Chapter 40
How’d You Gets to Kill a Roo?
Evolution Unlocked:
Not A Fan: A
Not a fan of fans? Then this is the Evolution for you. This A-rank Evolution promises to let you, a Power Vacuum, out-suck any fan, whether they be swivel, warehouse, or even in a leaf blower!
New Class Skill Unlocked!
New Class Skill unlocked:
Ultimate Sucker: A
Open your intake port wide and create a temporary portal to the stomach of the Great Power Vacuum. For a short time, you will be able to suck up anything, no matter the size. This Skill can only be used once a week – time determined by your body clock; time distortions do not apply.
New Additional Skill Unlocked!
New Additional Skill unlocked:
Power Vacuum: B
The Great Power Vacuum has watched your display and found it entertaining. They have awarded you with an additional Skill. Power Vacuum allows you to temporarily suck away one Trait from a target at a cost of 50 Mana. Only one creature can be targeted by the Skill at a time, but the effects can stack.
You have reached Level 1 in U???l???????t?????i??????m?????a?????t?????e?????? ???????S??????u?????c?????k??????e??????r?????!?????
+3 Dexterity
+3 Wisdom
+1 Initiative
Elijah was elated. That Additional Skill was exactly what he needed! The void made him whole once more, returning his stats, but with that came the return of slime and feathers. Immediately, the teen tested out his new Skill.
He simply had to target himself and think of activating the Skill, and it worked. The Trait it subdued was random, but his Mana didn’t seem to be able to deplete while in the darkness between worlds, so he was able to activate it over and over until all the Traits he disliked were suppressed.
It was nice to feel normal again. Music began to play, and the next Trial started to form.
Sarabande in D minor by Handel
The familiar sound of La Folia, played by a quartet of strings, tickled the teen’s ears as the next Trial appeared. He supposed there were only so many chord progressions in the universe, but it was disorienting to hear something like that in a place like this.
As the rest of the world came into being, the sound became less and less out of place. Old brick walls, climbed up by neatly kept honeysuckle, grape, and other climbers, surrounded him – in the far distance.
Hedging in closer were hedges whose flowers ranged from red to pink; billowing fuchsia, proud roses, and clawing escallonia, to name but a few. The beds in which they lay slept around the edge of beautifully manicured lawns of grass – not a single blade taller than the first joint of his thumb.
Behind the teen, a road of gravelled quartz stretched out towards a great wrought silver gate that appeared to depict… Kangaroos in courtly dress? Atop the road was a line of wonderfully decorative carriages painted myriad colours, each detailed with gold or silver.
The carriages continued around a fountain – made of some black rock and shaped to look like a kangaroo cherub, pissing out water – where they let out their passengers; this was where Elijah stood.
The teen nearly degloved himself when a string quartet of outback mammals, the ones who had been making the music he was listening to, materialised beside him, serenading the entrants to a massive mansion.
Despite the building’s grandeur – its five stories, its quartz columns, its polished gleam – Elijah’s attention was focused elsewhere. On the kangaroo people, dressed to the nines and standing in pairs, queuing up outside the large house.
The Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
You have reached Lv 25 as a Kangarookin! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: Survive the ball and following court session to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.
Unlike with the other animal kin Elijah had met thus far, these just appeared to be regular kangaroos, dressed in noble's clothes from the Victorian era.
Just to be sure he wasn’t crazy, he used Identify on the tuxedoed kangaroo standing in line in front of him.
Identify:
Level: 25
Monster: Kangarookin
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Description: Kangarookin are known for their love of propriety and their noble disposition. They are normally non-hostile, but they despise any breach in etiquette and may react violently.
The kangarookin Elijah examined spun around and opened his eyes so wide that his monocle fell out.
“How dare you use a Skill on me without asking!” he accused with shocked aplomb. There was an audible gasp that went through the crowd at his words and, then a notification appeared.
Commiserations!
You have failed the Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
Elijah was left shocked. He had thought that simply surviving a ball and the commensurate court session that followed would be easy, apparently not. The world reloaded, and he was forced to start again.
This time he chose to just wait in line without doing anything. He didn’t even talk to the kangaroo couples as they moved their way slowly towards the entrance; he didn’t want to accidentally offend.
Before long, he had made it up the steps and to the giant, kangaroo-embossed doors of the mansion. There was a man dressed in what the teen imagined a butler would wear, standing at the door and taking names.
Elijah stepped up, ready to give his name, but the butleroo didn’t ask. Instead, he looked him up and down, eyeing his torn, blood-soaked, and tattered clothes as if the person inside them was a pleb, which… they were.
Oddly, the sandals seemed to horrify the haughty servant the most, as he audibly gasped when he saw them.
“Does sir have anything else to wear?” the butler asked with hopeless derision.
It took Elijah a moment to decipher the creature’s thick, upper-class accent, a strange problem to have when the words were already being translated for him somehow. Unfortunately, he took a moment too long to respond.
Commiserations!
You have failed the Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
Elijah was sent back to the beginning; all that waiting was for nothing! Well, he conceded, maybe not nothing. He had learnt that he was inappropriately attired for the occasion. Fortunately, he had just the thing.
