My Sudden Monster Convergence

“What do you mean?” Maeve asked, giving me a confused look.

Looking away from my stat gain menu, I pointed at it. “The stat gains are all cunning…. Is there a hidden mechanic?” I asked with a more worried look.

“Hmmmm… hold that menu and think of showing me so I can see.” She said with a serious tone.

Pressing my finger on the screen I thought of showing Maeve, making a box open.

 I looked up at her, tilting my head. 

“What?!” she asked, looking worried.

“Thunderer?” was all I said. It was enough to make her cringe like she ate half a candy bar only to find maggots in it.

“I thought I set that to hidden!” She shouted in a panic before turning to me, getting to her knees. “Please don’t tell Phoebe! I promised I wouldn’t do any explosive things but that title will tip her off!” She begged with scared eyes.

“Maeve…Phoebe’s my friend too, I can’t just lie to her and you know you should keep your promises to her.” I reminded her shaking my head in disapproval but she gave me giant puppy eyes.

“I promise to-“ She began but I only crossed my arms and shook my head again. “Uh! I mean, it was meant to be a surprise gift but I ended up picking up this annoying title by accident!” She said with a sad look. 

“How does that help? You blew something up didn’t you.” I said feeling a little annoyed.

She lowered her head. “I made a small wind grenade and it made a sonic blast that wiped out the whole fifth floor in the spider’s twig dungeon. It made all the mor’s ears explode… and heads. But I wanted to get something important for Phoebe,  she was super sad last week, so I had to find the one thing I knew she loves. So please don’t tell! I’ll tell her once I gift it to her.” She begged.

 “Fine…” I said before hitting yes on showing Maeve my stat growth. “What do you make of this?” I asked, trying to move on. Maybe I should do something for Belle? Don’t know if he was upset about what happened with Steph or something else…

“Thanks! I’ll keep my word! I prom- uh, I swear to you!” She said raising her hand before it glowed, making a strange fern like mark appear on her hand. I guess this is a fairy’s version of a pact? Are all pacts visible like this or there a difference between races and cultures? 

“A pact?” I asked while she looked at my stat screen.

“Nope, it’s a fairy’s honest, break it and I lose a portion of my mana for a year.” She frowned before continuing. “It hurts and weakens my magic but it proves I’ll keep my word.” Said before tapping the air.

“Wait- you can’t do that to yourself! Even though you did something crazy, I wouldn’t push that on you!” I argued. I’m not going to tie a friend with a contract like that! I’m not some manipulative creep!

“I’ll be fine, I was going to tell Phoebe anyway.” She said like it wasn’t a big deal. “Besides, I want to show you, I’m trustworthy. We’re friends and I don’t want to lie to you about it. Anyways your stat growth looks normal to me, all strength.” She said, drawing my attention to the screen.

Instead of cunning, all I found was strength. That’s weird, was it some text glitch? “Does this place have glitches?” I asked.

“Not really, a sprite land having a glitch would be as deadly as if void appeared, everything would instantly die.” She said. What! If they fuck up the coding, people could just die like that! “Which would just trigger the EXpEL, kicking everyone out. But there are some issues with a few constructs, so Britney might just be messing with you.” She explained with a chuckle.

At least there’s safeguards in place but that’s really scary. I don’t want to die…. Again if that’s how I got here. “Uh….Who?” She’s not talking about the loading voice is she?

“Britney? The construct managing the loading, status screens and other stuff, you know. Grumpy with a Mægster accent, kinda spiteful?” She said. 

That kinda sounds like the loading voice. But Mægster? Is that what Britain is called here? “Oh yeah, her.” I said snapping my fingers trying to act like I forgot.

Maeve just shook her head before getting up. “You’re silly, anyway, let’s go fight more Kid decos!” She said before adding. “And collecting those supplies. Yup!” She said before trying to run away but only managing a speed walk with those weighted braces on.

I’ll have to look into those safeguards once I get the chance. If I’m going to use this place to practice my mana control and cool off, I need to be sure I’ll be safe here. Getting up I began my crab hunting again, this time I was able to move with these weights on a little better, I might need to ask for heavier ones soon.

 

Finally knocking out the last things on the list, we sat down in what Maeve called a safe zone as I transferred what I collected to Maeve. It was kinda annoying to figure out that there was a subpage behind my status menu that showed items and any equippable gear. But I wanted to sit down to go through the stat gains and announcement screens while Maeve took out a sandwich with honey and meat. Apparently my stats got a huge boost.

   

Looks like I made massive growth from last time, not bad, I was around strength 6 I think? Now I’m over two hundred! And my special stats at fifty! Looks like that mana training was paying off! Maybe I can make my own safe version of that petal magic! Getting excited I began streaming mana into my fingers before snapping creating a small puff of fire that quickly vanished. Not bad but maybe let’s try water this time. Making a finger gun I tried to think of a liquid building up in front of my finger, I could feel my mana moving forward into a single point, this time my finger was lightly glowing as I aimed it at a tree. Jolting my hand, I made a ball of something shiny and transparent shoot into the tree but instead of making a hole, the tree began to smoke and sizzle as its bark began to slough off like melted chocolate.

