Agnisotra: Origin Tails

As I woke up, I got a rude greeting getting a fried chicken leg shoved in my mouth. Hmmph??? I bit down on the piece of chicken, ripped it out of the hand of my rude awakener, and got ready to kick his ass only to find myself in Raishin’s hut with Raishin smiling and Gregory staring at me.

What is going on? You burnt out! Gregory smacked him.

You passed out after vaporizing a mountain. Nothing these guys said made any sense to me. I finished the chicken leg but was still hungry. Gregory handed me some of his smelly potions. I hated the taste but their effects were real. I drank them and felt myself regain some mana and stamina. I then accepted more of the fried chicken Raishin offered me. Gregory briefly explained to me that he found me in a huge crater and that Philip and Hera were worried about me. Gregory also seemed to be curious about my injuries but decided that it was better to wait for an explanation whenever Ted was back in town. I tried to get up but winced at the pain.

Here take this healing potion, it won't fix your broken ribs but it will fix any non-fractures. Ugh I know you can't do anything about their taste but can you at least make them less smelly? I complained as I downed the healing potion, I felt warm inside and I felt most of the pain go away.

I will try my best to fix the smell in the future. So, what are we gonna do until Ted comes back, you guys don't really have a set schedule now that you finished your apprenticeships right? Yah we can do whatever we want now but I think I should go home and apologize to Philip and Hera. Yah maybe you should do that. I think I will lock myself into my lab and make more concoctions. Ugh, guess I'll go and hunt some variety of meat to dump into Agnis' dimensional pocket. I don't know why but meat stored in there always comes back out tastier.

Fine by me, after I apologize, I think imma sleep till the evening. I guess we'll meet up at the city gate after dinner. Cya till then. Gregory and I left Raishin’s hut and headed toward the town.

What was Raishin doing all the time yesterday by the way? Seems he got knocked out by the tornado Charlize created after your wave destroyed her house and someone brought him to his hut. Gregory shook his head indicating that he couldn't believe that Raishin got knocked out like that.

That sounds so like him. We split up and went towards our houses. I apologized to Philip and Hera for worrying them while hiding that I had broken ribs. I felt guilty but not only did I make them worry I was also planning to leave them behind by escaping soon. I was wondering if I should tell them, on one side I saw them accepting it but on the other side, they could be extremely against it. I was their slave but they also saw me as a son. I didn't know how to approach this but if I told them and they said no they could enforce the power of the slave crest and would make it impossible for me to try to escape. I told them I was tired and went up to my room. I locked the door and collapsed onto my bed which was a dub thing to do because I had broken ribs.

I used nature energy to push them into the correct spot and tried to use regenerative fire on them. I was still in phoenix mode all this time so I might as well try this out. As a nine-tail fox, I also had great regenerative abilities but it would probably heal me while I was asleep. The problem is, it’s so darn hard to fall asleep with this pain. So, I would try to heal myself with some phoenix fire and then shift toward my preferred nine-tail mode. Which meant that I'm expressing traits of that race, it's not like I transformed or anything.

Some traits that I have will be expressed regardless of what mode I am, for example, my original silver hair is a trait from me being a silver-haired nine-tailed spirit fox but it seems it's still silver in phoenix mode, you can't see it though coz I'm still making it for the most part black with my basic disguise illusion. Other traits only appear in a certain mode. I do know now that I'm way faster in phoenix mode. I've only been in it twice, of which one is right now, but my Elgards eye evaluation of myself at the moment puts me about 15% faster than I normally am in nine-tail mode. Anyway no use in staying in a mode I'm not too familiar with so nine tails it is for now. I managed to ignite regenerative fires and tried to apply them to my ribs. I ended up setting myself completely ablaze but that was fine. These flames burned at body temperature so nothing flammable was at risk. After healing myself I shifted to nine-tail fox mode and fell asleep.

I woke up with the realization that I had forgotten something. It was a bit before dinner time so I still had time to do stuff before dinner. I activated Elgards eyes and checked out the hole I vaporized into the Umbra mountain range. As I thought there was no trace of there ever being a dungeon there, nor the cave room I found the dungeon in, it was all hole, rock, and magma now.

