Chapter 54
- Location
- Home
Venturing the Wild – 54
"Congratulations." Magnus cheered as Isha placed down the enchanted topaz ring.
The older woman sighed and leaned back before cheering. "Yes!" She sighs. "…is it normal for me to be so tired?"
"First time properly and willingly using your magic? Yeah, don't worry, it gets much easier with training. It's like a muscle, though just as a muscle you can, and will, ruin yourself if you push too far. It'll also be harder to do things you haven't done before, during the next week I will try to teach you how to test your limits and learn to recognize them."
"I think we'll get to that… later." She quickly changed her mind as her legs betrayed her and she fell back to the chair. "Was it as hard for you during your first time?"
"I'm a particularly bad example, my creation is complex in multiple ways." Magnus answered jovially. "I will teach you, but I would recommend finding a better role model for the use of magic."
She just rolled her eyes, it wasn't the first time Magnus had dodged that question in the time they had been teaching each other.
"On another subject, why start with lightning? I don't think it would be too useful." She prompted.
"Something I've observed is that people on Hyrule tend to be aligned to one or two elements per race. Rito are especially good at Wind, though they are known to harness fire quite well. Zora are mainly related to Water but know the use of Ice. Gorons are Fire and Earth. Sheikah made themselves aligned to their Blue Flame. Hylians are good with Earth, but can show an affinity to practically any other element. Gerudo are good with Electricity first and distant second is a tie between Fire and Wind." She explained calmly. "As you can see, starting with something you would be naturally good at makes it easier."
The woman nodded understandably. "Would that mean I'll have a harder time working with water?"
"Maybe a bit, but since you're looking to bring out the element in something that already has it you will be having a much easier time than trying to actually use Water magic."
"Okay then, when will our next lesson be?" Isha asked.
"In a few days, I need to visit Tera's Fountain." She answered. "Take a few days to relax, decompress and work on your usual jewelry, I'm sure Cara's a bit worried about how much of your time I've been taking."
Isha looked a bit embarrassed.
"It's not that bad." Magnus laughed a bit. "I understand the eagerness to learn like no other."
"Stay safe." Isha said and caressed her arm.
Magnus wasn't blind, but she honestly preferred to keep things professional as she really wasn't a she. She still thanked Isha in her tongue before leaving the workshop.
"Make sure she doesn't try to enchant more things." She warned Cara on her way out before heading towards the new South exit.
A week had passed since the extension had been finished and the area was already quite inhabited. Though it was obvious that it would take time to properly fill, not everyone wanted to move, and it wasn't like Gerudo Town was saturated with people.
She greeted the guards on the door before wandering off into the desert, ignoring their confused expressions. Once she was far enough she allowed herself to become male once more before retrieving the Rito mask.
It felt wrong to change so soon after being locked in a form for so long. But he would still be wandering the desert for a day or two, at best, looking for the segment.
With the early sun heating the sands, it was easy to glide in the direction he had been told; helped by the sensation coming from the fountain. He took a moment to look inward towards the latest perk he had acquired, a product of getting Isha to learn wielding magic.
It was the basics, something slightly above a list of do's and don'ts. But it certainly helped and it was something that covered practically all of his skills, he could easily teach magic, forging, enchanting, potion making, cooking, one of the many hard sciences he already knew and more. Some would still require the student to be capable of doing them, but they could certainly learn the theory.
It would hopefully expedite the leftover teaching to the Gerudo, his current stay on Hyrule was definitely coming to an end soon, and with the nature of the Outside who knew when he would be able to return.
Flying over the desert was incredibly boring, no matter where he looked it was the same shifting dunes everywhere, and if it wasn't for the System and his abilities it would have certainly been very easy to get lost and die from the heat.
Thankfully soon he saw something in the distance, rising from the golden sands pillars of ivory. He flew down and was surprised to find that the structure was actually another set of fossilized Leviathan remains, and under its shadow, a familiar, giant bulb rested.
Once he landed he released the mask and put it away before approaching the fountain. He could feel the slight thrum of magic sluggishly flowing below. With this one it would mean his magic would have been poured into the four corners of the land.
He didn't even get to the mushroom stairs when the bulb stirred and a hand poked out. By now he was pretty sure it was some kind of custom, even if they were literally begging for rupees.
"A traveler, after so long~" Her melodious voice echoed out.
"Good morning." He greeted and stepped up, taking her hand and delicately kissing the back of her finger. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Tera, I'm Magnus, and I come from Cotera to refill your reserves."
He could practically feel her blinking. "Oh? That's interesting, and here I was going to ask you for a donation of rupees."
"I don't believe you missed my presence as I've visited all other fountains by now. I also have a small gift to help you stay in contact with the other Great Fairies." He explained. "So tell me when you're ready."
