“Master. We have located Miss Nel.” Endy told me, when I arrived in my office after breakfast.
“So she finally came out, did she?”
“... not quite. She didn’t exit the building she entered, but a different building, and one located in the noble’s district. She is also dressed quite differently and she has two armed guards with her, and more following some ways away.”
“... but she is on foot? Not in a carriage?”
“Yes. I will bring up the picture.” Endy said, as he made a magic screen that could show the HomeBase cameras.
As I saw the image, only one thing came to mind.
“Yeah, that isn’t Nel.” I quickly said. I mean, no way that princess looking girl is Nel. It just doesn’t match.
“We believe that she is, Master.”
“How can she be? Sure the haircolor is the same red color as Nel’s, but her hair is like… three times longer than Nel’s. Nel was also dressed… Well, not in a dress. And she was alone, with a random adventurer, in a dungeon. There is no way that is Nel.”
“We compared her hair and eye color to Miss Nel, and found that they are an exact match. All of her facial features are also a perfect match, and as far as we can observe her body structure, it is also a perfect match. She also carries herself in a similar manner to Miss Nel. We give it a 97.8% chance that that lady is Miss Nel.” Endy reasoned.
“… and I give it a 100% chance that Lua is somehow related to Vampire Fascinator, but that still doesn’t mean that it is true.”
“I believe you are failing to see beyond the hair, Master.”
“Hey! Just because I have a hair obsession doesn’t mean that that girl is Nel.”
“We still believe that she is.”
“... fine. Just keep an eye on her. Find out where she is going. Also, show me the house she came out of, I’ll ask Mariina or Cressida who it belongs to. But when we find out she isn’t Nel, I’ll be expecting … I don’t know. Maybe something cool?”
“And if we find out we were correct, we will be expecting installs as rewards.” Endy countered.
“Deal.”
Of course I agreed with that. I mean, unless Nel has a unique skill or something, there is no way she would triple her hair length in just a bit over a week. And even if she could do that, it doesn’t explain how she went from a random adventurer to having an escort squad of Royal Knights.
… wait? Why does that girl have an escort squad of Royal Knights? I know that insignia on their armor. Elias’ knights had that same insignia, and it is only used by the Royal Knights. So that girl … she is a princess?
Well, now that I think about it, Elias also has similar red hair as she does. Not quite the same, as Prince Elias has scarlet red hair and this girl’s is more like a wine red. But still close enough where the two could be a brother and sister. But she didn’t come from the Castle. She exited some random noble’s manor. … Unless she went there in a carriage and is just now on the walk for some reason.
“Endy, did a carriage go to the house she left from?”
“We don’t have records of one, but we don’t follow every carriage in the city. Lady Tahlia should have the recordings, so we can check.”
“Please do. It isn’t that it really matters, but we are in too deep, so let’s go all the way.”
I’ll also ask about the Royal family from Cressida. And I will also find out about the house they left. If it does belong to the Royal family, I might just believe that this girl is a Princess. Maybe she just doesn’t live at the castle for some reason. She could be married off or something.
But even if she is a Princess, doesn’t mean that she is Nel though. That part is still impossible and now even more impossible. At most Nel could be her body double or something, and even then, the hair length problem stands.
Unless some sort of hair lengthening potion is easy to get. That might explain most things, other than the why would a Princess be in a dungeon with a random adventurer.
The ‘possibly a princess’ lady ended up heading for the Royal academy. I have no clue why a princess would visit, but maybe it is something like a planned visit. It doesn’t seem like she is a student, after all.
But that isn’t my issue, as an issue popped up on HomeBase. It was nothing much really, just an evolution. Wilma had begun her evolution at a strange time of day, aka. during the day. I know she got to LV.59 yesterday, so maybe she somehow gained enough EXP to get to level 60, and thus she is now evolving. Sure with HomeBase, I have plenty of my monsters available, so just an evolution isn’t really a big deal, but it is still something.
But how did she gain EXP? Does crafting give EXP? She was making special arrows for Unika, so maybe? It might just be so little that it takes a long time to level up that way, at least compared to killing monsters.
I naturally visited Wilma at the medbay. Yes, we do have a medbay. Do you really think I wouldn’t make a medical room? She was moved there very fast after she passed out by my avatar doll monsters, and she would be taken care of there while she evolves. It is just the best place to take care of someone who is evolving.
Sadly the ‘evolution tanks’ weren’t quite ready yet, so I didn’t get to test them, but maybe I’ll have them finished before Einar and Eline evolve.
