The Chronicles of Dwynveia – A Slimeling LitRPG

Aki

With trembling hands, I opened the file and began looking through it.

The first page had basic information on it, you know name, date of birth and other stuff like that. And its contents were confusing… like everything matched, but there was "presumed", at least that's what I assumed the terrible handwriting said, written next to my mom’s date of death, along with a reference to a note number.

That can't be right.

One of my most vivid memories was clutching to my mom’s body, begging her not to leave me, so unsure what the fuck whoever compiled the report was going on about, I looked up the document and saw that it just said that “Veenaya of Dan-Hem had passed from an unidentified disease, however, due to her clearly demonic heritage, trickery couldn't be dismissed.”

The author also theorised that maybe she wanted to abandon me due to my being an abomination.

Oh, brother.

There were also a few notes about potential sightings of her. All likely rubbish.

Having ruled out assassination as my mom's cause of death, I dropped the folder onto the stone floor of the armoury. Deirdee threw the rest next to it, and Dain soon added his.

A [Jet of Hellfire] removed all traces of the folders ever existing, though the floor would need some repairs.

Ooops.

Lilyth

Something was very fucking wrong. While I imagined that the area surrounding a cemetery wasn’t the liveliest of places, it felt a bit too quiet. Nor for it to start three blocks away. It really began earlier but we didn't notice, as there were still some people around.

‘Where the fuck are the people?’ Savri asked.

I wanted to joke about them being behind the couch, but… I was too freaked out.

We all drew our weapons. It was weird to actually reach for the Blade of the Black Rose, rather than my knives, but trying to use them felt… wrong. They were part of me, but they no longer felt… mine. I also had the bonus of the knowledge I got from those purchased skills still being in my brain.

I miss that system.

I was wondering whether to send Dainyir away, but we needed every sword we could get and, truth be told, he probably was in a better position than I was in the Tower of Trials.

Actual training. Equipment. A powerful Party. Two healers.

Maybe I really should stop babying him.

I just couldn't help but think of him as that vulnerable guy I saw on Varlia.

I looked at Dain. Despite holding his longsword in a death grip, he looked mostly fine, or at least no more scared than we were.

‘Let’s check some houses,’ I suggested.

‘You want to break in?’ Dain asked.

‘Yes. I’ll put myself on trial for that later.’

‘Not guilty,’ Caei said with an eyeroll audible in her voice.

As it turned out, there was no need for us to break in. All the buildings we checked had the door unlocked and were empty of all life. Some had signs of struggle inside of them, and in others, it seemed as if people had just walked out, leaving everything behind.

‘Does anybody else feel like we are being watched?’ Persephone asked after a while.

‘Because we likely are,’ Sav replied, looking around. ‘Lilyth?’

‘Nothing,’ I shook my head. ‘Maybe if I still had my old body.’

‘Shit.’

[Silent Step]? I wondered, as, eyes around our heads, we began making our way towards the cemetery. Or something more?

Realising I would need to be more tactical with both my Abilities and understanding what the enemy could use, I began analysing the situation.

What did I have that I could help with? Seemingly not much. My kit was strictly geared towards offence, but that didn't mean I couldn't repurpose it, like I did when developing [Jet Jump]. The Ability was born out of a question: Can I channel the [Fist of Wind] using different limbs? I originally wanted to develop some sort of kicking attack, but it caused massive balance issues, making it useless for combat. Means of propulsion, however…

So the question was… how do I improve [Enhanced Acoustic Processing] to…

Acoustics or “how does sound work”?

My mind began racing.

Question: How did hearing in my body work previously?

Answer: By being able to detect minute air vibrations.

Note: [Enhanced Acoustic Processing] allowed me to locate targets via reverse echolocation of sorts.

Question: Is this still an option?

I stopped, picked up a pebble from the street, closed my eyes and threw it to the side. I laser-focused my hearing on its flight path and was able to locate where it landed.

Satisfied, I caught up to my friends who were starting to give me concerned looks.

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can I distinguish between different materials?

Question 2: How can I tell that without ending up in a padded cell?

The answer proved to be surprisingly simple. We didn't all have exactly the same soles on our shoes, and the ground was a mix of fresh snow, packed snow and cobblestones. I couldn't exactly tell what was what, but it didn't matter. I could tell different materials well enough.

Meaning… I could make an active sonar of sorts. I just had to figure out how to send out pings.

I looked over my spell and ability list and found two likely candidates: the [Gust of Wind] and [Lesser Manipulate]. The former seemed like the better candidate, but it still wasn't that good of an option. It was a warhammer in a situation I needed a scalpel for.

From my observations, I knew I could modulate the power of my spells to some extent, but could I weaken them enough?

I motioned for the others to stop and tried to cast the [Gust of Wind] on the wall while channelling as little mana to it as possible. The spell fizzled out, so I tried again with a bit more and it worked, but it wasn't particularly helpful as the gale was too strong.

Scratch that then.

I used it on the wall but… nothing happened. That confused me. I used it to push objects before. I pulled up the Ability’s description:

Ability: [Lesser Manipulate]

Type: Racial - Psychic

Rank: Novice

Description: Allows the user to manipulate small objects using the power of their will.

