Part 1
"- Be careful, he's coming."
When I woke up, the first thing I felt was my eyes being dazzled by the half light. I look towards the bedroom window and see that above the treetops the dawn was still starting to take on a light crimson hue.
"Hmm... what a strange dream, and what could that voice be?.. hmm"
Getting up from the bed, slightly unbalancing myself, I go towards the dresser where some of my clothes are.
"I better get ready soon, Master doesn't like it when I'm late, last time he wasn't happy about it."
When I finish changing I end up hearing some knocks coming from the direction of the bedroom door, I already imagined who could be behind it, but that was something I didn't want to imagine, so in my desperation I see the hands of the clock that was in front of me. above the door.
"As? It's already 7 am!."
The sound of the door opening was what made me panic the most.
"Midnight Luphios Blue! What did I say last time in case you were late for your magical training? Does it seem like you really don't want to have your Familiar?." asked Elias with a nervous tone of voice, entering the room.
"I... I'm sorry." I speak with a slightly trembling voice.
"You always give this excuse, I think I should be tougher with you from today onwards, maybe 3 or 4 more routine tasks could solve this."
"But master, I didn't know it was so late, when I looked out the window just now it was still dawn."
"Dawn? Midnight, don't tell me you forgot the enchantment I put on the windows last night?" said Elias more nervously.
I stopped to think for a moment about what the master said and for a brief second I remember that the night before, before asking him to tell me the story of Hemera's creation, I had asked him to place an enchantment on my windows to make them darker.
"Hmm... I see you remembered now, no wonder you woke up so late this time." he said, turning towards the door.
"Well, there's no point anymore, as you didn't wake up at the right time, we'd better postpone this class until next month. And there's no point trying to talk to me this time, since I warned you days before that today was my only day of free time. Now go downstairs, your breakfast is still on the table waiting for you and when it's finished you have your chores to do."
"Yes sir." I say this with contentment.
Well, it's better to follow what the master said, I don't want to make him more angry than he already is. "... My day couldn't have started better..."
Master's house isn't very big, he built it himself so it's not that difficult to get around, I've lived with him for as long as I can remember as he ended up adopting me when he found me in a clearing in the middle of the night while looking for ingredients for an important spell. I'm happy about that, because otherwise I wouldn't even be here, and it's a shame that only the two of us live in this huge house and I feel lonely sometimes since I'm always alone.
"It seems that today is another one of the many days that Master Elias will be holed up in his workshop, I wish he wouldn't stay in there for too long since he always forgets to make his meals." I say this by putting a spoonful of porridge in my mouth.
Part 2
A month passed.
Not much has changed since the master entered his workshop, I hardly see him anymore in the days that have passed, but that's something I'm used to, what makes me most curious is knowing what he's creating this time. Large spells take time to prepare, but one that has to be prepared for an entire month should not be too complicated, what could it be?
"Hmm? It looks like he's not going to come out yet, I'll leave his food here, I'll take a look again later." I place a tray on a chair near the door and head to the kitchen.
Well I don't have anything else to do, I ended up leaving everything tidy yesterday before going to bed, I don't want to make him mad like last time.
With a quick glance, I ended up seeing that some of our ingredient bottles were empty.
"- WHAT? How is this possible? I checked everything yesterday, our stock of livityas¹ was very full, how come there aren't any left?"
Generally I shouldn't even worry about the lack of this ingredient, but livityas are an important ingredient in a superior healing potion that the master makes, many adventurers and mercenaries stop by to buy them as they are used in expeditions in the parts of the forest that are generally dangerous.
Lost in my thoughts, I end up going through some of the boxes on the side. "- But how? All the potion bottles are empty too!"
"This is very bad, the master has a large delivery of this batch of potions for an important client who has scheduled to come and pick them up this afternoon." I place the box and the vial that was in my hands on the table.
"If I remember correctly, the master told me that he always harvests them from a patch near the center of the forest, what worries me is that they are outside the limits of the magical barrier of our house and it would be a problem if I encountered any magical beasts on the way."
I look towards the window and realize that the weather outside was still clear. "- Hmm... If I took a quick getaway I don't think the master would notice, the path isn't that far from here."
Leaving the room, I end up taking a bag that Master Elias uses for this type of situation and heading towards the front door.
[2 Hours later]
I've been following this trail for some time now and I still haven't found any of the livityas along the way.
"That's strange, if I remember correctly Master said that we are still at the beginning of the season so there should be a lot of them around here. Did I take one of the wrong paths?"