"Oh ho ho, it's been a long time since someone proposed to me like this, go ahead." Magnus practically heard an unspoken 'do your worst' added at the end.
He couldn't help but grin as his access to his magic was nearly unstopped compared to before. "As you wish." He whispered and poured his mixed elements into the Great Fairy.
He felt Tera go stiff as his power flowed into her, a veritable river for the dry reservoir she held. It was hard to imagine how difficult it was to deal with such a hot desert. It wasn't like there was no life on it, but he had seen less animal variety compared to other Worlds he had visited. Made him wonder if it was a side-effect of the way the land had been created in conjunction with all the magic that flowed around, many plants didn't need such a varied number of pollinators when magic could fill some roles here and there.
The fairy's hand squirmed a bit, but he held on firmly as he could feel her limits and was still far from them. He did ignore a few of the noises she was making with her voice, poor woman, she had definitely gotten the worst cut of Hyrule. If the other Great Fairies were not being visited so close to towns and villages, her case was even worse so far into the desert.
It took almost a minute longer than with the other Great Fairies to fill her up. He gently let go.
"There we go." He announced his task was done.
"There we go he says…" A fulfilled sigh escaped the inside of the bulb and her hand was pulled back in, quite quickly in fact. "It's certainly been a long time since I've been like this~" She whispered before the bulb started to shift and pump.
The excess magic escaped out of the top, the familiar purple carrying very familiar sparkles of black and white. After a moment the whole fountain bloomed and revealed the water pool from which the Great Fairy surfaced.
She was nearly identical to the other fairies, gigantic, buxom and covered in twinkling jewelry. The main difference was her bone-white hair and pale complexion.
"Hmm, it feels so good to be restored, and…" She shivered and sighed. "I can feel further than before, it's as if the light coming down was getting turned into more magic."
"I'm glad to hear that, with this I've visited all of the fountains." Magnus noted. "Though before I leave, I've another thing to give you." He retrieved the communication artifact. "This was made so you can communicate with the other Great Fairies or Lady Purah from the Sheikah." He quickly showed Tera how to turn it on, call, turn it off and switch it into a ring; funnily enough his latest perk helped expedite this.
"Simply impressive." Tera admired the new jewel on the back of her middle finger.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it." He smiled. "On one more thing before I leave," he looked around, "would it be wrong if I turn this area into an oasis? I'm thinking of a ring around the Leviathan's remains; it should coexist quite easily with your fountain."
Tera thought about it for a moment before nodding. With that said, Magnus moved a bit away from the fountain. He was glad to have already bought a series of seeds from local plants that did grow on the desert while he stayed in Gerudo Town, using a few to start an oasis would make his work easier.
He held the seeds in one hand as the other touched the loose sand before he allowed his magic to pour into the complex spell once more. Unlike the first time, instead of digging down and shifting things around, he would need to force the sand and rock to transmutate; thankfully earth was close enough to sand for magic. All he would need to do is-
"What's that?!" He stopped and turned around to look at the fairy. "That's some really old magic, I hope you understand what you're doing."
"I can imagine it's old, it was a gift from Din." He pointed out. "And given the uses explained in the spell, I assume it was used by people in the category of evil." He half-joked. "Don't worry, the spell's not evil, just very good at building and creating, it's mainly the person using it that will twist its results."
He left the large part of it that covered curses and torture tools.
"I will trust you."
He thanked her and got back into it. Light magic was poured into the sands, the grains melting into a golden liquid that extended in a massive circle around the fossilized skeleton. He was certainly not his brother and his domain over life, it didn't mean his Light wasn't capable of soothing and improving growth.
The golden ring slowly shifted into a rich brown before he dropped the seeds into the shifting land, the current dragged them around. Minute fragments of ancient opal mixed in the sand were used to create large amounts of water as the ground drank it greedily.
His Light saturated the seeds and green plants practically exploded out. Grass sprouted from the still fluid earth, palm trees grew by the edges of the massive ring of water, Hydromelon vines spread through the area, round cactus quickly swelled on the outside to create a barrier against the winds and sand carried by it, and multiple types of flowers and bushes grew around the massive skeleton.
Once he had finished the area was feeling cooler, less dry. He could feel the new plants practically mingle with the natural magic from the Fairy Fountain.
"Oh my goddess… it's beautiful."
"I'm glad you like this, as long as you are around it should last. And even if you for some reason leave it should become self-sustaining." He rubbed his chin. "I wonder if it could even spread."
"I don't know if it'll spread, but I can see enjoying my stay around these parts much more now." She laughed. "And it means I may even get travelers once more." She huhuhu'ed for a moment. "Would you come closer for a moment? Spring's beginning and I've the perfect way to start it."
