Author's Note: Nothing to say right now. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 20: The Trip to Zeltoble
It was a steamer ship, the kind used for hauling cargo across the sea, as such it was also very large too. Part of the deal that allowed Katarina and company to take it over to Zeltoble with them was that they would be providing protection from monsters in the waters that would be surrounding it. That worked out fine for them, for part of the reason why they had all decided to take separate routes would be that they would have the chance to grind for levels. As they were told Grinding in the ocean was particularly fruitful, for the monsters of the ocean offer a much greater bounty when killed there than when killed on dry land, which also meant that the monsters there were a lot higher level anyway. All said and done some specialised equipment needed to be prepared and Tanya had provided them some for the long trek.
"This suit smells." Elena stated from within her Kushtaka Kigurumi. "When was the last time that otter had a bath?"
"Kyurie seems to like it." Katarina stated head poking out of her own Kigurumi while she watched Kyurie.
"Tremble before my might denizens of the sea!" Kyurie in the form of a giant otter shouted from the nose of the ship. "For now not even the water is an obstacle to unleashing my greatness!"
"So what you're saying is that it was a obstacle before?" Elena's latest biting remark saw the bat child fall over and land in the water. "Huu. Might as well get this over with."
The three humans dropped into the water afterwards, the Poison Filolial, Midori, would not be joining them due to being too small to put on the costume, instead being left in the food storage area so that he could eat some when he's growing at an accelerated rate. Katarina was currently wielding a harpoon with it's bonuses to underwater combat picking off various monsters as she went, and then they came across a massive fish making a bee line for the ship and so a appropriate response needed to follow. Luckily Kuro had shared resources from Siltvelt's wave boss.
'Apple Deer Spear. Equip Bonus: Charging Spear. Main Bonus: Fruit Barrier'
Stupidest name ever devised for a monster, but it had it's uses. Katarina started by charging into the thing's eye, and that got it's attention. Technically what follows is known as the Kentucky sleigh ride, that being when whaling ships would harpoon their prey and the whale would respond by rampaging about trying to shake them off. In this case that took Katarina off into the air holding onto the side of the giant tuna for dear life before it crashed back into the water with her on the bottom. Needless to say if not for the fact that Katarina literally cannot be separated from her spear she would have separated from the Tuna when she fell unconscious. That said she was now drowning, so drastic measures would need to be taken soon. Kyurie dashingly grabbed hold of Katarina and yanked her off of her prey before shoving as much air as he could into her lungs and bringing her back to the surface, luckily he has a far greater lung capacity as a Kushtaka then as a vampire and so took her back onto the ship.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble your bird has been causing us!" The captain asked as he indicated the store room where the sound of something causing ruckus inside was emanating.
"Priorities." Elena stated as the half blind tuna leaped out of the water and tried to jump out of the water and land on them again. Suddenly the door leading to the store room was thrown off it's hinges and smacked the fish in the face. Midori emerged from the door slowly, his body best summarised as the most monstrously ripped ostrich you will ever seen, and also completely green but that was irrelevant to the situation. "Kill it!" Elena stated pointing at the fish that had been deflected away from the ship and fell back into the water, thus it was now making for a second charge towards the ship in anticipation of getting to take a bite out of it.
Midori was having none of that, jumping into the air the bird creature nose dived towards the fish and delivered a wing chop directly to the fish's neck sounding a loud crack in the process followed up by a green mist seeping into the wound. The poison ate through the fish's spine and notice for a large amount of XP entered everyone in the party's vision. Rino looked to the captain and pointed at the fish Midori had just finished off.
"There's your food."
The fish monster was promptly sucked into the spear unlocking the 'Hammer Head Tuna' series. Unusually high defensive bonuses but nothing too special, especially in comparison to seeing Midori take the form of a giant green owl/chicken. And they did mean giant. Filo, the previous standard of giant Filolial's due to the excessive girth that her form seemed to possess, would look small next to this monster.
