Giana gets clingy every time something like this happens. I couldn't go anywhere, but I didn't want to go anywhere. I told Giana and Yv about my failure.

  These horny chicks told me that I could conquer them to feel better…

  Did it work? Absolutely! It didn't fix my lose streak, though.

  Losing is contextual for me. Escaping alive counts as a win but… if this puppet master returns stronger and angrier than ever and kills me or even worse, my allies. Is it a win? Or just a delayed loss. Delayed losses are the worst kind of losses.

  It's when you barely survive a boss phase and then almost kill the boss, but he enrages because you fucked up an earlier phase. He will become unkillable and keeps going until you die.

  Giana and Yv were very supportive while I was stuck in my ‘loser phase’.

  I'm going out for a bit.

  “We're coming with you.”

  I refreshed myself with cold water while Giana and Yv got ready to go out.

  I miss my carefree side. Is everything going to shit because I'm not my carefree self?

  Things always worked out when I acted as a 9t. Growing up between humans might not have been the best thing for me.

  MVP [Blood and Thunder] got me focused and out of my ‘loser phase'.

  Right, today we're going to play with rope!

  Giana gave me a blank stare, but Yv knew what it was about.

  “He means the skill [Wind Rope], the skill both of us have been practicing.”

  “I thought you already knew how to use that skill.” Giana said, as both of them changed into something more suitable.

  “I thought I did but then sweetie pointed out how else it could be used but as all of his ideas…it needs a lot of mana control…”

  Come Nilah! You get to hang out with me again!

  Nilah came running and dove into my arms. We made it to the AA lobby and went to wait in a line as duel arenas and private sparring rooms were extremely popular.

  You did a great job protecting those two!

  I waited for a retort, but it never came. Yv went ahead to arrange a training room.

  “Deca, I don't want to annoy you but…”

  I know. It's your season. I will do better. Does it extend into the spring?

  Giana gave a shy nod. It's probably as annoying for her as it's for me. In hindsight, it's not that bad. It just has to be the right vixen.

  “Also…Yv is a rabbit, you'll be busy in the spring.”

  I stopped as it dawned on me.

  This is bad. I might actually die…I need a contingency plan!

  “Don't be silly! You'll be fine!”

  I hope so. Let's focus on what's right in front of us.

  “The back of a big sweaty stinky adventurer?”

  The big sweaty stinky adventurer turned around and looked at us as he was looking at filth. That was before he noticed Giana.

  Ok, you had your 2 seconds of fun, you can stop staring at my partner's cleavage now.

  “Heh, or what? I coul…”

  I used [Waterspout] to get him out of the way and to give him a shower.

  Giana pressed into me, oozing pink mana. “I love it when you get protective and toxic!”

  Focus, you horny vixen! Let's go, it seems Yv has a training room.

  Yv spawned monsters and practiced her [Wind Rope] on them while I was trying to turn the wind wires into [Wind Rope].

  “This is the first time I see you struggling with magic.” Giana said, as she healed the wounds I got from my wind wires going rogue and lashing out in every direction.

  Hey come on I’m not a god, I can't do anything just because it exists. I’m just good at avoiding things I suck at.

  “Sure does look like it most of the time.” Giana was fascinated. Probably enjoying the discovery of me being a normal dude. “Deca, what do you need all this mana for?”

  A skill that will save your lives.

  “This is a lot of mana…”

  The magic circle is set, and it's the size of the continent.

  Giana stood up. “Why so big?! Are you trying to kill yourself by mana exsanguination?!”

  No silly, that's why I need an enormous amount of mana. And its complexity made it that size but also for another reason.

  “Which is?”

  My wind wire got thicker, and it excited me for a bit.

  If it's that big, I can activate and charge it wherever and whenever. Drawn magic circles often only affect the area inside the circle.

  “So you made it the size of the continent so that charging it with mana and activation doesn’t have a ‘location’ restriction?”

  Yup!

  “Not sure if that's genius or insane…”

  Those are often one and the same. Insane problems require insane solutions. I just feel…that I'm running out of time.

  “What do you me…”

  “I did it!” Yv pointed at the 3 monsters she had restrained with straightjackets woven from wind threads.

  You look exhausted though, go rest a bit.

  Yv was sweaty, and her skin was glistening. She sat down and gulped down some water. Droplets trickled down her neck into her top. “I can hear your heartbeat.”

  I focused on my wind wires, which had gone rogue again.

  What an unruly skill! That's it! I'm going to rewrite this! It has too much bullshit in it!

  “Is it that inefficient? Let me see.” I showed Giana the magic circle. “Oh my, no wonder Yv is so exhausted.”

  Yv's ears perked. “Huh what?”

  Yv came over to look at the magic circle.

  Giana pointed out a list of troublesome regions, but she lost Yv at the “the primary elemental cluster which was superimposed on the flexibility cluster causing an incomplete collapse into the lower layer resulting in unreliable mana flow to the cluster aiding in the main ‘control’ cluster.’

  You're making her head hurt. I will fix this skill and have Yv use that and see the results.

  I started to tinker on the skill and started kicking out redundancies and obstructions.

