Port Natalia: City of Annoyances

Author's note:

The next chapter is up! I'd like to thank those of you who are still sticking around with this and didn't rudely declare that my ideas are stupid. Like I said in the synopsis, I enjoy constructive feedback, not destructive feedback.

I would also like to thank one of my newest readers, Dethpool_Mlg. Why, you may ask? There are actually two reasons:

Firstly, they went out of their way to point out off of the grammatical mistakes of my previous chapters, so I could go back and improve them for the experience of future readers. Hell, they even went so far as to correct one of the grammatical mistakes in chapter 20, which earned my respect as they have absolutely no limit to what they will not correct. My hat is off to you, my dude.

The second thing I have to thank them for is that they pointed out some functionality of one of the Upgrades that even I hadn't thought of in depth until reading their comments. It sparked more than a little creativity that you'll find in the last leg of this chapter, and I hope it at least somewhat makes you guys understand that the upgrades and downgrades of the 2.0 update were actually technically balanced, just not in a way that anyone, even I, expected.

The Being works in mysterious ways, my friends.

EDIT: Had to delete and re-create this chapter so I could properly add it and the next one to the second volume

Anyway...ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

***

<Port Natalia – Afternoon>

As was previously mentioned, Port Natalia was similar to Iliasport in architecture, in both the buildings and the overall layout. What set it apart, though, were two important details: the size and the population.

The port town was at least three times larger than Iliasport, likely due to the fact that it was one of the two main ports for the Sentora continent. Lack of trade with the Ilias continent hadn't stopped the regular imports and exports carried by the ships. The docks were incredibly busy, with men loading and unloading cargo on the various docks that spanned the coast.

It wasn't just the docks that were active, though. Where the wood planks ended and the cobblestone road began, numerous civilians were milling about, going about their day to day lives. Street vendors sold food, shops displayed their wares in their windows, and the whole town had an overall sense of liveliness that was absent from Iliasport.

What caught the Monster Lord and Eevee's attention the most, however, was the presence of monsters within the crowd of humans. No…not just monsters.

"Hmm…mermaids," Kevin idly hummed as one moved past them. It slightly boggled his mind to see them slowly waddling around on their tailfins, but he learned early on in this journey from watching Alice pull magical bullshit out of thin air that nine times out of ten the answer was just 'magic.'

"Indeed," Alice nodded, pulling her travel guide out from the pocket dimension between her breasts. "According to the book, Port Natalia is a port town that has a lot of mermaids. This town accepts mermaids as residents."

The teenager shrugged. "More power to them, I guess."

To be honest, he was barely paying attention, still grumpy about the update. When he thought about it a little harder, he realized that he was kind of asking for it. He knew, from the brief interactions he had with it and the statements given by the System, that the Being was an even bigger asshole than him. It was just unfortunate that a combination of his desire to get rid of the abomination that was his Sylveon form, and his belief that any odds higher than 50/50 were an acceptable risk, resulted in an ill-thought-out gamble on his own fate.

At least his bag was upgraded to an indestructible Bag of Holding. He made sure to make a mental note to see the limits of it later when they were not in the middle of a busy street.

Suddenly, a voice pulled him out of his musings. "Would you like some Mermaid-made grilled starfish?"

Looking over, the duo spotted a mermaid in ragged clothes that just covered her breasts and privates standing behind a wooden stall. On the counter in from of her were some multiple starfish that looked as if they had been cooked for just long enough to be edible, though the question of whether they actually WERE edible was up for debate.

Kevin glanced at the grilled starfish, then back at the mermaid. "I most certainly would not," he stated, his expression blank. He then turned to his companion. "How about you, Alice?"

The disguised lamia's eyes closely inspected the grilled seafood. She inhaled deeply, before nodding. "As a traveling gourmet, it would be a shame if I didn't sample the local cuisine."

"But this isn't 'local cuisine,'" the Eevee pointed out. "I don't even think it can be considered real food. I'm fairly certain that the reason she's wearing rags is that literally nobody else is willing to buy this."

