I Don't Own Minecraft
"Well, it's the best you're going to get, if I try and do it again then you might as well give me another pack of blood and hope it works better than what I think is my best" Gruff nodded at that as he examined over the work for a few short moments before nodding to himself.
"It's good enough I suppose to get him to a medset" No idea what that is but I nodded nonetheless to his words as I looked over the enderman again for a few more seconds before finally asking one of the few questions I've had for a while.
"Who attacked you all? It must have been someone with a decent Magic level, if I had to guess, one of the Elemental branch" If I had to really guess even more I'd think Earth but there would have been traces of it in the wound which would have complicated things much more. Gruff seemed to think on it for a long moment before Frienderman spoke up.
"I don't know, but they were able to bend light in a way that it attacked us...It was worrying to know that the very thing that surrounds you was the thing that could end your life at any moment" Light?...I heard that before, when I first got my Affinity Dark listed, the Status Bar keeper had made a comment about seeing a person with a Light Affinity a while ago. I wonder if it's connected in anyway to that person. More than likely, with how rare our two elements seem to be in comparison.
"Interesting, I wonder who they were...Well whatever, it doesn't really matter much to me, besides it being a new puzzle but I don't have all the pieces yet so no point trying to connect them all up. So then, which one of you minds giving me a lift? Cause I've been here for like two hours now and I'm sleepy" I noted a faint huff of what I'm going to assume is amusement coming from Frienderman at that. Though it wasn't long lasting as Gruff suddenly cut off saying.
"Oh no you don't, you can't just leave when you have a mountain of questions surrounding you" I blinked at that as I tilted my head in the enderman's direction, my mind suddenly changing direction from where I had been thinking about just a second ago. Right. Shit. I probably shouldn't know half the things I talked about, huh, well isn't that a bit of a pickle.
"You have not once looked any of us in the eyes, nor ever asking our names, showing you know something about our culture. Not to mention you've repeatedly called our domain a realm, not something most even knows multiple exist of, just not how most don't know the realm name for this plane of existence is called the Overworld. And all of that is not even mentioning the fact that you speak our people's tongue! Clearly you know more than any Overworlder should know"
Yeah...Shit, I'm not sure how I'm going to talk my way out of this one. My own fault really, I mean to be fair I said a lot more than I needed to, too wrapped up in enjoying the new experience of it all to censor the needed words. I could have played off the eye thing as a nervous habit, as long as I didn't explicitly say it was a habit then I'd be find there as well. Well, whatever, time to improvise, cause like I said, I'm quite good at thinking under pressure.
"Um, let's see... I've a Sliver Tongue, so I can speak every language just naturally, it has nothing to do with your lot. To be honest I figured out the name thing from you when you didn't say that guy's name so I just didn't bother asking. The realm thing was something I figured from the fact that I believe the Nether is a thing, something I gleamed from a lot of reading in between the lines and history books. So I figured a group of teleporting people would also have a realm you could move in and out of with how not often your lot are seen in the Overworld"
All of it had some truth to it and that's what I was going for, just bombarding them with information and just hoping my show of quickly figuring stuff out from before when I first arrived here would be enough to make it seem plausible. Because honestly, I don't really want to kill all these guys, they seem nice and I even call one of them friend, mostly cause it's most of his new name but still. Not to mention, if I'm not quick on the killing them first, there is a strong chance I would die as well, which would be very unfortunate. So all in all, this is quite stressful and I don't like it!
"I see... I don't suppose we are just suppose to be-" Gruff was interrupted when Frienderman suddenly spoke up, with a new, and to be honest a surprisingly serious and commanding, tone than I had heard so far from the guy.
"Listen, this half human has saved our comrade's life! We should not be interrogating him over what he knows and instead be glad he knows it, as I'm sure that if he didn't than our dying brother would have next to no chance of surviving" I blinked at that as I glanced sideways at Frienderman, I had a small feeling, but it's wasn't much of one, yet here's the proof. He's the leader of this group, not Gruff. It was proven much more heavily handed when Gruff let out a faint-
"Yes Sir" I hummed to myself a little at that, thinking it over for a few seconds before deciding that while I could play to that angle, I'm not a good brown noser so instead I just spoke up again and said.
