My Sudden Monster Convergence

As we discussed plans for future battle combos, the bamboo grass began to thin out the farther we walked until becoming a plain of sand and dirt. I could see the horizon with all the grass out of the way and found that it looked like it continued for acres of sky and what appeared like ocean in the far distance. Was I really in the mini town? It looked like this place was its own world but it couldn’t be entirely separate from the world before if I was able to get in…right? I’d rather not be lost in this land forever. The thought sent shivers down my spine, I’ve seen enough shows to know people don’t handle being stuck really well.

“You ok Pinepin?” Asked Phoebe with a concerned voice.

I poked my face only to touch the crystal mask confusing me into looking at my hand. “Uh, yeah?” I said after realizing I had a mask. It’s crazy how my vision isn’t blocked at all in this thing, it’s like my normal human vision… I guess zooming in would be kinda hard to do right now though.

“Hehehehe-hahaha!” Maeve laughed as I fumbled with having mask that isn’t there. “You forgot about your mask! Man, having an incarnation is weird!” she said after catching her breath.

I wasn’t sure how to react, being lost in my confusion with having perfect vision despite wearing a mask and how Phoebe noticed something being wrong. I was a leaf being blown around by the twisting currents of wind, hit by all sides. I really wasn’t sure if the people or this world surprised me more at this point.

After a while longer into our walk, I began to hear the soothing crash of waves in the distance, almost greeting us like an old friend. Even the air was the right amount of windy, carrying the salty water the waves splashed into the air. I sighed, feeling my shoulders loosen up and having the temptation to run into the water made me forget about everything. Having a female body and all the weird alien sensations or being a dragon that might get bigger and accidently hurt someone. It was all just an idea that I could just pretend wasn’t real for a short while. If it could just be a dream, I would believe it, I’d probably want the waves to take me wherever it wanted.

“You really like the beach, huh.” Phoebe said with smile on her face. She looked like she watching a dream come true.

“That obvious?” I asked, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Yeah, you look really happy, even your walk seems peppy.”  She confirmed, tilting her head to the side and looking up at me. She had a small smile and crossed her arms behind herself, looking really cute. If I didn’t have this mask I’m sure I’d be blushing right now.

“I guess you’re right… it uh, means a lot to see it.” I said softly while looking at the shore. It had a soft glitter as the sunlight kissed the water. Maybe one day and I hope it happens soon. Please.

“HEY GUYS! It’s over here!” shouted Maeve, pointing at a lumpy hill. Uh… we’re not even in a cove. Why call the dungeon plunder’s cove if there’s not even a cove?

 The hill had several stones dotted around like a path, leading to gaping hole that looked like a kid saying a sad ‘aw’. There were dried brushes that rattled in the wind, while the hill had thin grass growing on the top making the sandy and rocky hill look like it had hair.

“Kinda disappointing right!” Maeve asked me. Which I gave her a tilted nod. “That’s because the shore was already built and took up all the available space before a cove could be added. So you could say this dungeon was a compromise.” She said looking at Phoebe with a proud smile and holding her head high like she won first place. Phoebe just clapped her hands before giving Maeve a double thumbs up which made Maeve grin like she was getting her favorite ice cream flavor.

“It’s actually better if you see for yourself what’s happened because of that.” Phoebe said with a wink. “It’ll probably surprise you.” She added. I wonder what she’s talking about, I don’t think there hasn’t been something in this world that surprised me.

“Aright, now you’ve gotten me curious. Let’s see what this lumpy dungeon hides.” I said walking towards the entrance.

As we entered the dungeon I was met with several stone stairs that led deeper underground. The stairs had steps that looked like a gray stone while others where a polished looking brown. The walls and ceiling looked like packed muddy sand with several green, blue and red rocks that glowed like it had a flame inside of them.

“Now Pinepin, remember to keep your distance from any Mor that might appear. Let me or Maeve deal with them unless I say it’s ok to take it on. I don’t want you fainting on us and missing out on the dungeon.” Phoebe said with a serious face.

