Ashton sat down in front of the man, who was just staring at him confused after seeing the Backpacker pop up and disappear just as quickly as they came, "What... what was that?"
"Magic. Now be quiet and show me your leg," Ashton told him, putting the water bottle in his pocket down on the ground. So that he could still channel undine the entire time without having them be too visible, the elemental was currently just waiting in the bottle, and then slowly swam out.
The kids, who had been sitting on the gym mats, quiet and scared, immediately started jumping up excitedly. At least, the ones that could.
"Whoa!"
"What is that?"
"How is it flying?!"
Looking at them, who were finally acting like the kids they were, Ashton couldn't help but smile. He looked back at the injured teachers, "As I said, I'm here to help. This world is different than what it used to be now, and these things will become more and more normal. So please, trust me, and let me help you. And I figure you would want to test this out before I go and treat the kids."
Though the teachers were all confused, they knew that Ashton was right. They were already met with things they couldn't understand these past few days, so something like this was somehow less shocking than it should be.
The man pulled up his pant-leg, revealing the shoddy, bled-through bandage. Out of the people here, this man seemed to be the worst off. He was pale and had dark, sunken eyes. Considering that he was one of the older people here, that was extremely dangerous.
Ashton carefully removed the bandage, soon seeing the puss-filled wound with dead, blackened flesh around the edges.
"... When did this happen?" Ashton asked, waving his hand to direct the undine to swim around and distract the kids, so that they wouldn't have to see this. The man swallowed nervously. It seemed like he wasn't aware of how bad it got, either.
"I... I am the headmaster of this school. When those 'quest' things appeared, I decided to take responsibility and lead the charge. I could not bring myself to ask the others to risk their lives if I was not able to do so myself," he explained, and Ashton raised a brow, surprised.
"... I'm guessing the Guardian has their eyes on you?"
The headmaster's eyes widened, "Do you know anything about this? These messages, I don't know what they are! The other teachers are receiving them as well, and we keep receiving those 'coins' as gifts. When that community thing appeared on our phones, I was even gifted the coins that I needed to make the post."
Ashton smiled. He seemed like a good guy, "That sounds about right. Don't worry, the Guardian of the Innocent is on your side in this. Or well, as much on your side as is possible. They're the benefactor of all children, and they're the reason why they didn't need to go out and hunt monsters themselves. And frankly... they're why the monsters outside didn't storm the school just yet." The faces of all the teachers went pale at that statement, but Ashton knew that it wouldn't help anyone to lie about the situation they were in. "Don't rely on them too much, but accept their help when you need it."
Ashton pulled a bit of distilled water out of a bottle, using it to clean up the headmaster's wound. He flinched and pulled back, but pushed through. And while he was cleaning, Ashton received a message.
[[Guardian of the Innocent] is shocked that you know of them already]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] expresses their thanks for coming to their aid]
"Don't mention it. I'm just doing what I think is right," Ashton replied, though when he did, a few more messages appeared.
[[Guardian of the Innocent] has gifted you 100 Coins]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] scoffs at the Guardian's generosity]
[[Executor of the End] is unsure of the Guardian's intentions]
Ashton raised a brow. Were the Daughter and Executor... jealous? He figured that they might want to offer a sponsorship to him at some point, especially ones with as much influence as these guys. But the forerunner there was still the Observer, who had been giving the most gifts to him until now. Maybe they just wanted to scare off more competition for now.
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[[Observer in the Veil] tells everyone to back off]
[[Observer in the Veil] says that they were here first]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] laughs and claims that things do not work that way anymore]
[[Executor of the End] agrees, pointing out the Observer's age]
[[Observer in the Veil] yells back at the Daughter and Executor, telling them to be quiet]
With a slight groan, Ashton rubbed the bridge of his nose and just moved all these notifications behind his head so that he didn't have to deal with them right now. There was little he cared less about than some constellations' squabbling.
"Constellations can get a little annoying, huh?" Ashton pointed out, laughing a bit. It was a good idea to try and distract the headmaster as well as he continued to clean up the wound a bit.
"There are more than the Guardian?"
"Yeah, there's hundreds. Thousands, maybe. I really don't know how many," Ashton honestly replied. He was a bit curious as well, but it was almost impossible for him, or anyone, to figure out the exact number. Even the Summoner could just make guesses.
"How do you know all these things?" the headmaster asked, and Ashton just smiled.
"I've got my ways."
He ignored any further questions about these things for now, and just continued treating the headmaster's wound. It was pretty large and deep. They basically just used medical tape to force the wound shut again, though it was done in probably the worst way possible.
Ashton used the potion and poured a little into the wound. The headmaster tried to pull away, since he wasn't sure what it was, but Ashton held down his ankle and made it happen. The potion seemed to almost immediately relieve some of the pain that he was feeling, so after that, he calmed down a bit.
He put some of the potion onto a gauze and pressed it onto the wound, using some bandages to tightly wrap the teacher's leg and keep everything tight and together. Ashton didn't have access to medical stitches right now, so this had to do.
Once he was done, Ashton closed the potion bottle and cleaned his hands with some water, "The wound should close by this evening, and you should be good to go as normal by tomorrow morning," he explained, "This is called a health potion."
"A... health potion? Did you buy that?" the teacher asked, looking at the plastic bottle. Ashton raised his brow, a bit confused.
"Buy? What do you mean?"
The headmaster looked around at the other faculty members beside him. They seemed okay with telling Ashton as well, so he quickly proceeded, "There is a vending machine in our school. It wasn't there before, but it just appeared overnight. It sells a few different things in exchange for coins, though it was all too expensive to buy."
'A shop? Did the Guardian arrange for one to be put here?' Ashton wondered, "Would you mind if I take a look after I treat everyone? There might be some things that come in useful against the monsters outside."
"Of course! Please, we will show you the way soon!"
"Thank you." Ashton said, as he moved over to who he considered to be the next person in need of treatment, another one of the teachers. They were in a far worse state than the kids, who were also being distracted by the undine right now.
As he continued treating them, and people started feeling better and better almost immediately after, mostly due to the pain-relieving effects of the potion, trust seemed to come with it, and everyone visibly relaxed. They still seemed unsure whether Ashton could kill all those monsters, but he didn't need their trust to do that anyway.
Even the kids seemed okay with being treated by Ashton, as long as the undine was there to keep them happy and distracted. When he was done, he took a step back, and looked around the room to see how everyone else seemed to be doing.
Though the ones that were doing the worst before now weren't on death's bed anymore, that didn't mean that everyone else was okay. The kids were hungry, thirsty, and were clearly scared and struggling.
"Could I ask... but what is your name?" the headmaster pushed himself off the ground, sitting down on a chair while hesitantly looking at Ashton. It was like he recognised Ashton, but didn't want to say anything in case he was wrong.
With a smile, he replied, "Ashton Garling. I used to go to this school as well."
The headmaster's eyes widened, "Ashton Garling? Yes, I remember you. I wasn't the headmaster then, but I heard about you. If I recall right, when you came to our school, your mother had just-"
"That's me," Ashton interrupted him, looking into his eyes for a moment, "Could someone show me to that vending machine?"
The headmaster looked over at the woman that had led Ashton inside, "Do you think you could?"
"Of course," she said, and quickly got to it. Ashton apologised to the kids, since the undine had to come with him, and then went on his way. As he left, he continued to glance at some of the children. There had to be at least a handful that were coping better with this situation than others. Ones that were keeping an eye out on things, and that understood the concepts that were forced into this world two days ago.
But... everyone in the gymnasium was so quiet and sombre that it felt like some kind of false hope he was clinging to, "Is everyone in the gymnasium, or are some of the kids elsewhere?"