"I don't care much about being questioned but you don't need to be grateful either, at least not until you unfreeze this guy here and make sure he lives. Until then, I'm more than happy with the new experience. Once he's safe and sound then I can be happy with your gratitude as well, but until then, I would like to circle back around to my prompt from a few moments ago. Which one of you minds giving me a lift? Cause I kind of have no idea where I am and walking back would probably not end well"
"I'll drop you back off where we met, I hope you forgive...Gruff, for his paranoia" I let out a bit of a snicker as Frienderman used my name for the grumpy guy. Nodding to my friend and I said quickly.
"Don't worry about it, paranoia is universal, if this was the first time something like this has happened to me then I'd be surprised" Technically this is the first time it's happened and I was quite surprised, but I'm phrasing it that way to make it seem like less of a big deal because I don't really care any. I was about to say something else when he reached out and grabbed my shoulders from behind me and suddenly everything was out of focus.
This time I wasn't even able to balance for a few seconds and just immediately fell onto my ass, yelping a bit as my poor tail was caught on the way down. I heard a faint warble of what I could only really assume was the enderman above me chuckling quietly to himself. I huffed and straighten up, getting up onto my feet and doing my best to push away the headache a bit. A bit forced as I had already seen a few of the faint wisps of purple begin to build up, something I've noticed usually happens when they are about to teleport so I quickly said.
"Hey! Um, I never actually got to introduce myself. I know you can't really give me a name back but I figured I might as well give my own. So, nice to meet you, my name's Max, Max Malan" I held out my hand as I noted the faint bits of energy dispersed a bit as the enderman looked at the offered hand for a long, long moment before saying simply.
"Nice to meet you as well Max Malan... My name is Ensin, thank you" And just like that he was gone, leaving my offered hand out in the open, not taken but not ejected either. I just closed my hand up and dropped it to my side for a brief moment before laughing a little to myself at what had just happened before turning and making my way back to the Inn we had chose to stay at during our time here. I had a lot of things to think about at the moment, but for right now, I think a nice long sleep would be best.
"What are you doing?" I blinked away my thoughts as I looked to Zane as he stared at me as I sighed before putting down the book that I had been trying and failing to read, my mind to wrapped up in thoughts to really focus on it.
"Nothing major, just thinking about something a friend of mine said recently. It's just been bugging me for a bit is all" Zane blinked at that, probably wondering who I was referring to as all the friends he knows I have are the ones he's met. I would have explained it a bit more but before I could he spoke up again.
"What's the problem?" He seemed interested so I thought about it for a moment before sliding the book away and moved over a bit so I was leaning forwards a bit so I could focus on it a bit better and said.
"Well, he and a few of his group got attacked by a person with a Magical Elemental Affinity to what sounds like Light. Basically the opposite element of my Dark, but it seems that the Spells are weirdly similar...Anyway, basically, I'm just wondering why they were attacked in the first place. I mean they aren't the killer type unless it's needed and it seems like it was more of an ambush on them more than anything. It's just weird" Zane hummed a bit at that, something I think he's picked up from me, before saying.
"Maybe they had something the attacker wanted?" I nodded at that as I had already had that thought but the thing was, why attack endermen? They're closer to a legend than common monster roaming the land. Meaning that this attacker would have to have known killing one would drop something like an ender pearl. But even I haven't found any sign of a link between endermen and that item, because that item isn't mentioned anywhere...actually.
"Yeah, actually that's probably it! I hadn't put much thought into it but it's totally possible that someone else would have been able to figure just as much as I have out about them. It would just take a lot longer to do, since I had a bit of a head start on it, but it's totally possible for this person to know about it. I've read a good bit but to think I've read everything would be laughable...Hey thanks Zane, that actually helped a lot" He brighten a good bit at my words since I don't think he knew what I was talking about at all.
"So what does it all mean then?" I just hummed a bit to myself at his question as I got my thoughts in line as I tried to figure out a way to explain it all in a not confusing sort of way. Not possible unless I told him everything, so I guess that's just what I'm going to have to do, it's not like I care to keep it a secret anyway. So with that I grin and said happily.
