Quite a lot has happened over on (P)(A)(T). It's two chapters ahead of the Group Chat OMAKE, in case anyone was wondering — someone asked me about that, and I figured others might have the same question.
I won't drag this out. Good night, and enjoy the read!
(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori.
[...]---[...]
I spent the next few minutes just reading the (CHAT) and watching the prizes viewers won on the roulette.
Stark, Serafall, and Ainz—just like they'd said earlier—kind of started a hunt for as many medals as they could get. Not just the ones marked as (Unique), but any they didn't already have duplicates of.
That ended up boosting my SP a bit, since the "internal market" was still new and prices weren't well established yet.
Which I didn't think would last long, since Jarvis and Penny were already working on price balancing for each medal, based on rarity, which event it came from, and how it was obtained.
I had created a (CHAT) and put the two of them in there to do the calculations.
Penny was more of an assistant, since she was far inferior to Jarvis in processing power—and by a lot. Something that left her sulking when she realized it.
The rarity tiers, along with the percentage chance of items dropping from the roulette, also included whether or not they rotated back in. Jarvis used that to define the theoretical prices the medals should have.
The calculations they came up with looked fucking unnecessary and overly complicated to me, but whatever.
Stark posted an extremely simplified summary for everyone else. In his exact words: "If this shit comes back fast and there's a lot of it, it's cheap. If there's little of it and it takes forever to come back, it's expensive."
The funny part was the title: [Basic Economics for Imbeciles: Scarcity and Abundance].
He also posted another thread with all of Jarvis's calculations in full, in case anyone wanted to give feedback or thought they were getting ripped off.
The rarest medal that had come out of the roulette so far was still "The Infinite Man (Unique)," which Ozma had already said he wouldn't sell. The second rarest was in Serafall's hands—a medal called "Winterhord," which would only get another copy in the roulette after six months.
There was also a "Winterhord – Frozen Hallucination," but that one was truly unique.
The unique items had also been renamed and were being popularly called by the (CHAT) "Orange-Devas Items." There was no vote; people just started calling them that out of nowhere. It was kind of weird.
The flood of messages after I turned on the roulette died down over time, everyone burning through their weekly chance almost instantly, but every now and then a few messages still popped up from people who were late for one reason or another.
[FanBase has received the medal: "Blood Zombie."!]
[MoonPrincess has received the medal: "Drippler"!]
[ShadowCatLulu has received the medal: "Slime (Green)"!]
[HalfBloodPrince has received a Custom Emote!]
[Thecrownedclown has received the medal: "Antlion Charger"!]
[TheBestAndMostBeautifulThief has received the random emote: "Applause"!]
[ArchOfSeasons has received 100,000 SP!]
[PumkinKnight has received the medal: "Slime (Purple)"!]
[So-Tan has received a Ticket: "Free Entry to the Memory Room"!]
[Lord Archivist has received the unique medal: "Temporary Professor of Beacon"!]
[JackSon has received: "Call Ticket (Five minutes)"!]
No unique medals. The rarest one pulled was "Temporary Professor of Beacon," which would return to the roulette in a month.
I let out a short laugh at Kaguya's complaints about how disgusting the medal she'd gotten was. Even so, she still hadn't sold it.
Toman started spamming the applause emote in the (CHAT) right after getting it.
"Percy, are you going to call me now?" I asked, looking at the camera.
It was the second "Call Ticket" that had been drawn out of the ten for this week. Neo commented that she'd save hers for when she felt lonely on a cold night and wanted to hear my voice.
I still thought Roman was a saint.
Percy's message appeared from inside a puddle of water… That was starting to worry me.
[JackSon]
Nah, I'll save it for when I'm taking a test or something, then you can give me the answers.
(Emote of a blue seahorse floating in the sea)
[JackMom]
Perseus Jackson!
[JackSon]
(Emote of a blue seahorse swimming away really fast)
I couldn't hold back the soft smile that spread across my face.
It had been a while since those two showed up. Well, Sally was busy with work. Even after the financial help I'd given her, she still worked—mostly to keep herself busy and away from Gabe.
