Welcome back to another chapter of this sort of crackfic! Sorry to keep you all waiting, but hopefully updates will come more frequently from here on out. I have no idea how far this will go but I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon. Might take a break tho, I need to pre-farm Kazuha…
Also, we've hit 30 favorites! I didn't actually know how popular this fanfic would be but this is a welcome surprise. To those who left reviews, I really appreciate it! Reviews keep me going, so if there's anything you want to say to improve the story, go ahead.
With all my rambling out of the way, here's Chapter 4!
Normal Text - Descriptions, Narration, and Character thoughts
"Quoted Text" - Character Dialogue
Bold Text - Emphasis, mostly used within dialogue.
Bold + Italicized - System UI
Italicized - Items names, both inside and outside System UI
"Internal Dialogue"
Chapter 4 - And so the main quest begins
Aether immediately opened his Character menu. Not to make changes to his character, mind you. He just needed to stop time real quick.
How was he going to explain that he had a crazy ability that gave him access to a video game-like system that let him alter reality with a few taps? Not to mention…
"Seeing as I'm technically her, you could just laugh it off and say that Paimon was referring to your Anemo powers…"
…he had a copy of the person questioning him in his brain. Well, not his brain exactly. Extra-dimensional space? Metaworld? Pocket Universe? Who knows? Questioning the system just led to even more questions, which he really wasn't in the right state of mind to answer.
In any case, having a version of Amber gives tips on how to deal with the real Amber was a real advantage. Assuming that this Amber knew herself well enough, he could just go with what that Amber says, and it would all work out with the real Amber.
Guess he could give it a shot. Making a mental note to himself to talk to Paimon with regards to the privacy of his ability, he exited his menu.
"Oh, Paimon was talking about my anemo abilities. I'm still getting used to them, you see. Not exactly sure how all this stuff works."
It wasn't the truth exactly, but he wasn't really lying either. Hopefully Amber won't question him further.
"Oh, come to think of it, where's your Vision?"
Aether immediately panicked and opened a random menu. Guess he was staring at his inventory for a while.
"I'm not sure if this is supposed to be common knowledge, but what's a Vision?"
"I'm not the most qualified person to be teaching you this, but it's kind of like a thing that the gods give you when they recognize your ambition. It's also what gives people the ability to use elemental powers, though they can only use the element of their vision."
Well that was strange. He didn't receive any physical item when he touched the Statue of the Seven and gained his Anemo powers. Unless…
Aether went through each and every item he had in his inventory. Maybe the system gave it to him and he just didn't realize it? He saw all the random stuff he collected like the sunsettias and mushrooms, but no item marked as a Vision.
He checked the Weapons Tab and only saw his swords. He checked the Artifacts Tab and found…absolutely nothing. He went through the rest of his inventory tabs and…
Aha! Aether checked the Quests tab and…there was no Vision there. Yikes.
Oh! Precious Items. Given the nature of a Vision, it had to be here, and…it was empty. No Vision anywhere in his inventory.
"So if you find a person who can wield elemental powers without a Vision, is that normal?"
"...Nope. Not at all!"
Aether immediately panicked. He needed to gain the trust of Amber if he wanted to get those missing posters around. Being outed as abnormal for being able to wield anemo without a vision wouldn't help.
"Well, to be fair, I already know that you don't have a vision…and I'm not saying you're abnormal. Just be honest, it'll save you a lot of trouble."
As much as Aether wanted to overthink and come up with 15 different explanations for all the potential scenarios that could come his way, he had to admit that the Amber in his head had a point. Maybe it was for the best.
(Aether ignored the fact that he literally half-lied to Amber earlier. Oh well.)
Closing his inventory one again, and hoping that no more bombshells would come his way, he replied.
"Oh, strange story. It seems I didn't receive one when I got my anemo powers. Really weird, I know. I don't get it either."
Aether silently prayed to whatever god was listening that things wouldn't go horribly wrong.
"You can use anemo without a vision? That's definitely unusual. You can ask Lisa about it later, maybe she knows something about that."
Aether silently sighed in relief as he dodged yet another bombshell.
Wait…
"Who's Lisa?"
"Oh, Lisa is the librarian in the Knights of Favonius. I'll introduce you to her sometime."