“Wow! I’ve never melted a tree with a pure mana bullet.” Maeve whistled in amazement. 

“Not exactly what I wanted. I was trying to use water magic.” I said as I watched the tree become a puddle. It was beginning to smell like a nasty tire the more it melted, which made Maeve gag and lose her appetite.

“Yuck!” she turned away, covering her face. “I was really enjoying that honey sandwich!” She said as her eyes watered in sadness. “Could you not melt trees when I’m eating!” She shouted in frustration.

“Sorry! I just wanted to use water magic-“ I began but a screen appeared in front of to me.

“Urgh! Bleaaaaaaagh!” Maeve instantly threw up behind the log we were sitting on. While I desperately tried to rip my nose off only to realize I had no nose! Why did I make this incarnation without a nose! Getting up we both ran away from the smell but it followed us like Mr. Y from that zombie series! Passing through everything and always at our backs as we ran, even the crabs buried themselves under the sand.

We were half way to the exit before a strange buzzing sound began chasing behind us.

“CRAP! A blade angler! RUN!” She shouted in fear, pushing herself she ran faster as if the weighted braces weren’t there.

I tried to keep up but the moment I heard a snapping sound I turned to look. There behind me was vast darkness within the huge maw, long pointed sword for teeth coated in the drool of a giant red fish like creature. It had long wings that moved so fast the dirt flew away as it made a CHOP CHOP CHOP sound. Its large eyes covered in a yellow dome that made its eye look bloodshot as it stared at me. SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! I could hear its buzzing long wings getting louder and louder as it kicked up sand and rocks. Its going to eat me! I don’t want to be swallowed! Running between a few trees, I mentally prayed they would slow it down but the mor snapped them with a single bite! OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

I wasn’t fast enough! I could feel the hot breath of the mor as it came closer, smelling like damp,  rotting fish.  This thing was going to have its snack! But out of nowhere I couldn’t feel the floor under my feet, looking down I saw the floor zooming below me and wind blowing in my face. Realizing I was now flying.

“Sorry about taking off! Large-bosses play for keeps!” Maeve shouted as we flew away. What the hell! I could’ve been-

“RAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!” came a roar that made my very bones rattle.

“FLY-FLY!” I screamed in pure, pants forever ruined fear.

Maeve began glowing a blinding orange as I felt the pressure of speeding up on my whole body as trees, rocks zoomed past us in mere seconds. I could see the exit rapidly approaching. It was just a few inches away now!

“YES, YES! FUCK YOU, YOU STUPID BU-“ I started shouting my victory as we flew in to the cave but behind us, giant teeth longer than my arm slammed shut, missing us by mere centimeters and blasting us with enough wind that we rocketed through the tunnel. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” We both screamed, losing at least twenty years in that moment alone.

Before we could finish screaming, the exit disappeared behind us before we ejected out of the dungeon and crashed into a nearby sand dune.

Sitting up we looked at each other with giant eyes as our bodies trembled. We just shook our heads at each other, I don’t think I’m ready to live that again in a thousand years. Smiling at each other a giggle began before  turning into full out laughter at our slim survival. 

“We lived!”

“We saw!”

“We pissed it off!”

We smacked our fists together before doing another pose, back to back, one grasping hand and one fist, ready to grab a punch and feed our foe a counter sandwich. We were so lucky!

 

After we caught our breath, we went back to town. Maeve wanted to get something so she wouldn’t let me log out until we marked our survival with some token or whatnot. Honestly I didn’t mind, here people were pretty chill, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone acting strangely or crapping their pants. So if anything a few more minutes here wasn’t going to hurt me. While she went into a shop I waited outside just watching the people do their thing. Talking flowers, floating petal people that hum and pick things up with magic, a mole just walking around with a bag with a pin of a hero. There was even a group of non-glowing insect winged fairies, they looked like a normal fairy, same large eyes and thin bodies. But their ears weren’t pointed and they were either nude, had mannequin esque bodies or wore clothes that matched their skin tones of light green, pink or sky blue. Unless they’re a type of fairy, I guess they might be another race of sprite?

But why sprite? Not monster? Is there really a difference? Or are they just grouped differently based on their size? I’ll have to remember to look this up later, who knows maybe they have some weird reason like a prank war or blessing one of those large running birds to mess with people.

While I was thinking to myself the group began giggling loudly before taking off, leaving behind a girl with a pink flower covering her head but instead of the pollen bits was a sad face. She wore a bright red long skirt that hid her feet and a baggy long sleeve shirt that ended in four green fingers. She was jumping to catch these bug fairies but missed and landed on her face. 