I… was probably going to kill that guy, wasn't I…?
Percy chatted randomly, but it was mostly just to talk with Harry. I'd created a (CHAT) just for the two of them; more than half the messages were them complaining about boring classes or about how "cool" and "awesome" I was.
I kind of avoided reading that chat out of embarrassment…
I just agreed, telling Percy he could call me anytime, and went back to relaxing, reading the (CHAT) while playing mock fights with Millia, using my fingers as a "little person" to fight her.
I lost every single time; she was good.
Jinn had stopped massaging the top of my head and pulled a chair out of the Relic of Knowledge to sit beside me. She sat cross-legged, softly humming a tune I didn't recognize.
I leaned back against the chair. I spent a few minutes—no more than five—with my eyes closed, enjoying the music.
I felt like sleeping; my headache had eased up a lot…
But I still had things to do.
After shaking off the drowsiness, I straightened up and pulled the Winterhord mission screen into view. I went straight to the only side quest I hadn't completed before the night the sky bled:
-//-
[Back to the Realm, Quickly! (Completed!)]
Secondary Objective: Return to Terraria in less than three months! (Top Priority!)
Reward: World Mission – The Parts of the Moon: The Eye of the Moon. (Chain Mission – Part 1).
-//-
"Finally going to check the rewards?" Jinn poked my cheek.
"I saved the best for last." I paused. "I hope…"
I was sure about some of the items I'd get—I just didn't know how different they'd be from what I remembered from the game.
If the Bone Helm had turned into what it did, what the fuck was that shield going to turn into…?
When I clicked to claim the reward, another blue screen appeared above the one I was looking at. The new mission was automatically completed the moment it appeared.
The information read:
-//-
[World Mission – The Parts of the Moon: The Eye of the Moon. (Chain Mission – Part 1)]
Description:
After thousands of years, an old, rusted gear begins to turn once more.
The Cultists waited for the right moment for the ritual. Something that had been attempted many years ago, but only partially succeeded.
Islands sank as the waters of the sea took on a shade so red it looked like blood. Thousands of lives used as sacrifice. Flesh, blood, and bones offered to the Crimson.
The few survivors of that bloody night carried scars in body and mind so severe that, to this day, their descendants are born without their left eye.
This time, the ritual will not bring merely a mirrored image of the Eye of the Moon, but the real thing. The red color will not be just color.
When the full moon rises, the sky will bleed…
A malevolent presence watches the world.
[..]
Objective: Survive the Blood Moon.
Reward: Life Crystal (5), Mana Crystal (5), 100,000,000 SP, Healing Potion (50x), Mana Potion (50x), Money Trough, Blood Orb (1000x), Gold Coin (30000), Lens (300), Black Lens (30x), Eye Patch.
-//-
"That's… a lot of rewards." And that was without even counting the secondary objectives. There were several of those.
Jinn stayed silent, watching as I organized the rewards.
First: the Life and Mana Crystals were excellent. I'd kind of burned through all the ones I had, so I was running low.
I checked their stats and, to my surprise, they were still the same ten percent as always. Even after having 'eaten' ten of each before, their effectiveness hadn't changed.
I tossed them into the Voidbag, into the area I'd nicknamed "the place where I throw things that can unfuck something that's fucked." Most of my main healing, recovery, and consumable items were there.
What bothered me a bit was the amount I got: five of each. Not because I expected more, but because it was the exact same amount I'd received from the Shahrabad mission.
Knowing that the stream treated, at least in part, Shahrabad's reward as equivalent to the fucking Blood Moon didn't give me a good feeling.
I knew the shit the Cultists were pulling there was bad… but it felt even worse than I'd thought.
Next came the SP. As always, SP was welcome, and one hundred million was a solid amount.
[Current SP: 593,561,648]
My total was climbing fast thanks to the stream update—and that was without me even turning on the Memory Room yet.
The health and mana potions were good too. I'd been expecting at least one Greater Healing Potion, but I wasn't disappointed with fifty Healing Potions and fifty Mana Potions.
