This Aretepost brought to you by "hmm, doesn't Rotbeast sound like a Surgecraft name?"
I recall that we went down to the swamps to fight, so we are now higher. That makes sense, but are we in a glade? Googling titles is always fun, but because there is a "High Glades Medical Center" in the UK, the internet now thinks I have COVID. Thanks, Rihaku! I doubt that's the reference, but we are going to a place of healing, so it would be appropriate.
Returning to civilization, Hunger collected Gisena before making his way to the bounty office. It was time to collect on the Rotspawn he'd killed, though the harvest of power from the creature itself was payment enough in his mind.
Hunger would happily do his training for free, it's fortunate that he's clever enough not to tell anybody this.
See, from the last update I assumed that the "who to check on" vote giving +relationships would be sappier than collecting Gisena like groceries, but that's how Hunger rolls. Just grab your sorceress by the scruff of her neck, this is how friendship works.
"What an odd creature," Gisena remarked, poking gingerly at the decapitated head.
"What's odd about it?"
"Hm?" She raised a finger to her lips. "I can think of a few things! This specimen decided to go hunting for exotic monsters after declaring he'd take a vacation. He then pushed himself so hard that he was slain, returning as a pale wraith to present the trophy of his mutual-kill to a society of strangers!"
Gisena's revenge is swift, which is how you can tell they're friends. It's truly not Hunger's fault this time, I want to say, it was the rolls. But actually it's just us voters who are (mostly) innocent and dice-cursed, Hunger decided to kill himself for power
again so he'll just have to accept brooding on his failure.
The creature itself is very odd as well, Gisena was clearly multitasking geniusly. And now I'm kicking myself for not making a "forewarned is four armed" joke, maybe about how it didn't see it's defeat coming? What a missed opportunity.
"Sounds normal to me," he demurred. "I've always heard geniuses were very adaptable. Failing to pick up on a consistent pattern of behavior, perhaps you're losing your touch."
Gisena laughed. "I'm too distracted by all the wondrous technology around! I haven't even had time to complete my meditations..."
Hunger, likewise, misses an opportunity to brood. Uttermost clearly hasn't crippled his ability to banter too horribly, his self-confident self-acceptance technique is tyrannically top tier.
I had thought Gisena would be done with her Sublime-ation, since we waited for our sword to regen before setting off, and then traveled for a day. It's probably better this way, she'd have single-handedly (how, I can't make a joke about that anymore) taken over the Sovereignty with her obscene Int and Cha. Just to loot it of all the cool tech, of course. Is Gun Gisena now a thing, or did we bring the money too late?
"Speaking of which," she continued, "Letrizia asked us to find a Hot Springs resort to stay in. I did some digging and these two look the most promising. What do you think?"
She fanned out a pair of pamphlets, one for a starkly modernist resort, the other a decadent eastern-style villa.
"This one," he pointed at the latter. "What else are we going to spend the money on?"
Asked and answered, Hunger wasted all the money on getting pampered. This one
is my fault, sorry Gisena. You'll have to make do with living in uttermost luxury for a few days. Easy come, easy go is kind of an admirable attitude for a wandering adventurer who relies on his strength and his friendships, but not so much for a galactic overlord. There's plenty of time for him to learn, progression-type Cursebearers can learn even the most forbidden and esoteric powers of financial literacy.
Like Hunger, Letrizia is making the most of her vacation. Cramming both high school and a hot springs episode into a weekend trip, what envious efficiency. And a heist, but that's not much of an anime cliche, I don't think. Letrizia only pretends to be two-dimensional.
"Fair enough," Gisena said, walking around to his other side. "Oh, your arm's growing back! First your sword and then your arm, I see you have your priorities in order!"
"Would any man choose otherwise?" He deadpanned. "But yes, I slew a monster with four arms. That seems to have granted enough power to overcome the Tyrant's curse and repair my one. I was lucky. It was considerably stronger than I expected."
"Congratulations!" Gisena clapped. "Now we just have to fix your eye, lung, liver and heart and you'll be good as new!"
"...There's nothing wrong with my heart."
"Heartbreak's a serious condition, you know? And extravagant luxury is just the remedy. Never leave home without it!"