Noo my treasure. I said softly. It seems that I vaporized the boss, the treasure room, and the dungeon with the rest of the mountain. I will now never know what those clues will lead to. They could be used to open the treasure room after the boss is defeated or they could point to another dungeon or it could make an exit. Having vaporized the treasure and losing Bunai bothered me the most. I wanted to bury Bunai but cremation is also a valid option. I wanted to believe he was in a better place now but I didn't know where golems would go after death or if there even was such a place. I got a little bit depressed.

It might have been silly to make a golem tag along and put so much effort in trying to keep him safe, while this dungeon would 100% be easier if I just abandoned him but there are 2 reasons for this. First and foremost, I got quite attached to it, the second reason is that if I can't even carry a golem through a dungeon how am I supposed to make sure my buddies don't get killed off like Bunai did? I believe I did all I could to keep Bunai safe yet still failed. I am depressed now because if it was Raishin, Ted, or Gregory in Bunai's place I would never forgive myself for being so useless. I tried to cheer myself up by telling myself that my buddies were not reliant on my orders to get stuff done but that didn't help. I thought of Bunai's cool flaming hair and his graceful smashes and got even more depressed. The mood during dinner was… complicated. Philip and Hera wanted to know what happened while I was away but I was too depressed to go into much in detail. I just said that stuff took way longer than planned, something went wrong and I messed up. The food improved my mood a bit but it became worse after Hera gave me a big hug and told me I could talk to her when I felt I wanted to. This was because it reminded me of the last hug I got from my mother before our home disappeared. I did my best to not show that my mood worsened and went out to the town gate to meet up with my buddies and wait for Ted to arrive. On my way to the town gate, I saw a zombie.

What the! I got ready to incinerate the zombie when I realized after a careful look that it was Gregory.

What happened to you? So... tired. Gregory looked like he didn't sleep for days and looked all beat up and tired.

Cecilia spotted me when I went out to buy a snack.

Oof, at least you escaped. I used the sewers you are so fond of… so much water, so many rats, so tired… I guess Gregory also isn't in a great mood.

Sup Agnis, whoa a zombie!

That's not a zombie, it's Greg. Whoa, what happened to you? He got chased, wet, and attacked by rats. We arrived at the town gate and waited for Ted to arrive.

Sup guys, long time no see. Ted waved at us and we walked up to him.

Yooo how have you been?

Great, we took second place. What's up with those two? Raishin explained briefly what happened in the last two days.

So Agnis got burnt out and Greg is still wet behind his ears. I'm not in the mood for tasteless puns, were your opponents strong?

Yeah, nothing we couldn't handle though, sadly I made a small mistake that cost us the win. How was the journey back?

Pretty good, no incidents, I could sleep most of the way here. At least one of us had a great day at least.

What happened? We will tell you but not here, let's go to Raishin's hut. We arrived at Raishin’s hut and started catching up. I told them about the kidnapping Charlize and Cecilia did, the battle Gregory and I had with them, how the sewer system was really suspicious, the big cave with the earth dragon in it, what the earth dragon told me, and how I helped him also about him imparting his wisdom on me which caused me to be able to understand ancient languages. I then continued about the dungeon, how I opened it, and what I found inside. I told them about the adventures I had with Bunai and his death and how I went ham and burnt the place down.

Whoa, you sure did not sit still the last two days. Gregory then confirmed that the sewers were suspicious and that he found out that the magic composition on the surface varies greatly from inside the sewers. How he followed the trail of unbalanced magic and that he found a similar cave but this one had an enormous pink tree and traces of a battle. He looked at me and mentioned the conversation we had and that this place must be linked to the place I found. He told us about his investigation of the place and how he encountered my clone, he told us about the short battle they had and how he escaped.

