"Hear that? It is the sound of you losing, you old bag of bones. Hahahaha"
Yami bellowed as he reclined on the chair that he sat upon.
"Heh, it does not mean a thing, hrmp." Gifso harrumphed.
"Yeah, yeah, losing with 4 against 8 does not mean a thing." Yami drawled out, which made the veins on Gifso's head bulge in anger, which he showed with a wide smile and bit back.
"So what, the game has just begun?"
Game Magic: Monster Toy
Suddenly, from the screen, they were watching the game on, a monstrous eel-like fish appeared in front of Charmy.
"Hahaha…how about now?"
Gifso said with expectant eyes at Yami, who just grinned at him, which caused the light in Gifso's eyes to dull.
"Let me get this straight. You thought it would be a bright idea to send a giant fish to a glutton with a black hole for a stomach, did you?" As Yami kept on speaking, the glint in Gifso's eyes extinguished, and the image of Charmy burping after eating the fish in a second was the final nail in the coffin.
"I will show you…"
"What did you say? I could not hear you over the sound of your loss. Hahahaha!!" Yami bellowed once more, slapping his knee while Gifso seethed on the inside, when he finally asked to change the topic.
"What do you need the magic stone for, huh?"
Hearing those words, Yami's laughter died down, and with a serious expression, he leaned forward near Gifso, who too became as serious as he could be, leaning forward, and spoke.
"There is a terrorist organization called Eye of the Midnight Sun that is looking for magic stones. They attacked Clover Kingdom's capital and managed to harm one of the captains.
I fought with them and can say that if they want these stones this bad, then this is enough of a reason for me not to let them get into their grasp."
"Hmm…that is concerning."
"So that's why you should give them to us." Yami said back convincingly, hearing which Gifso started to tread through his beard looking deep in thought, and then said with his face breaking into a grin.
"You will have your stones when you win this game. Once started, not even I can stop the magic."
'Not this again.' Yami grumbled internally, but not letting this show on his face, broke into a fit of laughter as he bellowed, "Hahahaha!! Then I guess I am getting those stones sooner rather than later."
The target of his laugh happened to be the priest, whose idea was to have a game.
The reason for this laughter was not only because Wilhelm won, but that most of his squad members were done with their matches, bar Noelle who was in a fight with Kahono that seemed to be reaching a stalemate, with Noelle who did not have any significant offensive magic in her repertoire and Kahono who was better suited to play support.
No, the reason for his laughter was the sudden increase in the number of spells that Wilhelm had.
'Previously, when Luck and he fought, he did not use any of those two spells. If he had used them, he would have had a very high chance of attacking Luck and a higher chance of defending from his attacks.
This could only mean one thing.
Sleeping on Noelle's lap helped him gain spells.'
Yami thought as he snickered like a hyena, imagining the material that he had to use against Wilhelm. Now he was never going to let him live it down.
But little did he know, the truth was not very far from what he had assumed. Wilhelm had indeed gained new spells due to the brief period of relief provided by sleeping on Noelle's lap.
Though if one were to tell him that, he would shoot down the notion faster than a man being chased by dogs.
And the reason was simple.
'From what I had observed, the magic's progress depends upon the understanding of the magic, periods of desperation or strong feelings, or brief enlightenment that a person experiences.
Noelle, who was backed into a corner, created a gigantic water shield to protect people in her first mission. An act of desperation.
When I got Mineral Magic and Illusion Magic, I was able to immediately get new spells. I was able to improve upon the magic of that Mars guy from the Diamond Kingdom just because I knew how gemstones were made, their solid-state crystal lattice, and their properties. Not to mention their applications.
Illusion Magic developed due to the number of movies that I have seen, which gave me a plethora of ideas.
So, what happens when I gain Beast Magic, which depends upon my understanding of animals, that is, zoology? I have read far too much about Mollusca, Arthropoda, Chordata, Annelida, Cnidaria, Echinodermata, Porifera, Platyhelminthes, Hemichordata, Nematoda, and Bryozoa. So, when the realization of the way magic interacts hit me when I was lying in Noelle's lap, my grimoire started to inscribe one too many spells.
I am not able to cover all of the spells that I currently have, but will have to work on them later on.'
Wilhelm thought as he walked into another part of the cave. As he did so, he stopped after a while, peering straight ahead.
"Well, well, well…what do we have here?"
Wilhelm commented, ideally, hiding behind the entrance of the cavern. From his vantage point, he saw Charmy, who was sleeping soundly on the ground, drooling on the ground.
'What happened to her? Did she eat and sleep due to getting drowsy, or is she under the effect of some form of magic?'
In this world, there was always a possibility that the culprit behind any incident was magic, so this is why Wilhelm always considered and prepared for this possibility.
Instead of walking in by himself, he created a clone made of minerals and puppeteered it to Charmy, who was curled up like a football on the ground and…
*BAM*
"Hwahwahwa!!! Who is it? Who is trying to steal my fish? Give me back my fish!!!!"
…kicked Charmy like a football.
Suddenly, Charmy jolted up from her sleep and started to speak nonsense, probably due to the dream she might be having.
Then her frantic eyes settled on Wilhelm, whose figure was casting a shadow over her and looking at her with a deadpan expression as if he were tired of her antics. But as for Charmy, she ignored his expression and asked with words flowing like water.
"Wilhelm! Did you see who took my fish?! Please tell me! I caught it with so much effor-*Yawn*"
*THUD*
'Yeah, this is above my pay grade.' Wilhelm thought as he connected the image of Charmy now with Asta or a battle-hungry Luck.
