Hiatus Gifting This Unfortunate Guy With Blessings

The seed of discord has been sown.

When Tayla had been 'passing by' by my room again in the morning I gave her a full view of a perfectly tidy room again. Then when I went downstairs I have seen her talking furiously with the priestly looking woman who in turn gave me a stink eye. I tried my best to seem confused about her looking at me with anger.

After getting scolded the woman stormed off from the inn. I still needed to learn her identity but it shouldn't be too hard to find out. There seemed to be a lot of more Eris priests than Axis Cult's ones. Besides Aqua and the woman, I saw maybe one more priest in blue colored garments, though I had to admit that I haven't explored much of the city yet.

Chris came down as I was eating a very tasty breakfast. The 'quick glances' that Teyla gave me made the meal even more delicious. Frustrating them was fun but I wanted to do something more.

Chris also took some breakfast and we ate together as we chatted. I told her about the arrow situation and she burst out laughing. I said I am gonna go buy some from the same shop and she told me that she needs to talk to Darkness a little bit more so I should go without her and we will meet in the guild. I agreed and we soon left the inn.

We parted ways and I went towards the old lady's shop. I knew the way well enough that I could use some alleyways without losing the way. The reason why I wanted to use them was to experiment with my power because an idea came to my mind when I was trying to think of a way to avoid using the money to buy duplicate items for all my forms like the mask for example.

All I needed to do is throw it to the air, change forms and catch it. There was still a problem with normal clothes but at least things like weapons would be easy to access in both of mine humanoid forms.

I also noticed that if I keep the bow in my hand, further away from the rest of my body it won't be absorbed and will be left in my hand when I change forms but if I have it on my back it will disappear as per usual. A dagger in my hand disappeared every time I switched the form so I judged it depended on the volume of the item I am holding and how it is 'spread' along my body.

For example, a chair that I sat on at wouldn't disappear normally, but if I were to hug it with my entire body then it might disappear like the rest of my things. I needed to check that to be sure.

I soon reached Megumin's house and decided to check if she has already left to the guild. After yesterday's talk with Chris, I wanted to ask Megumin if I can borrow her cat for a few minutes to get a cat form for myself.

I knocked a few times on her door and soon I could hear light steps coming from behind.

"Yes? Ah, Kazuki- Wait, am I late!?" She asked while going from curious expression to smile and then she somehow started to panic.

"Not really, I was going to the old lady's sh-" I said while pointing the shop in the distance but Megumin's actions made me stop.

She suddenly jumped down from the step and started furiously put her shoes. "Ready! We can go now!"

Why was she in such a hurry? Was what I asked myself but Megumin quickly added.

"I am gonna be the first in the guild!"

…

In a hurry, she almost forgot to wear her usual hat which was lying in the living room. Because of it she grunted, took her shoes down and went to grab it and came back.

"By the way, is your cat in the house?"

"Why are you asking about my familiar?" She asked while tied her shoelaces again.

Familiar? Ah, she once said something about having one. Did she mean that cat?

"I was wondering if I could touch it for a while to get a cat form for my power."

"Chomusuke is not a cat." When Megumin said her name the cat in question peeked out of the room, sat down patiently in the corridor and started l.i.c.k.i.n.g her paw and scratching herself. Megumin then added 'come here' and the cat obediently came into her arms and she picked her up.

I was confused. She looked like a cat, behaved like a cat, ate cat food that bag was lying to the left of the door. What else can Chomusuke be? A demon? She had that cross-shaped on her forehead.

"Here you go." Megumin said while handing me Chomusuke.

"Then what is she if not a cat?" I received her and she just curiously looked at me like the day before. She didn't struggle or show any resistance at all to being carried which was odd.

I used the command [List] to see how long I needed to have physical contact with Chomusuke to acquire the cat form. But there was no cat form listed at all. Nothing changed since yesterday in the 'List'.

"Chomusuke is a part of an evil god."

What the hell?! Megumin said that with an as-of-matter-of-factly expression as if she were talking about what she had for breakfast. No way that was true. Or was it?

My skill didn't pick up any additional form even though I thoroughly touched almost all parts of Chomusuke. It even started purring and meowled happily after a few seconds of me rubbing around her head. How is that a part of an evil god?

Well, it certainly didn't seem like a normal cat for my power unless it is allergic to them.

Meanwhile, Megumin was looking at me with sparkles in her eyes.

"Did you get an evil-god form?!"

"Nope. My skill didn't pick up any new forms available."