The next reward item caught me off guard. Not the item itself, but what it did. The Money Trough was something I knew very well: no matter what Terraria world I created, I always tried to get it during the first Blood Moon.
A mobile chest where the player could store various items. Basically a second inventory, where I usually just dumped my coins, spare potions, and a few random items.
What I received as a reward, though, was a bit different:
-//-
[Money Trough]
Type: Summon Item / Storage / Pet (Bound)
Rarity: Orange
Prefix: Money
Damage: 30
Knockback: 30
Durability: 1,000,000 / 1,000,000 (Regenerative)
[..]
Ability (1):
Maintains a simple internal space measuring one hundred thousand square meters. Keeps the internal temperature at 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit).
Does not allow living creatures to enter.
Does not freeze items in time.
Ability – Money!:
Capable of converting minerals, ores, gemstones, coins, and banknotes into currency from countries/worlds that The Streamer has already visited, or from their citizenship/ancestry.
Conversion is based on the economy of the respective worlds.
Available currencies:
Real (BRL) — Brazil (Earth)
Euro (EUR) — Europe / Italy (Earth)
US Dollar (USD) — USA (Earth)
Copper Coin (Terraria)
Silver Coin (Terraria)
Gold Coin (Terraria)
Royal Gold Coin (Terraria)
Platinum Coin (Terraria)
Yen — Highschool of the Dead (JPY-HOTD)
Taishō Yen (JPY-T) — Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)
Lien (Remnant — RWBY)
[..]
Description:
An item created based on an old Fae practice of turning their pets into living inventories.
A strange practice used mainly to store money, as many Fae believed that concentrating all their luck in a single place was beneficial.
If they suffered extreme bad luck over a short period of time, they would slaughter the animal, believing that by doing so they would also kill the bad luck.
[…]
~Summons a flying piggy bank to store your items. ~
-//-
Turning your pet into a money storage and killing it if you got unlucky?…
What the actual fuck is this, man?!
"See why I say ninety-nine percent of the Fae are fucking psychopaths?" I pointed at the screen with both hands.
The (CHAT) agreed with me one hundred percent.
I saw Jinn frown in disgust. But she seemed to choose to focus on something other than the sheer psychopathy of that cursed species:
"Real, Euro, and US Dollar?… The others are from worlds you've already been to, and these…" She hesitated, glancing at me. "Are from your home world? Ancestry or citizenship?"
"…Both," I answered after a moment. I'd been expecting the question. "I have American citizenship by birth—that's the dollar. The real and the euro come from my mother's side… specifically her parents. My grandfather and grandmother. Their case is… curious. Pretty unlikely, actually."
"Curious how?" Jinn asked beside me, turning her chair slightly toward me.
I thought for a few seconds before deciding to explain. "My grandfather was Italian, from a very poor background. My grandmother was Brazilian, born into a wealthy family that came from Portugal sometime in the late…" I paused, trying to remember. "I think the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. I'm not sure."
I never talked much about my grandmother with the old man. She'd died before I was born, due to illness. He didn't like talking about her.
All I knew was that it was some kind of minor noble family tied to trade.
"That was around the time the Portuguese royal family went to Brazil, right? 1808. Does your mother's family have any connection?" Jinn asked, her voice animated.
I blinked twice. That… had happened? I'd never really been into history.
"No?… At least I don't think so. Actually, how much do you know about Earth's history? Do you need context?"
She shook her head quickly, her voice coming out faster than usual, like she wanted me to get back to the story as soon as possible.
"I've read most of the Contemporary Age and recently moved on to the Modern Age. I've also read bits and pieces about the Ancient and Medieval Ages that caught my interest," she explained.
"I don't need an explanation. Don't worry—go on."
I narrowed my eyes slightly. Curious… but I chose not to comment and continued:
"Anyway. It was 1959. Big changes were happening in both countries." Changes Jinn probably knew better than I did, now that I thought about it… "My grandfather worked at the docks in Italy. That's where he met my grandmother, when she traveled there with her family."
"He said it was love at first sight." I chuckled. "At least on his side. He was fourteen or fifteen, if I remember right, and my grandmother was seventeen. A poor, street-smart dockworker kid and a rich girl traveling from the other side of the world."