"It's true," the mermaid nodded. "My clothes are ragged because I just can't make any money. If you feel sorry for me, please buy my grilled starfish!"

Neither Alice nor Kevin had any pity for this monster girl. Being a mermaid, she could almost certainly catch better fish in the ocean to cook up and sell, but apparently had her heart set of selling starfish of all things. Fortunately for her, though, Alice wasn't entirely picky about what she ate, as long as it could be classified as 'mostly edible.' Thus, the Monster Lord bought ten grilled starfishes and the duo went on their way.

They continued on in silence, mostly due to Alice stuffing her face as they took in the sights of the town. Unlike the vendor, the majority of the mermaid residents were dressed normally, some even walking around with men who were likely their husbands or boyfriends. Some shops had them posing and calling out to potential customers, using their feminine charms to rake in business.

It was ten minutes into their sightseeing when Alice finished off the last of her starfish and brought up a topic that needed to be addressed. "By the way, where are we headed to now?"

He looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "Fuck if I know. Why are you asking me?"

"I'm the one following you," she replied. "You're the one who wanted to come to Sentora in the first place."

"I wanted to come here to get away from that religious dumpster fire of a continent. I just assumed the next steps would come to me when we got here," the boy admitted.

Alice could understand wanting to leave Ilias Continent, and was less surprised than she should've been at the monster boy's lack of sense. "Let me guess: you didn't come up with anything?"

"Nothing whatso-freaking-ever," Kevin shook his head. "Maybe we can get some ideas from that guide book?"

Taking it out again, the lamia flipped through the pages. "According to the book, the region we're in is the Natalia region. Aside from Port Natalia, the only interesting locations are San Ilia and the Forest of Spirits."

"Sounds boring," the teenager commented.

"I agree, at least for San Ilia," she nodded. "It says here that San Ilia is a theocratic city where the king is the High Priest of Ilias. Even without that, I wouldn't particularly want to go there. None of their food was noteworthy enough to put in the book, after all."

Kevin chuckled to himself. "Of course, you're more motivated by food. What about that forest place?"

"I've actually been to the Forest of Spirits myself before," Alice stated, putting the book back in storage. "It's guarded by fairies and elves, and is a generally peaceful safe haven for monsters. Almost no humans even attempt to get close to it."

"I'm assuming that's due to the aforementioned fairies and elves?"

"Actually, it's something else."

"…"

"…"

"Are you going to tell me what it is?"

"No."

"Alrighty then," he shrugged, not particularly put off. "Even if we don't have a particular plan in mind, I suggest we leave the town as quickly as possible."

Alice quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why?"

"My plot senses are tingling," the Eevee stated with gravely serious expression. "Every fiber of my being is telling me that if we don't leave soon, we'll be caught up in some –"

"Um…excuse me?" a voice came from behind them, interrupting the boy mid-warning. "Mr. Traveler... Could I speak with you for a moment?"

His shoulders slumped and he let out a long sigh. "God damnit," he muttered under his breath, before glaring at Alice. "Next time, less questions and more 'getting the fuck out of here.'"

They turned to see a mermaid with silver hair, grey eyes, purple scales on her tail, and a mostly see-through top. She had an innocent and meek expression on her face, which the teenager refused to buy into considering his experience so far with monster girls. There were no innocents, not even the children.

"What?" Kevin groaned in irritation.

If the mermaid was put off by the tone of his reply, she didn't show it. "I noticed that your monster parts are real, and that you give off an aura of powerful yet restrained magic, and couldn't help but think you weren't an ordinary person."

Closing his eyes, the boy took a deep breath. "If you have something to say, stop beating around the bush."

"Someone who wields such extraordinary power…would you be willing to listen to my story?"

"I have a limit to how much expositional bullshit I can handle. If your next sentence doesn't get to the point, I'm walking away."

That seemed to break the woman out of the seemingly rehearsed script she was following. Likely realizing that the person she was talking to wasn't going to fall for her mermaid charm and let her play up the dramatics, she opened her mouth to reply.