“Yeah, it sucks to be dropped when you’re exploring something cool. I’ll never forget how close I was to a truth pearl.” Maeve said with pain filled tears in her eyes and a grimace.

“Alright, I’ll stick close and stay away from anything crazy. It’ll be pretty bad to end my day here without seeing your moves.” I said with a nod.

At the halfway mark, the sandy walls transitioned to a darker stone, the ceiling becoming a smooth stone surface, in some sections were long cone shaped shells and imprints of torso sized fish. Looking to the side I saw the wall opened up and found a pale blue crab sitting on a rock. It raised its claws above its body while its legs tilted its body side to side like it was doing a shimmy dance. It then alternated with raising one claw and lowering the other, as it did this its claws started to make noises like a maracas. It was like it was greeting us to the dungeon with a musical dance. If all the Mor here are cute and friendly looking like this crab then maybe I could enjoy my dungeon visit. It couldn’t be as bad as the Twin dungeons, I hope.

As we reached the exit, a wall in front of us was split like a crevice with bright light spilling into the hole making it hard to see but we could hear the sounds of waves crashing into the shore and rock and the call of galls. What! No way! It can’t be! The whole dungeon floor was encased in tall brown and black cliffs forming a huge C. the ground was made up of white glittering sand with a few blue crab dancing, shaking their claws and shimmying in place.  There was also several palm trees everywhere, even on top of the cliffs and making little palm tree groves in patches, providing shady spots to escape the sun. In the far distance was a emerald colored ocean with small waves tapping the white beach like a curious cat.

 As I stepped into the dungeon floor itself, a white rectangle popped in front of me, and almost smacked my forehead.

“Kid decos?” I said reading out loud. I wasn’t sure what that was or why it popped up. Maybe this world ran on old RPG logic?

“Beginner’s quest huh? You really are new to this. Well like the oni say, let big sis stake the issue.” Maeve said sounding excited at the idea of being a big sister. “A kid deco is a mor that looks like a scitta.” She said triumphantly. I just tilted my head in further confusion which deflated Maeve a little. “Has a lot of legs? Uh they have a hard shell that’s blue and claws?” she said trying to inform me.

“Oh you mean a crab! Those are pretty tasty.” I said with a big smile. It was Maeve’s turn to look confused. 

“Oh yeah! Most fairies call those scitta because how they look like bugs.” Said Phoebe to both of us. So they call bugs scitta? Is that a language difference or something else? “See there’s one over there.” She said pointing at another dancing crab.

“But why is the little guy dancing? It’s kinda cute.” I said staring at it. Phoebe and Maeve looked at each other surprised.

They told me to wait here as they went over to the blue crab, the moment they were a few feet away the crab stopped dancing and stared at them, it looked offended, insulted even. And then….. “Berahhaahhaghahgah!”The crab bellowed a deep guttural scream while the sand around it exploded into the air, revealing a long centipede like body with hundreds of wiggling legs. I froze in shook as the creature began to chase after Maeve and Phoebe, trying to grab them with its little snipping claws. They both jumped back, while Phoebe shot purple arrows from her finger tips, hitting its legs and a claw. Maeve swiped two glowing fingers which created a orange arched slice which rushed forward cutting into the other claw and almost completely bisecting the crab-a-peade in half. The creature then popped into a dusty cloud as it died. Leaving behind several spinning coins with different icons on them, one being a shell, another being a leaf and the last being meat.

 They walked over to me after collecting the coins which made a weird plopping noise as they gathered them. “That’s why cute is deadly.” Chuckled Maeve before leaning an elbow on Phoebe’s shoulder.

“They dance to lure in easy going sprites who like dancing and music and attack when they get close enough.” Phoebe informed me. “They’re something you shouldn’t worry about much, it’s the winged angler you’ll need to look out for. They like to attack while you’re distracted, especially if you pull out food.” She warned. “Luckily we’re only here for the kid decos and some herbs that grow in little puddles by the Cliffside.”  She added with a big smile.

