I left the hotel and relaxed until it was time to meet up with assassin. I walked through the dark streets and encountered him, who was waiting with 2 other people.
Don’t forget, if you try anything funny, you'll be burnt to a crisp .
“Oh, I would never! Here, let me introduce you, This is Gary Ughi, our leader and this is Melissa Yva, our historian. I am Kale Ios, head scout.”
Wait, so your name isn't ‘Assassin’?
“Of course, not…” It annoyed me that the assassin acted as if it was natural that his name wasn’t ‘Assassin.’ He will be the first one to get vaporized if they do something funny.
“Very nice to meet you ninetail sir! I’m thrilled to hear about your history!” The historian said as she wildly shook my hand as if she were my fan.
“I never expected to find a second one, I am honored to meet you, we mean no harm, would you accompany us to our temporary hideout?” The leader, of whom I already forgot the name, asked.
Sure.
I followed the 3 cultists and wondered if this was a good idea. The historian was talking my ears off so I tuned out. Something about always being interested in mythology and stuff and all the myths and stories she discovered over the years.
“We’re here” Said the leader, but we were at an abandoned warehouse which seemed quite uninteresting and had sloppy illusions covering it.
This is it? What’s with this shoddy illusion? Your illusionist needs to step up his game.
“Uhh, well it works against humans, he is quite proud of his 4 layered illusions… Please don't shatter his ego…” The leader said while taking a closer look at this disgrace to illusions.
We stepped into the abandoned warehouse, and the interior just looked like a large house where a lot of people lived together. A lot of people were watching me, though. Some seemed skeptical, but that was because I was in my human form.
We entered a large room with a big table and chairs around it, there were also a lot of couches to the side and looked like a casual meeting room. The room filled with people, and they took their seats either at the table or the more casual seats. I wanted to take a seat on a comfy couch, but the leader stopped me.
“We have a special seat for you, it was meant for Giana, but you can use it too.” He pointed at something that looked like a throne.
You are kidding, right? I’m not sitting on that!
“But we worked so hard for it, you surely would understand right your greatness!”
I told you to stop treating me like that Assassin!
Most cool spots were taken by now and the only comfy seat seemed to be that throne.
You guys just put me closer to want to turn you into ash, you better not pull any dumb stuff.
I walked over to the throne and inspected it. Nothing funny to it. It just looked tacky. I changed its appearance with some illusions and took a seat. Greg would have loved the original design, though. Maybe I should get a bit more serious with my ‘Edgelord Impersonation’ sometime.
There that’s better.
Some people that were skeptical started to relax. Even if I was an imposter, being able to freely use illusions like this would make me more believable, I guess. I took a pose that suggested I was in control and slightly intimidating.
So, you all might be wondering why I have gathered you here today, you are going to explain to me your cult activities.
“We are not a cult, but we will explain as well as we can, I just have a small request, can you show everyone your tails? I’m sure many people here have doubts.” The historian requested.
I leaned forward.
And what’s in it for me?
The leader grabbed his chin in a pensive manner. “Hmm, that is actually a very good question. I’m sure you have certain expectations of this meeting even though they might be small, showing good faith might potentially make this meeting less disappointing for you.”
You have a good head on your shoulders, I guess y’all are lucky to have him as your leader .
I took out all my tails and had blue foxfire wisps floating behind me.
Does this satisfy you?
Everybody gasped and most started bowing.
Right, I need you cultist to stop treating me as a god, I’m no god. Even worse I hate them so I would suggest you to treating me such if you value your life.
“So, it’s true, nine-tailed spirit foxes have a bad relationship with gods!” The historian stepped in and explained to these cultists the relationship our race has with gods. I could slowly see that they started to understand and profusely apologized. I think I like this historian; I don’t have to explain a lot of things with her around.
Hey, Mel, just curious how do you know so much about us?
“Mel? Do you mean me? Oh, I’m flattered! I mean uhh I found an ancient document buried in the Zanyr Desert that appeared to be a diary of a nine-tailed fox. It was complete with their identity roles, daily lives, preferences, and special traits. It was incomplete on their relations with other races, but their relationship with gods were all too clear. There was one problem though, the language was in one we had never seen before, and it took me 20 years to decipher and master.”
Hmm, you still look young for a human that has been studying this for 20 years.
“Oh, I’m quarter elf, I might not be immortal but as long as I don’t get killed, I could reach 300 years old.”
Interesting, this means you might know more about my race that I do. My story is similar to Giana, we lost our home at a young age so unfortunately, I don’t know much so if you have questions, I might not be able to answer.
