Agnisotra: Origin Tails

I decided to head over to Raishin to do some gaming. Raishin got a gaming console 3 years ago from Johnny. After that Johnny brought various games that Raishin could use. A moment to relax and do nothing was important too! We were playing, a racing game where weapons and items can be used to gain an edge. My exceptional vision made me a tough opponent for Raishin to beat. We also played a fighting game in which we were evenly matched it was a clash of his ability to find my weakness and my vision, sometimes I lost sometimes I won, and sometimes wins were completely random because of the nature of the game a lot of random stuff happened like bombs blowing up or random events obscuring the screen or characters throwing stuff at us. One chaotic game. This was the game Johnny brought for him in the last timeline apparently. After that, we played a role-playing game.

We left this one for last because we wanted to play this the most. It might not be based on reality but some boss fights could give us insights that could help against real enemies. Raishin’s intuition was very important in these types of games. Since it is a game, I can't just look around with my eyes in its environment and here is where Raishin’s intuition was superior. Raishin was playing a warrior and I was playing a mage. We basically played the role that comes the closest to what we do in real life. Not very exciting I know but there is a reason for it. We suck at anything else. It is that simple.

Raishin’s impulsive and impatient behavior only really leaves a warrior or a knight role for him. I could probably also be a rogue but I feel more comfortable as a mage. We entered a dungeon after having to solve some obnoxious puzzles. The trash mobs weren't that bad. Oh, right for the non-gamers, trash mobs are just random monsters that annoy you until you can fight the main boss or a mini-boss. I'm not sure how the term trash mobs will sound to anyone unfamiliar with it so just so you know! Anyways the dungeon was quite uneventful until we arrived at the final boss. We expected something big but it was just a human-sized troll. The corundum dungeon was way more exciting than this fantasy dungeon. What is going on here! Did the developers run out of creativity? After a 10-minute boss battle, the boss died and dropped mediocre loot.

Well, that was a disappointment. Do you think we were over-leveled?

I don't think so it hit both of us and the damage seemed to be normal. I think the battle was just boring, there was nothing to make us pay attention or something. It didn't even have a second phase or enrage! What kind of boss doesn't have these!

I don't know, maybe the boss returns later in the game and is way stronger. We look at each other.

Naaah! Naah! We put away Raishin’s gaming console.

Those spirit sisters didn't have a second phase or enrage, do you think they will come back for a round 2? I talked to them and it doesn't seem like they are up for round 2. We might have to look out for those that could though.

You know I was thinking, I don't have any great defensive skills so I was wondering about how to help in sticky situations. Is our last battle bothering you too?

Well of course! So, I was thinking instead of using defensive skills how about I just throw an equally strong or a stronger attack back to cancel out the threat? That sounds like a good idea but how do you know how much power you need to cancel out a big attack?

Hehe, that is what you are for! Oh no… what do I need to do?

Don't worry! I thought long and hard about it. So, I need to just attach a number to attacks so I know how much power I need to cancel them out! What? I have no clue what you mean by that.

Ok, I'll show you! Let's go outside! I followed Raishin who dashed outside. We took a great distance from his hut so we could more or less throw skills around without being an issue.

Ok so I will use a skill on that tree there and you analyze its power! I will give the power I put in it the number 1 and I will make more attacks that are stronger than the initial one and you will need to tell me how much stronger it is than the initial one. Skills that are 2x as powerful as my initial skill get the number 2, skills that are 3x stronger get the number 3, etc. Sounds like the calibration curves Gregory makes sometimes.

Cali what? Eh yeah, that! I guess. Alright, that sounds like a good idea, but how is that going to help you to cancel out attacks in the future.

Ok, so let's assume the next boss we fight shoots a big spell at us, all you have to do is say the number that corresponds with its power, and I can throw an equally powerful attack at it to cancel it out! Hmm, that could work, let's go for it! The following hour we spend refining this idea. After getting a good grasp on it I sent some attacks at Raishin and told him the power number associated with it to which he threw an attack of equal power at it, canceling it out. I did remind him about element interactions like you don't throw wind at a fire attack because you will feed the fire and make it stronger, things like that. Anything under the number 43 could be countered by Raishin almost instantly, anything higher and he would need some time to generate energy. 43 was still a big number. I did test levels that weren't whole numbers. Raishin seemed to struggle to get the power level of those correctly with those so I just decided to round up and give him that number. Apparently, his [Raishin kick] is a 43. I asked him how he wants to deal with combos but he didn't know. So, I decided that he wouldn't deal with combos.

