The scattered demons were quickly dealt with, much to the delight of the people who had finally leveled up in their combat csses after a long period of stagnation.
“How do you know you have leveled without a phone?” Alex asked Marina, who had been stuck behind the achievement of defeating a tier 2 monster for a long time.
“You can feel the stat increase, especially the physical ones.” The scout expined. “In my case, I knew that I just needed one specific achievement to break through because one of the shamans told me.”
“You can get that information from shrines, temples or people with priestly csses.” Fufi added.
The town bore the scars of the sloth demon's aggression. Many homes harbored the deceased, likely victims of dehydration. Within the partially demolished manor, the baron y asleep, undisturbed by the devastation. At the small, single-story adventurers' guild, several martial combatants, resilient due to their higher physical stats, had succumbed to sleep but endured the ck of food and water.
“Hey mister,” Ariel dumped some ice on the man who slept through battle. “Wake up.”
The old man stirred, sat up and yawned. “Huh what time is it? It can’t be morning already.”
“Good morning Lord…. What is your name?” Ariel fluttered over the old man, causing fkes of snow to fall on his head. “I’m Magical Girl Ariel.”
“Somnus.” He stammered. “I’m Baron Somnus.”
“Lord Somnus, by right of conquest we are taking anything we want in this pce.” Ariel procimed, like a pirate. “And it is not morning, it is evening. Though may I ask what kind of a ruling css do you have?”
“I beg your pardon.” The baron sounded cranky. “My attendants make sure that I’m awake promptly at noon.”
“The day is almost over.” The ice fairy snowed on him some more.
“Is this some kind of strange dream?” The baron pinched his cheeks, and looked around. “There is a big hole in the wall and it is snowing, it must be a dream. No way a fairy is floating above me and my nds are conquered.”
Marina stepped forward. “Just answer the question. We are not going to be staying here for long and need to decide who to kidnap.”
Alex winced. “Could you not word it like that? We sound like the bad guys. We are here to liberate people from oppressive rulers.”
“Look, I’m just a low level baron with some skills to help with the fishing industry. I’m not an oppressive ruler.” Somnus rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Do you forsake your citizenship with the Jass kingdom?” Ariel asked.
“What… you are not going to ransom me?” The old man bnched.
“Nope,” The ice fairy chuckled, it sounded like gss bells. “Our goal is the elimination of all demonic influence on this continent.”
“I can surrender my nds to another noble.” The baron considered. “But which kingdom do you serve? Where is your commander?”
“Do we need a commander?” Alex wasn’t quite sure how conquest worked, and it showed on her face. “Can’t you just stop making this more complicated than it needs to be?”
The sleepy baron finally had enough snow and got out of his bed and stood up, still in pajamas.
“You can’t cim a city by right of conquest without the appropriate css.” The man brushed the snow out of his hair. “Just say you are taking me hostage like a normal bandit group.”
“But we are not bandits.” Alex crossed her arms. “We are freedom fighters.”
The man got up, looked outside and gaped at the destruction. “Ugh, this must be a bad dream. I suppose I can go along with it.”
“So you forswear allegiance against the king of Jass?” Ariel pressed.
“Everything is destroyed.” The baron noticed the giant crater from where the ballista struck in the middle of town.
The fairy gred at the old man.
“Fine fine, I forswear my allegiance to the kingdom of Jass.” The man didn’t even look back and just gazed at the remains of his barony with wide eyes.
“That was easier than I thought.” Ariel cheered. “Now to round everyone up and head out before they can figure out that we attacked.”
“Wait, what?” The baron gasped. “I can’t feel my nd anymore. I thought this was a dream?”
Ariel cackled and flew out the broken hole in the wall.
“We have some ships.” Alex stated. “We are taking the survivors to an isnd where we are trying to gather a force to combat the tyranny of the demonic forces.”
“Phew,” The noble rexed. “I suppose this really is a dream.”
“Why is that?” Alex asked.
“Because no one would be crazy enough to fight the demons.” Somnus said. “All of humanity is under their heel, fighting them is nothing but foolishness.”