"Sounds like a movie, right? My grandfather used to say it could've been the script for one…" I laughed again—more bitter and acidic this time. "Anyway, my grandfather ended up being the unlikely guide who helped my grandmother's family. From what I know, she didn't like being stuck in formal tours, so he ended up showing her the city in secret."
"I don't know exactly how it all went down—my grandfather always told slightly different versions—but it seems she'd sneak out to see him and experience the real city, not just the pretty places shown to tourists. Her family found out, of course, and forbade any contact once they returned to Brazil."
"What I do know is that they kept in touch in secret for years, through letters. Years later, my grandfather saved up money and went after her in Brazil."
The old man was stubborn. He had a ticket, the clothes on his back, and a dream.
A whole lot of sexual motivation too—but I chose not to say that out loud so I wouldn't ruin the story. After all, I'm pretty sure my grandmother's escapades weren't just about sightseeing and getting to know the city…
"I have no idea how they reunited or what happened in between. I just know that, in the end, they stayed together. They lived in Brazil until the early eighties, then moved to the United States, and my mother was born there in 1980."
And in the end, everything fell apart the way it did… the moment I was born.
After the story ended, I paused.
My throat wasn't dry or anything like that. I wasn't tired either. I was just… waiting for a question. From Jinn, from the (CHAT), or even from Millia.
More specifically, a question about my father's side of the family.
But none came. Jinn seemed perfectly content just listening and nothing more. Millia was silent, "watching" from the panel in front of her, and the (CHAT), even though it was full of messages, didn't send a single one flying in front of me.
I let out a short breath and pulled the Money Trough out of the rewards. It was a small wooden trough painted pink, and instead of pig food inside, there were little gold coins.
I instinctively felt that if I shook it or simply "called," the sleeping animal inside would be summoned.
I didn't summon it right away. Instead, I tossed the item into the Voidbag. It was a great item on its own—huge internal space, and the ability to convert raw materials into money, or one currency into another, would save me a lot of trouble when I reached a new world.
I'd summon it later, after dealing with the rest of the mission rewards.
I moved on to the next one: the blood orbs.
I didn't know what they were. I didn't remember them from Terraria. Even so, something felt strangely familiar about them for some reason. It was a shitty feeling—the same one I had when I realized I should have thought more carefully about the NPC titles.
I left a note in Jarvis's (CHAT), the same one with the alarms that kept going off every thirty minutes. I also made a few notes on my phone and planned to warn Jinn and Ozma.
That feeling of "I should know this, but for some reason I don't" was absolute garbage…
I shook my head and inspected the blood orb I was holding between my thumb and index finger. The item was small, about the size of a grape.
It had a crystallized, semi-transparent appearance and gleamed in the light. Its color was a deep, intense crimson. It almost looked appetizing, honestly—like a candied sweet.
The problem was the smell…
It wasn't just the scent of blood. It was pungent and rancid. A smell so strong I could taste iron on my tongue, and my skin felt sticky, as if it were coated in blood.
I frowned and used Shadowflame to burn the air around the blood orb, preventing the smell from spreading through the room.
It was good news that the stream hadn't dumped all one thousand of them around the room, instead keeping them inside a box with expanded internal space.
"Good… I almost had some flashbacks…" I heard Jinn murmur, sounding relieved.
I ignored the (CHAT) messages and stared at the blood orb. It really did look beautiful…
I let out a light sigh and used Analyze: Item:
-//-
[Blood Orb]
Type: Material / Consumable
Rarity: Light Purple
Description:
Created from thousands of liters of blood, condensed and filtered with magic into a single orb the size of a grape. They contain immense vitality.
They can be consumed directly to restore vitality.
They are mainly used to assist in potion crafting, being able to replace several materials.
[..]
~ Might taste good?… ~
-//-
I'd expected Pink or Light Red rarity, but this was better: Light Purple.
This was the second Light Purple rarity item I had. The only other one was the Relic of Destruction—something created by a god.
Or the fourth, technically, since the Relic of Knowledge and the Relic of Choice were probably the same rarity.
