I Don't Own Minecraft
I was in the middle of looking through the newest batch of jobs, absently I moved my eyes right on past the ones I've dubbed as fucked up. They had been showing up more and more frequently and I had only spent enough time to recognize that the jobs that were in the more 'illegal' side of illegal had small red arrows in the corners. After the fourth kidnapping request and second slave tracking job and I've chosen to just over look them.
Honestly, you think they'd have their own Bar for this kind of work but instead they just jammed them all on one board, I mean really they could have at least gotten two for some separation. Speaking of separation, Eline and Warren were glaring at each other at the moment for some reason. They've been like that since this morning, I think something happened during the night. Not sure what but it would appear it's put the two on more obvious odds than normal.
"Could you two stop glaring at each other? The heat from it might start burning my ears and I really don't want any of me to be in the middle of your crossfire" It was sarcasm but really, the two were glaring at each other from over my head as I was leaning down a bit to read some of the fine print on a few of the jobs, always an important thing to do as a number of jobs had the print in a small sized font saying if the employer wasn't happy with the work then they didn't have to pay. Which basically meant if you were dumb enough to take the job you deserve to not get paid.
"The maybe you should tell that to this pervert!" I was suddenly a tad bit more interested in whatever it would seem Warren has done. Glancing in his direction for half a second, letting him know I wanted an answer to that more than I wanted to hear his rebuttal, before turning back to read over a few more papers on the board before Warren finally said.
"I might have walked in on her changing. But I didn't mean to! And here she is acting like I saw everything to see!" I blinked a bit at that as I looked over at Eline for a moment at that. She blushed a bit at my look, after all, I've seen her naked before. Not on purpose mind you, but it had happened when we both had went to the bath house, as it turns out it was a uni-gender one apposed to the divided one on the other side of the village. I didn't particularly care though, nothing about her interested me. Though it was a bit awkward and I did see a lot more than I think she wanted me to, and on a side note, if she wasn't certain before then, she now knows I'm a guy, so there's that.
"He stayed in the room way too long after I started yelling at him!" Ah, I see, it's one of those disrupts. Well shit, I have no idea how to handle this. I'm really not all that interested in people like in the way their talking about, and as such I have no idea how to handle this situation. Maybe I could just hope it settles on it's own but that wouldn't be a great idea compared to me maybe being able to sort this out. I guess the best approach would be the direct one.
"Warren you apologize to Eline. And Eline, if you changing while sharing a room with a guy, then lock the door or something in the future" The two looked at each other, and then at me for a long moment. I don't usually order them to do anything, I just say that's what I want us to do and they usually just go with it, out of a sign of trust I feel like, but actual infighting isn't something I will allow to happen in my party. The two knew what it was from my tone, I don't use it unless I'm being serious. Last they had heard it was during a siege on a village.
"B-but. Fine. I'm sorry I walked in on you Eline" I gave Eline a side look at that, making sure she nodded her head in accepting the apology. After a few seconds after I had turned back to the board, Eline spoke up as well.
"It's fine I guess...I'll make sure you can't walk in at all next time" Good now that, that's sorted I think this job would be a good fit for today, it's just a simple escort mission to make sure that a guy with some valuables doesn't get robbed on his way out of the village as the entrance gate is the easiest choke point to get stolen from in the village. It was simple and it was quick. If we're lucky it should only take an hour before the man's ready and another hour before the jobs done, so we can get an early lunch afterwards then get another job.
I wasn't much of a fan of the guy who we were protecting. He was just a massive dick, only talking to Eline and Warren, while pretending that me and my brother just didn't exist. Being ignored isn't that big of a deal for me, I didn't really mind much, but that doesn't mean that I was enjoying the fact that he wasn't just ignoring me. Every couple seconds, he would look over at me or Zane like he was expecting to catch one of us rooting through his stuff for something to steal.