It was time for dinner. After dinner, we would go give Boshi lake a visit. Hera baked a potato dish. As I looked at my nemesis that was lying on my plate in slices of something that looked like a mountain but made out of potato slices and spinach. So, Hera, is Philip eating enough? I said as I pushed the plate towards Philip. “He seems to be eating well, he went from not eating half my dishes to only not eating a quarter.” I looked over at Philip who was eating nervously and pushed the plate back. For some reason, Philip always managed to somehow miss eating his wife's food. I think he is cursed.

He still looks a bit weak I think he needs to eat a bit more. I said as I pushed the plate back to Philip. Hera was still fixing some stuff up in the kitchen so she was with her back at us. She told us to eat ahead because she was going to some friends of hers and exchanging their food or something. Philip's plate wasn't empty but he was close to finishing. He didn't seem to accept my kindness and the mountain of potato slices with them. I handed him a glass of water and with it my plate. It’s a package deal, accept it. I whispered. I even ate all the spinach; I know you don't like spinach. He still didn't accept, I guess the mountain of sliced potatoes was too intimidating to him, I can't blame him. He also looked a bit thin; he really needed the food.

“Don't tell me you’re not eating again Philip!” I swapped my plate and his plate with [Turning leaf] seconds before Hera turned around. “Philip!” I apologized to Philip in my head, quickly shoved the 6 remaining potato slices Philip left me in my mouth, and went off.

Thank you for the food! I said with my mouth full. Now I know that was very mean but I'm in a hurry! It is adventure time and I don't have time to waste 2 hours on eating a potato mountain! I felt sorry for Hera but I also feel sorry for myself for having to deal with those potatoes. As I headed towards the lake I bumped into a blue-haired woman. It was starting to get dark so things got harder to see. I didn't have a reason to keep Elgards eyes running in this situation so that is how I bumped into her. My memory isn't that great but I would remember if someone with an unusual hair color would live here. It could also be the poor lighting that I mistook for the color of her hair. Oh sorry, my bad.

“Pay it no mind, I wasn't paying much attention either.” Be careful! You never know what weirdos you might run into! I shook my head as I realized I would probably also fall into that category. “Have fun on the lake!” Thank you! I wasn't late or anything but I still ran towards my destination. I arrived at Boshi lake minor after 10 minutes. I was looking for a boat or something I could make a boat out of when I realized something. Did I tell that lady that I was going to the lake? Where I bumped into her was quite far from the lake so it wouldn't make any sense for her to know that I would be going to the lake. I activated my Elgards eyes and tried looking for her but weirdly enough I couldn't find her. I tried different filters. Did I imagine this encounter? I didn't get any chance to give this anymore thought because Raishin and Gregory arrived.

Ted says he is running late, he went to meet a bulky guy outside town for some training. Oh, he must be meeting with Rock. Rock? I told my buddies about my encounter with Rock.

Sounds like an aggressive fighting style. He sounds cool! But ehh what do we do while waiting for Ted? We make a boat! I looked around but I couldn't find anything that could make for a good boat.

No luck let's go home! I stopped Gregory as he turned around. Not so fast. For situations like this, I have my dimensional pocket!

You're not going to tell me that you have a boat in there! Of course not! What sane person would chuck a boat in their dimensional pocket! Raishin and Gregory give me a weird look.

I do have wood though! We spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to build a boat and eventually, we finished. Our masterpiece was uhh. Pathetic. I am not going on that lake with this… thing! Can this even be called a boat?

Hmm, this went way better in my head. Yoo guys what are you up to? We attempted to make a boat.

Oooh, nice! So where is it? Ted looked around trying to find a boat. He realized what we called a “boat” when Gregory pointed at it.

Oh, I thought this was some driftwood. Hey, that is 20 minutes of hard work you're insulting! Well, we can't head out like this. Anyone knows boat magic? What is boat magic supposed to be?

Is that even a thing? Alright, an ice floe it is! I hope you guys like freezing your asses off! Hey, can you line the inside with snow? It will insulate and it won't be as cold.

Sure, oh wait let me try something. I think I might be able to make frost magic that isn't cold. Are you sure you should just be throwing frost magic around like that? It is lost magic after all.

It will be fine! I made a nice spacious rowboat out of frost. It was only a little bit cold.