"Are you sure that this is going to be enough?" Elena asked looking at the giant bird in question. The critter was assigned to work a crank that produced magical thread which would then be processed into magical clothes.
"It's fine! I already picked out the clothes I want him to wear." White T-shirt with brown overalls, simple and elegant, perfect for the little brother look that was perfected by Keith.
"In any case I'll just set the spear to make his clothes." Katarina stated as she stuffed the magical silk into her spear.
"How do we even know that he knows how to transform into human form?" Elena stated scratching the side of her head while looking at the giant owl.
"Filo didn't need anyone to teach her right?" Rino asked scratching the side of her head.
"Filo was travelling with three Therianthropes." Elena countered tapping her foot in suspicion.
"Which is why we make use of this!" Katarina hoisted up the Crystal ball spear and produced a holographic image of Filo switching back and forth between her humanoid and Filolial forms, which seemed to have worked as the giant Owl Midori poofed away.
""EEEHHH!?""
Tanya finished work on her basket weaving and so set to work.
"How long have you guys been bombarding her?" Tanya asked looking at the rest of her party as they finished with the magic bombardment.
"Most of the night." Viktoriya admitted mildly impressed. "This girl doesn't scare easily." Then again, after being trapped inside of the Grayrat playroom for gods know how long, who would scare easily? "She has potential."
"And we don't have time. Send Ake to fetch her." Tanya stated waving off the concerns. "Afterwards help me fill this thing up."
Aranaya had finished work on the massive spider silk hot air balloon to make the thing float. It would be filled with a mixture of fire and air magic which would take them into the air. Tanya had considered using hydrogen to fill the balloon instead, a simple matter when both lightning and water magic were both things, but she wasn't fond of repeating the Hindenburg. Otto soon returned with the griffin at his side, black body cackling with electricity and aggression, good now was the time to get working.
"Why am I riding on the Griffin?" Rishia questioned while sitting on the back of the monster in question after she had been equipped with the appropriate riding equipment, most notably long rope connecting her to the blimp so that she could tow them all the way to Zeltoble.
"Why else? You and Blitz are the ones who need to grind the most." Tanya stated bluntly pointing to the sky before them. "Get to work." With a slap on the cheeks the Griffin ran forward, Tanya shortly there after climbing into the passenger compartment of the blimp.
"Fuu!" Rishia shouted while the Griffin flew towards a flock of birds that had been flying through air and quickly began picking them off, firing lightning into the air outright frying the birds in question which in turn led to a trickle of experience points to start coming in.
"With luck they'll have hit the cap by the time we reach Zeltoble." Tanya stated using the slave seal in order to direct blitz while she read a map. The air currents here naturally blow in the direction of Zeltoble, taking advantage of which they can fly their way over to the desert territory while riding on them and at the same time allow them to take things easy. Or so they would think.
"Who dares enter my territory!" A large booming and angry voice shouted prompting Tanya to look up from her map and out the window at another griffin that had appeared, one that was much larger then the rest as well though she didn't know if that was significant. "A rather attractive specimen you have brought me? Very well, we shall feast on you while we-"
"Triple shot." Tanya called out the name of the skill she got from the Cerberus Material that Kuro had given her, causing three masses of SP to fly above the Griffin's head. "Arrow Rain." The three masses burst releasing a mass of projectiles down from above through the first milestone skill that Tanya unlocked. "Meteor shot." The raining masses turned into explosive projectiles as they crashed into the griffin, who could only scream indignantly under the bombardment of explosives forcing him to crash into the ground. "Unfortunately for you I am not so kind as to leave a wounded animal out in the wild to continue wreaking havoc." Tanya stated swapping out her bow for something sharper and made out of crystal, courtesy of Katarina. "I, the Hero of the Bow, call upon the origin of power. Decipher the laws of nature and augment the weight of my target. Zweite Heavy Mass!" Tanya attempted to cast the magic of her world she learned in the academy for augmenting the weight behind artillery shots and the words came out all on their own as the magic was sunk into the jewel of her bow. "Crystal Spike!" The shot went straight through the Griffin, if the hole in his stomach was not enough to finish him off the ensuing fountain of crystal shards soon did the trick as they erupted through his body.