So of course I did the only thing that made since to do, I stole a few things. What? If he's going to be glaring at me, I might as well give him a reason for it, of course he won't know that until he starts looking for his bag of spices and finds jack shit but by that point we'll probably be setting off ourselves so I see no reason why to care. Plus, spices are hard to get because of how expensive some can be, so I have no regrets about taking it, since I'm sure I'll put it to better use then he could.
Just like how I'm sure I'll be able to use the other things I've taken from him. Like his wallet for one thing, yeah, I'm putting the blame of that one on him. For a guy that's clearly racist, or speciest or whatever you want to call it, leaving out your wallet was just a stupid mistake when two people you have zero trust in is nearby. Of course I didn't take the wallet itself, I'm not dumb, that would be easily noticeable. Nah, I just took most of the smaller bills out and a few of the bigger ones and replaced it with a lot of one Em notes.
It looked the same from an outside view and even an inside one if you didn't inspect it much, and since we had been payed up front, on account of us just seeing him through for a while to make sure no one got any ideas, so he shouldn't notice his wallet is of lighter value that he remembers until he hits the next village he's heading to. Which I happen to know is Vansal, and not the Village I've been thinking of having the party head to next so I see no reason to worry about him finding us later.
Sure that sounds like a massively dickish move to do, but to be fair, I feel like everyone should be more impressed that I managed to switch out most of the contents of a wallet while being looked at by the owner of said item every other second. Which I have to say, I'm impressed with myself at that one. My ability to do sleight of hand has gotten a lot better recently which has something to do with my high dexterity score if I had to guess.
Anyway, the point of all this is to say that lunch is on him. Isn't that kind of the old fuck.
"You know, I can't say I mind but nothing really all that crazy has happened since we left Colwell. No crazy plots or anything, and I can't say I mind" I just hummed at Warren's words, while I looked up absently at the clouds from the floor of the cart. I decided we had gained enough funds to leave Kebell and after a day or two of buying up some supplies we were back on the road again. This time we were heading north east a bit, on the way to Boltal.
"We've been kept busy with all the jobs and stuff but I have to say, I wouldn't mind a few fights to the death, as long as I'm not the one that dies of course. It gets boring if nothing interesting happens in my opinion" I don't think anyone on the cart shared my stance on this matter, just a hunch though.
"Well no one agrees with you on that! Because your idea of interesting is so beyond twisted that it loops back right around to sane only to keep on going straight back to insanity" Is that counted as a double negative? I feel like it does, so I'm just going to assume that it counts as Warren complimenting me on my clearly great mental health.
"Why thank you" Warren just sighed like I was being weird or something else like that, no idea why he would think something as rude as that. So I just leaned back a bit and looked up into the air a bit more as I let my tail move around a bit from underneath me. Keeping it stuck in one place made it bit stiff. Does anyone realize that having you tail fall asleep is like four times worse than having your foot or hand or even your entire arm falling asleep on you. It's just weird and uncomfortable.
"You're messed up in the head" I thought about saying thank you again to that just to mess with Warren even more but refrained from doing so as instead I was interrupted from doing so as I was suddenly much more interested in the fact that a number of birds were flying over head. I don't think I've ever seen those kind, not very surprising as I'm more of an mathematics and science type of learning than avian or just animals in general really. I know some, but explaining biology isn't as easy as explaining what I know on something like the theory to time travel
"What are those?" I had changed the topic just as Warren was about to make another comment as I noted the sound of his breath catching in his throat at my words forcing him to stop from saying what was on the tip of his tongue. To make more of a point, I lifted my hand up above my laying form and pointed at the circling forms of the avians above us.
"What? Oh, um, I think those are just some passing phantoms. Nothing to worry about though, they're only dangerous at night, and judging from the size of them, I doubt even then, they would care that much about us with how rested we are" Oh? I knew what they were of course, meta-knowledge and all that. But I didn't know this is what they looked like, as sadly the book I had managed to snag didn't have any pictures and the descriptions left something to be desired.