Hunger only takes an ellpiseified pause when Gisena lands a critical hit, he knows full well what she was talking about. And she clearly also knows what she's talking about, because the soothing, warm waters washed away this month's Chill of the Grave. Otherwise I'd call bullshit, but she must really be a genius.
I wonder if Hunger is at risk of seeing magical Accretion patterns that aren't there because of the voters' choices, but I suppose there can't be. "Principle of similarity" or "A few dozen voters watching you life thought it would be apt," there's really no difference between the two, is there? Both for the arm coming back against the Prime and after the sword.
The bounty office paid out a generous sum for the Rotspawn's head, noting that it was the first Primary-grade Rotspawn downed in months. Their overawed desk staff beseeched Hunger to campaign against the Rotbeast itself, but he refused.
"Turning down a battle? Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Gisena placed a palm on his forehead as if to check for fever.
"We've got other priorities; the Temple comes first. Slaying this Rotbeast might be the work of an afternoon, or it could take weeks and months. Targets that big are usually well-fortified or they'd be hollowed out by opportunistic predators."
Rihaku: How many times do I have to tell you guys, you already turned down the opportunity to fight the Rotbeast.
Voters: *wink* I gotcha, it's gonna attack at the end of our vacation, loud and clear boss!
Rihaku: No, it's... it's the size of a mountain range, it doesn't move much.
My brain: What if we lose a duel to a teenager and they make us fight the Rotbeast? Wouldn't that be cool?
The situation of the Sovereignty seems worse every time we turn around, but they've lasted this long at least. I hope our small efforts helped buy enough time for a group of plucky teenagers to develop their powers to the point where we can turn this around... aaand we're poaching their best and most gullible, too bad so sad.
Teehee, she checked a ghost for a fever.
I don't entirely follow Hunger's logic, any monster that wanted to make the Rotbeast a home would have to contend with the Spawn already living there. The Rotbeast is huge, but also has an army. No doubt it is well fortified, though, and most people don't even need a reason to avoid getting into a scrap with monsters.
"A sensible precaution! Perhaps the creature you killed was also a genius?"
"Given all the things you've claimed a genius can do, I'd be surprised if the category included anyone besides you."
"Aw! You always know just what to say." Gisena hugged his arm cheerfully.
Well, they do say forewarned is four armed, so it would fit! (I got to use the joke after all.)
The relationship + is justified after all, this is too sweet.
"Speaking of which, how did Letrizia's infiltration mission go?"
"She snuck in and pretended to be a transfer student during their lunch hour. It worked well, at least until she got caught! But there weren't any serious consequences. Even out here, provoking the Empire by detaining a duchess would be a bad idea!"
"The Empire hasn't even bothered sending a team to retrieve their Armament."
"That we know of," Gisena nodded, "But the separatists don't know that! Why risk making an enemy of the Artriez dynasty over something so petty? The magics here are basically an open secret anyway."
"I haven't heard anything, or seen mages at the front."
As expected, Letrizia was immediately found out, but the power of lowercase rank is on her side. They didn't even take away the blood. "Provoking the Empire" is a bit of a stretch since it was definitely her doing the provoking, but that's the privilege of power. I kinda wish we picked Zee to visit, I now regret missing out on magic highschool ninja shenanigans.
I'm glad that team grown-up has mentally bookmarked the suspicious circumstances around Letrizia. Even if they have no way to investigate, they'll be able to pick her up after the totally unexpected betrayal.
"I haven't heard anything, or seen mages at the front."
"That's what you have us for! Most of their mages are children, teenagers at the oldest. They practice the manipulation of semi-conceptual forces called Imaginary Elements. The children have given themselves the somewhat presumptuous title of 'High Elementalists.' The Rotbeast began its incursions around when their first Elements manifested, so it's quite a controversial topic!"
Can't tell if Gisena is being sincere or calling Hunger witless, so it's probably both.
I could have sworn Gisena made a snark about High Elementalism being a terrible name without such a thing as Low Elementalism to contrast it, but it wasn't her according to ctrl+f. Well, it's a good point, unnecessary and meaningless and redundant adjectives are the worst kind of pretension in naming.
Time for a "The Rotbeast is a teenage Surgecrafter" conspiracy theory. I wonder what their Element would be called? Something like. Rot. Beast. Yeah, that'd do it.
"Weren't you planning to call yourself a 'High Sorceress' after completing your meditations?"
