Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

Welcome back Fen-san.

Well, glad there was no issue at least, good job out there.

The reward will be of 25 Large Copper Coins and 8 Guild Points.

Take care now~

((Yep, still on time~))

 

So... You found out the local library has books on golemancy and found out a merchant has an expensive book on the matter too? Yet you brought nothing to the requester himself...?

I should fail this quest, but I'll be generous and give you 3 Large Copper Coins and 1 Guild Point.

Please try harder next time.

((*pokes @MrAconter* ))

 

((*pat pat* It happens, besides, you were right at the end of the extended deadline, so all good~

Mmmmmmmm, I should have linked the original quest about it... Mister Skeleton was a more funny lich that spoke in puns all the time and was sealed in a bunch of bone spears... Well, I guess we can go with the idea he is whimsical and sometimes serious, sometimes funny. And the stone seal might have been applied later in addition to the bone spears seal in order to make sure his seal is proper...

I should make a wiki page on him later to avoid further problems I guess~))

Welcome back Wold-san~

Seems like you got the lich quite entertained, good job~
... I wonder what happened to his puns though... Oh well, none of my business~

Your reward will be of 9 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Take care now~

 

((Try to not get rewards worth more than twice the quests' rewards, alright? It feels a bit weird to give 10 coins as reward when you go and got weapons worth 50 or something. It kinda breaks the intended progression too and all.))

So... She was totally a scammer? My my... Good job solving it, she seems to have had quite the intimidating aura, yet you dealt with it flawlessly.

Your reward will be of 10 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Take care now~

 

Welcome back Ayumi-chan~

You're looking quite unusual, but I guess that's fine, good job out there, although your methods were... Well, directly influencing the mind of the requester is something the guild frowns upon, alright? Please don't do it again or we'll have to take appropriate measures about it. The last thing we need is losing trust due to changes in behavior from people that associate with us.

In any case, as of now you're officially a D-ranked adventurer, congratulations~

Please take this Bronze Guild Badge, it has your name written on its back just like before, and you'll need to pay a fine in case of loss as well.

Make sure to be extra careful from now on, quests only get harder as your rank rises. Stay safe and may the gods bless your path~ *bows*

 

Spoiler: Report

I thought that the rabbit horde will cause damage to the crops and forest so I rushed to the area where the horde is spotted. When I arrived, I was shocked. The number of rabbits gathered was unexpected.

((There are only six of them… They’re not even horned rabbit. Just six normal rabbit!))

Fen took out the request form and read the description again slowly.

*sighs* “This guy must be bitten by rabbit when he’s young.”

Fen took out few spikes from the pouch and threw when one of the rabbits separated from the group. The last two rabbits noticed that their friends are gone, they ran away and went into the burrow. He started a fire on the dried branches and placed it in front of the burrows front the rabbits to come out.


After killing the remaining rabbits, Fen tied rabbits’ leg to the stick and carried it passing through the village. There was a man running toward him and shouted.

“The apostles of the end have died! Our God hasn’t abandoned us!”

((Fen?))

((Yep. That’s definitely the guy who put the request up.))

“I just dealt with these pests. Now I have to report back to the guild.”

“As expected of our saviour, these high-rank apostles are nothing but mere pests to you! Oh. Look at the sky! The moon is standing high with the sun, Both day and night gods are blessing you. You are indeed qualified to be called the ‘Envoy of Azure Twilight ’.” Cult of the World Eater said.

“What? No. I mea-.”

“You don’t have to say it our saviour. Your deed will be known throughout the world. I shall give you this divine treasure before I go.” He interrupted Fen and handed him a black and white wooden mask before running away

Fen was standing there for a few minutes with a pale face when he remembered someone he knew got a title for the first time.

“He ran away.”

*gasps* “I hope it’s just a prank from Ton... This is just a normal mask...”

"I'm back..."

@AliceShiki

 

Spoiler: The Real Thing

He hangs his back against the Guild’s facility walls, he’s thinking about what to do with the information, mainly the merchants being scared of the spirit knight, or what he really thought of it as, fake ghostly knight.

