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 who was sleeping in his chair with a bulldog to his feet in front of a dog day-care with its door wide open was not one of them.

Well, the timer started so better get the fuck on it. He gave out his orders through thinking; it was just faster. ‘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 departed 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 stupid 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 learned over time. While Gnome was able to use concrete as basic weaponry, like she had done back when Victoria had attack John and Rave, she could not control it outside of rapid movements. Usually, the less natural something was the harder a time Gnome had to use 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, understandingly, 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.

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 catch it easily.

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

Dog 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 years. Earth broke through the weakened street and captured all four of them successfully.

Dog 8: John had some good luck. One of the dogs was currently doing his business on a tree in a front-lawn, so all he had to do was give Gnome the place and time whenever he stopped peeing.

Dog 9: Sylph, unwilling to be outdone by Salamander (As everyone was aware of 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 of 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 here) and landed both safely.

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

Dog 11: the first one Undine found, and the first time in a while John heard her voice. ‘Canalisation.’ A single serene sound, a voice like musical glasses. Honestly a very nice and soothing sound. In response to these thoughts, John got his head filled with the water elementals 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.

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

-21 HP to your 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, he was not brought back in time, so they simply returned to the shelter, where John got his reward from the fat black guy that suddenly woke up. “Wha? Oh, hey, you brought…..15…..” The number sounded oddly mechanical, “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 where 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 ludicrous reward to investment ratio. Here was hoping he would get more of these kinds of events in the future, but as he apparently needed legendary drops to do so, it felt unlikely. Well, of to the Skaven Under-Empire and to get to that Floor 5 boss.