"Ah... yes, some of the children are with a few of our teachers in the classrooms. Mostly doing arts and crafts, drawing - just things to keep their spirits up," the teacher explained, "To be honest with you, it's mostly the ones that keep causing trouble and don't seem to be taking this situation seriously."
Ashton raised a brow. That sounded interesting. He had to see if he could find those kids later. They might have a better idea of what the deal with those monsters was than even the teachers that actually went outside to face them.
But for now, Ashton was more interested in the shop that apparently popped up in here.
At the end of the hallway, there was a vending machine. Though no electricity was supplied to this building anymore, only it was still lit up.
Ashton looked through the items. At first glance, they looked just like what you could usually find in a vending machine. Snack bags, candy bars, soda cans... but when Ashton took a closer look, they weren't any brands he had seen before. Plus it all seemed a bit
'Dr Fantasmo's Magic in a Bag', 'Red Punch Potions', 'Sticky Business Orange Soda', or 'Devil's Kiss Chocolate'. The branding seemed a bit outdated as well. Kind of camp. The prices were also a bit steep. The cheapest item cost 250 coins.
But that wasn't even what Ashton was most curious about. There was an item that he hadn't seen in a hot second. In the top row of the vending machine, Ashton could see random boxes. They cost 1000 coins.
He whispered to himself, double-checking the item numbers, "Well... I guess it's been a while. Time to gamble a bit, I guess."
The teacher looked at Ashton curiously. He was going to gamble? Did that mean he would actually buy something from this vending machine? But it was all so expensive.
"Just... how many coins do you have?" she wondered curiously, but Ashton just turned to her with a light smile.
"Enough," he said, opening his status window.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 3933 -> 4118]
[Stats]
[Power - 11 -> 13]
[Resilience - 10]
[Speed - 13 -> 14]
[Spirit - 17 -> 18]
[Classes]
+[Summoner - Level 5 -> 6] (!)
Ashton looked through the screen. For now, he just ignored the exclamation mark next to his class. It really just meant that there was something new in the folded-up section of the class. It would really just be skill and contract level-ups, anyway.
But for now, he just tapped on the coins. He slid his finger to the right and continued increasing the coins. Once he reached 100 coins, a small circle appeared next to it. Ashton continued until he reached 200, 300, 400, and so on. With each one, a new circle popped up next to the coins. Once he reached 1000 coins, though, the circles that were next to it before combined into a slightly larger, now filled-out circle.
Ashton pulled his hand back and then presented his palm, as a large coin, three times larger than a normal one, dropped onto it. It was ornately decorated with the image of a praying angel on one side, and even scales on the other.
He took the coin, worth a thousand coins, and pushed it into the vending machine's large coin slot, before entering the right code for one of the random boxes.
Of course, a lot of the time, pretty useless things came out of these things. Towels, random little branches, or even just rocks. But they also had a very decent chance of giving magic items. Things that boosted stats or had special functions, that sort of thing.
Usually, at this point in time, this wouldn't be worth the thousand coins. It was just a white cube as well, so it was very unlikely to get something great out of it. That was, if you didn't know how to improve your odds.
The way these cubes worked was simple. The process of actually 'creating' the random item to be given to the user was very similar to the process of certain types of summoning. Effectively, as long as Ashton increased the amount of mana used during that summoning process, the more likely it was for him to get a more valuable item. He couldn't get something that was outside of the pre-ordained cache of items of a white box, obviously, but he could skew the odds in his favour fairly easily.
Though, it would take a little while, and he would need to sit down with it later. So... "Backpacker?" Ashton said, giving the random box to the spirit for now.
Then, he took out some more coins, worth a total of 1250. He had just spent more than half his coins, though the amount he had right now would seem like chump change in the future anyway.
For now, he bought all those items that had caught his eye. First, 'Dr. Fantasmo's Magic in a Bag'. It was a regular, thin chip bag, but when Ashton opened it, it was filled with magic stones. Not the ones that just naturally occurred within a monster's body, though - these ones were cleanly and artificially formed. Small, perfectly round marble-sized stones. There were a few dozen in here, and each one must have about as much mana as a skink Lizardman's magic stone.
"Not bad, I guess," Ashton pointed out, holding one of the stones against the vending machine's light. The hallway was otherwise dark since all the windows were blocked off, so it was hard to see it properly.
"What is that?" the teacher wondered, curiously taking a look.
"These are called magic stones. They're valuable sources of crystallised mana," Ashton explained, though the teacher obviously didn't quite understand, "For now, don't worry about it and just focus on your survival. But if you do come across these things, collect them for later."
He gave the bag to the Backpacker, and then moved on. The next item he wanted to check out was the potion. Mostly, he wanted to see what kind of potion it was exactly. From the can's design, depicting angel wings around a bright red head, he figured it was a health potion of sorts. But there were numerous different kinds of health potions.
The one that Ashton made was the kind that boosted regeneration to some degree, but it basically just boosted one's general physical ability to regenerate, hence why one was left with scars afterward. But there were plenty that used more potent magic to almost instantaneously heal wounds. More powerful potions could recover limbs, or cure even crippling injuries. If you were born with deformities, no potion could heal that, but if it was caused by an accident or disease, there were ways around it.
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Ashton doubted this would be any kind of powerful potion, but he still had to try.
He pulled open the can's tab, and was surprised to hear a slight hiss.
"... A carbonated potion?" he muttered surprised, before taking a small sip. It was smooth and surprisingly tasty. Had a slight berry-flavour. Ashton could feel the magic already coursing through his body, and the physical exhaustion or muscle-inflammation he had been feeling from running earlier disappeared almost immediately. It was a decent potion. And Ashton quickly gave it to the teacher, "Take this and have each of the sick or injured students take a sip of it. If you need to, in an emergency, get this potion and have someone drink it. It won't be instant, but it should help. Oh, and this kind of potion has to be ingested - I wouldn't risk putting it directly on wounds."
The teacher immediately nodded her head, "But there are so many other cans in there as well, what about those?"
Ashton thought for a moment, "If you have the leisure in terms of coins, buy one of them, and have one of your physically stronger people take a sip and see what they feel like. They shouldn't be harmful, just maybe not directly useful how you expect."
Of course, Ashton did want to see what these items were like. Shops were scattered around all over the place, but they didn't all sell the same things. Plus, these weren't items that Ashton had seen before. Carbonated potions in a metal can? People in the other world would have an aneurysm at the very idea of this. It made him curious about what all the rest of this was. But sadly, that would just be a massive waste of money right now. He did need to keep it a bit saved up for some other big purchases.
If a shop popped up that had the items that he wanted or needed, and he just wasn't able to get it because he was missing a few coins, he would never be able to stop beating himself up over it.
As for the next item, it was a chocolate bar. It said 'Devil's Kiss', and had flames all over it, as well as a devil-like figure as some kind of mascot. Most items in shops were magical in nature, though the exact effect of this wasn't pretty clear yet.
Ashton opened the bar and broke off a small chunk of it. Almost the moment he placed it onto his mouth, he could feel heat - not flames, of course, but spice. It filled his mouth and travelled down his throat. Frankly, it was delicious. He remembered not being a huge fan of spicy stuff before he was pulled into the other world, but now, any taste was just a wonderful experience. Plus, he could actually deal with the pain pretty well, now.
But this wasn't just some gimmick chocolate that was extremely spicy. Ashton could feel his body fill with magic, and all the air that touched his body seemed extremely chilly in comparison to the heat that was filling him. This was the sensation of heat resistance.
"Oh, wow, okay. So, this chocolate is extremely spicy, so never give it to any of the kids. But when you eat the whole thing, you'll have a few hours where your body can just deal with extreme heat more. I wouldn't jump into a fire, but boiling water should be fine," Ashton explained, wiping the spice-sweat off his brow, "I think the images and names are overall a pretty good indication of... Whoo, this is so spicy, sorry," he cleared his throat and continued, "They're a pretty good indication of the effect, but all of this should be 'special' in some way."
He could see the teacher take mental notes of what Ashton was saying, looking into the vending machine to see what else there might be, "So that 'Yeti's Hug Chocolate' is the opposite, some kind of cold resistance?"
"That would be my guess, yes," Ashton replied, putting away the chocolate for now. It was a bit addictive, but he should save it later. It was an extremely useful effect, after all. The last item he bought was just called 'Sticky Business Orange Soda'. Maybe this could be actual soda. He did grab a few at the grocery store before, but maybe this was just extra tasty. The more mana something had, the tastier it tended to be, at least in Ashton's experience.
He pulled on the tab, and could hear a slight hiss. It seemed less carbonated than the potion, though. Ashton placed the can against his lips and tried to take a sip, but... it was thick, almost jelly-like. And as it touched his tongue, it started to burn immediately. Not in the way that the chocolate did, but that aggressive, acid burn of-
"Is this a slime?!" Ashton pulled the can away and touched his hand to his mouth, "What the hell?"
A small tendril of a orange slime started climbing out of the can. For a moment, Ashton was confused, but then he looked back at the can. In very small lettering, following the word 'Soda', it said the word 'Slime'. This item was called 'Sticky Business Orange Soda Slime'.
Soda Slimes. A new type of slime that didn't exist in Lumia. That was... "Incredible. This is awesome!"
Ashton looked at the can with a smile on his face. A living slime in item form? That was the best possible thing anyone could ask for! Slimes were powerful potion ingredients, but it was always hard to get your hands on fresh slime. The type didn't always matter all that much, it was just that slime were filled to the brim with magic, and could absorb the magical effects of ingredients better than almost anything else.
Orange slime were actually the most popular version of this. They were called 'honey slime', since they often just looked like a blob of honey and tasted similar as well. Their sweet taste and scent was there to lure creatures into eating them, so that the slime could digest them from the inside out. This type seemed to be a similar sort to that orange slime, though it was a much different, brighter orange. Plus, the after-taste that was left behind after that acid burn actually did seem to be very orange-y, like the fruit.
Ashton smiled brightly, "Don't buy any of the sticky business cans, they have monsters in them. But if someone is looking for 'slime' monsters, tell them they're in there."
"Monsters? That's a monster?!" the teacher took a step back, startled, "Get that thing away!"
"Oh, don't worry, it's all good," Ashton smiled and asked the backpacker for a fork that he used to eat his food, tore the can open a bit, and then fished out the core from the slime to kill it.
[You have killed an [Orange Soda Slime]. For your effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]
It was a bit of a waste to kill it, but he couldn't just keep it alive either. After pouring the slime into a separate bottle, he gave it to the backpacker and smiled at the vending machine.
"If these are the sort of items we'll get in shops, I really need to save up a bit more," Ashton pointed out excitedly. But for now, there was something else he had to do, "Okay. Show me to those troublemaker kids of yours, I need to talk to them."
Here we are," the teacher led Ashton into one of the classrooms. It was fairly high up in the building, probably so that they were as far away from the monsters as possible. It didn't seem like it was to protect them, but rather, to make sure that these kids had as little opportunity to attract the monsters as possible.
The windows were still mostly blocked, but a few of the kids were trying to peek out and see what was going on. The teacher that was in here with them was doing his best to keep everyone in order.
The one that led Ashton here quickly spoke to that other teacher, and then excused herself, heading back downstairs to help out at the gymnasium. Though, mostly, it seemed like she was just uncomfortable in here. And maybe it made sense, since all of these kids were acting completely differently to the ones in the gym. While there, the kids were solemn and quiet and scared, the ones in here were... cheerful. Excited, even.
Ashton understood why that might be off-putting to others. In a seemingly hopeless situation like this, the more scared you were, the more confusing it was when others didn't feel the same.
Some of the kids looked over at Ashton, staring at him suspiciously. In particular, there was a group in the corner of the room, sitting on some of the tables.
"Who are you supposed to be?" one of them asked, just staring at Ashton, "Are you hiding out here because you're scared of the monsters like all the other adults?"
Ashton raised a brow, approaching that small group with his arms crossed, "The adults don't really seem scared to me. They did all go out and help hunt some of them, you know?"
"But that was just because they had to! They were crying the whole time, those wusses," the kid, who seemed to be the leader of this bunch, laughed out. The other kids directly around her laughed as well.
"Hm, to me they seemed pretty brave."
"Then you must be a wuss as well!" she replied, staring at the blocked-off window, "If they let us go out there, all the monsters would be gone immediately!"
Ashton smiled, nodding, "I'm sure they would be. But, well, you guys aren't exactly allowed to go outside right now. That's fine, though, since I'm here to take care of them."
The kids looked around at each other, and then back at Ashton. He could feel the judgement of the grade schoolers tear into his body more than any goblin ever could. But he came here more than prepared for that. He knew what he got into.
"You? You think you're going to kill all those monsters alone?" the girl asked, and one of the kids next to her looked him up and down before just staring at his face in disgust.
"But you look so... wimpy."
Ashton shrugged, "Well, not wrong, I do look pretty wimpy. But - I promise I'm not."
The kids clearly weren't convinced, but by now, their teacher came up to Ashton, "I'm so sorry about them, they just-" he looked away from Ashton and practically glared at the kids, "-they just don't understand the situation we're all in!"
The children laughed a bit, but Ashton just shook his head, "It's alright, don't worry. I think they understand it pretty well, actually."
Though the teacher was confused at that, the kids actually seemed even more shocked that someone was taking them seriously, "Of course we do!" that girl said, and Ashton looked back at her and smiled.
"Right. What's your name? I'm Ashton."
Still hesitant, the girl frowned a bit as she replied, "I'm Millie."
"Pleasure to meet you. So, I'm here to ask you something."
The kid next to Millie glared at Ashton, "What do you want to ask her? Are you a non-"
"Nope," Ashton immediately shut the kid down before he could finish that word, "I just know that, even if all these teachers think they're in charge, in reality, you know much, much more about what's going on. And I need some info."
Millie looked at the others next to her, "Hm, he's got a point there." She stood up and walked up to Ashton, crossing her arms. "But I'm still not sure if you really have what it takes."
Ashton sighed for a moment. He unhooked the lantern from his belt and held it forward. Sparks flew through the air for a moment as the coal briquette inside of it was lit on fire. The salamander was formed from the flames. Immediately after, Ashton channelled the elemental's magic and started making some fire jump around the air.
And the kids just stared at him and the fire, and their eyes practically began to glow in the reflection.
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"Whoa! What! Is that- Magic?! You can use magic?! You're a wizard?!" Millie yelled out immediately, clearly speaking for all the kids. Though, that didn't stop all the other kids from getting excited as well. They huddled around Ashton, who was trying his best to keep the fire away from them.
He held the lantern and salamander up a bit more, then snapped his finger. The backpacker appeared, distracting the kids once more. They ran over to the spirit, talking to them and trying to see under their hood, peeking into their backpack, and even trying to climb into it when they took out Ashton's staff.
"Sorry," he apologised, and the spirit just jumped back into Ashton's vessel as soon as they could. Ashton leaned his staff onto his shoulder as he called the salamander back as well, "As you can see, I've got my means. I'm a summoner, and I've got some pretty powerful friends."
The children stared at Ashton excitedly, and a broad smile appeared on Millie's face. She looked over at one of her friends, "Joey, tell him what we figured out about them!"
