Chapter 546 - Reunion (Patreon)

Auri was back on my shoulder, chirping loudly.

All was right with the world again. I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders, years of concern and worry melting away with every brrrpt out of her beak. Iona and Fenrir landed next to me, giving us some space but clearly eager to make their own greetings.

Auri conjured up two flaming clones of herself, one circling Iona with frantic energy while the other one landed on Fenrir’s nose, and started animated dancing on his nose.

“BRRPT! Brrpt! BRPT! BrrrrrRRRRRpppT!” Auri was hopping from foot to foot, trying to cram way too many words and sounds together, practically tripping over her own tongue in her desire to say everything. “BRRPT!” She finally demanded in frustration, throwing up a big flaming arrow pointing back the way we came from.

I laughed. When I started talking, it was like the floodgates had opened.

“Sure! Let’s go meet your friends! I can’t wait! Tell me all about your time here. I want to know everything! I missed you so much. I’m so happy you’re back. What took you so long?”

Auri shuddered at the question.

“Brpt.” She made a disgusted, almost throwing-up noise. I put my hand up to my mouth and failed miserably to suppress a laugh.

“You got stuck in a water level?” 

“BRPT!”

<<I did! I did! It was TERRIBLE! The worst thing ever!>>

I tried to put on a poker face.

“I think I’m going to need the full details of it, and the rest of what you’ve been up to, just to make sure it can’t happen again.”

Auri rolled her eyes in an exaggerated way.

“Brrrpt!” She fluttered off my shoulder, going first to Fenrir and bopping him on the nose. Then she hovered over to Iona, and tried to ‘whisper’ in her ear.

I could still pick it up though, even without my improved hearing. ‘Auri’ and ‘quiet’ did not belong together.

<<Thank you so so so much for keeping Elaine safe all these years! I was so worried about her! Good job!>>

We weren’t traveling at top ‘sprint as fast as we can’ speed anymore, and we started heading back. I sensed one of the Wardens vanishing back the way we came from, and we soon made it back to the valley.

Auri’s friends were busy at the ‘trading post’, and I could practically see a flame lighting itself over her head as she looked from Iona to the post. 

“Brrrpt?” She sweet-talked my wife, who laughed and strode over, cracking her neck with a great grin on her face.

The poor kirins didn’t know what hit them. I imagined social skills weren’t exactly popular here, and if they were, it was more like [Posturing] and [Mark Territory] rather than [Social Lubricant]. Add in years of haggling and negotiations with cutthroat merchants, and the kirin’s ‘trading post’ put up all the resistance of a kid’s lemonade stand.

Which naturally put her right in the good graces of all of Auri’s friends. I’d gotten a chance to study them briefly as Iona briskly bartered.

All of them were phoenixes of various sizes. A pink flamingo, a thunderbird with four wings that crackled with electricity hovered high above, a little too big to easily ‘trade’, an ostrich, and a velociraptor. They all huddled around Iona as she concluded her negotiations, handing out prizes to everyone like candy. Burning rocks and caged flames, tasty treats and delicious fruits, phoenixes didn’t seem to have much use for most objects. A downside to being utterly ridiculous and made out of fire. 

“Brrpt! BRPT!” Auri shouted out a bunch of suggestions which boiled down to ‘let’s go to my place and party one last time’. Everyone seemed to agree, and we all headed out, following Auri. Apparently, we could simply fly back to the Phoenix Peaks and nobody would bother us. The two grounded phoenixes hopped onto the thunderbird’s back with practiced ease.

“Followers.” Fenrir growled, and Auri translated to everyone else with a sharp “Brrrpt!”

They all stopped on a dime, turning around with impossible agility, spreading into an established formation. I vaguely recognized it from the Sixth Legion, and my heart melted.

Auri had been importing tactics and teaching her friends! They listened to her!

While part of me was gushing over Auri and everything she did, the rest of me was primed and ready. I’d been on edge ever since we’d jumped off the edge of the School, and had been attacked enough to know it was the right move.

One of the silver-faced Wardens halted in the air a few miles from us. With everyone’s stats and skills, it was pretty close. I couldn’t tell what he was doing behind the mask, but it was pointed at us, a pair of swords pointed down and held loosely in his hands.

I couldn’t quite reach him with my skills, although I pulled out a dozen spellbooks, having them flutter behind me. Ten of them were useless chore and quality of life spells, but I couldn’t cast that many spells at once, and I didn’t want to offer up all my battle tomes for easily getting picked off. Smoke and mirrors. Iona summoned her bow and arrows, Lightning crackled on Fenrir’s claws and the thunderbird’s wings, and all sorts of flames started to grow around the phoenixes.