We walked over to another dancing crab that was really getting into its dance that it ignored us even when we were within a foot or two of it. Seeing this Phoebe told me to try to do what I did earlier today and direct it at the crab. I kinda felt bad but I stepped forward trying to do a weaker version of my mana battle. Charging my body with mana again and focusing it towards my fist, I tried to imaging my mana stabbing forward like Maeve’s. Holding out my fist I willed my mana to hit the crab, instead of shooting out like an arrow or a beam, a huge pillar of mana shot out. It crashed into the crab but instead of blowing up, it punched the crab into the ground and kept going until Phoebe squeezed my shoulder. It distracted me enough to stop shoving my mana out. Looking at my hand I opened and closed it, my hand felt like I used it without stretching, it was a little sore. Looking back, the spot the crab was, was now a large hole. It looked as if a drill made a tunnel into the earth.

“Phoebe! Why didn’t you tell me he was this powerful?!” Maeve shouted while shaking Phoebe.

“I tried to but you ignored me!” She said in annoyance.

“I could’ve used more of my magic! Damn! And I was just starting to warm up too!” Maeve said in a frustrated tone. She let go of Phoebe and crossed her arms while her making a frown and began grumbling about pulling out each other’s full power.

“Please don’t, there doesn’t need to be another tornado grabbing people and zapping the tower. But if that’s how you feel, I guess you don’t care about the upcoming flora’s gathering.” Phoebe said while giving Maeve a hurt face.

“Ok-ok! I’ll stop being all mixed up and keep my eye on the prize! Come my friends! Let us devastate the deco population!” Maeve shouted before drawing a thin sword from nowhere. She then pointed her blade at another crab and charged in, slicing it in two, before rushing another one.

Phoebe shook her head before turning to me. “We better catch up with her and try to get you some experience.” She said rubbing her lip. I gave her a thumbs up and she gave a smirk before we chased after Maeve.

They ended up crushing, slicing and tossing the crabs in the air. Phoebe pierced the crabs with her magic while Maeve smacked others into nearby rocks and slicing them into thin cuts of sashimi. All the while, I would practice my mana attacks on the distracted or weakened crabs. Everytime I would try to push my mana out it would look like a wobbly stick which i couldn't help but find funny. It was kinda of fun when I realized my mana acted more like a solid object, it just felt more like I was moving my arm or leg. Treating my mana more like a pole I swung it at them only to end up lightly bonking a few crabs around instead of crushing them. Which led to Phoebe saving my butt from being pinched from some not very happy crabs.

Was there something I needed to do to turn my mana into magic? Thinking back to the training I had with Jaque I remembered to calm myself down with meditation and the difficult rock training that I’ve yet to figure out. Yet I managed this mana pole thing with some effort… maybe there’s something else to it, I looked over at Maeve, the source of my new mana pole and noticed how her movements reflected her attacks. She would glow before moving that glowing part like she was throwing (?) it at them like a whip. It didn’t seem like something I could pull off just yet but…. Looking at my fists, I opened and closed them, feeling the muscles pull and push, focusing on the tension. As I did this my fists felt hotter than before, my arms strained and my back felt heavier. Eyeing a crab that Maeve knocked over, I rushed over and threw my fist at it. As I made contact, a crunching pop rung out as I smashed the crab into the ground, its shell sending fragments before it popped into item coins.

That felt amazing! Maybe Jaque was right about how magic is like muscles! Feeling my heart pumping from the success of defeating a crab in an intended way, I began to attack any crab that was weakened or too distracted to notice me.

 Every time I hit a crab, a part of its body would break off. Legs, tail parts and claws would crack off. But every crab would continue to come at me even after it was reduced to a few legs. They would throw their body or kick sand at me in the hope it would hit me. Its insane determination made me feel uncomfortable, there's no way a real dungeon would work like this, right?