Oh, I completely forgot about my clone... Yeah, I was ready to kick your ass for giving me a scare like that but I gave up on it when I saw the state you were in. He continued about how he went looking for us the next morning and saw an enormous blue fire pillar shoot up to the sky. How he climbed up the mountain and fished me out of a pool of magma. Raishin started with how at the market he got approached by Cecilia and how he told them that Gregory would probably be hungry and that how! would have a late-night delivery. How he lost sight of time because he got chewed out of causing trouble and had to help clean up the market. How he went out to play but couldn't find us and eventually arrived near Charlize’s house and sensed that we were in distress to eventually get knocked out by the enormous volume of water I bought for. And then how he woke up in the morning in his hut and went to the hut because he was hungry. He found a very cool enormous pheasant-like boar but it got scared off by a volcanic eruption which later seemed to be me who was vaporizing the mountain.

A pheasant boar? Such an animal shouldn't exist, are you sure? Yeah I was surprised too but I like fried pheasant and fried boar so I'm sure a pheasant boar would be even tastier!

You sound like Agnis now. Hey! I'm not mistaken there was really a pheasant boar about the size of a bear! That wave really did a number on your head, didn't it?

Hmm, weird things have been happening later, I will scan the area later to locate it. It might hold a clue or be dangerous, best-case scenario, we’ll have a tasty meal. You got interested in what a pheasant boar tastes like, don't you?

A bit. I said while wiping some drool from the corners of my mouth. I caught Raishin also wiping some drool from the corner of his mouth. Gregory got up and sighed.

Well now we caught up we need to formulate a plan, Agnis if you mind? I got up and projected Boshi town and the area around it with my Elgards eyes.

Agnis probably already did some calculations about the approximate distance but here is the map of the area. Suddenly I felt a ringing in my head. It hurt quite a bit so I held my head. When I looked up, I saw Ted, Gregory, and Raishin had the same happen to them.

Ouch, what was that? I don't know, I'm running diagnostics, I'll check with you guys too. I whipped out 3 tails and started checking various filters on my Elgards eyes to check if something changed or was wrong.

Hmm, I can't say nothing happened since something is slightly off but I can't tell what it is exactly. Can you try to explain what it might be?

Hmm not really, the filter that showed something indicates that something was messing either with the dimensional fabric or with the fabric of time and space. I can't tell the specifics, where, or when that happened. What do you mean? We know when it happened it happened just now! I think that's the problem Raishin if something messed with time that is completely relative.

Whud? Did it affect us negatively? I can't say that anything changed for us but we could either expect a dimensional invasion, like what happened before we got kidnapped from home, or whatever we did or going to do will be different than how it normally would go, either time-wise or location-wise. In short; I have no fucking clue what just happened, it might be that there is nothing but this filter which indicates temporal and spatial consistency got a glitch. Maybe it's just because I'm tired.

Hmm, let's hope it is nothing then... Can you show the underground map of the area? Ah right. I showed the map of the area in a 3D hologram format. I showed the route I took and drew the route Gregory took. Gregory also described what his spreading shadow found out from some corridors while I added whatever I noticed with my eyes while going towards the cave I ended up in. It showed the chamber I found the dungeon in but it got replaced with a big hole since I vaporized the whole place. It showed another chamber on the north side of the town with a pink broccoli in it.

As you guys know this town has a barrier but according to Charlize it is an obstacle for those who want to leave this town period. Quite the asshole this creator but nothing we can do about this. Now as you guys heard from Agnis and me this tree is no pushover, it managed to severely wound an earth dragon, one of the sturdiest creatures you can find around. Also, the lesser spears it threw at me had quite an easy time tearing through my defenses. So, taking down this tree is going to be a real pain. Raishin raised his hand.

This isn't school, you don't need to raise your hand… Can't Agnis just vaporize the tree as he did with the mountain? I'm not sure if I could reproduce this but I could try to torch it, it would mean that you guys would have to watch out for friendly fire though. Nice one!

I didn't mean it as a pun… Let's keep that as a last resort, it might be hard to imagine what it would turn out like but I saw the crater and even from Raishin’s hut, I could feel the heat of that blast. We don't want to be remotely near that when Agnis sets something similar off. I don't even think I could shield you from that since as you can tell it vaporized a mountain. Maybe it is wise to indeed leave that as a last resort, you also said it scared off a dragon. I'm sorry but if this tree didn't lose to a dragon that is intelligent and can move around, I doubt that nuking the tree would be a viable option.

