NOVEL SIMPLE First Spell.
Scarlet silently stared at the two missions Amia had given her. Together they were both surprisingly cryptic and simple, only allowing Scarlet to see the completion requirements.
[ Mission One: Swim to the center of the lake and stay there for ten minutes. (0/10) ]
[ Mission Two: Create a golem servant. (0/1) ]
The first mission seemed useless to Scarlet’s current plight, while the second mission would be helpful for her, she had no idea on how to complete it.
“Maybe the first mission will give me what I need for the second?” Scarlet told herself, “Wouldn’t hurt to just get it out of the way.” She said, stepping into the lake.
“Wonder what this would even do though?” Scarlet asked herself as she swam to the center. Her wings were slightly difficult to swim with, catching in the water, but they did allow her to float on the surface almost effortlessly.
Slowly she made it to the center, directly under the opening to her cave. She still couldn’t see much of the world, but it was a start. From the lake she could see a singular cloud flying peacefully overhead, alongside a ring of trees around the hole. Scarlet even spotted a slime crawling between the tree roots.
“No wonder Amia wanted me to swim here, it’s not much, but it’s enough.” Scarlet said to herself, content to relax in the water as the ten minutes required for the mission slowly ticked down. She would have stayed like that, resting in the cool water as she drifted under the pleasant sun, but halfway through her mission a loud clap of thunder shook the area. Opening her eyes to see where it might have come from.
“What?!” Scarlet said in both shock and confusion, what had once been an almost cloudless sky was now blanketed in a gray shadow. An endless cloud stretching across the horizon, with each passing second growing darker, “Where in the world did that come from?” she asked herself. Thunder continued to shake the area, growing in strength and volume as well. Scarlet could even see lightning strikes arcing inside of the clouds, seeming to only add to the strength of the coming storm.
A quick glance at the mission screen allowed Scarlet to see that she only had two minutes left before the mission completed. She was tempted to risk it, but just to be on the safe side she began paddling to the edge of the opening, ready to swim away from any potential strike. When she reached the rim of the opening though a mission prompt appeared before her eyes warning Scarlet.
[ Warning! Mission One is still in progress, leaving the lake now will result in failure! ]
Scarlet realized just what her first mission entailed, something she had seen before in a few of the novels she read, a divine punishment or trial bestowed upon the hero via a series of lightning strikes. Just reading about them had sent some shivers down her spine.
Turning her head to the sky, Scarlet could only watch as a singular bolt raced down to the ground, its target clear to her. Barely enough time to let out a small plea of confusion, “Why me?”
The moment the lighting struck her she was immobilized, the electricity locking her body in place as it ran through her. The pain was almost imaginable, muscles locked in place as needles seemed to shoot into each and every nerve of her body. Through gritted teeth she let out a beastly roar, but under the blast of thunder it wasn’t even equal to the mewling of a feeble kitten. An eternity seemed to pass as she was locked in the worst pain of her life, but the strike had only lasted five seconds.
With a final groan followed immediately by a puff of smoke Scarlet could feel her consciousness fading. With the last thing entering her eyes being another mission prompt.
[ Congratulations! For completing Mission One! Your rewards are the skill Mana Control and the Basic Golemancy spell.]
Scarlet finally began to stir hours later, her body was tired, exhausted and sore, still floating listlessly in the lake, but at least she was alive. With some struggle she made it out of the lake, throwing herself on the stoney floor as she groaned in pain, “Why in gods’ name would Amia do something like that? I’d almost prefer her leaving me to rot in this cave over that.”
Scarlet pulled up her system, checking just how badly that attack had injured her.
[ Name: Scarlet Garnier Race: Silver Dragoness Sex: Futanari
Titles: Reincarnator, Holy Dragon, Saintess of Amia
Job: None
Job History: None
Stats:
HP: 124/895 MP: 72/72 SP: 95/453
Vitality: 326 Intelligence: 26 Endurance: 221 Charisma: 20
Strength: 243 Wisdom: 20 Dexterity: 11 Luck: 5
Active Skills: Flight Lv 1, Mana Control Lv 1
Passive Skills: Dragon Tongue Lv 1, Dragon Eyes Lv 1, Dragon Ears Lv 1,
Dragon Scales Lv 2, Lightning Resistance Lv 3, Pain Resistance Lv 1
Unique Skills: Blessing of Amia, Form (1/2), Territory
Traits: Dragoness, Futanari, Genius Magician, Master Trainer, Lion’s Heart ]
She had lost more than half of her health, if that strike had continued on for even a second longer, she’d likely be dead. “At least it shows my survival wasn’t a happy accident.” Scarlet said to herself, she knew her health would have to be much lower if that was a real attempt. She was still confused on why Amia would take such an extreme route, “It can’t be necessary for awakening mana can it?”