Magnus nodded and climbed up the stairs once more. He watched the Great Fairy laugh demurely and move, he didn't feel any hostility so he didn't react.
He would not be leaving for a few more hours.
Magnus walked placidly through the desert, completely unbothered by the shifting sands, the dry winds and the still-beating sun. It had been quite the relaxing situation with Tera, and so far all he had done after leaving was wander North and then East.
So far there was no sign of the segment, but the wandering allowed him to think about… nothing in particular. It was just simple mental wandering as he wandered in a huge spiral around Gerudo Town. Revisiting old memories was nice, organizing his mind, reassessing his priorities.
The sun was setting down, he would not stop just because it was night, neither the cold nor the lack of light bothered him.
The main difference between day and night was that there were a few more monsters at night, mainly Stalkoblins and Keese. He didn't walk all the way to the North edge of the desert, instead walking parallelly to it at a distance to maximize his searching radius.
Even the whole night of walking didn't reveal the segment, he did stop to create a few small oases, hopefully they would last or resonate with each other. He passed by the bazaar by early morning before continuing South, he could feel himself coming closer.
He saw a large set of ruins in the distance and marked them to visit later as the System finally caught signal of the ship's segment. He was practically a few dozen meters when he felt something else.
All the while he was on the desert he kept Solid&Firm active, allowing him to peer under the surface. And now he felt something moving through the sands.
It was large, hostile and was coming for him.
He quickly launched himself up before getting the Rito mask on. Just a moment later a massive fish-like monster came out, biting the spot he had been standing.
No, it was not a fish, at least not only. It was a disproportionate mix of some kind of lizard, frog, shark and lionfish. It was deformed and angry at everything. Its mouth is large enough to swallow Sandseals whole with their riders on top.
Its nasty fin pointed to its position if the bulge on the sands moving around didn't too. Its oversized jaw acted as a sort of spade to help it dig. He had read about them; it was more or less the last monster he had to see on Hyrule outside of a few variations of monsters he had already fought.
He easily kept himself up as he watched the monster and looked around, quickly finding a solid stone spire to land safely. It was thankfully a well known, and true, fact that stone was a safe spot to run away from the monsters.
They could ram them, but usually knocked themselves out for a few minutes if they tried. What he needed was a way to get it out of the sand to attack it.
He removed the mask and properly activated his boots, their exterior shifted into the rock-like patterns as his perception expanded under the rock. A soft kick echoed through the sand, even as muffled by the millions of grains, he could see the monster stalking the area.
Close&Personal hit each other as he punched his fists together before jumping down onto the sand, instantly the monster changed its attitude and rushed towards his position. His back foot slid back as his posture relaxed, arms brought to a basic guard.
The moment the Molduga was close enough he lifted his back foot, bringing his knee to his chest before stomping down with his full power. The rock below the monster erupted into a solid pillar that shot the surprised monster out of the sand.
Magnus didn't wait for it to fall down before he jabbed once, twice. The deformed monster's fall was arrested for a moment before finally hitting the sand stunned. His fist were covered in flames as he started to wail on the monster's softer stomach, the element wasn't the most effective against the beast at first. But the damage was piling quite quickly.
The monster recovering its senses and flailing around forced him to jump away to keep from getting hit. It quickly buried itself under the sand, looking quite angry, it swam around under the sand, keeping its distance away from him.
But Magnus wouldn't just let it stand back and wait, he was the one to rush forward. He jumped up and slammed with both feet down, once more bringing the Molduga out of the sand to kill it, though this time he replaced his gloves for his trident and thrust it through the monster's weakened stomach to pierce at what passed for its heart.
The trident twisted and the little humidity inside the monster twisted along, tearing through the monster's insides. He yanked it out and jumped back as the monster's vitality was such that it didn't die straight away, instead flailing around for almost a minute before finally breaking off.
"System, start to dig the segment out." He ordered and started to pick up the leftover monster bits.
He felt the ground stir deep below him, but he also felt multiple things moving underground in his direction. It seemed he was practically calling every Molduga in the area. He couldn't help but chuckle, it looks like he may not run out of Monster loot for a while at this rate.
Magnus returned to Gerudo Town by the next morning, it had been about two days since she had left, once there she focused completely on teaching Isha all about the basics of enchanting. Now that the woman could actually enchant the gemstones, she focused on teaching her the basics of magical safety.
She doubted the woman would ever be an active magic-user. But no one said that enchanting was not a very respectable job too, especially providing such a useful commodity. Gerudo Town already worked with gemstones in lots of ways, one that was more accessible for everyone was bound to sell well.
It turned into quite a busy week where the most interesting thing was the need for her presence during a birth over at the married quarters, the matron was currently busy with something else. In many ways, this was a blessing as the birth she was dragged into was more than a bit complicated.