"Ok this might take a minute but hears the jest of it all. There are these beings called endermen and they come around another realm, now they can teleport and all that as well which is how they can get to this realm. So I meet a few and helped one that had been stabbed by a Light Magic Spell, which had led to all this thinking. Endermen are also really really rare to find in the Overworld, the name of this realm, so for someone to go and try and find a group of them, they must have had a goal in mind, something the endermen drop. An ender pearl. That's what this person is after, though I'm not yet sure as to why"
I trialed off at the end of it as I had hit the end of my current thought process, as I did that I put a hand up to my chin while noting that Zane just looked at me for a few seconds before shrugging to himself and said.
"Ok. So endermen have a magic that allows them to teleport, but it isn't a Specialization? That's weird. What does an ender pearl do?" He's taking this in stride, one of the bonuses I guess for having a little brother that has full trust in you and what you say. It's nice actually, so I just smile a bit at him and leaned back a bit and said.
"It's a one time use item that allows the holder of the pearl to teleport to the stop in which the pearl is thrown to. At least I'm pretty sure that's what it is, I could be a bit off though" Zane seemed a bit interested in that but just nodded a bit as I decided to shift my thoughts to another lane of thought. I mean this is a Magic user that's looking for this after all...what if. A thought occurred to me as I focused back onto the still thinking form of Zane and said.
"I think it might be that this Light user is trying use the ender pearl to crack the code on a Teleportation Misc branch Spell. I mean, it's been talked about in the past as a secret lost to time as it was heavily guarded. Maybe this Light user is obsessed with learning new magic and since a Magic User needs to experience a form of magic normally to learn it, if it's with their branch or in the Misc section, then this Magic person would have to have an ender pearl to try and learn it"
Of course their are some ways to bypass that, if the instructions are written well enough and the spell is simple then you don't need to even bother with see it, you can just learn from trial and error, like one Minor Light Spell. I was going to think on it a bit more but before I could Zane asked a question.
"Ok, but if the ability to teleport is a natural ability to these creatures then would you even be able to learn it?" That is a very good question, my instant answer would be no, you can't learn it in that case, but something was stopping me from saying that. A thought I had had a while ago replayed in my mind.
"It's certainly possible, there is accounts of teleportation before in the past, even if it's been lost in that past. Not to mention, that I think the Specialization system is a lot more flexible than people think, as I'm almost positive that there is a Magic branch out there that involves summoning that only one person has ever figured out before. So I see no reason why it should be impossible when the impossible has already been done before. At least in theory, I don't actually have any proof"
I had leaned back a bit further as my words died off as I looked up at the ceiling, my mind now suddenly fixed on the idea of learning how to teleport. I mean, I could learn it, it would be fully possible, I mean I've experienced it before so it shouldn't be that difficult to recreate. I say that but it's most certainly going to be a massive up hill battle to figure it out. I mean Fire took forever and I already had a strong knowledge over that concept already, but something as complex as moving through space time is a bit out of my field of knowledge beside some basic things I remember from school.
"If anyone could figure it out though, I think it would be you" I blinked out of my mental calculations as I was figuring that my lack of skill with judging distance would be a massive disadvantage for counting the MP cost of a teleport, and looked at Zane for a moment before grinning and said simply.
"Yeah, I am pretty awesome aren't I?" He laughed a small bit at that and nodded. With that I decided to maybe wait a bit from thinking more about it, while I would love to rush right into it, I have other things I should probably be doing at the moment. Like doing something with my party, after all, I've already gotten my own little trip out of the way, might as well make sure everyone else is having fun as well. Now what should I do then? Mmh.
"Why are we doing this again?" I just smiled to myself as we all trekked our way up on the small mountain, really I still consider it a hill, but it was still pretty high up and we could just over see Kebell from how close it was to the village. I hadn't been up here yet but I had been meaning to so I found this a good a time as any to take in the sights from the heights and share the experience with my party.
"Because I'm the leader, and I think that's a great reason!" Eline rolled her eyes, I didn't see the action but I can just tell from how I know her to act. Though maybe she does have a bit more of a right to complain since she is the one carrying most of the heavy stuff. Though it wasn't that much and I was forcing Warren to carry the rest so it wasn't that bad really.
