Chapter Fourteen - Slug Beach Town, Part 3

“Well, I think I understand Seiko better,” Clover said, her shapeless form morphing into a humanoid, “She is serious about leaving.”

“How many years have we been here? A dozen?” Aquastar said, “She’s been here almost a year and she has not taken it well.”

All three of us are sitting under the giant parasol with more towels laid out. I can do nothing but stare at these two as they relay information to me.

“You look all tense. And I don’t think it's from the training regimen.” Clover says.

They catch on. I fidget my fingers and feel the sweat mix in with the sea water. I’ve been anticipating that I’d be having a conversation with them soon, but this is the next day after the coin game.

“I don’t know what to talk about. I owe you fifteen years of Earth history and pop culture. And it kinda feels like cheating getting some information from Seiko.”

“Oh that?” Don’t worry about it! We just wanted to have some fun stakes in the game, to make sure you were giving it your all.” Aquastar declares proudly, “We can exchange information all you want! But by all means you go first.”

There is some relief in the majority of words spoken from the monochrome goldfish. I crack my reptilian humanoid knuckles as I am feeling reborn again and ready to explore more of this world.

“I really want to talk more with Seiko, but she is very reserved. Earlier she’s just making me fight and eat weird stuff. There is no room for casual chatter, so I ask, knowing it's not very polite, but what do you know about her?” I ask with intent curiosity.

“Well,” Clover starts, “There are some things I can tell you, but the rest, she must tell you herself.”

Clover extends her hand, “[Metal Workshop].” A metallic model of the town appears and I can recognize the tavern and the beach from it. The model falls into the sand and Clover manifests a miniature of Seiko, cloak and gun.

“Well ignore the gun for now, but Seiko passed the third floor half a year from now.” Clover began the story showcasing the miniature interacting with the model using Aquastar’s gravity magic.

“It’s not related to the story, but Clover and I were reborn on the second floor. We climbed two floors to reach here and found this small beach. Years later, we are already an established small town with a functioning civilization.”

“How do you climb floors?” I ask the burning question in the back of my mind.

“Climbing floors,” Clover repeats the words, “There are multiple ways to do that. You can climb in the form of gates, towers, walls or other unknown methods.”

“There are puzzles and battles along the way. Trials of some sort.” Aquastar adds.

“That’s the general gist of it. It’s a difficult climb and Seiko climbed three floors by herself. It helps that she has strong magic, [Hard Light Slug].”

“[Hard Light Slug]?”

What a strange name for magic, but undeniably cool. Mine is literally called [Tail Magic], why not just [Tail]? Plus Aquastar and Clover have cool magic names too. [Select Gravitation] and [Metal Workshop]. They sound straight out of an RPG.

“Her magic allows her to create hard light projections. And if she focuses a good chunk of her magic she can shoot it out, like an energy blast. It’s a raw form of power, like the ocean.”

“I’ve seen her create bullets though, is that a variation of her magic?”

“Yes, after climbing to the fourth floor, she wandered around and eventually found her way to Slug Beach Town. She had a fixation to get stronger and find people to accompany her. She travelled outside town and purified the caves here countless times. When she found out I was American, she asked for me and Aquastar to climb with her. But as you can tell we declined. I offered to help her strengthen her magic and fighting capabilities and forged her some guns. I taught her to create her own bullets and voila, a blend of our modern world and this world’s fantasy.”

“That’s amazing!”

This world has a lot going on. And there is definitely some influence from our little green and blue planet affecting this planet in the form of visitors. I am lucky to have run into some of them this early into my rebirth. I wonder how many more Otherworlders I’ll meet as I climb more floors.

“You two are definitely not climbing anymore, right?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“We’ve found our calling in Slug Beach Town. We enjoy providing a safe haven for those passing through and answers to those that are reincarnated. We hope you find yours as you climb. But do take your time here in this calm and quiet beach town. We await your stories.”

I have a lot of training to do. My fighting skills could use more finesse, more power, and more real combat experience. My time in the cave proved that I have a lot of potential that I’ve yet to tap into. Just like Seiko, I could ask Clover for some type of armaments or gear. There should be other shops in this town like tailors or potion makers. First of all, I do need money and with the monster essence system that this world has, I should be able to make some more with monster hunting.

In order to do that, I have to find more opponents and train my physical traits akin to the super soldier physique. I have to find more monsters to eat and gain more tails. The ocean slug tail was neat, but I’m not sure what the ocean tail properties can help with at this point. It is definitely not drinkable water, but even if it was, would I want to drink from my own body, is it comparable to swallowing your own spit? That’s just gross to think about for both scenarios.

My deep thought off tangent was luckily interrupted by the other two.

“We’ll leave you to your training, you know where to find us if you have more games or stories you want to participate in.”

And with that, Aquastar and Clover got up, turned around, and went back to the town square. I faced the ocean and saw Seiko eerily standing like a horror movie ghost with an eel in hand.