4 The Scarlet Mist part 1 (1/2)

Editor: Acerman

-Afternoon, Forest of Magic-

”Hum-ti-dum~ running in a forest~ forest of magical stuff~ with many animal and big trees~”

Heyo, Arah-sama here, time goes by really fast when you have special power, suck it to everyone whose normal, hahaha…haha…ha…I don't know why but I feel sad all of the sudden….

Back to topic, as I said time goes by really fast and what I mean by that, 2 weeks already passed after I arrived in Gensokyo.

There wasn't much happening in that 2 weeks, aside from the first week nothing really happened.

…what happen in that first week you ask, well…

Marisa and Reimu visited me a few days after I moved in Akyuu house.

[Lv.22 Ordinary Magician, Kirisame Marisa]

[Lv.85 Hakurei Miko, Hakurei Reimu]

Out of curiosity and worried that I would cause some trouble, Reimu kindly visited me, by visited I meant threaten me, and I genuinely felt threatened when I saw her level.

”If you cause trouble in here, I will beat you to a pulp for making me work.”

”Relax Reimu, Akyuu let him stay at her mansion herself, he probably not gonna cause trouble-ze.”

”Hump! I hope so!”

Just as expected! An answer that befitting of Hakurei Reimu, the Lazy Miko.

Beside the threatening visit, I also upgraded my arsenal.

Vector Change Lv.2 - Lv.3 - Lv.4 = 30.000 AP (10.000 AP + 20.000 AP).

Body enchantment Lv.1 - Lv.2 = 6.000 AP

Apparently, it multiplied the price for upgrading the ability, Now, I can do more crazy shit with my ability, I also figured out something unexpected.

My level went up when I upgraded my ability.

[Lv.24 Outsider Extraordinaire, Arah]

…and my title change too.

So, levels are not really like how great a power level a person has, it's probably how good they are at kicking your butt.

Then how about the level up thing when I'm in Muenzuka?

Probably one of the ways to level up, I can't really kill anything because Yukari already warned me about it.

I also have a couple of theories about why I can see Reimu's level even though Reimu is way more powerful than Yukari. I think it's because of level discrepancy when I first met with Yukari or maybe I was still shit back then, I still can't see the difference between our power or also maybe because Reimu level is that high of a level because she's inside of the Hakurei Great Barrier; after all the biggest barrier in Gensokyo is Hakurei Great Barrier and it is said that the Hakurei are more powerful inside it.

Continuing on with my report, I also bought new ability.

Magical Sense Lv.1 - Lv.2 = 6.000 AP (2.000 AP + 4.000 AP)

Photographic Memory = 5.000 AP

Seems like every Touhou main cast has some kind of magical sense, even Akyuu has it but it's weaker, probably because she's a Human. Therefore I decided to have one too but of course a stronger one. I'm probably at the same level as Marisa; she's a Human Magician, but a Magician nonetheless.

Photographic Memory is my answer to remembering all Touhou plots and characters, recalling all the Touhou information that I have and voila! Unless I got fucked by a Satori or something similar, I'm good.

Next, I bought new Item.

Black Yukata: Black Cloud

Add-ons:

- Air Conditioning

- Self-repair

Total: 5.000 IP

A black Yukata with black cloud pattern. The pattern is darker than the Yukata, so it's kinda visible because of it. I also have add-ons on it, Air Conditioning and Self-repair. This will make my life easier in here.

I wore the Yukata over my shirt and put away the jacket into my pouch, it's so cool even though it's summer right now.

That's it for my new item.

….what? I want to save IP; I have a plan in the future.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this but the system actually gave me daily quests.

[0* Say Good Morning to Friends]

[0* Say Good Afternoon to Friends]

[0* Say Good Evening to Friends]

[0* Travel 100 meters]

[0* Use your ability 1 time]

The rewards for each of the quest were 500 AP and 500 IP.

There were also 3 weekly quests and 1 monthly quest.

Weekly quests rewards are 5.000 AP & IP, monthly rewards are 20.000 AP & IP

Talk about a mobile game. You will come back everyday to ensure you get the reward, even if you went to another world. Mobile games will follow you everywhere.