Hmm, I have my doubts about that dragon being intelligent. By the way, Raishin, do you know if there are dragons in your ancestry tree? Hmm, not that I know of, why?

It's nothing, Greg, continue. Yah, so we need to investigate this tree more closely before we attempt our escape since the area is thick in magical and leyline energy we can't just send 1 person, Agnis and I are required. We can do it with us 2 while you 2 investigate more of the branching cave and sewer systems or we can go there with all of us. It might be necessary for someone to draw the tree's attention while the other three would take the chance to investigate the tree a bit closer. The decoy would probably be you Agnis since you are probably the only one who has a chance to not just get outright one-shot by the first spear that gets shot. T

hat is fine and my vote goes toward investigating the tree with all 4 of us. I share that opinion, what do you two think? Since I'm not familiar with all this I think it is best if we all go together. I'll just go along with you guys.

Okay, then we will do that. Since Agnis and I had a rough couple of days and Ted just returned I propose that we will do the investigation the day after tomorrow and depending on the results devise a plan to escape. My plan is to escape within 6 days if the circumstances allow for it. Any objections? I will have to check what I will have to chuck in my dimensional pocket and you guys probably would also have to do the same but no real objections from me. Can’t we leave this place any sooner? Rushing this might actually get us killed or trapped inside the barrier so no objections here.

Meh fine, no objections here. Okay then, some small tasks for us in the 5 days that we will be preparing this escape. For the rest of today and tomorrow, we rest, I will make various concoctions and potions that would be useful in escaping this place after we escaped. Raishin, you will try to hunt and gather as much food as you can because we will always need food, and don't just get meat! Also, gather herbs! Agnis, could you craft some weapons for us? If you need more ore, I will join you in gathering some. I know 5 days is not a lot but you can do it, right? Hmm, I have an idea, you told me my shadow clone was bad right?

Bad is an understatement, you covered it perfectly with illusions, I will give you full points for that but underneath the illusions it was one big mess it wasn't just bad it was abysmal. I assume you want to ask me to teach you how to make better shadow clones so you can increase the rate at which you can craft weapons right? Because I would rate your shadow clone 4/100. Yah.

I haven't used any shadow clones ever myself but I guess I would be better at it than you. It could also serve as some training for me so I'll do that then. What about me?

Let's use the fact that you've been out of the town a lot lately and let you go around and ask around how everyone is, what you've missed, and try to learn more about this barrier or town history. As Agnis and my story suggested some weird things must have happened in the construction of this town, maybe some people living here might know anything. You look puzzled Raishin, what's up? So, when are we going to hunt down that pheasant boar? Raishin and! looked at Gregory. Gregory sighed.

Alright, let's hunt that thing down tomorrow so you guys can shut up about it. Yes! Yeah! Raishin and I high-fived each other and we all went home to rest. Tomorrow will be a great day!

Tomorrow came and I was thinking of how to prepare the pheasant boar. I met Raishin in the town square. He probably had the same idea as me to get some seasoning for the pheasant boar. We were about to walk towards a grocery store when we bumped into some chunky guy.

“Hey, watch out twerps!” I'm sorry, we must've been blind to not be able to see you coming.

“Wha! Hey, Dunkey I think that kid called you fat!” One of his 3 friends said to the chunky guy. Your name is Donkey? I said as I tried to hold in my laugh.

“It is Dunkey! D-U-N-K-E-I!” You might mean Y and not I at the end there. Hehe, chunky donkey.

“Are you guys mocking me?” I don't know, are we Raishin? Can you even spell mocking?

“Ha of course I'm the smartest kid in town!” Hard doubt about that, you can't even spell your own name! This chunky kid who seemed to be about two to three years older than us started to get red like a tomato.

“I am Dunkey Hurado, a descendant of the great hero Hurado. My name is ancient Kaledonian for Brilliant Hurado.” Raishin and I looked at each other knowing this was utter bullshit. Hey didn't Dunkey mean forgotten in old Kaledonian? It does at least in Hourai. Yeah, you're correct but we can't possibly tell him that his name means “forgotten”. I mean it does fit him though since I'm sure that we would completely forget about him in about an hour.