"Yes, ma'am!" another girl stepped forward, slamming down a glittery pink notebook onto the table. She opened it up to Ashton, and showed him a bunch of notes and sketches, "Look, here! There's tons of those little guys, and they're really mean-looking and ugly. They run around the playground and are super annoying."
Joey pointed at a slightly crude, but surprisingly accurate, sketch of a goblin. She had written down an estimation of how many were down there, roughly a hundred.
"And then there are the bigger ones. They're also really mean looking, but they're way more dangerous because they're also really strong. I saw one of them throwing the little guys around like toys. Like when Sean throws a tantrum."
The boy, presumably Sean, nodded his head with crossed arms, "Yeah, scary stuff."
Ashton scoffed a bit. Kids cracked him up, "Right, so, do you know how many of them there are? I saw five of them outside earlier."
Without hesitation, Joey shook her head, "There's at least ten! And one of them that's really big and fat and mean. She's way bigger and stronger than the others, and keeps yelling things at the others. We think she's their queen."
"Mhm, mhm, sounds probable. Do you know where they're hiding out?"
"They're in the house on the other side of the street. A really mean old lady lives there, she yells at us all the time. But she's super scary, way scarier than the monsters, so I don't think she's dead yet."
Sean nodded in agreement, "I actually have a theory that she's the real queen of the monsters and is controlling them."
Surprised, Ashton raised a brow, "Oh? Did you see her talk to the monsters?"
"Hm? No, of course not! But my mum called her a witch, so she's got to be in charge, right?"
With a snort as he held back his laugh, Ashton nodded, "Sure, I'll figure out what's going on and then tell you after, okay?"
"Deal."
"Okay, so. The orc — that's what the big ones are called — that's the biggest, does it have some kind of weapon? Is it wearing armour?" Ashton wondered, and Joey quickly flipped through the pages. There was a drawing of an orc there. A specific one, not a generic orc. Though it wasn't wearing armour, it was wearing some kind of leather vest. From the notes that were taken next to the sketch, it was a leather jacket that this orc tore the arms off of to make it fit better.
"She has this really big scar on her face, and we think it's because she killed a dragon!"
Ashton scoffed, shaking his head, "Kill a dragon, seriously?"
Millie stared up at him with a glare, "What, are you a wizard that doesn't believe in dragons?"
"What? No, dragons are just way too strong to be taken out by a single orc. You would need an army of these to put a scratch on even single scale of any dragon worth its hoard."
The teacher slowly walked up to Ashton, tapping him on the shoulder from behind, "Excuse me, but I don't think you should feed into their fantasies too much... it's better for them to be grounded and realise that dragons just aren't real."
Ashton turned around and narrowed his eyes, "Are you... are you serious? Did you not see that I literally used magic just a few minutes ago? Dragons are very, very real. I'd know."
"Wait! Have you seen! A! Dragon?!"
Millie asked with a bright smile on her face, and Ashton couldn't help but feel proud. It was stupid, but having kids get so genuinely excited at something you said was just a great feeling, "A couple. They're really cool," he explained. "I can tell you about it later once things are cleared up. And for that, I need to know a few more details. I'm sure this isn't all you guys figured out, is it?"
The kids looked at each other for a moment, and it was as though Joey was trying to get permission from Millie. With a quick nod of approval, Joey flipped the pages of the notebook even further. As if she was hiding all the good stuff.
There was a big list of different categories, based on what task the monsters had in the group, how they behaved when fighting, what kind of weapons they had, and so on. It was actually incredibly impressive.
On one of the pages, there was even a map of the whole school's property where they had written down where different types of monsters were running around.
"How did you even get all this info?" Ashton was genuinely surprised. The teachers were clearly trying to keep them locked away here so that they couldn't get close enough to the monsters to actually see them.
Millie shrugged, her arms crossed, "Sean's pretty crafty. He knows how to take down all the boards from the windows and put them back on before the teachers notice."
"Wait, what?" the teacher in question asked, confused, and Ashton just laughed.
"Great job, everyone. This is all really helpful. I'll make sure to secure the school for you," Ashton said, and then looked into the air, "But... I think I do deserve a little something in return, Guardian."
As the kids looked at Ashton confused, a message appeared before him
[[Guardian of the Innocent] is startled by your sudden immorality]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] asks how you could dangle the life of children before them]
"Hey, hey, don't get me wrong, I'm going to do it either way. But, well, the more you help me, the more I can actually help these kids once I'm done clearing out those monsters. What do you say?" Ashton crossed his arms, and for a few moments, the Guardian didn't reply. And then, it came.
Ashton had hoped for just a few coins, maybe a shop voucher or something so that he could buy more things for himself at the vending machine. But what he did get what far more than he could have expected.
[You have a New Quest! [Bonus Quest - Save Drakewood Primary School]]
The quest notification appeared in front of Ashton's eyes. It was way more than he had expected to get out of this.
[Bonus Quest - Save Drakewood Primary School]
[Drakewood Primary School is surrounded by a horde of monsters. The [Guardian of the Innocent] has asked you to hunt them all down to protect the school's young children.]
[Goal - Hunt the Monsters around the school before they can injure any Child]
[Reward - 2000 Coins, Uncommon Item Choice]
[Failure - Disdain of the Guardian of the Innocent]
A whole 2000 coins, and an uncommon item choice, huh? That was a whole bunch of coins, far more than he had expected to be able to get out of this, and adding an uncommon item made this even more valuable.
[Do you wish to accept the Quest? [Yes]|[No]]
Of course, he had no reason to turn down the quest. He was going to do this anyway.
[[Observer in the Veil] calls foul play]
[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 250 Coins]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] grumbles at the Guardian's abuse of privileges]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] has gifted you 100 Coins]
[[Executor of the End] stands up from their desk and paces around angrily]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] apologises, explaining their desperation]
'... Desk?' Ashton thought. Constellations had desks? They had legs to stand up from a desk with?
But more importantly, why was the Daughter so annoyed? It had to be because the Guardian was basically gifting 2000 coins to him, but... if he was honest, a mere 2000 coins were nothing to these guys. Well, the Executor was known to be a bit stingy with gifts, but the Observer and Daughter were known to gift quite well.
He stared at the notifications, trying to put the pieces together. The Daughter said that the Guardian abused his privileges... Giving a quest to people wasn't something that every little constellation could do. It was a 'privilege'. But the Observer also gave him a quest, so what was the difference?
"Ah..." he let out, when a thought came to him. He thought that the constellations simply didn't spend so much money early on because it would be a waste to spend money on something so uncertain. But what if the constellations had 'spending limits'?
Obviously, not all constellations were equal. The Observer was more powerful than the Daughter, and both had more power than the Executor. What if the Guardian used the money to get around that spending limit? 2000 coins was a lot this early on, but it was fair considering there seemed to be more than a hundred goblins and at least ten orcs. Ashton would get close to that many coins just from killing the monsters.
The Guardian in particular was known for their fairness, but they couldn't just follow Ashton around to keep giving them coin gifts. So, the quest was a good way to get around that. Obviously, Ashton was more than just happy about this.
Especially because it allowed him to confirm a suspicion that he had.
Quests were like 'contracts'. After he accepted that quest, he could feel a small twinge of something stuck in his already close to filled up vessel, specifically the part where his contracts were 'stored'. The best, most effective way to increase your contract capacity was to keep forming and 'fulfilling' contracts.
Effectively, the more offerings Ashton made to his summons, the more his capacity would grow. After fulfilling the quest of the Guardian, and even the main quests, though less than the others, he could feel his contract capacity increase a ton, even if he couldn't place where exactly it came from until now. He thought it was just the increase that came with his Spirit stat increasing. Maybe the same amount that it had expanded through the offerings he made to the summons by far, Ashton got through each quest, give or take.