Of course, it wasn't the same thing. But in a way, it was just as good. From the brief description alone, I could already think of several ways to use these orbs that would make my life much easier—and that was without any testing…
I opened my mouth and slowly—
"Why are you like this…?" Jinn grabbed my wrist with her left hand and let out a long sigh. "You know you could just eat normal food, right?"
"It looks delicious." I showed her the Blood Orb.
"It smells like death. Literally like standing in the middle of hundreds of mutilated corpses. It's not supposed to make you hungry—it's supposed to make you want to throw up," she shot back. "And you don't even know whose blood that is. I'm sure it's not animal blood."
She had a point…
"But it looks delicious." I tossed the blood orb—and the rest—into the Voidbag before she could respond. "I'm just kidding. I wasn't going to eat it this time."
This time, it really was a joke.
I was just messing around to distract myself from the fact that the blood orbs were very likely made from the lives of everyone who died during the Blood Moon.
She didn't reply. She just narrowed her eyes slightly, but let go of my wrist.
Blue threads appeared in my vision at that moment. They shaped themselves into a square form resembling a phone, and several messages began scrolling across it:
[TheRainWitch]
So… was he always like this, or is this a personality change caused by exposure to that magical blood-moon weather event?
[TohsakaHeiress]
Like this how? The madness or the borderline cannibalism?
[TheRainWitch]
Uh… both?
[AdvocateOfGenderEquality]
The guy's always been crazy.
[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]
Don't talk about him like that! Devas is fine… most of the time. Sometimes… maybe… He's cute the way he is!
[MagicalGirlSera-Tan]
Quirks make the man. Without them he'd be ordinary, and ordinary is boring. Cannibalism isn't even top 50 of the worst things he could be.
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]
I'll defend my bro: say whatever you want, but Devas never hid the fact that he's a cannibal.
[AsuraLady]
Nobody's perfect. I'm fine with those flaws. I love him just the way he is.
[AdvocateOfGenderEquality]
Love really does make people stupid…
The messages appeared rapidly, like everyone was part of the same group chat, before starting to scroll upward and disappear off the "screen" they were on.
Great self-defense, really. I loved the part where none of you denied anything and just deflected or said it was part of my personality!
While I read the conversation, I dumped the thirty thousand gold coins I'd received into my inventory. I did the same with the lenses and the black lenses.
I thought those last ones might be special. In a way, they were—but not that much. They were just very large lenses, about the size of my palm, made of tempered glass, with mana filling the glass in a way that amplified vision.
They also all had a bizarre resonance with one another that strengthened them when they were close together or overlapping—which was the part that excited me.
Good materials. I'd figure out what to do with them later.
As for the Eye Patch, that was exactly what it was: an eye patch. Black, simple, no adornments. Extremely well made, crafted from top-tier materials.
There was nothing magical about it—it was just a normal eye patch.
I ended up putting it on. Combined with the beard I needed to shave and my loose hair, it made me look like a pirate. The (CHAT)'s words, not mine.
Whether I liked it or not, I agreed with Robyn and Kaguya—I kind of looked like a bum.
With the main rewards done, I moved on to the secondary objective rewards.
There were only six of them, fewer than Shahrabad, but the rewards were much more numerous:
-//-
Secondary Objective (1): Kill the Eye of the Moon! (Completed!)
Description: You are 'The Streamer.' Only those you allow may watch you.
Nothing and no one else…
Reward: Treasure Bag (Eye of 'The Moon'), Teardrop Cleaver, Eye of 'The Moon' Trophy, Eye of 'The Moon' Relic, Greater Healing Potion (5x)
[..]
Secondary Objective (2): Kill the creatures fished up by the 'Angler – Simon'! Dreadnautilus! Hemogoblin Shark! Zombie Merman! Wandering Eye Fish! (Completed!)
Description: Those who carry the title 'Angler' can walk on a boat as if it were solid ground. They treat the sea as their home.
The only ones capable of fishing up everything that exists in the world—rivers, lakes, or oceans. No matter the weather.
