My Sudden Monster Convergence

Making my way to that tunnel that I took with Belle last time and ignoring the fearful looks of anyone who saw or felt my presence. Though the succubi waved or hooted at me like I was their star quarterback. I still don’t know what I did to get their damned attention, other than some weirdo bugging them.

Mentally shaking my head I walked into the tunnel only to regret it almost instantly as it zoomed forward and launched me out into the air in a bubble! Trying to keep calm, I stared at the sky and hugged myself with my wings. It’ll be worth it. I’ll be in a less dragon affected body. And-and, I’ll be like anyone else there!

Luckily I distracted myself enough to survive the landing, taking a quick breath, I rushed to the loading zone, quickly finding an open tree. Sitting down I closed my eyes to begin the loading.

……

…………

‘IT’s you again’

Hey. It’s been awhile so-

‘LOADING’

It’s good to hear from you. I tried giving her a big smile.

‘I-I did not wait for you or your weird actions- LOADING’

I hope you’re doing well!

‘HMPH’

Before I could respond, my vision flashed before greeting me with a flashy welcoming page, the kind you’d see in video games for big events or entering a new town. The page with a twisting or hundreds of vines before flowers grew from the vines and released thousands of petals into a sunset.

After that I woke up under a large bush looking house. When did I start here? Isn’t this-

“Pinepin! OHMYGOSH! I thought I wouldn’t see you again!” Came an excited shout behind me but before I could turn around fully, I was hugged by Maeve. “Phoebe said you’d be dropping by so I was super excited!” she said cheerfully

Phoebe? Oh! Belle’s incarnation. Guess he messaged her earlier. “Yeah she asked me to help out tomorrow and to get some things from the dungeon today.” I said with a smile.

Before pulling away Maeve whispered something to me which only made my smile grow bigger. Nodding, she pulled away, we then both raised our right arms like we were calling down ultimate powers before pulling our arms down. Then making a circle with our arms we both jumped past each other as we crossed our arms in a x and a blue explosion erupted as we crossed each other.

“That wasn’t half bad but I think we’d need more practice before we make a professional entice.” I said after we finished. It was super fun to do that I might try practicing it with Maeve a little more! But Belle asked for help so I’d better get this task done.

“Yeah! If we get good we could pop up on the silver screen! Or even in a huge play that goes worldwide!” Maeve cheered with a big smile and a clenched fist like she was charging up a powerful punch. “Let’s do it one more time!” She said with am excited smile.

“But……” it wouldn’t hurt to just get in a little practice would it? “Alright but only one more before I have to get that dungeon supplies.” I said.

“You mean we’ll get that dungeon stuff together. No way am I going to miss out on more dungeon exploring with a new friend.” She announced before getting into position to practice. It wouldn’t be bad to have her along and it’ll be fun. Who knows what magic spells we could create?  

After practicing the routine a little longer than we said, we were finally on our way to the dungeon and- ok! I practiced it with her fifteen times! It wasn’t twenty! And if anyone says otherwise, their lying outta their skin!

So anyway we were on the way down the road walking past giant blade of grass and tree sized twigs. It was really nice to explore this tiny world made giant, heck a real tree probably looked like a mountain from this perspective! From this size I can see how the dirt is just a cluster of little pebbles or the lines going up a single blade of grass.

“So I was wondering, what exactly is this petal thing?” I asked Maeve.

Her face scrunched up a little before she turned to look at a cloud. “It’s a game like puffer ball but instead of throwing pollen around it’s petals and how far you can magically make them go. But those artist pixies think it’s about making an awesome contraction to make it go farther. Soooooo I challenged them. They think magic items are awesome.” She turned to look at me. “Because it is! But their forgetting about how amazing magic shaping is!” She said spreading her arms wide.

“So you just make petals zoom across the sky?” I asked not sure how this helped.

“uh…. Oh! Not wrong but we make it look beautiful like the sparkling stars or add colors. So we take any petal, usually a pretty one or a large one and then we use magic to attach spells to it like a engine.” She tapped her chin before looking back at me. “It’s like making airplanes. After we do that, we figure out how we send them out, like deciding which firework should be in which group or be on its own.” She said with hop and made her best firework impression.

“Sounds fun, and I gotta get the petals down from the flowers?” I asked. 

“Yup! But there’s something special to it, you’ll really love it!” She said before picking up speed. “But I can’t tell you until it’s time!” She said as her wing grew from her back and she took to the sky like a bullet. Just as she disappeared she popped up behind me thirty seconds later with a petal. She then circled her hand around it before tapping it with a single growing finger, she then gave me a look and turned to me before releasing the petal.

The petal shot off into the air like it produced its own wind current. As it flew it created shiny sparkly colors of purples, greens and oranges. It was like a magic airplane and I couldn’t pull my eyes away as it flew. This was what focused magic can do?! Could I do something just as amazing as this? But the power I have might just turn it into a nuke anyway and then there’s that warning Jaque gave about focused spells that compress mana having some after effects. But I don’t need to compress my mana for magic do I? 

…….

But a stick can be used to support yourself like a crutch or as a weapon, unless that stick is made of something dangerous…… I don’t know. Magic could be super dangerous or helpful depending on how I use it. I want to believe that but it’s naïve to blindly follow this… then I’ll just have to ask people who know then.

“That was really beautiful!” I finally said after watching it but Maeve put her hand up and pointed to keep watching.