“Hey are you ok?” I asked as I rushed over to her.

“Uhhhh….nooooo…….” She said in a sad voice. “They took my backpack again….” She mumbled into the ground.

“Oh, well let’s get you up first.” I quickly said. She turned her head to look at me and for a second her eyes widened before a smile spread across her face. “Thanks!” She said in a super cheery, I’m taking my little cousin to get ice cream voice.

Pulling her up to her feet she dusted herself off, brushing back her petals and adjusting her shirt while taking small looks every few seconds. 

“Is everything alright, miss?” I asked, tilting my head.

She smiled at me while blinking a lot. “I am now. Well, I could still have my bag and then I’d be even better! But semantics. I’m Sue by the way!” She said as she offered her hand.

“Uh….I’m Pinepin. Nice to meet you, Sue.” I said in a friendly voice, shaking her hand. Uh? Her hand felt super smooth and soft as if she washed her hands in moisturizer.

“The pleasure’s all mine.” She said while giving a giggly smile. “Now if only I could turn into a giant like Deluxe-man then I could catch them in my hand like it was nothing.” She said with a thoughtful face.

“You like Deluxe-man too?” I asked, trying to play things cool but inside I was screaming in excitement. Another possible Deluxe-man friend! 

“Oh yeah! I love Deluxe-man Zitto for saving the first Deluxe-man and card mon gamble was pretty good. The concept of using the kaiju as allies and power ups was really cool! Imagine a super form with one of your favorite kaiju! I would be unstoppable!” She said with a smug face.

“OH! That one brought new life to Gaidra. He's like a hero mascot now! I’d love to have one as a friend, all the fish we could get together would be heavenly!” I said while mentally drooling at the thought of sea bass, Marlin, squid maybe giant squid! 

“No way! I’d use mine to hut the giant war tusk or the kittle metra! They make for good salads you know!” She said with a glowing smile. But she started to look me over with a curious eye. “You know you remind me of someone special, I kinda thought you were him.” She looked a little down. “I haven’t seen him in a long time.” She said sadly.

Poor girl, I hate losing good friends. “Well I’m sure you’ll find him soon enough. Just keep your head up and I’m sure he’ll show up again!” I said being encouraging which got a smile out of her.

“You’re right!” She said puffing up her chest. “I can’t give up on him! Not until I’m sure he’s fine!” She declared proudly.

“Hey Pinepin! There you are!” Called Maeve behind me.

“Oh hey Maeve! Sorry about that, I just saw Sue here fall and wanted to help.” I said turning to Maeve who tilted her head.

“What do you mean? I don’t see anyone.” She said a confused look.

“Huh?” I turned to point Sue out, was Maeve going blind? She’s right……..here? Behind me there wasn’t anyone, just a building and some potted plants. “Where’d she go?”

“I guess she’s a shy one?” Maeve said with a shrug. “I know a few sprites that only warm up to certain people she probably just potted when I came up.” She said with a knowing nod. “Anyway! This is for you!” She leaned forward presenting a small glass dome pin, inside the glass was a dancing crab, it’s shell was a shined like a creamy white pearl with a sheen like a soapy water.

“This looks cool but why get one?” I asked confused.

“It’s a promise! A little snack for the fun we had, you eat it and it gives a small boost to a random stat permanently.” Maeve said before leaning closer to whisper. “Between you and me, these taste like all your favorites in one.”

Tilting my head in confusion. “Favorites? Also kinda lacking in the mouth department” I said.

“Just press on it like bubble wrap, you’ll taste what I mean.” She said while taking out her own promise and holding it between her thumb and finger. “Let’s pop them together!” She said with a cheery smile. Well tasting my favorites might be fun. putting my thumb over the glass, I could feel it firmly hold up but it felt squishy. 

pressing down, we both popped our promise, the glass making a soft shattering sound like if we collected a rare item in a game. That's when I could feel the mouth my incarnation never had, my tongue buzzed as I felt the wind blowing, making grass slowly sway. the taste of my mother’s fried fish, the meat savory and with a little bite. the warmth of my family hugging each other, the four of us holding tight. The smell of salty water in the air mixed with a soft perfume of strawberries and some mystery plant.  The sound of crashing waves and the soft hum of relaxing 60’s songs.

“Wow! That was amazing! I never get tired of the taste of my future. No spoilers buuuuuuuuut It’s going to be epic.” Maeve cheered with an honest nod before turning to me. “How was your’s?” She asked with an excited face like her true love came home with a big plate of steak nachos.

“Uh…it was…” Maeve nodded her head in excitement as I spoke, making my insides twist in a painful hollowness. “It was super good! The present was super tasty! if I had a face you’d see tears of happiness on my face, it’s that good!” I said with an excited, we’re going to a day one launch event of a famous game series. 

“I knew This would bring our mood up!” Maeve said as she proudly stuck out her chest and held her nose in the air.

Yeah…the mood is up, honestly.