An Unborn Hero

ding
Achievement unlocked: [Raider of the Corruption]

"Well, that's foreboding," thought Mystery, who'd been granted the achievement the moment she crossed over the border of the forest. There was nothing quite like being granted an achievement simply for crossing an invisible line for underscoring how unwelcome they were.

Raider of the Corruption (Uncommon)
You have set foot in the demonic forest. Watch out for miasma, lest you become a demon yourself. This achievement reduces the effects of miasma poisoning by 10%.

"No I haven't; I don't have feet. But what's this about becoming a demon? Is that a thing that can happen?!"

"... Miasma poisoning... makes demons...?" she called out.

"It can do, with enough exposure," answered Rrillandral. "Corrodes your soul away, leaving an empty, mutated shell behind, enslaved to the demon lord."

"... Uh..." followed up Mystery, who spent the bulk of her time floating around as an exposed soul.

"Your [Hero] occupation protects you," continued the knowledgeable elf. "[Hero's Party Member] and [Demon Slayer III] protect us."

"... It's safe...?"

"I was in here daily before I had either achievement," pointed out Rose. "Although it feels less icky in here than the last time. Is that because the monster population got culled?"

"No, it's the effects of your achievements. It's actually worse in here than a month ago; the miasma builds as the demon lord becomes more active. It will grow denser the deeper we travel, too. But yes, even now, the levels here on the outskirts are insufficient to harm an adult even without any achievements, unless they are foolish enough to camp here for days on end."

"If this is better than it was, I'm not looking forward to what awaits us further in. This feeling is foul enough already," complained Grace.

"It is when the trees die out that you need to concern yourselves about protection, but unless we take weeks over our mission, we need not worry. Humans are less easily corrupted by miasma than elves, and I am not concerned for myself."

"... Can purify..." pointed out Mystery.

Rrillandral stopped walking.

"Won't that make us really obvious?" asked Grace. "And what's wrong, Rrillandral?"

"I think it's best you give it a go before I say what I'm thinking. And don't worry; however obvious it is, the fact that we're here with Mystery already lets our enemies know we are here. You can't possibly make matters worse."

"That's hardly reassuring, but here goes," Grace replied, before taking a deep breath, which of course she immediately regretted given the ambient miasma. "Yuck."

"That was completely self inflicted," laughed Rose.

"Yes, but I was going to do this properly, so I needed to brace myself for the embarrassment."

"Just get on with it already. We're the only ones watching."

"Fine," sighed Grace, taking a pose. "By the light of my heart, I will dispel all evils. Purification wave!"

She flashed with white mana, which blasted out in a shock-wave, far more powerfully than her attacks against Lilith. The wave consumed all miasma it touched, converting it back to pure mana, crossing a hundred metres in mere seconds.

"That certainly helped," said Kellela. "It felt like I was breathing burnt oil, but now it's just stuffy."

"This is what a forest is supposed to smell like," pointed out Rrillandral.

"Ah..." replied Kellela, who'd never been in a forest before, other than the Vale of Myllearn. There, they'd spent the bulk of their time far above ground level, and the plant-life was carefully curated by the resident elves. It wasn't exactly representative.

"Anyway, what was it you wanted to say?" asked Grace.

"I was simply going to point out that purifying the forest was impossible. It would be like asking someone to dry the seafloor. You'd need to erase the ocean before it could be done."

"That sounds like the sort of thing that you should have mentioned beforehand. Thankfully, you turned out to be wrong."

"Had I said it beforehand, I may well have turned out to be correct. Father called Mystery's lack of common sense her second greatest asset, and it would be remiss of me to spoil that advantage."

Mystery felt she should respond to that in some way, but wasn't sure if it was a compliment or an insult.

"Oh, for goodness' sake," complained Kellela. "I know mana responds to belief, but there must be some limits."

"Probably, but how do you tell what is a hard rule, and what is simply a failure due to insufficient strength of image, or lack of mana?"

"A valid question," Kellela conceded.

ding
For spotting a camouflaged source of vitality, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 41

"... Monster...!" called out Mystery.

The party stopped, each member moving smoothly to cover each other's backs as they looked around.

"Where?" asked Rose.

"... Tree branch... in front... Dad... head height..."

Hayedalf frowned, seeing nothing. He didn't let that faze him, though, and grabbed a handful of soil, tossing it at the trees in front of him. Lightning sparked, revealing the outline of a large feline which hissed and pounced. Rose conjured a rapier, skewering it in mid-air, and Kellela summoned a heart-shaped barrier in its path, protecting the group from both impact and blood-spatter.