There I even got some oars and special seats for Ted and Raishin! Ooh, nice! Wait why do we need special seats?

Because you two are rowing of course! Objection!

Well, if you suddenly gain proficiency in water magic then I will let you deal with unexpected situations. I withdraw my objection. Meh.

Alright! Raise the sails and let's sail off into the sunset! I said as I put one foot on the bow of the ship ehh rowboat and pointed a sword made out of ice forward.

We don't have any sails and the sun has already set. Party-pooper. You had to ruin it. We rowed over Boshi lake minor. Nothing eventful happened because this lake is safe. It is also enclosed by Boshi town so even if it had monsters the townspeople would have dealt with them ages ago. The only dangerous lake is Boshi lake Major, our destination. We rowed into Boshi lake medium.

\Say... I don't want to complain but why aren't we using magic to power this boat? That is a good question why aren't you guys using magic to row faster? Hey! And uhh, I saw Raishin just row manually so I just went with it.

Whoa, so it is my fault? How about we see who can row the best! Haha, I will destroy you. Please don't do anything reckless!

Oh, right we have something for you, Greg. Ted took two potions out of his bag.

We got two potions to fix your, what was it? Hydrophobia. Ah, right we had those yeah. I took a potion out of my dimensional pocket.

Which one was it though? I thought you knew. Gregory grabbed Ted by the collar. Why would you leave Agnis in charge of anything memory related!

Uh, my bad. Hey come on my memory isn't that bad! Let's see, the purple one was for his hydrophobia, the blue one was against rabies and this orange-yellow one was to get gullbarf for Uraya. What? Why are you all looking at me like that? Who are you and what did you do to Agnis!

Hahaha, I'm surprised you noticed! I'm Singa the doppelganger, I have claimed this young man’s soul so that I can experience greatness! Yup, he's the real Agnis. Sorry, I doubted you. There is no way any imposter would say something like this.

Wow, you guys suck! Gregory downed both the potions Ted gave to him.

I won't ask anything about this rabies potion as long as it works. I looked around and saw a bulky Boshigull fly past. Wow, that gull lifts! That is the one we need! It looks like he skipped leg day though.

I don't think birds can train their legs. I finger pistoled some ice cubes at its wings making the bulky gull drop down into the water. I then retrieved it and shoved the potion down its throat. It coughed up some weird dark purple goopy ball that looked like it had veins in it. I caught it in an ice jar and placed it in my dimensional pocket. I don't know if it decays so I just kept it chilled and time locked in there. Eww, what was that?

I don't know and I don't want to know. I released the bulky gull which left after punching me in the nose. Ouch! Can't say you didn't deserve that.

I should suggest fried Boshigull to Hera as a new dish. We sailed uhh rowed down Boshi lake and passed through a small river that connected to lake major. There was a small sluice here that kept the waters separated. It would only open for fishing boats and boats aiming to exterminate some monsters. Getting past this was easy since Raishin teleported us with the boat to the other side. This potion works really well. We didn't make it far before a lake monster appeared.

It's a sea monster! Agnis fry it! We are on a lake which makes it a lake monster.

Agnis fry it! I froze it.

Why aren't you frying it! I would like to remind you that we are on a boat made out of frost magic any attempt of using high-energy magic will just get absorbed by the boat. At least it won't melt so we’re lucky with that. Hmm no that's not it, I decided to take a supportive role. You can stop rowing Raishin, go zap these monsters.

Ooh! Now we’re talking. Hmm why this sudden change? I will probably end up freezing the whole lake which is a bad idea, also my mobility is limited on this small boat.

Oh. Here I was thinking you could run over water or something haha. I can but I feel like sitting back today.

Oh. I thawed the lake monster and Raishin zapped it. More lake monsters appeared and he tried zapping them too but he was having difficulty hitting them. They started firing water blasts at us and Gregory was blocking these with [Water wall] and [Shadow wall]. The waves rocked the boat. The water started to become violent so I kept the boat steady despite these waves.

Ooh, that is useful, teach me that later Agnis. A lake monster emerged from the lake and shot a water blast at us. Gregory was ready to block it but I stopped him. I used a frost mirror which returned the water blast with greater power. It is a nice skill and it counters and transforms any attack that hits it into an attack that looks like I cast it. Of course, this counter blasted the lake monster's head, and one shot it. Gregory was shocked but I explained that it is a heavily modified frost wall that I used to counter the laser in the last timeline and that it won't cause me problems. I will shatter this mirror if it would come to the point that it would affect me, I do have an idea to make it work even if it fails to counter so don't worry. Gregory who looks convinced relaxes.