I look around me and realize that it had been some time since I heard any sound coming from the forest. "- This isn't good at all, in the adventure books I usually read when a situation like this happened the protagonist was always in danger, but that couldn't happen in real life hehe." I think this trying to locate myself.
"Well, I don't think I'm there yet… ''. Before I finished my sentence, I hear a loud bang coming from behind.
In one quick movement I end up seeing a great magical beast that I never thought I would see in my short life.
"A… A BIRDEG²!" "- This is impossible! This species is not from this continent, so how did it get here?"
Terrified and lost in my thoughts, I see the creature release a threatening roar in my direction, leaving me completely paralyzed. "- What do I do now? There's no way I can face that."
***Flashback
"Midnight this is something important for your safety, if one day you end up leaving the limits of the magical barrier and encounter a magical beast, use this spell and make sure to aim towards the creature's eyes, this will leave it stunned at this point. that you will have your chance to escape."
***
In my memories I end up remembering something important that the Master told me in a past class. "- And that!"
I raise my hands towards the monster, making it become angrier with such rapid movement, making it come towards me at high speed, when I see that there is no longer any escape, I begin to chant the spell.
"To be saved... let this unholy power be converted into an act of arrogance, and grant this servant your strength - [INFLAMUS!³]"
In an instant I begin to feel a strong familiar warm sensation filling the palms of my hands and like a strong gust a beam of flaming light dominates the place, going straight to the eyes of the beast which, upon receiving the attack, ends up losing its balance. big body, giving me the chance I needed to get out of the way.
A few meters further on, in the middle of my escape, I end up not noticing a large root in my path, which makes me fall close to the trunk of a large tree.
"Aaaay!" "- Damn it, there's no point running for long, at some point he'll find me, hmm... maybe if I climb this tree he won't notice me." I think about this trying to control my breathing.
"Good is the best I have."
I end up climbing on one of the branches waiting for the wild beast to come to meet me. A few minutes passed and with the sound of thunder I heard heavy footsteps coming towards me, making me sneak through the leaves of the tree, and little by little a silhouette approached where I was.
"- It looks like you're still looking for me, damn it!." I think this while trying to contain my nervousness.
Little by little I began to see several parts of his body scorched, but what really surprised me was the wound on his face hit by the impact of the spell.
"- What kind of creature takes a spell like that and is still alive with that kind of wound? Even if I tried again I'm not sure I would have time now that he knows I'm hostile."
Parts of his face were completely destroyed by the flames, yet he remains standing and still looking for me to take out his anger.
Little by little I could hear his heavy breathing along with his footsteps surrounding the place, trying to find traces to know where I was, I would just have to stay quiet as much as possible without making any sound and in a short time I would know that he was going to leave and I could run away to the opposite direction.
After some time, Birdeg ended up hearing some noises from branches further down the trees and ended up following that sound, I assumed he thought it was me trying to escape. Contacting me that he was no longer around, I decided to climb down from the tree.
"-Phew... I'm glad he's gone, but I'm still not safe in this area. He might end up coming back, and I don't want to meet him again." I adjust myself since some leaves were stuck in my clothes.
When I was about to continue on my way, I ended up seeing small luminescent lights reflected by the sunlight in a dark bush nearby, curious about this situation I ended up getting closer to the bush.
"But those are livityas!"
Due to my rush, I didn't realize that the place I was in was exactly in the center of the forest.
The place was much bigger than the Master had told me, full of different types of trees and plants, but what I didn't notice was that the tree I climbed was the center of it all.
"- How beautiful, perhaps a Tyrna lived here? I could stay here for hours and not get tired one bit." But I end up coming back to reality.
"I better get the livityas quickly, I don't want to come back late, I think I was out here too long and the Master must already be looking for me." I begin the search among the bushes, picking one by one without damaging the ingredient.
Having an almost full bag, he ended up picking up something gelatinous.
"Hmm, but what is that? It doesn't look like a livitya."
With a pull I end up taking out something very large and strange that was hidden between them, making me lose my balance, letting it fall on top of some change.
"Hey, don't you be careful! I'm not something that can be ripped away by force, you know?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you but... Wait! Who said that?" Lifting my head, I ended up seeing a magical beast.
"- A slime?" I fix my vision on such a creature in front of me.
"That's right, didn't you see that I was there trying to hide from that beast?" He questioned the slime.
"- Wait, this can only be a joke, a talking slime?" I wonder, lost in my thoughts.
