Agnisotra: Origin Tails

Year 2512 on the Hourai calendar or year 573 on the New Kaledonian calendar, and 4 boars were running around in the town square.

Now I know that I'm normally a troublemaker but it wasn't me this time! Raishin was supposed to hunt 4 boars and sell them on the market. I'm wondering if he was supposed to hunt them or why are they running around. It seems he assumed someone would want it as a pet so he captured them alive and of course, they escaped when he arrived at the town square. The stalls displayed different products produced from all over the town and the mountain.

As I was sitting in my stall with various knives, tools, and short swords on display, I watched boars run people over and Raishin trying to catch them. A bit further I saw Gregory with his alchemical potions on display in transparent foam. It seems he foresaw something like this.

Nobody seems to have visited his stall, I'm in the same boat. As I decided to help Raishin since nobody was buying anything from me anyways, an old man appeared out of nowhere.

“Oho, this knife looks like it has very high quality!”

It is one of the first and best knives I made after I graduated from my apprenticeship! I lied.

No offense to this old man but the first thing I made after I more or less mastered blacksmithing was making an upgraded version of my potato peeler and I also made various other knives and short swords for myself. I've been trying to make a katana but that shit is hard yo!

Anyway, anything I was kind of dissatisfied with, I'm selling here alongside items Philip made. I inspected them before bringing them here, they are of good quality, just not of the quality I need them to be for advanced potato peeling or just dagger and sword mastery in general. They are more than adequate for household use.

I explained to the old man how to maintain the knife as his eyes fall on a short sword I made.

“Did you make this young lad?”

Yes, old man Paul.

“I see, you're at that age where you'd be interested in swords, can you use them?”

Uhh, yeah, I think I'm decent at using a sword.

“Ohoho how modest, why don't you give this old man a demonstration? And maybe I'll buy this for my grandson.”

The possibility of selling my first sword motivated me. I picked up the sword and lightly swung it around to familiarize myself with its weight. As I was about to start the demonstration, a boar appeared from behind a stall and bee-lined for the old man.

Since these boars were supposed to be sold to the butchers they will probably not mind.

The old man looked at me puzzled. I shot towards the boar and flicked a coin at high speed at its forehead. The boar flinched and I took this chance to launch the boar in the air with a magic augmented kick while the boar was airborne, I skinned it, cut it into pieces, and filleted some parts of it before it hit the ground. A little bit of magic was used to make all of the boar's blood gather around the blade so that I didn't make a mess. I froze the blood in a ball and tossed it at Raishin who was chasing the boar down.

Whoa, thank you, Agnis.

No problem, do I need to freeze this meat for you too? I pointed at the chunks of boar meat.

Yes please, but use normal ice, the last time you froze stuff for me I couldn't thaw it.

Haha, my bad, they're done, and try to make less of a ruckus on the market next time.

Hehe, sorry, Rufus told me to hunt 4 boars and sell them on the market, I thought they needed to be alive. Raishin said confidently.

It seems he got the wrong idea as usual.

I'm not surprised.

“Ohoho young lad that was quite the flashy demonstration.”

Oh right, the demonstration.

“I will buy it!”

Ohh nice! Do you mind if I clean it and deliver it to your home tonight? I did kinda cut up a boar with it, I'll even sharpen it for you!

“That is fine, you know where I live right? Next to the bakery, the 3rd house on the hill with the green fire lanterns.”

Ooh, you sold something

Don't you need to take care of your boar problem? I said as I pointed at the other boars that were still making the market unsafe.

Ah right, the boars! Raishin jumped up and looked around for boars. He didn't need to look for long though as a boar crashed into Gregory’s stall.

Aaagh!

Oh no.

Oh, Greg, you caught a boar for me! Raishin said happily as he ran over to Gregory’s stall. I finished the payment details with old man Paul and confirmed his address. Afterward, I went towards Gregory’s stall.

Why can’t you do anything right?! Gregory was trying to salvage whatever was left of his smashed stall.