Right. More characters.
"Anyways, come with me! I promised to escort you to the city, and a responsible knight keeps their promises."
As that conversation finally ended, he noted that his quest log had updated.
Going Upon The Breeze
Keeping heading towards Mondstadt
Wait, did Amber disappear again?
"No, I'm still here."
"No, the physical Amber."
"Oh…yeah she's gone."
Did the physical Amber only appear whenever she was needed? Come to think of it if this was a game, then it had to follow a plot. So maybe the physical Amber only appeared when the plot needed her to be there. At least that Amber didn't see the other Amber materialize. He wasn't sure if he could explain the presence of two Ambers.
Ignoring how Teyvat was slowly looking more and more like a video game world (for the sake of his sanity he did not dwell on this), he refocused on the surrounding area. There was a chest up ahead, so he opened it up and looted it.
Obtained
- Anemo Sigil x1
- Adventurer's Tail Feather x1
- Mora x800
- Adventurer's Experience x3
He had no idea what the heck any of those were. He'll have to check those later. Aether refocused his sights on the bright yellow diamond on his map, guiding him to go to the city of Mondstadt.
Aether made his way back down the hill Amber scaled to get to the camp. From where he was, he had a clear view of the city of Mondstadt. The castle-like wall wrapped around the entire city, which was situated in the middle of an island. A stone bridge connected the mainland to the island. A pristine lake surrounded the island. Above the walls, the massive windmills span with the wind. No wonder why they were the city of Anemo.
Aether set his sights on rejoining the path to the bridge when he passed by a person standing there when…
New Quest
The Art of Cooking
Speak to Lynn
Where there are main quests, there are side quests. He really hoped he didn't have to do them all. He tried going for a 100% completion rate on a certain RPG in the past, when he was in that world with video games, and it took nearly all of his sanity and time.
Speaking of games, the system UI shoved this into his face.
Mushroom
Fowl
Apple
Is that what the system shows him when there's an item he could pick up? Huh, neat. Hidden objects had nothing on him now. He grabbed everything and decided to get the side quest done and over with. If food restored his HP, he was gonna need to learn how to make good food.
"What's that? It smells so good!"
Leave it to Paimon to pop up when food is the main focus.
Approaching the person named Lynn, he realized several things.
First off, the UI displayed this above Lynn's head.
Lynn
Adventurer
Even the people had labels…this system was really pushing the 'this world is a video game' agenda. But he wasn't quite ready to fully accept that. Yet.
Secondly, more options popped up on his vision, similar to how the list of items he could pick up appeared.
Lynn
Cook
The 'Lynn' option had a speech bubble next to it, while the 'Cook' option had a chef's hat.
He had to talk to Lynn, so he selected the 'Lynn' option mentally, and lo and behold, Lynn started talking.
Given the fact that this was a sde quest, he wasn't sure how important the dialogue was, so he let Paimon do the talking. Surely, Paimon couldn't screw up a conversation about food.
"My travel partner here is good at cooking as well!"
Oh, looks like Paimon put him on the spot. Well, he did do a little cooking back then, but it was nothing too fancy. Maybe Paimon found all food tasty.
"I've done a little cooking here and there, nothing too fancy."
"That's fine. Let's see what you can do. There are some food supplies in that food barrel over there. Try making me a Chicken-Mushroom Skewer."
No idea that was, but it couldn't hurt to try. He approached the campfire with the pot and interacted with it. A new menu popped up. He could see a short selection of recipes there, with some being faded out. Maybe he didn't unlock those yet?
The recipe for the Chicken-Mushroom Skewer was unlocked, thankfully, so he pressed that and hit the Cook option.
A new menu popped out, showing a stove with the chicken and mushroom in there. He hit the Cook option again, and a curved bar immediately popped up, with a smaller pale yellow bar within, and a yellow bar within that. A pointer was moving along the bar, rapidly approaching yellow, and wait wasn't he cooking?
The only option he could see was Stop. The bar was rapidly approaching, and it had just hit yellow. Seeing as it was in the middle, Aether hit the Stop option, and…
Perfect!
An image of a Chicken-Mushroom skewer with sparkles appeared. Who knew cooking was actually just a reaction time game?