He had not noticed it himself, but he was purring like a cat happily responds to its’ owner petting them with full of loves. He stopped as he entered his deep state of thoughts,

[There could be one of the merchants sitting at the tavern right now, or even the inn for rest. Wait, are there places similar like Adventurer’s Guild? Like… a Merchant’s Guild, Trader’s Guild… Crafter’s Guild? Ve… right, she’s resting right now. And I need to get my waterskin from the resting spot… nah, nah… not when he’s there. Mr. Karma will bring me down on the ground, forcing me to sleep. I’m not his kid.]

Valuren taps on the Japanese katana hanging to his left waist, before thinking again,

[Still… he’s forgiving enough to let me carry his Phase around today of all days… wait, I’m literally carrying a girl. Eeeh… now that I said it… I can’t stop thinking about Phase Karma going to tell everything to Mr. Karma later after I give the sword back to him…]

“Phase Karma…”, Valuren lifts the sword to his face,“...if you can hear me, please don’t tell anything big to him, like my possible injuries from this quest to him…? I don’t want him to be more worried or angry at me, that’s all. Adding more, I won’t be using you, okay? Thank you very much.”

No response, it looks like Valuren was talking to the sword, like someone who’s not right in the head.

Sighing to himself, he placed his left hand against his nose - thinking about how to continue with the quest, “I -can- walk there myself, but it’s a hassle so…”

[So be it. Let’s go to the North Gate of Nagrand, me.]


*******


After arriving at the North Gate, he looked around the area, scanning for some people who could be a merchant or a trader, he finds some group of people with a similar clothing or garb hanging around the places, the shops or just sitting by their caravans.

Valuren asks around after moving toward the groups, they were indeed, the merchants.
Most of their responses when being asked by Valuren’s question about them going to the north was,

“No, I’m just restocking my goods before leaving the east gate later.”

“Didn’t you hear the rumours?”

“...”

“Nah, man.”

Having to hear most of the exact same reply about the rumoured fallen knight, Valuren sighed in despair. He then hears someone from the crowd,

“I’m going to the North.”

Valuren turns around and finds an dark greened orc, sitting by himself at the table while smoking some sort of old orthodox cigarettes.

He goes to the table, relieved to hear the orc’s words, “You’re going? Thank god!…”

“...”, the orc glared at Valuren’s slinged right arm as he goes,

“You’re injured… why made you wanting to leave the town in a hurry?”

Valuren looks at his right arm and forced a smile to the orc, “I’m on a mission. A quest from the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Adventurer, huh.”, he stands up from the table, wearing his brown coat back on, ”What’s your name?”

“Valuren, you?”

“Myner, that’s my name. So, can you tell me what’s the quest about?”

After a moment of explaining…

“...It’s fake, right?”, Myner strokes his chin after hearing his explanation.

“That’s what I thought to myself too, you heard the rumours about it - right?”

“Of course, everyone around kept making a big fuss about it. I don’t dig it.”

Valuren grinned happily, offering his left hand for a shake, “Then, let’s set off the roads!”


*******


Four hours had passed by, the skies are turning from the regular blue to orange, signing the time of evening, or dusk.

Valuren is inside of Myner’s caravan eating some berries from his small pouch, he looked around to scan once more. He finds two carriage wheels, a case of alcoholic beverages, and lastly an empty barrel, to give off the vibes of a loaded carriage.

“You good over there, want some drinks?”, yelled Myner as he looks behind him to find Valuren looking outside of the caravan.

Forcing a smile and with eye-closed, “...I’m still too young to drink, if you’re going to give me those.”

“More for me.”, he laughed as he grabbed a bottle from the case inside the case.

The peaceful ride didn’t last long, as they were attacked after 30 more minutes passed by;

“Hrm?”, glancing at something, he notices someone walking inside the forests.

The unknown person walks from a tree to another tree, before disappearing completely from his sights.

“Wait, did you see that, Adventurer Valuren?”, cold sweats appeared on his green face.

“?”, confused, Valuren moved to the front of the caravan, looking at where Myner is pointing at, “See what?”

“Over there… I saw, someone… but it’s a bit dark to figure who is it just by looking into the forests right now.”

Valuren switches his gaze from looking to the left and to the right, searching for someone in the forests,

“Someone? A lone bandit?”