Even dead, the monster remained partially transparent. A ghostly but muscular big cat, easily the size of any of the girls, faintly glowing blue.

"A ghost leopard?" asked Rrillandral, sounding uncertain.

"Don't ask me," responded Rose. "Never seen anything like it."

"Sorry, it is certainly a ghost leopard. My confusion was from the fact it was here. We are too close to the edge of the forest for something like this to spawn."

"Maybe it got lost trying to join the attack on Flinel?"

"It would have to be very lost; That's more or less the opposite direction. Perhaps the dearth of monsters caused by that attack is permitting high ranked replacements to spawn. Things should correct themselves as the population recovers, but for now, we must be wary of anomalously strong monsters, even if we will encounter far fewer overall."

"As if we aren't being wary already," countered Grace. "I know I had my eyes open. How worried do we need to be that no-one other than Mystery spotted it?"

"There is a reason our plan utilises Mystery as our group's dedicated scout," pointed out Rrillandral. "She has enough sub-skills for [Soul's Eye], including [Multi-focal], that few things will escape her notice. I see no issue with relying on her."

"She can't keep [Astral Projection] up forever, though."

"... Am here... Don't talk... like I'm... not..."

"Ah. Sorry. It's just the way I can't see you."

"... You need... sleep too..." Mystery pointed out. Given that she didn't, the fraction of her time she could remain active was actually greater than the others.

"Good point," admitted Grace.

"Our existing plans will suffice. Hayedalf will ward our camp sites, permitting Mystery to rest. While moving, Mystery will act as our scout. However, something on the level of that ghost leopard would not pose a threat even had we not seen it. It would not have dealt heavy damage through our protection, and most of us have [Danger Sense]."

"Okay. I'm sorry for worrying."

"Nothing wrong with worrying," reassured Rose. "I'm certainly worried."

"You've gone quiet, dear," said Kellela to her husband, who was plodding along with a distracted look in his eyes, and hadn't taken part in the conversation.

He didn't respond.

"Hayedalf?" asked Kellela, a little more loudly.

"Huh? Sorry. Did I miss something?"

"Nothing important; we were just reiterating our rest arrangements. You look distracted."

"Sorry," he replied, closing his status with one last morose shake of his head. "Guess I got too used to wearing a dress..." he mumbled, quietly enough that his voice failed to reach the ears of his teammates.

Of course, Mystery didn't require ears, and saw every intricately patterned word. "Dammit... I want to ask what he got, but he obviously wants to keep it secret. Asking right now would be really rude! Maybe when he's on watch duty alone. How much longer till we camp for the night?"

"On a different topic, Kellela, why was your shield heart shaped?" asked Rose.

"Why ask now? They've been heart shaped ever... since... Ah."

Kellela stopped, realising that the 'shields' she created while performing under the influence of [Cosplay] hadn't been real, and hence no-one else had seen them.

"... Heart shape... correct shape..." pouted Mystery.

"Oh. Like Grace shouting lines about the light of her heart. If my heart ever starts glowing, please call a healer."

"I think it's supposed to be metaphorical," responded Grace.

"I think it's supposed to be cheesy," countered Rose.

Mystery's psychic pout intensified.

"Incoming!" exclaimed Rose, this time picking up the monster before Mystery. A single goblin. It didn't survive long.

"Didn't even know those things came in groups of one," she laughed.

"It will take time for more to spawn and meet up."

"Should we really be doing all this talking when we know monsters are around, however few they are?" complained Grace.

"Anything dangerous enough to matter will spot us whether we talk or not, and it is a multiple day trip to the forest centre. Do you believe yourself to have the necessary focus to march that far in silence, remaining fully attentive at all times?"

"Fine... Chunter away."

"Something wrong?" asked Rose. "You'd feel better if we were silent?"

"Maybe? But that's not it. Or at least, not all of it. Am I the only one that thinks this entire situation is insane? We're a group of five teenage girls in dresses, most of whom are fake and one of whom isn't even a girl, in the middle of the demonic forest, only one with what I would consider the necessary qualifications to be here, chatting away like we're taking a stroll through a park, accompanied by a [Hero] who's not even due to be born for another seven months."

"... Umm..." spoke up Mystery, realising she hadn't actually told anyone about her delayed birth.

"... Now what?" Grace sighed. "Go on. Make it even worse."

"... [Diligent Hero]... slowed ageing... Nine months..."

Grace facepalmed, but Kellela paled.

"Rrillandral?" she called with a voice full of nerves. "If we pull this off, what do you think the chances are of Mystery earning another legendary achievement?"