“Um, okay.” Alex wasn’t sure what to say. “You can take what you need and we’ll find you a bunk on one of the ships.”
“You have ships?” The noble stated. “Did you get old man dunkirk to come out of retirement? He’s just been living in a cave up the coast and refuses to use his shipwright css for anyone.”
“You have a shipwright?” Alex looked around. “Can they come with us?”
“He’s very stubborn.” Somnus stated. “But you can ask. He just lives in a cave and doesn’t like to interact with people. Says that the kingdom isn’t what it used to be and he isn’t going to make any more ships that are just going to be boarded by demons and sunk the first time they go out to sea.”
So they loaded up the people who agreed to follow their dazed and confused baron to refuge. Everyone that was awoken was mostly in shock about all the loss. The shipwright’s cave was in a pce where it was really difficult to get to without approaching it by boat. He lived that way on purpose because he didn’t want demons pestering him.
The combat cssers, and people from the barony of Somnus were mostly stuffed in the other two ships. They took off when full. Some of the people didn’t want to get on the ships because they tended to sink, something about sea monsters that would sink any ship. Again they had to expin that it was a lie spread by the kingdom, that the sea monsters only attack ships that are sailing on behalf of demons.
“Where is Mister Skeleton?” Alex looked around, not seeing the very obvious dark knight in the town or on the st ship.
Fufi flew around town and checked for him.
“I think he decided to head to the next town.” Fufi nded on the dock.
“He didn’t even say anything.” Alex looked around.
“While we were loading everyone up, he and Hiro gathered up the remains of people, and buried them in the town cemetery,” Fufi expined.
“I wanted to talk to him about his reckless changing into battle while all of the allies were getting put to sleep by that sloth demon.” Alex spoke her thoughts aloud.
“Well, he hauled a big rock over a mass grave and wrote something edgy saying that the grudges of those who lost their lives to the demons demand the head of the general.” Fufi sounded a little unsure.
“Isn’t that the mountain in the capital?” Alex asked. “Probally the highest cultivator on the continent.”
“Yes,” Fufi agreed. “He doesn’t shy away from an impossible fight.”
Funi decided to throw in her two feathers. “Yep, from what Aqua was able to gather he’s tried to fight that demon repeatedly for years. Every time he gets defeated but every time he chips away at the demon a little bit more.”
They didn’t have something with the storage capacity of the barge so they really only had space for people to take around a pack of things. People brought tools, keepsakes, holy items from the town’s temple that they could get csses from.
The st stop was to head towards the cave, but the orca being the st ship to leave because they wasted so much time looking for mister skeleton didn’t get the news that the shipwright dunkirk had already left. Funi and Ariel flew out to check when they found the cave was empty. The shipwright had seen the ships anchored out and took his own dinghy to check them out and was so fascinated that he wanted to join them. It is just that the word didn't spread because their ability to coordinate was so poor.
They finally set in for another day and night of ocean travel to get back.
With some down time, Alex checked her phone to see the progress of her leveling.
[Level up! Css level increased to 7]
[+1 Cuteness, +1 intelligence]
Name: Alex Parker
Css: Magical Girl
Level: 7
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Strength: 11
Constitution: 9
Dexterity: 17
Intelligence: 14
Cuteness: 27
Skills:
Cleaning: 4
Cooking: 2
Dancing: 2
Tailoring: 4
Toymaking: 5
Feats: Empower Doll
Crafting: Force Imbuement
Possess Doll
Spells: Animate DollMagical Girl Transformation
Lesser Grow Pnts
Traits: Mental Resistance: 4
[New Feat unlocked, Puppet contingency: Passive
A lethal blow will not kill you. Instead of dying, your possess doll skill will auto activate to the nearest doll stationed in the appropriate ritual circle.
Limitations: The doll must be in the same pne of existence.
Any type of spirit anchoring or blocking ability must pass an opposed cuteness check to block this ability.]
Alex gaped at the new skill. It was a cheat death, but the cost would be becoming trapped in a doll’s body. She really needed to step up her doll making game if she didn’t want to end up a fairy-sized sailor doll should the worst come to pass.
melchi
