Wuxia - Mtl
CH.182 Chicken Game with Cockatrice
CH.182 Chicken Game with Cockatrice
“Brian, the dress that your summon wears, is it a maid outfit of some kind?” Paulina asked after we were done with the deer and were moving to where the cockatrice had been.
“Yes, it is. I mean, she is a maid, so she wears a maid outfit.”
“It was quite a bit more glamorous than what is standard. Do you know who designed it?”
“No clue.”
“I see. Would it be possible for us to copy the design?”
“I don’t see why not. But hers is a bit … custom from what I would describe as the ‘base model’.”
“Base model? So there are different versions?”
“...” I shouldn’t have said that, but now that I did, I guess I have to share more or I would be seen as even more questionable. “Yeah. Hers has all of these claw looking things on it and that isn’t exactly normal. I can try telling what the ‘normal’ is later.”
“Thank you. That will be a great help.”
I wonder what kind of help? Sure you’ll get a new design for a maid outfit, but so what? Well, I’m not complaining as I do prefer it over what they wear at the moment, but still. All you’ll gain is a new design to use a bunch of money on.
(Laura, can the goblins draw up a more ‘normal’ looking maid outfit?)
(They might be able to. But why not just use her dress as the design?)
(Because it isn’t the classic french maid outfit. I won't corrupt something so amazing. Hmm. Laura, can I change my clothes in the factory like Fantasia does?)
(You should be able to.)
(What about your clothes?)
(As long as I don’t resist it, yes.)
(Then would you mind if I use you as a dress-up doll this evening?)
(... sigh … I suppose it will be fine, if it is required.)
(Since when can you sigh?)
(Always. I just never did it before.)
“Remember, don’t look at its eyes. A cockatrice can petrify you if you do.” Paulina was warning Alice and Ria before she let them fight the bird.
I was all ready to leave it up to Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, but those two were all like “our turn”. And as Paulina allowed it, I’m not going to say no at this point.
As for petrification, well, it is what you think it is. Turning you into stone. But it actually isn’t deadly. Well it is, but also not. While it does turn you into stone, you don’t actually die instantly or anything. More like you are coated with a thin layer of nearly unbreakable stone. You inside will keep on living until you starve to death. No idea how you would breathe, but I also don’t want to think about it. The petrification curse can then be lifted by different kinds of magic. The most used one being Holy magic, a magic that is basically exclusive to the church. It is specialized in healing, purification and curse lifting, making it nearly useless in actual combat, but great for most healing purposes. As for why it was only for the church, well apparently to learn it, you needed a title priest or priestess. Or at least apprentice priest or priestess. But losing the title could lead to losing the skill, so you couldn’t just go for long enough to get the skill and bail.
Then again, light magic could do basically everything that Holy magic can, it just isn’t quite as mana efficient. But I guess then you have the attribute problems to worry about.
“Let’s go!” Alice yelled out.
We had just been beamed down from B.E.S. Big Core and she was ready to take down the cockatrice. My monsters were standing by, ready to support the duo, in case something went wrong. Brian currently has BLS envoy, Kitchen Dragonmaid, Bistro Butcher and Vampire Sorcerer summoned. As well as the Big Core.
“Master, are you sure we should let them fight that thing alone? I know they could if we blinded it first, but petrification can be a true threat.” BLS asked.
“I would agree, but they said they could do it. And if something happens, you’ll step in. And petrification isn’t lethal. And Guardian Angel Joan can heal it.” I listed off reasons I let those two try to fight.
“They can do it if Alice uses the correct spells.” Paulina said.
“Oh? Do you know a plan they should use?” I asked.
“Shade can blind the cockatrice and prevent it from using its petrifying eyes. This would cut down the bird's biggest strength making it basically a lower C-rank monster.”
“Well, let’s hope Alice realizes that.”
Ria had, in her classic style, rushed in and with a use of a Flicker Step, she had mounted the cockatrice. Riding on its back, she didn't need to worry about its eyes, but she also couldn’t get a bite into its flesh, as the thick coat of feathers was in the way. She was trying to rip them away, but the cockatrice wasn’t making it easy. She really needs a weapon to make that process faster. I should go check up on the blood iron manufacturing process.
Taking advantage of the situation, Alice casted Dark Bullets as fast as she could, without actually using the quick cast skill. I could really see the difference as she kept casting them. They were getting progressively more powerful, thanks to her Magician’s Power skill. The first one didn’t do much to the bird, but by the time Alice was casting her sixth, the bird had turned to face her and was ignoring Ria, still clinging to the bird's back.
“It's going to petrify her.” BLS said.