"Absolutely certain. If we succeed without casualties, it may even be a mythic."

"And there goes my sex life for the next decade," grumbled Hayedalf.

In a stone room far outside of Flinel, a group of zycrians were arranged in a semicircle, their attention focused on a rather unfortunate individual.

"That looks uncomfortable," opined one of the watchers as the aforementioned individual twisted, doing her best to get her tentacles lined up with misplaced sleeves. She had little in the way of success.

With some amount of contortion, she did manage to squeeze a tentacle up through her neck, only to discover it was encased in a white cylinder, with only the tip poking out, which would do horrible things to her grip.

The larger white tube wrapped around the bulk of her body made walking impossible, and the single shoe glued to the tip of her tail, waving around pointlessly in the air, added additional insult to injury.

"I think we can conclude that this 'Aster Blue' form is impractical for non-humans," stated another of the watchers.

The victim nodded in agreement. For the slug-like creatures, the short petal skirt and resulting knees were not the primary concerns. The entire dress was comparatively far smaller on the zycrian than on Rose, confined entirely to the part of her neck that stuck upright.

"Not just humans; the jellax have succeeded. That is where the information on the wig requirement came from. Not the mention the obvious compatibility of the elves."

"What next, then? We cannot allow ourselves to lose a military advantage of this size."

"We'll need a new variant. We'll have our best mages work on the task."

"And if they fail?"

"Perhaps we can entice the [Hero] to create a new variant for us? Flinel seemed surprisingly keen to maintain the balance of power, so given our compatibility issues, they may prove cooperative. If not... we have no good options. The spell has already spread far beyond Flinel."

"I don't understand why they shared it at all. With that level of power, their [King] could have become an [Emperor]. If he had attacked us... if he attacks us now... we would likely be forced to capitulate."

"The gods always put some thought into where they send their heroes. Had the Flinellian [King] been that sort of warmonger, chances are good the [Hero] would have been sent elsewhere."

"And don't forget the conditions of the spell. An invasion would likely count as an evil act."

"Indeed. If that could be proven, much of the threat would diminish."

The room fell into silence for a while, until the distressed magical slug could stand it no longer.

"Sorry to interrupt your brooding, but please may I undo this transformation now?"

Spoiler

Mystery (Human)
Age: -9 months
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (41/100)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
>> Sense Light (C)
>> Sense Sound (C)
>> Pierce Illusions (U)
>> Sense Miasma (R)
>> Multi-focal (R)
>> Sense Spirit (R)
- Astral Projection (U) (24/60)
>> Sure Navigation (U)
>> Uncontainable (U)
>> Tether of Will (L)
- Robust (C) (28/50)
>> Hardened Soul (R)
>> Secured Mana (U)
>> Pain Tolerance (C)
>> Strengthened Will (U)
- Stealth (C) (3/20)
>> Camouflage Vitality (R)
- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (23/30)
>> Age Correction (R)
>> Gender Bending (R)
- Light (C) (12/20)
>> Heterochrome (U)
- Increased Attributes (C) (11/20)
>> Mana Storage (U)
- Investigation (C) (5/10)
- Cosplay (U) (11/20)
>> Skit (U)
- Mana Absorption (U) (11/30)
>> Drain Mana (U)
>> Conduit (U)
- Translate (U) (10/20)
>> Two Way (U)
- Telepathy (U) (15/40)
>> Reciprocity (U)
>> Empathy (U)
>> Guarded Mind (U)
- Lightning Bolt (U) (3/10)
- Fireball (U) (4/20)
>> Multishot (U)
- Wall of Light (U) (1/10)
- Energy Resistance (U) (7/10)
Achievements:
- Early Bloomer II (R)
- First Skill (C)
- Adept (U)
- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)
- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)
- Astral Explorer II (E)
- First Spell (C)
- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)
- Famous Spell Forger (E)
- Demon Slayer III (E)
- Monster Slayer V (E)
- Curiosity (U)
- War Veteran (U)
- Royal Audience (C)
- Diligent Hero (L)
- Studious (C)
- Pioneering Guider (E)
- Royal Pervert (R)
- I Couldn't Stop Breaking The System, And Now I've Been Smited (E)
- Royal Corrupter (E)
- Blessed of the Forest (C)
- Artefact Wielder (R)
- Raider of the Corruption (U)
Artefacts:
- The Vale's Finger

[collapse] Announcement

Patreon has finished it's extended cliffhanger, so now is a good time to remind you that if you're enjoying the story, you can read ahead seven chapters.

... Not that enjoying the story is a requirement. You could read ahead even if you aren't. But why would you?