The room became quite noisy.
“So you are from the same origin, that makes sense…”
Well even so the only nine tailed foxes were my mom, Giana and her parents and 2 more. Maybe 2 or 3 more I never interacted with but that’s the population for as far as I know.
“So, you lost your home at 9 years old… I can understand that you don’t know certain specific things then.”
Uh, I was 7.
“Oh, I’m sorry I thought you were the same age as Giana.” Mel said as she made notes. “Here is the document I found; I know it by heart but maybe there are things only a ninetail spirit fox can see in it.” Mel handed me a funny looking book.
Hmm, this looks weird indeed. Do you mind if I go through it?
“Sure! I’d be happy to learn of the secrets this book holds!” Mel said excitedly. Her behavior seems to confirm that she knows about us as a 9t could write something and anyone could read it but only those with Elgards eyes might be able to read much more… the problem is, why didn’t this 9t write the important parts in such way that only possessors of Elgards eyes could read it?
Hmm it looks similar to a language I do know, there is something interesting about this book, you said it was a diary, right?
“Yeah!”
Did you get hit by some strange magic or effects while deciphering or reading it?
“I did not, why?” I inspected Mel. Besides being a bit crazy about mythology and history, nothing seemed wrong with her.
Well maybe this depends on the contents of the diary but I can’t imagine a ninetail writing something and not booby trapping it with some nasty magic traps or just layering illusions in it. If nothing happened, either the diary was intended to be read or…
I created 7 illusion layers and locked the current state of the diary and started to follow mana traces on it and started to date the creation of the broken spells on it
“Uh, what are you doing?”
There is a possibility that it was booby trapped but at some point, something or someone disabled it. I have a question does this diary highlight some weaknesses or traits of us that could be exploited?
“Uhhm, yeah... It is quite complete in your strengths and weaknesses.” The book crackled and some booby traps appeared on it after I restored some enchantments, suggesting that at some point in history it was indeed booby trapped. That the removing these had been a long process. It seemed to have taken 142 years to remove all these. It was also relatively easy to date it, a pleasant surprise.
Very interesting. Hey, Mel as a historian you’re aware of the Great Eraser, right?
“Of course, it annoys archeologists and historians to no end!”
Even though most things got wiped from history, there are still artifacts that survived it and could give an indication about what happened before it, correct?
“That’s right, I believe this diary is one of them.”
To the best of your knowledge, what happened 9472 years ago? It’s fine if you don’t know, but maybe you know something I don’t.
“Hmm according to what I know from this diary that year places it about 62 years after this diary was written. According to my calculations, this diary was completed 9534 years ago.”
Can I see those calculations and the data you based them on?
I asked this as a tail had come up with a different number, it wasn’t a big difference, but accuracy is quite important in these fields.
Mel gestured, 3 people disappeared and brought stacks of paper and their mathematician.
Right, let me go through this real fast. I went ‘Library’ mode and read everything swiftly, saving it to my archive and letting my tail crunch the numbers on the data.
Actually, very impressive, you were only 1 year off.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
My tail wrote some easy-to-digest calculations and handed them over to the mathematician and he was quite happy. He wasn't upset that he was wrong, but proud he came this close with vague evidence to work with and multiple uncertainties.
So, this was written 9533 years ago. 9472 ago something happened and someone took 142 years to disable the booby traps and read it. Most of these booby traps are quite deadly unless the one attempting to read it is a 9t, a 7t or a god...
I opened the booby trapped diary and showed that I was fine. Everyone in the room could feel the mana from the diary. Nobody needed to convince them that even touching this document in this state was a bad idea.
“So, you’re saying someone or a group worked to disable these?”
You are a historian, you know that I can't say this for certainty, but that is my hypothesis yes, I am willing to go even further and speculate that it was probably a small group if not one person, and they must have been in an immortal category. Some of these curses and booby traps reactivate after it kills. So, there would be no advantage for a group to attempt it because the moment one of them dies, due to the booby trap or other unrelated causes, they would refresh.
This was based on what I know about myself so far and the meeting with Rignef. We 9t trust our own race but it will become brutal against other races.
“That sounds quite ninetail-ish…”
I turned the book back to normal and returned it.
Hmm coming here was the correct choice after all. So, tell me what you think are the most important things you've learned, I assume everyone here already knows about it.
“Ahum, according to this diary a young ninetail fox reaches mental maturity that's comparable to an 21-year-old human at about the age of 6-7 human years. We had to unleash some math on this too because the system in which you count age is very different.”
0.5 years 9t years.
