Markets and Multiverses

After Sallia reached the cavern, she looked at the chaotic battlefield, and felt a slight grin tug at her lips as her hand tightened around Felix’s sword. She felt a thrill of anticipation run through her body as she looked at the scene in front of her. 

Finally, a real battle. After spending twenty years in this world, Sallia hadn’t been allowed to take part in a real fight once. She had only ever done practice fights with her friends and the instructors her teacher found for her.

But this was a real battle. The very thing she had yearned to participate in during her first life, when she had tried to become a magic knight.

She reached for the manifestation essence in her body, an essence familiar to her from her first life, and yet so very different in this world, and rapidly formed a series of second circle spells, centered on her own body. In moments, her muscles and bones grew stronger and her grip on her sword became steadier. However, instead of just launching herself into the battle, as Sallia longed to do, she looked at her friends to make sure they were ready to join as well.

Miria looked rather curious about the entire mess, all things considered. Sallia couldn’t help but think that even though Miria didn’t share her love of fighting, she certainly didn’t shy away from it, either.

Felix looked strangely… uninterested in the scene of the denizens of the dark who were assaulting the area. Sallia found this strange for a moment, before she realized he had probably seen similar scenes during his time as a hunter on the islands plenty of times.

Unlike the three Transmigrators, Anise looked scared as she watched the chaotic fight. Sallia watched as Miria moved a few steps closer to Anise, and quietly patted her on the shoulder, calming the other girl down, and felt a smile pull at her lips.

She was glad to see that her best friend was so willing to help Anise steady her nerves here. 

Finally, Sallia glanced at Lauren who was… looking at her and shaking is head. Sallia frowned.

“Don’t go yet. The soldiers know you’re coming today, but you should still introduce yourself before joining the fight,” said Lauren. “Otherwise one might fire a spell at you by mistake, and we don’t want that.”

Sallia deflated, and wished she had saved the twenty magic symbols she had just spent boosting herself for the fight. Four second-circle spells wasn’t crushingly expensive, but it also wasn’t as if Sallia was happy wasting a bunch of spells.

“Can I really not join the fight at all?” Sallia asked.

“Just relax, Sallia,” said Lauren. “I know you want to join, but we’ll wait until this wave of monsters ends first. Besides, I want to make sure you have some proper safety precautions before joining the battle, and for that I want to talk with the person in charge of this cavern today. He’s an old friend of mine.”

Sallia sighed.

“Is this sort of battle common?” asked Miria, drawing Sallia’s attention away from her disappointment.

“It’s unusual for so many denizens of the deep to crop up at once, but this is still pretty average for a border cavern,” Lauren said. “Normally, several groups of denizens will show up a day, at semi-random times, and try to attack the passageway. Then, there’ll be nothing new for a couple hours, before another battle occurs. This group seems especially large, which is a little unlucky, but on a bad day you can get practically nonstop waves of monsters crashing against the walls. This isn’t the worst I’ve seen, though it’s pretty bad for this particular cavern.”

Lauren continued to calmly discuss the nature of border caverns, and Sallia could see Anise calming down more as Lauren spoke. The way Lauren discussed this situation, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, seemed to be doing wonders for Anise’s nerves, even if it just made Sallia want to jump into the fight more.

She felt Miria’s light touch on her arm, and realized that her friend had snuck up on her after Anise had calmed down.

“Just relax. You’ll get your chance soon,” said Miria, grinning, and Sallia slowly released her grip on her sword as she slid it back into her sheath.

Soon, the wave of monsters came to an end, and the soldiers started to quickly drag the corpses to the side, clean off their weapons, and relax. Sallia noticed that all of the soldiers maintained a certain level of combat readiness; however, they were clearly snatching some time to rest now that they weren’t under attack. At the same time, Sallia noticed that the stone wall had stopped collapsing into the ground, and was now stable again. Perhaps it had been influenced by some sort of spell used by the monsters before now?

Before Sallia could think more about the wall, Lauren and Ella strode towards the group of soldiers, and from the group of soldiers, an older man with a grizzled beard and a relaxed posture came to greet the two teachers.

“Greetings, Mack!” said Lauren, giving the man a friendly grin. 

“Hey Lauren! And good day to you, Grand Shaper Ella,” said Mack, giving both teachers respectful greetings. However, Sallia noticed that the man was much more casual with Lauren. Clearly, the two were close enough that they weren’t terribly hung up on formality. “Nice to see you again. Are these four the kids I’m taking care of today?” asked Mack, gesturing towards Sallia and her friends.

“They are,” said Lauren, giving Mack a nod. “Those three are mine, and the last one is Miria, apprentice of Grand Shaper Ella. Miria and Anise are both specialized in long range combat, while Sallia is a bit more melee focused. Felix is a bit more of a craftsman, but he has some skill in archery and swordsmanship, and he can hold his own,” said Lauren, pointing out each of the children as he named them and discussed their abilities.