Now I know what you want to know. What are ‘evolution tanks’? Well, they are basically chambers filled with liquid to keep a person inside of them at a reasonable temperature while they evolve. I based them on the healing machines from Dragon Ball. The ones the Frieza Force used. Well, mine are a bit more bed-like. But in all simplicity, we put a person inside, attach the breathing mask, seal the bed and then fill the tank with a liquid, specifically a special healing potion. Then the evolution tank would keep an eye on all of the physical parameters of the person inside, while also regulating the temperature of the liquid inside of it to make sure the person inside will be perfectly fine to evolve.
But again, it is not yet finished, so Wilma didn’t get to be the testsubject. I’m also looking forward to what Wilma will evolve into. It has to be some kind of crafting or blacksmithing related class race, right? Unless there is a race like Advanced Dwarf? Actually, that should be locked behind getting Limit Break, just like Advanced Human was for me.
“... Brian? May I come in?” I heard a call at my office door. I had returned to my office to work on the evolution tank after visiting the med bay, and now I was again needed for something.
“Yes. Come in.” I responded. Of course I already knew who was at the door. It was the purple furred fox-girl.
After I gave permission, Unika entered my office. She took a look around, before she approached my desk.
“So, what do you need?” I asked Unika.
“... I was… My brother and I were… we were hoping we could test out Summoning Magic.” Unika said carefully.
“Oh? Wasn’t expecting that. Why the sudden interest?”
“... we saw Eline with her lion and tiger. And we were hoping that maybe we could also…”
“Try it out? Well, I was going to have you try it out eventually anyway, so might as well do that now.” I told her. “Could you go get your brother? I have some summoning circles ready to go, but the place is hidden.”
“Really? I’ll go get him right now.” Unika said, as she ran out of my office with her tail swishing behind her.
After Unika returned with her brother, I teleported the three of us to floor 19 of the dungeon part of HomeBase. Floor 19 was a fairly regular ‘box-shaped’ floor and the monsters that lived here were C and B-rank rock golems.
This was also where I made some experimental self-filling summoning circles. I needed to test out if they would work, before I made some on the surface of HomeBase. At first, I didn’t get them to work, because I supplied too much HomeBase mana into them, but eventually I figured out how much of the mana used to fill the circle has to be ‘human mana’ and how much can come from HomeBase. And at least 40% of the mana has to come from a person, and the rest can come from HomeBase, but you do seem to get stronger monsters if you fill the circle completely yourself, because even though I summoned a handful of monsters during my experiments, I didn’t get a single one that was as strong as Himeśaila.
I think it is because the monsters that respond to the summoning circle respond to the mana of the individual. And if HomeBase is used to fill up the circle, the mana loses some of its individuality, causing the strongest monsters to not come. At least that is my theory, as I don’t think anyone else has ever had a setup like mine.
“... where are we?” Unika asked.
“It is a hidden basement of HomeBase.” I answered. “You aren’t allowed to come here without me or Agunan, as it can be a bit dangerous.”
“... so those golems are..?”
“Essentially wild monsters, yes. Agunan or I can control them, but if neither of us are here, they will attack you.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Valoa asked. “Won’t they come out?”
“They can’t. You can only get here if you can teleport.”
“But how can you teleport without chanting a spell?” Valoa asked.
“That’s a secret.”
“Can you use any spell without chanting?”
“Alice is actually quite good at Instant Cast magic, aka. magic that you don’t have to chant for. You should ask her for more info about it, because the stuff I use is special.”
“Yes Sir. I will.”
“... but why are the summoning circles here if this place is dangerous?” Unika asked.
“Because these ones are just a bit experimental. And I don’t yet know where I want to put them, so I left them here for now, until I have a permanent place for them.”
“And why are there six of them?”
“Because different size circles take a different amount of mana to fill. But at the same time, the larger the circle, the higher the rank of the monster that will appear. But because we don’t really even know if you have an aptitude for Summoning Magic, we will test it out with one of the small ones. So, which one of you wants to go first?”
“I do. I do.” Valoa quickly raised his hand. “So which one do I use?”
“The small one here.” I pointed at the smallest circle we had available. It only summons F and E rank monsters, but it also only takes 100 mana to fill up the circle, so it was perfect for testing out if you have an aptitude for summoning. And it isn’t like you have to make a contract just because you summon something. You can just send it back without making a contract.
Valoa kneeled next to the circle and placed both his hands on it, and then he filled the circle with mana.
Then we waited… but nothing appeared.
“Sorry, but it doesn’t look like you have the aptitude for Summoning Magic.” I apologized to Valoa.
“...” He didn’t respond, just seemingly shulked a bit.