“I-I guess so… maybe I was seeing shits. It’s getting cold, it’s freezing.”, he rubs his palms together in order to warm himself, while Valuren is clueless by his actions.

[It’s freezing? I don’t feel cold at all… maybe he can’t handle the night’s cold?]

Valuren heads back to sit down inside the caravan, not even a minute had passed from him taking a seat.
The left front carriage wheel falls apart.

Valuren falls on his back, hitting the ‘walls’ of the caravan before hearing someone screaming, it was Myner’s,

“Aaaaarh!!! I see the knight! He was wearing all black! His armors are full of cracks!”, his voice cracks as he continued screaming in fear,

“It was real!”, he raises the reins of his carriage horses as he exclaims, “Even my horses are afraid!!”

“Calm down, Myner! Get back!”, Valuren then jumps out of the caravan from the front, now facing face-to-face with the fallen knight.

Valuren glares at the knight as he let loose of the chained sling-arm, restoring it to a whip.

“Swing at it!”, ordered Valuren as the whip speeds forward, striking down the knight.
It went through the knight’s body armor.

Cold sweats began to appear on Valuren’s face as he thinks to himself about what just happened,

[W-Wait… so, the rumours… were real all along?!!]

“Tis but a scratch.”, the knight muttered in an eerie voice, sending chills down Valuren’s spine.

[What the hell… it’s a real ghost, a ghostly knight! Spirit Knight! G-Great… how should I deal with this, I accidentally attacked him now because I thought that he was alive… what the hell should I do now?!]

“W-Who are you, evil knight?”

No response from the ghostly knight.

“Hit the ground, Black Chains!”, the whip slams itself against the floor near the knight, it didn’t budge.

“Leave this world at once… you…!”

No response from the ghostly knight again.

[No good… I’m really useless against ethereal beings!!]

“Flame Whip, -Rebound-.”

Ropes made of completely red flames grabs the ghostly knight by its’ arms and legs, the knight begin to struggle as it drops to the ground before muttering another, “Tis… but… a scratch!”

Valuren averts his gaze after hearing footsteps coming from his front, behind the ghost’s back, there was a teenager wearing a school custom-made hoodie, with the flame-patterns and the school badge imprinted.

The person stops on his tracks after getting close enough behind the apprehended knight, “Just a scratch, huh?”

He begin to create a red flameball on his right hand, he shouts angrily as the flameball completes itself,

“Fuck Damnation!”, crushing the flameball with his right hand, spreading the red flames all over his right arm before punching down the spirit’s already cracking helmet.

The impact caused the spirit knight hits the dirt floor harder than it should be, the teenager notices the ghostly knight beginning to stand back up while still going, “Tis… but a scratch…”

“This but an annoying sack of shit.”, the teenager snaps his fingers, the flames that hangs around the knight’s body began to shine before exploding the spirit right then and there, out of the existence.

He notices Valuren looking at him, but decided to ignore him by turning away to leave the area.

[That glare… those eyes! This feelings… is that you, Father? But, he’s really young and... he is that strong?]

Valuren speaks up, “Hey! Father, is that you?”

The teenager continues to walk away, not responding to Valuren’s question.

“Rirota Xalysia!”, he turns around almost immediately after hearing the name of Valuren’s father came out of Valuren’s mouth.

Valuren runs to get near him, panting for quick breaths, he begin asking again, “Father… is that yo-?!”

The person grabbed Valuren by the collars, he looked really pissed off, “Who the fuck are you?! How the fuck do you know my name?! Are you a Marked user?!”

[He sounds like Him! He’s talking in our native language, from my original world!]

Valuren changes his language from using Edhellen’s Common to Lagenda’s, his mother language,

“I’m V-Valuren Chaan Hourtha, your son!”

“Bull-fucking-shit! I’m still 18! You’re older than me, you asshole! ...Wait.”, releasing his grip against the collars, still glaring at him, “You can understand me?”

“Yes, I can.”, Valuren smiles as his eyes began to tear up from meeting his blood father, “Father.”

“I’m not your dad.”

“Your future son, Father.”