I think that's all the noteworthy stuff that happened. The villagers lost interest at me in after a few days, and since I wore my Yukata they don't really stare that much anymore.

”Magical forest~ magical forest~ every kind of animal are inside~ because animal are immune to the boundary~”

Right now, I was walking in the Forest of Magic, searching for empty clearing for my new home; as far as I know the Forest of Magic is the second safest place to live in Gensokyo if you can take stand the illusionary spores in the area. Because of these spores Youkai and anything similar stay away from here.

I know I can still live in Akyuu's mansion but I can't rely on Akyuu all the time. I'm a dude brah, I feel the shame when I start relying on a girl, for fuck sake, every anime that has OP girls and dinky weak as shit male main character. Have some shame dude, hiding behind girls, 0/10 will burn the blu-ray.

”This place looks perfect. I found the clearing I was searching for.”

….shout out to Marsupilami, I just said a line from the opening song. To anyone who remembers that show, you guys are cool.

System, is there a house to buy using the shop?

[Summer House 2 floor: 20.000 IP]

An image entered my head, 2 bedrooms on the second floor, 2 beds in each rooms, a kitchen on the first floor, 2 nice, long sofas facing each other and a coffee table between them in the living room, and a spare room. All kinds of furniture also placed around the house.

A nice house indeed and I will blatantly summon a house out of nowhere. Sooner or later Yukari's gonna visit me and torture me about how I made a house suddenly appear out of nowhere. Lovely….

I will summon the house after I talk about getting out from Akyuu mansion.

”And now”, I take out a pouch from my pouch, more pouchception, ”let's sell this pouch full of magic plants and mushrooms to Marisa, or Alice if she's not home.”

In these 2 weeks, I started adventuring to many places, including Forest of Magic. When you adventure there, you're bound to eventually encounter the magicians that live there, Marisa and Alice.

The only way to describe Marisa's house is that her house is very unkempt, the wall around her house crawling with vines, trash everywhere around her house, and a lot of mushrooms near her house. It's probably her Mushroom garden. There's also a sign that say ”Marisa Magic Shop” in Japanese. In her shop she sells Youkai extermination stuff or magical items as her merchandise.

For tidbit of info, extermination in Gensokyo doesn't mean killing Youkai but beating them up or outright sealing them if they are too dangerous to let loose in Gensokyo.

In case you wondering how I can read Japanese, I asked Akyuu help to show me Japanese script to memorize. She was unexpectedly happy when I said I have Photographic Memory. Guess being alone for a human is a bad thing after all.

”There's Marisa house.” I arrived at Marisa house. ”Hey~ Marisa~! *knock**knock*” I called her out.

But nobody came….

I felt dirty saying that line.

When I first arrived at Marisa house, she started blabbering about her ware, cheerful even though I was only half paying attention to what she said. If you asked me what my impression was of her, I'd say she's probably a Star in my opinion. Shining brightly in any situation, full of energy, and too bright for everyone else.

I asked if she would buy any magical ingredients if I sold it to her and she said she would. She then she gaves me plants, mushrooms, and an encyclopedia about something. She said to memorize all the stuff in the books right there and then, apparently because she didn't want to lend her books to me and wanted to get of the house for a while. I could do it thanks to my ability but please don't say something absurd to other people.

When I said I memorized it all, she turned to my direction, away from her some kind of alchemy experiment.

”No way-ze! You must be lying-ze! Normal people can't memorize all content of a book that big in such a short amount of time-ze! Even Reimu give up after 3 second!”

”Well, first I'm not Reimu, second I am different from others, and third I really remember all of it.”

”Hump! If you insist, I'll quiz yah-ze.”

”I see you don't trust me. Go for it then.”

”…you asked for it-ze, how to harvest [insert magical ingredients]?”

”It's [insert answer here].”

”…then, where do you get [insert magical ingredients]?”

”It only appears in [insert answer here].”

”He actually remember all of it-ze, then your ability must be Photographic Memory!” she exclaimed, pointing at me.

