Thirty-Six

Thirty-Six

“You-you... are... a slave-driver.” Shaeula panted as the winged creature in front of her burst into sparkles of ether, which was quickly absorbed and sent to the Silo. Slumping down on her haunches she drew in long rasps of breath. “I think-think... we should rest... a bit...”

“We’re fine.” I chuckled, though I was feeling rather drained myself. We had been hunting for well over a day of objective time, the hideous human-sized owls with wolf faces we had just dispatched the latest creatures to have descended near our Territory. “Not only are we raking in the ether it is excellent training in how to use wind. Your last attack was particularly good, using rotation to drill into the enemy. If I’m not careful you are going to win our little wager.”

“I am starting... to understand what-what you mean.” Shaeula’s breathing had calmed down after the rest. “Compression, rotation, vibration... all-all are ways to enhance the destructive force of the wind, without much-much greater usage of elemental energy.” She looked satisfied. “With the wind energy drawn from the Ether Spires we can-can fight all the harder and longer, so we learn-learn at a rapid pace.”

“Yeah, it’s a real crash course. I am sure my heart Chakra is generating wind faster after all the usage. And in addition to that we make sure our Territory remains safe.”

The intensity of the Etheric tide was still increasing, the sky awash with blazes of colour. In the distance large shapes could be seen, such as snake-like shadows many metres long, or tall thin giant-like beings striding across the land. Fortunately none of them had strayed our way yet, but flocks of lesser creatures were common, and some of them were surprisingly powerful. “If this is a relatively shallow Etheric tide I’d hate to see one of the deep ones...”

“Some-some of the most devastating tales of ruin-ruin are based on the deeper tides.” Shaeula agreed. “The Moon-devouring Wyrm for one. Many nobles of the Seelie Court perished last-last time it appeared. There is also the Chimaera Swarm, The Frost Wraiths and many-many others.”

“They all sound pretty strong. Let’s hope we don’t see any of those for a long time. Oh well, that’s enough rest. We press onwards. We nearly have enough ether for our goal of queuing in the last two upgrades to the Ether Spires.”

Things had progressed more smoothly than I had imagined they would. With the extra draw for my Rank 2 Territory, which was significantly larger than before, plus the four new Ether Spires being in a more ether-dense area, the rate of gain was greater than I had planned for, to say nothing of the large surge of ether generated by the Etheric tide. This had been supplemented by the high number of creatures the tide had dragged up, which we were blasting through at a rapid rate. I had even reached Level eleven recently due to the large influx of enemies.

“Monster...” Shaeula muttered, but she followed me as we circled our Territory.

“By the way, now you are starting to master the destructive wind techniques, how about the stealthy ones?”

“Stealthy? I do not-not quite understand what you mean.” she replied, tilting her head, which I secretly found rather cute.

“Well, why do we have all the glowing green light when we use elemental wind? After all, air and wind is usually colourless, right?”

The next day was a Sunday so after my usual training I decided to take a bit of a break and treat myself to a few hours of relaxation. Picking up a couple of manga magazines from the local shop I spent a few hours reading them and forgetting my worries. I also answered a few emails from Hayato-san, as well as my sister, and let her know the timings of my return home. I planned to return on the twenty-second, and stay for five days, returning home on the twenty-seventh. Hopefully she would also be free on the weekend of the thirty-first, before the holidays finished, not that I mentioned that, as I wanted to surprise her. To that end I fired of a message to my mom, asking her to make a few preparations.

Time was passing, so with a heavy heart I bit the bullet and started to gamble once more, hoping my bad luck had passed. To start with it seemed like my rotten luck was continuing, with spin after spin losing, but as I spun with a heavy heart I had a win, dropping a profit of over two hundred and fifty pounds on just one bet. After that I played for another hour, never losing that many spins in a row, steadily building profit until my pot stood at just over nine thousand pounds.

Based on the numbers I had ran during my internet research while devising my master plan this wasn’t going to be enough, so over the next week or so I would have to double that to be comfortable. I also had to perfect my control of fine invisible wind... Damn, I have all this spare time since I’ve finished all my freelance work, but somehow I’m busier than ever. I had a broad grin across my face though. All the challenges were worthwhile, as they produced tangible results I could actually see and feel, be that my Statistics rising, my Territory expanding or my bank balance blossoming.

Gathering both aether and wind energy slowly from the surrounding atmosphere, it wasn’t long before I was returning to the Boundary, to see how my Territory had developed...

The first thing I did was observe the building queue. Roughly ten Astral days had passed, the Etheric tide still deepening, so as I had anticipated, one of my build queues was empty, the other with about three days to go to finish the last Ether Spire upgrade. My stored ether was similarly impressive, with around forty-thousand in stock. My newly enlarged Silo couldn’t hold it all and it was glittering in a silvery halo around it like the rings of Saturn. Under the vividly bright colours of the Etheric tide and the constant fall of reflective white flakes it was quite the stunning scenery. My sis would love this. It’s a pity she can’t see it. Eri-chan too. She always liked pretty things. I remember taking her stargazing a few times, up on the mountains back home. Happy memories...

As I was considering this Shaeula appeared before me, flanked by her Kamaitachi and a group of black-furred Elite weaselkin. Her face was positively beaming with joy as she greeted me.

“You look pleased.” I observed.

“Of course-course.” She said excitedly. “More of my kin have returned to my side-side. How long-long before we can upgrade the Barracks again?” She spoke at a rapid pace, closing right up to me, face peering intently up at mine, causing me to flush and step back reflexively. Too close. Too close!

I could see that most of the lights that had surrounded her, the spirits of her kin, had gone, only a small number of the larger lights remaining.

“My Sickle-Weasels need to return to me-me.” She continued. “They would also be-be valuable assets to you. I think-think this should be your priority.”

“It is a priority, just not the priority right now.” I countered. “The cost in both ether and time is massive. A hundred and twenty-five thousand ether and one hundred days. It will come, but instead we first need to build the last Ether Spire upgrade to take advantage of the Etheric tide to amass resources, and then I have to make good on my promise to you.”

Shaeula looked downcast, making me feel a little bad, but she looked pretty cute as she cocked her head to one side in puzzlement. “Promise? What-what promise?”

“Why, to get you a new throne worthy of you, of course!”