Funatic
patreon
The Gamer Chapter 1373 – Turbulence 2 – A large, large sea
🕑 Added 2023-01-26 18:18:28 +0000 UTC
The Natural Barrier encompassed an impressive space of several square kilometres. A fact that John quickly realized, not only because he had Sylph zap around the corners, but also due to the aerial view she provided him with.
What of the city had been inside the bounds of the Natural Barrier had been devastated and not at all recently. The ruins were marked by the signs of combat and rot. Patches of mould spread over the moist wooden planks, filling the air with that particular smell of dissolving natural matter. The humidity did not help this fact. The day had advanced and thunder clouds were rapidly forming.
A temporary annoyance at worst, with Sylph around the weather was a suggestion. Any change would be mana intensive, but in the limited scale of the Natural Barrier, clearing the clouds for the duration of their stay would be possible.
John inspected the scars on the city on the ground level. Wherever there was a trace of movement, the marks left behind were either the tell-tale curves of serpentine slithering or the set of points accompanying the stilted movement of insectoid legs. Lobsters, crabs or arachnids, if John had to take a specific guess. Neither were surprises, it matched with the form of the hurricane dragon John already knew. Why such creatures were spawned out here was anyone’s guess.
“We are definitely at the right place.” John rose from the tracks he had been inspecting. Scratching the back of his head, he took a sweeping look around, both where he stood and through Sylph’s eyes. “Problem is finding the damn… thing? Can I say thing?”
“As long as it hasn’t earned its right to live,” the other dragon in the party responded dismissively. Nathalia had halfway stripped out of her clothes already. Each article, she threw John’s way, until she was fully nude and capable of manifesting her dragon features without ruining the dress. “There’d be an easy way to smoke it out.” The dragoness tapped her heel on the floor once and the ground trembled. The ruins directly around them collapsed further in on themselves.
“We need it alive,” John reminded.
“It should not be so weak that it will get annihilated by a couple of earthquakes,” Nathalia countered.
“I mean, we don’t know if it has fully formed yet,” Momo threw in. “We are technically ahead of schedule. It could still be going through the Legion stage.”
“I doubt that,” John said, once more inspecting the destruction. “If there’s more than one entity still left in this Natural Barrier, there’d be loud combat going on.”
When it came to Natural Barriers, there were a number of outcomes that could occur. Most usual was that the Natural Barrier was discovered, the monsters inside hunted for their natural resources, and closed. If a Natural Barrier was left to its own devices, the creatures inside would eventually turn on each other. Power would consolidate through feasting, causing a creature to manifest that would, in most cases, proceed to cause some kind of disaster in the mundane world, however minor or major depending on the amount of power that creature had at the end. In rare cases, that creature was capable of reason and, in even rarer cases, they came in a form that was biologically or magically compatible with humans enough for procreation.
It all was dependent on the Faith that caused the Natural Barrier to form as well as the time afforded for it to sort itself out. ‘Does it create a minor moral conundrum that the animalistic monsters we exploit for their resources could amalgamate into a sapient being if we just stood back and watched?’ “What do you guys think, should I advocate for a law that puts Natural Barriers into a protected category? To give them the chance to run their evolutionary course?”
The question was considered for a few moments. “Response: from a pure risk calculation perspective, this is inadvisable,” Beatrice stated.
Aclysia added, “That is, if we care about the lives of mundanes.” Tone and eyes betrayed that she expected a certain answer to that assertion.
“I’m not sacrificing mundanes on the altar of some potential additions to the Abyss,” the Gamer made clear. Immediately, his first maid showed a slight approving smile. Violent as she could be when it came to those bothering him, her moral compass was still set right. “I’m just wondering how much of a chance I could give them to evolve in beneficial ways.”
“Continuing purely logistically, it’s a terrible idea,” Momo told him. “As Bae and Aclysia already pointed out, if you let every Natural Barrier reach its conclusion, then the number of disasters caused by Abyssal overreach will skyrocket. In parallel, you are crippling the economy. People depend on monster parts and other materials you can get out of Natural Barriers to fuel their businesses and the Guild Hall will not be able to make up for it. Now, you could in theory make it so Natural Barriers are constantly monitored, but this means you have to have people strong enough to take care of the issue when it becomes clear that the final result will not be friendly.”