Rirota clenches his teeth, “Haaarh? With whom?? ...Don’t tell me…”, he leans forward, close enough to make a whisper, “It’s with Rin-chan?”

[Who? I… I guess that he was talking about his -current- girlfriend before marrying with my dear mother, Nero Redwilde.]

Rirota forces a cough, “How old are you… Valuren?”

“Hm, oh. It’s 18.”, answered Valuren.

“Fuck you.”

“E-Eeeeh???”

Rirota pokes Valuren’s cheeks angrily, “You’re taller than me! How the fuck are you this tall if you’re my son?!”

[Is… is he insecure of his own height…? But, Father, you’re reaching 195cm in the future, your growth sprout aren’t there yet, I believe…]

“A-Anyway, Father!... How did you get here?”

“Woke up inside an alleyway, forced to beat the shit out of random jackasses trying to rob me off my phone.”, he takes out his phone, it’s out of batteries.

“I see…! I woke up inside a forest, found some coins to stay alive and now I’m here, working as an adventurer.”

Rirota nodding through his future son’s words, “Hah… it couldn’t be that, no? It’s impossible and fucking nonsense, right?”

“W-What is, F-Father?”

“Nothing, also stop calling me that. Call me by my first name, got that, Valuren?”

“A-Ah… okay… uhm. R-Rirota.”, it felt weird having to call his own father by his first name but he continues to ask him a question, “Do you want to join me, we can try finding our way back home together.”

“Nah.”, he refused instantly.

[Eh? Why?]

“Nah… that -big sister- will get extremely worried if I didn’t come back to her before…”, he looks at his wristwatch on his left hand, luckily it’s still working in this world, somehow, “8 at night. See you soon, my future son.”

Rirota gave him a smirk before leaving Valuren alone.

[Big sister…? Who is he talking about?]

Myner finally comes out from his hiding spot, finding Valuren standing by himself, “I-Is the spirit gone yet?”

“Y-Yeah… it’s gone for real now…”, he smiles at the distant before walking back to Myner and the caravan.


*******


They returned back to the town after putting back a replacement wheel to the carriage.

Spoiler: Notes

-Signature shall be updated with Rirota's details once SS#7 is finished.

Outside of the Guild facility, Valuren recollects his thoughts - smiling to himself.
“I still can’t believe it… I met my father. He seems to be staying at the Holy Empire of Men, since he was walking to the North when he left. I should tell Mr. Karma about this after I turned in this report.”

Nodding to himself as he enters the Guild, he goes to the receptionist desk, giving his report of the quest,
“It's the real thing, gone for realzies now.”

@AliceShiki

 

*claims post #888, why not*

 

Task: The Curse of the Sudden Jump [Available]
Requester: Lorderic, Artisan
Quest Rank: E-rank
Rewards: 11 Large Copper Coins
Description: A few days ago I was bargaining over the price of a pot I made to an elderly woman... It seems like she thought she was being ripped off, so she decided to give me a curse that would "annoy the hell out of me"... I just laughed it off at first since she still bought the pot anyways.

And now I suddenly get an uncontrollable impulse to jump at the weirdest times, and like... It's not a big issue, it's just annoying when I'm in the middle of a bargain or eating, or crafting... So yeah, it annoyed the hell out of me.
Please convince her to release this...

Spoiler: Travels

Jon frowned at the piece of paper, thinking about it was not worth the time so he decided to just walk outside till he saw a man that randomly jumped in front of him. Jon placed the paper in front of the man, which got a reaction.

"Thank all that is holy that someone finally decided to come and help me! listen here I need help to get rid of this curse! I even created a well-made and accurate drawing of the old lady that cursed me with the free time created by the jumping!"

Jon nodded, not understanding a thing so he thought the jumping man was telling him to talk to the old lady, so he nodded and left the man who started talking to him.

He started searching, only having to bring out the drawing every few minutes to remember the old lady he was looking for, and what would you know he found her walking down the street. He walked over to her and showed the request to her.

"You know he was scamming me!"
Jon nodded
"This poor old me, He should have been less greedy!"
Jon nodded again, as he did many time over the course of her talking at him for 3 hours straight, at one point of one listened in they would have heard her complaining about her children not visiting more often and that it was due to pure luck that jon disagreed with what she wanted to disagree with.