But for basic in world knowledge, what I have been able to learn from the book I bought back in Kebell is that phantoms hunt those that have gone many nights weren't rest. Usually they're completely harmless as most have normal sleep schedules, and it shows as much in the docile looking birds that I'm seeing now, with their blue and white feather. And yet, for those that have gone a long time without sleep, they appear to look like, well, phantoms, it's were the name comes from here.
"Oh? I don't think I've ever seen one that wasn't in it's other form, it's neat looking" Warren seemed to be looking into that comment more than was needed but it's true it is neat. The birds just looked cool and the differences in these creatures and the ones that were in the source game just made them even cooler in my opinion to be honest. Mostly it's little changes like that which both remind me that I have to expect some clear differences in what I know and what I should expect and also that half the time the difference is quite interesting to think about.
"Yeah, I'm sure you'd think so even if it was in it's other form trying to eat a person in front of you" My knee jerk reaction was to reply back with something snappy and more than likely something funny to continue the light banter, but after a moment of thinking about it, I had to agree with his assessment. That did actually sound like it would be an interesting sight to watch, mostly because I wasn't sure if I would be able to see the other form as well even if the one being attacked could...Well now I'm curious as to what they would look like. I mean a small bird killing a person sounds like a very entertaining thing to watch...Is that fucked up?
"I mean just cause you're right doesn't mean you have to be rude about it" Warren took a page, well really it was more of a book, out of Eline's library and just rolled his eyes at my words, before laying the topic to rest as I continued to look up at the sky at the birds/dangerous monsters as they glided around in the air. I never really understood the fascination with something like flight.
It's said to be incredibly freeing or something like that but I just find it a bit silly. Out of all the powers in the world, why is one that inconvenient the one that everyone seems to want? Honestly, teleportation was the one I would choose if I had to get one for transportation, I mean it's just the same as flying without all the middle steps in between getting somewhere. Really it was just infinitely more effective.
But I suppose that wasn't the point of having a power like that, which I also find weird since it's only real use it to use as a way to get to places. No, it's all about the freeingness of it, which I really don't understand all that well to be honest, I mean I can totally see why something like flying would be fun as hell, but freeing? Yeah not so much. I just don't get it, but that might come from finding most of everything about equal in terms of enjoyment, maybe I can't understand because in a way everything is already like that for me, which would just mean I understand better than anyone. That's both equally thought provoking and unanswerable. I'm sure it's going to bug me for a while.
Anyway, moving on from that to something related that was also bugging me, teleportation, more over the Spells version of it, not the enderman's way, was still moving in and out of my grip, and by that I mean I thought I had managed it once and it turned out I had been pushed over by a very strong gust of wind. Not to say I'm surprised as this Spell was one that only a very small number of people had ever figured out and had been lost to the ages for centuries, supposedly, it's all guess work, though not mine this time.
It was the guess work of a number of historians that focus on the specific history of the Magic Specialization, something I've taken to read a lot about over the last few months, almost three now I believe, whenever I've had the time. The main problem with it all was the fact that teleportation is impossible. Elemental learning, at least with Fire was much easier for the simple fact that I know fire, I've experience it, made it, ended it, and I understand the science that goes on during it.
With teleportation though...Well I don't have that luxury, sure I've experienced it but that's about it really. I can't logic my way through it, which was hard enough with Fire considering that I had logic my way through literal Magic, something that already doesn't make any logical sense when you put any level of thought into how it actually works.
Simply put, I just don't think I can understand it or remake the Spell at this moment, at least if I did then clearly I'm much smarter than I think I am. Not to say it's impossible, as I like to think I've made some pretty good strides with my Specialization in only the barely three months I've had access to it. But I don't know enough to translate impossible science into possible magic. I'll need to learn more, get someone to explain somethings as well to me, as I can't realistically deduce everything for myself.
