Chapter 14

Before I could panic too badly, the Kitsune turned into a stream of light and returned to the gourd. The gourd's cork stopper plugged itself back into the neck and, when I tried, I was incapable of pulling it out again.

It wasn't hard to find information on the game forums. There was actually a pinned thread where players were trading information on the various Kitsune they'd received. Fire Kitsune seemed to be the most common type, especially if the initial summoning was done in an average town. Ice was the second most common type. Air, Earth, and Wood were less common, but still easily found. Metal and Lightning were rare.

There were a few mentions of other Chaos Kitsune being born in dungeons and extreme environmental locations. The posters explained the looping bug used to create them. He also offered up the results of his preliminary tests. Chaos Kitsune seemed to be a hybrid based on whatever dominant elements were in the surroundings. Their foundation was a neutral yin-yang, giving one of their tails the power of light/dark, but their basic attacks used whatever elements were looped to create them.

Therefore, my Chaos Kitsune actually had the attributes of Yin-Yang, Ice, and Lightening.

One poster was a newbie, similar to me. He wrote, saying his Kitsune died the moment it was summoned because they were in an area full of poisoned mist. Another poster countered that he must be mistaken because summoned creatures weren't like tamed monsters. They were spiritual beasts that couldn't die.

The original poster countered with, "Tell that to my Kitsune. It returned to the gourd and I can't open it anymore."

A few trolling posts later, a moderator appeared to shut down the growing argument. He explained, "Spiritual beasts can not permanently die, but they still have bodies and they can be affected by environmental hazards. Since your current environment has proven to be hazardous to your Kitsune, you can no longer summon it there. Please move to a more suitable environment and try again. The gourd should unlock. Once summoned, you have the choice of fortifying your Kitsune to survive in the environment you want to explore or you can search for a more suitable spiritual beast to travel with you. For a poison mist environment, I suggest searching your nearby Auction House for the Summoning Pearl of the Mist Viper."

In other words, the Kitsune pet was completely useless for now. I had a feeling my Flying Sword would be similarly unsuitable. Knowing my luck, it'd probably rust. I grew glum when I realized that also went for my spacial ring. The only prize I could still use was the martial costume but, when I checked, it turned out to be a costume set. It offered very minimal armor.

Since I was still at the edge of town, I walked back to the Crafting Hall to talk with Master Craftsman Gillifried, one of my NPC friends. The burly merman was happy enough to listen to my problem while he worked on his latest project.

When I got to the part about how I'd killed my Kitsune simply by summoning it, he roared with laughter. As for the issue of the ring and the flying sword, he immediately shook his head to wipe away my worries.

"Items provided by the system are indestructible and soul bound so they can't be lost, stolen, or broken. Because of this, they also can't be traded or sold. You have nothing to worry about. Well, mostly. I can tell you haven't been practicing your Aetheric Cultivation skill, so you won't be able to use your flying sword, even if you wanted."

I groaned. I didn't like the skill. It was too hard to understand how to use it. I knew it was the key to gathering magic, but I couldn't seem to meditate how the game wanted.

Gillifried chuckled like he could read my mind. "Go practice it," he advised. "Only level zero requires you to closer your eyes and meditate. Once you reach level one, you'll be able to simultaneously read a book or craft while you're using the skill. At level two, you'll be able to walk around. That's the minimum requirement to connect with a magically powered mount like a flying sword."

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied. I made no promises. Right now, I really wanted to advance to a new map. The mount and the Aetheric Cultivation skill could wait.

After some consideration, I decided to head South toward Oyster Hollow. Oysters meant pearls and the moderator on the forum mentioned a Summoning Pearl. Maybe I'd get lucky and find a more suitable spiritual beast.

Of course, before I could even reach Oyster Hollow, I had to pass through the Cerulean Caves. The Caves were a warren of narrow tunnels and open caverns full of crystal pillars. The pillars glowed with a soft bluish color that acted like natural torches to guide my way. I noticed there were a lot more pillars than usual—easily ten times what existed when the area was filled with players. There were also fewer enemies—noticeably fewer.

Were the predator fish in this area scared of the light from the pillars?

I used my spear to dig out a chunk so I could inspect it.

[Cerulean Crystal Shard

Quartz crystal that has absorbed magical properties from a Vein of Water, causing it to glow when submerged. Passive Effect: dissipates bloodlust of predatory creatures within 10m.

Crafting Material.

Enchanting Material.]

I sent one to Marla, the General Store NPC, to discover it was worth a hundred ancient coins, making it one of the most expensive resources I'd encountered so far. I supposed that explained why there'd been so few of them while other players had been in the area. They'd mined them out until there was hardly any left.

I set to mining an entire pillar worth of the crystal, trying my best to retrieve larger chunks that could be sculpted. It was hard without a mining pick, but the shark-tooth knife in my inventory sufficed to break them out of the surrounding rock. I kept the bigger pieces for myself to experiment with. As for the smaller fractured pieces, I sold them off to my various NPC friends. Mystic Frill, the NPC at the magic shop, offered me twenty percent extra, so I sold him the bulk of what I chipped out.

As the light of the pillar slowly disappeared into my inventory, more of the areas' predators came out to play. Cavefish, eels, and prawns were three necessary ingredients to craft the dish 'Cerulean Skewers', which was my main source of food. I collected as many of them as I could find.

Thirty minutes later, I decided I'd spent enough time in the area. I moved on, aiming for the bottleneck tunnels where the Cerulean Caves connected to Oyster Hollow.

I stopped at the entrance to Oyster Hollow. It was easy to tell where the new map started. The entire area was filled with green clouds of algae. Visibility was low. There was no telling if it caused any negative effects.

Aside from the visibility, I could tell the uneven ground would also be a problem. Countless petrified cactus formations grew up from loose beds of silt. The slightest disturbance would kick up the silt and make the visibility even worse.

I very, very carefully inched toward a nearby formation and broke off a handle from one of the petrified cactus formations, doing my best to keep the exit in range. I still didn't know what kind of predators were in the area.

Inspecting the cactus handle, I discovered:

[Cerulean Oyster (common)

Oyster known for its vibrant flavor.

Crafting Material

Can be processed.

Can be domesticated.]

The discovery surprised me. I couldn't recognize the item as an oyster until I cleared off some of the algae caked on it. Even then, it looked more like a rough stone than something worthy of being served in a seafood restaurant. Did wild oysters really look like this or had the game developers used artistic license?

Nearby movement caught my eye. I zeroed in on the sight of two crabs fighting each other. They waved their meaty claws, kicking up silt in exactly the manner I feared. The micro-currents they created made it sound like they were sword fighting.

Something big moved in the water. There was a hollow thump like the reverberation of a breaking sound barrier. I caught sight of a tail fin disappearing into an algae cloud. I tried to search for it with my eyes, but it was gone.

So was one of the crabs. The other one remained very, very still, as if it couldn't understand where its opponent went.

Another thumping sound.

The second crab disappeared. This time, I got a better glimpse of the enemy. It was some kind of fish with vampire-like tusks. That alone wasn't too scary. However, the sheer size of the beast made it terrifying. It would have no trouble biting my head off.

I dropped the oyster into my inventory and drew my spear. I thought I understood the rules of the new map. The vampire fish—whatever it was called—acted like a charging boar whenever something disturbed the water too much. The clouds weren't meant to lower visibly. That was only a side effect. They mainly existed to give players a visual cue of how many ripples they were causing.

It was time to see how good I was at using stealth.