“Yeah, and after that another form of maturity at 3 and the last at 5 years old which is after 729 human years and, 59049 human years, the last maturity seems the most important but unfortunately only a few would ever reach that age.”
Ah yeah, I’m painfully aware of that, as far as I know getting 3 years old is already an achievement for us…
“At 2 or 3 years old a ritual will be held to celebrate coming of age and all the secrets regarding their roles in maintaining the dimensional fabric and dealing with possible invasions will be taught, before that the young ninetails are encouraged to master everything they're interested in and find a partner that covers their weaknesses, they will also be encouraged to foster connections with the seven tailed crystal wolves. Oh, I forgot, they get taught how to hunt spirit salmon at 1-year-old.”
Yeah, unfortunately, I missed that too… I’m not sure if Giana had it taught to her, but she probably made 1 the same year we got kicked out of Hourai, so I don't think she knows…
“Hmm this is quite concerning of all the important things the ninetails are supposed to do, none have been taught to you since you lost your parents before reaching any of the ages where these would be taught…”
Yeah, I’m painfully aware that I'm an extremely incompetent nine-tailed spirit fox .
“At least the hunting of spirit salmon went well.” The Assassin remarked.
Yeah, but I had not much to go on about, my mother loved spirit salmon but she mostly one shot them so there wasn't much to learn from that.
Mel continued. “At 3.05 years old which is roughly 1000 human years the nine tail gets introduced to fighting deities. These will be done in groups of 6 or more depending on the problematic deity, which there seems to be an endless amount of. Most ninetails will have a rough matchup against most gods in groups of 6 or lower, but at the maturity of 5 years, they can go toe to toe with them alone. This is something the gods want to prevent at all costs. According to this diary, the oldest recorded nine-tail reached the age of 4.95 which is roughly 56200 human years after which a large group of gods teamed up and killed him. Never has a nine tail reached the age of 5 years or older, according to this diary.”
Wow, that is sad, does it say what the average age was?
“Let me think… I think the average life expectancy was about 2.8 years because it wasn't uncommon for the gods to go out of their way and wipe out any that could become a threat when left alone for too long. I have found a different historical document in a similar language that suggests that later the average life expectancy rose because a lot of ninetails started appearing with a Pagos affinity, interestingly enough most of them were silver foxes and 90% of them were male. Which unfortunately led up to the gods focusing on wiping out the male ninetails. I don’t have confirmation about this, but I think it’s a logical conclusion to make.”
I leaned back in the chair.
Yeah, this somewhat lines up with what I know, the gods started hunting down anyone who could use frost and abyss magic… Does it say anything about the three-tailed shadowcats?
“I’m sorry it's mostly about ninetails and seven tails are also mentioned occasionally.”
Hmm, ok, now let me hear about the weaknesses it describes, I’m pretty sure there are a lot that I’m not aware of.
“Well, the weaknesses are divided into male and female counterparts. The list is so different that they could have easily been pulled from different species. What they have in common are that they have low-risk assessments, like to play with their targets, which can act as a detriment to them. And they are not notable in how fast they are and have a low capacity to take physical damage… which confuses me because you are fast and Giana seems to have a high capacity to take physical damage…”
Uhh, yeah, Giana and I might be outliers.
“Interesting, now about gender specifics… The males are less sturdy than their female counterparts, have difficulties with mastering [Transform], are weak to charm attacks, display more reckless behavior, and their curiosity can become deadly and are unable to assess when their body is in critical condition, weak to specific curses that play into these. They only need to lose 3 tails for it to severely affect them, compared to the 5 for the females and more prone to mana poisoning. Also, a note about [Transform] it is very common that those that [Transform] to become female to be stuck as a female for a very long time because for some reason they don't benefit from the female [Transform] proficiency when they do.”
Oh, yeah, been there, done that, it was a bit scary.
“The females have lower offensive power compared to the males, have difficulties truly mastering illusions, are more prone to disease-related curses, are physically slower than their male counterparts, don't respond well to strong berserk effects more prone to sealing techniques, and are slower with self-regeneration.”
That’s quite a list.
“Later records have shown that the most used method of ehhm killing them off was cutting off the tails of the males and forcing the females to go berserk or sealing them. Even though objectively dealing with the males was easier, which most gods thought, it seemed that fighting males was a way larger pain in the ass than fighting the females so they sealed the females and used them as bait to lure in the males who more than likely would act recklessly. So, while most females ended just sealed away, the males ended up dying…”
Right…
I started to get uncomfortable because I could imagine something like this happening to me Giana must also be worried about something like that happening.