The old lady sighed "It's been a long time since I've talked to someone as attentive as you young man, tell you what I'll release the curse since I feel that a weight has just been lifted off my chest"

Jon nodded, thinking that it was finally time to end the conversation but it continued for another half hour before the old lady walked away, and so jon returned to the guild after meeting up with the jumping man who had started excitedly telling him something before writing how grateful he was on the quest slip.

"I'm...back." Jon had dead-fish eyes by now but quickly perked up "You'll tell me the value of those coins right?"

 

Rei entered the Guild-hall with a tall man walking behind her in tow.
They approached the counter and Rei handed over a report to the receptionist.

Spoiler: Report

In order to catch the bandit in question, Rei decided to use a bait.
She joined one of Forst's merchant caravan heading down south, masquerading as one of the passengers.
It was easier than trying to convince some bull-headed mercenaries that she was stronger than them.

After leaving the forest, the caravan stopped.
A single man on a horse was standing in front of the first carriage.
A few words were exchanged between the man and the merchant, ending in yells and the bodyguards attacked.
Rei still didn't make her move.
According to the reported intel, their lives were not in danger and she wanted to see what he was capable of.
They were all taken down with remarkable swordsmanship.
Not a single wasted movement, and not a single sign of dishonor.
He really didn't kill a single one of them.
It wasn't something a common bandit would be using, otherwise, they would look for better paying "jobs.
This wasn't normal.
This made her very curious.

Rei waited until the bandit collected only part of the wares the merchant was carrying.
Now she has confirmed the truth of the two rumors.
Now time to fulfill the request and find out the reasons on the way too.
before he could get on his horse, Rei came out from behind the caravan and stood in front of the man.
The "bandit" was surprised to be faced by a little cloaked figure but was even more surprised when said figure suddenly rushed towards him, leaving the cloak behind floating down to the ground.
He barely reacted in time, blocking Rei's fist with the side of his sword.
However, that was just the decoy.
Rei's foot found it ways around his knee and forced him to buckle down with a well-aimed low kick.
With his balance collapsed, the man tried to regain his bearings and barely avoided the next punch by rolling away.
Rei didn't give chase and stood in place, blocking his way to the horse.
The man stood up, and seeing no way around her attacked Rei while slashing with the back of his sword.
Rei parried the sword strike with her right arm guard and landed a strong hit on his body - exactly where the liver was.
The man gasped in pain but held onto his sword and back away before he would suffer any more hits.
He let go of the reverse blade grip and held the sword in the proper form.
He recognized the little girl in front of him as a worthy opponent.
Unfortunately for him - a little bit too late.
Rei charged up some force into her fist and rushed in.
The man met her with an upwards slash from his side.
Rei dodged the sword by the nick of her skin.
Stepping into close range, Rei released the power that she was building up in her hands into the man's body with two parallel punches to his torso.
The man's body was blown backward as shockwaves traveled through it.
A skill she accidentally acquired while training her long-range attacks.

After asking permission from the merchant and giving him his wares back, Rei borrowed a bucket of water and used it to wake up the unconscious "bandit".
As she questioned him why a warrior of his caliber was acting like a bandit - albeit a kinder than the usual one - he told her his story.
The man was a traveling warrior, not unlike herself in her younger days as Raikou, and was using his sword arm to earn food whenever he reached a town.
However a while back, he lost his private bags and with them all his food.
He barely survived a couple of days on the river water and nuts & mushrooms, but he soon reached his limit and collapsed.
When he woke up he was in a camp of men, one of them was feeding him warm soup and bread.
He went to greet their leader and thank him for his kindness, and the man said he could repay them by doing a little job for them.
It was the then he found out his saviors were a clan of bandits.
The man was conflicted but his honor bound him to relay his benefactors.
And so the man began to ambush passing merchants.
Thanks to his overwhelming strength and skill he was able to avoid killing anyone, and he lied in his reports, making it seem like what he brought was everything the merchants had.

"Per the rule of duels, I shall now do as the winner wishes".
Martial artists like them had an unspoken rule.
If two of them met and battled (which was likely to happen) the loser would listen to the winner's will.
Victory was everything.
As such, Rei now had the opportunity to free the man from his former obligations to his honor-code.