Notice: You can use your knowledge of Air Arcana to empower some of the actions.

Notice 2: As it is impossible for you to use Earth Arcana you will not be able to achieve results similar to a person capable of using it.

I guess walls aren’t small objects. But small is relative. I mean… that building is small on the cosmic scale. Compared to a gas giant it is completely insignificant.

Alas, magic was not having any of my “well, akshually” bullshit, so I had to think of something else. Or was it because telekinesis made no sound?

Wait.

I pulled up the description and reread it, focusing on one part of it.

Notice: You can use your knowledge of Air Arcana to empower some of the actions.

Huh.

Channelling Air magic while using the Ability did cause it to make a sound, but it was barely audible, and that was with [Enhanced Acoustic Processing]. Meaning I had to try something else. And I had just the right idea.

Hold my beer!

I started channelling a low-powered version of the [Gust of Wind] through [Lesser Manipulate]. It had an insane mana draw… but it fucking worked! It made a clearly audible sound too!

Mostly because I caused the wall to crack a bit, but it worked!

How to make it practical though?

The problem with [Lesser Manipulate] was that it was slightly too precise, a needle rather than a scalpel. So I needed to make it have a larger area of effect. Applying the knowledge I gained from my experiments with the [Fist of Wind], I tried to spread the spell origin point to be my entire outstretched palm. The first attempt made the spell too weak so I had to compensate by adding extra mana. It took a few attempts, but I managed to get my project to the point where it gave me sound cues without causing property damage and could be modulated depending on my needs. For my efforts, I was rewarded with a series of pop-ups:

New ability unlocked: [Precise Acoustic Ping]

New ability unlocked: [Conical Acoustic Ping]

New ability unlocked: [Spherical Acoustic Ping]

Woop!

Persephone

She couldn't help but smile seeing the result of Lilyth's efforts. Few people figured that one out on their own, even fewer as early as the Furball did.

You were right about her, grandfather. I understand why Varyag was afraid of her now.

‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Watch her. Guide her if you can. Perhaps… you two working together can finally end this madness.’

Weren't you one of the Great Game’s designers?

‘I imagine regret over your actions is a feeling you can well relate to, granddaughter of mine.’

Touché.

Her patron and great-grandfather, the King Who Commands the Ocean, laughed and then warmly said:

‘Stay safe, Persephone. I missed you.’

‘I am not sure if I should give you an award for inventing a magical sonar on the go,’ Sav sighed,’ or whether to kick your furry ass for doing it in the middle of hostile territory.’

‘What’s a souner?’ Aki asked.

She was curious herself.

‘A doodad that detects things by bouncing sounds from them,’ Sav explained.

That actually sounds… useful.

‘I can’t use it a lot though,’ Lilyth explained while downing a mana potion. ‘Those things go through mana like crazy.’

‘Doesn’t surprise me,’ she said as we resumed walking. ‘How did you create them? Asking out of professional curiosity.’

‘Oh, I channelled the [Gust of Wind] through [Lesser Manipulate] and then expanded the area by trying to cast it like the [Fist of Wind].’

Persephone twitched.

By the gods…

‘Did I do something wrong?’

‘Channelling a spell through an ability is… unorthodox.’

‘Is that an euphemism for “stupid”?’

‘Insanely. Never do that with buffs. A mistake can kill you.’

‘N-noted,’ Lilyth said with a shaky voice.

‘Damn,’ Aki laughed. ‘It has been a while since she “did a Lilyth”.’

‘Dain, to explain, Lilyth, for all her brilliance, has a tendency to do things that are monumentally stupid,’ Sav said. ‘Usually, because she doesn’t know any better.’

‘How are you all able to remain so calm?’ he asked in lieu of responding. ‘Something very bad is happening and you just… banter.’

‘We are all scared, believe me,’ Ren explained. ‘Talking shit keeps us from going insane.’

‘We are also very jaded,’ Deirdee added. ‘We’ve all been through so much this is… well… ‘

‘Unusually terrible Akh’ret's Day,’ Lilyth helpfully provided.

That confused Persephone. It was Irmen’s Day.

Is that a Terran thing?

‘That tickles!’ Aki giggled after Lilyth activated the [Spherical Acoustic Ping] ability when we reached the next intersection.

Lilyth made a playful lunge at her, feigning willingness to actually tickle the blue-haired girl, but their antics were interrupted by Ren’s terrified whimper.

‘Something is wrong. Very wrong.'

‘You don't say,’ Savri snarked.

‘You don’t get it…’ Ren retorted, cowering and covering her ears with her hands. ‘Something very bad is about to happen.’

Persephone’s eyes shone with blue light as she activated her [Arcane Senses] ability and saw…

Oh no.

Jagged gnarly lines of blood-red energy were spreading out from the direction of our destination. They seemed to have been seeping all colour from the area.

Suddenly several massive bursts of crimson energy bloomed around them, each revealing a horde of pale sickly-thin faceless multi-limbed abominations led by "horned" winged individuals wearing white masks with rows of sharp teeth painted onto them that matched the visage of the monsters. The parade of monstrosities appeared to be led by three figures in heavy red-and-gold robes, one of them wearing a silver jeweled tiara.

The Sanguine!

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