Unfortunately, she was interrupted by a loud sound.

BOOOOOOOM!

"Great. Another plot device," Kevin moaned in exasperation, practically glaring at the building across the plaza that just collapsed from the explosion inside.

As one would expect, the civilians around them immediately started to panic. Some went to find others to help, while the rest rushed to the collapsed building that was falling apart faster by the moment.

"That building…" the mermaid muttered, before her eyes opened wide. "Oh no! The mermaid school!" she then dashed to help the others sift through the rubble and debris.

As citizens were rushing in every direction, Alice sniffed the air. "I smell gunpowder. It seems like it was a bomb," she observed, her neutral façade covering up her anger.

"Seriously? A bomb in a school?" Kevin groaned, facepalming with his right hand. "Out of all of the things that follow me here from the United States, did it have to be a school bombing? It couldn't be literally any other building?"

As he was wallowing in his misfortune of not avoiding this event, mermaids were crawling out from the rubble. Both teachers and students alike came out with the worst injuries being a few scrapes and broken bones. Their monster genetics and natural resistance definitely came in handy here. Not a single one was found dead.

After five minutes of groaning about how unlucky he was, Kevin looked up just in time to see the shadiest man he'd spotted in his life watching the events from the edge of the crowd. He wore messy leather clothes, had long black hair, and a small grin was plastered on his face as he watched the chaos.

'If that isn't the man who set the bomb, I'll eat my shoes,' he thought, narrowing his eyes as the suspicious guy walked away and blended in with the coming and going civilians. There were too many of them in the way for Kevin to go after him, so he resigned himself to watch the man disappear. 'If I ever see him again, I'm gonna set him on fire and roll him down a hill.'

"What's wrong, Kevin?" Alice asked, noticing him glaring off into the distance.

He turned his glare to her. "Oh, nothing much. Pretty sure I just saw the one who set the bomb, an event which we could've avoided being a part of if you had just followed my advice for us to get the hell out of this town."

She crossed her arms under her breasts. "How am I to blame?"

"If you hadn't asked why I wanted to leave as soon as possible and just trusted me, we wouldn't have been stopped by that mermaid right across from where the bombing happened."

"That is true," the Lamia admitted. "But, I have a counterpoint: you don't have the authority to tell me what to do, so why should I follow your commands blindly?"

With that, she stopped the argument dead in its tracks. It was true that she was the Monster Lord, and thus he couldn't really force her to just go along with what he said. Still, that didn't make him any less irritated. Primarily due to the knowledge that not just one, but two plot points were presented in the time it could've taken for them to vacate the area.

"Do you still want to leave?" Alice asked.

The teenager sighed and shook his head. "There's no point. The exposition I wanted to avoid happened anyway, so we might as well stay and look around while we can. We can even book a room at an Inn for the night."

With that unhappy declaration, the duo continued walking around Port Natalia, and listening to whatever the citizens had to say.

"Why does Ilias Kreuz hate monsters so much?" a youth asked. "Maybe it's because the women are all jealous of monster girls? That's what my cute mermaid girlfriend says anyway. "

'Jealous? Other than a select few, most of the monsters I've met have been disgusting abominations. Not much to be jealous about,' Kevin thought.

Another man grumbled. "I hate Ilias Kreuz's indiscriminate terrorism. If they bomb the Mermaid Bar, I might have to dabble in some terrorist terrorism."

'I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that Iliaz Kreuz is the group that bomber guy is with,' the Eevee internally mused.

"I don't really like mermaids, but attacking their school is going way too far," a woman stated, more than a little upset.

One of the mermaids sighed. "Those Ilias Kreuz guys. If they have something against us, why can't they complain normally? Attacking a school full of children…unforgiveable!"

Alice and Kevin also stopped by a few of the shops to buy supplies needed for their travel in between cities. They avoided the weapon shop due to neither of them needing one, and the church because…well, fuck the church and the religious screwballs running it. Kevin may have been on slightly better terms with Ilias, but her followers were still stupid in his eyes.