It was the same Warden from earlier at level 1991, and I had no idea how a fight between all of us would go. We had numbers, the utter bullshit that was phoenixes and their refusal to die, and class quality on our side. On the other, weaklings didn’t end up as Wardens, and having twice the levels on us was significant. I could fight eight level 450 [Warriors]. It wouldn’t be easy or pretty - that was the level the Sentinels in Remus were - but I thought I’d come out on top.

The Warden was running the same calculations I had, and came to the conclusion it wasn’t worth it. He angrily slammed his swords back into their sheath, then drew a thumb across his neck before speeding back to the Dungeon.

“You know, I’m not sure why we worked so hard on hiding where we’re from when Auri’s about as distinct as they come.” I said.

“Gives them the whole world to search, instead of narrowing it down.” Iona answered. 

“Somehow, I think three minutes at an information broker asking for ‘phoenixes’ will get them what they want…”

“Sure, if they remember to ask. Although, yes, maybe we were going a little overboard.”

“Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpt.” Auri blew a raspberry at his back.

“Brpt!”

Then promptly complained about anyone possibly forgetting her, or not being able to find her. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same!

The immediate crisis averted, we continued onto Auri’s peak, landing in a meadow near the top of the mountain.

“Brrpt! BRPT!” Auri fussed over her friends, making sure they were well-settled and happy before bouncing back over to us. “Brrrpt!”

“Yes! Give me the tour! Show me everything!” I said.

“Brrrpt!”

Auri had been busy the last few years. There was a grand ‘nest’ in the middle of the meadow, with a number of silvery or reflective surfaces bouncing colors all over the place. There were a few well-worn spots for her friends, beautiful ‘guest rooms’, and of course, a gigantic firepit. Bountiful berries were growing all over the place, and Auri casually incinerated an ambitious shrew that was snacking on them. We made appreciative noises the whole way, admiring what Auri had built here.

“The mirror was Dungeon loot, wasn’t it?” I asked. Iona was looking at some of the strings close-up.

“How did you get this done? It’s impressive, do you find yourself replacing it a lot?” 

“Brrrpt!” Auri preened under our praise, her beak going high in the air. “Brrpt, BRPT!” She did happily give credit to her friend Magenta, the pink flamingo, for helping her out.

“Brrrpt…” Auri suddenly paused mid-tour, looking embarrassed.

“We don’t have to see a thing if you don’t want us to.” I offered to Auri. I suspected I knew what she wanted to show, but didn’t think it was that bad. [The World Around Me] was stupid sometimes.

“Brpt!”

“I promise not to laugh.” I said, Iona echoing my words and Fenrir simply grunting.

“Brpt!” Auri quickly showed us an oven she’d made out of clay. It was lumpy, misshapen, and trying to fall over, but it was hers.

“There’s no way I’d be able to make something that nice with the resources you have.” I said.

“From nothing, with no Skills? Auri, this is a masterpiece.” Iona praised. Fenrir sniffed it.

“Good.” He declared.

Auri looked pleased as punch at our compliments, pink flames flickering on her cheeks.

Auri finished the tour, and we made it back to her friends. A bunch of sharks, whales, and what looked like a mosasaurus were produced from ludicrously overpowered storage that each of the phoenixes had, and all of a sudden I wanted to do a bunch of Dungeon runs myself. Auri was looking at her storage with varying degrees of sadness.

Being phoenixes, the food was cooked in short order, and we had a party. I made quite a few trips to my [Tower], pulling out various wines and juices for the other phoenixes to try out. There was nothing like a drunk phoenix raptor to make me double-check the bottles I was drinking.

“BRrrrpt! BRPT!” Auri demanded. 

“I brought one just for you!” I vanished into my [Tower] once again, my eyes flicking to my mana. I was using a lot, teleporting in and out all the time, but it was holding up well enough. I managed to find one barrel that didn’t have something else teleported into it, and brought it out for Auri. Iona beat me to opening it, flipping it open from across the fire with [Telekinesis].

“BRRRRRRPT!” Auri almost did a swan-dive into it, but paused at the last moment. “Brrpt?”

“Sure, I can do that.”

I went back in, grabbed a bunch of buckets, and teleported out again. I filled the buckets up, passing them out to her friends, then Auri did a swan-dive into the rest of it.

It was wonderful. We ate, we drank, and the five phoenixes regaled us of tales from the last few years of their life. Fenrir and the thunderbird phoenix spent some merry time trading [Lightning Bolts], both of them working on improving their class quality and skills. A neat little cross-species exchange. The sun was just starting to peek back up over the horizon, and I knew our time was coming to an end.

Auri was coming to the end of her story as well. Auri had wanted to leave with just a little bit of extra padding to go, when everyone else had convinced her to do just ‘one more level’. It was a big milestone level as well, 1024, and they were convinced fantastic loot awaited all of them. One last hurrah all together before Auri needed to leave. From the sound and look of it, Auri hadn’t needed much convincing. They’d gone through the portal, only to find it was a deep undersea level - the absolute nemesis of phoenixes. Levels had to be completed once they were started, and Auri and the rest had needed to find a way to defeat the stage while being made out of Fire.

She was just starting to explain how that happened when a hawk’s screech cut through the party, and Auri blew another raspberry as our earlier nemesis appeared once again.

“BRRRRPT!” She shrieked and threw her messenger capsule at the bird. Water started pouring out of it, and the hawk beat a hasty retreat.

“Brrpt brrrpt brpt.” Auri muttered darkly to herself.

<<Idiot won’t accept that I don’t want to make eggs with him.>> She complained. <<Maybe an entire ocean’s worth of water will send the message.>>

I patted her knowingly.

“Even an entire ocean doesn’t stop idiots.” I commiserated. Iona was eyeing the capsule with alarm, water pouring out of it in a torrent.

“How did you beat the water level?” I asked. Auri nodded towards the capsule with her beak.

“Brrpt!”

Iona took off sprinting to close it.

===============

The goodbyes were surprisingly short. Auri and her friends had months in the Dungeon level to say them, and we were able to leave shortly after ‘packing up’ most of the treasures she wanted to keep. Treasures she thought she’d had to leave behind, but now that the Elaine Storage was here, well… I was turned into a pack mule. I did take out Iona and Fenrir’s armor and gear on the return trips from transporting Auri’s loot into [Tower], and after a hard day’s work, we were ready to go.

With minimal fanfare, we all piled onto Fenrir and took off, going high into the sky as the sun started to set. I quickly went through my notifications, my eyebrows rising at the end. Auri beating the ocean level had been quite the experience for her - half of which I’d gotten. The moons rose, no longer quite full, and I flipped over on Fenrir’s back to look at them.

“Brrrpt?” Auri asked as I stretched out a hand, pretending I could grab the moons.

“I wonder… could we travel to the moons?”

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 38]

[Mana: 7,399,320/7,399,320]

[Mana Regeneration: 15,644,500 +(47,736,193)]

Stats

    [Free Stats: 0]

    [Strength: 47,542 (Effectively: 380,336)]

    [Dexterity: 71,971 (Effectively: 766,347)]

    [Vitality: 225,977 (Effectively: 3,530,891)]

    [Speed: 213,209 (Effectively: 4,196,593)]

    [Mana: 739,932]

    [Mana Regeneration: 1,755,814 (+ 4,773,619)]

    [Magic Power: 969,337 (+ 43,377,831)]

    [Magic Control: 968,513 (+ 43,340,957)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 895]]

    [Celestial Mastery: 895]

    [Aurora Curialis: 795]

    [The Stars Never Fade: 56]

    [Luminary Mind: 610]

    [Universal Cure: 895]

    [Etheric Aegis: 240]

    [Event Horizon: 655]

    [Zenith Everlasting: 615]

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 870]]

    [Radiance Mastery: 870]

    [A Light Shining in the Darkness: 50]

    [The Rays of the First Dawn: 870]

    [Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 45]

    [Celestial Dew: 870]

    [Sunrise Halo: 870]

    [Wings of the Seraphim: 870]

    [Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 870]

[Class 3: [Erudite Archmage - Spatial: Lv 740]]

    [Spatial Authority: 490]

    [Cozy Reading: 740]

    [Teleportation: 200]

    [Repository of the Magus: 559]

    [Tower of Knowledge: 94]

    [Reality, Writ As You Will: 540]

    [Astral Archives: 333]

    [Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 650]

General Skills

    [Long-Range Identify: 533]

    [Handy: 30]

    [Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 895]

    [The World Around Me: 220]

    [Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 895]

    [Sentinel's Superiority: 895]

    [Persistent Casting: 670]

    [Tender Gardening: 108]