WVKWnovel Chapter 249 – Trying To Understand Crazy Is A Crazy Endeavour
Chapter 249 – Trying To Understand Crazy Is A Crazy Endeavour
They broke camp shortly after the rope debacle, John taking the lead as Nebula started following the scent of these undead. The wolf seemed almost eager to go once John shared his thoughts, feelings and intentions with it, though he still wasn't sure exactly what in the hell he was doing. Ki seemed to be the medium for their communication, though his Animal Husbandry skill might have been bearing a lot of the load as well.
He was alone for this ride, Chris opting to join Darkness for now, saying she needed to talk to her friend alone. He was fine with that, as it let him practice communicating with Nebula without extra distractions. Well, mostly.
"John! So... if we are not hunting these wolves now, how are we going to get paid from the guild?" Aqua asked him, riding the other She-Wolf in the pack called Blossom. "Not that I want to, they are just sooo cute and fluffy! But, we need to eat, right?"
The question took him aback for a moment, then he realized she did have a point. They were poor; this job that was supposed to pad their wallets had now become purging some undead. They didn't have a quest for killing the goblins and whatever was controlling them, so getting paid for the work might be problematic. "We will cross that bridge when we return to town. Hopefully, the undead wolves will count. If not, well, the Toad cull is coming; we will make up for it then."
"I hope so. I don't want to sleep in the stables anymore."
"Most people wouldn't. You will have to learn to save your money if you want to have better living conditions. Tighten your belt for some time, and you will reap the rewards later." He told her. This place wasn't cheap, but it wasn't that expensive either. Even commoners could live in relative comfort for the times with just a little discipline.
They chatted idly for a bit longer before she fell back, the forest underbrush becoming too dense for them to ride side by side anymore. As time went on, they seemed to be gradually rising in elevation, the forest thinning somewhat. Nebula changed directions a few times, pushing them northwards.
They broke through the forest edge around noon, coming out somewhere in the foothills that they had passed on their way down to the village. He called a halt for a quick lunch by a cliff edge which overlooked the forest he thought he had trekked through with Suzy Q the day before, though he couldn't see the road from here. He hadn't seen a single sign of the undead they were pursuing yet, but Nebula seemed to think they went this way.
Patting Nebula's side, he walked over to the cliff edge and sat down, the dull ache in his legs and back thankful for the break from using his muscles in a new way. He refrained from cycling his healing magic for now, relishing the feeling of sore aching muscles. Ever since he had discovered he could do that, he hadn't felt much in the way of pain from training, other than when he would receive a heavy blow during a spar and found he missed the feeling.
"Excuse me, do you have a moment?"
John turned his head and looked up at Megumin, her single eye staring back down at him with an intense look. "Sure. Have a seat."
She flopped down beside him, her legs dangling off the edge of the cliff alongside his. He noticed for the first time that her right leg was bandaged from her boot to her thigh. "Didn't Aqua heal your leg yesterday?"
"Oh, it's not actually hurt. Like my eye patch, I bandage it to seal my powers away, lest I cause too much destruction with my explosive powers." She said, her voice taking on that odd, dramatic tone like she had when she introduced herself.
On a hunch, he activated Scouter but was immediately rebuffed by her magic, so he activated Card instead.
[Name - Megumin]
[Race - Human (Demonic Blood)]
[Class - Arch Wizard]
[Age - 18]
[Birthday - December 4th]
[Aliases - Explosion Maniac, Crazy Explosion Girl, Psycho Girl]
[Likes - Explosion Magic, Being a Chūnibyō, 'Edgy' things, Being The Centre of Attention, Praise, Flirting, Her Sister, Wanting To Start A Family, Food, Having An Archrival]
[Dislikes - Being Called/Treated Like A Child, Being Poor, Her Body, Monsters, Jealous Of Girls With Larger Breasts Than Her]
[Virgin - Yes]
[Cup Size - AA]
[Sexual Preferences - Switch, In Control, Being pampered and loved]
[Favourite Positions - No Experience. She imagines being on top while being praised for how attractive she is.]
[Megumin was saved once by a stranger who used Explosion magic, and immediately fell in love with the spell, making it her entire personality.]
[As a Crimson Demon, she suffers from Chūnibyō. Like most of her clan, she is extremely dramatic about her powers, which makes others uncomfortable around them.]
[She is incredibly intelligent; however, due to her culture and obsession with Explosion, most people from the outside would think she is just acting like a child.]
[She grew up extremely poor, having to resort to stealing food and eating bugs to survive.]
[Current Thoughts - I need to convince him to let me join his party! I already gave Yunyun the rest of my money so she can go home and train. Try as she might, she will never defeat me!]
He shook his head, dismissing the window. He already had Darkness and her issue; he wasn't sure he wanted to follow the feelings the Canon was giving him on this one. Card gave him a lot of information, but not exactly what he was looking for. Still, he had an idea on how to make this a bit more amusing.
"Seal your powers? You need to do that as well?" He said as seriously as he could, then flared his mana so it bled out of his eye. "If I am not careful, I will burn in the blue fires of... California. If my patch ever comes off, the entire world would be in danger!"
She just looked at him a moment, the look of confusion on her face slowly becoming a wide smile. "It is destiny! We, who need to keep our powers hidden from the world, should work together to save it! Let me join your party, and together we will become like gods of this world!"
"Alas, that would be too dangerous. If our powers were unveiled at the same time, I cannot imagine the catastrophe that would cause. Neg, never tempt me with that, the temptation of... unleashing such unbridled power is too great." He replied, adlibbing some baloney. It was kind of fun, but he couldn't see making something like this as his personality.