He had some more of the ingredients used, so he made another perfect Chicken-Mushroom Skewer. Since food was essential for healing, he went back and checked out some of the other dishes he could make.
Teyvat Fried Egg. Interesting. He selected that, grabbed the random Bird Egg he didn't know where he got from, and made it. Getting it perfect was way too easy.
Radish Veggie Soup. He also made this. Again, too easy.
Finally, out of ingredients, he closed the menu, materialized a Chicken-Mushroom Skewer, and talked to Lynn.
"Ooh, smells good."
Lynn proceeded to eat it. Come to think of it, where did the stick come from?
"Tastes excellent! You are indeed gifted!"
Well, more like cooking was made easy thanks to the system, but sure, thanks.
Lynn then proceeded to talk about gathering ingredients in the wild. She gave him some more raw ingredients, then recommended a place called Good Hunter for more ingredients. Cool.
"Thanks for the info! Hey, leave some Chicken-Mushroom Skewers for Paimon!"
Aether sighed as he materialized another Chicken-Mushroom Skewer for Paimon. He was going to have to cook a lot if this keeps up.
The Art of Cooking
Quest Completed!
Going back to the stove, he made more Chicken-Mushroom Skewers and Teyvat Fried Eggs. He then closed the menu and made his way across the bridge, finally free to continue the main story.
As he crossed the bridge, he noticed some pigeons on the ground, next to a small boy. As he approached, the pigeons flew away, much to the small boy's dismay…
"What're you doing? You scared the pigeons away!"
Aether was rather taken aback, but he decided to reassure the kid, who, according to his UI, was named Timmie.
"Don't worry, they'll come back eventually."
"They usually do….but what if one day they leave and never come back?"
Huh, this kid knew how to worry about the future. Smart kid.
"...Just like Daddy."
…
…
…
Oh gosh. Timmie had daddy issues. Maybe his dad went out for milk and never came back.
"Amber, do you have any idea what happened to the Timmie's dad?"
"Oh..yeah, about that. He actually died in a hunting accident. No one has had the heart to tell him though…"
Aether internally grimaced. If this kid found out the truth…it would not be pretty. Heck, he might grow up to be part of a villainous organization or something. He hoped that the pigeons would come back, lest that occur.
Finally, he made his way into the gates of the city of Mondstadt.
Going Upon The Breeze
Quest Completed!
Obtained
- Recurve Bow
Aether was about to stop and take a moment to admire the view when Amber appeared from out of nowhere.
"Allow me to introduce to you the city of wind, dandelions, and freedom. Travelers, you are now under the protection of the knights of Favonius. Welcome to Mondsatdt!"
Well, at least she wasn't doing that ridiculous knightly pose. That being said, she didn't look like a typical knight, so maybe the pose didn't work because of the outfit.
"Finally, a city! Paimon is sick of camping outdoors! Though the townsfolk don't look too cheery…"
"Yeah…what's up with that Amber?"
"It's because of Stormterror. That dragon has been scaring the citizens…"
"Stormterror? You mean the blue and teal dragon?"
"Yeah, it's pretty hard to miss."
"Right. Anyway, about the missing posters…"
"Yeah, I'll help. But first, I have a reward for you! It's for helping me clear the hilichurl camp!"
Helping? I mean Amber was there, but that was his copy of Amber, not the Amber standing in front of him. Man, having two of the same person was confusing.
"To save you the trouble, just think of me as the same as the Amber in front of you. I mean, we're technically the same…"
"Right…"
"Hey! Why doesn't Paimon get a reward?"
"You didn't even help me and Amber fight…"
"Hey!"
"Plus, the reward I'm giving is useless to you. But I'll treat you to some Sticky Honey Roast instead, that good?"
"Sticky Honey Roast!"
And of course, Paimon was calmed down with the strategic method of promising her food.
"Anyway, come with me! We'll head to the city's…high ground."
And just like that, Amber disappeared. Instead, the system threw more tutorials at him.
Open your Quest Menu!
Given how open menus worked, he probably just had to make it into existence or something. He did exactly that, and was immediately greeted by a new quest menu.
