“You really had us worried for a while boy, I still can’t believe you managed to bring the tax back down” Jot told me, the girls and I were sitting around the table in Jot’s kitchen, after the celebration last night Miko and Umi wouldn’t let me go back to the inn and practically forced me to stay at Jots.

“You’re so strong Sir Udon” Umi hadn’t stopped looking at me since I woke up, she seemed to be taking away with my recent success, did she not see how injured I was? I wouldn’t call me strong, I wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for that cursed weapon. Speaking of…

“Be quiet Little Pervy Jotty, if you hadn’t blabbered about my skills I doubt Neptune would have found out. Umi, I want to transfer you a skill, its called Weapon Mutation, after I want you to use it on this Trident” I left the room, I saw Jot’s face go red with rage, he didn’t say anything because he knew I was most likely right, I returned back with the Shadow Trident

“A skill, of course, I’ll accept anything you give me” Umi stood up and sat next to me, she gave Miko a side glance in the process, it seemed to annoy Miko. Did these two not like each other or something? They are different species but they get along fine with Vnaa.

“Skill Granter-Weapon Mutation”

*Zap

“Ow, that stung a little” Umi pulled her hands away feeling the zap

“Did it work?” I asked, I didn’t feel like I lost any SP though, was it because I created the skill? Theres still so much that I have no clue about in this world.

“Yep, I see it” Umi said with a smile on her face.

“Try it out on the Trident” I handed the Shadow Trident to Umi, she held on it tight and focused.

“What in the world” Jot looked on shocked, the light surrounding the trident was a light blue this time and had a mist oozing out of it, it smelt like the sea.

Umi

Weapon Mutation Mastery-1/10

Sea Trident: 0/10 Mastery, Attack: +63, Special Effects: Enchantments: Sea Blood Coating, Aqua Affinity, Magic Attribute: Water

“Hmm, interesting, that’s your weapon from now on Umi”

“Wow, thank you Sir Udon!” Umi wrapped her arms around my head, and pressed her breasts against me

“No touching Master Udon!” Miko shouted out

“Get off me!” I shoved her off of me, she still had a gigantic smile on her face

“I can put a mana strap on that weapon of yours Umi, it’ll make it easier to carry on your back and easy to pull off when in a fight”

“Mana Strap?” What was that

“It’s a little gem I put inside of the Trident, since Umi has the water attribute, the gem will be a small water gem, it will stick to Umi’s mana and let the Trident stay in place on her back” That sounds like a magnet, not a strap

“Papa Udon, we need to get the clothes from Claudia today, yes?” I totally forgot, I turned to face Vnaa, her eyes lit up, she was excited for her new outfit, it was so cute

“Yes we are, want to come with me?” I said ruffling up Vnaa’s hair.

“No fair, that lady also has my clothes” Umi complained

“Nope, you don’t get to come, your punishment for grabbing me”

“What! You’re so mean Sir Udon” Umi continued her sulk, I turned to Miko, I swear I saw a slight smile just then but it disappeared when she caught me looking at her.

“Can you take Umi into the forest and level her up a little? I want her to reach level 10” I asked Miko, Umi was still only at level 7, though, I myself was only at 13.

“I did want to come with you and Vnaa Master Udon, as long as I can spend some time with you afterwards, I’ll be happy to” Why did Miko want to come? Did she want some more clothes herself? The ones she had on were fine aren’t they.

“Lets get going Umi” Miko shouted out leaving the kitchen and heading out.

“Ugh, coming rival” Umi sluggishly walked out the kitchen and followed Miko

“We better start to head off to” I got up and started to wash the dishes

“Thank you for letting us stay here Jotty” Vnaa smiled at the Dwarf and headed off into the back room

“No worries little missy” Jot shouted out and turned to me

“I’m always happy to help a friend” Again with the ‘friend’ business, this isn’t what friendship is…I don’t really know what it is though, it can’t be liking someone just because they did something for you, that doesn’t seem right.

“Ready Papa Udon” Vnaa said coming back into the kitchen with her bag

“Yep, lets get going” We headed out of Jot’s shop and towards Claudia’s shop.

“Welcome, Ah its you two, how’s my favourite little princess” Claudia greeted us with a warm welcome, well, more like greeted Vnaa with a warm welcome.

“Do you have the clothes ready?” I asked Claudia who was ruffling Vnaa’s hair

“Of course, let me go get them” Claudia went up stairs and came back with a pile of folded clothes and a female mannikin.

“First, the other party member of yours, Umi Jot said her name was” Jot had been around here? Did he help with the clothes?

