I'm not even gonna try and excuse my late upload what can I say I was busy grinding on star rail, I'm already level 35, another thing seele has to be fucking with me I've done 60 rolls and no gold to be seen
also posting the other half tommorow had this pre written on Wednesday was forgetting to write the rest since star rail
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about 2 hours later
'whelp I'm lost' I think as I hum the Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal theme while walking, looking around as gigantic pillars of land fill my surroundings
'well in my defense I did warn you as you 'got bored' to not attempt to teleport with pride control' I sigh as the familiar snarky voice fills my mind
'well Lucifer in my defense I thought it would work...and it did juuust not how I wanted it to'
I hear him do a spit take as he summons himself and stands in front of me as I stop
"You teleported multiple kilometers heck I could probably get a better estimate but someone~ is a little to weak to obtain my powers"
I frown as I cross my hands " thanks blues clues for pointing out the obvious, now are we gonna spend our afternoon on the grass or are you gonna- " I'm stopped by the loud grunting I hear
I turn to the noise and I see a teenager with panda ear shaped braids on her head, wearing
a dark red chinese dress, with yellow highlights holding a spear pointed at a wierd looking rock rat
and I then see her throw out a panda teddy bear that breathed fire '....Lucifer did I ingest any drugs accidentally while walking'
'nope I'm seeing the exact same shit, this place is wierd but not as wierd as hell...getting closer though if we keep seeing this shit'
'I mean she seems like she has this under control-'
the rock rat then rolls into a wheel and spins moving in confusing pattern before accelerating hitting her in the stomach and sending her into one of the many giant pillars in this place
'Mmmhm yes oh great lord kymani she totally has this under control'
'zip it I'll go help her'
'Never till the day I die'
resolving myself to ignore Lucifer I cover my feet in pride control as I make a small breeze surrounding it speeding me towards her direction
the rock rat as I get closer reminds me of furret from pokemon 'of course if it had razor sharp teeth and rock spikes pointing out of its back, and of course can't forget the orangish yellow rocks surrounding it's body'
it gets closer as she falls out the rocks she tries to stand up using her spear but immediately falls after a second as it jump in the air getting out of ball form claws pointed at her
getting close enough though I immediately stop this action creating a tentacle out of pride control 'hollow knight was really ahead of it's time, sad I died before silksong released'
the rat is slapped away as I stop in front of the girl '...wait shit what do I say, eh fuck it'
"hey are you still alive, would hate to go though all this effort and your dead, so rude" 'wow that's pretty cynical, then again I am the devil- go on'
I use pride control while the rock rat is still down surrounding it in a thick black egg as it squirms around
"well I would have something quirky to say" I say as I walk away from the person laying on the ground "but I'm out of ideas so uh ahem"
I do a mild jog to the egg as the rat squirms further hearing my voice " everybody talking bout their pumped up kicks, you better run, better run out run my-"
Black spikes surround the egg as I say "gun" immediately shooting them as they go through the egg as if it didn't exist as I hear the rat make a loud undescribable noise
the egg disappears as I see yellow particles float from the dead rat 'the reference was a bit mild I'd give this fight a 1/10'
Ignoring the devil whispering in my ear I turn around to check on the girl to see her teddy bear is moving rubbing her head????
"I'm going to just ignore this" I say as I walk up to the girl as the raccoon? teddy bear? whatever just stares at me
'hmm the bear seems to have some godly energy radiating off it, though it seems to be mostly faded away.... interesting'
Once again ignoring Lucifer conjecture for my own sanity I walk up to the girl and slap her face "hey wake up, hello?"
unfortunately she seems to be knocked out cold as the bear just seems to walk closer to me and stares into my eye
"...ok den, how about I take her to one of the nearby spires? to heal her up." I say looking at the bear who just nods soullessly looking at my eyes
'alrighty then' I make a small film of pride control I slip under her that I then surround the ground in a rectangular shape in
as it slowly lifts from under the ground with little wheels as I add some small walls by her so she doesn't fall out
the bear keeps soullessly looking at me as it raises its stump at the wagon, I mentally sigh and create a similar but smaller wagon connected to the other it then promptly sits in as it points in a single direction blankly
"ok guess I follow the teddy bear's directions then" I then create skates out of pride control, using wind to push us further
we stay silent as he points me in multiple directions, Lucifer laughing at me the entire time at the pure ridiculousness that is happening
after a few minutes of us just traveling I decided to break the ice "...Soo uh got a name?"