“And they have to do so in a short window of time between consolidation and escalation,” John finished the thought. He let out a long sigh. “Like everything else, the difficulty of making the optimal moral choice comes down to profit and a lack of manpower.” He rubbed his forehead. “Maybe we should look into Natural Barrier reservations? A limited scale program on a volunteer basis. Could give elite fighters in the nation something to do outside of war.” He smiled over to his dragon goddess. “I, for one, would like a world with more fantastical creatures in it.”
The suggestion left Nathalia with a cold shrug. “Those that survive the process of forming do and those that do not do not. I have less care for them than you do, my mate.” She twirled a strand of red hair around her finger. “I appreciate the thought you have for my kind, however. Albeit I wished you’d be more dedicated to creating new life with me, than enabling some spawns.”
“I’m very eager, you can believe that much,” John told her.
“…Perhaps I should consider barring you from non-procreative intercourse…” Nathalia mumbled behind a thoughtfully raised hand.
The suggestion struck John like thunder. “You would go insane before I do,” he tried to convince her. “You know how you were when you starved yourself of sex last time.”
“Hm? I would still have access to our harem.” Nathalia put a hand against her hips. “My lust would be sated, much as I would miss your cock.”
“…Would you try to convince everyone else to join that plan of yours?” John asked. The hand on Nathalia’s hip shifted, the shapely swing of her bottom further emphasized by her swinging it out. The scales on her chest retreated until there was just a hint of areolas visible. The raised eyebrow asked the question that John answered. “Yeah, you wouldn’t need to.”
“Of course I would not,” Nathalia dismissed and led the way further into the barrier. “Let us find this pathetic hatchling and deliver whatever it is Sylph shall receive from the Mother of Wind.”
“Wait a second, can we resolve whether you were serious about that sex ban?” John asked, desperately following her. “This is of vital importance.”
“Listen to yourself.” Momo hovered along on her fairy wings, smugly smiling. “Cold and rational at all times – one mention of no sex with one of your women, you immediately fold. You have an addiction.”
“I’m in love with all of you,” John responded, his voice raised slightly, his words quick and precise. “Yes, I have about 20 addictions.”
“Hmm… hmmm,” Momo hummed judgingly. “Yes, I’ll accept that answer… and I might join Nathalia in this program.”
“I thought you weren’t part of the ‘baby crazy’ faction.”
“I’ll become an honorary member if it means torturing you.”
John was about to remind the sassy brat of her place, when she took off. ‘She’s getting better at taking her exits before I get my retorts in,’ the Gamer thought. ‘This cannot stand.’ Mental communication was always an option. Teasing someone without seeing their reactions was just not the same, however.
____________________________________________________________________________
Leisurely, John strolled on. The group had separated, scattered about into the nearby properties. They were flat, for the most part, the ground green, or reddish brown, depending on how close the next artificial lake was. Where farmers would have readied their next harvest, grass slowly reclaimed the battle-scarred land. The characteristic trenches of slicing gusts and high-pressure water bursts were scattered about.
John threw a rock into a nearby pond and clicked his tongue. Stone caused ripples and the motions in the water informed his additional senses of the contents. ‘Not here either.’
Sighing, he marched on. Were they in the wrong Natural Barrier? No, Gaia had confirmed this was the place and she hadn’t outright lied yet. There was nothing for her to gain if she did either. Entertaining as his frustrated search may have been to follow, she did prefer it when she did not have to smite anyone.
‘Got it,’ the two passive words reached John’s mind. A second later, there was the distant sound of thunder. Then, the pained howl of a large beast. The Gamer started jogging. All over the Natural Barrier, the other haremettes did the same.
By sheer coincidence, he was the first to arrive. Beatrice and Aclysia had been the two operating closest to him. Well, not sheer coincidence, those two had insisted on that spread for maidly reasons. The closeness let him get there before his much speedier haremettes.
Beatrice was in the distance, dragging the giant dragon behind her. Ten metres in length, the serpentine creature could have easily swallowed two people whole with its beak-tipped maw. Even with those dimensions, John felt that it was so small compared to his mental image of Tilgun, who was five times longer than this smaller specimen.
Wings without membranes were spread out, six arms stemmed into the floor, and the jaw of the elongated skull hung open. Electric energy crackled within. The serpentine dragon attempted to rear its head, but Beatrice uncaringly dragged it along by one of the two pronounced black horns that grew from its ultramarine scales. Four smaller ones, barely more than stubs, were above and below that pair.
“Unhand me, you small creature!” the clearly male voice of the dragon growled.