Not only was it the birth of twins, but one of them was backwards while the other had their umbilical cord wrapped around their neck. Magnus didn't want to think bad of the local Matron, but even modern hospitals would have a problem with these kinds of births. It would have required a cesarean section to even start treating the situation.
Thankfully Magnus could cheat, though she didn't feel it was cheating when she had three lives on the line. Thirty minutes after being called for the unexpected birth, the mother was happily holding two young Gerudo babies. The father, a Hylian, looked entranced at her.
She got thanked multiple times, but she still recommended the mother to have plenty of rest and left her a stamina potion that would help her recover what she had lost during the pregnancy.
Still, soon it came the end date she had placed upon herself.
"I feel like I've been in this situation before." Magnus thought for herself out loud as Isha, Cara, Riju and Buliara watched her at the North Gate.
"After the services you've provided, watching your departure is just a formality." Riju said.
"When will you come back?" Isha asked promptly.
She thought for a moment. "I don't think I'll be back for about three years, maybe a bit more, at the moment I've more or less completed my plans for Hyrule and it's time I leave for the next step of my journey." She explained. "I need to touch ground with my family, it's certainly been a long time."
Riju nodded knowingly, she could see it meant a lot for the chieftain and could only imagine the context.
"Where will you be heading now?" Riju changed the subject.
"I'm heading to Hateno Village, that's my last stop to put something together before departing for real." Magnus answered. "If you want to leave me a message I would suggest reaching for Lady Purah of the Sheikah. Thinking about it, I don't know how much it may take me to return, so she may move the plan ahead first and reach for you, hear her, or whoever she sends."
Riju nodded. "The Sheikah have been a good friend of the Gerudo for a long time, the least we can do is hear them." Her tone was serious but lighthearted.
Magnus nodded. "Good. Well, I think that's all, it's time I fly away. But first…" She breathed in and released the transformation, returning to his body as the four witnesses had their mouths open in surprise. "Much better, I've nothing against being female, but I prefer being male." He retrieved the Rito mask. "See you around."
He placed the mask upon his face, with a beat of his wings and a pull on the wind, he rose up while disturbing the sand a bit and flew off. He ignored the calls from behind, instead he flew faster, he wanted to cross Hyrule as fast as possible.
He was glad to have already messaged Purah ahead of time before landing outside of his house, the woman and her assistant were already waiting. She looked way too eager for it to be nearly midnight.
"Are you sure you remembered to mature your mind along with your body?" He teased with a full grin once the Rito mask came off his face. "I would have thought you were more patient than this."
"Bah, I'm patient, for example, I'm not asking about that mask of yours." She huffed.
"It's nice to see you in good health, Symin." He greeted the man.
"Same to you, Magnus, there's something different about you. But you look practically the same." He laughed.
"Quite sensitive." He chuckled. "Come on, I'm sure Purah will jump at me if I keep her waiting for longer."
He ignored her cute growl as they stepped into the base behind the house and went all the way to the large hangar.
"So you remembered everything?" Symin prompted as he started to let the ship segments out.
"Nearly everything, if I had to say the last locks will be released once I leave the World and call home. Though I know I'm forgetting something very important." He sighed.
"These… don't look like a ship at all!" Purah complained as eleven segments floated in the empty hangar.
"Of course not, most of the ship's right off-kilter to reality. And that's both the inside and outside." He explained. "System, reassemble the Long Fortune."
Eleven house-sized segments came together, smooshing together they started to move like a massive, 3-Dimensional puzzle box. It quickly started to expand and shift, panels moving around as large segments sprouted out, twisted and relocated.
"The sheer spatial compression to fit that much matter…" Purah mumbled.
"I mean, it's more impressive when you think about certain facilities inside of the ship." He pointed out, there was the green house which was basically a small country of land and a few other spots. "It's still not the most, dad did put two suns inside my soul and the necessary space for them to fit comfortably."
The woman groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she obviously pushed the comment off the way.
"So why did you name it Long Fortune?" Symin spoke up.
"Oh, I didn't name it, instead it was… Oh…" Magnus felt a shiver go down his spine. "Oh she's going to be so angry with me."
"Who's going to be angry at you?" Purah prompted. "Besides me for keeping the ship in pieces."
Before Magnus could answer, the ship finished shifting. It was long enough that it was fitting quite closely inside the hangar, it wasn't going to be hard to leave. But it was definitely going to need an expansion.
The ship was shaped like an elongated cylinder, its corners rounded to provide a gentler silhouette. The belly of the ship was a stark white while the sides and back were an emerald green, silver lines decorated it. Multiple sources of light turned on and aimed down upon them before a loud voice boomed out.
"MAGNUS!"