So, what now? Our main damage dealer isn't hitting anything and this lake is infested with monsters. I have just the thing for that. You remember that rain Cecilia made right Gregory? I said as I pointed towards the sky and it started drizzling and then raining heavily. Hey, what gives!

Just bear with it, it is a support skill, it washes mana off the opponents which makes their magic attacks weaker for allies it has a calming effect and prevents and removes berserk, rage, and panic status effects. It does also boost water magic attacks but this is indiscriminate. But the biggest reason for using this is that over there! I pointed towards Raishin.

Hahaha! Agnis this rain is amazing! It makes my lightning attacks have 100% accuracy! Raishin was wildly throwing lightning attacks around which still ended up hitting the lake monsters because of the rain. Ted carefully rowed towards the middle of the lake and then we saw a huge shadow beneath us. An enormous bulge of water emerged and an enormous lake monster, which I assumed is the boss of this lake, appeared. I guess we summoned the boss.

Raishin, show him who’s boss! Haha, this will be easy! I don't even need to aim. He made a huge red lightning bolt and threw it up in the air. Hey, Raishin where are you aiming, it is right there!

100% accuracy remember! The lightning bolt hit the clouds but nothing seemed to happen. Uh oh, this is bad. Not this again, what is bad now?

So, I use small frost particles in those rainclouds to make the magic bounce around and amplify itself, this way I can use a drop of magic for this wide-range effect. Let me guess now Raishin’s lightning is bouncing around and getting amplified?

Bingo! The clouds started glowing red and they transformed into thunderclouds. I could see the charge build up in the clouds and the negative charge around us getting flushed away.

So, Greg, I'm sure I don't need to tell you this because you probably felt that energy shift, but just so you and Ted know, WE ARE SO SCREWED! Ugh, Raishin is too far. I haven't tried this before but I really hope this would work. I used [Turning leaf] and swapped Raishin with a raindrop falling next to me.

What the! Gregory made a shadow ball around the boat and I made a frost ball around the boat. These were basically [Shadow wall] and [Frost wall] but since we are in a boat, we want to protect ourselves from all directions.

Hey, link us up with your vision I want to see what's going to happen! I'll bet 10 gold on chaos; chaos is going to happen. I linked my vision with my buddies. All we saw was the clouds getting deeper and deeper red.

See it wasn't that bad. And then it started raining red lightning. Numerous red lightning bolts poured down from the thunderclouds like it was rain, electrifying the whole lake and killing every single monster in the lake, also every fish got electrocuted. The water even got purified by the sheer amount of electricity running through the lake. The red lightning rain continued for 10 minutes before it started to calm down. After 15 minutes the clouds cleared away and it was safe to drop the balls.

Any chance that this went unnoticed in Boshi town? I’m sure all the people that are deaf and blind wouldn’t have missed this. Well to be fair last timeline we created a pink pillar of light so I guess we are supposed to drop at least 1 highly noticeable flashy skill every once and a while. We all look at Raishin. Uhm… oops?

Right, no point in telling you that you could have killed us, let's move on. What about all these dead fish and lake monsters? On it! I sucked the dead fish into a pocket dimension meant for food, so it would be chilled and preserved, I don't want any stupid dead monsters near my food so I chucked them in another part. Who knows maybe I will need an electrified lake monster in the future. I doubt it but who knows! After I moved all the dead stuff away the lake looked super clean.

Any chance that we secretly helped out Boshi town a lot with this? Hmm well, the lake monsters were always a problem so we did help out with that, the disappearance of the fish here, however… You give some, you take some! Let's find that cave! We headed towards the rock wall where the lake met the mountainside.

So how are we going to get down there? We swim of course! So how do we get down there? I grabbed Gregory and jumped in the water.

Geronimo! Time for some water fun! Nooo! Guess we'll go then. I popped out 4 tails and used them as propellors. The lake seemed quite deep. I identified the cave entrance and made 2 rows of ice balls filled with water towards the entrance of the cave making a path that indicated where to go. Raishin grabbed Ted. Ted could swim but he wasn't as fast as us when we used our tails as propellers. We also can't take our time because obviously, we would run out of breath. We dived down to the bottom of the lake. The lake was about 450 meters deep. We had to put some speed on it. When we are in the cave Raishin can make an air bubble stick to the ceiling so we can breathe. We made it into the cave as we started to run out of breath and Raishin made an air bubble.

