Party Tricks

…

Fuck… My head… Just what in the world happened last night?

There were… panties, beers, lingerie, death threats, cheering, and… Ugh… just how much did I drink last night!?

I turned to the left and saw Aqua sleeping peacefully beside me. By peaceful, I mean, sprawled carelessly on the hay sack with a stupid grin and a loose shirt. She might have a figure of a goddess, but she got the appeal of a twelve years old.

In other words, extremely immature.

The girl shifted in her sleep and yawned. "Good morning, Scumzuma…"

"Good morning Aq… what was that?"

"What was what, Trashzuma?"

Was that on purpose? Agh, my head, never mind…

I decided to let it be for now and start my daily morning routine. We went to the public bath, change, and went straight to the guild.

It's a bit early in the morning and the guild is still a bit of a mess since last night. We went for the nearest empty table and sat down on top of it. "So, can you tell me what happened last night?" I asked Aqua.

"I wasn't sober last night, why don't you ask Megumin when she arrived?"

After a few minutes of waiting, Megumin arrived in the guild and walked towards us. "Good morning Aqua, Filthzuma," she greeted us before sitting down next to Aqua.

"Good morning Megu… What did you just call me?"

"What are you talking about Shameless-Panties-Fiend-Kazuma?"

Just what in the name if hell happened last night?!

"You know, you've been acting weird, Wearing -Megumin's -Panties- as-Mask- Kazuma."

I stood up from my position and pressed my head on to the table. "Please forgive me!"

---

"And for defeating the Demon Lord Verdia, the guild shall award Fantastic Dreamer and Mitsurugi Kyoya three hundred million Eris!"

An excited squeal came from our resident goddess, followed by the cheers of everyone else. I just laughed along with them while staring at the two sacks of money in her hands. One of them is much bigger than the other, which I'm assuming for Fantastic Dreamer.

Luna handed me and Kyoya the money before bowing down a little. "Thank you for saving the town, from now on we're counting on you," she straightened her posture. "Axel's Strongest's Party, Fantastic Dreamer!!! BANZAI!!!"

"BANZAI!!!"

"Alright everyone, emergency meeting!"

We quickly get ourselves an empty table and I cast hide around us. "Two hundred and fifty million Eris," I said with a dead serious look on my face. "What do you think?"

"We could try buying a better equipment," Darkness said.

"Granted, but that's still not enough for something like a quarter billion Eris."

We all looked down in deep thought, thinking of the best way to use this money. "Let's just save it, for contingency sake."

Everyone nodded in agreement. At this point, our party is already one of the richest band of people in Axel. Heck, if the job requirements isn't ridiculously high, people would be lining up to join our party. Daily payment, free equipment, and all the fame, who wouldn't want to join our party?

"Kazuma, I want a raise!" Aqua exclaimed suddenly.

"Really now? Fifteen thousand Eris not enough?"

"Fifteen?" Megumin and Darkness asked at the same time.

"Payment for purifying the souls in the cemetery, you know how priests are," I told them.

Aqua puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "But I want to drink expensive alcohol and eat fancy foods everyday! I'm tired of fried frogs!" she whined.

I rolled my eyes a little. "On one condition," I looked at her right in the eye. "Teach me Nature's Beauty."

"WHAT!?" everyone else exclaimed in shock.

I know shocking right? Why would I? the one who was literally blessed by the goddess of wisdom, would throw away my precious skill points to learn some party tricks. That is, until you consider, that these 'party tricks' are actually 'pretty darn advanced magic that's for some reason being used as a party tricks'.

Look, growing a seed into a flower in a span of three seconds is not to be taken lightly. Anyone with a intermediate knowledge in biology would know that converting enough carbon dioxide into all that mass at span of three seconds is nothing short but a fucking miracle.

"It will be an honor!" Aqua replied with a tearful smile.

After that, Aqua handed me a cup of water. "See this cup? Put this on your head and don't let it fall off."

It's a bit embarrassing to do that in public, but I mimic Aqua's action and put the cup on top of my head. It's much easier than I expected, probably because of my increase in stats.

Aqua then took out an unknown seed from somewhere and place it on the table. "Alright, now use your finger to flick the seed into the cup, you must do it in one try. Something amazing is happening! The seed is absorbing the water and sprouting…"

In one try? I took a deep breath and imbued my seed with 'snipe'. Then I flicked it and I can feel something landing on the cup on my head.

The cup grew slightly heavier and a slow clap appeared from the table in front of me.

"You know you could learn the Greatest Magic that has ever conceived by mankind instead of Party Tricks right?" Megumin asked flatly.

"Well, he does have a lot of skill point to spare," Darkness said. "Let him have his fun Megumin."

"No! I mean, yes, but you don't understand, look, Nature's Beauty!" I did the trick again and bloomed another flower. Only this time, I made sure to pay attention to the magic pattern used. "Nature's Beauty! Nature's Beauty!"

After almost half an hour of experimenting, an array of different flowers lined up in front of me. We have ourselves the regular flower Aqua made as the base and my modification as the test sample. "Okay, first, this one on the left," I plucked the flower that looks similar only that it's glowing.

"Whoa! Amazing!" Aqua exclaimed. "It glows!"

I don't think she really understands what makes this so amazing. But I continued towards the other one. "And this one, its stems are harder, isn't it?"

"Are you saying you wanted to control plants?" Megumin asked.

"Yes! That's exactly it!"

Megumin and Darkness looked at each other. The latter just shrugged in response before they both turned towards me. "Why? You want to farm?"

"No, I mean, plants are cool! Plants are awesome!" I grabbed one of the bigger flower I grew. "See? It's pretty big isn't it? Don't tell me no one ever tried to weaponize nature magic before,"

Megumin tilted her head in confusion. "I don't understand, what's so cool about plants? You could've learned explosion and blow up everything in your path!"

"Yeah, I know, but…" Seriously, does nobody watch Nar*to around here?! Wood Style Ninja Techniques are dope! "Look, listen, this is going to be awesome okay? Trust me, I just need to find a better plant."

"What kind of plant do you need to… weaponize?"

I looked down in deep thought. "Something like… Something extremely strong and flexible. Like magic vines, does that ring any bells?"

'Bang'

Darkness slammed her hand on to the table as an excited grin grew on her face. "YES! I know exactly what you're looking for."

Judging by that look on her face, I can deduce that it is some sort of a Plant Tentacle Monster thing. Well I mean, it's better than nothing, and I already have a reputation as the next demon king so… Ah, what heck, let's get ourselves some tentacle monster!

"Do you know where it is?"

"I've heard rumour…"

"Let's go!"