  Well, what do you know, this magic circle didn't need to be this big… was this intentional?

  I had to scrap the idea of rewriting it, as making one from scratch was faster and easier. That's just how things are when the size of the mana circle changes.

  The compact circle was completed 20 minutes later.

  “That fast? It took you nearly a week to create [Sasa Veridia].” Yv said in disbelief.

  Well, your skill is quite complex, and I tested it and tuned it to you. This here isn't tested or tuned to anyone.

  I used the new and improved [Wind Rope]. It was more a wind noodle now, but it wasn't going rogue, and it was an improvement over wind wires.

  Heh, way better, it's also dirt cheap on mana. Its mana neutral! No wonder the creator made this magic circle so messy!

  “It's just a [Wind Rope]...”

  Yv, show this silly vixen how wrong she is. Here is the magic circle.

  Yv studied the magic circle. “Huh? Even a baby can learn this easily.”

  She used the [Wind Rope] in various thickness and started on something big. “It needs almost no focus, and my natural mana generation outpaces its cost! Still a bit rough on the mana control…”

  Yv had made some mistakes in weaving what looked like a giant wind stuffed rabbit.

  Giana took a step back and looked up at what Yv was creating. “Wha…What in Hourai's name is this?! Did you put her up to this?”

  Well yeah. Might have low key foreshadowed that puppet master. It makes it even more important to kick his ass and steal his secrets. Can you make it move Yv?

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Yv was straining and moving the wind threads coming out of her hands. “So difficult!”

  The mana flow stopped as Yv dropped through her knees, exhausted. “My mana control isn't good enough to make it move.”

  She was panting heavily and Giana tended to her. “I leave you two alone for a week, and you turn Yv into a monster! I feel left out!”

  Well, I don't know much about healing or defensive skills besides functional barriers. Damage reduction barriers aren't my forte.

  Giana shook her head. “How is it possible for you to suck at everything that could keep you alive…”

  But don't I have you for that?

  “You're right but…Don't go off without me then!” I got hit with a headlock. “You keep making the same mistakes, Deca, I don't care if you have to drag me out of bed.”

  I know…I was an idiot to think that it would be a simple task. I underestimated S-rank quests.

  I had become arrogant again and almost paid the price. A strange race and a fairy swarm. The world is starting to become serious about killing me, it seems.

  Deca, I'm going to pour mana into my magic circle. Will you give me the mana you collected?

  “Sure, only if I can give it to you directly!”

  I put my hands on the ground and focused. My tails ignited, and the mana poured into the magic circle. Giana stood next to me, had her hands on my back and transferred mana to me. Nilah chimed in too.

  “Deca…are you sure you're just pouring mana into that magic circle?” Giana asked 30 minutes later.

  Not really. I seem to have made some mistakes and this is quite slow. Am I pouring something else in it? As I can't tell.

  “I don't know…it feels…strange, as if you're blending with the environment.”

  I'm counting on you to make sure I don't turn into a rock or something.

  Blending with the environment? What does that mean?

  Yv was looking at us in curiosity.

  You can give me your mana too if you want, Yv.

  A smile took over her face and she hopped over. Pure wind mana entered my system.

  “This is to make [Wind Rope] easier.”

  How thoughtful of her. She did promise to make my life easier in exchange for making her fit in. Are my problems related to leaving the idols behind? I'm not someone who would drag them into danger knowingly.

  It was a rough 4 hours, but all the mana had been dumped. It was at 52%. I hope that this is the only time I need to supply the circle with mana, but that's probably not the case. It only took 4 skills before requesting mana, I'm at 4 out of 11, I might have to do this twice more. Not looking forward to that. The activation mana of this skill would be easier to hit though…

  Giana, Yv and I were laying down, sprawled out on the floor. Exhausted from emptying our mana.

  “You're not planning on going out anytime soon with our mana depleted like this, right?” Giana asked as she hugged Nilah.

  Nope I think I need to take you two on a date. How about the park, then the aquarium and end up with the bathhouse restaurant?

  The idols’ reactions told me that they liked the idea.

  We got back to our rooms. I was exhausted but I created rune clusters to add to [Foxfire Lunacy] to make it accept mana easier and for it also to draw in ambient mana.

  The next day came and the date was successful. Half of it was them talking but I didn’t mind. I gave them as much attention as they requested.

  “Will you be sleeping in our room tonight?” Giana asked at the end of the day

  Sure why not.

  So, Noelle had warned me about these 2. I shouldn’t have dismissed it. I could see the desire in their eyes.

  Fine lets go for a round.

  Nilah woke me up the next morning. She was a bit too energetic, so I took her outside.

  I was chilling in a tree while Nilah was running around stealing mana from kids. I won’t be deemed as a criminal, will I? Kids are stupid, but not stupid enough to not notice their mana getting stolen.

  A swarm of kids arrived and Nilah fled and climbed my tree. The kids were staring up the tree at us.

  “Ohh you have fluffy tails too! And nine of them can we touch?!”

  Shoo! I don’t want snot in my tails!