Phew, that was deeper than I thought I almost thought we wouldn't make it. How much further do we need to swim until we can set foot on dry land? Can we go home now? Uhh, at least 600 meters more.

Alright, let's go! Noo! We made 2 more stops to breathe before we could swim up and emerged from a small lake inside a cavern.

Yes! Solid ground! I won't ever lose contact with you ever again Yabia I promise! Stop being so dramatic! I said as I removed all the water from our clothes. By the way, what Gregory said is something people say when they have been stuck on or in water for too long or in the air. Yabia is the name of our planet. I don't know what you guys call it now though. Anyways we were in the cavern complex which would lead towards our target, the broccoli root. We investigated the cavern a bit. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Until…

Raishin a 12 at your 4-o clock! Raishin turned and shot a lightning bolt at a laser that appeared out of nowhere.

Ugh more lasers, you guys deal with that! I have had bad experiences with lasers. I focused on the origin of the laser and...

Bunai? No, you are not Bunai! Bunai is dead! Show yourself, imposter! Several rock golems appeared.

You do know that golems are quite common right? Burn 5000 degrees! I said in Corund. The golems caught fire and melted.

Easy, that is what you get for shooting lasers at me! But he didn't shoot it at you! Aw, I wanted to test my new mountain buster skill on them.

Don't worry you can deal with any that appear. I have a bad matchup against these anyways, I will let you guys have some fun. We navigated through the cave system and encountered various underground monsters but more than any other monster we met golems. Lotsa golems. All went well until we encountered a big golem. Right, it is now time for my mountain buster!

Just do know we are still under this mountain so please don't vaporize it. Yeah, I like myself not vaporized. Hey guys! Shut up! Who here has vaporized 2 mountains and made it rain lightning for 10 minutes? It is you two! Not me!

Hey! I only vaporized one mountain I’ll have you know, the other one was a joint effort with Raishin so that doesn't count! Wait so the lightning rain is my fault? Yes.

Yup. You didn't have to shoot it upwards you know; the boss monster was right in front of you… Ted bumped his fists together and dashed toward the big golem. Before he reached the big golem he rotated once around his axis and landed an explosive punch.

[Mountain buster]! You know you don't have to yell your skill; this is not a game! I saw how earth magic from the ground was entering his body via his left leg and went to his right arm. The golem got sent flying and punched a huge hole in the wall. The wall started forming countless cracks which reached towards the ceiling. Hey, it seems like you're one of us after all!

Well, he is busting this mountain quite well, we gotta get out of here. Ugh, I can't believe I did something similar to those guys! It is fine it was bound to happen sooner or later. We ran as the place started collapsing. And then I saw a passage that I didn't see before. Hmm, that is strange? Did I miss it? That didn't seem to matter because we were heading straight toward it and other exits were a bit too far.

I think we need to make a bingo card for these things. What? A bingo card to keep track of who destroys the most mountains? An adventure isn't complete with a collapsing or vaporized mountain or two! I disagree! It is kind of hard to cover up all this stuff with illusions. Oh, so all that stuff you're hiding with your illusions?

Well, not much hiding because most of these are sudden so I didn't set up anything for it. I just make people feel uncertain that an event like that really happened. For some, it works better than others so when it gets discussed some say they don't recall something like that happening which causes others to think maybe it was a dream or I imagined it. In the case of that lightning rain though, I had some illusion layers running so it is easy to make it seem that that never happened. Ooh, right you still have like a gazillion layers running, right?

Yeah, but I have a lot of things I want to test out so don't count too much on them, I will use them though in case any of us are in grave danger. Hmm, that's fine, I guess you don't have a lot of opportunities to work with so many layers. I guess it will benefit us in the future.

Yeah, I still have to figure out what I can do with them and part of it falls into stuff like this. I snapped my fingers and undid the collapsing cavern.

We might need this place, later on, I do think we should check out this corridor though. I said as I pointed toward the one, I seemingly missed.

For some reason, I can't see deep into this corridor, which makes it super suspicious. It is similar to how I can't really see what's going on close to any other roots. Guess we found our route then. So, does this mean that me busting this mountain doesn't count?