“Hey, assholes! I can hear you; you know! And what do you noobs even know about ancient Kaledonian?” Raishin and I started talking to him in Hourai which was basically ancient Kaledonian, maybe with a slight accent.

“Wha? What are these guys saying? Have they gone mad?” Another friend of Dunkey said.

“Ha! They couldn't bear witness to my brilliance and started to talk gibberish.” The only one talking gibberish here is you. But Donkey didn't understand me since I was still speaking Hourai.

Oops. So, what does the great forgotten donkey want with us? Raishin said while trying to hold in his laugh. “Ok, assholes! I had enough of you two! It is time we kick your ass!”

“Yeah!” His goons said. So, the great Donkey is so great that he and his 3 friends are going to beat up 2 ignorant guys who are 2 years younger than them?

“Exactly! Wait, that didn't come out right!” You can still run away you know?

“These guys don't take you seriously Dunkey! Show them that blue lightning you showed us the other day.”

“Haha, good idea! Listen up noobs! I mastered blue lightning a week ago. I must be the youngest person around who can use blue lightning. I must be a genius! I might be the next Beatrice Manarune!” Isn't Beatrice a woman’s name? I'm sorry but I didn't know you were a girl…

“I'm not a girl ugh you guys piss me off!” There is nothing wrong with being a girl, don't let others tell you otherwise!

“Wait listen I told you guys I'm not a girl.” She’s in denial I see. Not because you’re ugly means that you shouldn’t feel feminine.

“Ugly? Hey, you guys are going too far it's time for you guys to get fried!” I think you’re being too harsh Agnis compared to that troll daughter of Charlize of yesterday. This donkey is quite beautiful. At that moment Charlize and her daughter Kanna passed by.

“Excuse me? Me, a troll?” Charlize's daughter reacted and Charlize seems to get pissed off again.

Oh shit. Dunkey who didn't see Charlize and Kanna got cocky and laughed since we started to become terrified, not because of him but because of Charlize who started shooting bloodlust at us, and Kanna whose makeup cracked from the bloodlust wave her mother sent out.

“Haha, eat this!” Dunkey roared as he shot a blue lightning bolt at us. Well, I assume he was aiming at us but he missed us and hit Kanna. Ooh, Dunkey you were right! You could weaken trolls by hitting them with lightning!

“Huh, what? I never said anything like that!” Kanna looked at him angrily and Dunkey got cold sweat when he saw her troll-like features.

“Ahh, it's really a troll!” Dunkey and his gang started running and Kanna chased them.

Good riddance! Uh, Agnis I think you forgot something! Raishin said as he pushed me down a wind blade rushed over my head.

Oh shit! Charlize was here too?

“I'm honestly astonished at how good you guys are at pissing others off.” Hehe yeah, we seem to be good at that.

“That was not a compliment!” I will still wear it as a badge of honor! Charlize dashed at Raishin with her wind claw. I pulled Raishin to the side by grabbing him by the back of his shirt, formed an ice blade, and deflected her claw upwards followed by freezing the ground and throwing Raishin over the slippery floor so he slid past Charlize and ended up behind her. Charlize shifted her focus on me but got zapped from behind by Raishin. She was really angry so I estimated that her decision-making would be compromised so when she tried to turn towards Raishin I shot some icicles at her which she blew away but got zapped again by Raishin from behind.

“Ugh, you guys are so annoying but still 100x better than all the kids here in this town.” Some civilians were gathering and watching the spectacle. Charlize losing her temper on us or just chasing us was a regular occurrence here in Boshi town. So, whoever was around stopped to watch and speculate how strong we were and if or when Charlize would actually catch us. Nobody thought we were stronger than Charlize and without using special magic or skills we weren't but we were strong enough to annoy her and then escape. We hoped that would've dissuaded her from obsessing with us but it only seemed to make it worse. “For today I have something special for those who destroyed our house.”

We would never do something like that! Uh, actually I kinda did.

We would totally do that! Take that! Will teach you to not mess with us! Charlize shot wind blades in every direction forcing Raishin and me to evade as she dashed towards me. I pretended to take something from inside my coat but was just taking something out of my dimensional pocket. I threw a ruby at Charlize.