  I said as I waved my tails away from the kids jumping at it.

  “We don’t have snot on our hands!”

  I pointed at a kid I had seen picking his nose earlier.

  That kid there has! One ruined it for the many! Now go and fight under each other, demon spawn!

  “Are you calling my child, demon spawn?” An angry tiger beast kin mother appeared. “You sure don’t have any manners, do you?”

  Seems I was right, a demon did spawn him, hehe.

  The demon mother put her hands on her hips and made an angrier face. “You can’t just call people names like that!”

  A human man came running. “Honey, what is going on?”

  “This guy called me a demon!” The woman said as she pointed at me.

  Kid, is that your father?

  The leopard beast kin kid nodded.

  Whoa, I was just messing around, but I might have been correct.

  I went through my dimensional pocket and tossed a book at the ‘father’.

  Read it. I will apologize for calling her a demon, but it’s up to you to decide.

  I teleported to another part of the park. My intuition got set off causing me to call her a demon. In the end, it might have been correct. A leopard beast kin kid between a tiger beast kin and a human? What does the human know about beast kin?

  Has my deception detection gotten sharper? Beast kin and humans always produce a kid that’s either human or the beast kin of the beast kin parent. In case of 2 different beast kin types, it could be either or a beast kin that runs in the family.

  If Yv and I were beast kin our kids would be either a rabbit, a fox or if one of us had a different beast kin in our lineage it should have a chance to get that. So, assume my mother wasn’t a phoenix but a chicken beast kin, Yv and my kid could turn out to be a chicken beast kin.

  Humans or non beast kin will kill off that possibility as it will end up in a coinflip of which race the kid ends up. The coin could land on the side and create a perfect mix which…isn’t perfect… reported cases had individuals with just 1 beast kin ear and a sorry state of a tail. Either way the human or beast kin blood will thin, something mythical beasts don’t suffer under as much.

  Poor father and kid.

  What else can my heightened deception pick up without using Elgards eyes.

  I focused on the surroundings. A man is wearing a toupee, whoa that’s a lot of cosmetic illusions on that woman, does her boyfriend know that?

  The park is built over an underground cemetery. Whoa how did I never notice?

  What else? The ice cream stand is using poison powder instead of fresh poison.

  What the fuck? This is an insult to ice cream! This scammer is going down!

  I floated out of the tree and froze my own ice cream truck and got to work. I might not be a fan of poison, but the quality of the poison affects the ice cream.

  I used fresh ingredients and fresh fruit. Only sweet fruits allowed! But maybe I should expand. How about spicy ice cream? It sounds disgusting, though. Let's keep it at fruits.

  The ice cream was finished, but there were no people buying it. Maybe it’s a bit too cold? There is a solution to that!

  Just a simple magic circle, covering the whole park, that will raise the ambient temperature. It will put the scammer to the test!

  Half his stock melted. What a noob. This victory is mine as people were flocking to my ice cream stand.

  “it’s you again!”

  Oh the demo… do I know you?

  “Nice try. What are all these flavors? What is a Guava? Tamarind? Or a Papaya?”

  They’re fruits…

  “What about strawberry, pear or apple?”

  I don’t use pleb fruits. Which one do you want?

  “I’ll take the sugar apple one.” The demon mother’s kid said as he pointed.

  You have a good taste.

  They all went for the sugar apple. Probably thinking it was apple with sugar…these guys need to travel more.

  “Wow this tastes better than apple!” The kid said as ice cream started covering his face.

  That’s because it isn’t an apple… sugar is a common ingredient of ice cream… how is this not known, now shoo shoo you’re obstructing my business!

  People were dying to get to buy my ice cream. The scammer had no idea why his scam products weren’t selling.

  I was having fun when I picked up deception.

  Hey mister, this coin is fake.

  “What do you mean, it’s fake?! There is nothing wrong with these coins!” A middle-aged dwarf giant said offended.

  I didn’t say anything about ‘coins’ I said ‘coin’.

  I didn’t know that there were this many scammers in this city. The middle-aged man replaced the fake bronze coin with another fake one. I let him get away with it, as I had evidence now.

  Mentioning ‘coins’ and possessing multiple fake coins. But why bronze? Maybe to test the waters.

  So far I had earned 45 silver and 10 bronze. Not bad for a day of selling ice cream. My stand was closed, and I played with the fake coin.

  Let’s see, what are you made of?

  My eyes came up with nothing.

  Great, another substance I don’t know about.

  I tried to derive its composition by finding out what types of compounds it was made of.

  Its not made out of matter as we know it? What’s this bullshit…its like those strange creatures…this isn’t a creature, is it?

  Nothing could tell me whether this coin was a metal or a creature turned into a coin. Even a harmless day of selling ice cream gives me more questions than answers. Either way I will be a good adventurer and report this to the AA. They can deal with this bullshit.

  I got told to wrap it up in special paper and lock it in a strange container and experts would take a look at it. That’s one problem less! What other problems can I delegate to the AA? Not many, unfortunately.

  Not knowing what to do, I started to wander around and ended up arranging a training room to practice some more [Wind Rope].