"What's wrong with me being able to communicate with you? That's the most natural thing, no?"
"Of course not! Wait, could you hear my thoughts?"
Without saying anything else, the slime just shrugged, leaving me more confused with the situation we found ourselves in.
"It can only be that, I'm dead or I'm delirious."
"Delirious, I don't know that word, but I can confirm that the airhead is not dead, as I wouldn't have tried to sacrifice my only life by attracting the attention of that huge beast in that tree."
"So you made the noises just now?" I move closer to him.
"That's right. He's been causing trouble in the forest for some time now." He said with a sad expression.
"My family ended up being killed because of him, when he tried to enter our nest in a cave nearby."
"So you were the only one who survived?."
He nods in affirmation at my response. Well, I'm grateful that he took the risk in that situation and for a moment I see that underneath a leaf stuck on top of his head there was a wound.
"Hey, was that injury now or during the attack on your nest?" I asked, waiting for his answer, which took a few seconds.
"That was just now, but don't worry, I'm eating these berries, I can heal myself, that's what my brothers told me, but I've been doing this for a while now and I don't feel any improvement."
Maybe it's because they don't take effect during the day, from what I've read the healing properties can only be extracted during the night. But as he helped me, why not return the favor.
I raise one of my hands over his wound and begin to sing a simple chant.
"Glorified be O you Primordial Astrid... let her grace be converted into a bountiful harvest, and grant this spirit another day of life-[Healing!]"
A verdant light emanating an aura of life covers the slime's small body, making it slowly recover.
"Oooh, I didn't think the airhead knew how to use that! hehe thank you".
"Well, I'm just returning the favor, but you might as well not call me an airhead."
"Then what should I call him?"
"Well, you can call me by my name Midnight if you want."
"Mi..mid.. Midonato... Midegatsu... Midanato..." He tried to say my name in several ways, but it seemed like every time he tried he got even more confused and I admit it was pretty cute.
"I think it shouldn't be easy to pronounce my name, you can call me whatever you want to make our communication easier" I say smiling to make this easier to understand.
"Then I will call you Master since you can use magic against magical beasts."
"I guess I'm too young to call myself that, but if it will make our conversation easier, I don't see much of a problem." Before I could continue, I felt something cold fall on my snout followed by another.
Due to my distraction talking to the slime I ended up not noticing that strong rain clouds ended up starting a strong storm making me take shelter with him under a tree nearby.
"And now, how am I going to get home with this storm? And I don't even know which direction is right this time since the rain has erased all my tracks."
"Master doesn't live in the forest like slime."
"No, I live in a place a little far from here but I just don't know which way to go." I say this expressing nervousness "- If this rain doesn't stop soon I'll end up having to spend the night here and that's a big risk, as we could be attacked by other beasts during the night."
"- Hmm... I can already imagine his sermon."
While I was lost in my thoughts, the little slime ended up catching my attention.
"Master!...Master! You heard what I just said."
"What?" I look at him confused.
"Master, I said that there is something approaching us and it is coming from that direction."
I fixed my gaze on a blurred shadow between the trees that every time it got closer it gained a little shape, it didn't seem to be a creature as big as the birdeg but it was similar which made me even more anxious. If it got any closer, I would definitely have to fight.
"If that thing gets closer and closer to us, our only option will be to fight."
"I was already preparing for this." said the slime between my arms.
When the creature got closer we saw that it was not just a simple beast, but a Skáld, along with a puppy of the Felles race.
"- Today has been the strangest day I've had, first I was attacked by a creature that isn't from this continent, then I find a slime with the ability to communicate and now this!"
"Hey man, are you lost? It's new to the region." Felles' puppy said.
"To be honest, I think so."
I say this by analyzing him little by little, from what I see he shouldn't be a big threat, as we seem to be almost the same age, but even so I shouldn't let my guard down, since he's riding a skáld.
"Oh! There's no need to be serious with this big guy here, he and my Familiar, I call him Skama" He said with a big smile, leaving the creature calmer with those words.
"What do you mean your Familiar?! But… how did you manage to make a deal with him?" I end up being surprised by what I just heard.
"Well, it's a family secret, I can't tell a stranger I just met, but leaving that aside, do you want help? I can give you a ride since it's not very safe to be in this area."
"Why wouldn't it be safe here?"
"My big brother warned me to be careful in this part of the forest as there is a Birdeg marking its territory, the village guards don't know how it got to the area, but it seems like it is attacking everything that moves, especially creatures with a lot of mana in their bodies."