We kept this up for a while longer before Phoebe called us together to focus on gathering the herbs that grew in the water by the cliffs. As we made our way closer to the ocean side cliffs, I could see several waves, rising far out in the ocean which lazily made their way to shore, pushing in and pulling out. The vibrant green water was crystal clear, as if this location has never seen pollution. The sky was slowly turning yellow and orange as the sun came close to kissing the green ocean good night.

 We then made our way to a nearby rock outcropping where water became trapped in little pockets surrounded by rock. Inside the one of these pools, I saw a pink spiny urchin, a weird yellow slug that hovered above the sand, swirling and flicking see-through frills. Several pink, red, lime and pale blue plants clung to the rock while twisting their small leaves in a scoping manner.

“We’re here for these pink and blue one.” Said Phoebe as she pointed them out. She then reached in to the pond with a sliver looking knife that shined blue and cut the smaller leaves near the top of the herb. “Only the small leaves at the top are potent enough for what we want to make. Also if they shine.” She said before showing me the leaves. Out of the seven only One reflected the sun’s light like glass. “Then that means it has mana stored up, so it basically becomes a super ingredient. Or bonus points for collecting them.” Phoebe said with a jolly smile and a thumbs up. She then handed me similar knife so we could all hunt for these herbs.

After that we began to gather up as many as we could find, moving to different ponds dotted across the shore after one ran out. At one spot I managed to find two shining leaves out of the twenty I gathered, the way the leaves reflected the light was…it was. The color would shift from violet to leaf green, it felt like holding tempered glass. This was mana literally crystalized but it lacked the distinct flickering mana ores had but the way the colors looked…..the sound of the waves-the thought of twisting wildly. A smirk and a laugh.

Looking away, towards the sinking sun, I didn’t need this right now! Please-anything but that! My hands shook and my vision became blurry, the sun becoming a jumbled mess as I tried to hold back my tears. Everyone was happy then, the sand was so soft and the sky seemed so close to my little hands. I don’t need this, I just need to feel the salty wind on my skin. Yeah that’s all I need to do. I took a shuddering breath as I tried not to sob. It’s all over-nothing here, gone.

As I sat there watching the sunset into the far horizon letting my warm breath flow out of me, someone sat down next to me.

“Hey…it’s a pretty sunset.” Phoebe said with a quiet voice. She sounded unsure of what to say. I didn’t look at them, I just watched the sky changing colors.

“It’s b…it is. Very pretty.” I mumbled a soft agreement. I couldn't really describe the light, nothing seemed as bright as it did earlier.

We sat there quietly watching the sun slowly disappear, sinking slowly into the water and painting the sky a blue, deep red and a warm yellow. Nothing seemed close to me, I felt the distance between me and the sun. we were thousand, millions of miles apart far away from the world…from me. But at least I could feel someone’s presence pulling me and holding me in place. 

I closed my eyes before standing up. “Thanks…I guess I needed a friend.” I said as I poured out a low sigh.

“Anytime Oliver, I got your back.” Belle said with a soft voice.

C.Details

Hi peeps, robins and ducks! I wish I could say I'm doing well but I got sick again. It sucks, everyone I know seems to be getting sick! So it might take a little longer for the next update/chapter, apologies. Anyway, on to something better! This chapter shows off a dungeon! Well an artificial one and I know but I wanted dancing crabs because it'd be funny and cute to see a actual crab dance. Also we complete a gathering quest with Phoebe and Maeve! letting Oliver figure out his Mana some more! YaY! Plus Belle and Oliver have a small moment together to further cement their friendship. Maybe Belle will surprise Oly with a hug!

As always, Thank You for reading! it's great to work on this story and make my day all the more fun! Hopefully I get better soon too, that's never fun. Anyways, I hope your future is super fun and achieve greatness and maybe a cute pet along the way. I believe in you!