Since he just started, there was only the main quest, or the Archon Quests, as the game put it. What concerned him, however…
The Outlander Who Caught the Wind
Prologue: Act I
…was that he was apparently in the Prologue. Aether wasn't expecting the journey to be short, but he wasn't even in Chapter 1? Well, at least he wasn't at Chapter 0. That would be really tedious.
To the right was more info on the quest. The system was pointing him to an option that let him track the quest. He decided to try it out. Immediately, the quest menu disappeared, and a glowing, golden, particle-like path appeared.
Well, color him surprised. No way he was getting lost anymore. He decided to follow the path.
Mainly following the path, he noted a couple of icons that stood out. One looked like a gem, the other was a spoon and fork crossed over. There were a couple more, but he paid them no mind. He had to get to the "high ground", as Amber put it.
"This place used to be a bustling street, but with how Stormterror is, most of the crowds are gone…"
Hold up. Amber wasn't physically there, as far as he could see.
"Amber, are you providing random narration now?"
"It wasn't me!"
"Then who WAS it?"
"I don't know!"
"Don't tell me there's a THIRD Amber! They're multiplying!"
At this point, Aether had stopped in his tracks. He had no idea why Amber's voice was resonating with his head despite the copy of Amber somewhere in his head being silent. At this point, he was trying to figure out what the heck was going on.
"...well except for the taverns. In fact, they're more lively than ever."
Amber's voice resonated in his head once more. At this point, he was wondering if he was going to get a migraine from how much thinking he'd had to do today.
"Maybe it is a third Amber…"
"I know! We can call her 'off-screen Amber!'"
"Ok, no that's not going to work."
At this point, he could only surmise that it was supposed to be physical Amber, but she just wasn't there. Realistically speaking, she should be escorting him to the high ground. If so, it would make sense that the voice belonged to physical Amber. Much more plausible than there being a third Amber.
With that bombshell out of the way, he continued following the path, and why did it make him climb a wall? Couldn't he take the stairs? No? This was the shortest path to the top?
Aether thought this as he climbed a wall. No one seemed to be looking at him strangely, though. Maybe climbing walls was normal around here.
After scaling the wall, he continued up the path, which went up and up. There were many stairs. He stopped counting the steps after fifty-seven. It seemed that today was leg workout day. As he finally reached the top, he silently wished that elevators existed in this world.
He would encounter one, much later on. But that's for much later on.
He finally approached the area indicated by the quest, when suddenly-
"So the present I wanted to give you is…"
-Amber re-materialized. Hooray.
"...a Wind Glider!"
Oooh. He lost his wings because of that unknown goddess. If it worked how he thought it would, then at least he could have some semblance of flight again.
"Outriders like myself use them to ride the wind. Locals also love using them. I actually brought you up here so you can start flying right away!"
"Ooh, Paimon thinks you're very excited about this!"
"But of course! They're the heart and soul of Mondstadt! Anyway, they're really easy to use. Just follow my instructions."
"Cool. One question, though."
"Yes?"
"There are other Outriders like you?"
Aether was actually pretty curious about this. He tried to imagine an entire squad of people dressed like Amber. However, that was not to be.
"Uhh…no. I'm the only one. The Outrider division used to be much bigger, but now it's just me…"
"Oh."
And on that disappointing note, Amber disappeared, and his quest log updated.
City of Freedom
Meet Amber at the fountain plaza
And also a tutorial
To use your Wind Glider, jump, then imagine then opening to activate them!
Of course he had to use the power of imagination. That being said, he was pretty excited to use the wind glider, so he hopped off and activated it. Sure enough, he was soon gliding. It was pretty liberating, being able to fly. Man, he missed his wings.
He leaned forward and slowly made his way to the fountain plaza. The climb was worth it, it seemed, as he had a substantial amount of height. Focusing back ahead, he carefully maneuvered around a couple of roofs and landed gracefully at the plaza, where Amber was waiting.
City of Freedom
Quest Completed!
"Whew, that was fun. Now, about the posters…"
Aether trailed off as he noticed the sky turned gray. Like, really gray. That was weird. It was perfectly blue earlier. Why was it gray now?