It still counts. Nice try. Meh. After going down the corridor we noticed that the rock walls were closing in on us becoming narrower and narrower as we progressed. Until eventually the path became so narrow that we couldn't continue.

Alright, let's punch our way through! How about we don't! Gregory took away the energy Raishin created and banked it in his shadow.

Didn't you see what just happened? You want to bring this mountain down upon us? Oh shit, my bad.

Let me try something. There is a draft coming through here, right? Let me try and shadowmeld all of you guys and move through this narrow pathway. Ooh, good idea. Gregory covered us in a [shadow cloak] and made us meld into the shadows. Since he couldn't see his destination nor did he know how far he had to move, he moved physically and tugged us along. I helped with tugging but the moving was done by Gregory. Moving like this wasn't really fast but it also wasn't slow. It was a bit faster than a lycanthrope sprint. How fast is a lycanthrope? It is fast but most races that aren't slow could outrun it, humans belong to the slower races though, Raishin and I could outpace it easily, I guess Ted would have an even match, and Gregory would get left in the dust. After about 10 minutes the path got wider and the path became wide enough that the 2 of us could walk next to each other.

Heh, easy! Gregory’s mood turned sour when a couple meters further up the path started to transition into a body of water.

I guess this is a dead end let's go back! How about we don't? It seems we can still continue. This is the first time I see a river underwater. Time for Ice raft v2.0!

What happened to Ice raft v1.0? We left it behind on the lake remember?

You didn't dispel it? Maybe I should do that. Alright, time for Ice raft v1.1! I made the raft and stood on the bow of the rowboat.

We have a problem; this river is too narrow to use oars. Don't we have a living engine here? Ted said as he pointed at Raishin.

Aight Raishin, here is the plan! You dip your tails in the water and use them as propellors! Roger!

Ted, help me get Greg inside the boat! Roger! Nooo! Let's go back! How about those other corridors they seemed dry! I guess the hydrophobia potion is starting to wear off.

He should have 17 more minutes; he's just being a baby. Gregory who was gripping onto a stalagmite wasn't budging.

Alright, let's do this differently, Raishin fire up the engine, and Ted hop into the boat! Are we leaving him behind?

Not quite. I put my finger in the water and let a drop fall into the empty seat behind me. While the droplet was still falling, I used [Turning leaf] to switch Gregory with the water droplet. What!

Full speed ahead! Engine at maximum power! Ready for takeoff! Hey, are there any safety belts? Save me! And we sped into the dark.

I was in charge of steering because I could see what was going on in front of us at this speed. Ted and Gregory were too busy holding onto the boat anyways. Raishin seemed to enjoy this. I got to say it was quite challenging, most of this underground river was almost as narrow as our boat was wide. I was quite good at using water magic and an accurate person, I guess my buddies got lucky in this. There were some moments when we had no choice but to scrape against the walls. I guess the 17 minutes have passed by now because it seemed like Gregory was crying. Hey, Greg? Wha.. what?

Do you by any chance have a sleeping potion or something? You want to sleep now?! Who is going to perfectly steer this boat if you go take a nap!

Uhm, it isn't for me, just answer the question, do you have one? Uhh, I have one but it is a bit too concentrated, I was planning to throw it at a big boss.

It doesn't need to be ingested? It works best when ingested but it also works when inhaled.

Alright. I took the potion and forced it down Gregory’s throat. Wha? What are… you… doing... zzzzz.

I'm sorry but you will thank me later. Why did you do that? I used some thick wires that I retrieved out of my dimensional pocket to fasten the sleeping, Gregory. And I handed some to Raishin and Ted.

So, I just spotted a water rapid and not just any, there's a big complex of rapids, there are waterfalls and maelstroms so uhh basically it will be a wild ride and Gregory’s worst nightmare. Right, of course, we can never have a quiet, safe, and uneventful adventure, so how long until we hit this water circus?

Well, it leads with a waterfall which we will encounter about now. As I said that we started to speed up and the rumbling of water could be heard.

I hope you two fastened yourself properly, I won't have much leeway in saving you when you fly off since I will be navigating and making sure we don't capsize or sink. Hoo boi.

Raishin at which power level are you propelling us forward? Uhh like as the training we did? This is a 5.

Yes, like the training. I did some fast calculations to determine what power would correspond to what speeds. The same thing as with countering magic, if I say a number, you give that output in propulsion alright? Aye aye captain! So uhh about that sleeping potion is there still some left for me?