"GAH!" Miraculously that hadn't killed him, though the gush of blood that followed once the crystal started to break down might be a entirely different story. "DAMN YOU! I, THE KING OF THE GRIFFIN'S COMMAND THE ORIGIN OF POW-!" Tanya fired a skill off at the mountain triggering a rock-slide causing boulders to tumble down onto the crippled griffin burying him alive. It wasn't long until Tanya received the notification indicating the monster's death.
"I'm going to go down and get the corpse." Tanya stated as she sent a message to Blitz to come back to the blimp. "It will make good loot, and maybe more weapons to stimulate Blitz's growth."
With that in mind Blitz was called back onto the zepplin while Tanya went to excavate the other griffin, Tanya neither had the time nor the ability to remove all of these heavy boulders by herself. So instead she got her legendary Bow to do so for her, vacuuming up all the rubble until the corpse of the crushed griffin was revealed, and shortly after that the grizzly creature was sucked up too. Bone, Meat weapon notifications soon followed, but the real prize was when Tanya told the bow to turn the material into armour. The Griffin armour's stats were ridiculous, which only made her frustrated that it was way too big for her. Maybe they could give it to Eli when they got back, it looked like his size. Thus Tanya flew back up to the zepplin where she noticed that both Ake and Otto had silk blindfold's wrapped around their eyes while Rishia looked emotionally devastated.
"What happened?" Tanya asked while the two men just pointed over to the make shift cabin they had made for themselves, thus Tanya was now having a look for herself and was surprised, to put it mildly, at what she saw. On a related note, after Katarina fed the recording crystal to her weapon she discovered a skill that would let her message other such weapons as well, which lead to Tanya to secure three more for herself and the other heroes. Thus Tanya now had a strong suspicion as to why Katarina was calling her now.
"Kat." Tanya stated in a even toned voice.
"HUGE!" Was Katarina's half maddened shriek while she waved her arms about.
"I see. Show me." Katarina's hologram moved over to what Tanya would be forgiven for thinking was Arnold Schwarzenegger summoned as a hero, because he was the singular most monstrously ripped humanoid she had ever seen, the leather and cloth loincloth only added to the barbarian like look. The only relation she could think of to tie who he was and whom Tanya thought he was though was the green wings and green hair. "Hello Midori." The green haired man waved back in hello indicating who he really was, Elena pulled the spear back and closed the door before she looked at Tanya through the communication crystal.
"Please tell me that Blitz has stayed normal." Elena stated hands together in a begging motion.
"I could do that, but I won't." Was Tanya's simple reply as she opened the door leading into the cabin where she encountered a mature lady with raven black hair, and a pair of just as dark coloured large wings. Course that wasn't the only large pair that she had but that part could be saved for later. For now Aranaya was putting together something needlessly lacy for the sake of Blitz's modesty.
"Th-that is Blitz?" Elena was taken aback by the sight. "You guys didn't just pick up some bird type demi-human and is using them to pull our leg right now are you?"
"That is not the case no." Tanya stated as she closed the door and thought about the situation.
Growth bonus. They initially thought that the thing being grown is their stats via manipulating this world's weird stat based physics laws to artificially increase their abilities but did the bonus mention what was being manipulated? In Tanya's mind a picture four humanoid Filolials appeared: child like, teenager, Adult and mature adult representing the four major stages of growth. Larger more muscular bodies should translate into increased stats so that made sense for Midori but Blitz? Though far from being in what you'd call bad shape Blitz's frame didn't give off the same sense of ominous power as Midori's did, there was no visible muscle underneath her shapely figure so what else could it be.
