บท 7: Chapter 7
"Ah, you must be the mage from Fairy Tail," a well built man said to me, wearing a shirt and baggy pants with gloves. "Nice to meet you! I'm Aaron!"
"Nice to meet you," I greeted him. "I'm Ash, a Fairy Tail Wizard. The notice said that you lost supplies in the woods due to an animal attack, right?"
"Yes," Aaron nodded firmly. "Usually, we might just replace the supplies, but those ones are particularly important. If we don't get those back, we'll have to wait another 6 months until we can get more. That would put us really far behind schedule, and that leads to a whole other host of issues."
"What kind of beasts were they?" I asked him. "And I assume your supplies were construction supplies?"
"Yes, they were," he nodded. "A rather rare wood from Guiltina was among the supplies, hence why it would take us six months to get it back… We were attacked by Bears. The same rare wood is also known to often contain Inferno Bees."
"Inferno Bees?" I questioned, tilting my head.
"A type of Monster, C-Class I think," he raked his brain. "They're capable of using fire magic to fight, and because they're always in great numbers they have a C-Class classification, otherwise they'd probably be D-Class. Anyway, Inferno Bees produce a honey that is both spicy and incredibly sweet and they most often do it on the wood of Bromin Trees. The same kind of wood that we had imported."
"I see," I nodded. "The smell must have infused into the wood and wasn't cleaned properly with magic. The bears, attracted by the smell, came to attack your group which forced you to leave behind your supplies. You probably took the wood at first but then noticed they were chasing you and left it behind, and only then did they finally stop chasing you."
"Yeah, you got it exactly right," Aaron nodded.
"Alright, do you know roughly how far into the forest you were?"
"Yessir," Aaron nodded, pulling out a map and placing it on the table. "We are here," he pointed at the town then dragged his finger along the map until it reached about the midway point between the town we were in and a port town. "This is about where we were when we had to ditch the supplies. I know so because I recognised the cave nearby. It's a popular mining location though, given the bears, nobody's been able to head out to the mine in a while."
"So, the bears are likely still lingering around the mine," I hummed and nodded. "Got it, I'll take care of this."
"Thank you, Ash," he smiled. "We hope to hear back about your success soon."
I gave a nod and made my way into the woods. Once I was deep enough into the woods, I undid my transformation and freed my wings and halo.
I had the hang of flying after flying around doing my E-Class Missions, to the point that flying was no trouble for me at all anymore. Even should a time come where I needed to get on a train to travel, I wouldn't need to…
Granted, that was also if I was affected by Motion Sickness at all. My Flugel biology gave me immunity to illness, disorders, impurities, plus physical and mental influences.
I hummed as it took little time to come to the area with the supplies and I swept down… It was easy to see that while most of the supplies were here, the cases they'd been carried in had been torn apart and some of them were severely damaged. Probably by the bears trying to get the Bromin Wood.
I sighed and shook my head, holding out my hands, "Rewind."
I smiled with satisfaction as I watched time invert and the supplies mend themselves along with the crates they were in, storing them all away safely once more.
With that done, I then cast one of my newer spells, "Store."
A ripple appeared and moved over the supplies, sucking them into my Re-Quip space.
Having known that I was going to be reaching D-Class as a mage, I'd finally decided to pick up Re-Quip Magic. With the books in the library plus the help from both Erza and Bisca, I was able to pick it up fairly quickly. I'd need more practice to be able to swap as fast as they both did, but I could use it for missions like this.
"Right, that's the initial supplies retrieved," I hummed. "Next is tracking down the bears…" I looked over, seeing a few trees were knocked down with various scratches and markings on the ground. "Well, when in doubt, follow the trail of destruction."
[I suppose that is the motto for this world, isn't it?] BB hummed, an amused tinge to her voice.
I hummed and began to follow the trail, rewinding time as I walked to undo damage to the trees but leaving non-damaging things like claw marks, footprints and so.
Eventually, I came to a small cave. It wasn't the mine that the carpenter had mentioned, but I was sure this was the Bear's cave… I didn't know much about bears, but I knew that they moved homes frequently when it wasn't Winter.
I sniffed the air. I noted a faint scent of something sweet in the air, coming from the cave. I was lucky the bears hadn't decided to stay in a hollow or something similar, the cave had caused the smell to build up vaguely and become potent enough within the cave to drift outside and allow me to smell if. If they'd stayed in a hollow, I wouldn't be able to note the scent and safely confirm this was where they were staying.
Now… How to do this? Heading into the cave to fight the bears, even if I would be fine, wasn't a smart move as I might cause the cave to cave in on me, then I'd need to blow up the thing and repair it. It just wasn't efficient.
I hummed and looked at the ground, noticing a piece of wood. Curious, I grabbed it and lifted it up, sniffing it… It was very faint, but I could definitely smell a sweet scent that tickled my nose a little.
"Hm…" This… Might actually be a good thing, to evaluate my Rewind Spell. If I focused the Rewind Spell on this piece of wood, would it then act as the 'Origin' point, and cause the wood to leap out from the cave and merge with it.