What do you mean?! I didn't bust your stall!

Who was responsible for these boars hmm? Gregory asked. He looked quite upset.

Oh no.

Haha, boars belong to nature, so whatever goddess of nature or nature spirits? Hmm, maybe the forest goddess of spirits? Raishin proudly put his hands on his hips, thinking that was an adequate excuse.

You are trolling, right? Gregory seemed like he was close to flipping his lid.

His whole stall was a mess and only 2 potions seemed to have survived the boar rampage. The two started arguing and I wanted to step in and break it up but I saw someone approach my stall.

Don't try to kill each other and behave yourselves guys, I have a customer gotta run!

They didn't seem to have heard me but that was fine. I could chuck daggers at them from my stall to break them up if I needed to.

“Oh, I thought this was Philip’s stand, did you take it over?” A woman with red-brown hair said as she saw me approaching.

I recently graduated from an apprenticeship so I can take this over from him.

“Oh, how lovely, his health is deteriorating lately isn't it?”

Yah, so he is home and can relax while I take care of this stall.

I was standing quite uncomfortably waiting for this woman to finish her business and leave. It sounds rude but those are my genuine feelings. It is because I know this woman. She is convinced that her daughter is a perfect match for me and does whatever she can to make it happen. This has been going on for almost one and a half years and I will have to say that it pushed my escaping skills to new levels since I have yet to be caught or meet her daughter. Her coming here seems to be no coincidence. I’m wondering what goes through this woman's head, wanting a random guy to hook up with her daughter. Shouldn't she try to keep away from her?!

The woman who is named Charlize casually looked around. The reason that I'm stressed is that I can't escape this time around. “Say Agnis, do you have the evening free? I think something is amiss at my house and I need a blacksmith's opinion.”

Hmm, I think Jimmy the plumber is free tonight!

“It is not a plumbing issue.”

If you have knives, hammers, pliers, or whatever tools you need to get fixed just deliver them to the workshop, and we will fix them and deliver it back to you within 4 working days!

“Gregory is also coming to check.” She said as she picked up a combat knife.

Wait whud? Gregory? Wait, does that mean Cecilia is visiting you?

“Oooh, how sharp, I knew I wasn't wrong about you!”

I facepalmed. Cecilia was one of Charlize’s best friends and she was convinced that Gregory was perfect for her daughter. But unlike me, Gregory is oblivious and has no idea he’s walking into a trap.

“We also made some purple velvet potato cake.”

Uhm that's nice, but I already have something in the evening, I need to clean and deliver a short sword so I’m really sorry but I can't come!

“You are avoiding me, aren't you?” She asked me with a sad look.

I've learned that this woman uses everything in her arsenal to get what she wants. That is how she bought a complete 121-piece cutlery set from Philip for only 2 silver. I was surprised when he came back with 2 silver instead of 10 silver. A total scam!

O... of course not! I remember that Philip asked me to finish up a halberd! I need to go.

I tried to pack up all my stuff and close the stall when Charlize slammed her hand on the item I wanted to pick up. I looked at her and she displayed a complicated expression that included an intimidating and irritated smile.

I broke out in cold sweat, I knew that she was shifting to hunting mode. Charlize was quite the adventurer in her days and since everyone here lives in the mountains it is quite hard to find someone who doesn't know how to move about and use magic effectively.

Hey Greg! Look! It's starting! Raishin pointed at me

What? Gregory turned around and looked at where Raishin was pointing.

Agnis’ vanishing act!

Sadly, a lot of the townspeople were used to this happening. I noticed Charlize casting magic which is well known to be used for capturing targets. I decided to put my speed to use and escape. I interrupted her cast and grabbed all my stuff.

Normally I wouldn't do this in public but I had no choice now, I put everything in my dimensional pocket and made myself scarce. With this I mean I entered stealth. I am really grateful to Viridian and whatever I can remember from him and his daughter teaching me how to get by unnoticed. I can now escape. But not easily, I don't know what it is but this woman's intuition is sharp. There is no way she would see through my stealth or illusions but somehow, she still has a feeling of my rough location.