“Jot came around and helped me make the silver plate stomach guard for Umi’s outfit. Lets start with her’s first, so we have light blue pants with skinny black boots, a dark blue wrap skirt that extends at the back, the silver plate stomach guard Jot made for me, a blue cropped singlet, it will help support her chest, Jot had mentioned they were quite large” Damn pervert blabber mouth Dwarf!

“Lastly, the black fingerless gloves” Claudia pointed to the areas she was talking about on the mannikin she had dressed in Umi’s outfit. I looked at the mannikin, the outfit did seem like it would suit Umi quite well.

“Next onto this little cutie, Vnaa please go change into these and come back”

“Ok” Vnaa grabbed the pile of folded clothing from Claudia and went back into the change room, when she reappeared she was in her custom made outfit.

“Let me explain this little gem of an outfit, she has small grey shoes with her caterpillar fur coming up to her knees for extra protection, black leggings, the dark green plaid dress but the bottom of the design has a green Malachite pattern which is separated from the black and grey striped top half by a black belt, the sleeves only come up to her elbows, but her caterpillar fur that I’ve stitched on around her neck and chest area will keep her warm as well as protected” …Damn it, she looks adorable!

“Papa Udon, how does it look? You’re smiling, does it look good?”

“You look so precious”

“I want to be strong though Papa Udon” Vnaa scrunched her nose and puffed at her cheeks, that made her look even more precious

“I have to admit, with those new skills you gave me, this is by far the greatest design I have ever created”

“Of course it is, nothing but the best for my Vnaa”

“Your Vnaa” Vnaa said softly, her cheeks flushed red, did I embarrass her, like a dad embarrassing their daughter, I don’t even really know why I treat Vnaa like this, it might be due to my regrets of how I treated my little sister.

“that will be two Silver Shark Coins”

“There you go” I handed the money over the Claudia and we left the shop.

“Where should we go next, hmm, I know, how about we go to the magic shop, I need some new spells I can learn in an instant before we head out on the quest tomorrow, I also want to see if I can enchant this bracelet I made back at Ragar’s” I pulled out a plain silver bracelet, it wasn’t anything special but it did have a green speed rating Gem Imbued in it

“Sure” Vnaa smiled at me, the two of us made our way back to Jot’s shop and went next door to the Magic Shop.

“Hello?” Vnaa called out, I held the door open for her and we made our way inside. Behind the counter was a fat, evil looking little hobbit man standing there, you could tell he was standing on a step up stool, he must not be tall enough to reach the counter.

“Hello there, what can I do for you today?” The fat little man said greeting us.

“Do you have any items that will help me learn a new spell instantly”

“Hmm, I don’t have any crystal orbs if that’s what you are after, but I might be able to help you learn a new spell, can I see what spells you know so far”

“I only know one, but its a spell that increases a medicines quality”

“Hmm, interesting I’ve never heard of a spell, how about we try this one then” The fat little hobbit pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket

“These are test spells, they are simple to learn and anyone with or without a gem can learn them, what is your attribute?”

“Shadow”

“All right, try this one then” The fat little hobbit pointed to a spell called Shadow Mist, it unleashes a purple mist that slows the target down on contact for 2 minutes.

“Hear my words dungeon, I ask to be surrounded, filled and illuminated with the dungeons flowing energy, hear my plea ‘The Power of the Shadows’ Shadow Mist”

Just like the spell described a purple mist appeared from my hands and engulfed part of the shop.

“Impressive, that’s some power for just a small spell, and the first time you’ve used it as well, did you learn its make up?” Make up? Is that what you need to learn spells? I really should go through those magic books I bought at the market.

“Lets see, yep, there it is under my spell menu, I have memories of weird letters?”

“that’s the new spell you learned, I’m a little surprised you learned it after only seeing it once”

“Is that strange?”

“Strange? Not really, just uncommon, for a spell to work you need to understand what’s causing it to work, just seeing it is not enough for most people, they normally need to study it or even just repeat the incantation over and over again” that’s different from how I learnt that practitioner spell

“The more spells you master the more you learn by yourself, or in other words the more that come to you, I have two others I can teach you”

“How much will it cost me”

“For you, three spells will be 2 Bronze Bear Coins, they aren’t very impressive spells and from your appearance, you are the one that helped bring the tax back down” Hmm, maybe saving these town people some money did help me after all.

“I would also like to make this silver bracelet work, can you help me with that? It has a speed gem in it”

“Thats easy, you just need to focus your mana into it and then stop when you feel like it is full”

“Hmm, lets try it” I held out the silver bracelet and focused my mana into it…I felt my head get dizzy, I could feel my mana leaving my body, it felt like I was donating blood.

“Papa Udon that’s enough!” Vnaa shook me and I snapped out of my concentration, the Silver Bracelet’s green gem was glowing strongly, it looked ready to explode

“Whats wrong with it?” I asked the small hobbit man

“It’s getting familiar with the mana you put into it, it should calm down in a second…there you go” The green gem stopped glowing and returned to normal, the Silver Bracelet seemed to have shined up though.