The answer came in the form of the flying lizard he encountered earlier, also known as Stormterror. The dragon flew past Mondstadt, doing fancy barrel rolls, like the world's deadliest reptilian show-off.
As he was observing this, the people around him did the obvious thing, which was to run away and find shelter. Aether, however, was not most people, so he stayed in place and observed the situation.
Unfortunately for him, Stormterror roared and summoned a bunch of tornadoes. He was finally about to do the sensible thing and run away when he got sucked up by one. At least Amber gave him the wind glider.
Oh, speaking of Amber, she was safe. Good for her.
Aether managed to activate his wind glider and free himself from the tornado, only to find a surprisingly blue sky. Huh, must be the clouds.
In any case, all he had to do was safely glide down and get to safe-
"Rooooar!"
Nevermind. Stormterror charged him, so he employed all his experience with flying and dodged the dragon, albeit losing control on the way and having to catch himself. That could have been much worse.
Then, as usual, several things happened with his UI.
First off, the quest log was updated.
New Quest
Dragon Storm
Fend off Stormterror
Oh, great. He literally just came into Mondstadt, and now he had to fight the dragon that was terrorizing them. How was he going to reach it though? He only had his sword, and for whatever reason he couldn't access the Amber in his mind.
Which brought to mind the second thing he noticed. A health bar sat at the top center of his vision, like a freaking boss health bar. Come to think of it, this was a boss battle.
Stormterror
Howling Hurricane of Mondstadt
Level 10
Oh come on! He was literally just Level 1! What kind of difficulty spike is this? It wasn't even weakened!
Oh, and he wasn't falling either. Paimon helpfully pointed this out.
"How are you staying afloat like this with just a Wind Glider?"
"Do I look like I know, Paimon?"
Suddenly, a mysterious voice which suspiciously sounded like the green fellow from earlier resonated in his head.
"I'm preventing your fall with the power of a thousand winds."
Right. Whatever that meant. At least he knew the green fellow was powerful. Disappearing into thin air wasn't just some party trick.
"Now, concentrate. See yourself grasping the wind. Harness its energy."
Aether silently cursed all the tutorials for being so vague.
He noted that instead of his normal attack icon with the sword, there was the image of an arrow surrounded by a spiral. He imagined it activating, and…
"Woah!"
A wind arrow came flying out of his hands and into Stormterror's back, damaging it.
Guess this was his form of attack. It's not like he didn't have infinite ammo.
The crosshair that mysteriously appeared also helped aiming, though it didn't account for the dragon suddenly turning. He had to reorient himself to keep Stormterror's back in sight. More than a couple of arrows missed. He silently hoped that he didn't hit anyone.
Focusing on Stormterror, he shot arrow after arrow. Some missed, but most hit. Minutes passed by, and he kept at it. Then he looked at the health bar.
"Oh for goodness sake! It still has, like, 90 percent of its health left!"
Refocusing, he kept firing arrows, when he realized something.
Couldn't he just spam the attack? Rapid fire the arrows? He was taking way too long to form the arrows, aim, then shoot.
He tried to imagine that, when suddenly, arrows started flying out of his hands, comparable to that of a machine gun. At the same time, Stormterror's health started to decrease. By a lot.
Aether kept up the machine gun offensive, even as Stormterror tried to evade. Too bad, he merely readjusted his position. Plus, the green fellow's winds kept him up. The dragon wasn't attacking him either, so he was fine and dandy.
After several minutes of machine gun hell, he got the dragon down to its last fifth of his health,when the dragon just flew away. The wind carrying him also died down, so he glided his way down back to where he first used his wind glider.
To his surprise, Amber was conveniently waiting there, and she approached him as he landed, even…placing her hands on his shoulders?
"Are you okay?
"Yes, Amber. I'm fine. Fought off a dragon, but fine."
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of clapping. Turning his head, he saw a rather flashy looking guy approaching. His outfit was mostly blue, with accents of white and gold, his skin slightly more tan than most, and he had an eyepatch over his right eye.
"You actually have the power to go up against a dragon. I wonder…are you a new ally…or a new storm?"
Well, he certainly had a flair for the dramatic.
Meanwhile, Amber was assessing the severity of the situation.