"Hmm. Fat stores energy so... magic?" Blitz was a wizard type is what Tanya was starting to deduce from her guesses. Or it could be that she was entirely mistaken, and instead for some strange reason the weapons growth bonuses made their companions more objectively attractive for some reason. "You aren't trying to honey trap me are you?"
"What are you talking about?" Katarina asked looking at Tanya like she said something weird all of a sudden. She was mind you but that was besides the point.
"We'll compare notes with Maple and Kuro in Zeltoble." With this in mind Tanya turned her attention to Blitz and Aranaya. "Blitz I'm going to need you to finish pulling the zepplin to Zeltoble."
"Okay!" And in one smooth motion all of Aranaya's hard work was ruined.
"Was it too much to ask for that you at least make her undress first?" The spider woman stated as she mourned her work.
Ah. So they'd have to get some magic thread for her too.
Maple's wagon blew by them a little while ago, it wasn't until Kuro couldn't see them anymore with her magic vision that she resumed their trek. The most numeral monsters here in this desert were called Cactuars, cactus which has had absorbed too much magical energy to the point that it spontaneously mutates into a monster. So basically the cactus equivalent to a Treant. Sadly though most numerous also meant the weakest as well. XP demands living things of which this miserable place seemed short on and Kuro was noting that it was starting to get dark out soon.
"We should arrange camp, Sir Hero." One of the Trader's men nodded his head and Kuro nodded in response.
Travelling the roads at night can be dangerous anywhere let alone in a world like this, so for now the group found a oasis they could make camp at and proceeded to do that. Well except for Kuro that is.
"...Cheater." Welt could say nothing else after watching Kuro materialise a single bedroom apartment out of thin air so that she could stay there for the night.
"Are you sure this will last the entire night?" Kuro stated brushing out her hair before she went to sleep.
'Affirmative. Sinking proficiency into crafting bonuses have increased the efficiency of 'Projection' and 'Tracing.' Sinking proficiency into mana boosting swords has increased mana capacity and regeneration. Mana costs have been minimised as a result.'
"And the privacy measures?"
'All walls have been sound proofed and all openings to the outside world are gone. There is no way for anyone to see or hear what's inside the box. The walls have been reinforced to the point of indestructibility within reason.'
The weapon's explanation was enough to satisfy Kuro, who decided to proceed with her depraved side project.
"Hmm. Red doesn't show up the best against my skin." Kuro stated and so with a snap of her fingers the ribbon she was wearing, alongside nothing else, changed to a white. "But I've never heard of a white ribbon on a gift before. Hmm. Red on white would probably work better." Kuro opted to use the ribbon to tie up her hair, complete with bell, before she willed her usual cat themed lingerie into existence around her. The usual cat tail had another red ribbon bell combo attached to the end of it, while she instead of the usual strapped bra Kuro went instead with a fur collar attached to a strapless. "It's good." Kuro commented looking at herself the mirror and feeling herself up. "But it feels like I can do better. Something with the bottom too?" While Kuro was thinking about that something suddenly picked up the entire building she was inside of and carried it off through the air. "What in hell's name is this about?" Kuro shouted glaring bitterly around the room.
'Unable to answer. The Hero has cut off all access to the outside world.'
Kuro's brow twitched in annoyance as she sensed the sarcasm of the weapon biting into her.
"Alright, no problem I'll just wipe away my trace and..."
'Unwise. The Hero appears to be a unknown height into the air, and also cannot fly.'
"Well. For one thing I should at least get my clothes back on." And while Kuro did so she could tell that the house had stopped moving by the way everything inside had stopped sliding around after short drop. Kuro's grin was all teeth and malice. "Byakuya remind me. What kinds of monsters are big enough to carry off my tent and fly at the same time?"