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So, since his capacity was Ashton's biggest issue right now, this quest was even better for him than he thought. At least, if he was right - this was just a guess for now, something that he hadn't heard about from the Summoner. Their capacity was so high that they probably wouldn't have even noticed these raindrops adding onto their ocean.
"Okay. Let me take care of the ones on school grounds first," Ashton said, stretching a bit. "Thanks for the help, kids."
"Wait! You're just going? Right now?" Millie asked, confused, "Don't you need to prepare a bit more?"
Ashton opened the door and smiled, "Well, don't I need to prove I'm not a wuss?"
He stepped out of the classroom and proceeded to walk down the hallway. Of course, there was still something he had to do before heading out, and he decided to do it in the gymnasium. While the kids upstairs, the 'bad kids', were dealing with things in their own way for now, at least keeping up their own mood somehow, all the other children were a lot more scared and had no idea how to cope. They did like the undine, though.
Magic was something special. It was quite literally magical, obviously. And what Ashton was about to do would at least look pretty, so he figured it might make the kids a little more excited, despite the situation they were in.
He went inside, and called on the Backpacker, asking to be given a stack of paper and some ink. Taking out the pen from his chest pocket, Ashton quickly started writing a fairly large pattern across multiple papers. He was sitting in the middle of the gymnasium, so before long, children and faculty alike came over to take a look at what he was doing.
In the end, the Backpacker gave Ashton the random box as well as the bag of magic stones he got from the vending machine. They should be perfect. Usually, Ashton had to guesstimate which magic stones to put into which part of the magic circle to spread them out somewhat evenly. Rather, he would have needed to make these more precisely filled magic stones himself at some point, so having a different source of them really helped.
He placed the small marbles down onto different sections of the magic circle, and placed the white, small random box into the middle.
[[Observer in the Veil] wonders what you are doing]
Ashton smiled. This would look pretty weird to the Observer. What he was doing was basically the process of enchanting something, but why would you ever enchant a random box? That wouldn't change what it was. They were special, magical objects whose basic existence could not be altered, or they should be.
And of course, the Summoner never had to rely on something like this. They just poured the magic naturally inside of the boxes to max them out, and then that was that.
But Ashton had to use a mana-transfer process, which was usually just a step of the enchanting process to place enough mana into the object to be used in later steps, and hyper-charged it.
With just a tiny bit of his own mana, Ashton was able to activate the magic circle. The magic-filled ink began to glow, and the magic stone marbles fell apart into glistening dust. That dust was carried through the air above the random box, and was syphoned right into it in a whirlpool of magic.
The children watched this process excitedly and loudly, laughing and grinning at what they were witnessing, which brought over more and more of them. Soon, as Ashton repeated the process a few times, almost the entire gymnasium was gathered around him. The teachers even made sure that the kids that came over later could get their turn watching Ashton from up close.
But then, at some point, the magic simply wouldn't go into the random box anymore. It was maxed out for now. Maybe with a more complex magic circle, he could stuff a bit more into this, but he would probably also need higher-quality ink to support a magic circle like that. For now, this was fine.
[[Guardian of the Innocent] thanks you for cheering up the children]
[[Observer in the Veil] still questions your intentions with that enchantment]
Ashton smiled as he picked up the random box. He pressed onto its side with the intention of actually opening it, and then almost immediately, the box began to fall apart. All the magic that was now inside of the box gathered together in a small sphere above Ashton's hand.
But when that sphere compressed further, changing its shape, Ashton was surprised, and the children were... disappointed.
What dropped onto his palm was a pack of red shoelaces.
"Urgh..." Ashton groaned loudly. Was his luck really that bad, that he got shoelaces of all things out of this? "I guess they look nice, but..."
Though, as he was holding onto them, he noticed that these weren't quite the mundane item he thought they were. There was definitely magic in there, and it wasn't just the leftover magic from the random box.
Immediately, Ashton grabbed a piece of paper and channelled the Pen of Insight, connecting it with the last bit of ink left in the pot and the paper, and then tagged the shoelaces in his hand.
The pen sprung to life immediately, surprising the kids once again. They were still a bit disappointed, but watching the pen come to life seemed interesting.
"... I could use one of those..." one of the teachers muttered. It seemed like everyone was pretty curious about what was happening, and soon, Ashton knew what exactly these shoelaces were. This wasn't a fail at all - he had hit the jackpot, especially for the quest ahead of him.
Silent Step Shoelaces
Grade - Rare
Bright red shoelaces with special magic imbued into them. When placed onto any pair of shoes that would normally have laces, the sound of their footsteps will practically disappear.
At the same time, a message appeared in front of Ashton that lifted his mood even more.
[Contract | Pen of Insight - Level 2 -> Pen of Insight - Level 3]
Though Ashton didn't have the ink ready to use the pen more right now, nor the time or need to really use it for now, he was excited to see how much more information the pen could provide after this. Though what it just provided was already an amazing thing.
"Thanks for your work," Ashton smiled as the pen twisted around on the paper. It was scribbling something with some of the leftover ink, but Ashton didn't really mind either.
He quickly stood up and asked the children to make way, jogging around in the gym a bit. The squeaking of his shoes echoed around the place. And then, Ashton quickly dropped down and replaced his shoelaces. It was slightly annoying to do, and it was an awkward feeling to be watched while doing so, but it was worth it.
Because soon, he stuffed his regular shoelaces into his pocket, and once more jogged around. The squeaking and the sound of blunt impact was almost completely gone this time. The kids and teachers didn't seem to notice, since they were too busy talking over the sound that would usually be heard, but Ashton knew. The sound was gone.
With this, Ashton was ready to go kill a horde of monsters.
With silent steps, Ashton stepped back out through the red door at the side of the school. The headteacher had accompanied him this time, and was ready to lock the door behind him again.
"And you are positive that you are willing and able to do this all on your own?" he asked, and Ashton nodded immediately and without any sense of hesitation on his face.
"Mhm. Might take a few hours, but I should get it done pretty soon. Hopefully by the time the next quest comes around," Ashton explained. It seemed like the headteacher was still worried, but this wasn't the best time to talk, and so Ashton just pulled the door shut himself and waited for the teacher to lock it.
If he had to, he could leave them a few more tips later on to make sure they didn't struggle here. Though, with the Guardian keeping such a close eye, they should be fine. Just the fact that they knew to ask for help through the community was a great sign for them.
For now, Ashton summoned the undine and started sneaking around. The shoelaces were way more effective than he could have ever thought. They were basically cloaking his feet in a thin layer of stealth magic, so every step that he took, even if he somehow stepped on some kind of stick, branch, or patch of gravel, was basically completely silent.
Of course, it wasn't perfect stealth - beings with vastly superior senses would probably be able to still hear it, but for the majority of monsters, this was already amazingly powerful. If it were just a bit later and darker, he would have the perfect conditions to infiltrate anywhere.
As he said to the kids, for now, he was going to clear out the actual school grounds so that he could secure this place. At the same time, he wanted to try and find an advantageous spot that he could take advantage of and lure some of the monsters to, so that he didn't have to take them on all at once.
He already did that in market street, and that was a stretch already... Now, it would be suicide. There were far more monsters involved, and they were all stronger than before. Plus, they were actively growing in strength as the world was flooded with more and more mana.
Before long, they would get bored of hunting the stragglers that came by because of the community post and make their way into the school. From what Ashton knew, the protection that the Guardian gave to the world's children wasn't something omnipotent. It simply weakened the monsters' instinctual aggressiveness when children were involved. That didn't mean they were suddenly docile. And it was hard to feed more than a hundred monsters.