No matter the liquid…
No matter the color of the moon…
Summoned Creatures:
Dreadnautilus: Dead (kill assist, partial reward!)
Reward: Sanguine Staff.
Hemogoblin Shark: Dead (killed directly, full reward!)
Reward: Haemorrhaxe and Blood Thorn.
Zombie Merman: Dead (kill assist, partial reward!)
Reward: Chum Caster.
Wandering Eye Fish: Dead (kill assist, partial reward!)
Reward: Blood Rain Bow.
[..]
Secondary Objective (3): Defeat the goblin armies!
Description: Two armies, one invasion, driven by a grudge that, in the end, may not even exist.
Stop the goblins. How you do it is up to you.
Reward: Fragment of the First Shadowflame.
[..]
Secondary Objective (4): Keep the "NPCs" present in the realm alive! (Completed!)
Description: Allies, enemies, blessed, cursed—it doesn't matter. Keep them alive and settle any grudges, hostilities, or debts afterward.
Letting their blood mingle with what falls from the sky and their souls become a sacrifice to the moon above is something that must be avoided at all costs…
"NPCs" Present in the Realm:
The Guide: Dylan Oakwood (Alive!) and ??? (Alive!)
Reward: Voodoo Doll (Dylan), Voodoo Doll (Blank)
The Zoologist: Robyn Jheut (Alive!)
Reward: Full Moon Squeaky Toy (Fox)
The Dryad: Alalia (Alive!)
Reward: Planetary Globe (Blank)
The Nurse: Melissa Oakwood (Alive!)
Reward: Monstrous Knives
The Arms Dealer: Darnell
Reward: Silver Bullet (5000), Tungsten Bullet (5000), The Undertaker
The Merchant: Gilbert Jheut (Alive!)
Reward: Throwing Knife (Recipe)
The Angler: Simon Blueharbor (Dead!)
Reward: (None)
The Steampunker: Selina Steamhord (Alive!)
Reward: Red Solution (Recipe)
The Painter: ??? (Alive!)
Reward: Evil Presence (Painting)
The Princess: Charlotte A'Elise of Valmont (Alive!)
Reward: Terragrim
The Wizard: Hirael Aleggard (Alive!)
Reward: Ice Rod
The Party Girl: Ísis (Alive!)
Reward: Fog Machine
The Dye Trader: Ahinadab (Alive!)
Reward: Bloodbath Dye (Recipe)
The Demolitionist: Beldin (Alive!)
Reward: Hellfire Arrow (Recipe)
The Bandit: Maribel (Alive!)
Reward: Slick Cane
[..]
Secondary Objective (5): Prevent the fall of the kingdom!
Description: Terraria is one of the four pillars of the world—the most important one. With the fall of the kingdom, the end begins…
Do not let the first domino fall!
Reward: Pylon Fragment (1/4)
[..]
Secondary Objective (6): Make the Blood Moon end early!
Description: Killing the Eye of the Moon, destroying the Storm, bringing the stars back to the Starless Sky… none of that will make the moon lose its blood-red color before the sun rises again on the horizon.
Something more is required to banish the crimson that stains the world.
It takes a near-impossible feat to make the sky stop bleeding.
It takes…
Reward: Chalice of the Blood God (Broken, Devastatingly Weakened, Fractured)
-//-
My eyes ran over the list of secondary objectives and rewards. There were a lot of them; some I didn't even recognize from the game, even though they gave me that same "I should know this, but I don't" feeling from earlier.
But what caught my attention most wasn't any of that. It wasn't even the fucking Chalice of the Blood God…
It was the fact that there were two "Guides" in the kingdom.
'Beware of the Guide.'
…That shit had been in the realm this whole time!
I restrained myself from calling Alalia and tearing the entire kingdom apart stone by stone looking for that son of a bitch. She herself had said she couldn't detect "titles," and I'd wandered through almost the entire realm before and never noticed anything suspicious on the minimap.
I'd even gone near the Guide Order's side of things to see if anything strange showed up on the minimap—but nothing. No red dots, no orange, nothing beyond yellow.
Whoever it was, they were well hidden—and that alone was a problem.