“This record wasn't dated nor do I know who the author is so it might be inaccurate, but I just wanted you to know.”
Ahum yeah, that could be inaccurate so what else was in the diary?
Most of it was about the life of a fox named Dragel, his father was the ninetail that I described as being the oldest which was named Elgard.”
Oh, that is a familiar name.
“Most of it was about his life, it did highlight some culture of the ninetails and customs but as you highlighted, you got taught none of those…”
“Hey, Melissa I’ve been listening to you all this time but shouldn't we tell his godliness why he’s here?”
Really Assassin? I told you to stop treating me like a god!
“Oh, I apologize! Tell him about the other book you found recently!” Assassin said. He still seemed as if he wanted to worship me. Why do I always get the weirdos?
Mel walked over to a cabinet and picked up an old dusty leather-bound book. “Ah right, so the reason we wanted Giana, and now you, here is because 2 years ago we dug up another book in the same language. Not the same author and dated several 100 years before the Great Eraser that described a method to help the ninetail population.”
It sounds good but I get bad feelings for some reason…
“It describes a method to turn them into gods!”
I knew it! I bet it’s bullshit!
“Well, we thought so too, but this specific method is awfully specific in how to help and what the outcome is, there is also a lot we don’t understand yet, but it probably has to do with how you're different from other tailed beasts.”
Huh? How are we different?
“Well, it talks about some things that loosely translated talk about the Body, Spirit, and Mind, The spirits consist mostly of the Spirit, which makes sense. Gods are speculated to possess the Body. and the races that can use magic possess the Mind. Now there is one race that possesses both the Mind and Spirit, and it's speculated that this is the reason why nine tailed spirit foxes are the most suited to fight the gods who possess the body. The speculation states that the Body is the strongest component, though.”
Ah this… I’m familiar with it. So, it wants to add the Body to make us all-powerful or something?
“That is theoretically the best method, but not practically. This document states that if the Spirit becomes stronger in the ninetail fox it will put them on even footing as the gods. Just think about it when you think of a ninetail you instantly think of its high magical capabilities, never how it’s a spirit or its spirit magic, why is that?”
Hmm, I see your point, what does the diary say about spirit magic?
“Not much, only a handful of individuals were decently proficient in it, but nowhere close to their magic proficiency.”
Hmm, I can't say that I never wondered that exact same thing, ‘Spirit’ is in the name of our race but I still was surprised to discover that I’m also a spirit. So, do I just get better at spirit magic to fix this?
“This would help, but it would require some more ‘messing around’ with the ninetails existence. This document speculates that most ninetails are 20% spirit and 80% mind and that this needs to shift to 50/50. It had various speculations on how to do this but none seemed certain or reliable. There is supposed to be more, but the rest of the book was affected by mold and rot so it’s impossible to read.”
I see, so why did Assassin try to kidnap Giana and try to turn her into a god?
“We might have found a way! Want to try?”
Hell no!
“Come on! It’s for science!” Mel said with a crazy look on her face. And she was doing so well…
Everyone in the room got upset. Some things like ‘Don't you want to become a god’ and ‘Don't you care for your life.”
Theoretically, it sounds questionable, and I’m surely not gonna test it out on a whim, I appreciate the useful information, but I’m not going to get my existence scrambled up because of some cultists.
“We’re not a cult!” The Assassin protested.
I pointed to small ice statues of Giana. What is that, then?!
“Uhhm, it's a... Uhm a figurine! Yes, it’s a figurine!”
I pointed at an altar with an image of Giana and an image of me snacking a spirit salmon.
Hey, when did that image get taken?
“That ehhh, is to remember who saved me from that fishing trip!”
I pointed to a banner that had something resembling a prayer that had Giana’s name as the subject of worship and my name scribbled next to it.
“That ehh…” Assassin started to sweat profusely. “Hey, help me out here!” He tried to recruit the help of his cultist members, but they couldn't find a good excuse.
As I thought, a cult! But I will turn a blind eye, you guys have proven yourself useful.
“Can we make you reconsider with an offering?” 3 cultists came in with plates of baked and steamed spirit salmon. My mouth watered, but I resisted.
Nice try but I won't be swayed!
“Stop resisting, we want the best for you! Release the gas!” Mel showed her crazy side and said something outrageous.
Right, you guys are millennia too early to catch a 9t, hasta la vista noobs!
I teleported to my hotel room. That was scary, for a moment those cultists looked nice and normal but trust a cult to be a cult and a bit extreme. I sent a shadow clone to monitor the hotel in case they tried something weird, and I went to sleep.