"Stormterror…is attacking Mondstadt itself? Kaeya, Aether, good timing! We have to…"
The man in blue, however, interrupted Amber.
"Hold on, Amber. Aren't you forgetting introductions?"
"Oh, right. Aether, this is Kaeya. Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius."
Aether immediately introduced himself to avoid the incident with Paimon and Amber.
"I'm Aether, and my flying companion here is Paimon. We're travelers from afar."
Amber then gave Kaeya a basic rundown on her encounter with Aether. Kaeya listened intently as Amber went over pretty much everything, down to how Aether got blown away by the tornado after not leaving immediately. After this, Kaeya took the time to speak.
"Aether, was it? Doesn't sound like a local name."
"And so I've been told."
"Anyways, welcome to Mondstadt. Though you haven't come at the best of times, I'm afraid…"
Right. Of course things had to go crazy when he arrived.
"I also understand the anguish of being separated from family. Though I'm not sure how this relates with you looking for the Anemo God. But everyone has their secrets, right?"
Aether silently patted himself on the back from preventing Paimon from spilling his secret ability. He still was at a loss on how to explain it.
"Relax! I won't press you for more! But first and foremost, on the behalf of the Knights of Favonius, I would like to thank you for your help with fending off the dragon."
Aether had a sense of foreboding that told him he was going to have to get used to doing crazy things like this.
"Well, I kind of got dragged into it, so I figured I may as well get rid of the problem."
"I see you're being very modest here. But your fight against the dragon just now was witnessed by no small number of citizens. That being said, the Acting Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius is very interested in meeting you, and formally invites you both to our headquarters."
"Oooh, Paimon feels very honored! Come on, let's go!"
"Yes, we will go there Paimon."
And with that, both Amber and Kaeya disappeared. Instead, he was greeted by…
Dressing Room unlocked!
There were different outfits?
Welp. He was curious, so he navigated past that prompt and…
Achievement Unlocked!
…Or A New Storm?
Even the achievement had that dramatic line. Well, not something he could easily forget, anyway.
Anyway, he opened up his Character menu and navigated to the dressing room, only to find absolutely no outfits for himself. Huh, he didn't really wear that many clothes aside from his current outfit, so fair enough.
He checked the Wind Gliders part and found a couple of new options. The one he was using was known as Wings of First Flight, and was quite gray, with beige and black accents.
There was a second option, however. Wings of Companionship sported a sky themed blue near the center, outlined by a night sky colored outline. Star patterns were prevalent throughout the wings.
He decided, however, to keep his current set up. Exiting that, he found the Artifacts menu with a red exclamation mark icon on it, so he opened it up. A vague outline of a feather could be seen with the same exclamation mark ion, so he tapped it and found that strange feather he got earlier. Adventurer's Tail Feather was present, so he tapped the Equip option. Huh, looks like he got an attack bonus.
Closing everything, he then made his way to the Knights of Favonius Headquarters. A short walk later, and he was at the doors. This was gonna be interesting.
Jean was pretty used to stress in her life, especially when she was granted the title of Acting Grandmaster. This scenario, however, topped everything off.
Stormterror attacked the city itself. The dragon had already been an issue for a while now, with it getting near the city and scaring the citizens, but this time it actually attacked the city. If it weren't for the efforts of a mysterious traveler who had just arrived, she wasn't sure what would have happened.
Going by how stretched thin the Knights were going to be, to repair any damages caused by the dragon, it looked like she was going to have to ask for this mysterious stranger's help. Not ideal, but it had to be done.
Jean anxiously paced around, looking at the clock. Kaeya said he'll bring them back here soon, but she really wished he'd come sooner.
That being said, she wasn't alone in the room.
"Jean, what's the hurry? I thought we agreed to meet them here."
Her long time friend Lisa, sporting her usual purple attire, was also with her. Contrary to Jean's anxious behavior, Lisa was as calm as one could be in this situation. However, that didn't stop Jean from being, well, Jean.
"There have been sightings of Stormterror outside the city. Once we meet, we must…"
"Relax. I'll lend a helping hand when the time comes."
Lisa was about to say more when…
"Jean, I've brought them."
Kaeya and Amber came in, with the mysterious stranger in tow, along with…a flying child? No time to question that, though.