'Seriously, what is wrong with my squad? Is there any normal person there, or is it filled with a bunch of weirdos? You know what, let's do a headcount.
Asta, a loud muscle freak and idiot.
Noelle, a usele-…girl with abilities that are applicable in limited areas and an idiot.
Vanessa, a drunk exhibitionist and an idiot.
Luck, a battle-hungry idiot.
Magna, an idiot with crippling gambling addiction.
Charmy, a midget with only food on her mind.
Finral…nah, he is the most normal.
Grey, I don't even know anything about him.
Gordon, a weird, creepy, dead-looking walking corpse of an idiot.
Captain Yami, a person with anger issues and is extremely violent.
…...'
With a dejected look as realization set in, Wilhelm took Charmy by her legs and hung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and started to walk away.
"Ehe~Stawberry ice cream ~" Charmy muttered as she tried to take a bite of Wilhelm's hair.
"Oh no, you don't."
Wilhelm said as he created a gag from mineral magic and gagged Charmy.
"Hmup~jHUmp." With the muffled sounds of Charmy as his company, Wilhelm continued on his journey, when suddenly, he felt a spike in mana.
'This mana! I recognize it. This belongs to…Rhya.' Wilhelm's eyes widened, feeling the huge shift in mana.
Then, a voice came from seemingly nowhere.
"Hey team, listen here because I am only going to say it once.
Salaryman from Eye of the Midnight Sun has hijacked this game, and I cannot enter this game due to this useless bag of bones.
So, gather together, stand firm, push past your limits, and…defeat him."
'It would be motivational if it were not for the fact that Rhya has more mana than all of us combined and only lost because I tricked him. Something I have a feeling is not going to work this time.'
He thought grimly, but then his eyes widened in realization.
"Hey, Captain, can you hear me?"
"Hmm…" Yami hummed in agreement from the other side.
"Can you make it so that you are replying only in the area I am in?"
It took a while, in duration of which an uneasy silence befell, while Wilhelm could feel Luck and Magna's mana signature near Rhya's.
Then the reply came, "Can you hear me, Mr. Creepy?"
"Yeah."
"Good, it seems you are not completely useless, Bag-o-Bones, huh?" Yami said, directed to Gifso, when Wilhelm interjected.
"Captain Yami, where did Rhya come from?"
"A fissure in the barrier surrounding the temple."
"Then what is stopping you from doing the same?"
"About that, we are surrounded by a mage who has created a spatial barrier that is isolating us from the outer side of the temple."
'Huh…wait. If Rhya can cause a fissure in the barrier, what is stopping me from doing so…'
"Captain Yami, tell me where Rhya entered this game. Spatial Magic cancels each other. If I can find the point, maybe I can do the same." Wilhelm replied with a tone of urgency.
"Wa-wait a second! I will help with it." Gifso said instead of Yami, and suddenly Wilhelm snapped his gaze up from where a cuboidal-shaped turtle-like animal was formed, with a series of etchings that resembled the map of what seemed like a map. On it was a green marking that resembled Wilhelm's face, and the other marking was a golden gate-like symbol on the map through numerous series of caverns.
Without waiting for a moment, Wilhelm held out his hand, and his broom shimmered into existence.
'Better to use this broom instead of Cheetah Charge. It uses too much mana and is difficult to steer.' A thought passed through his mind, and without wasting a second, he stood on the broom with Charmy still on his shoulder and shot forward.
He maneuvered through the cave as if he were a surfer surfing through the waves. Swaying his legs below while keeping his body above his waist still, with squinted eyes to resist the wind that was hitting his face at the speed, Wilhelm continued to move, until he suddenly decreased his speed.
'Gauche's mana signature is flickering.' Wilhelm thought grimly as he noticed the dimming of the mana signature of Gauche, whose culprit was no doubt another mana signature that he was not familiar with, and who appeared in the cave with Rhya.
'But then what is Grey doing? Why is he not helping Gauche?' Wilhelm spoke in irritation internally, following which he shook his head.
'Does not matter. What matters is to make sure that the sis-con does not die.'
But this caused him another set of problems.
'If I go to help Gauche, I will be leaving Luck and Magna that I have sensed with Rhya, then I will be sentencing them to death, but if I don't help Gauche now, he could die. For that, I have to be in two places at once.
What to do…what to do?
Wait…wait a minute.
Two places at once.'
As if these words had been the trigger that he had needed all along, Wilhelm's mind started to scour through the information within itself, until finally it landed on a solution.
'Hydra, a micro-organism that can divide itself into two through the process of budding, in which two identical copies are created through the process called Budding.
Hydra certainly comes under the category of an animal. Then it means that its ability too can be tapped into with the help of Beast Magic.'
Then suddenly, his grimoire floated from his belt and started to flip through pages, until finally it landed on a blank page, which soon started to be filled with golden light that took the shape of words, until it finally died down.
From the light, a complete spell soon presented itself.
With his eyes boring into the pages of the grimoire, Wilhelm recited the new spell for the first time.
"Beast Magic: Budding Bloom"
As those words left his mouth, Wilhelm's body started to glow in a faint orange light, which soon overtook his features and seemed to separate from his body's outline, just like budding in a hydra.
That 'bud' separated from the main body and started to gain form. First, a bit lean, then barely humanoid, to finally resembling Wilhelm, with a faint orange glow on the body.
Both of the "Wilhelm's" looked at each other and spoke, one by one.
"I will go to Gauche. You go and bring Captain Yami."
"Got it. Be safe and don't die. We don't know what will happen if "you" do die." Another "Wilhelm" replied, before both nodded at each other and took off in two different directions.
***
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