That doesn't mean I don't already have a decent idea as to what I'll be needing to learn to figure out this teleporting business. The main thing that has really hampered on this actually is my Dark affinity. As what teleportation would fall under is technically the Misc branch of spells, which from looking at it, is just raw energy manipulation to get a desired effect. So for me to move onto something extremely complex like teleporting, I would have to first become accustomed to using my MP in such away.
So to bad for me that as it happens the only Misc Spell I have access to also happens to be the one that I can't use because light and dark are complete opposites. Though of course that also leads to some other rather interesting thoughts as well doesn't it. I mean, I should be able to use it as the spell should only use my raw mana points, and yet I can't, which can only mean one thing. Like how I figured with my Fire, Dark is my raw energy, it's just convert to have a different appearance and effect.
I think that it's only that case for Magic users as every other Specialization class that has a energy system isn't actually linked to the MP system at all. I mean Misc only shows up when choosing the Magic Specialization after all, and yet everyone else can use Misc magic anyway, so in my mind there has to be some difference between the two, in either power difference or, just maybe, what the energy is like. I mean for everyone else it's the same, but for a Magic user, their energy reacts differently to different spells.
I wasn't explaining it well, I'm aware of that, honestly those thoughts were confusing even me, but it's hard to put into proper words, and yet I'm keeping on trying. Really the main problem is what I've already said, I don't have any Misc Spells, something I need to fix and when I do, I'm sure I'll be able to explain this all much more accurately, which I can't wait to happen. Both out of a mix of finding all this very fun to be honest and really wanting to learn another Spell and start making my own new ones at some point.
Well, either way, I have to be content with just waiting for right now, while having these thoughts about it all in the mean time on managing to work about and find new things out about this system I get to play with. Sure it's a bit sad, but then again even with taking in all my time thinking, it's no fun if I can just figure literally everything out myself just because I spent a few hours thinking about it. Somethings have to remain a mystery or at least I have to be wrong about some of it.
At least I hope so, being right all the time I feel could be a bit annoying to be honest. I see it all like a puzzle, I have all the pieces but it's no fun if it comes already completely arranged for me or I manage it all first try without that small bit of annoyance at losing a few pieces and having to spend a while trying to make sure it actually came with everything and I wasn't an idiot who had knocked it under a nearby couch... Ok that dragged on a bit longer than needed but I think the point still stands all the same.
"We're approaching a couple storm clouds" I was blinked out of my thoughts as Eline's voice from the front of the cart broke through the silence I had let myself be covered in to have some time to think completely without outside interference, something I don't allow myself to do out of the small bit of paranoia that I will admit I have. Sitting up a bit, I looked out the front of the cart at what Eline had been talking about, and saw what she meant.
In the direction we were heading was a number of clouds that were graying, casting a long shadow over the plains that we were in at the moment. Dividing the light area we were traveling through and the shadowed land we would be soon approaching. I noted out of the corner of my eye that Zane's ears had lowered on his head at the sight of it. So I glanced back at the clouds and looked them over, using my middle school knowledge of could patterns to say to Zane in a low tone so the other two wouldn't hear it, just in case he was a bit embarrassed by being scared of thunder.
"Hey, don't worry. See the clouds up there, they're acting like a blanket at the moment, meaning that a lightning or thunderstorm probably isn't going to happen, it has a name but I kind of forgot it. The ones you're thinking of are really puffy and tall, they cause a lot more thunder and lightning, plus usually they need some wind and it isn't too windy out today either. So all that's going to happen is some showers of rain, maybe a bit heavy with how dark the clouds are but nothing bad"
Zane looked at me for a moment before glancing up at the clouds again and nodded, looking a bit relieved at that bit of information, which I really hope is correct. I mean I'm pretty sure it is, but I learned about the different types of clouds probably a full decade ago now and that information hasn't been needed for a long time, so I might have got it backwards. Still, instead of thinking about how I might be wrong, I just called out to Eline.
