of using all of those volatile elements and resources to upgrade his gun.

Why do all of this just to make his modified Glock 17 better?

Simple.

When it comes to Ohrmancy, Amplification and Manipulation costs extremely less than the act of Creation.

"How do you like the taste, sweetie~? I hope that it isn't too spicy for you~"