It wouldn't take long until they attacked, so Ashton had to get to them first. The school's layout was pretty basic. The parking lot was out front. The cars were actually in a pretty decent state, all-considered. Sure, their windows were smashed and their wheels were torn open, but they should still be able to run without issues if that was fixed.
Which was a good thing - hopefully, at some point parts of this area would be cleared out to the point where cars could come in useful again.
The school itself was just a single large building, with a fairly big storage shed out back. There was a vegetable garden and a large lawn next to the playground, and everything else on the property was paved with concrete. It was all cracked up and kind of shoddy-looking. In general, the more Ashton looked around, it was clear that this school was already not doing very well before the apocalypse. It looked like that janitor did quite a lot of patching-up work over the year.
Ashton walked around, starting at the back of the property. The playground had a good few goblins sitting there, guarding all the back entrances. That red door was a little hard to find if you weren't looking for it, so it was somewhat safe, but any other entrance or exit was completely blocked off.
The playground itself was actually pretty amazing. There were small play-castles to climb, rope walls, some big slides, a swing set. The playground was in better condition than anything else here. Which probably explained why it was taken over by some of the monsters. There were two orcs, and roughly 25 goblins in clear view, climbing on the playground equipment and basically turning it into their own base.
To be honest, if those weren't murderous, blood-covered monstrosities, they might actually be pretty cute. There were a couple of summons he was friendly with that would love a place like this.
Ashton smiled somewhat bitterly, glancing over at the undine. He felt a little bad to use the elementals exclusively for combat, because that wasn't exactly their purpose in life, but this was just the situation he found himself in.
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He snuck into some bushes in front of the wall surrounding the school property, hiding behind them to try and scout out the monsters for now.
While most of them stayed on the playground, a handful were walking around, as if scouting out the school to make sure nobody was escaping.
Most goblins wouldn't do this on their own, so this was definitely the result of that leader-orc's command.
But this was great for Ashton. He positioned himself in a place that was more hidden than others that he saw a goblin walk by earlier. From there, the moment a new goblin came by and none other was in sight, Ashton channelled the undine and made a bubble of water stick to its mouth.
Of course, this wasn't choke it to death, that would take too long - it was to muffle the monster's screams for help.
Even if he managed to hit it over the head immediately, it was easy to let out a last death scream. Unless your mouth was blocked like this, of course.
So, Ashton blocked the monster's mouth, jumped out of the bush with his staff in hand, and swung it directly against the goblin's head. Though bubbles escaped through the water, it was almost entirely silent, except for the full impact of the monster falling down.
[You have killed a [Goblin]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 15 Coins]
Ashton picked up the small monster's body and hid it behind the bush he squatted behind. First, he had to check on the items this guy had.
Groups that were led by more intelligent monsters often used items in far different ways to normal. And that was the case here as well.
It was wearing weirdly modern clothes, not in the same way as the goblins that Sam fought earlier today, though. While those had clearly stolen clothes from some kind of shop or home, these were old, ruined and ripped clothes that looked like they had been worn for years. They looked almost identical to what goblins usually wore, the clothes were simply made from materials that were common here on earth and were clearly machine-produced, rather than the rough, badly-crafted ones that goblins usually wore. Ashton had already noticed this earlier when he headed into the school, but he didn't have the time to inspect everything more closely.
This didn't seem to be an effect of the leader, though, but just one of the ways that certain monsters were adjusting to earth as they were spawned here.
Ashton continued taking a look at what the goblin carried. A number of knives, a slingshot, decently sized stones. It even had a wallet in its pocket, though this one was stolen from someone that was killed by this fucker.
Either way, it was a lot more well-equipped and -prepared than goblins usually were. That would be the case with the rest of them as well. But in the end, these were still usually rather crude or ill-fitting items. The knives were so dull that it seemed like the goblin was practicing how to use it on the school's brick walls.
In the end, these guys simply weren't particularly skilled or clever with matters like this.
Now that he had a better idea of what the goblins were going to be like, Ashton hid the body a little more and the continued on. Now, he felt more confident in taking on a larger group. After summoning the other elementals, he could almost certainly kill all the goblins on the playground, or the two orcs. All of them together would be the issue. Plus, the fight would make too much noise and probably attract the monsters from other parts of the school grounds.
So, instead, Ashton had to be a bit more clever about this.
He asked the backpacker for some of the lure coins. They weren't loud or conspicuous enough that they would draw the attention of every monster, they would just have a few 'scouts' head toward the sound source.
Ashton threw one of the coins on the pavement and it immediately started crackling and jumping around. Around half a minute later, a group of goblins approached. Immediately, Ashton followed behind them around the corner into this hidden part of the school grounds. There were three of them right now.
Ashton hit one of the goblins over the back of the head. It yelled out loudly, but Ashton pushed it down so that its face hit the ground immediately, muffling the sound as much as possible.
The goblins were already noisy as is and often hit each other as a joke, so this probably wouldn't attract too much attention quite yet since they came here as a group, but that was only if Ashton could take down the others soon.
He had the undine's water cover the mouth of one of the other goblins and then hit the last into its chest to knock the air out of its lungs.
This was all before they could even react beyond trying to yell. Killing three goblins was incredibly easy for Ashton at this point.
He cracked open the skull of the goblin with the air knocked out of it and quickly killed it, before stomping down onto the back of the head of that first goblin.
Shockingly... The sound of its face being broken in was muffled by the magical shoelaces as well. It was a weird sound, honestly, but Ashton was glad. He hated how that usually sounded, anyway.
Now, it was easy to kill the last goblin, as it was trying to rip the water off its mouth. Once they were all gone, Ashton pulled the bodies away to try and hide them at least a little.
And soon, as Ashton continued moving around the school grounds, luring small groups of goblins into slightly hidden areas, he spotted some goblins gathered in the vegetable garden. That place was apparently used to foster ecological awareness in the kids. He didn't remember if it was here when he attended, but it sounded neat.
But as he approached closer, Ashton noticed what the goblins were actually doing. They were laughing, and one of them held onto something, shaking it around.
At first glance, Ashton thought it was a doll that a kid lost out here, but then, he heard the sound of bells ringing. Those small, tiny, high-pitched ball bells.
That was a very specific sound, especially since the ringing sounded scared.
And then, Ashton saw what it really was. It was something that shouldn't exist in this world, at least not yet.
'What the hell is a fairy doing here?'
Remove
A fairy. There was a fairy there, Ashton was certain of it. Sure, maybe the goblins were just messing around with a doll that had some bells attached to it, but there was something you never quite forgot about the scared voice of a pixie.
But... they shouldn't be here yet. There was no way that this world could already support fairies being thrown in here with the little mana that existed in this world so far. It just didn't make any sense. Sure, maybe if there was a mana well here, it would make a little more sense, but there wasn't, Ashton had specifically checked that before coming here because he was worried that orc leader was some kind of boss monster again.
The Summoner had a lot of different fairy summons because they were innate to their world, and all of them stuck to Ashton like glue. That was why he knew as much about them as he did. And he knew for a fact that fairies took a while to be born. They were innate to any world with magic, much like elementals and even spirits, though the latter originated in the spirit realm, of course, but it took a while for a fairy to be actually born. It was impossible for a low-magic world like earth to birth a fairy already, and the council wouldn't place them here, at least not this early on.
'I really don't get it,' Ashton thought to himself. But his face wouldn't read as 'confused' to anyone that was looking at him right now. No, he was grinning with excitement. Fairies were useful - each kind of fairy possessed extremely useful or powerful magics. And the one that was currently being tormented by the goblins, if Ashton was right, had some of the best magic for him right now.