"Alrighty, we should probably put the cover on the cart then, just in case it starts to pour down on us in the next few hours. Mind helping me with that you two?" I got a nodded from both Warren and Zane as I used my position on the floor to reach under one of the seats on the cart and pulled out the hood for said cart, it was currently folded up but it would expand more than wide and tall enough that we all could stand in the cart bed and still be covered. Though it was a pain in the ass to fold back up, especially when it's been rained on.
"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Eline blinked as she looked up at me as I moved to sit down next to her as I looked on at the pouring rain as it continued to fall. Honestly I had only half noticed the look of contemplation on Eline's face, my mind was to busy wondering about how hard it would be to figure out Water as the next Elemental affinity in my tool kit. But I noticed all the same and couldn't help but be curious as to what she was thinking about, as it could be something much more important than me playing with magic.
"Huh? Oh. It's nothing really, just remembering a few things from my childhood" I hummed a bit at that as I swung my legs out a bit on the edge we were sitting on, the top of the cart only extending enough to shield me so my feet were getting a bit wet as I extended them but I didn't mind. After a second, I hummed a bit and said.
"Really? Anyway interesting enough to share?" She didn't have to if she didn't want to, but it was a bit obvious to me that whatever was on her mind was something that had been weighing on it. And talking about these stuff, I'm told, is a great way to work through your problems. I haven't had much experience with doing so myself, but that's because of a lack of proper trust in those that I knew at the time.
"Well, I don't think it's anything that interesting really, but I was just remembering back when me and Alice would go out and explore our village when our parents weren't looking. It was dumb and we were so young, and yet we some how managed to find this old abandoned house, it was torn down and remade about two years ago, but at the time we thought it was the coolest thing ever" I nodded to that, knowing a bit about what it was like to find something you had just for yourself and someone you trusted.
"We went there at least once a week, and then... Alice had gotten trapped in a collapsed floor board. I was so scared at the time, it had been raining, looking back on it, I think the water had rotted the floor as the roof was a bit patchy in places. Still, I didn't know what to do, so I froze and just stayed with her, trying to keep her calm and failing pretty miserably at it. We were lucky that about twenty minutes later a traveler that had been passing through the village had been there. He just pulled Alice out like she weighed nothing, comforting her all the while"
I looked over at Eline as she spoke, not entirely sure what to do with this information, just like I wasn't sure what had caused this suddenly recall in memories for Eline to think about. Thankfully, Eline seemed to notice my lack of understanding as to why this was on her mind as she just shrugged a bit and said a bit faintly to me.
"I've just been looking back on how you've been able to help Zane so much. Just a few words and you can calm him down fully, you only met the little guy a few months ago and you two are already as close as my family is, closer probably. I don't know, it just got me thinking about a few things I guess" I frowned a bit at her words, not entirely sure what to do with that for just a moment before my mind got to work to realize that my newest skill in therapy was now needed.
"Don't think it's only me and Zane, the two of you are just as much my family my first one, hell to be honest, you and Warren have been closer to me than my own original family. And you should know that isn't something I can say lightly. I can get along with practically everyone, but that doesn't mean I trust all that easily. And yet you three all have wormed you're way into that circle of trust. So don't look at it as another family your accompanying, no, you're with, lets say, your second family"
Eline blinked a bit at that before looking at me for a short moment before looking back away at the rain. I noted she gave me a very short nodded as I figured she probably wanted some time alone after that little talk of ours. So with that I stood up, gave her a pat on the shoulder as I went and sat back down, where I had been not to long ago, absently thinking about one thing or another.
Just the end of their time in Kebell and the party moving on to the next village. Here's a fun fact, I usually keep all the lore and stuff in my head as I;m usually pretty good at remembering everything but I'm a bit shit at remembering stuff like maps and the like. So I used some of my worryingly large amount of free time to draw out a complete world map of all the villages, the separate lands, and splattered mountains, hills, and other biomes around the place sop I don't have to have a stroke every time I try to remember something like Vansal being surrounded by water and that it's close to the human's land and all this other stuff. Anyway, See ya.