“A…” I almost called out to her, but kept it in my mouth. If she doesn’t realize what to do by herself, she won’t grow like she should. I can tell her Paulina’s strategy after the fight.
ROAR
A massive roar shook the forest. The cockatrice, which was preparing to attack, froze. The Threatening Roar I had reset on Alice this morning activated.
“Dark Shield.” Alice didn’t let the time bought by the card go to waste and casted a defensive spell, which made a wall of darkness between her and the cockatrice. I don’t know when she learned that spell since she didn’t use it yesterday, but I’m impressed that she was able to cast it that quickly.
Then the cockatrice, regaining its senses after the roar and having lost sight of Alice, focused back onto Ria, still ripping its feathers to get access to its skin and blood. The cockatrice finally seemed to get an idea how to get Ria off, charged right at a tree, most likely planning to turn a bit so Ria would be between the bird and the tree.
“Ria, let go!” Alice called out to her as a warning. She had chanted another spell, only waiting to say the activation word to let it loose.
Ria hearing the call and likely realizing it herself as well, jumped off of the cockatrice just before it crashed into a tree and ran to get some distance between herself and the bird.
Crash
“Dark Spear!” Alice finished her casting right after the cockatrice had crashed into the tree.
A two meter javelin made of darkness flew towards the slightly stunned cockatrice and hit it in the bird's right flank. It pierced quite deep before it disappeared. Some blood bled out from the new wound. Nothing immediately fatal, but the bird's days should be numbered.
The bird turned its head so that it could stare at the wound that had been infected and as it looked back up, the bleeding seemed to have stopped.
“A cockatrice will use its own curse to stop itself from bleeding out.” BLS answered, before I even had time to ask the question.
Now even more angry at Alice, the cockatrice charged right at her. She might have panicked a bit, but she was still able to move her Dark Shield to stand between her and the bird.
But the bird didn’t stop and kept up its charge. It hit the Dark Shield with its head, shattering the barrier. It might have slowed down, but not by much. Now, Alice was back in the sights of the charging bird.
I looked as the bird kept charging, only to encounter its next problem. A magic circle formed around its body and took a hold of the bird, stopping it in its tracks.
The second defense of Alice had been activated. Spellbinding Circle.
The cockatrice, now trapped in the Spellbinding Circle, struggled to get free. It also seemed to try and use its petrification eyes, but as the Spellbinding Circle prevents all attacks, it couldn’t.
Alice calmed herself down and casted one more Dark Spear, hitting the bound cockatrice into the neck area, causing large amounts of blood to flow out. Ria then stepped up and collected most of the blood with Blood Control, while making sure she would get the rest of it out from the bird, ending the cockatrice.
“Well done, you two.” I said as they regained their senses after the fight. “You used your extra skill with great efficiency.”
“Thanks. Mana taught me that I need to cast weaker spells quickly and then swap to the more powerful ones.” Alice answered.
“And it worked well. And that Dark Shield was nice.” I added. “I think it would have stopped the petrification even if you didn’t have Threatening Roar.”
“You still should have used Shade first.” Paulina added.
“Shade? What would that have done?” Alice asked.
“Shade could have surrounded the cockatrice with an area of darkness. That would block its vision and its sight based attacks. And as Shade doesn’t affect the caster and dhampirs have a great sense of smell, you could have used that to your advantage.” Paulina instructed her. “But other than having to rely on Brian’s cards, you did well.”
“Then next time, I’ll do it without a single card.” Alice declared.
“Ria? Is something wrong?” I asked as I noticed that Ria was just quietly sipping some blood.
“No. It’s nothing.”
“You sure? Don’t you want to join the post battle prief?”
“No. I know what I did wrong, so I don’t think I need to.”
“Exactly. You did nothing wrong. You just need a weapon.”
“... maybe. Brian, would it be alright if I had to ask you for the money to get one?”
“No, of course not. I will get you one. Ria, you are my slave and as your master, I will take care of these things, alright?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Now we just need a weapon that will suit you. I guess that will be on the agenda for tomorrow. I’ll summon a bunch of different monsters and you can try out all of their weapons and pick one you like.”
Our next stop on our hunt were the two bisons that we needed for the other quest. These ones were D-rank forest bisons, not the C-rank horned bisons. Because of that, I let Kitchen Dragonmaid and The Bistro Butcher go 2v2 against them. Because of her lack of offensive power, Kitchen Dragonmaid had to take a more defensive position and support Bistro Butcher, while he was the main DPS. And as soon as The Bistro Butcher got a good strike in and the bison began to bleed, Vampire Sorcerer stepped in and drained the first bison of blood. The two fighters, especially the Butcher, didn’t really like the intrusion, but Vampire Sorcerer said that we had to secure the blood so it was necessary.