I took a deep breath and started organizing my thoughts.
"Do you want me to call the others and start a search?" Jinn asked, following the same line of reasoning I was.
I hesitated before answering. "No… at least not right now. Something tells me we won't find this guy unless he wants to be found. But I'll talk to the others and tell them to stay alert."
I'll infest the entire kingdom with Nightmares, fuck it. Every shadow of every miserable leaf in this place will have an eye… If two ants get into a fight, I'll know!
She nodded once and fell silent.
I stayed quiet for a few seconds, then let out a breath I'd been holding and pulled the secondary objectives screen back in front of my face.
I started claiming the rewards in the order I thought would be easiest to organize. I began with Secondary Objective (4).
With a tap, several items appeared on the panel in front of me. The first ones I picked up were the two voodoo dolls. I didn't waste time analyzing the one that wasn't Dylan's.
Unfortunately, it wasn't bound to anyone and didn't give me even a hint about the other "Guide." Still, it was a voodoo doll—a doll where I'd get to choose whose blood went inside before I started sticking needles in it.
It could be useful. And it probably would be.
I looked at the second doll with a slightly morbid amusement. I now had two of these things bound to Dylan…
…I'm not going to burn him, for fuck's sake!
I tossed both dolls into the Voidbag and moved on to the next item: the Full Moon Squeaky Toy. I felt a bond form between me and the item the moment I touched it.
Just like the name suggested, it was a squeaky toy—a ball, more specifically. Orange in color, about the size of a baseball.
I squeezed it.
"Squeeze!"
The ball in my hand glowed, and in an empty space on the panel in front of me, a small fox appeared. Orange fur, black at the tips of its tail and ears, and a white chest.
It was tiny—about the size of my palm, really.
The little thing looked at me, tilted its head to the side, utterly confused, and then immediately tried to jump onto my shoulder.
Jinn intercepted it midair and pressed it against her chest.
"So cute! It has your eyes, look! A little girl!" She pointed at the fox's eyes, which were honey-brown. "Can I pick her name?!"
"…It's a he. Male," I corrected; I could tell thanks to our bond. "And go ahead, name him. The (CHAT) seems excited too."
Jinn let out a happy squeal and squished the fox between her breasts with her left hand. With her right, she pulled out her phone and started a poll for what the little guy's name should be.
Subtly, I clenched my left fist in victory. Yes, damn it! The group was finally getting more guys instead of girls!
The nameless fox stared at me like it was begging to be saved from suffocating between Jinn's two blue mountains. I reached out, grabbed it by the scruff, and placed it on my right shoulder.
Jinn pouted, but didn't complain. "I'll get him back later anyway…" I heard her mutter.
The little guy sighed in relief and turned around before lying down, using his own tail as a pillow while looking at me. He must've noticed my missing eye, because he closed his left one and looked at me with just his right.
He smiled, too.
"Can I touch him?" Millia asked. She'd climbed onto my head some time ago.
I nodded in agreement.
She formed a small gel hand and stretched it out to poke the fox's head a few times. The nameless little guy licked the hand, making Millia laugh before she pulled it back.
"I like him."
"I'm glad." This was already the best reward—fuck the rest.
Checking the item's stats, I noticed the little guy could change size. He couldn't get very big—around the size of a normal fox, maybe a bit larger. His smallest size was what he was now.
He had the attack power of a dull teaspoon, so he was useless in a fight. But if he were destroyed, he could revive as long as the Full Moon Squeaky Toy still existed, since he was basically a living mana construct.
He could evolve, though, so maybe he'd be useful in the future beyond just being cute.
And if I tossed this little guy at Robyn's fox? Casually, of course—just to see what would happen…
[...]---[...]
Devas: "I've got a male fox. I'm going to toss him at Robyn's female fox just to piss her off when my boy pulls it off."
That said, these rewards are going to give Devas a massive boost. They're items that will start putting him in the big leagues—both because of their utility and because of what he can learn if he studies them.
After all, the next worlds will start being worlds with real Gods.
No spoilers. Good night, everyone, and enjoy the read!