"Let's take you to Nagrand. I am sure The guards and the guild would not let go of an opportunity to learn of the location and inner workings of the headquarters of such a big bandits clan, so your safety is guaranteed.
I also heard the guild master is on good terms with the mayor"

The man silently nodded and bowed to show his thanks to Rei.
Both of them rode his horse and started heading towards the city.

Spoiler: Notes

- Snuck on a merchant caravan to use as bait
- Met the "bandit"
- Confirmed the rumors about non-killing and half-looting.
- Confronted and defeated the "bandit" in combat
- Returned the wares to the merchant.
- Heard from the "bandit" his reasons (Long story short - He was saved by a bandit clan and was guilt-tripped into paying tribute as thanks)

@Quaesitor

 

Oh... 6? Well, I suppose some people can freak out pretty easily...

Good job out there, the reward is of 12 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Take care now~

 

"Great, it seems like you managed to finish the quest without any unnecessary complications. Quest completed. Your reward is 20 Large Copper Coins and 8 guild points. As for the bandit, the law shouldn't be too hard on him as he did not murder anyone, so some time in a prison, forced labor, or paying back the caused losses should be enough."

 

... I have to wonder what is wrong with Edhellen and this many dimensional travelers... And this ghost, I think I remember hearing of a knight that used those words...

Oh well, good job out there Valuren-san, I hope both you and your father find a way back home, but... Don't keep your hopes up, alright? It's not really easy to leave Edhellen, believe me, I tried.

In any case, your reward will be of 9 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Take care now~

 

Well... Good job I suppose? You get 11 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points for your troubles.

As for the value of those coins, it's the same as everywhere else, you use them to buy food and to rent a place out... What else did you expect money to be for?

 

Kat gets on the guild in a nice carriage apparently owned by some noble or rich merchant.

She leaves the carriage while waving to the drive "bye bye Luc! See you another day!"

She enters the guild and goes to the counter to give her report for @Magnatia

Spoiler: Peaceful Trip

After receiving the quest from the cult Guild, I picked my things and left the place, I apparently I need to travel quite a bit to reach an town where a sword is causing problems…
... first I bought a passage in a stagecoach and enjoy the rest of the day reading a drinking a bit of beer.

The following morning, I met the caravan at morning, and we soon departed to skyfall keep, the trip was uneventful again, not that it was a surprise with so many people traveling together.
We reached the keep soon, so besides some people which stayed on the keep we didn’t stopped at it at all, personally I am really glad, that place still gives me the creeps.


Sincerely nothing much happened at all, this time I was here as a passenger whenever there WAS a problem it wasn’t MINE responsibility to deal with, so I just laze around and read my books, and no one bothered me. The trip stayed like till we reached a small port on the river, where most of the caravan left and we boarded on a ship.
The river trip was pretty calm too, nothing much happening or to do inside the river ships.

Spoiler: ”ARRIVAL”

We briefly passed by Moon Village and went further down, it took us some days but on the third day by ship we arrived at my stop, a Town called Nibelheim.


Well thought its called an Town it's pretty small… it's more like it falls in the grey zone where its too big to be a village and not really big enough be a important place, also while close to the capital its not directly on the river route to reach it since its located on the branching river between of Hero’s Port and Randgriz.


I was sleeping when the bell rang signaling we were arriving, so I busied myself picking up my things and didn’t got to see how the town was at distance.
The port was pretty busy with all those people arriving and some leaving too, but watching the faces of the people leaving it appears that most of them were pretty happy. I waved my way out of the ship and the port while covering my face with my mantle’s hood, the day was simply too bright for me which had just woke up and it hurt my eyes.