[Hm…] BB tapped her chin. [It's worth a shot, and one of their pieces of wood flying out would definitely cause the bears to step out of the cave.]
I nodded and moved away from the cave before I placed the broken piece of wood down on the ground, focusing my magic on it. "Rewind."
The wood piece trembled, and for a moment I was worried it was going to fly into the cave… However, that was not what happened. Instead, I watched as other wood pieces- smaller ones- rolled towards it and began to reconnect with it like pieces of a puzzle…
Then I heard the sound I was waiting for, an angry roar as a much larger piece of wooden flew out of the cave- saliva and bite marks vanishing from it as it reconnected with the bigger wooden piece in front of me.
I cancelled my spell, causing it to drop to the ground, as a group of angry bears roared and charged out of the cave, glaring at me. Their instincts had clearly identified me as having taken something that 'belonged' to them, and they were determined to eliminate me.
"Star Dragon's Steps," I murmured, my legs being coated in golden light as the bears charged at me together. I easily jumped over them, not attacking for the moment… I was using this opportunity to test my magic out on my enemies.
Particularly, I wanted to work on the opposite of my Haste Spell, a 'Slow' Spell. Just like in the Final Fantasy Games that I was so fond of throughout my life.
I hummed as I dodged the bears without worry, carefully constructing my magic circle as I focused my desires. To 'Slow' my target. Half everything about their 'Time.' Their speed, perception, reflexes, to cut it all down by half.
"Slow."
The magic circle shot a beam of grey light towards the bear, leaving a mark behind. However, the bear didn't react to the beam as thought it didn't cause physical pain… But I could see the bear was moving slower… As though the world was moving at sixty frames, but the bear was moving at thirty. The movements still looked smooth, but only at half the speed.
I would definitely need to work on the spell to remove the 'firing' aspect and instead affect the opponent directly… But, otherwise, I could definitely call this spell a success.
"Right then… Let's see… Star Dragon's Talon," my left leg was covered in golden light as I ducked under a swipe from the slowed down bear and threw a kick at the side of its head.
Its head caved in under the force of my kick and it was sent crashing into the trees, twitching… But clearly dead. Its body was only reacting to the last few electronic signals sent through the brain before it finally ceased entirely.
… Strange… I thought I would feel something when I killed the bear but… I didn't feel anything.
'Is this another affect of my Flugel bloodline?' I mused mentally as I dodged the attacks of the other two bears, which were now furious at seeing their family member be killed by me. 'Did my brain get re-wired to not be bothered by things like death or killing?'
[Flugel would be poor War Angels if they were affected by such things, after all.] BB pointed out, and I couldn't help but nod. I doubted Artosh, a War God, would overlook something like that.
I focused up on both bears… Better to end this now. My 'Slow' Spell had now passed the 'theoretical' phase and was now practical, though it needed work. And I'd seen the effects of just how much my magic could enhance my body, so there was no need to waste any more time.
A golden light coated my arm, taking the ethereal shape of a sword, "Star Dragon's Blade."
I swung my arm, unleashing a wave of energy that bisected the two bears, causing them to roar in pain as they collapsed to the ground. They began to thrash around as they rapidly bled out, crying and roaring in pain… Before, finally, they went still and knew no more.
I sighed, dismissing the magic on my arm, and stored all three bears in my Re-Quip Space. I knew Bear meat was something that could be eaten, so it was a rare delicacy and would probably go for a lot of money. And extra money was always nice, especially since I did want to have my own house at some point.
I hummed and opened my menu, just to double check the effects of my 'Slow' Spell.
Slow – Targeted Spell, decreases the target's 'time,' causing them to be slowed down. This slows down speed, perception, reflexes, etc.
I smiled, pleased… I also noticed that my Time Magic had gone from 'Initiate' to 'Amateur.' While I didn't have as many spells in Time Magic as I did in Dragon Slaying Magic, the diversity of those Time Spells seemed to imply I had an equal level of mastery over it. The only truly 'different' spells among my Dragon Slaying Magic were 'Roar,' 'Fist,' 'Steps,' and 'Wingbeat.'
I tapped my chin in thought. "Interesting, so mastery- at least in the lower levels- seems to be more on the different applications of the magic… I'll have to keep that in mind."
[Heh~ Look at you, Senpai. It seemed that Flugel bloodline helped your brain more than I thought~]
I just clicked my tongue and glared at BB, who winked at me and smirked in amusement.
I huffed and made my way into the cave, finding the large bundle of broken Bromin wood. A lot of it was broken and ruined, covered in saliva, claw, and bite marks. Now that I was closer, I could smell its distinct sweet but spicy scent.
I just shook my head and used Rewind to undo the damages done to the wood by the bears. It took a little while, but soon enough it was all as good as new, and I stored it in my Re-Quip Space.
I made my way out of the cave, repairing the last wood that I'd left outside when the bears attacked, and stored that away too before I spread my wings and took off, heading back to the town.
A successful first D-Class job, if I did say so myself! Another month or two, and I'd have enough money to buy my own house and finally take a break from missions for a while.
I wonder if I could convince Mavis to make me her pasta again as a reward for finishing the job safely…
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