Chapter 115 – Chasing Tail (Monday 3/7)

There were many things John had expected when he used the Legendary collar. Spawning next to a fat, black police officer was not one of them. The man, creation, something, had an equally fat bulldog curled up next to his feet. Together they were ‘guarding’ a dog day care.

The timer started immediately and so John began running. He gave out his orders through the mental connections he had. It was just faster that way.

‘Okay everyone, we separate and search for dogs. This goes for everyone except Gnome. Once ANYONE has found one, get them somewhere where Gnome can cage them and then she brings them back to the shelter. Everybody got it?’

‘Yes!’ Multiple voices echoed in his mind and they scattered out from the shelter, spreading over the city. John had no idea where he was going, usually he was in a copy of Springfield but this was not the case today.

Dog 1: Sylph, with her ludicrous speed, was the first to spot one. ‘Uh, Uh, is this a dog?’ She asked, not sure, sending a mental image to everyone. It was a small Dalmatian sitting on the flat roof of a white inner-city building.

‘Yes!’ John answered, ‘Get it to the street, Gnome’s control over concrete isn’t good enough.’

This was something he had learnt over time. While Gnome was able to use concrete as basic weaponry, she could not control it outside of rapid movements. Usually the less natural a material was, the harder a time Gnome had using it in big amounts and with fine movements.

Sylph rapidly circled the dog, following John’s orders, flying him off the building and catching him in a storm bubble further below. The, understandably, panicked dog tried to run away but Gnome already held John’s mana at the ready and so he was captured and moved back to the shelter in a rolling stone cage.

Dog 2: Aclysia found the second one hiding under a bench. The thing was violently afraid of her as she smelled of metal but was moving like a human. It fled to a small garden where Gnome was able to easily catch it.

Dog 3: Sylph struck yet again, spotting a playful poodle on whose back she landed and then rode onto the streets. She rode him for a bit longer than needed, playful thing that she was, but finally flew off again. Gnome took care of the rest.

Dogs 4-7: Salamander found a small pack of dogs hanging out together in the middle of the street. To keep them together, and to make Gnome's job of breaking through asphalt a bit easier, Salamander circled them like one of those fire spinners people used on new year’s. Earth broke through the weakened street and captured all three of them successfully.

Dog 8: John had luck, one of the dogs was currently doing his business on a tree in a front-lawn. All he had to do was give Gnome the place.

Dog 9: Sylph, unwilling to be outdone by Salamander (everyone knew that, because she kept babbling about it), rushed over the city like a high-quality camera drone. ‘Tag! Found one!’ She announced and blew another dog off a roof.

Dog 10: But she wasn’t done yet. As one dog fell, she spotted another inside the building from whose roof she just blew the first one. Without remorse or hesitation, fuelled by the wish to be the most useful, Sylph broke right through the window, threw that other dog out as well (John had to help with mana there) and landed both safely.

They were now in EXP gain territory but they also had spent more than half of their time.

Dog 11: The first one Undine found and the first time in a while John heard her voice. ‘Sewage system.’ A single serene sound, a voice like musical glasses. A very nice and soothing sound, the envy of any opera singer. In response to these thoughts John got his head filled with the water elemental’s embarrassment. However, Gnome got it and the dog was transported back to the surface.

Dog 12: John spotted a large dog running down a distant street through his Bee’s eyes. It was a bit of a challenge to catch this one. Gnome needed three tries in total, the larger dog gleefully dodging and jumping over the created walls until Gnome finally got him.

Two more minutes, time was running thin.

Dogs 13-15: He himself found another small pack that was full of mean looking bulldogs feasting on trash. The aggressive creatures turned at him and tried to actually bite at his legs. Luckily Mana Protection’s over-regeneration layer had that covered. They ran uselessly into the near-invisible, pale blue wall.

-21 HP to his pre-emptive shield.

So, 7 for each dog bite. Not too bad. Gnome enveloped the growling beasts and quickly got them back to their origin point.

While they did find a sixteenth dog, it was not brought back in time so they simply returned to the shelter, where John got his reward from the fat black guy. He woke up just as John wished for his reward. “Wha? Oh, hey, you brought..15!….” The number sounded oddly mechanical, as if recorded at a later date and then inserted into the middle of a sentence, “…of the dogs back, here is your reward.”

‘If there even is a next time.’ John thought and looked at his Skills. The two logical things to increase were Artificial Spirit and Earth El. Summoning. Artificial Spirit because it gave more AP which led to Aclysia becoming even stronger and Earth El. Summoning so he was closer to using a Skill Evolution on her.

 To be honest, Aclysia was strong enough without more bonuses, at least that was John’s opinion, so getting Gnome into evolution range was smarter. Therefore, he spent all 15 points on the Skill, pushing it, together with a level he had gotten during breakfast, to level 89.

This had been a weird experience but 10 minutes for 5000 EXP and 15 skill points was a lucrative reward to investment ratio. Here was hoping he would get more of these kinds of events in the future. Since he apparently needed legendary drops to do so, it felt unlikely. ‘Well, off to the Skaven Under-Empire and to get to that Floor 5 boss.’