So, as I said before, it was time to make use of my speed and I got out of that area as fast as possible. From previous situations like this, it takes about 27 seconds before her intuition kicks in and she manages to find my rough location. 27 seconds that I used to set up some non-lethal traps and preparing for evasive maneuvers. Barring me, Ted, Raishin, and Greg she is probably the second or third strongest person in this town. But since we are keeping it a secret that we are tailed beasts it will drop our firepower a lot which means that Charlize is way stronger than any of us in our current state.

I guess it’s a blessing and a curse that Charlize was focused on me because Raishin might be the only one who would be able to deal with this woman. But by the mention of her daughter, he would probably wag his tail and go horny mode. I don't know who her daughter is but if the mother is a monster, then so is she.

I dodged a Charlize coming at me at high speed and broke my stealth. There is no point in me keeping it up since it won't help much.

“Just give up Agnis! Kanna and I will treat you well!”

I don't need to be treated well! I’m doing fine as is! I said as I dodged something that looked like wind magic carrying sedative compounds.

More of it came at me. I took a bottle of liquid shadow vodka I confiscated from Gregory, got a mouthful and sprayed it at the approaching drugged wind, and lit it on fire creating a huge fireball that sucked in the near air but also destroyed whatever she laced that wind magic with.

I discovered that this method was effective on any type of technique that relies on smell or has to be breathed into work. Anything that needs to be smelled has to be volatile, or else it won't be able to turn into gas and mix with the air. So, adding a lot of heat will just destroy it... I could just use fire magic but this method is more effective and mana efficient. I still get nauseous from using magic but it's way less than 5 years ago.

I still didn't find the cause but I've found ways to get around with the minimal use of magic. Although I could still use ice and water magic with no problems. Fire is a big issue since it is an element that chugs mana but that's not the complete reason why I don't use it. My fire magic is a bit... Too effective. I burnt down half the Hourai wing in the palace back at home when I was 5. Which is crazy since it is supposed to be highly fire-resistant. Only my uncle and mom could set fire to it and I guess well me. I do have decent control over it but I don't always want to be flashy. And fire magic is flashy, at least the fire magic of the Hourai family is. I say that as someone who uses ice a lot but I don't have many options! At least ice doesn't destroy half a palace!

Whoops, I'm getting distracted. Charlize almost managed to grab me but I dodged at the last moment.

“I don't understand, I’ve been an adventurer for 12 years and I've never seen someone as fast as you.”

Must've been defeated by you before they could show any of it.

“Hmm, I don't think so,” Charlize said while dropping the air pressure around me.

I assume she intends to make the air thin and make me pass out from hypoxia but it also reduces drag from the air so I just sped up and escaped from her sight. “Why does nothing work on you?” I heard a frustrated Charlize exclaim. I went back in stealth and placed some frost traps that would trigger when certain conditions were met such as when the air pressure changes a lot or when the wind direction changes stuff like that. When she would use wind in any way it will set off one or more of some traps I've laid out. As I wondered why nobody around me is normal, a frost trap went off.

I confirmed the location of the trap, threw up an illusion, and slid into an alleyway.

I lifted a manhole and escaped into the sewers. I don't know why but whenever I escape into the sewers Charlize is never able to find me, maybe because she doesn't know I use the sewers to navigate through the city when escaping or she doesn't want to get down here. Because I'm not gonna lie but it stinks down here. Or maybe her intuition doesn't work on targets underground. If I could use earth magic to burrow, I probably would have an easier time escaping. Sadly, I would be more likely to bury myself than to escape.

I noticed this a while ago but that strange energy I saw for the first time in that underwater cave 5 years ago seems to be everywhere. It is the best seen and felt by me here in the sewers. There are places where it is thin, almost non-existent, and in others, it's on a high concentration. Back then I just thought it was a regular energy flow. But now I'm more used to it. I know it's more complicated than that. The energy moves about in almost every direction in the area it