Dragons always have a eye for value, the stories about their massive hoards of treasure big enough even for their massive bulk to sleep on are not but any stretch of the imagination a boast. This one was just flying over it's territory when it saw this box, and sensed from within it a massive ocean of treasures, weapons of incredible value as many as fish in the sea all of them conveniently locked inside of this treasure chest. How could any dragon in their right mind resist. Then the box disappeared and was replaced by the sight of a smiling demon with a thousand swords floating around her.
"Hi there!" Five minutes later and the dragon had been beaten to a bloody pulp by roughly 1000 Chimera Dragon head swords. "Now what should I do with you?" Kuro asked while she pressed down on what was left of the dragon's foot with her own and smirked at him.
"Spare me...!" The Dragon begged his tone sounding quite pathetic.
"And why should I do that?" Kuro asked the thousand anti-dragon blades she had assembled for this occasion menacingly hanging in the air like the looming blade of a Guillotine.
"I'll be your slave so long as you live!" The dragon shouted pathetically causing Kuro's blades to sink down further. "All of my worldly treasures will be yours!" Even further did the anti-dragon blades sink. "What more do you want from me!?"
"My issue here you understand is that to in order to put you under my command you need to be a egg that I can brand with a monster seal." Suddenly the dragon started to cough something up and spat out a purple crystal.
"Give that to the egg of a dragon and it will inherit all of my memories and knowledge." The dragon stated making it clear that this was it's most bottom line.
"Sold!" Kuro stated as she put the crystal inside of her sword for storage.
"Now than, I need a lift back to the rest of my party, and afterwards we all are going to need transportation to Zeltoble." And that was how the dragon who meant to steal a sea of treasures instead lost his fortune and became a taxi for a ten year old, her party and hundreds of raging psychotic lunatics with mismatched body parts that they were babysitting.
Maple's group arrived in Zeltoble first, but what other outcome could there be with Filo's insane leg strength, the monsters inside of the carriage made to experience hell, and the beasts in the cages didn't look so hot either.
"I can see that I should not take the leg strength of the four weapons holy bird lightly: ye-URG!" Beloukas stumbled out of his own wagon, hitched to the back of Filo's and thus made to suffer the full might of the bumps they went through along the way without benefit of modern shocks Maple had put on the thing, did a loose approximation of walking for about three steps before his stomach moved to turn itself inside out. He already emptied it on the ride over.
"How?" Raphtalia pulled her head through the carriage window and glowered at Maple like she was some kind of inhuman monster. "How can you possibly still be okay after all of that!?" Raphtalia now regretted Cheering Filo on to run to Zeltoble as fast as possible, for even with Modern day enhancements to the carriage to reduce bouncing around inside they still crossed over rough terrain at somewhere roughly close to mach 1.
"Umm... Maybe we should leave him here to recover a bit." Maple commented looking down at Beloukas awkwardly as she thought about the correct way to handle the situation that they had been handed.
"I'll be fine Sir shield." Beloukas stated, ignorant to the fog that started to encompass the area. "I'll assign one of my men to show you to somewhere safe though, Four Weapons knows that if the others show up and you are not safe..." The Four Weapons might not know but what the others would do to him but Beloukas would soon know, for you see while he was busy trying to keep his stomach from coming out through his face the fog had disappeared along with the Hero's party.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: If you say so. There may be.
Captain Imaginat: A monkey would make a better Hero then what Itsuki did. Cuddling a giant fluffy animal is excellent for emotional recovery: and the giant fluffy animal. Given certain revelations about how Midori turned out it's a justified concern. Malty has no plans, mostly because she's not smart enough to escape from her predicament. Now do others have plans for her? That's a different concern. The King already mentioned Gaston's fate, he's been assigned to the group working to rebuild the castle town as one of the labourers.
drmcgraw186: Which is as soon as Rishia's basic training is over with and the Heroes arrive in Cal Mira Rishia is going to be joining Maple's regular therapy groups.
RedBurningDragon: I thought the same.
Salem Ruby Rose: Much appreciated.