Megumin clicked with her tongue and added. "Evil god is too much for your skill to handle then. How disappointing. Should we go to the guild then?" Megumin seemed to lose interest, took up her magic staff and was raring to go outside so I just petted Chomusuke one more time and then followed Megumin to the exit.

So the skill had some limits on forms as well. The more you learn.

We went together to the old lady's shop and bought some arrows for me. As I expected she didn't spare me another of her laughs when I told her I forgot about them.

We left the shop and Megumin looked smugly at me as if she was saying 'How could you forget arrows for a bow. Pfft~'

If I were a petty person I would mention that I had to lug someone through the city yesterday and I was tired because of it. But I was not a petty person. I was a very reasonable 16 old guy and I definitely haven't threatened Megumin that I would snatch her staff and keep it from her during the quest if she said someone else about this matter. Definitely.

When Megumin calmed down she asked. "Have you been able to find out anything about your power yesterday?" so I shared my findings with her. She asked to see my adventurers card when in my Crimson Demon form so we went into one alleyway and switched while making sure Megumin wouldn't be able to see my face.

"Those stats are not enough for an archwizard job, but it shouldn't take long to reach required values if you level up." is what she said after handing me back my card. We then moved out of the alleyway towards the guild.

"So… have you considered learning explosion magic? I can teach you all about it!" Megumin started suddenly.

"How many skill points would I need for it?" It looked like really powerful magic so it wouldn't be bad even if I was to almost faint each time.

"I acquired it for 42 points. Best decision of my life!"

Say what?! That's extremely pricy! And also Megumin seems very knowledgable about explosion so for me it could go into even over fifty skill points!

"No, I think I will pass-"

"Nonono, you can't give up so fast. I will make sure you realize the superiority of explosion magic over any other magic! "

"I am not giving up on anything, I just -" I wanted to say that I would try different kinds of magic but Megumin jumped in front of my face with beaming smile.

"I knew you would see the reason! Let me explain all about the magnificence of ultimate magic to you."

She seriously started talking about the basic things about the explosion magic! And she did it with such enthusiasm and passion that I couldn't even bring myself to stop her so I listened to her lecture until we arrived at the guild.

"... and that's why you should mix your mana in the spiraling pattern rather than simple circular one to achieve the best-"

"Ummm…"

"What is it Kazuki-kun, you shouldn't disturb your teacher when she is explaining very important things. I will have to restart from the beginning."

Megumin then noticed that me, Chris, Darkness, Kazuma, and Aqua were eyeing her together.

"Ah, h-hello." She became a little bit fl.u.s.tered.

"Well then, I won't disturb your team anymore! See you later!" Chris said while standing up from her seat. She whispered 'Good luck, take care of Darkness for me' while passing by me and left the guild.

Then Megumin and I moved to take the seats but Darkness stood up and quickly came up to us.

"Hello. I am Darkness and I will be your teammate from today onwards."

The blonde knight that wrestled with me when I was in my goblin form reached out her hand to me. She didn't pant, she didn't sweat, she didn't say anything weird. She just introduced herself like a normal person to which I answered in kind while internally gaping my mouth.

Who is that?

She also introduced herself to Megumin who in turn gave her usual 'flashy' performance which stunned Darkness a little and she released kinda forced smile. That reaction was perfectly normal as well!

Kazuma kept stealing glances at the blonde knight while Aqua was munching on some meat. It seemed that we arrived quite late and they had time to get to know Darkness. When she sat down she kept behaving like a normal person.

Maybe she had a weird twin? Seriously, who is she?

I mean… I saw her talking normally with Chris before, but the Darkness/me-goblin scene was so powerful in my mind that I couldn't think of her as a normal person.

Maybe she drank something weird that day?

"While we waited for the TWO of you to arrive..." Kazuma started a little bit annoyed. I wasn't surprised since I knew we came in pretty late. But there was a reason for this.

You see, there was this excited young girl walking down the street, wildly gesticulating with her hands. She was droning on and on about the magic of mass destruction, bumping into merchant stalls along the way. When they tried to reprimand her behavior, she took it upon herself to scold them in turn, resulting in us being later than intended.

"... we asked Luna-san to give us some good quest for a new party." Kazuma nodded towards the Receptionist-san sitting behind the counter who noticed that and waved her hand towards us. Then he showed us the flier with the context of the quest written on it.

"Our job is to lure out and kill a single Gator that somehow nested in the river bend. Gator is a giant lizard type monster that is slow on the land so the hardest part will be luring him out. Any questions? Yes?"

"How is that a good quest for a new party?" I asked while trying to remain calm. This sounded like the opposite of what one would call a starting quest. I thought Kazuma was the reasonable type. Was I wrong?