"Ah, so that's why there weren't any magical beasts around earlier, and I was still unlucky enough to run into him."
"-Well, not that I want to try and hunt the magical beasts in the region."
"YOU FOUND HIM! HOW AMAZING, WHAT WAS HE LIKE? BIG? VERY LARGE? IT IS STRONG?."
I end up scared by his reaction. but I imagined it would be from bumping into someone who didn't end up being killed by said creature.
"I wouldn't say the near-death experience was incredible, but he was pretty...*atchim*"
"Whoa! It looks like you're starting to get a cold, come climb into the back of the Skama and I'll give you a ride" he asked, showing me an extra seat on his Familiar's mount with a wide smile.
The storm looked like it wouldn't let up anytime soon, so that was my last option, I didn't want to stay in that place any longer, as I was now sure it wasn't safe because it was the territory of a very powerful wild beast.
"Thank you... " *atchim, atchim..*
After a few sneezes I managed to climb onto the back seat of the skáld and in a few seconds we were already flying over the trees.
The sensation could have been incredible, but with the storm I only ended up feeling the strong gusts of freezing wind with the raindrops coming towards us.
"Hey we're almost getting close to the village, so hold on tight!"
"Wait! Are you taking me to the village?" I ask him, trying to hold me back as much as possible.
"But of course, where do you think we're going?"
"Well, that's a problem, I don't live in the village, my house is in the north of the island."
"On the north side?...um...wait don't tell me that!!!"
When I realized we had ended up changing our flight route to a small old road near the village, I don't know exactly what I said but after realizing that I didn't live in the village he didn't show any more reaction and remained silent for the rest of the journey.
"Hey man, I can only come here ok?" He said without looking at me.
I ended up getting off my mount trying to understand what was happening.
I look around and even with the heavy rain I realize that I'm close to home, so it wouldn't be a problem to locate myself, I return my gaze to my new acquaintance.
"Thanks again for helping me, but now I have to go." I ran towards my house without having heard his final answer before, I didn't want to make the situation more awkward than it was.
In a few seconds the sound of flapping wings was mixed with the sounds of the wind and rain and little by little they moved away as I ran.
Before I knew it, I had already surpassed the limits of the magical barrier, making the rain stop slightly, giving me more speed to reach the doorstep.
When I was about to turn the door handle, I ended up being pulled inside, coming across my master.
"Master…master, I can explain. *atchim*" with my clumsy sneeze I already knew what was coming.
After that I spent almost half an hour listening to the master's sermon because I had left the limits of the house's territory and without his supervision, I only had a few minutes of rest when I showed him the bag full of livityas, explaining the situation between one or two sneezes.
But I still didn't escape the cold, the only thing that made me happy was discovering that the little Slime I found earlier ended up getting into the bag, giving us both a scare.
Part 3
Three long days have passed since my sudden departure, in the meantime I ended up being bedridden due to the cold that I ended up contracting. To improve my situation, the master informed me that that day before I woke up, the client came in the middle of the night, as he really needed that stock of potions and that's why he also bought the livityas from the bottles that were empty since many adventurers were being attacked. by a magical beast in the region and as I wasn't awake I couldn't know without the master telling me.
But that wasn't even my biggest surprise, as the Slime ended up hiding in the bag I ended up getting scolded again for bringing a wild creature within the limits of the barrier.
I admit it was fun to see the master's reaction when he noticed the Slime.
At this moment I end up letting out a sideways smile, seeing such a creature resting beside me. "-... Well, at least now I'll have some company when the master is working, since he gave me permission to take care of him after I told him his story..."
Before falling asleep, I place the palm of my hand on top of the Slime, checking if everything was ok and I notice an almost transparent line connecting us.
I thought it was all in my head due to tiredness and fever, so I didn't pay much attention, and with the sound of raindrops hitting the roof I ended up falling asleep.
"- Pact established, magical creature membership completed..."
Notes:
1 - Livityas: Small incandescent fruits with high healing and fatigue recovery properties, can be used in grade II healing potions, lethal if consumed in high quantities.
2 - Birdeg: E-rank beast, a bestial species of draconian origin, originally found in arid territories or deserts, they are extremely territorial, capable of blinding their victims.
3 - Inflamus: Advanced category spell, similar to the fire arrow.
4 - Skáld: A-rank beast, a bestial species of draconian origin, one of the few species that has the ability to fly in high areas, research states that they can comprehend other races.