Ch 12- Bai Hong
As Glacé continued to walk through the forest still talking to the broadcast viewers one-sidedly; he started to notice small orbs of light flashing. 'Hmm? What are these lights?' More and more orbs started appearing and drifting around, Glacé subconsciously raised a hand and several orbs flocked over and jumped lightly up and down around him.
'Feels warm and cozy, especially comforting' a smile slowly climbed across Glacés face and Mole was fluttering his tiny wings and dancing around the orbs giggling. It was a very heartwarming scene and somewhere where Glacé wasn't looking his viewers were screeching and taking hundreds of screenshots to keep for themselves.
Whenever an orb landed, depending on its color Glacé would either feel hot or cold. But he could tell these orbs held goodwill towards him. He watched as they danced around him merrily and more and more kept appearing.
"My my, they've really taken a shine to you, child".
An elegant voice reached Glancés ears, he whipped his head around to search for the voice. The voice gave a gentle chuckle seeing his reaction "naive and simple, most fitting for a unicorn". A woman suddenly appeared before Glacé, she had aqua-colored hair and eyes and pale skin. "Do you know what these orbs are?" The woman asked with a slight smile.
"No". Glancé warily watched the woman as he responded.
"These are all young elemental spirits, not all creatures can see them let alone attract them. However, seeing as how you are a young winged unicorn such a result isn't very surprising. I'm the Water spirit Queen, I happened to feel the young spirits condensing in one area and thought it might be interesting to check out. Seems I wasn't disappointed, it's quite a rare thing to meet a young unicorn. You can call me Aqua, what is your name?".
"Hello Aqua, my name is Glacé. Will these spirits continue to follow me around?".
Meanwhile, the viewers in the live stream who had been forgotten were intensely watching the unusual scene and were throwing a fit.
- 'Why is it censored?'
- 'Did you all notice Catcher's name was censored too?'
- 'Is the NPC cursing at Catcher?'
Many such comments filled the barrage, 'the game couldn't be so vulgar could it?' Many viewers were left wondering what the missing words were. Shortly after a new trending topic would appear on the StarNet "New game 'Lichen' NPC cursing out live steamer".
In response Carl in Gaia Tech who saw the trending topic, panicked and reported the situation to their superiors 'this is what happens when we grant a sole-exception, it causes confusion and misleads the public'. Carl sighed imagining the extra work they'd have to do to make sure things stay favorable until the game's official launch.
Glacé the party responsible was totally unaware of the commotion the censoring of his race is causing to these viewing online and managing the game.
"Unless you specifically tell them to leave they'll probably follow you until you leave the range of their territory".
"Can they understand what I say?" Glacé stared at the dancing orbs inquisitively.
"Hehe, no not at the moment. Spirits have their own language, come here".
Glacé stood before Aqua who in turn gently held his head with both hands and planted a soft kiss between his brows.
*Ding* Congratulations player for gaining the hidden achievement 'Blessing of the Spirits'
Rewarded the skill 'Spirit charmer' Open the "Skills" tab for information
Glacés eyes widened and he softly touched his forehead "with this, you will no longer have a barrier communicating with any spirits, my brothers and I will keep an eye on your journey. Please treat the young ones kindly".
The next moment the spirit vanished 'well that was an unexpected encounter'.
Glacé quickly opened the Skills tab.
'Unique Skill- Spirit charmer- Spirits Love you; any spirits in a 10m radius will flock to you. You can now understand their jabber and hear all the crazy and unique things the spirits have to say! This skill is perfect for those who wish to be a spirit summoner'
'A spirit summoner? Is that a type of occupation? I'll have to look into the details later'.
Glacé exited the page and looked at the dancing orbs and pondered for a moment. "Why don't you all follow me until you can't anymore? It seems more fun". Glacé heard numerous tiny sounds of exclamation in response. He smiled and stepped off on his way again and suddenly had an epiphany. Currently, Glacé was walking blindly based on the general direction he thinks the elf village should be 'maybe these spirits know the way?'.
"Excuse me, do any of you know the way to the elf village?". All the orbs stopped in place and none responded for a moment, an eerie silence permeated the forest.