"Why did we decide you were to be in charge again?" Thinking of Warren and he shall make a comment. It goes something like that at least. Anyway, we're here now! Looking around the top of the hill for a moment I grinned to myself as I felt the wind blow around me for a few moments before calming down as I waved over Eline to carry the boxes over.
"I believe it was my good looks, at least I think that was your reason before you found out I was a guy" Warren rolled his eyes at that, clearly not finding that memory all that fondly, not sure why I think our meeting went great. Unless of course he's thinking of the time he got proof I was most certainly a man, in which case he's a prev, as I'm still sure he was ready to see something else besides the sight he got.
"Moving on past that, mind telling me what we're doing up here again?" I looked over at Elien and just gave an innocent look, to which she frowned, which I find insulting as she set the boxes down. Sitting down next to one I opened it up and pulled out a large blanket that no one can prove I didn't pay for, as it actually came from a nice open stock closet in the Inn. Looking it over for a moment, I tossed the folded thing at Warren and said happily.
"We've been working really hard and I want a break so I decided that the best thing to do was to have a picnic!" Everyone just looked at me for a moment before Warren just muttered something about me only not telling them just to hype it up as he began to spread the blanket out as Eline just rolled her eyes as she opened another box only to find another box in it. My genius amazes me sometimes. Sarcasm aside, that's what the food was in so I jumped up and grabbed it from her and said happily.
"I made all of this so I get to be the one to show it off!" Zane laughed a bit at my antics while Eline went for another eye roll but at this point the smile on her face wasn't able to be hidden as she sat down onto the blanket as Warren complained that she was messing it up. While they started to bicker about it, I glanced off the side of the rock for a few moments to really just enjoy the view before smiling to myself as I listened to the burst of laughter from Eline at whatever dumb thing Warren tried to comeback with. This is nice.
"What do I have?" I continued to smile as I spun to face Zane who was looking at the box with eagerness clear in his eyes as I held it up a bit more and said.
"No idea! How about we find out what options you can pick from?" He nodded at as dropped down on the slope, ignoring the blanket as it was currently being fought over by the two humans as I opened the box up as Zane leaned over my shoulder as I held out the first option available and started to explain all the things I used to make these. Which may or may not have involved me using a kitchen that I had no right to be in, but cameras haven't been invented yet so no one can say I was there!
"I missed! Again" Sure most would find missing to be a bit annoying but I find it just means I have more to learn and that's all there is to it. At the moment I was with Zane and Eline in the very small forest that was by Kebell's walls. With Eline practicing with her sword, now knowing that she could extend her Sharpness one duration a lot longer, she had to compensate for that in her fighting style. While I was for once having to be taught something.
"You're throwing it to late, you should be releasing right as your arm is fully extended" I nodded at Zane's truly wise words as I was handed another knife. These ones were properly balanced, I had decided on buying a set for Zane just so he would have some ranged options and then promptly had Warren learn to make them and make a few more sets as that was not as expensive to have more of them in case he loses a few. Not to mention I wanted to learn as well as I still keep a knife on me just in case...and because I think it's kind of badass.
"Got it" Moving the knife in my hand a bit so I was holding it properly, I pulled it back, over my shoulder and aimed my elbow at the trunk of the tree I was aiming for. After a moment sprung my arm out and let go of the knife at what I thought was the right time. Turns out, it wasn't the right time and the knife was jabbed a good fifteen feet over my target. This is hard!
"I'll get it" I gave Zane a thankful nod as he ran up to the tree and in a few seconds was up on a high branch. He's a dog, wolf if you want to be technical, and yet I think he's faster than I am at climbing, just one of those cliches that don't hold up to reality I guess. Anyway, in under a minute the knife was back in my hand as I looked at it for a moment before handing it back to Zane and said.
"Mind showing me again?" He smiled a bit and nodded as he took the knife, and in an instant it was buried up to the hilt into the base of the tree right in the middle of the mark I had been aiming for for the last half an hour. I had gotten close, but Zane was just very good at this kind of stuff, it was surprising and yet one of those things that just reminds you that his life was one that could be comparable to an assassins before he met me. It's sad. Moving on now to something less depressing!
"Thanks, alright here's for hoping" And with that I tried once more and failed to hit my mark. Though it was a bit closer this time so that's good. I mean three feet from center mass on a person might still graze their arm and that's something to consider. I mean, while I don't really mind having an extra weapon or two on me at all times, I don't really need a bunch of knives. Still, this is fun to learn, so with that I was about to pull out another to throw, when Zane spoke up.