It was a flower pixie, capable of casting slight buffs and protective barriers. Sure, they weren't the strongest in the world, but at the point where Ashton was at right now, just a point or two extra in any of his stats would already make for a massive difference in what he could actually do. If he managed to form a contract with a fairy, it would be an absolute game-changer.
Ashton carefully snuck by the edge of the playground. His footsteps were still silenced by the shoelaces, and he knew how to move without being seen to some degree as well. Of course, usually, the Summoner would use some kind of stealth magic, so Ashton never had to worry about it too much, but he still learned a thing or two.
As Ashton got closer to the garden, he was not only able to hear the presumable pixie much better, but he could also actually see it. And it was just as Ashton thought.
A small, deeply androgynous, roughly humanoid figure with insect-like traits. Flower pixies had wings akin to butterflies, and were covered all over in almost fur-like scales. They typically wore small dresses crafted together from flowers that they naturally preserved with magic to be at their peak colour and health.
Ashton couldn't quite see what exactly this one's dress was made of, but judging from the flowers planted here, probably poppies or foxgloves. Ashton looked at the monsters and called the wisp out of his vessel.
Right now, it was far more important to make sure the fairy wasn't injured. Ashton focused on the group of goblins. There were four of them. One was clutching the fairy in its hands while it was trying to get out, while one of the others was trying to pluck at their wings.
Without hesitation, Ashton pushed his fist forward as fast as he could. The wisp shot through through the air, fast and small, and hit the goblin holding the fairy into the side of the chin. Its head spun to the side as it fell unconscious. Its grip loosened at the same time, and the fairy could flutter away while the other goblins were standing there, confused. Ashton whipped his hand to the side and had the wisp shoot at the goblin that was trying to pluck the pixie's wings, since it was the only one that could potentially still catch it while it tried to hide. That goblin had its head thrown back and stumbled a few steps away.
While that was happening, Ashton shot forward and tried to close the distance fully. By channelling the undine, he whipped water at the foot at the stumbling goblin. It fell to the ground, and while the other two were still trying to figure out what happened, Ashton slightly loosened his grip and pushed the staff forward to extend his reach.
With that momentum, he slammed his staff right in the face of a goblin that looked his way, and at the same time let the staff go with one hand, directing the wisp to grow larger and move right to the back of that goblin's head.
Its skull was practically crushed between the staff and wisp and it fell dead to the ground.
As the staff bounced back so Ashton's hand was back in its middle, he spun it around and hit the last of the goblins before it could even react. Of course, this entire process happened in just two or three seconds.
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Ashton slammed his staff down onto the unconscious goblin's head to kill it and had the wisp slam down onto the head of the third to crush its face.
But by then, before Ashton could stop it or block its mouth, the last of the four goblins screamed out. It was a high-pitched, pained scream — a mix of terror, surprise, and an attempt at warning the others.
Annoyingly, that attempt seemed successful. The monsters on the playground turned toward the garden and saw him there. By now, there were around another 15 goblins left there and the two orcs. The latter were particularly annoyed, and grabbed their weapons.
One carried a large, classic wooden club, and the other was carrying a... stop sign?
"How the fuck did they tear that out of the ground?" Ashton narrowed his eyes and stared at the sign, swinging his staff to bash in the skull of the last goblin that was directly around him.
He turned his head toward the small pixie hiding out between the flowers and veggies, "Don't worry, I'll take care of them. Hide here, and if you see any of them coming closer, just fly up high into the sky, okay?"
The pixie tried their best to hide from even Ashton, not sure what exactly was going on. He didn't mind, obviously. Ashton was just happy that they were okay.
He looked back at the monsters and walked forward, stepping out of the garden before calling the salamander out of his vessel. Before the elemental could even properly settle in the lantern, Ashton shot a compressed ball of flames forward into the sand of the playground.
As the explosion of sand covered a good half of the goblins, causing them to spit out and rub the sand out of their eyes. Ashton gathered the flames together again and spread them out in front of the monsters. He could deal with the goblins, but the orcs? Ashton had to do something to hold them off, take care of the goblins, and then focus on the two orcs.
And the first thing that came to his mind was another attempt at 'fusing' two elementals. But this time, it didn't involve the wisp, but rather the undine and salamander.
Ashton brought the spheres of water and flames together, trying to force them into one mass. Obviously, they didn't 'combine', but that wasn't what Ashton wanted to do. He just had to boil the water and heat it up, and it happened incredibly, incredibly fast. Since the flames couldn't be snuffed out for as long as Ashton controlled them, he could practically place the heat directly into the water.
"Backpacker! Honey!" Ashton yelled out, using one of his hands to control both the water and fire and keep forcing them together, while he used the other to make the wisp fly around, taking out a goblin here and there while focusing on distracting them all.
Immediately, the Backpacker appeared and gave Ashton the honey that he took with him and used to make the ink to summon these two elementals. Ashton tore open the squeeze-bottle's lid with his teeth and pushed the honey into the boiling, floating water. He then manipulated said water to mix it all in. It was actually a little hard to manipulate it now that it was like this, but it should be fine for his purposes.
The orcs, standing at the back of the group, were coming closer to Ashton, but he quickly shot forward the boiling honey-water and splashed it right onto the faces of the two orcs. The boiling hot, sticky honey clung to their faces, and their screams were muffled by the fact that they threw their hands onto their faces to try and tear away whatever it was that was sticking to them. But of course, that wouldn't work.
Ashton quickly moved forward, focusing on manipulating the wisp. He had it shoot around and crush the skulls of goblins while he did the same with his staff. One down, two, four, seven, ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen. All the goblins that were approaching Ashton were taken down relatively fast. Because of course — the orcs, these monsters that were naturally much, much stronger than the goblins, were screaming in pain. The goblins were distracted, and a moment of distraction was enough to be killed.
The moment the last of the goblins fell to the ground, Ashton focused on the orcs. One of them, the one with the club, had practically started trying to tear off its skin to get rid of the boiled honey. Its claw-like fingernails dug into its skin, and the blood that poured out of its wounds seemed to cool the honey down.
The other one had thick blisters forming on its face almost immediately as its skin was burnt. What Ashton was now dealing with wasn't just a pair of orcs set on killing him for fun, but because they fully despised him.
"Come and get it, pig boys," Ashton grinned as he started spinning around his staff and the two orcs ran at him. The first swung its club at him furiously, sputtering blood around as it did.
Ashton jumped back and hit the back of the club, adding onto its force to make the orc vastly overswing. He then hit the monster's elbow. The orc's arm twitched in a way that told Ashton that he managed to break its elbow. He continued spinning the staff around to rebuild some momentum and built some distance to stay safe against the second orc.
It was already swinging the stop sign at him, like one would swing a large axe. The stop-sign got stuck in the ground for a moment, and Ashton used that time to reform a new bubble of water that he pressed onto the orc's face like he had with the goblins, this time covering its mouth and nose together. He had to use a bit more water like this, but it was worth it.
This was going to be a slightly more prolonged fight if Ashton wanted to be safe, so the orc's extra panic and recklessness was useful. The two monsters continued swinging their weapons at Ashton, but he skilfully dodged them and counterattacked whenever he could. He hit the orcs with flames and explosions, with the wisp, with his staff, and just kept whittling down on them.
And just a few minutes later... one of them collapsed, drowning due to the bubble of water Ashton was pressing against its face.
One of the orcs had just collapsed on the ground. There wasn't a notification, so it wasn't dead quite yet, but that was surely going to happen naturally in a few minutes as the bubble of water kept clinging to its face. Of course, before that would happen, Ashton was going to bash its skull in, but he had to focus on the other orc for now.