With those secured, we headed for the area where Laura had spotted a C-rank bison a few days ago. BLS quickly decapitated it and we secured the blood and the carcass. It was left in one piece, other than the separated head, with just the blood drained, because Paulina requested so.
Now, we just head back to the guild and report on our success.
“Eh? You completed it? In one day?” The same guild employee that accepted us taking the quest was there when we came to report the completion.
She didn’t at first believe us, but as I began pointing out detailed information on all of the monsters near the road, and with Paulina vouching for me, she had no choice but to accept.
We made sure to report all of the forest deer we took down and the guild bought them from us for a good price, so I saw no reason to take it to a speciality shop myself. We did lose about 5% of the sale price we could have gotten and that is assuming we would have been able to haggle a good price for the meat. And as money is not an issue for me, I let it go. They also picked up the hides of the two forest bisons, but as the horned bison was still in one piece and Paulina wanted it like that, the guild didn’t get anything from it. For the cockatrice, the guild wanted the monster core and some materials that can be used for weapons, like the feathers that are used for arrows, the claws and the beak. Even its eyes were bought by the guild as they could be used for a potion that counters petrification. And as the eyes are usually destroyed first for safety reasons, they were decently valuable. The cockatrice meat stayed with me, but Paulina did say that her father would likely be willing to buy it. And if not, we can just visit a high class butcher store.
As for the monetary rewards, I let Alice and Ria share the bison reward between the two of them and the road safety reward was spread between the three of us. Sure the girls didn’t take down the horned bison, but they did kill the cockatrice. And as that wasn’t a direct request, but part of the safety check, I thought giving them a little extra would be nice.
And as I said, I really don’t need the money.
“Oh. It’s Brian and Miss Alice.” As we were about to leave the guild, we ran into a group of adventurers we know.
A team that used to be four people, now seemed to be five.
Saber Fang. The adventuring party we ran into on our trip to here from Alewatch. But unlike before, they had a fifth member. Alex, our previous companion, had apparently joined their team.
“It’s because Tye couldn’t let someone with those summoning cards go.” Vivien, their archer and ice mage, said.
We ended up having a quick chat with them and they told me that they would, again, be heading for Alewatch to dive into the dungeon. Alex was a little … not happy that he would be heading back, but with the dungeon there he accepted that it would be a good idea.
As we had the time, we joined them for some … not so refined afternoon drinking. Well, Alice had something she had brought with her and Ria was drinking blood, but for the rest of us, it was either beer or cider.
“Brian, can I bother you for a second?” Alex asked in a very proper way during our break, turned late lunch.
“Sure. What is it?”
“... not here, if possible.”
“Do you have a better place in mind?”
“Yes. This way.”
Alex dragged me outside to a quiet spot. Well, quiet is relative, but there weren’t any obvious spots where someone could overhear us from.
“So, what is it?”
“... my Card Summoner leveled up.” He said.
“oh? Nice. You are the second that has happened to, as far as I know.”
“Second? Really? Someone got it first?”
“Yeah. Christina decided she wanted to be first. But what happened? Did you do something strange?”
“I’m not sure. But I did use that Elegant Egotist card to summon the Harpie Lady Sisters. Then that glass-like thing appeared around the card. After that fight, while I was checking my HP, I noticed the skill had leveled up.”
“Oh? I see. Thanks for the info.”
“Of course. No problem.”
“Let me give something for that. Give me a sec, I’ll look what I have.”
“No, no. You don’t have to.”
“It’s fine. I gave you Harpie Lady, Harpie Lady 2 and the Sisters, if I remember correctly?”
“... yes, you did.”
“Okay, then here. Harpie Lady 1 and Harpie Lady 3 so you can fill your lineup. Also, give me the others for a second. I’ll also put a toploader onto them.”
“Sure. Here.” Alex traded his three cards for the two new ones.
I put a toploader onto the OG Harpie Lady and Harpie Lady 2 just fine, but I couldn’t do it with Sisters, as it had been summoned previously, so I returned it to the collection with Compulsory Evacuation Device, put the sleeve and toploader combo onto it and then gave it back to Alex with another copy of Elegant Egotist.
“You’ll have to summon it again with the spell, but I think that should be fine with you.” I did in fact include a toploader with the Elegant Egotist this time as well, just in case the Sisters die and he has to re-summon them.
“Yes. Thank you for this.”
“Don’t worry. I appreciate the info.”
After our meal, my team, we really should register as a team, instead of being this temporary squad, left the guild and returned to the Sawyer manor.