Chapter 408: Side Chapter: Of Wool and Gold
*Bing-Bong*
The following is technically not necessary to continue reading the story, and was originally a mis-published chapter on the writer’s part.
|My bad bro.|
Therefore, we have decided to convert this mishap into an opportunity to look at some characters that have not been the main focus for a while, thank you.
…
And this is why you don’t stay up past midnight to try and write something…especially when high.
|Oh, like you never done any substances on a weekend due to a combination of boredom and loneliness.|
…
|…|
Do…do you want to take about it or-‘
|Let’s not, I got things to write…and cry about later.|
*Bing-Bong*
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“Huh…why do I get the feeling somebody is watching us?”
“Oh, that’s just Matilda. She likes to hang close in case I need anything.”
“Huh, that’s convenient…wait, aren’t you worried about her sharing things that she shouldn’t? I never really thought about that liability until now.”
“I asked her once about that, and she said-”
“I said, ‘why would I ever expose possibly the greatest source of entertainment I ever found’. Oops,” Matilda interjected before disappearing again.
“Huh…anyways…”
At a quaint little inn in a place known as the Serenity Meadows, a location that was on the way from Emerald Eye City to the heartlands of the Alloy Republic, Bellona Ecaredies and Alicia Goldshire were comparing notes over a particular little brooch they had acquired from the [Library of Nowhere]. More specifically, a pair of brooches that they had received from Logos and Pathos.
The two women had ended up traveling in the same direction after meeting up with Zhen Liu in Stone Claw City, so they decided it was a good idea for them to get to know each other and travel together, especially since they might become sister-wives in the future.
Assuming that their shared darling can figure out how to be less dense and more honest with his feelings…that or they decide to take the initiative.
Regardless, after traveling together for some time and sharing stories about each other and their cultivation journeys, the two of them eventually decided to collaborate on the one thing that had been vexing them since they left Stone Claw City: those aforementioned brooches.
“So…you really have no idea what this thing is actually capable of either?”
“Nope.”
“Hmmmm.”
The broochs that Pathos had given the girls looked like they all belonged to the same series, but we’re wildly different in terms of designs.
The brooch that Alicia had looked as if a clockmaker had taken spare gears, sprockets, springs and a green gem in order to make a lovely hair piece. The added copper heart gave off the feeling it was meant to be a betrothal or anniversary gift.
As for Bellona, her brooch had a decidedly more…esoteric feel to it.
Silver stars, golden clouds and a purple moonstone gave the brooch a very dreamy feeling.
Adding on to the unusualness of both designs, the gem in Alicia’s brooch seemed to have an overlapping gear design embedded inside, while Bellona’s brooch seemed to have a stylized sheep head symbol in the gem.
Neither had any idea what these weird symbols meant, but they looked pretty.
“But I do get that same feeling of [Chaos] that I feel coming off of the kaijin and Zhen Liu, to a lesser extent.”
“Same here…maybe it uses something else then?”
Independent of each other, both had studied their respective brooch by infusing them with aether and seeing what would happen.
The result was…weirdly disappointing.
The broochs has greedily devoured the aether and seemed to retain the energy, but that was about it.
There was a slight glow when this absorption occurred, but that was about it.
Having hit a wall in regards to these funky little accessories, Alicia and Bellona had initially thought about waiting to reunited with Zhen Liu and the library to ask more about them.
Until they both realized that they could technically ask each other.
Two heads, technically three, were better than one after all.
That stated…they were still stuck.
Despite spending an entire wagon riding day poking, proding and even rubbing the brooches together to see if they would do anything…nothing happened.
And now, after deciding to take a break, eat dinner and figuring it would be better to prep for bed before obsessively studying something…they still got nothing!
They both had inklings that these brooches were important, given that Logos and Pathos were enigmatic weirdos that worked for a man that didn’t mind sharing knowledge, treasures and weird tools with others.
Hell, both Bellona and Alicia couldn’t help but think about that delicious popcorn machine every now and again.
But alas, they had hit a wall in figuring out on what to do next…until…
“Uh…mistress? May I interject?”
“Huh? Oh, yes Matilda. What did you have in mind?”
“Well…you have guys tried using the brooches while cultivating?”
“Uh…no?”
“That’s way too risky.”
A bit of common law among aether warriors was to never cultivate with a treasure or an array you cannot understand or identify.
There was no profound or esoteric reason behind this practice, it was just considered common sense.
Nobody with an Ignatii formula wanted to risk absorbing a shit ton of Aquarii aether by accident, and vice versa.
That stated…that rule probably didn’t apply to this particular instance. At least, from Matilda’s perspective.
“Ma’am, from what little understand of this [Chaos] stuff is that it’s a universal energy that is compatible with literally everything and does literally anything. If these are treasures are indeed created with [Chaos] in mind, I’m fairly certain that they’re going to be compatible,” Matilda reassured her mistress.
“That is true…,” Alicia nodded.
“Also, your shared fiancee is way too much of a puppy dog to do something as dishonorable as to let those two, literal clowns, give you both poisonous treasures. I could also smell the love coming off him. It was nauseating.”
“I mean… that’s not wrong…,” Bellona trailed off while staring off to the side and reminiscing some things.
“He does know how to make a girl feel special…screw it!”
With Matilda giving them some perspective, Alicia and Bellona decided to just throw caution to the wind and do some cultivating. Brooches in hand, the two shared a few more words before cultivating in earnest.
“Do we hold them or-‘”
“I say we hold them. Worst case scenario, we can toss them.”
“Makes sense.”
Now that they were more or less comforted over the idea that these new trinkets weren’t going to kill them, Alicia and Bellona proceeded to cultivate while holding their respective brooches.
Evidently…this was the right call.
Sound of magic doodads suddenly powering up.
“Oh shit, they’re doing something.”
As Alicia and Bellona began to cultivate and absorb the surrounding aether, the brooches began to glow, hum and intercept the incoming aether.
Or to be more precise about the whole thing, the brooches were performing two simultaneous functions that greatly enhanced their cultivation progress.
“Hey…are you feeling that?”
“I am…and it feels…great.”
“Yeah.”
First, the brooches were filtering out most of the ambient aether except for the attributes that were the most compatible with the girls’ formulas.
All energy was energy in the end, but not creatures subsists on the same types for food.
Second, and more importantly, it converted the filtered ambient aether into pure [Chaos]…but it didn’t feed this energy into Rianna and Bellona directly.
“Hey…do you feel another presence by any chance?”
“I don’t think so…Matilda?”
“No one else is in the room, ma’am.”
“Huh.”
Unbeknownst to the three of them, the [Chaos] being created was being funnelled directly into the gems of the brooches themselves.
It was a subtle process, but to those familiar with [Chaos] on a more intimate and spiritual level, well…
[Who?]
[Who?]
They would realize that the channeled energies were being used to make beings that were very similar to kaijin, but not quite.
These young ladies didn’t know it at the time, but they were about to embark on a strange side tangent on their cultivation journeys.
They were still going down the road of Aether cultivation, they’ve been practicing for so long it wasn’t possible to change it without some weird side effects.
But…that didn’t mean one couldn’t take an alternate route to get to that goal, and pick up some strange souvenirs.
Possibly sentient ones.
[I like…gears…clocks…ticking?]
[Ey yo, where’s my pillow at? I want to take a nap.]
Definitely sentient ones.
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=Presents? What presents?=
=Yeah…=
=Really? How?=