This one wasn't looking good anymore either. It had burns all over its body and thick boils and bruises forming. Both of their bones were broken.
It wasn't exactly that orcs were tough enemies, it was just that Ashton's weapon, with the strength and abilities that he had now, wasn't the most directly lethal to powerful monsters.
If he had been just a little more suited for something like swords or spears, that's what he would be using right now.
Ashton stared at the orc with a smile. It didn't even seem to have noticed what happened to its fellow monsters, and was just snarling and revealing its large tusks to the man before him. It was blinded by its own blood and its ears must be ringing by now. Ashton had caused some small explosions by its ears multiple times.
It was disoriented and already half-dead. And now that Ashton could focus on just it alone, he was able to whittle down on it more and more. The orc was breathing heavily, and Ashton swung his arm to the side and had the wisp shoot straight at the side of its head.
But this wasn't enough to kill it. Wisps were strong, and they could crush a goblin's skull easily. But orcs were just that much more powerful already. Ashton really had to figure out how to place a spell into the wisp, so that he could enhance its combat power.
Though, most of the problems that he had was that fighting like this was incredibly awkward. He had to control the wisp with his off-hand while trying to fight, and switch between it, the salamander's flames, and then re-establish where the bubble of water was supposed to be to have it keep choking out the orc.
There had to be another way to do this. The Summoner basically had however many hands they needed to, sprouting new ones when it ran out. At times, they appeared like a swarm of hands climbing on top of each other while channelling the things around them.
But Ashton had two hands, and if he wanted to fight at full power, he had to place both onto his staff. At least for the time being, Ashton didn't have the option of just adding more limbs to himself to make up for that. At the same time, though, the way things were right now... he was wasting the potential of the summons. And if he didn't use them to their full potential, their growth would be severely stunted.
Ashton had to do something else. And maybe this was the best opportunity he had to figure it out before fighting the rest of the orcs.
But what could he do? While dodging and hitting the monster, he kept on thinking about what it really meant to channel something.
It meant taking control of part of their abilities. Why did it just seem to instinctively work through the movement of one's hand? Magic was an extension of the mind and the soul, which were directly linked to the physical body. The body was the only way that the mind and soul could be expressed. That was why so many spells needed some kind of physical component in the form of movements or actions.
That was the basics of how spells worked. But then what about other magic users? They tended to use things like wands or staffs — obviously ones different to the one Ashton used — to help them channel their magic, manipulate their spells, and boost their power.
The Summoner was just so powerful that it had no use for that. Their body was practically the most powerful wand in existence, so Ashton had no reference-point for other ways to channel summons' powers.
But what if Ashton was able to use his combat staff as a magical staff? If he could somehow channel the summons through his staff, the options that he had would be unimaginable.
'Alright... let me give it a shot', Ashton thought to himself, as a massive, broad grin formed on his face. His excitement at doing something new, something that he didn't just copy from the Summoner was unimaginable. Ashton hit the orc in the chest one more time to push himself away for a moment as he started letting some of his mana flow into the staff. He tried to focus it on the ends and-
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[You have killed an [Orc]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 26 Coins]
Ashton stopped himself, almost tripping over. He stared at the monster as it slowly fell down, having died while standing up.
"Ah... fuck, okay," Ashton smiled wryly and stared at the corpse. He had just lost a prime opportunity to test out a new channelling method. The orc's heart must have stopped, or maybe it had some kind of brain aneurism. Whichever it was, the damage had accumulated and done its job by now. "Damn it... And I was so excited."
With a grumble, Ashton walked over to the corpse that was still just unconscious, slamming his staff into the back of its skull. Its spine cracked and it, as well...
[You have killed an [Orc]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 26 Coins]
Trying to hide his disappointment as well as he could, Ashton turned back around and headed back into the garden, away from the monsters' corpses. His breathing was heavy, and though he was able to ignore it during the fight itself, now that it was over, he realised how exhausting it was to have to whittle down on a monster in that way. It also made it very clear that something was wrong in this town.
The first quest's orcs being that strong? So many goblins gathering together in one spot under another monster's leadership? Screw that, someone was messing with this place deliberately.
[Skill | Summoning - Level 4 -> Summoning - Level 5]
[Contract | Lesser Wisp - Level 5 -> Lesser Wisp - Level 6]
[Contract | Lesser Undine - Level 4 -> Lesser Undine - Level 5]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] expresses her delight over your prowess]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] has gifted you 50 Coins]
Ashton waved the messages away, not even really reading them, "Mhm, thanks."
There was something more important to do right now. He hadn't been exactly as quiet as he wanted to be. Some goblin scouts would most definitely be coming here any second now and figure out that something had happened here.
Ashton walked over to the patch of flowers nearby and squatted down in front of them.
"Are you there?" he asked, trying to spot the little pixie between the flowers. Usually, they should be able to blend in with their environment, but maybe because they were so scared, this one wasn't able to and was openly visible.
"You don't need to be scared. The monsters are gone for now. But you need to be careful, since more are on their way," Ashton explained, turning around to the side of the schoolgrounds where they would be coming from.
Slowly, the pixie moved out from behind one of the flowers they were hiding behind. Like this, Ashton finally saw their entire body. The slightly torn wings, the ruffled and pulled-out scales. Even one of the small antennae on top of their head was cracked. The small fairy was crying, tears welling up in their eyes.
They couldn't help but sniffle, and the sound of bells run out as they cried slightly.
"It's okay, it's okay, don't worry. I'll get you patched up in a bit, okay?" Ashton tried his best to calm down the small pixie who standing barely six inches tall. "I'm Ashton. It's really nice to meet you. Do you have a name, too?" he asked, and slowly, the pixie nodded.
They rubbed the tears out of their eyes and pointed at a nearby flower.
"Poppy, then? That's a very pretty name."
Poppy the flower pixie nodded, clearly agreeing that their name was just beautiful. Fairies were very prideful beings. They knew what they loved and what they hated, and stood by it completely. So, receiving compliments was a great way to cheer them up. Plus, it confirmed to Ashton that this was really a fairy, not a spirit that had crossed over from the spirit realm and just so happened to take the form of a pixie.
To spirits, the concept of a 'name' was more than just something to be referred by. It defined their whole existence. They weren't even able to tell someone a fake name, as that was like they were denying their existence. For that reason, if someone had access to a spirit's name, particularly a summoner like Ashton, they could fully control them. It was how the Summoner forced spirits into submission, since he had a way to figure out their true names. That was exactly why spirits were usually referred to by the name of their species, rather than their own personal ones.
As for elementals or constructs... they simply didn't have a need for names. They were closer to forces of nature or concepts come to life respectively, so the concept didn't quite make sense to them. But it was likely that they would tell Ashton a name sooner or later.
Either way, since it was even more unlikely for this to be a celestial or demonic being that just so happened to look like a fairy, this was proof enough for Ashton to confirm the situation. But... he was starting to hear the goblins' voices coming closer.
"Okay listen, Poppy, I need you to help me out for a second, okay? So that I can fight those monsters without worrying about you, I need you to hide as well as you can."
Poppy immediately nodded their head, agreeing without hesitation. They looked around, soon seeing a bush in the far corner of the garden. While looking at Ashton to double-check if it was okay, they pointed at it. Of course, Ashton nodded, "That's perfect. I'll come back afterward, okay?"
The fairy fluttered away clunkily with her broken wings, and climbed into the bush. By then, Ashton turned back around, and walked onto the playground, looking at the group of goblins accompanied by an orc.
"I guess it sounded a lot more troublesome than I thought, huh...?" Ashton sighed, starting to spin his staff around. He glanced at the elementals by his side, "At least we've got some more fellas to test our channelling on, huh?"