"Well yes, because I've earned it!" Gisena pouted. "There aren't even any normal Elementalists for these kids to place themselves above!"
"Matters of self-proclaimed sorcerous nomenclature being of utmost priority to the intellect of a genius like yourself. Even above battlefield fashion, apparently."
"Don't tease me on this," Gisena's pout intensified, tears shining brilliantly in her eyes. "I've worked hard..."
"Hard work doesn't deserve to be teased? I'll remember that," he said, with the tone of a man marking down his ledger.
Oof, Gisena did say the thing, just a few lines later.
Normal, not
low elementalism. Well, there are neither, so we're both right!
"Ah," Hunger said, with the tone of a person saying the thing he just said. How low Cha of you, you need to branch out into brilliant tears and intense pouts like Gisena. Definitely not those exact things, though.
Just compliment Gisena already, she deserves it. Rather than a High Sorceress, call her Best Sorceress.
"Good!" Gisena chirped, skipping ahead with playful grace. "Now, let's go see the resort. I can't wait to spend your money on such frivolous magnificence!"
"Who said you were going to? The room will be for me. You may hunt your own Rotbeasts if you'd like to chip in for a suite."
"Don't worry, I'll earn my keep! We'll have Letrizia expense it for us when we get back, so it's really the Empire's money!"
"I'll take you statement on credit, but if it falls through then you'll owe it all back, with interest."
"Naturally!" She raised two slender fingers. "Maiden's honor!"
Gisena knows he was complimenting her on the inside, geniuses can create compliments from nothing. As well as money, fiscal irresponsibility is the game of the day. Though, she did just help Zee and Hunger get fricking magic, leading others to a treasure she'll never possess, so actually she's more than earned her keep.
At this point, ontological whatever coincidences aren't even worth bringing up, so I won't.
The resort itself was a traditional Eastern-style enclave carved into the mountain at the heart of Elixir territory. Deep within the towering stone was a spring of mystical water heated by geothermal flows. The core pools in which this water accumulated had the highest magical purity, and each five-star Elixir resort held a direct tap to this most pristine of reservoirs. Rumors abounded as to the source of the magic, but according to Gisena, who'd studied a sample of the water, it was a spontaneous manifestation the likes of which occurred from time to time in the Voyaging Realm.
"I wonder what they'll do when it runs out?"
"The water or the magic?"
"The magic. It looks like it'll last for maybe... sixty more years? It'll peak in strength within the next five and decline steadily afterwards. It's strongest on nights with a full moon. We have waning gibbous, which is the third-most optimal condition..."
"Such analytical prowess."
"Only the best for my favorite creditor!"
How unsatisying. Not the resort itself, which is amazing and magical, but the source. The answer to "where did it come from?" is "It just did lol." There's no way that's the actual axiom, but we're not strong or smart enough to answer the real question of how the Realm spontaneously generates things like this yet.
Another question is what determines who gets direct access to the reservoir, there's gotta be a lot of brutal politics going on that we don't care about. Sure to get worse when the water runs out, that's potentially society-ending.
There's the moon again, and while it's not strange to read about the moon having mystical significance, I'm suspicious. Is the moon always particularly important, is it just one of the easiest factors to notice, or is the conceptual proximity of moon magic to itself responsible for the short travel time from the Temple to here? All the more reason to test my lunar cycle Edeldross idea, at least when we're spending enough time between events to have the luxury to coordinate things according to time of the month.
Gisena's magesight, or maybe her intelligence is stronger than I thought. How on earth can you measure the strength curve of a magic source over sixty years? You could look at the current rate of drain and the total amount easily enough, but "peak in five years" might as well have come out of the ether as far as I'm concerned. Is there a packet of data within the magic itself that lists out how it reacts to the moon? It's either magic or genius, and beyond me. Incredibly convenient.
The Kaguya, their chosen residence, was considered the most premier lodgings in the entire Sovereignty. Such luxury did not come cheap, but Hunger had little attachment to the currency of this minor nation.
Letrizia met them on the tram up to the hotel, excitedly expounding on the magic system she'd discovered while Gisena examined every detail of the tram itself.
"It's called High Elementalism and each kid has their own unique element, with physical and sometimes magical properties! I asked and they said anyone young enough has a chance to develop it by bathing in the hot springs." Letrizia fidgeted excitedly.