The owner of the tool shop tried convincing the teenager to buy skimpy clothing for Alice, but a strong glare from her stopped the man in his tracks and got him back on track.

The last place they stopped at before heading to the local Inn was the Mermaid bar. Upon entering, they were treated to the sight of a traditional bar, with a few non-traditional waitresses. There were wooden seats full of patrons everywhere, laughing and getting drunk as they hit on the waitresses serving them food and drinks.

One of the waitresses approached them shortly after setting some food down for a patron. "Welcome to Port Natalia's famous Mermaid Bar!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, before settling her eyes on the Eevee boy. "Ohhh…what a cute boy. Are those ears real?"

The mermaid leaned in closer, reaching out to grab Kevin's hand. "Do you want to play with big sis?" she asked, her voice low and seductive as she blew into one of his fox ears and moved his hand to her chest.

Alice took multiple steps to the side, a look of concern appearing on her face. But, it wasn't for the boy. It was for the waitress.

If it had been any other male on the planet that this mermaid used this extremely forward flirting on, they would likely have been rendered a stuttering mess, or immediately given into their libido and tried taking the monster girl up on her offer.

Unfortunately for her, she was using this tactic on Kevin.

"You have three seconds to let go before I make you regret being born. Three."

She wasted the first second being confused by his statement.

"Two."

She still didn't let go, but chuckled a bit at the little boy trying to act tough. "Just relax, sweetheart. Big sister will –"

"One."

The atmosphere in the bar was shattered as a loud scream tore through the air, drawing everyone's attention to the space in front of the door. What they saw was thousands of volts of electricity running down the short teenager's arm and into the mermaid waitress, causing her unimaginable pain as it entered her body through her hand and the spot on her chest where she held the boy's hand. The torture continued until she lost control of her limbs, collapsing and letting go of Kevin's hand in the process.

Kevin looked at her immobile body on the floor without pity. Logically, he knew that she was just doing what she was trained to do: using her body and charms to seduce any male that walked through the door. On the other hand, he DID NOT like to be touched against his will, and firmly believed that she deserved it.

Nobody moved. Every last person in the bar, from the customers to the employees, were stunned by the act of violence they just witnessed. A few of the braver ones stood up after a few seconds, prepared to save the waitress from the dangerous boy that almost electrified her into unconsciousness.

The first to reach him, though, was the mermaid who'd been standing behind the bar and was likely the owner. "Care to explain why you just assaulted one of my waitresses?" she asked, her expression firm, the implication of what might happen if she didn't like his answer hanging in the air.

"Me? She started it," Kevin stated, looking directly into the owner's eyes. "She grabbed by hand and made me touch her breasts. I do not like being touched intimately, so I gave her three seconds to let go, and even informed her that I would make her regret her existence if she didn't. I counted down, she didn't let go, so I let her taste a few thousand volts."

Hearing the context, the bartender cocked her head to the side. "Your first reaction when a mermaid puts your hand on her chest is to electrocute her?"

The teen shook his head. "No, my first reaction was to plunge my hand further into her chest and rip out her ribcage, but I have enough self-control not to follow that impulse."

Shivers traveled down the spines of almost everyone in the Mermaid Bar. Such a short and adorable boy saying those words with no emotion caused an atmosphere of pure dread and fear to hang in the air. More than a few men, women, and mermaids were in the process of hiding behind each other to protect themselves from the unrepentant demon that had suddenly appeared in their midst.

"I hope you understand that we can't just have patrons attack our waitresses like that," the owner stated, trying not to visibly waver. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Kevin sighed, turning to address Alice. "You can stay if you want, but I'm heading to the Inn. Hopefully they'll serve something good there."

Alice walked over to him. "I'll come too. They probably don't have any good food, anyway." She actually wanted to try some of the food she saw being served to the other customers, but she also didn't want to leave Kevin to his own devices in this state. He'd already become progressively more ticked off throughout the day, and she didn't want to think of what might happen if a random mermaid stopped him on the way back and tried having sex with him.

They might not survive the night if they did.