I say looking to the bear who is laying down, who simply raises their hand my question showing what I assume is a friendship bracelet that says "guoba? huh pretty cool name"
We just travel in silence for a good while until finnally- "huh look a spire" as I say this I see the bear sit up as I feel it's relief at finnally being there
'Being fair to the lesser god if my assumed best friend was unconscious I'd be pretty worried'
once again not taking part of what he said to heart we finnally arrive at the foot of the spire
"...wait THIS IS A DIFFERENT ONE" as I say this I immediately stop myself from touching it as the phantom pains from my last encounter with one assault my body
I look at this tower and instead of the priest in prayer I'm used to at the top, I see what I assume is a king on his throne
However unlike me the bear seems unalarmed and quite excited as he points at the wagon I made gesturing for me to move it closer
a bit hesitant but resolved I push the wagon from behind trying to stay as far as possible from the statue as I'm unprepared for whatever may happen next if I touch it
unconcerned or perhaps ignorant of my fears guoba excitedly touches the spire with its hand as a brown glow shines from the chair
I suddenly hear groans from in front of me as the girl seems to slowly wake up, guoba however was faster and immediately jumps on the girls body shaking her away from her almost permanent nap
quickly summoning a small circle of pride control in front of me, a spear slowly rises out from under it
'the only somewhat useful ability you made while you were 'bored' a portable space connected to the velvet room, quite innovative if I do say so myself~'
Ignoring him the girl seems to be happily hugging guoba, hm must've missed a conversation due to my musings
I grab the spear and walk to the girl as she grabs her waist 'another one of those gems'
"woah woah calm down just returning your spear back" I say holding my hands in the air as I slowly move putting the spear on the ground
she looks at me for a second before sighing " sorry, just a bit panicked I did just fight 50 geovishap hatchlings"
"geovishap hatchlings?" I say slightly turning my head as she stands up dusting herself off and grabs her spear on the ground
"The small rock dragon that knocked me onto that pillar in Huaguang Stone Forest" I once again tilt my head as even she looks confused at my lack of knowledge
"your not from here are you?" I do a double thumbs up with my hands as I then say "yep im completely lost here"
I point at the spire "don't even know what that thing is" I point a little upwards "or who the guy on top of it on a chair is"
Her mind seems to blank as she pauses for a few seconds, " ok you must be really lost then"
I shrug my shoulders as I say, " only place I really know about is mondstadt and that's because someone recently told me about it 2 days ago "
her mouth gapes open as she says "wow...well how about a short explanation then I'll explain the rest as we travel"
I agree with her as I dissipate my skates and my small wagon, she walks up to me, guoba not far behind her "so how far is your knowledge of the world" she asks
I put my hand on my chin before answering, "this world we are in as a whole is called Teyvat, and monstad is the nation of freedom since it doesn't follow one of the 7 archons, otherwise known as gods, that's it"
I swear I see sweat fall down her head after I said that but it immediately disappears, "well at least your not completely uhm" she stammers trying to find a way to put it lightly
"dumb" I finish for her mentally finding her kindness halarious, "yeah that"
[plot dump skip at your own discretion]
"your correct about the archons but it isn't as simple as that, the archons were originally normal gods, spirits, or humans
They all ascended to become archons after the promptly named Archon war, where all the gods fought to become one of the 7 archon
They won and were declared the strongest of the gods blessed by celestia, which by many is considered heaven, where many spirits, and other beings ascend to godhood
The 7 archons reigned supreme even today each in their own way, today celestia plays a key part in our society via vision bearers" she unclips her gem and shows it to me
"These visions are blessings by celestia to mortals, those with potential to become gods are given visions
visions not only give increased physical potential, but also give access to a different range of abilities depending on the elements
for example I am a pyro vision user, I can control and manipulate fire, albeit it stresses my body to use strong abilities over a long period of time
though with training this weakness can be subverted and it's a widely believed myth those with enough accomplishments alongside the necessary mastery can break past their vision becoming gods
manipulating elements at their will, although in current times there hasn't been a documented case of this happening
as such the archons haven't had contest to their powers, more specifically they are the only gods alive of their element making them the true ruler of that element
however due to this they are able to give their abilities to other entities blessing them, one such example would be mondstadt's 4 winds, animals blessed by the anemo archon Barbatos