Looking down on the Sovereignty for being a minor nation seems a bit rich coming from Hunger. Sure, the Empire totally outclasses it, but you've never been there. You come from a backwater, and before that a slightly less-backwater. But yeah, we're not going to stay here, and money comes more and more easily as he gets stronger, so spending wastefully is justifiable.
Letrizia is spilling the details of magic and Gisena is fascinated by something as mundane as a tram. It makes sense, because Gisena can use trams but not Surgecraft, but it's still amusing. Plus, Gisena seemed to know about the magic before Letrizia finished her mission, but let's not tell her it was pointless.
"I also got you blood samples from a couple of the stronger mages." She tossed her hair, expression smug. "Boys are so easy to manipulate."
He soberly reached out a hand, taking the vials. "Gisena. I fear our charge may be taking the wrong lessons from this experience."
"Hm?" She looked up from the now-exposed circuitry of the tram's computer. "Oh, yes. Letrizia, don't manipulate boys for gain, or at the very least, let them down gently when you're done."
"Teaming up on me," Letrizia huffed, crossing her arms. "After all the good work I did!"
"Think about it from their perspective," he said sternly. "How would you like it if you were infatuated with someone who only wanted to use you for your blood?"
I take it back, Zee is absolutely not pointless. How the hell. Shouldn't strong wizards be the last people who'd give up their blood to strangers? Ugh,
boys. Over a lunch break, too. How quickly did that conversation escalate from hello to vampire? I regret missing out on that even more, now. "You have good genes, give them to me," is basically flirting, if I know humans correctly, soooo maaaybe.
I love Microwave's picture of Gisena staring in absorption at the trunk of a car, but tearing out the guts of a tram computer is probably more accurate. That probably happened .04 seconds later, I choose to believe the picture was taken right before disaster.
Speaking of the wrong lessons, "Absolutely do not charm people into giving up blood, also thank you for the blood." Gisena's more on top of things, the least you can do is be nice about it. Call your dad in to beat people up, that should pay them back for their... kindness?
I can't tell if Hunger's last line is semi-facetious or poignant, talking to a Duchess. Again, probably both.
"H-hmph! I can't help if they're throwing themselves at my feet!"
"A capable Armament pilot lacks even this amount of discipline? I'm surprised."
"F-flattery will get you nowhere! Besides, y-you're one to talk about lacking discipline. How come you're in ghost form again?"
"That's a lack of wisdom," he answered sagely, "not of self-control. I only endangered my own heart, not those of your innocent classmates. And I got my arm back, so it was completely worth it."
"T-they're not even my real classmates!"
I don't think they
volunteered their blood without prompting, Zee, that's not a thing that people do. Unfortunately, making terrible decisions because of a pretty face is. Or fortunately, for us. Why are we scolding her again? Right, the lols.
Passing on the heart metaphors, way to steal Gisena's lines for your own purposes! He deserves a +Charisma for surviving against her wit for so long, the Vigor Itself or Wreath boost could be fluffed that way. Or Gisena could make a joke about it, as expected of a genius, lifting up everyone around her. Then Hunger can fire back with how much better he is at buffing, it'll be great.
Hunger deserves quite a few points for discouraging people from following his bad behavior, but then he loses them all for making bad ideas looking so cool in the first place. His example isn't 'armless.
Letrizia tries to deflect criticism of her bad behavior by bringing up her other misdeeds, a bold strategy. Hunger approves.
Hunger paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. Ah, that was it. Though he'd indirectly hunted for it, he had not caught this meat himself. For all its joys and wonders, this commercial fare just wasn't the same as consuming a fish off one's own line.
A bunch of food porn happens, but I'm going to skip it because food porn sucks! You hear me, Brian Jacques? Should've voted for the crappy hotel, smh. I'm happy that Gisena and Letrizia are happy, though, they deserve nice things.
I do wonder if there's a deeper meaning to Huntress' Moon-having Hunger disdaining the extravagant feast that he didn't catch himself. That is our mitigation strategy, after all. He did name himself Hunger to exert greater control over his curse, but I wonder if the curse is bleeding into him? In a surprisingly harmless way, at that.
Fanwork#2003 Words for the vaults.