“Now onto these two spells, we’ll try this one next” He pointed to another spell on the piece of paper, Shadow Imprisonment-Incloses target in a shadow prison for two minutes. That one sounds useful.

“Hear my words dungeon, I ask to be surrounded, filled and illuminated with the dungeons flowing energy, hear my plea ‘The Power of the Shadows’ Shadow Imprisonment”

I focused on a chair that was in the room, a purple glass like rectangle appeared around the chair, I walked over and punched the glass, it felt as hard as rock and didn’t break, hmm, if I could put something in here it might work better.

“Hear my words dungeon, I ask to be surrounded, filled and illuminated with the dungeons flowing energy, hear my plea ‘The Power of the Shadows’ Shadow Mist”

I focused the spell inside the shadow prison, and just like I pictured, the purple mist engulfed the prison to the point you couldn’t see inside

“What!? I never knew you could combine spells!” The fat little hobbit man screamed out shocked,

“Whats the next one?”

“Uhh, s-sure, this one” The little hobbit pointed to the last spell, his finger was shaking.

“Hear my words dungeon, I ask to be surrounded, filled and illuminated with the dungeons flowing energy, hear my plea ‘The Power of the Shadows’ Shadow Ball”

I focused the spell inside the prison again, I saw a dark purple ball of energy bounce around like a pin ball inside the prison.

“Yes!” I now have a way to imprison someone and hurt them

“What!?” The little hobbit man still shocked at what he was witnessing

“This is utterly incredible, you have the ability to release spells with in spells, how is it that you’ve learned so quickly?” The little hobbit man was starting to get suspicious of me, was it that strange to try and combine spells?

“I’m level 13 and only know one spell, I guess all my mana capacity had built up over that time”

“Hmm, that does sounds right, a level 13 player only knowing one spell is rather strange”

“Let’s go Vnaa, I got what I wanted” I left the money on the counter and left.

“Coming, bye” Vnaa waved bye to the little hobbit man, he was still pondering the ability to combine spells together that he didn’t even notice us leave

“You’re so cool Papa Udon” Vnaa grabbed me hand and smiled at me, heh, this girl is adorable

“Ha, it was only common sense, that’s all, anyway, I want you to have this” I held Vnaa’s hand out and placed the Silver Bracelet on her wrist.

Silver Bracelet of Speed: Magic Power up: +5, Quality: Fair, Enhancement: +50 Speed

“Whoa, +50 speed, I didn’t realise it enhanced that much”

“WOW! This is amazing Papa Udon, thank you” Vnaa looked at the silver bracelet adoring it, it was just a plain silver bracelet with a little green gem, nothing special, it wasn’t even high quality, but still, Vnaa was treasuring it already, this girl right here, the only good thing I have ever witnessed.

“We’re back” Umi shouted out walking into Jot’s shop, she was covered in monster fur, blood and dirt, she also smelt really bad

“Go have a shower, you stink!”

“Thats no way to greet me Sir Udon, I levelled up to 11…or is it, you want to shower with me, of co…”

“Go!” I threw the clothes Claudia prepared for Umi at Umi’s face, it managed to shut her up

“Are these my clothes? So pretty, but Sir Udon, you should treat me like the precious lady I am”

“I don’t even know you! Now go, you smell” Umi dropped her head and sluggishly walked into the bathroom at the back of Jot’s shop

“Hi Vnaa, did you have a fun time with Master Udon?” Miko walked into the store…

“Are those wings Big Sister Miko!?” Vnaa ran over to Miko and examined the newly formed wings.

“Oh these, yeah they’re my Bee wings, my speed went up a fair bit as well”

“Good, this should help defeat the Ancient Floor Monster…” I said out loud but then it got me thinking, did she always have access to these wings? If she’s that fast she could have saved me from that Deer-Bear attack

“Master Udon? Is everything ok?” I looked up and glared at Miko, she could have saved me and chose to let me die, it was only because of Sylf that I survived, was her plan to let me die there?

“Master Udon?”

“I’m going to bed”

“Oh, ok, night”

“Night Papa Udon”

“Whats wrong with him” Jot mumbled watching me walk out the room

“I don’t know, my wings showed up when I levelled up, does Master Udon not like them?” Miko mumbled something, I couldn’t hear it through the wall.

“I can’t believe I let my guard down, even a little! That bee could have saved me from so much pain and chose not to, I’m so weak! Everyone is only out for themselves! Don’t forget it!” I screamed into the pillow

“Pathetic and weak you are”

That damn voice! Shut up! I know that already!