The mysterious stranger himself was younger than Jean expected. Golden hair, golden eyes, and an outfit unlike anything she'd seen before. Not to mention that his outfit glowed teal green at certain points.
Kaeya gave a quick update to bring everyone up to speed. After hearing everything, she focused on the mysterious stranger, or traveler, as Kaeya had put it.
"Greetings, and Mondstadt welcomes you, windborne travelers. I am Jean, the acting Grandmaster of the knights of Favonius. With me is Lisa, our resident librarian."
She gestured at Lisa, who immediately followed up.
"Oh? Are you sweeties here to help us out? You're both so adorable!"
Jean inwardly wondered why Lisa called the travelers as such. Though, come to think of it, she was always like that.
Meanwhile, the mysterious traveler looked like he was fighting back a blush, as he took the time to respond.
"Well, I kind of just got dragged into this, but sure, I'll help."
"Great. Sadly, your timing is regrettable…"
Lisa went on to explain the situation with Stormterror. The analogy with the kitten and ball of yarn wasn't something she'd normally use, though, but it made sense. Hopefully the travelers understood, as she decided to take over.
"I understand you're looking for your family…?" she paused as she realized she didn't know his name.
"Aether."
"Right. If it weren't for Stormterror's interference, the Knights of Favonius could have done a lot more than just putting up missing person posters. We simply ask that you stay in Mondstadt while we help you seek out your sister."
"I guess I could help if it means speeding things up. Also, where's the inn?"
"Hey! We have to help them first!"
The floating child berated the Aether as he said this.
"Yes, we're going to help them, but we also need to think about where we're going to stay. I specifically recall you celebrating the fact that we won't have to camp outdoors anymore when we arrived at Mondstadt."
"Hey!"
Kaeya decided to interrupt the two.
"As amusing as your banter is, I'm afraid we have more important things to discuss. Anyway, what's the plan, Jean?"
Jean had thought about their plan before, so she had a solid one in mind.
She then proceeded to explain how Lisa found the sources of Stormterror's power, which were located at the Abandoned Four Winds' Temple. Lisa chipped in by explaining how Stormterror drew its power from there. From there, she had to state the objective.
"The plan is to deal with three of the four temples.I trust that everyone understands why we're only dealing with three."
The two travelers looked confused at this, but didn't press further.
"Knights of Favonius, time is against us. With the storm rampant, there is no point staying defensive. We must take the initiative before the situation escalates. Dismissed."
And with that, everyone snapped to action. Even Aether was on the move. Hopefully the knights brought him up to speed.
Still, having to rely on outside help. The situation had gotten truly dire. Jean sighed as she sat back down and started to figure out how she could help Aether find his sister.
Knights of Favonius
Quest completed!
Phew. That was interesting. Thankfully, aside from the short bantering session they had, it went smoothly.
However, Aether was barraged with more stuff from the UI.
Wish
Wish feature has been unlocked!
Shop
Shop unlocked!
Immediately, his UI told him to open up the Wish screen, so he did, and was immediately greeted by a picture of a maid holding a sword. The text read "Beginners' Wish". Judging by the text, the name of the maid was Noelle, though he had no idea what Chivalric Blossom referred to. And wait, what did those 4 stars mean?
On the bottom right was a button giving him the ability to wish. The Wish x 10 option looked like it was begging to be pressed. Below it looked like the price, which had apparently been reduced from 10…blue orbs, to 8 blue orbs.
Huh. It looks like a place where you can get characters and weapons. I kinda thought it would come from the Shop though…
Wait, chances remaining? 10-set 20 percent off? He read through more of the text.
Every 10 wishes is guaranteed to include at least one 4-star or higher character.
He navigated through the submenus. One featured a character called Yelan, another called Xiao. There was a submenu dedicated to weapons called Epitome Invocation, and another submenu called Wanderlust Invocation. All of them featured characters and weapons one could get.
It was the stars next to the characters that caught his attention though. They were reminiscent of a certain type of game, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.
Wait. Guaranteed? As in there was an element of luck? So there was a chance of not getting the character?
Hold up, wasn't that just gambling?
However, as soon as Aether thought those words, a terrible realization came upon him.