Here, to fix your house. She caught the ruby and looked surprised but I took this moment to form an ice blade and rush at her. She blocked it with the ruby and my ice blade shattered.

Dammit, this corundum again. Charlize looked puzzled at my comment and put the ruby in her purse.

“How sweet, besides being annoying you still keep raising my opinion of you.” Will you lower it if I ask for you to return the ruby?

“Hmm, not really.” Shit! I dodged a mass of wind rushing at me but I didn't fully evade it since it was so wide. I got blown away since I'm not very heavy.

Uh oh, Agnis got swept off his feet. Please don't phrase it like that! I said as I recovered and froze myself to the floor to resist the follow-up gales. Raishin made fireballs that fed on Charlize's wind magic and grew in intensity. Charlize rushed at me while dodging the growing fireballs. I covered myself in frost and water layers and took the impact. Charlize, who didn't expect me to not dodge, crashed into me.

“Ouch!” She held her head, she tried to dodge an incoming fireball but slipped and fell. I took this chance to freeze a cage around her.

This ice cage will melt in an hour! Take the time to cool off! I said as Raishin and I ran away.

“Ugh, why are these kids so strong?” That was the last thing I heard Charlize say. As we ran away, we saw Donkey and his crew getting owned by a troll. It seemed Donkey could indeed use blue lightning. It didn't do much for him though since his aim was terrible.

It seems blue lightning is something special to be able to use at this age. Raishin and I shrugged and talked about how it might've been a good thing that he stuck to yellow lightning in public. We were halfway going back home when we remembered why we had gone to the town square in the first place.

Ugh not sure going back is a good idea since if Charlize breaks out earlier, we’re in deep shit although she might've cooled down by now. Hmm, the pheasant boar won't be the same without miss Uraya’s seasonings though.

Alright, I'll weave an illusion on us and we'll go back. I disguised us as random villager # 54 and random villager #55. I didn't use my regular illusion this time though. I was broadening my horizons and trying something new. I was bending light with the moisture in the air making us appear different than we really are. I calibrated it till Raishin confirmed that it looked ok. The reason I did this was that if for some reason we got found out it would still make sense for my skill set or at least what the townspeople know of me. Also, I didn't feel like weaving a double or triple-layered illusion to trick 1 person and a single layer might get seen through by Charlize. So, I would try this new method of disguise.

Tailed beasts are really good at performing complicated magic which would normally need lots of calculations. It would be many times easier if I could use one of my tails to deal with this but I can't for now so I just had to do some mental exercises. Since I am used to using my Elgards eyes and I have to do something like this regularly It wasn't all too bad it's just that if I suddenly had to focus on something I could potentially drop this disguise. Raishin and Gregory could also do the same thing with relative ease though at least if they were used to doing stuff like this, which they aren't. That is fine, we each have our strengths and weaknesses. We arrived back at the town square. It seems nothing much was left from the aftermath of our battle. The cage was still there with Charlize in there but it seemed to be almost at a point at which she could break out of it.

Hmm, an hour might have been a bit over-ambitious, it seems it would hold her for 15 minutes tops. At that moment I realized a careless oversight. Our voices were unchanged.

Raishin, can you change our voices with your wind magic? Uhm I can try, I've never tried anything like this before.

Yah sorry I got careless and forgot about our voices, can you take care of it? I'll hum a song so you can tune it based on that. I'll try but don't expect too much, I'm not as great at magic control as you and Gregory. I started to hum a song and at that moment Charlize broke free. We tried to nonchalantly ignore her while still keeping an eye on her while we went towards Uraya’s grocery store.

“Hey, you two boys over there!” We flinched but I kept humming and Raishin tried to stay calm while trying to tune our voices with wind magic. “Have you two seen two boys of about your age? They should have escaped... I mean they must have run off in the direction you two came from.” I kept humming and both me and Raishin started to walk faster. “I'm talking to you two guys!” She said as she walked to us and stood before us with her hands on her hips. I was still humming but I pointed at myself with a surprised look. I sensed that Raishin was getting nervous. I sent him a telepathic message. Yoo, you need to keep your act together if we get discovered here, we will have to deal with round 2! I know! But it's not that! I need to pee!