"I do, I do". Glacé turned to the voice and was stunned; poking it's head out from behind the bush was a small white fox. Seeing that Glacé noticed him the fox ducked its ears and spoke timidly. "Sorry for intruding on your conversation, I suddenly saw many spirits drifting toward one direction so I followed them and heard you talking. Those baby spirits can't leave the silver forest so there's no way they'd know how to get to elves. I on the other hand can take you there, but only if you're willing to help me with something first".
*Ding* 'Optional Quest unlocked, please read the prompt before accepting or rejecting'.
Quest- "The Unfortunate Hong family" - ' while enjoying a lazy stroll in the silver woods you happened to run into the young nine-tailed fox demon "Bai Hong". He has offered to be your guide (though he may not be a very good one) if you help him in turn. The Hong family head was originally the leader of the Fox demon clan, however, after a betrayal and false accusations, the family was attacked and thrown away from the clan. Bai's parents have both been murdered and his sister was seriously injured as the two tried to escape from their families' killers.
First Task- Follow Bai and save his sister's life
*Friendly note for beginner player* 'Demons are natural enemies of the Unicorn race and many desire their flesh, think carefully before accepting this Quest'
Glacé silently read the prompt and looked back at the small fox 'what kind of dog-blood drama is this crap?'. Receiving Glacés gaze Bai spoke excitedly "will you help save me sister? She's seriously injured and needs treatment right away but I'm not big or strong enough to carry her to a doctor".
- 'ooooo Catch help the little cutie!'
- 'Avenge the fox and his family!'
- 'This game is too meng <3'
The barrage who had been struck by yet another cute attack was desperately yelling at their screens telling Catcher to help the innocent fox. He stared silently at the fox in thought 'is it worth it? I may end up getting roped in between demons which would be pretty bad'.
Glacé gently threw his head back and stared at the sky and caught something from the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw Mole standing on his shoulder his posture straight with his arms crossed over his chest, barring his teeth, and staring at the fox threateningly. "Pfft". He lightly touched Mole's head and looked back at Bai "alright, I'll help your sister. Lead the way".
Bai's ears shot upright and he hopped up to Glacé and swiftly climbed his clothes setting himself on the shoulder Mole wasn't on, his bushy tail curled around Glacés neck and tickled him. 'Hehe so soft and warm' Glacé quietly enjoyed the feeling and walked based on Bai's directions.
"Yip.... Yip". Glacé could vaguely make out a sound in the distance and saw Bai's face become more animated so he picked up his pace following the soft sound. Soon enough he spotted a small red and white ball curled in between two rocks trembling franticly as it continued calling out softly. Bai jumped down and ran to his sister then turned his head back toward Glacé.
'She looks much worse than I expected' the small fox was almost completely drenched in blood and looked quite weak 'she probably won't last more than a few hours if left alone'.
Glacé raised a hand to the smaller fox who returned a wary gaze at him. His hands flowed with soft white light and he slowly reached out until he touched the fox's wounds. The fox was stunned by his sudden touch and bit him in response.
"Tsss, that hurts". The older fox softly spoke to comfort his sister, she also seemed to realize her mistake as she felt the warm healing magic comfort her broken body. She slowly stuck out her pink tongue and licked where she had just bit. Glacé showed an extremely soft smile and lightly stroked her face. After a few minutes he pulled his hands away "she'll be okay now, she probably still needs more rest though".
*Ding* Quest "The unfortunate Hong family" has been updated, open 'Quest' tab for details
"Thank you". Bai nuzzled his sister's snout and groomed her matted and blood-covered fur. Glacé watched and felt his heart ache 'these two are too young to be orphans' he held his head and sighed.
"What are you two going to do now?".
The older fox paused his licking movements and looked at Glacé blankly. "Do you have somewhere safe to go?". The fox's eyes stared blankly and slowly dimmed, he slowly shook his head and said nothing.
Glacé sighed "want to come with me? I don't have any set places I'm going, just traveling around but I can help take of you two until you grow strong enough to protect yourself". Bai's dull eyes brightened and he pounced on Glacé, Mole reacted fast and started trying to push Bai off of Glacé, it was to no avail. So like this Glacé had quickly gained two new temporary companions on his trek.