Mack turned to Sallia and gave her a more curious look. “Swordsman shaper-caster, eh? Those are pretty rare. Good to see weapons aren’t being entirely neglected even by spellcasters,” he said, grinning at her. “Nothing like getting into the thick of things with a blade.”

Sallia felt a smile tug at her lips. Since Lauren was a more traditional spellcaster, who was used to sitting at the back of a fight and lobbing spells at enemies, it was a little harder for Sallia to learn from him, since he didn’t specialize in the kind of combat Sallia did. Of course, Lauren was more than willing to help her find teachers and spells that suited her, and his counterspelling technique would be incredibly useful in the right circumstances. However, it was nice to meet someone else who admired the beauty of raw physical combat. When Sallia looked at Mack, she felt as if she had found a kindred spirit.

“All right, for the four of you, I think it would be best if all of you work together, since you know each other and I’m told you’re friends who train together often. However, I’m not putting four greenhorns up against denizens of the dark without any precautions, so you get two babysitters today” said Mack, giving them an affable grin that let them know he wasn’t insulting them by saying they needed babysitters. Sallia still wished that she could just be allowed to jump into the fight, but she understood that probably wouldn’t be happening for another decade or two. 

Mack gestured towards one of the spellcasters who had been taking a break by the side. “Hey, Lucas! The kids are here. You ready?” He asked.

Lucas seemed to pause for a moment, giving Sallia and the others a glance, before he grimaced and got back to his feet. “Yup. I’m in. Today has been a bit rough on all of us since they keep coming, but I can still watch over four little ones.” 

Mack grinned, before turning back towards Sallia and the others. “All right, this is Lucas. He’s specialized in defensive spells, but he knows a bit of offense as well. He’s your first babysitter, and I’m your other safety precaution. I’ll work as a spearman and take down any enemies you mess up against during a fight, and Lucas will make sure no one gets hurt. Apart from that, I’m sure your teachers will also intervene if something goes wrong.”

“Of course we will,” said Ella. Then, she turned to Miria, and gave her a fond smile. “Of course, try your best not to force us to act. If any of the four of us need to intervene, you guys messed up. Take this as a practice run for going to the surface later,” she said.

Miria nodded, and then smiled at Ella. “Thank you, teacher Ella! We’ll keep that in mind and do our best to stay safe, so that you and teacher Lauren can take a break,” she said.

Ella chuckled when Miria casually mentioned taking a break, as if she found the notion that she and Lauren were just relaxing at the side of the fight absurd, but she nodded. 

After the introductions were finished, the group of four children and two babysitters settled down to wait for the next wave. Sallia kept one hand on her sword, but otherwise tried to mimic the soldiers around her and relax a little bit. Even if her nerves and anticipation were killing her, she knew that wasting stamina before a fight would be silly.

The next wave of monsters took fifteen minutes to come. Sallia nearly leapt to her feet when she saw the next wave of monsters. There were nineteen giant spiders crawling out of one of the passageways to another cavern. Each spider was as tall as Sallia was, and as wide as three or four adults standing together.  Mack frowned at the sight.

“Really unlucky today,” he said, grumbling as the other soldiers began to form up and prepared for another fight.

Sallia quickly reapplied her spells, and then glanced at Miria, Anise, and Felix. Since this was their first time actually fighting as a team, rather than three on one or as part of a training fight, Sallia decided to see how they reacted to the battle first. Especially since Anise could be a wildcard; unlike the three Transmigrators, Anise had no combat experience at all. And since Sallia was the only pure-melee fighter in their team, she needed to wait for the enemy to get closer before attacking.

“I’ll start off, since I have the longest range,” said Felix, as a volley of arrows soared out from the soldiers stationed in the cavern. A moment later, Felix sent his own arrow sailing at the monsters, and managed to nick the leg of one of the monsters before another soldier finished it off with an arrow through the eye. Three spiders out of the nineteen dropped.

“They’re almost in range for me,” said Anise, looking nervous at the same time as she watched the wave of sixteen giant spiders rush towards the soldiers. The group of monsters was over a third of the way across the cavern, and since the monsters were spiders, they could probably climb the wall and get to the soldiers on top.

“I call the one on the left,” said Miria, pointing at one of the spiders which was a little isolated from the rest of the group. Sallia felt a large amount of Alteration essence twist the world in a way it simply wasn’t to work, and for a brief moment, she felt as though she had been dunked into the ocean of souls again.

Then, the spider on the left staggered, nearly collapsing on the spot. Anise, seeming to take Miria’s attack as her cue, flung a fireball at one of the other spiders… only to completely miss. The fireball exploded a few meters away from the creature, singeing a few of its legs, but not inflicting much damage. Felix shot it in the eye with an arrow, and it went down.