No more words were spoken between them as they left and headed to the nearest inn. As usual, Alice paid for the room and took the bed in her monster form while Kevin donned his fully Eevee transformation and slipped into the largest compartment of his backpack on the floor.

Oddly enough, he noticed that the inside of the bag felt a lot more comfortable than the last time he slept in it. At first, he thought it was just his imagination, but after a bit of rolling around he discovered that the previously rough canvass that offered little protection from the hard floor had been replaced with a pillowy fluffiness that surrounded him on all sides. It felt like one of those memory foam mattresses he's tested out in a mattress store before.

'Hey System,' he thought.

[Yes?] the cheerful voice answered.

'Set an alarm for six o' clock AM tomorrow. I really need to test the limits of this bag.'

[Setting Alarm.]

With that out of the way, the boy drifted off to sleep.

***

[…come on mothafuckas come on…Come on mothafuckas come on…Come On Mothafuckus Come On…COME ON MOTHAFUCKAS COME ON!]

Kevin was jarred from a dreamless rest by none other than Thomas the Dank Engine starting out low, but raising in volume to the point where it was blasting in his ears. It took every ounce of self-control in his tiny body not to scream out in fright and bolt out of the comfort of his backpack. Every instinct was screaming at him to either get the fuck out of there, or attack whatever was making the sound so close to his ears.

[I GOT SEVEN MAC-11'S, ABOUT EIGHT .38'S, NINE 9'S, TEN MAC-10'S, THE SHITS NEVER END!]

Upon regaining full consciousness, it became clear to him that this was the [Alarm] set by the System. 'System! Turn it off! Turn the alarm off!' he mentally shouted.

As if a switch was flipped, he was once again immersed in silence. It wasn't as comfortable as it had been before he dozed off, considering the amount of adrenaline pumping through his veins. He was wide awake now, and there was no chance that he could go back to sleep.

'System,' he thought, glaring at the air.

[Yes?]

'What the hell was that!?'

[The Host requested for an alarm to be set at approximately 6:00 AM. However, the Host did not specify what sound he would like to be used to wake him up. As such, a random selection was made from the multiverse.]

'…I hate that you have a point,' he internally sighed.

Funnily enough, it was shit like this that was the reason for him deciding to wake up early this morning. He'd been too caught up in the annoyance of the update, the sudden plot points popping up in the middle of town, and the encounter with the mermaid waitress last night that he hadn't had the chance to really test out the two 'upgrades' he'd received from the update. I say two, because despite it being classified as such, the new voice of the System is NOT an actual upgrade by any stretch of the word.

Alice was still asleep as the boy left his backpack and dragged it into the bathroom attached to the room they were renting. As quietly as possible, he transformed back into his humanoid form, took a quick bath, and left the room. He didn't want to wake her up and have her watch as he tested the full capabilities of his Bag of Holding.

The early morning air outside of the Inn was refreshing as he made his way to the edge of the town. The only people up and about were sailors getting ready to set sail and shopkeepers preparing for the day's business. Nobody seemed to notice his existence as he walked along the roads, until he had finally left the city and wandered onto a seemingly deserted section of the beach a few hundred yards away from the closest building.

"Alright," he mumbled to himself as he set the bag down on a boulder sticking out of the sand. "First thing's first. System?"

[Yes?]

"The update said that my backpack was made indestructible and the secondary compartment was converted into a Bag of Holding, right?" he questioned.

[The Host is correct!] it cheerfully confirmed.

Kevin continued. "Were there any more features added to it in the update? Ones that weren't mentioned?"

[Absolutely! In fact, there are three hidden features!]

The boy sighed. "I'm guessing that this is similar to the hidden features of my transformations that you told me about when you first activated?"

[The Host is both correct and incorrect]

"…how so?"

[While the hidden features of the Bag of Holding were included in the update, there is no restriction on them being revealed to you should you ask, unlike the hidden features originally installed in the Eeveelution System]

"The Being is just fucking with me, isn't he?" Kevin groaned.

[The Host is correct.]