No way. Was this…what he thought it was?
He had a sudden flashback to when he was in the world with video games. There was a particular category of video games known by many terms. "Freemium", "Pay-to-win", these were the words that came to mind when thinking about these games.
These games were free to play, but if you had the money and the luck, you could pay real money to get ahead by purchasing premium currency to gamble for better units.
His sister had gotten into one such game, and back then she talked about "summon rates" and "pity systems". She had wanted this one particular character, and Aether could clearly recall the screams of agony his sister made when she spent all her money only to not get the character.
This Wish system eerily resembled such a system.
Finger trembling, Aether immediately pressed the Wish x10 option to confirm his suspicions.
Immediately, an image of a meteor flying came to view. The meteor turned blue, then purple, then…woah, gold.
Immediately, the results of his wish came in.
- Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (3 Stars)
- Cool Steel (3 Stars)
- Raven Bow (3 Stars)
- Raven Bow (3 Stars)
- Magic Guide (3 Stars)
- Debate Club (3 Stars)
- Bloodstained Greatsword (3 Stars)
- Skyrider Sword (3 Stars)
A bunch of weapons. This confirmed his worst fears.
It was a freaking Gacha system.
HE HAD TO GAMBLE TO GET WHAT HE WANTED!
At this, Aether lost control and screamed for the first time since realizing he was in a video-game like world. He screamed and screamed until he could scream no more.
Thankfully, no one heard him, as his menu was up. If it wasn't, everyone would probably be giving him strange looks.
So not only was he in sort of a video game, but he was in a video game with a gacha system. Which meant microtransactions.
Which meant that if he wanted to get the strong stuff to help him find his sister…he was going to have to pull out the wallet. Oh gosh.
Aether wanted to cry at what he had gotten into, but was too tired to do so. At this point, all he could do was accept his fate, as he silently hoped that he didn't have to go broke getting a 5 star weapon…
Then Aether realized he had his 2 pulls left. Probably more weapons. From personal experience, rates for units with more stars were pretty low.
His last 2 pulls, however, were different.
First off…
Noelle (4 stars)
Noelle appeared in a shower of purple. The text did say there was a guaranteed 4 star character for every 10 pulls. Looks like that's the 4 star character he got.
Then he realized something.
When he obtained Amber, she immediately went into his head.
Wouldn't the same occur with all the characters he'd get?
…
Aether wanted to collapse. He could feel the incoming headache this would cause.
All the characters he'd be getting were going straight into his head. Including characters he didn't know personally. Which brought forth the question.
WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE?
He had no idea who Noelle was. Aside from the fact that she was probably a maid. Maybe Amber would know. Not just her though. All the characters he saw were people he'd never even met. How was he gonna deal with them? Aether's mind descended into chaos as he wondered how he would deal with this.
Deciding that this was a problem for his future self, he checked out the final wish, and was greeted by a golden shower.
Jean (5 stars)
What.
And on that cliffhanger, welcome to Author's area! I bet you didn't see that coming!
Yes, the Wish system has finally been introduced! Aether has had flashbacks to the horror of gacha systems! I wonder what character Lumine was pulling for, though…
This has officially been my longest chapter thus far. Let me know what you think! Halfway through I think it started looking like a novelization of the game, so I upped the chaos factor at the end and added some original dialogue. After all, this is a crackfic.
I also experimented with using Jean's POV. Hopefully the quality wasn't reduced!
Also, yes, Aether's current playthrough is based on current time, meaning he's on 2.7. Unfortunately, that means he missed all the past events and banners.
However, for the sake of keeping the story interesting, I want as many characters as possible. Expect Aether's luck to be downright ludicrous for the sake of the story. And to up the chaos factor, he'll probably be getting characters he wouldn't normally encounter until much later.
As for the banners, since there will be lots of time skipping, I decided to take matters into my own hands and throw in imaginary banners. Hu Tao/Kazuha double banner, anyone?
However, should future banners be announced, I'll integrate them. Only when they're confirmed, though.
That being said, this has been my longest chapter so far. Again, thanks for all the support! I probably won't be able to post next week so I made this extra long to make up for it. Well, I've rambled on long enough.
And as usual, have a nice day.
-Author