Maybe I should check if an install of one of my cards can give the aptitude for it. I don’t have Double Summon yet, but I do have Inferno Reckless Summon and Ultimate Offering. One of those two might do it. Though both do sound a bit dangerous, as Ultimate Offering relies on you giving up Life Points, aka HP, while Inferno Reckless Summon literally has Reckless in the name.
Spoiler
After all the mana faded from the summoning circle, it was Unika’s turn to try. Like her brother, she filled the magic circle with mana, but unlike her brother, with her, something appeared.
“... A kobold.” Unika identified the monster that responded to her summoning.
“I mean, this is a low level circle, so it only summons low level monsters. But at least we know that you have an aptitude for Summoning Magic, so this is good.” I told her.
“That’s not fair. I wanted to do that.” Valoa complained.
“You already have Light Magic, don’t you?” I confirmed.
“Both him and I can also use a bit of fire.” Unika added. “But we can only use very basic spells.”
“Don’t worry. You can overcome that problem with training, maybe.” Or through my card BS. “And even if you can’t, Light Magic and Summoning Magic is already quite good.”
“... our magic fire magic isn’t attribute based, but a racial skill. Foxfire. But we don’t know anyone that could teach us more about it.” Unika admitted.
“Foxfire, huh? I see. I can look into that, if you’d like. I might be able to get you a teacher, or at the very least, a book about that kind of magic.”
“Would you really? I’d really like that.” Unika said. “My father was really good at it. … but he …”
“Don’t worry. You won’t have to say it.” I mean, I already heard that her father passed away when she was quite young. … and yes. I do know that means that Valoa isn’t Unika’s brother, but step-brother. They don’t share a father.
But that isn’t something I should talk about. Foxfire is much more interesting. I mean, I literally have a card called Fox Fire, so if it doesn’t know about Foxfire, I don’t know who will.
Spoiler [collapse]Maybe Legendary Flame Lord? Or perhaps Hiita the Fire Charmer? I’ll ask them later and if they do, I’ll introduce them to Unika. Maybe she can master her racial skill. It would be nice.
Spoiler“Now, Unika, either unsummon that kobold or make a contract with it, your choice.”
“... I … I think I’ll let it go.”
“Can’t really blame you on that. How is your mana? Do you want to try a bigger circle?”
“I have a lot left, so yes.” Unika answered. “If that is fine.”
“Master. We have located Miss Nel.” Endy told me, when I arrived in my office after breakfast.
“So she finally came out, did she?”
“... not quite. She didn’t exit the building she entered, but a different building, and one located in the noble’s district. She is also dressed quite differently and she has two armed guards with her, and more following some ways away.”
“... but she is on foot? Not in a carriage?”
“Yes. I will bring up the picture.” Endy said, as he made a magic screen that could show the HomeBase cameras.
As I saw the image, only one thing came to mind.
“Yeah, that isn’t Nel.” I quickly said. I mean, no way that princess looking girl is Nel. It just doesn’t match.
“We believe that she is, Master.”
“How can she be? Sure the haircolor is the same red color as Nel’s, but her hair is like… three times longer than Nel’s. Nel was also dressed… Well, not in a dress. And she was alone, with a random adventurer, in a dungeon. There is no way that is Nel.”
“We compared her hair and eye color to Miss Nel, and found that they are an exact match. All of her facial features are also a perfect match, and as far as we can observe her body structure, it is also a perfect match. She also carries herself in a similar manner to Miss Nel. We give it a 97.8% chance that that lady is Miss Nel.” Endy reasoned.
“… and I give it a 100% chance that Lua is somehow related to Vampire Fascinator, but that still doesn’t mean that it is true.”
“I believe you are failing to see beyond the hair, Master.”
“Hey! Just because I have a hair obsession doesn’t mean that that girl is Nel.”
“We still believe that she is.”
“... fine. Just keep an eye on her. Find out where she is going. Also, show me the house she came out of, I’ll ask Mariina or Cressida who it belongs to. But when we find out she isn’t Nel, I’ll be expecting … I don’t know. Maybe something cool?”
“And if we find out we were correct, we will be expecting installs as rewards.” Endy countered.
“Deal.”
Of course I agreed with that. I mean, unless Nel has a unique skill or something, there is no way she would triple her hair length in just a bit over a week. And even if she could do that, it doesn’t explain how she went from a random adventurer to having an escort squad of Royal Knights.
… wait? Why does that girl have an escort squad of Royal Knights? I know that insignia on their armor. Elias’ knights had that same insignia, and it is only used by the Royal Knights. So that girl … she is a princess?