Oh great. How is the tuning going? Well, I kind of stopped.

Why?! I don't know, my instinct says that if I use wind magic so close to her, we'll get found out. All things considered, Raishin was kind of an idiot but his instincts were always spot on. I stopped humming since it lost its function.

“What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? You boys must be enchanted by my beauty!” She said as she did like a supermodel pose. We were trying so hard to keep a straight face. My water illusion follows our expressions at the moment since I'm not experienced enough with this yet to make it mismatched with our current expression. I'd like to think I did a good job but Raishin’s face showed a weird and interesting expression.

Oy! Raishin keep it together! I told him telepathically.

I'm doing my best but this totally doesn't fit with how we know her! And I really need to pee!

“So, are you guys gonna answer me?” At this point, we had to do something, or else we would start to become suspicious. Raishin started to make gestures. “What is it, boy? You can't talk?” Raishin started flailing but out of it, I could make out that he was trying to convey that we didn't see them. But the next part shocked me. He tried to gesture that he had to pee but he made a gesture of holding his private part and enacting how men pee. I facepalmed and almost dropped the illusion since it almost broke my concentration. I tried to hold in my laugh and keep a straight face but I failed at keeping a straight face. Both me and Raishin were making strange faces and on top of that Raishin was acting like a maniac. “You two are weird.” Charlize said as she took a step back. “Anyways thanks for the information, I guess? I guess you need to pee, at least I think that's what you mean, I surely hope it's not the other thing boys do with their private parts. I just have one last question for you two.”

Raishin stopped flailing. “You guys don't look familiar; I know every person in this town by face but I haven't seen you two around. Are you guys new here?” She said as she slowly approached. Raishin started flailing again trying to gesture that we were new and were performers in a circus. I'm not too sure of my interpretation because his gestures were a mess.

It's no use Raishin! She is onto us! I dropped the illusion and created dense fog while grabbing Raishin and used my frost ramps and slides to get to Uraya’s grocery store. Of course, I made sure that they would turn into water vapor after I used them so it wasn't obvious where we fled to. “I knew it was you two! Where are you!” Luckily, she couldn't find us in this fog. We entered the store and I put an actual real illusion on the store so that Charlize wouldn't find us hopefully. Hello Granny Uraya, we'd love to chat but we kind of need your special seasoning blend!

Do you also by any chance have an escape route or a back door?

“One canister of my special seasoning coming up. Are you two getting chased by Charlize and Cecilia again?” You could tell? It's only Charlize this time.

“Of course, I know, the townspeople even have made bets on when they will catch you. My bet was on yesterday but it seems I was wrong.” Hmm, you weren't wrong though, I did get caught temporarily yesterday but luckily Gregory and I managed to escape. Just curious, for how much do these bets go?

Raishin, I swear if you sell us out again imma kick your ass! Nono! I wasn't planning anything like that. Raishin shook his head and gestured with his hands to indicate that that wasn't his plan.

Then why are you looking so suspicious? Oh, come on, give me a break! I need some silver or even better, gold, this chick from the edge of town stood me up because I'm a poor hunter.

Well, if you stopped making a mess of the market or did not eat your catch before you could sell it, you might've had some gold on you!

“The bets range from 5 silver to 20 silver.” What?! Oof, so how much did you lose granny Uraya? I said as I was pretending to grab something out of my coat but I took a sapphire from my pocket dimension.

“Only 10 silvers but that is fine.” She gave us the canister of seasoning and pointed at the backdoor. Here take this as payment, compensation, and a thank you for helping us. As I put a small sapphire on her counter.

“What a kind young lad”, I heard her say as we exited through the backdoor. We exited in a narrow alley. I looked at the manhole in front of us. Ohh we gonna have some cool adventures down there? I'm afraid not, we're gonna use it to escape, go home, shower, and prepare to hunt that pheasant boar. At those words, Raishin and I started to drool a bit at the thought of friend Pheasant Boar and wiped it off before hopping into the sewer. Raishin didn't miss a chance and took a leak in the sewers.