When I finally managed to squeeze out of the crowd, I saw that the port wasn’t even close to the town itself and I would have to walk quite a bit… growing painfully cause I would have to walk, without option I decided to enjoy the sight of the beautiful plains at the morning while my legs moved me through the road…


The town itself was quite pretty, the stores were colorful and the farms bountiful, also the houses were nice and tide, the city had the air of a festival with flags hanging on the walls and on ropes which crossed through the streets but… there was no one…


… I walked through the town while trying to find where everyone had gone, I walked for a long time maybe an hour or a hour and half, till I decided to sit on a park to rest… I was really thinking of giving up, cause I couldn’t even use smell to track the citizen cause the scent of street food was so thick that I couldn’t concentrate on any specific smell…

...just as I was sitting on a bench I saw a small woman with short black hair walking through the street which crossed the park.

I jumped on my feet and walked fastly on her direct while waving my hand, due to my dry throat and hunger a hoarse voice came out of my mouth

“Hey! miss!”

The woman let out a small yelp with her surprise and turned around to see me, and I could see in details how her beautiful sea green eyes shine on the morning sunlight, her pale skin which contrasted with small and red lips, suddenly her big and clear eyes widened and her tempting lips trembled, a shade of fear covered her face and she started to run away.


My still coarce voice come out again as I ran after her.
“Hey! haven’t you listen to me!?”
“stop running!”
I was much faster, but from the start she was pretty far and she had started first.
“F**K! I am saying to STOP!”
I sweared while running, I was slowing down a bit to look around trying to find if there was something dangerous which would threaten her, and I can I would like to note that by that time I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything even remotely dangerous around.


When I was almost reaching her the woman suddenly turned a corner, I performed a small leap and kicked a nearby pole to make the turn without losing my speed, but even then I just managed to get a glimpse of the woman entering the door of an brick building and slamming it shut with all her might, I could hear the sound of the lock closing soon after…

“F**K!”
Frustrated I punched a wall leaving a dent on it, I let the wall support my back as I slide into the floor… I was pretty much lost now and the only only person I saw till now have ran away… I hugged my legs and sat there feeling tired and frustrated…
….

Spoiler: ”WEIRD!”

I was feeling really awful and my stomach was growling cause the tasty smell of food would simply not go away… so I just kept there sitting trying to organize my mind…

...suddenly I noticed a rythmed sound… like a far away drum… I looked around trying to see if I could find anything, but the streets were still clean… no signs of anything alive… so I got up and started to follow the sounds…
… I must confess that following it in a unknown town was harder than I thought, as more than once I ended up in a dead end… but surely it was growing louder, with each hit of the drum my excitement grew, I was finally going to find someone or something after more than 3 hours so I kept going on no matter how many wrong turns I got and then when I was reaching the end of the town I saw far away in a hill far from even the last house, past the farms, An crowd of people….

with my eyes watering from finally finding people I could just think of one thing…

[F*ck this weird people! who leave a town empty to go meet in a damn hill!!!!]
feeling a strong urge to flip a table or anything even remotely like a table I walked till the crowd

Spoiler: ”The line”

Ruefully I walked till the crowd, and as soon as I reach the hill a young man which looked like a guard came to me and spoke with a slightly acute voice which showed just how young he truly was.
“Hello stranger! may I know your motive to come to Nibelheim?”
I must confess that it took my a inumana amount of willpower not pound his helmet till its outside and its inside exchanged places while yelling that it was me which should be asking their motive to be here and that technically we weren’t even at the town of Nibelheim anymore…
instead I just sighted and answered drilly

“I am from the adventurer’s cult *cough* I mean adventurer’s guild and I am here to pick the sword.”

Even through his helmet slits I could see that his brown eyes didn’t shaked even a bit, and he probably had been expecting a similar answer or maybe even exactly this one.

he then said:

“Oh! welcome adventurer, the sword is on top of the hill and you can pick it there, but I must tell you that like everyone else you will have to enter the line and wait your turn”

I answered back while massaging the bridge of my nose

“sure sure sure, so where is the damn line”


I couldn’t believe that I would have to wait in line when it was those guys which was part of the government itself which asked us to bring that…

“its right there”
the young recruit said while pointing with his hand.
when i turned to look I couldn’t help but be stupefied… the damn line was so big that it covered the whole hill while snaking around it and even reaching the far end of the city….
“Damnt be the gods!”

was my only answer….