"Um, could you act like you're throwing a knife but just use a bolt instead? I think I have an idea" I didn't bother thinking about what he was up to, and just dropped my hands down to my side, sliding the knife back into it's holder on my leg, yes I bought some holders, sheath? Something called that. I mostly just got them for Zane so he could have knives hidden around his body like a demented porcupine. But I had some left over which is kind of why I'm playing round with this in the first place, and as for the reason why I got him so many in the first place, well I don't like the idea of him not being able to defend himself, so I attacked the problem by burying it under a lot of pointy objects.
"Sure I can do that" With that I just retook the steps as I flung my hand out as black mist draped off my hand and up a bit on my arms. From my out stretched hand shot a dart of darkness that shot out and slammed right on the hilt of Zane's knife. It was weak enough to not even dent the handle, but the fact that it hit was proof enough that I had no idea why I was struggling with this.
"You're timing is near perfect and your form is ok but for some reason the weight of the knife seems to be throwing you off a lot. I guess you're just not use to having weight of any kind in effect when you fight" I hummed at that, thinking it over and finding it very likely, good catch on his part I must admit. Then again I'm not much of a weapons guy normally so I think my pride will be fine for not noticing something like that when I've seemed to make a habit of noticing everything else.
"Seems right, but I'm not really sure how to correct what is, at this point, muscle memory, besides of course relearning it all from scratch, which I could do I guess" Zane just seemed to think about it as well, as I wondered about what I should do about the fact that I can't really relearn a reflex all that quickly. Nothing to really do about ti but to get to it but Zane seemed to think of something else.
"Could you throw faster and let go quicker?" He said it like he wasn't sure but it instantly set an idea into place in my mind. He doesn't know the actual science behind something like knife throwing, the momentum, arc, and all that, but I do. I know the idea behind it all, so I know exactly what he's getting at. I'm not use to the drag of the knife as it moves through the air, making it go all over the place.
But if I compensate for it by making a number of small adjustments then... Well let's see here, I can't judge the distance well, but I can take my last few attempt and build a plot grid from it's collected data. Using that I had estimate the angle I've been throwing at and with some more force behind my throw, then I should technically be able to predict where it should go. Or at least make it go straight.
With a couple more thoughts and charts popping in and out of my mind for a few seconds, I drew my arm back after drawing out the blade and waited a few seconds, lining my elbow a bit higher so when my arm is full extended then the over all arc would be slightly higher. And with that I threw it.
"Yes!" I still missed the center and in fact only just scraped the edge of the circle I can carved in the trunk, but I had hit it, which is much better than all my last attempts. Zane was grinning as well as he moved up to collect the knife, while getting his own as well, before bringing it back to me and said.
"You did it!" I nodded at that and looked down at the blade in my hand for a moment, thinking about it all for just a second. I'm aware that Zane is like a god at throwing these things and I probably won't ever be near as good but I can become adapt at it at least. Though honestly it's surprising that he missed that vindicator's heart even if the knife was unbalanced and quite poor for throwing. I guess I'm just going to take it as a lucky break I guess.
"Yeah, though all we know now is that I have to compensate a bit for it, I still have to get use to different distances, angles, moving targets, and speed at throwing. I hope you don't mind helping an old guy like me learn a new trick" He just shook his head like what I said was laughable, so I just smiled and placed my hand on his head and shook his hair up a bit.
"Well I'm going to choose to see that shake as you saying I'm not old at all!" He laughed at that as I moved my hand away and looked over towards Eline as she moved through some strikes again. Humming a bit at the sight, I looked up at the sky for a long moment before figuring that it was about time for lunch, a bit late for it in fact but that's just semantics. Now to go and try and find Warren.
And end to the starting point of the next bit of story progression, the endermen really were just mostly a plot device to add in a few details that I spread out over the last couple chapters so when they come up again in the future I can say it was all apart of my plan when really I just fill these events with story threads that I might or might not ever touch again so that the continuity looks better. That was a pretty blunt assessment on how much I plan out for my stories, which is very little. Anyway, See ya.