Nope sorry! Raishin 0! The propulsion stopped as we started falling. We could see a stupid amount of rapids, torrents, and some maelstroms, there were multiple exits in this huge cavern and every single exit seemed to have fast-flowing water in it. We have been through a lot but this might actually kill Gregory if he was still awake.

Raishin when we hit the water 15. Wait isn't that too fast?

If you want to get sucked up by that maelstrom then yes, else we’ll need that speed. I created countless bubbles beneath the boat. To slow down the fall.

Can you use wind magic to stabilize and orient the boat so that we don't nosedive? Number?

Really? Sorry. Raishin corrected the boat so that the bottom of the boat wasn’t pointing down. I made more bubbles and our fall was slowing down. We crashed into the surface and the shockwave sent us upwards. Gregory was fastened properly so there were no problems there. Ted however flew off. I used [Turning leaf] on him swapping him with some water droplets. I'm so glad I have this skill, it is so overpowered, especially around water. I'm also glad that I realized that inertia doesn't change after swapping so I had to find something for it. Seems I can cancel that or let the objects keep their initial inertia instead of taking over the inertia of what they switched with. This however did take some energy. It wasn't that big of a cost so I could use it a lot. The problem is, however, at the moment I'm dealing with a lot of things. Raishin propelled us at 15 and we escaped the pull of the maelstrom. I needed to make a sharp turn else we would be heading for another waterfall.

I wonder if a boat can drift as we do in our racing game. What?

Guess there is one way to find out. I reduced the density of the water at the back of the boat so that there was more freedom in how the boat could move while calculating the best path and correcting for the wild and turbulent torrents.

Ted, you're not strapped in well enough, I can't keep swapping you back on the boat! Ugh, I'm trying but everything is so wild!

Trust me I know, here comes a rapid, Hold on! Raishin 3! Even though Raishin instantly dropped the speed, we sped up a lot due to the rapid.

So next up we have 2 options ride the maelstrom which can take a while and take our exit or try to speed over and jump over it. Uhh, what is the safest?

None are, there are a lot of rocks jutting out the water so riding the maelstrom could sink us if I mess up, and jumping over could sink us if we miss or don't have enough power, pick your poison. Why do I have to decide! You’re the captain, right?

You are the elder on this vessel, sometimes the captain needs to consult someone older and wiser. Just pick one Agnis!

Hey, it's Captain Agnis! Really?

I'm serious. Ugh right, Just choose one Captain Ag…

Big jump it is! Screw you! Any speed recommendations captain?

Uhh to be honest I have no clue. What! I thought...

Give it all you got! Full speed ahead! 43 it is! Hey hey, guys isn't that a bad idea? Won't we go splat on the other side?

Don't worry we will only go splat if we miss the exit. So just in theory, if we do miss then what?

I will hand over my Captain seat to you. But we’ll be dead! It won't be of any use to me!

Exactly! So, make sure we don't miss it, thank you very much! But that is your thing! Ugh, you are so impossible sometimes! What can I do?

Do you see those stalagmites? Do something about them, I can make us evade those but it could end up throwing my aim off. So, do I slow down?

No, keep going. While we were speeding at the center of a maelstrom. I was wondering if this place was directly connected to Boshi lake. There was an insane amount of water here and it seems this entire place was hollowed out by water. And where was this water going to or coming from? It wasn't salt water so did it go to the sea? The sea is really far from here and as far as I know, there aren't any big rivers close by. Does this river travel to the sea underground? I'm not sure how common something like this is, one thing I know is that nothing we've encountered lately is normal. Ted was dealing with all the stalagmites swiftly so I had an easy time aiming for the exit on the other side of the maelstrom.

Hold on tight! It's going to be a bumpy ride! I made a small ramp to send us over the maelstrom. I didn't do a great job describing this place, but this cavern where all this water was violently moving around was as big as half Boshi town. And this maelstrom was occupying about a quarter of this space but since it was on the side it was easy to avoid so far. Some exits flow out from this maelstrom. So, since this thing is so big, we need a lot of speed to jump over it and even after we get over it, we need to have enough speed so that the current doesn't drag us off course. I aimed the boat a bit upstream to account for it dragging us a bit after we land but I was running so many calculations and checking stuff out to make sure we don't sink I don't have any time to double-check if they are correct. Luckily if I messed up, I had do-overs since I still had a lot of illusion layers running but it would be way better if we got this right in one go. Things were going well so far; we were nearing our landing spot.