Summoning the fancy, dark blue hose, jack, undershirt, and riding boots he had gained in Nimueh’s Trial from his Inventory, Elijah began to strip. The noble creatures around him gasped, ladies covered their eyes, and gentlemen began to grumble angrily.
Commiserations!
You have failed the Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
Of course he couldn’t just change in public. He didn’t know when he had forgotten that.
Frustrated, the teen resigned himself to waiting once again. The line went down just as slowly as before. When he came to the door, the butler asked him once again:
“Does sir have anything else to wear?”
Elijah responded, “Yes,” without delay.
“Really?” the butleroo asked. Disbelief evident in the way he raised his eyebrow.
Elijah once again retrieved his nice clothes and held them out. The kangaroo’s scepticism immediately evaporated as he returned to the same respectful tone he had been using with the other guests.
“Sir’s tastes are well established, but perhaps forgotten. I’m sure the other nobles will be delighted to see the resurgence of such a style,” the butleroo said delicately, but the teen knew what he meant. His clothes were out of fashion but still of high enough quality to gain him admittance… he hoped.
“May I enter?” Elijah asked, making sure.
“Where is Sir’s partner? His date?” the kangaroo asked, not yet out of requirements.
“I’m going stag?” the teen tried.
Commiserations!
You have failed the Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
He groaned aloud when he was sent back to the start of the queue yet again; he may have been British, but even he had his limits.
A top-hatted kangaroo exclaimed at the teen’s frustrated outburst, “Oh my!” and a ladyroo fainted.
Commiserations!
You have failed the Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
Gods, if these kangaroos weren’t picky. He needed a date, fine!
As the world recreated itself for the fifth time, Elijah began looking around for someone who appeared to be in need of an escort. Sure enough, there was someone that fit the description. At least the Trial came with a solution.
A young kangaroo with pink lace gloves, a yellow silk dress with embroidered pink flowers, and matching shoes was standing to the side of the queue and looking about nervously. Elijah had found his target.
He left the line, making sure to excuse himself as he did. He didn’t know what the rules of etiquette this society held so highly were, but being polite couldn’t hurt… probably.
“Excuse me, miss?” he began.
She slapped him across the face.
“Eww, creep!” she exclaimed.
Commiserations!
You have failed the Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
“My Lady?” he tried the second time.
“I’m not yours!” she spat, hitting him right in the eye with a phlegmy glob.
Elijah checked to make sure Dishonourable wasn’t still active. It was not.
Commiserations!
You have failed the Trial of Evolution 1: Kangarookin
“How are you on this fine evening?” he said, hoping that would break the mile-thick ice this nervous-looking but confident-acting kangaroo lady seemed to keep around herself.
It worked, somewhat. Her demeanour still changed from lost to guarded, however, as she responded:
“Well enough?” Her words were clipped, but at least she didn’t attack him again; he must have done something right.
Elijah decided to continue down this small path of talk – small talk.
“Fine weather we’re having?” the teen said, looking up at the very brown sun in the turquoise sky. This was the fallback of Elijah’s people, a topic they could discuss every day, no matter how much it was raining.
“I suppose it is?” the ladyroo allowed, relaxing somewhat.
Looking around, he had noticed that all the other ladyroos were wearing beautiful necklaces, but she was not. Searching his inventory, Elijah withdrew a golden amulet.
It was the one that had been worn by the dead king in Nimueh’s Trial. It was slightly weightier than most of the other bits of jewellery, but it made up for that with its beautifully intricate engravings, plus there was a magical property about it that the sixteen-year-old still hadn’t identified.
The ladyroo’s eyes lit up when he materialised the solid gold object, though she caught herself a moment later and returned to her guarded expression. Had Elijah not been watching, he might have missed the glimmer of need in the woman’s eyes.
The teen didn’t know what significance a necklace held in their culture, and frankly, he didn’t care. If it got her to agree to accompany him, then at least he’d be able to get in the door.
“A gift,” Elijah offered.
There was a tense moment in which she looked at him through slitted eyes before she nodded slightly. She proceeded to turn around. Elijah took his cue and put the necklace around her neck.
When she turned back around, she couldn’t completely hide the radiant smile that threatened to spill out from behind her fierce glare.
“I suppose your lordship wishes to accompany me this evening?” she asked with some reluctance.
“If your ladyship does not object,” the teen returned.
She nodded primly and held out an arm. Elijah took it, and they joined the back of the line as a couple.
The teen regretted giving up what was no doubt an incredible magical item, but given his shabby state, he suspected bribery was the only way forward.
They made it once more to the butleroo. As before, he gave the teen the stink eye until he revealed his finery. To his mild annoyance, the ladyroo who accompanied him seemed surprised that he actually had something nice to wear.
“What Title does sir wish to go by?” the rude roo asked. Elijah checked his Titles tab, but there wasn’t anything there. He could go by Master, he was still not yet an adult, but something told him anything less than a noble rank may get him evicted.
“I am Baron Elijah L. Chim?ra,” he declared, choosing the lowest rank of nobility he could recall.
The butleroo’s eyebrows rose even higher at this, and his deference doubled. A page, a joey no higher than his waist that was adorably dressed in frilly clothes, led Elijah to a room off the main hallway where he could finally change into his best clothes.
patrons:
