CH.125 Sonic Bird and Relinquished

CH.125 Sonic Bird and Relinquished

“Can we head back to town now?” Lua asked. “I still need to drop off the boar meat.”

“Well, I did have some experiments in mind, but I can run them at a different time.” I answered.

“I’m fine with going back as well.” Alice added.

“Experiments? What kind?” Lua asked.

“You know, just trying out a few cards.” I told her.

Mainly some of the ritual support, test fly Gradius, test if A Hero Emerges can be used to summon me and perhaps even perform a few fusion summons.

“Then let’s do that first.” Lua said. “I want to see.”

“They might take some time, so I think we should take the meat into town first. I don’t want it spoiling or something.” I told her.

“Well, I suppose that’s true. If it goes bad, I won’t get much money for it. Not that it will go bad that quickly. So a quick stop to Moon’s place and then we can get right back here.” Lua said.

Oh. We are heading to the moon? Better get Gradius out here. Well, not really. I know it’s probably just someone named Moon.

We followed Lua back to town and entered a specific shop. It had a small circular sign out front that looked like a moon with a boar drawn on it. A real Moon shop. Well, perhaps not, but it does sound fun. A moon shop. We can sell you the moon. Or perhaps a ticket to the moon.

“Mrs. Moon. Are you here?” Lua called after we walked in and didn’t see anyone.

“Yes, yes. I’ll be there in a minute.” We heard a woman’s voice call from somewhere.

“So is this the shop you usually sell your meat to?” I asked.

This was clearly a butcher shop. There were different storage containers that kind of looked like fridges all over the room. Some of them even had a glass door so I could see the meat inside. They also had an ice department at the top, so I guess they used ice to stay cool.

Actually, that one doesn’t have any ice. So perhaps only some of them use ice and others use magic of some kind. Perhaps they are another product that originates from a dungeon, and the ones with ice are man-made knockoffs.

“Yes. Mrs. Moon has a great eye for quality meat and she became our first regular customer. She is actually the one that began calling us Prime Rib.” Lua explained.

“Oh, so you have a long history with her.” I deduced. “I hope she can manage after you leave town.” I added.

“Well, I’m sure she can...” Lua began to say, but stopped when an elder lady walked into the room.

I think I recognize her. I’m decently sure she was at the guild when we had the funeral fire. So I failed saving someone important to her as well.

“Oh, it’s little Lua. Here to deliver today’s meat?” The lady asked.

“Well, that does tend to be my reason for coming here these days.” Lua answered. “Well, I suppose I could come and enjoy a cup of tea before I leave if that is fine.”

“Oh. You drink tea? I thought you only enjoyed the contents of your flask.” Mrs. Moon said.

“Well, I went through a growth spurt, so I do enjoy other things nowadays.” Lua said.

Oh. So she is already getting used to foods other than blood. That’s great to hear. I was afraid it would take her a long time.

“I see. I see. Well, I’m happy that my little student is growing up.” She said to Lua.

Student? As in, Lua studied under Mrs. Moon?

... but then again, all that ice was likely made with magic. And Lua uses water magic. Perhaps she really could be Lua’s teacher. Now I just want to know why she is running a butcher shop instead of a magic school. If she can make someone like Lua into a recognized witch, she could likely teach anyone. Well, then again, I’m not sure how good of a student Lua is.

And perhaps this butcher’s shop was a way to get blood for Lua, before she could hunt monsters on her own. Yeah. That sounds correct. Lock that in until I hear the truth.

“I would love to stay and chat for longer, but I do have plans, so can we get this transaction over with?” Lua asked. She didn’t say it in a malicious or aggravated tone, so I assume she said it on our behalf, as she doesn’t want to waste our time.

“Yes. Yes. I shouldn’t waste the time of a noble or a hero.” Mrs. Moon said.

“Hero?” I asked. “I don’t think I classify as one.”

“Oh, but you do my boy. You do. No one ever accepts it at first, but you will see. You are a hero.” She said.

“If I really was a hero, you wouldn’t have had to go through the pain of losing someone. I’m sorry.” I said to her as I walked out of the store, leaving Alice and Lua behind.

“FUCK!” I let out as I punched a wall of the building next to the butcher’s shop.

“I’m not sure that’s it. This card does say something about being in danger, so perhaps it can only be activated in times of great peril.” Lua reasoned.

“... Well, I still doubt if it would even activate. And even if it did, it wouldn’t summon me.” I said. “Well, at least the next thing should work.”

“Sonic Bird.” I summoned a monster. I didn’t bother putting a sleeve or toploader on it, as I have 4 copies (well now 3) of it, so I can just put a sleeve on a remaining copy if its effect is really worth it.

A card appeared in the air and a large bird flew out of it. It wasn’t huge like The Roc was, but still over one meter in length.

The bird landed in front of me and let out a “caw”.

(Master. Show it a ritual monster and it will bring out the ritual spell for it.) Laura instructed.

Ah. Sure. I opened my collection and checked my ritual monsters. Crab Turtle, Hungry Burger, Performance of Sword and Relinquished. The only one I don’t have the ritual spell for is Relinquished, so I pulled it out and showed it to Sonic Bird. I guess I could use Contract with the Abyss to summon it, but might as well get the proper ritual spell when I have the chance. And with contract, I need to tribute monsters that exactly equal the level of the monster summoned, whereas with Black Illusion Ritual I can tribute any monster with a level of 1 or higher.

After taking a good look at the ritual monster in my hand, Sonic Bird flew into the sky before accelerating quickly, almost like it was trying to enter light speed or something.

“Um, Brian.” Alice got my attention. “Where did you send that monster? And how did it disappear like that?”

“I’m actually not sure. I think it went somewhere to get a card for me, but I’m not sure where it went.” I responded.

Just after that, Sonic Bird returned. Again, it looked like it slowed down from a speed that exceeds my ability to see. Or perhaps it came from a different dimension.

“Oh. It came back.” Alice said when she saw the bird.

Then Sonic Bird once again landed before me. Opening its beak, I saw the card it held in its mouth. I pulled it out and looked at the pristine copy of Black Illusion Ritual. So it really brought me one. Nice.

Spoiler

[Yes. The picture has a different set code. Just ignore that. It’s a good quality scan so I used it for the picture.]

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The card number for it seems to be SDP-038. I’m not positive on that as I don’t remember all of the set codes, but I think this would be from Starter Deck: Pegasus. Probably.

“It really brought you a card. I didn’t know your monsters could do that.” Alice said.

“Well, I wasn’t completely sure it would work either. But apparently it did.” I commented.

“It’s an impressive monster.” Lua added. “It can fly at such high speeds that you can’t even follow it with your eyes. It could easily do a surprise attack on someone and they couldn’t counter it at all.”

“Yeah, but it would most likely die in the attack. Kamikaze attacks aren’t that great for the person, or monster, performing them.” I added.

“Well, what about the card it brought you? What can you do with it?” Alice asked.

“How about I just show you?” I should probably use Sonic Bird better anyway, as I didn’t put a sleeve on it, so I’ll lose the card anyway after its time is up. So I can just use it as a sacrifice for the ritual.

“Yes. Please do.” Alice said.

I already had both the ritual spell and the ritual monster in my hands, so nothing left to it but to perform the ritual.

“I activate Black Illusion Ritual. I tribute my Sonic Bird so that I can ritual summon Relinquished.” I said to perform the ritual summoning.

The blue card of Relinquished appeared on the ground under Sonic Bird. Then Sonic Bird burst into blue flames, filling the card with more blue looking energy.

After the card seemed to almost overflow with energy, Relinquished finally rose out of it. Perhaps using an overleveled sacrifice for the ritual caused the overflow. I should probably not do that in the future, even though it seemed to work this time.

“Iik.” I heard Alice scream a little.

I can’t blame her too much. Relinquished is not the most pleasing monster to look at.

“Hey Brian. Are you sure this thing is safe to summon? Like at all? It looks like it came straight out of nightmares.” Lua commented.

“I think it is. I think.” I responded.

The blue base color skin, covered in white, or perhaps more so a beige color veins was not the only terrifying thing about Relinquished. It also had a giant gaping maw in its lower body and its eye was at the end of a ...appendage. I think the ‘it looks like it came from a nightmare’ analogy is correct.

... yeah. I’ll just unsummon you now, thank you very much. I don’t want to look at you if I don’t have to.

I then took the now sleeved card of Relinquished and hid him in the depths of my collection. I hope I never have to pull it out again. Well, if I ever get Thousand-Eyes Restrict I’ll have to pull him out again.

“Thanks for getting rid of it.” Alice said after she collected herself.

“Yeah. No problem. Let’s summon some more family friendly ritual and fusion monsters next.” I decided.