Well, now that I think about it, Elias also has similar red hair as she does. Not quite the same, as Prince Elias has scarlet red hair and this girl’s is more like a wine red. But still close enough where the two could be a brother and sister. But she didn’t come from the Castle. She exited some random noble’s manor. … Unless she went there in a carriage and is just now on the walk for some reason.
“Endy, did a carriage go to the house she left from?”
“We don’t have records of one, but we don’t follow every carriage in the city. Lady Tahlia should have the recordings, so we can check.”
“Please do. It isn’t that it really matters, but we are in too deep, so let’s go all the way.”
I’ll also ask about the Royal family from Cressida. And I will also find out about the house they left. If it does belong to the Royal family, I might just believe that this girl is a Princess. Maybe she just doesn’t live at the castle for some reason. She could be married off or something.
But even if she is a Princess, doesn’t mean that she is Nel though. That part is still impossible and now even more impossible. At most Nel could be her body double or something, and even then, the hair length problem stands.
Unless some sort of hair lengthening potion is easy to get. That might explain most things, other than the why would a Princess be in a dungeon with a random adventurer.
The ‘possibly a princess’ lady ended up heading for the Royal academy. I have no clue why a princess would visit, but maybe it is something like a planned visit. It doesn’t seem like she is a student, after all.
But that isn’t my issue, as an issue popped up on HomeBase. It was nothing much really, just an evolution. Wilma had begun her evolution at a strange time of day, aka. during the day. I know she got to LV.59 yesterday, so maybe she somehow gained enough EXP to get to level 60, and thus she is now evolving. Sure with HomeBase, I have plenty of my monsters available, so just an evolution isn’t really a big deal, but it is still something.
But how did she gain EXP? Does crafting give EXP? She was making special arrows for Unika, so maybe? It might just be so little that it takes a long time to level up that way, at least compared to killing monsters.
I naturally visited Wilma at the medbay. Yes, we do have a medbay. Do you really think I wouldn’t make a medical room? She was moved there very fast after she passed out by my avatar doll monsters, and she would be taken care of there while she evolves. It is just the best place to take care of someone who is evolving.
Sadly the ‘evolution tanks’ weren’t quite ready yet, so I didn’t get to test them, but maybe I’ll have them finished before Einar and Eline evolve.
Now I know what you want to know. What are ‘evolution tanks’? Well, they are basically chambers filled with liquid to keep a person inside of them at a reasonable temperature while they evolve. I based them on the healing machines from Dragon Ball. The ones the Frieza Force used. Well, mine are a bit more bed-like. But in all simplicity, we put a person inside, attach the breathing mask, seal the bed and then fill the tank with a liquid, specifically a special healing potion. Then the evolution tank would keep an eye on all of the physical parameters of the person inside, while also regulating the temperature of the liquid inside of it to make sure the person inside will be perfectly fine to evolve.
But again, it is not yet finished, so Wilma didn’t get to be the testsubject. I’m also looking forward to what Wilma will evolve into. It has to be some kind of crafting or blacksmithing related class race, right? Unless there is a race like Advanced Dwarf? Actually, that should be locked behind getting Limit Break, just like Advanced Human was for me.
“... Brian? May I come in?” I heard a call at my office door. I had returned to my office to work on the evolution tank after visiting the med bay, and now I was again needed for something.
“Yes. Come in.” I responded. Of course I already knew who was at the door. It was the purple furred fox-girl.
After I gave permission, Unika entered my office. She took a look around, before she approached my desk.
“So, what do you need?” I asked Unika.
“... I was… My brother and I were… we were hoping we could test out Summoning Magic.” Unika said carefully.
“Oh? Wasn’t expecting that. Why the sudden interest?”
“... we saw Eline with her lion and tiger. And we were hoping that maybe we could also…”
“Try it out? Well, I was going to have you try it out eventually anyway, so might as well do that now.” I told her. “Could you go get your brother? I have some summoning circles ready to go, but the place is hidden.”
“Really? I’ll go get him right now.” Unika said, as she ran out of my office with her tail swishing behind her.
After Unika returned with her brother, I teleported the three of us to floor 19 of the dungeon part of HomeBase. Floor 19 was a fairly regular ‘box-shaped’ floor and the monsters that lived here were C and B-rank rock golems.
This was also where I made some experimental self-filling summoning circles. I needed to test out if they would work, before I made some on the surface of HomeBase. At first, I didn’t get them to work, because I supplied too much HomeBase mana into them, but eventually I figured out how much of the mana used to fill the circle has to be ‘human mana’ and how much can come from HomeBase. And at least 40% of the mana has to come from a person, and the rest can come from HomeBase, but you do seem to get stronger monsters if you fill the circle completely yourself, because even though I summoned a handful of monsters during my experiments, I didn’t get a single one that was as strong as Himeśaila.