"You don't understand! Your Fires of California and my Explosion! We would be the perfect duo of destruction! Please, let me join your party!"
He chuckled at that, breaking character. "Are you always going to talk like this? I'm not going to lie, it is amusing, but I can't keep this up for long. Not if I want to keep a straight face anyway."
"No, I can talk normally too. It is just part of who I am. Please?"
"Do you have anything to offer other than that one spell?"
"I don't need anything other than-"
"Then I don't think it would work out. I need my... partners to be able to be more than a one-trick pony."
"You haven't even seen my Explosion yet."
"Then show me, hit that barren hillside over there." He said, pointing to another hill that was pretty much just rock with a few tufts of grass.
"Yes! You won't regret it! Then you will understand why you need someone with my powers in your party!" She said, jumping up with a look of determination on her face.
He stood as well, and they moved a few paces away from the cliff edge. She took a stance, power beginning to radiate from her staff as she held it crossways in front of her. Then she began to chant, spinning her staff in rhythm with her words.
"Darker than black, darker than darkness, combine with my intense crimson. Time to wake up, descend to these borders and appear as an intangible distortion." She shouted. Dark clouds formed above them as ribbons of power radiated off of her. The other looked over, curious at what she was doing. He just raised a hand to say it was okay.
This is one hell of a long chant. Is that a thing for magic in this world?
"Dance, dance, dance! May a destructive force flood my torrent of power, a destructive force like no other! Send all creation to its source! Come out of your abyss! Humanity knows no other more powerful offensive technique! It is the ultimate magical attack!" She shouted, pulling even more mana into her staff, before stopping and slamming the butt of it to the ground. "Explosion!"
A giant beam of energy dropped out of the cloud, smashing into the barren hillside. Rocks lit up and disappeared in the conflagration, a massive fireball enveloping the area. The shockwave buffeted the cliffside, making him have to shield his eye and take a step back to brace himself while the wolves yipped in fear and darted off into the woods.
Holy shit!
After a few moments, it was over, the clouds dissipating, peace returning to the world. As the dust settled, a massive crater was revealed where there had been only barren rocks before.
"Okay, that was pretty awesome." He said, putting his hand on the petite woman's shoulder. Which seemed to be just the wrong thing to do as she collapsed to the ground.
"Hah, hah, he thinks I'm awesome." She said from the ground. She sounded a bit delirious and looked like she had mana exhaustion; she wasn't going to be moving under her own power anytime soon.
"I said the spell was awesome." He corrected, but she didn't seem to hear him, her red eye giving him a thousand-yard stare, a content smile on her face.
He pulled out his Substance X tin and popped a pill, then sat her upright. "Here, suck on this for a moment and swallow it when you can; it will help with your mana recovery." He said, popping the pill in her mouth.
"Okay. So... do I get the job?"
"I didn't know I was even hiring, darlin'. Why don't you rest for a bit? Then we’ll talk." He replied, holding her upright. She was like an actual doll now. A limp, four foot and a half foot tall doll built of skin and bones.
I'm not sure who is actually smaller, her or Chris. She can't weigh more than eighty pounds soaking wet. Forget Substance X, I want to feed her a steak. Or some deep-fried comfort food.
"Okay." She said again.
"John! Hate to interrupt this tender moment, but our mounts have run away. Did you really have to have her blow up a mountain while we are out in the middle of nowhere?" Aqua said, munching on some of the rations he brought.
"Ahh, crap."
It took a bit of time and some Healing Hands belly rubs, but he eventually managed to get the wolves to come out of the forest and get on the trail of the undead again. He held Megumin in the crook of his arm for over an hour until she managed to staddle Nebula's shoulders under her own power. It turned out she could only cast that spell once a day, which made it even less clear to him why she was so obsessed with it.
They continued in and out of different areas of woods until late in the afternoon, chatting idly about her time with the Crimson Demon Clan, her time in Axel, and her unwillingness to use magic other than that one spell. She actually seemed quite nice when she wasn't acting all crazy about Explosion, but that was the one sticking point he had that they couldn't seem to be able to find a compromise on.
"Sorry, Ma'am, I don't think this will work out. Unless you are willing to learn more spells, you will have to find another party after this trip. Powerful as you are, you become a liability after you use your magic, needing to be guarded or carried away to safety as you recover. We don't have the extra people to watch over you while we are engaged in combat."
"WHAT? I thought you understood how incredible my Explosion magic was!"
"Incredible? Yes. Useful? Only if we need to blow up a castle wall, an ambush opener, or if a horde of monsters stands still in a large group long enough for you to cast that spell. Unless it's something specific to those circumstances, I can't see paying you an equal share for anything we do. Besides, the plan for my party is to have a group that is willing to grow more powerful through training, then head off to take on the Devil King and his army. If you are not even willing to learn new spells to make yourself more versatile, you won't fit in with my goals."
"I thought you were different, but I guess you don't understand. Nobody understands." She said. He couldn't see her face because she had that hat on, but he could tell she was sad, disappointed, and maybe a little angry, but it was the truth. At best, she was a strategic asset to be brought out when appropriate, but he didn't have the resources to pay to keep her around for the odd times he needed one big boom. Not to mention, if they ever went to a dungeon, she wouldn't be able to do anything other than bop monsters on the head with her staff.
He was about to say something further when Nebula slowed down suddenly and made a small whine. He raised his hand to halt everyone else, looking through the foliage to the small meadow in front of them where shadowy shapes were moving along the other treeline.
They had found them.