With his current understanding of the Being, the Eevee could already tell why this was included. It was the age old "why didn't you tell me I could do this?" followed by "because you didn't ask." Typical omniscient being garbage.

"Alright," he sighed. "What are the hidden features?"

[1. Bag of Bedding – Main compartment of Backpack of Holding has been altered to the consistency of a 3 ft thick memory foam mattress on the bottom, and a silky blanket on the top. temperature within is also regulated, so comfort is ensured no matter the environment. Warning: Size is not altered, though, so resting inside in humanoid form is not recommended (or possible.) Oxygen will also be cut off should the Host close the Bag of Bedding while inside, so hiding within is not recommended.]

It was nice to see his suspicions confirmed. To be honest, last night was the best sleep he'd had in his entire time in this world, and possibly even his previous life. It was definitely a step up from just curling around himself and using his fluffy tail as a pillow.

[2. Bag of Infinite Weight – Alongside being capable of holding anything and everything that can fit through the Bag of Holding's opening, the Backpack of Holding's weight can be adjusted based on its contents. The Host will remain unaffected no matter how heavy the backpack becomes, but others and the environment won't.]

This…definitely had potential. Taking into account the infinite storage space and that fact that it was indestructible, the teenager could absolutely turn his backpack into a weapon of mass destruction. He could already imagine filling it with thousands of tons worth of rocks and supplies, the swinging it with enough force and weight to flatten a mountain.

[3. Bag of Freshness – Any food, supplies, or other objects placed inside the Bag of Holding compartment will be placed in a state of stasis until they are taken out. Food will remain warm/cold, medical supplies will not spoil, wet objects will not rust, etc.]

"…"

A single tear leaked from Kevin's eye as he fully comprehended what he was just told. The idea that he would never have to worry about his favorite foods going bad ever again was almost enough to make him forgive the Being for the Gender-Bending Downgrade.

Almost.

With no more unknown aspects of his now named Backpack of Holding, the teen turned his attention to the [Alarm] setting in the system window. A bit of experimentation led him to discover that it did, in fact, have every sound in the known universes, and even ones that weren't.

What really made him raise his eyebrows was the custom search function, which allowed him to choose a customized message to be spoken in any voice across the multiverse, in any tone he could imagine. The blackmailing potential of this function would be astronomical, if it weren't limited to just his ears.

By the time he finished everything, the sun was already halfway over the horizon. "Well, I'd better head back before Alice wakes up," he mumbled to himself.

As if the universe itself was trying to contradict him, a loud scream echoes across the beach. "Kyaaa!"

Looking over his shoulder, Kevin spotted an…odd scene. A woman in a purple dress with gold ribbons was being attacked by a monster girl. The monster girl in question had red hair, pointed ears, and like so many he'd seen before, all likeness to a human was lost where her waist was attached to a large disgusting tube of pulsating meat and tentacles.

"I'm hungry…" the monster girl moaned as she dragged the woman closer to herself. "Even someone like you is fine. Let me suck out your energy."

Any heroic protagonist in this situation would leap at the opportunity to save the apparent damsel in distress from the monster, risking life and limb to protect the innocent.

It's a good thing Kevin wasn't a hero. Instead, he turned back toward the city and continued walking, not caring about the assault on the seemingly-human woman. According to Alice, this was just the natural way of things in this world, after all. No need to stick his neck out for some idiot who got too close to the water. By the end of the day, he would already have forgotten about the encounter.

***

"…"

"…"

"He didn't fall for it…"

"No... he didn't..."

"What are we supposed to eat now?"

***

Author's Note:

And there is is! The Backpack of Holding has become an A-Tier, and maybe even S-Tier, piece of equipment to help Kevin on his journey! It is now the perfect bed, refrigerator/oven, and bludgeoning weapon, all in one!

Once again, shout out to Dethpool_Mlg for inspiring the ideas for this.

Anyway, from here on the duo will probably leave Port Natalia and continue across the Natalia region...maybe...or maybe not. Who really can say?

Comment what you think! Just don't be a dick