20) The carnival

Ryker woke up in the morning and took his usual shower, practiced his smile in front of the mirror, had breakfast, and got ready for the day. Yesterday, after he had collected his gold coins from the adventurer's guild, he treated himself to a nice warm meal. He had realized that due to his affinity he felt no hunger. He really did not need to eat but the level of his spells slowly rose after he ate something.

He could not afford to buy expensive Jackalope every time he ate and even if he did, the food needed to raise the level of a spell expands exponentially. He would have to eat six Jackalope cuts to level his spells to level 2. When a spell was leveled up, the cooldown period decreased a little, and then damage increased. He still didn't know what evolving a spell would do but he really wanted to find out.

Today the carnival would start. It was a tradition, or an event in player terms, passed through generations. The people of this world had no memories of what happened before the apocalypse. Their knowledge was based on pictures, documents, anything that had survived whatever disaster fell upon this world. The society before the apocalypse was known as "The Ancients".

This carnival was one of the traditions they found depicted in a flyer for a circus. The dates were messed up tho so the carnival took root when the flyer was found. It was found by The Kingdom of Shadows in the northern continent. But Ryker did not know this yet so neither should you.

The Horned Rabbits Grasslands was turned upside down for the carnival. An electric fence was put around a certain perimeter to avoid having any beast attacks. Then a huge circus tent was put in the middle and it was surrounded by small stands. Every shop in the village made a special something for the occasion.

They were limited-time objects that changed every year. The snake lady had glowing potions. They literally made people glow. A weaponsmith had unique fireworks arrows that even though they dealt no damage, they were beautiful to look at. Almost every object was useless for survival and had no reason to exist but people loved them. Not everything was about life or death here.

There were also small-scale events such as the circus performances, the baking competition, the sosage eating competition, to name a few. There were also carnival games and rides, which when mixed with magic were incredibly thrilling.

Escape rooms inside the dream realm, target practice with floating flowers, fortune tellers, pop thin ice spheres, people were digging for minerals. It was so crazy that Ryker was impressed. It was probably one of the best-made virtual reality games. It had such a diverse culture it was amazing.

"Gather around! Shila, Commander of Beasts, will give a demonstration! It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Come!"

'Huh? Commander of Beast? What type of sh*tty *ss title is that? So much for creativity? Who comes up with these?'

Even though Ryker was criticizing whoever came up with Shalia's title, he was still making his way towards the big circus tent that could comfortably house thousands of people. He found an empty place in the bleachers and sat down to watch the show.

It was the first time this happened in the game so he was wondering if it would be a cut scene. Much to his disappointment, when the lights died down he realized he was still in control of his body but he was also looking forward to the show. Several carters were controlling the light around the tent to make it pitch black in broad daylight.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you to The Myriad Circus! For your safety, please remain seated until instructed otherwise." -the voice seemed to originate from everywhere and nowhere at the same time- "We are proud to present… SHILA! THE COMMANDER OF BEASTS"

*ROAAAAAAR*

An incredibly roar resounded from the middle of the stage and soon the only thing visible in the darkness was a gorgeous woman, dressed in a red leather outfit that hugged her body tightly. Her blonde hair was braided in two showing her pointy ears. Ryker recognized her as the warrior sister of before, the one who had been working at the adventurer's guild.

'Damn, not only is she gorgeous but also powerful'

She was sitting princes style, with both legs to one side, on a white tiger with three tails the size of an adult brown bear. It was the one who produced the roar. The contrast of the white fur of the tiger against her red outfit was mesmerizing. She slowly slid down the tiger and stood up proudly.

She then crouched down, the tiger leaped over her head and disappeared in the darkness surrounding the pair. She extended her arm and a green bird with a long tail resembling a quetzal landed on it. It opened its wings and green glowing speckles of light flew to Shila making her glow green for a split second before returning to normal.

The bird then flapped its wings and disappeared out of thin air. Shila then started to run forwards and when she reached the edge of the stage she leaped. Audible gasps could be heard around the crowd when a pair of green wings grew out of her back and she started circularly flying around the bleachers. While she was attracting the attention of the people, there was a sudden bang on stage and a new circle of light formed revealing a four-armed gorilla banging his chest rhythmically.

After each bang, the sound intensified and the red aura surrounding the gorilla became visible to the naked eye. It reached the point when the silhouette of the gorilla disappeared due to the red glow. When Ryker looked back up to see Shila flying, he realized that she was nowhere to be found. The gorilla had stolen the spotlight.

*BOOM*

The red glow surrounding the gorilla exploded. The gorilla collapsed but as he hit the ground he went right through it disappearing below. There were hundreds of small red glowing orbs left behind by the explosion. They started growing and expanding until every single one of them was a butterfly. They then flew circularly, shrinking the radius of the circle slowly. It was a beautiful red tornado made out of glowing butterflies.

When they were about to convert in the middle, they all flew upwards, made a parabola, and descended right where the center of the tornado was moments ago. Just like the gorilla, they did not manage to hit the floor but it was because they started merging, and the silhouette of a woman was soon made. As the butterflies solidified and the red glow diminished Shila walked out wearing a gorgeous satin gown with green, black, and white hair-thin lines that reflected the light perfectly.

The place was quiet for a minute before exploding with cheers and applause. Shila then bowed, and the only light went out. The darkness spell slowly started to dispel and as the light of day seeped through the cracks in the spell, Shila had disappeared once again.