The petal was now pretty far away before it spun in a circle and turned into a bright green flame. The faster it spun the more a little tornado of coin like embers fell to the ground, moving up and down as they floated to the floor. It was like the embers were dancing as they twilled and bobbed up and down in the air. Once the embers hit the ground, I noticed a dying flower with several holes and turning a pale yellow. The moment the embers hit the flower, it was….wow. The holes slowly closed up and the flower turned yellow to a healthy green color.

I slowly turned to Maeve with eyes so wide, they might’ve rolled out my head. “Could I learn that?” I asked with a sweeter tone. That was so beautiful! It was-is amazing! What else could I do if I used my magic like that?! I don’t have to learn attack magic to do this! Hmmmm…

“I want to say yes but I don’t know what monster race you are. For some reason certain races have boosts to this kind of magic and others turn it into the opposite. But it was pretty funny when Charlie made it snow weed killer, he drew a smiley face.” She joked.

 

We talked a while longer as we made our way into the dungeon but I couldn’t let the thought go that different races might change a spell. That’s why that book said monsters had to relearn magic if they wanted to use a different race’s natural magic abilities. So I just have to be flexible maybe? But the possibility of just nuking a building trying to do a simple healing flower magic made me feel a little stiff.

So, I’ll just focus on the task at hand and burn some worries away by mor slaying! Pushing mana into my fists, I rushed a lone crab-centipede mor, smacking its left pincher away before kicking its eyes. Sadly it wacked me away with its other claw. But before I could act a window popped up in my face 

 

What? Why not strength?! But while I was distracted the crab slapped me with its long body, sending me flying into a nearby palm tree. Coughing, I tried getting up but found my body would burn every time I moved and even sent small painful zaps through my body.

“You ok?” Maeve asked. Looking me over.

“No, I feel pain?” I said confused. “And I wasn’t this weak last time I fought them.”  

“Oooooooooooh… Yeah…” Maeve poked her finger together and made an annoyed face. “I didn’t think she was actually helping you more, but… Phoebe was probably buffing your stats last time. I thought you were just really strong right off the creation press, you know some hidden buff or stat upgrade from one of the constructs.” She admitted. “Also the pain is so you don’t just take hits. It might make you develop bad dungeon habits if you didn’t feel anything here.” She pointed out

I see, it makes some sense, don’t want sitting ducks in a real dungeon after all. But I didn’t check my stats in the dungeon so I guess I didn’t know I was buffed. Then if I got these stat points now then that means I have to do physical things on my own? Or do buffs slow the process down?  “So then I don’t get these upgrades with help?” I asked.

“You mean system upgrades? Those were set to be slower in miss-leveled parties. Something about keeping power leveling incarnations fighting for control?” She shrugged like we were talking about complex math. “It was before I was here and I don’t really care about controlling people. Now being awesome! That’s a parfait I can dig into!” She said proudly. 

“Then I’m stuck with my mana stick thing?” I asked disappointedly. I wanted to get used to using my mana in my actions not be a walking canon. Though the idea of wiping the area of mor with the wave of my hand might be something to see, if I had better control.

Maeve looked at me before poking the air that’s when a coin with a headband appeared in front of me. “Here, I set this token to auto equip the moment you pick it up. It’ll help you build up your strength stat as you move around.” She said with a focused look.

Ok… it is a game like world so it makes sense. Poking the token a screen popped up asking if I wanted to auto equip strength booster. Pressing the yes option, I felt something press against my forehead, wrists and ankles. But the moment I tried lifting my arm to see the band I felt a heavy weight on my whole arm as if I had a gorilla holding my arm back. What the hell? A big smile grew on my face, weighted clothing!?

“I know, it’s a pain to move, it was pretty hard to get my body to move right bef-“ Maeve began before I slowly pulled myself up.

The weight was like I had several metal iron balls attached but at the same time, weighted clothes! I had to get used to this, I wanted to run in these and then even fight in them too! Then when my enemy thinks they’ve won, I’ll remove my weights and then really have them fear me! While I was starting to move around, Maeve just stared at me with huge eyes as if her favorite movie star was actually an alien in disguise.

“You’re actually a meat head huh?” She asked still watching me slowly pace around her.

“Just like working out.” I said before adding something extra. “And looking cool!” I shouted with a big goofy smile.

Maeve’s face changed to one filled with so much determination that the air around her looked like a heat wave. Quickly tapping the air, braces similar to mine appeared on her as she joined in on my walk. Though she was faster than me. “No way am I going to let you get cooler than me alone if can help it!” She shouted as if she had a point to prove. 

Together we made our way to that crustacean in need of a painful rehabilitation. For now I just focused on pushing out my mana stick while moving around. Throwing it out and hitting its pincher before trying to run to its side but only managing a slight walk. The crab annoyed with me, ran at me in anger but Maeve threw a rock at it, drawing its attention to her. The crab roared at her before rushing at her in anger, giving me a chance to push my mana pole into the crab’s left legs, making a cracking sound as they broke off.

That wasn’t bad but the crab used its pincher to drag itself over to me, hissing and roaring like it would kill me. Seeing this made me freeze as it tried to throw itself at me, only managing to hit my leg lightly, snapping me out of my scared state. Instantly raising my fists, I charged it with mana until it felt like the weights were light as a pencil. Slamming my fists into its head, I heard a nasty snapping and crunching sound before the crab popped into a spinning coin with a picture of its shell. 

“whoa! That was awesome! Those bands must be working!” Cheered Maeve as she rushed over.

“I guess they did but wasn’t that a little too soon to see results?” I asked.

“Nope, stat growth happens whenever you put in great effort. Do something great and get points!” She said giving me a thumbs up.

After that another box appeared in front of me giving me an update on my stat growth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Uh, Maeve? I think it’s acting weird.”