”Did you know that pointing at someone is considered rude behavior?” I answered with a smile.

”I'm right, right?!” she still pointing at me, grinning.

”I wonder about that~”

”Fufu, I'm such genius.” The smugness is real.

”Then about our conversation…”

”Yes, at first I was just joking with you, shoving those 3 encyclopedias to distract you enough until my experiment finished and then I could shoo you away from my house, but after that, you probably know how to properly cultivate all of the ingredient. I think I can trust you enough with it.” She nodded understandingly.

”Now, get out of my house!”

And that's how I properly met Kirisame Marisa.

”No one home huh….let's try Alice house.” I started walking towards Alice's house.

As for Alice, well, the only impression I got from her is just she's a friendly girl.

I remembered where Alice house is, so this shouldn't be too hard.

I arrived at her house after a good walk.

Alice's house is very clean I guess, white walls with blue rooftop, 2 story tower that connects with her house, probably her lab. Her house always looks new; she probably repaints her house every week with her dolls.

I knock on her door.

”Hey~ Alice-san, are you home?”

I waited for while before I heard footsteps from inside the house.

The door opened, revealing a blonde girl wearing a red band, a light blue dress with long white sleeves, and a long pink ribbon going round her neck and another one round her waist.

”Oh, it's you Arah-san, is it the usual?”

”Yes, the usual.”

”Then please come in.” she smiled while inviting me in.

”Thank you, sorry for intruding.”

I went inside the house.

[Lv.39 Seven Colored Puppeteer, Alice Margatroid]

Alice Margatroid, a Doll User Magician, to be more specific a human turned Magician, it is said that with ”Abandon Food” magic and ”Abandon Temper” magic, one will be become a complete Magician. When you become Magician, you didn't need to eat… I want to be a Magician…you didn't need to shit if you didn't need to eat and even if they eat, it's only for enjoyment …talk about eating for fun.

I put down 10 bags of magical plant on the table.

”Here's the item that you requested, my lady?”

”Haha~ yes, thank you kind peddler.” she said, faintly amused.

She started browsing through the pouch.

”Yup, these are all the items I requested and in a large quantity too.”

”Yeah, I discovered more plants than the usual.”

I started this service after my conversation with Marisa. Using my Magical Sense and Photographic Memory, I started gathering all Magic Ingredient in the forest to trade with the Magicians for money. One delivery per week.

I also upgraded my Magical Sense to Lv.3 for 8.000 AP to be able to find more magical ingredients.

At early level, I can only identify something magical if the item is in my vision, and because I upgraded it, the skill change how it works, at Lv.3 its work like a sonar, I subconsciously sending a pulse with me as the center, the pulse came back and giving me the location of every magical thing in the are, so if I don't control it, I'd become a Human Beacon to everyone in the vicinity, and becoming a Human Beacon in the middle of monster territory isn't the best idea.

Alice took the entire pouch from the table and exchanged it with a pouch clinking with coins.

”Thank you for the service.”

”No, thank you for your patronage instead. The only one that use my services are you and Marisa.

”To be fair, with this service I don't have to get out from my house to collect plants. I'm actually an indoor person you see, and only go out when there's a festival in the village to do my doll performance.”

”Doll performance?”

”Yes, I display a performance; you can say it's part of my training as puppeteer. You can come if you want.”

”Thanks you for the invitation, Alice-san.” I thanked her, ”Oh yeah, just to tell you, tomorrow I will build my house in Forest of Magic.”

”You want me to help you with it?” She offered.

”No, there's no need to help me, I can finish it myself.”

”Really? Are you sure?” she looked worried.

”Yeah, I have my way to do it.”

”…If you said so.” She still looked worried.

”There's no need to worr-” right at that time, I noticed it ”?!” I looked in direction of the door.

This massive magic, where is it coming from….

I looked at Alice.

Alice narrowed her eyes, seeming like she noticed it too.

We nodded at each other and we went out to Alice's porch.

Over there, we see it. The red mist.

”Red smoke?...no…it's a mist, but why is it red?” Alice inquired.

Red mist? Don't tell me…