Raishin, I need you to counter the current with a 15 after we land. I noticed that I might have miscalculated so I need Raishin to correct it. After we landed, I had to steer the boat but also reduce the density at the back of the boat so that Raishin could accelerate faster. This was hard because an enormous volume of water was passing under us at a high speed. The boat started to rock violently as the boat wasn't lined up with the current.

Ugh, this certainly isn't something for Gregory. I like water rides but this is a bit much. Hold on tight, we are going to make it but we might bump into the wall. We did make it but we bumped violently into the wall which almost made us capsize. It is good that I made this boat out of frost magic because anything else would have been shattered by this impact. We got flung out of the boat but because we fastened ourselves, we got pulled back into the boat. I froze more boat on the side that was capsizing in the water to make sure we didn't get water inside. Yes, I know this sounds weird but our situation is weird. Ted used earth magic to help our boat get pushed toward the center of the tunnel.

You can go to 0 now Raishin. Phew, it's over. I

'm afraid not, waterfall in 200 meters. Ugh, what is wrong with this place?

This waterfall is a problem but I got this. What is with this waterfall?

Hmm, I can't see the bottom. Right, I think Gregory was right we should’ve just gone home. No, I'm too young to die!

Don't worry I will make ice ramps to send us to our location, I think I got a good idea of where it is. You think?!

Something is interfering I have no idea what it is it is blurry so the overall location should be fine, I just need you to use your mountain buster to smash through the 20-meter-thick rock wall. You what?

I can't see another way to get there it might be all the way at the bottom who knows but we could take this as a shortcut. You have to decide fast though, waterfall in 70 meters Ugh fine, how do I get to the wall before we crash into it though? I can launch you.

Sounds like a plan let's do that. ?!? Wait there must be another way.

Hold on tight! Dammit! As we approached the waterfall, I tried to slow us down as much as possible, I would need this boat to follow the waterfall vertically down and then make an ice ramp and shoot us up. I will have to make some more ice ramps to navigate through this chasm.

I can make some flares to light this place up so Ted has an easier time finding the spot he needs to smash. Raishin released a lot of flares that illuminated the big chasm while we were speeding downwards. I froze a big X mark on the spot where Ted needed to smash before making an ice ramp and shooting us up. The momentum of falling down carried us with great speed upwards. Now that falling wasn't an issue anymore, we still needed to arrive at our destination. We were about 400 meters short of getting there. Since I could use ice for this, I could create large volumes. I made ice crystals on the nearest walls and make them grow out to become ice ramps and ice slides. I need a 10 Raishin.

Uhh no water uhm oh wind magic, We got some thrust so that we wouldn't just fall off the ice slide. I kept freezing ice ramps and slides to keep us going along the wall and also started freezing stuff further up to make scaffolding to make more stuff on. We had to separate from the wall soon because we were nearing another waterfall and I'm not freezing a whole waterfall.

Can you push us off the wall onto that ice slide I froze over there? Are we even going to make it that far? And I guess I have no choice else this waterfall is going to take us down.

Raishin 22. After that, I'm going to prepare to launch Ted is that fine? Yeah, just increase it to 26 before you launch him. I hope you’re ready Ted else we go splat. Where did I go wrong… and I'm ready. Ted pushed us off by bumping the boat off the ramp with earth magic and we barely made it on the ice slide. We sped up and got steered toward the X mark I made. Raishin accelerated more and launched Ted. How did he do this? He charged a powerful kick and Ted jumped on his leg as he kicked off, launching Ted. Ted would reach the wall about 4 seconds before we do. If things go wrong, we could catch him so he doesn't fall to his death but the solid rock wall is a problem. I could turn this boat into a ball but the timing would be really tight.

Give it your all, please! I don't think I look good after going splat! I prepared to use [Turning leaf] on Ted to buy me a bit more time in case I need to turn this boat into a ball.

Please be strong enough! [Mountain buster] The wall cracked. I underestimated how much time this wall needed to crumble. It was definitely weak enough to bust through. I used [Turning leaf] and formed the boat into a hollow frost ball. I filled it with snow to cushion any blows. I can't say the impact was pleasant. If I knew this would happen, I would have asked for Raishin to accelerate more for a cleaner impact. After crashing into the wall but still making it through the frost ball kept rolling and rolling. And then it stopped. At least that is what I assume because the impact knocked me out. I assume it did the same to my buddies.