I think it is because the monsters that respond to the summoning circle respond to the mana of the individual. And if HomeBase is used to fill up the circle, the mana loses some of its individuality, causing the strongest monsters to not come. At least that is my theory, as I don’t think anyone else has ever had a setup like mine.
“... where are we?” Unika asked.
“It is a hidden basement of HomeBase.” I answered. “You aren’t allowed to come here without me or Agunan, as it can be a bit dangerous.”
“... so those golems are..?”
“Essentially wild monsters, yes. Agunan or I can control them, but if neither of us are here, they will attack you.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Valoa asked. “Won’t they come out?”
“They can’t. You can only get here if you can teleport.”
“But how can you teleport without chanting a spell?” Valoa asked.
“That’s a secret.”
“Can you use any spell without chanting?”
“Alice is actually quite good at Instant Cast magic, aka. magic that you don’t have to chant for. You should ask her for more info about it, because the stuff I use is special.”
“Yes Sir. I will.”
“... but why are the summoning circles here if this place is dangerous?” Unika asked.
“Because these ones are just a bit experimental. And I don’t yet know where I want to put them, so I left them here for now, until I have a permanent place for them.”
“And why are there six of them?”
“Because different size circles take a different amount of mana to fill. But at the same time, the larger the circle, the higher the rank of the monster that will appear. But because we don’t really even know if you have an aptitude for Summoning Magic, we will test it out with one of the small ones. So, which one of you wants to go first?”
“I do. I do.” Valoa quickly raised his hand. “So which one do I use?”
“The small one here.” I pointed at the smallest circle we had available. It only summons F and E rank monsters, but it also only takes 100 mana to fill up the circle, so it was perfect for testing out if you have an aptitude for summoning. And it isn’t like you have to make a contract just because you summon something. You can just send it back without making a contract.
Valoa kneeled next to the circle and placed both his hands on it, and then he filled the circle with mana.
Then we waited… but nothing appeared.
“Sorry, but it doesn’t look like you have the aptitude for Summoning Magic.” I apologized to Valoa.
“...” He didn’t respond, just seemingly shulked a bit.
Maybe I should check if an install of one of my cards can give the aptitude for it. I don’t have Double Summon yet, but I do have Inferno Reckless Summon and Ultimate Offering. One of those two might do it. Though both do sound a bit dangerous, as Ultimate Offering relies on you giving up Life Points, aka HP, while Inferno Reckless Summon literally has Reckless in the name.
Spoiler
After all the mana faded from the summoning circle, it was Unika’s turn to try. Like her brother, she filled the magic circle with mana, but unlike her brother, with her, something appeared.
“... A kobold.” Unika identified the monster that responded to her summoning.
“I mean, this is a low level circle, so it only summons low level monsters. But at least we know that you have an aptitude for Summoning Magic, so this is good.” I told her.
“That’s not fair. I wanted to do that.” Valoa complained.
“You already have Light Magic, don’t you?” I confirmed.
“Both him and I can also use a bit of fire.” Unika added. “But we can only use very basic spells.”
“Don’t worry. You can overcome that problem with training, maybe.” Or through my card BS. “And even if you can’t, Light Magic and Summoning Magic is already quite good.”
“... our magic fire magic isn’t attribute based, but a racial skill. Foxfire. But we don’t know anyone that could teach us more about it.” Unika admitted.
“Foxfire, huh? I see. I can look into that, if you’d like. I might be able to get you a teacher, or at the very least, a book about that kind of magic.”
“Would you really? I’d really like that.” Unika said. “My father was really good at it. … but he …”
“Don’t worry. You won’t have to say it.” I mean, I already heard that her father passed away when she was quite young. … and yes. I do know that means that Valoa isn’t Unika’s brother, but step-brother. They don’t share a father.
But that isn’t something I should talk about. Foxfire is much more interesting. I mean, I literally have a card called Fox Fire, so if it doesn’t know about Foxfire, I don’t know who will.
Spoiler [collapse]Maybe Legendary Flame Lord? Or perhaps Hiita the Fire Charmer? I’ll ask them later and if they do, I’ll introduce them to Unika. Maybe she can master her racial skill. It would be nice.
Spoiler“Now, Unika, either unsummon that kobold or make a contract with it, your choice.”
“... I … I think I’ll let it go.”
“Can’t really blame you on that. How is your mana? Do you want to try a bigger circle?”
“I have a lot left, so yes.” Unika answered. “If that is fine.”