Or the adeptus of Liyue devine beasts under rex lapis's rule, he is the Geo archon, he rules over wealth and Liyue my home is considered the land of commerce, most consider him to be of the strongest archons
there is also the electro archon Raiden Shogun of Inazuma, and her yokai, they are considered to be the most traditional of the gods, Raiden in particular holding onto the concept of Eternity in wide regard
The last one I'll note is Greater Lord Rukkhadevata the dendro archon of Sumeru, she is considered to be one of the most intelligent gods, and her lands are home to some of the most illustrious institutes
the other lands are either really difficult to get to, or are extremely dangerous so there should be no reason for you to know about them, feel free to search about them on your own time"
She takes a deep breath seemingly finally done with her explanation 'i didn't even realize it but this should be Liyue right?' I say looking at the city in the distance
"well this is my stop" she says looking at me with a smile, "thanks for the save there I was almost a goner"
"no problem by the way why were you even fighting 50 of those geo things"
"geovishap's younglings? their meat provides a natural crunchy yet tender flavor exfoliating the tastes of pyro slime jelly for my new dish"
'she literally risked her life for food....based...based asf'
"oh speaking of that" she digs around in a pouch tied on her waist before pushing a card in my hand alongside a roll of paper
"when you feel like coming back to Liyue make sure to check out Wanmin restaurant our quality is guaranteed, also this here is a map so you don't get lost again it's mechanical one made in Sumeru able to track you in real time.
"I have an extra so you can have this one!" she says in an excited tone as she holds out her hand "until we meet again!"
I hold out my hand to meet hers and shake it as guoba walks to the side of us to put his hand in also "until we meet again"
She walks away as we both wave each other off, 'well I think that was a pretty successful detour we got a map and a restaurant coupon'
I check out the map 'huh it also seems to have the equivalent of Google here, sweet' I drop all the stuff I obtained into pride storage before dusting myself off and walking off
'stop your being watched' I immediately stop my movement 'from where Lucifer' I can hear wind rushing in my ear
'too late brace for impact!' "fu-" I immediately get the wind knocked out of me and pass out from the pain
the last thing I see is a white feather falling onto the ground as bird legs walk up to me
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"damn that hurt like a bitch" I say immediately waking up in the velvet room
"well clearly you got the wind knocked out of you quite literally" Lucifer says holding his hand as I grab it
he immediately pulls me up as I ask him "is my body safe?" he pauses for a while before answering "yes currently though it'd be more beneficial to not wake up immediately"
I want to ask more but since I'm safe I won't bother about it, but the current issue at hand is still a problem, "so any information on the person who kicked me out of the velvet room?"
He frowns at the mention of the question, " don't remind me, he was extremely strong for you, too strong, perhaps he would even be a problem when you unlock most of my abilities.
luckily for us though that might've simply been a test that we failed, we shouldn't be targeted for a while." I also frown at his answer
"that's a bit demoralizing ain't it?" I say crossing my arms, "The truth is usually the hardest pill to swallow"
"I do think though it's time for you to be made aware of another ability I have you can access"I pause at this statement
"your telling me I've almost died multiple times, to multiple giant entities I had no chance against. and now you tell me this!"
Lucifer clicks his tongue, "I don't need the lip, I thought you had more time but apparently you don't have a sense of danger"
"listen it isn't my fault I get into-" Lucifer coldly stares directly into my eyes
"anyways before I explain this to you, what do you know about Pride control?" he says in a curious tone
"it's an ability that allows me to make anything I want out of pure concentrated emotion?" I say trying to guess
"close but no, as you might know as the devil himself my moves will always have a focus on emotions, pride control for example works best on your pride, it works most effectively when your confident then when your scared .
It's why you were severely destroying the smaller monsters and shredded that goblin town to shreds, you felt so much pride in those moments the world turned grey to you.
It's also why Andrius easily shredded through your shield, you had no confidence you could block it, your fear took you over making you a lamb for the slaughter.
Your lucky he was more busy protecting the wolves and razor or else you would've been dead, that's why you need to stay in the same state you were in before
quite literally I like to call this pride mode, you need to stay in this state to use pride control at it's strongest."
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I'll grind out the 12k words tommorow though I'm gonna be busy with church so no promises might even get another 3k word chapter
also someone anyone pray to rngesus for me my luck in honkai star Odyssey is absolutely trash I swear I've been rolling for seele since it released and I've had no luck 10 rolls per day at the least (3030 words)