‘Good to hear Romulus’ translation spell is still fully active.’ John checked the level of the creature and hummed, minorly impressed. Level 103, pretty powerful all things concerned. Definitely enough to turn a local tornado into a true disaster. “Do him the favour, Beatrice.”
“Yes, Master.” Beatrice let go of the horn. Immediately, the unnamed hurricane dragon turned his head and spewed the gathered electricity in its throat at the white-horned maid. “Request: may I intimidate further?” she asked, over the screaming of magical electricity. No reaction was given to the damage, because there was none. Beatrice enjoyed immunity to what was her own element.
“Just a bit,” John allowed.
The maw of the dragon snapped shut and he growled at Beatrice animalistically. Narrow slits at the centre of his blue eyes focused entirely on her. A focus that did not help him when she grabbed Perfect from its storage, turned it around, and bonked the dragon on the head with the blunt end.
Confused, the serpentine dragon pulled back. He coiled half of his body up, raised his many limbed upper segment and analysed the situation. Fight had not worked, flight was the next choice made, albeit freeze then took over.
Between the dragon and the nearest pond, Aclysia approached. Unlike her faux-twin, the head maid had written on her face the dissatisfaction at their disobedient prey. It poured out of her form as a chilling white mist, turning the grass in her path into frozen needles. “Surrender,” she demanded, the movement of her lips not quite matching the sound that accompanied it.
John raised an eyebrow, when had his Aclysia learned Draconic? “Response: we asked Nathalia for instructions. It came natural after a few tries,” Beatrice answered the question in his head. “We deemed it a worthwhile acquisition and use of our time.”
“Never bad to broaden one’s horizons,” John agreed. One after another, the other haremettes arrived. The hurricane dragon was completely rigid, unmoving like a hare in a panic. Nathalia arrived last, yawning as she approached.
“How entertaining, it looks like you during our first meeting,” Nathalia told Aclysia.
“I was much younger and weaker.” Aclysia rolled her shoulder, cracking the thin layer of ice that formed on her skin. “I still fail to recall the incident in complete detail.”
“We can be nostalgic another time… Momo, could you push his head down here?”
“Urgh, fine,” the fairy maid obliged. Speaking to a dragon towering five metres over him bothered John, in the pettiest of ways. Once the fear frozen dragon was in a humbler position, the Gamer gave the signal for those around to lower their aggression levels.
Thawing out of his paralysis, the eyes of the unnamed hurricane dragon moved around. From one dragon maid, to the other, to the fairy, then to the dragon goddess. Carefully, like prey wanting to avoid a reaction from predators, he turned his head and inspected the elementals behind him. Last, he looked at John. “What are you?”
“An excellent first question,” John responded with a disarming smile. He radiated benevolence, literally, and that simultaneously caused the dragon to relax and leer at him with paranoia. “I am human, these three are my Artificial Spirits, she is a dragon like you, but much, much greater and these-“
“Infinitely greater,” Nathalia insisted.
“-these four are my elementals,” John continued unabated. “I know this will not tell you a lot to start with, so let me take a lead on the explanation for now. I-“
“She’s right, I can feel it,” the dragon interrupted him, his attention shifting to Nathalia. “Why would I listen to this creature when you are right there, dragon of dragons?”
Nathalia deeply hummed and grabbed the hurricane dragon by the chin. He shivered in the way a pubescent boy would shiver when a woman like Nathalia touched him – or he shivered in absolute terror. Probably both. John tapped his foot on the floor and stared. The benevolence was swiftly draining from his aura.
“You have a minimum of respect, but you should know all your betters.” Nathalia effortlessly bent the dragon’s neck back to John. “My mate has an interest in saving you. Bow before him or I will make you bow.”
The unnamed serpent dropped his head on the floor that very second, finally and thoroughly accepting his defeat. “Good,” the Gamer commented, unfolding his arms. “As MY Nathalia said,” he stated possessively, pulling the redhead to his side, “I have an interest in saving you. If you leave this pocket of the world in the incorrect way, it will spell your end. I was tasked by the Mother of Wind to prevent this. She wants more reasonable members of your kind to survive and I happen to be of service to her.”
“I follow so far,” the unnamed serpent said, looking up at John. “Vaguely.”
“Vaguely is good enough for a start. Let’s just make one thing clear. You asked what we are, so here is what you are.” John knelt down in front of the young dragon. “A moderately big fish in a very, very large sea.”
The hurricane dragon visibly gulped.
Comments
LiuAnshan
There's always a bigger fish.
){kind=link}