Miria frowned, looking at the spider she had targeted. It was staggering drunkenly on its feet, almost dead but still kicking. “Not dead even after I hit it. I think I need to get used to hitting stronger targets,” she remarked as she raised her hand and pointed at the spider again. “Extinguish,” she whispered.

The spider died.

The nine remaining giant spiders reached the wall, and began scuttling upwards. The archers and spellcasters stepped away from the edge of the wall, to make sure they stayed safe. Anise didn’t notice, so Sallia gently tapped her on the shoulder and then pulled her away from the edge of the wall. It was her turn now. Sallia felt adrenaline start to course through her veins as she madly grinned. Finally.

Two spiders crawled over the edge of the wall, their eyes glittering with hunger and madness as they eyed the group of children. Out of the corner of her eye, Sallia saw Mack and Lucas staring intensely at the spiders, but they didn’t make a move yet.

Sallia cloaked herself with her stealth rune ability, and then stepped towards the spider closest to her. 

The spider seemed to be aware of her rough position, despite her stealth ability. It whirled in her general direction and hissed, before spitting a stream of green liquid at Sallia and completely missing.

Perhaps she had given it too much credit.

Sallia rammed her sword into the eye of the spider she was fighting, and it screeched and reeled back. Sallia struggled to keep hold of Felix’s sword for a moment, and frowned.

The grip needs to be rougher so that it’s easier to grip, she thought as she regained control of the blade. She would mention it to Felix later.

The spider, now aware of her position, leapt towards her, its fangs dripping with venom.

The other spider started to move towards her friends, before it suddenly staggered. Miria was already working on extinguishing it.

Sallia spun to the side, dodged a slash from two of the spider’s bladelike limbs, and lopped one of the limbs off, causing the spider to reel back and screech in pain. Sallia burned a little mana, boosting her perception, and the spider’s movements seemed to be caught in slow motion as Sallia quickly found the best way to finish the spider off.

She ducked underneath the spider’s second attempt to swipe at her, cut out another eye, and then rammed her blade into the underside of the spider’s mouth as it recoiled in pain. her blade pierced through the spider’s brain, killing it instantly. Sallia felt a trickle of Achievement worm its way into her soul, but didn’t look at her System notifications as she turned towards the other spider to make sure Miria and the others had it under control.

Felix pegged the spider with another arrow, bursting one of its eyes. Then, since it was already nearly dead from Miria’s attack, Anise had no trouble finishing it off with a fireball to the head. Sallia turned towards the other part of the wall, to see if the soldiers were having trouble. However, she was greeted with the sight of three spiders in the process of dying, and four spider corpses. The soldiers had the situation completely under control.

Salla grinned to herself. While Anise had missed her first spell, Miria and Felix had done well in the fight, and Sallia felt that they were working together reasonably well. The three of them could still probably use some practice working as a team, since Sallia usually fought against everyone else instead of working with them. But for a first fight, it hadn’t gone too poorly. Then, she settled down and observed the process of the native soldiers fighting for a moment. She was curious to see how she stacked up against the more seasoned veterans of this world.

After observing the spider she had fought, as well as the strength of the regular soldiers, Sallia realized that even with only one extra magic system, the gap between her and regular soldiers was already starting to show. Even though this was a tier 4 world, the orthan descendents were one of the weaker species now, and Sallia felt that the average soldier here might even be weaker than the hunters of the islands. And right now, Sallia felt that she could easily go toe to toe with a hunter from the islands. Sallia’s extra stats, vastly improved perception, and ability to spend both absorption essence and manifestation essence to boost her physical and mental stats to the next level made her a force to be reckoned with. She hadn’t even needed to use her attunement in the fight, because she hadn’t felt like she was in danger at any point.

Miria was also a force to be reckoned with. Extinguish was honestly terrifying, and Sallia was willing to bet it would swing most smaller fights in Miria’s favor, even if its essence consumption was rather high. Felix still lacked some offensive power, and Anise needed to work on her aim, but the group as a whole already stacked up pretty well against regular soldiers.

She couldn’t help but wonder what the stronger creatures of this world looked like as she headed back towards her group of friends. She knew that Miria had finally killed a creature using water for the first time, and she was very curious to know what rewards Miria had gotten from her Ability.

However, as she strode towards her friend, she heard a rumbling sound in the distance, and then another wave of denizens of the darkness appeared. Sallia couldn’t see them very well, but she was eager for another fight. Sallia felt adrenaline start to course through her veins as she saw Mack start to frown in confusion, and Ella and Lauren suddenly lurched to their feet and rushed to the edge of the wall. They hadn’t reacted like that to the wave of spiders.

Was there something wrong with this wave of monsters?

acaswell

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