Scarlet shook her head in an effort to calm down, “Don’t focus on it Scarlet, it’s already over and you’ll be fine.” she told herself, deciding to bring her attention to her golem creation.
Once Scarlet had finished the first mission, and was given her rewards for the trial, she knew instantly on how to cast the spell she had been given, and while the level of control over her mana was still quite shaky, it would be enough for her needs.
She still had no clue on how the spell worked, what parts influenced what, but she’d have to answer those questions on her own at a later date.
The first part of her new spell, “Create minor golem” involved gathering some basic spell components. Some small and large rocks to make up the body of her new servant, something she had an abundance of. Instead of simply picking up any of the stones on the ground though, Scarlet began her search for a specific piece.
The search wasn’t particularly long, merely taking ten minutes, but to her it was worth it. The stone she was searching for in question was one of the larger shards, a sharpened tip pointing out with some small drops of blood scattered upon it.
“Aha there you are, you miserable piece of granite.” Scarlet spoke to herself, “The first thing to injure me in this new world, and it had to be a common stone. While it’s no fault of your own, making you work for eternity as my servant is a fitting punishment wouldn’t you think?” her question receiving only silence from the poor stone.
Clearing off a section of the floor, Scarlet grabbed the other necessary parts, placing them in a sort of humanoid formation, though even comparing it to a human would be a vast overstatement. The larger shard made up both the head and body, the chest jutting out as she had flipped the piece over, the arms and legs were simply two rock shards a piece, no hands or finer details to speak of.
“I hope this works.” With the pieces now in place, Scarlet began the process of gathering mana. It was a struggle, the mana was slow to move resisting her pull and constantly trying to drift away, comparable to trying to gather sand with a net, yet she continued.
Minutes passed as her work lengthened on, the stones showing their first change as they started to glow with a small silverish light. From there the process rapidly changed, the stones now shaking almost violently as parts of them magically shaved away. The random stones becoming almost uniform in their shape. She could feel the spell had nearly reached it’s completion, with a final push the golem was engulfed in the silverish light, the body beginning to move.
With an excited state and bated breath, Scarlet watched as the golem stood up, the stones in its body held together by nothing, but still somehow interacting with the others. She was about to speak when an alert once more popped in front of her face.
[Congratulations on completing Mission Two! Your reward is an item bag.]
A small bag immediately and suddenly appeared in her claws, so magically that she nearly dropped it. She was tempted to open it now, but that could wait, her new creation needed guidance.
“Well hello there little golem.” When she spoke the golem froze, seeming to stare at Scarlet even though it didn’t have any eyes, let alone a face to have them with. She waited for a moment, expecting it to somehow magically speak, but the golem didn’t make a sound. “Quiet one aren’t you? Shame I was hoping you’d somehow be able to speak. Can you at least understand me?”
The golem’s body seemed to shake lightly, but Scarlet had to make sure, “If you can, raise your right arm.” The golem immediately raising its arm in response confirmed it. “Perfect!” Scarlet said, “Now as much as I’d like for you to stay with me, for now you have a mission. See those tunnels?” Scarlet asked, pointing at one of the dozen openings, “I need you to find a way out of them to the outside world, as you can see I’m far too big to search them myself, can you do that for me doll?”
She had expected the golem to immediately get to work, but it instead gave her a cute salute before running off to it’s work, “Aww, for being nothing but cold stone it’s quite adorable.”
With her new servant gone, Scarlet was tempted to begin cleaning up her dwellings, shoving away the sea of sharpened rock to create someplace she could lay down comfortably, but the item bag took priority.
Opening the bag she was surprised to find it not filled with food or supplies, but rather a singular cuff and an unopened letter. The cuff was intricate in its design, being what appeared to be a mix of gold and silver, a picture of Amia engraved on its outside. It was fairly large though, being far too big for her arm, she even slid it on to check just to be sure.
The moment she slid the cuff onto her arm though, it magically shrank, becoming the perfect size for her arm, and at the same time becoming impossible to remove, “Drat… I should have read the letter first.”
Scarlet was still nervous about what the letter may contain, perhaps a warning, or her new goddess shaming her, but it still needed to be read, so she opened it up.
“Hey Scarlet!” It began, “While I’m sure you’d figure it out eventually I just wanted to let you know that the cuff is what will identify you as my saint to the world. It’s impossible to remove once you take it on, but you’ll never have a reason to so it’s fine. I’ve also taken it upon myself to send messages to my other saints, they’ve sent out messages announcing your arrival.”
“Ah, how nice of her.” Scarlet said, thinking this was the end of the letter, but she then noticed another sentence scrawled further down, “P.S. That lightning wasn’t necessary, but you interrupted my time with Maria. If you call me willy-nilly again, I’ll send harsher trials. Toodles!”