Spoiler: ”Waiting in line may or may not be that bad”

I walked quite a bit till I reached the end of the line. And while walking I paid attention to the people, those waiting on the line were mostly adventurer like and knights wearing full plate, there were some people wearing furs which I recon must be barbarians or something like that, another part of the people on the line are actually people which are clearly not going to participate on that picking a sword out of the stone thingy, even though some of them are clearly adventurers they are too relaxed, talking and joking around, some look like mages or archers, they are probably here just to make company to the ones trying.

But that wasn’t even a third of the people on the hill right now, in fact as I started to pay attention at the surroundings, there were many merchants selling food and items, there were guards organizing the line, bards and actors showing their skills to entertain the ones waiting, and there were even children walking around selling snacks stores on baskets.


I approached a stall on my way which was selling kebabs, and their smell was simply divine, I bought a mug of beer and 3 kebabs and enjoy myself on the line.
it was pretty fun actually!

I was behind a group of adventurers, formed by 2 rangers, a mage, a battle priest, one sword woman and two warriors one wearing a bulky armor and shield and the other weaking a slightly less bulky armor and carrying a lance.


I was enjoying my food, when I saw a lock of curled red hair handing close to my face, I looked upwards to see what was happening and I saw a smirking half elf ranger with curled red hair which reached till the middle of her back and with bright blue eyes looking at my face.
the woman extend her hand friendly and said.

“Hi! I am Nessa! an Ranger! are you reserving a place for someone?”
A bit surprised with the high speed talk I give her a handshake, (I noticed that her hands were quite firm and strong, she is probably has quite accuracy on her strikes, good since the daggers on her hips look like they are made more for piercing than cutting, the glimpses I had from her muscles moving when she extended her hand, let me notice that while strong they are lean muscles indicating that she developed more speed and endurance than raw explosive force, while there are an absurd amount of smell around with her so close I can distinguish that while clean her daggers had indeed seen blood, and not only animal/monster blood, and the small quantity of sweat on her body shows me that she isn’t used to the temperature around here, but probably not from a very cold place since she isn’t sweating that much, overly I would say she is probably acting like an assassin focusing on precision to deal fatal strikes), I slowly answer her question.
“hello Nessa, no I am here by myself”
her eyes widen, but I don’t know if she is surprised with my answer or with the fact that my voice indicates that I am a woman.
“wow! so you are going to be participating yourself!? also nice to meet you! how is your name? do you want to talk more? are you bored?”
raising my own brow now I continue to counter her agitation and speed questions by talking slowly
“yes, I am going to participate myself, nice to meet you too, I am kat, not sure actually, and I suppose I must indeed be bored”
“oh! Kat nice nam-”
before she could finish her stream of new questions, hand grabs her head and pull her back a bit. Another red haired half elf which was almost the splitting image of Nessa, (almost, splitting, this one actually had a slightly crooked nose her hair was shorter reaching only her jaw, and had a small side braid, her slender fingers had small cuts, her arms looked stronger and the glint of her eyes showed that she was calmer, she didn’t had a weapon with her, but I could clearly notice that the bow lying on the ground was probably hers, since unlike the melee fighter her clothes didn’t had the smell of monster blood only the smell of sweat on her beautifully toned body, and she didn’t appeared to be a spell caster ), was the one grabbing Nessa and bowing to apologize to me.

“sorry for my sister intrusiveness she gets a bit wild when she is bored”
I smirked to her and said

“don’t worry, i am bored myself, err miss Nessa’s twin”
noticing that she hadn’t introduced herself, she hurried to correct it

“I am Quara, Nessa’s twin” she then waved to her party “the big guy there is Brak, the spiky priest is Min’ha, the woman hidden behind that big hat is our mage Mery, the lance show off is Cedric and woman warrior is Ursula”

Her party members wave or nod back to me while Quare receives and glare from Mery and Cedric yells “the hell Quara why you always have to do that?”

She laughs while Nessa answer back “your fault for wearing a armor that shinny! do you know how many times I almost got blind by looking at you during the day? hahaha”

“hello guys, I am kat”

I call the party back while paying attention to them.
Brak, is a tall guy almost 2 meters tall, by the smell he is probably a half orc or he stole that armor from an orc, I can’t see his body behind the armor, but just the fact that he is wearing that armor shows that he is quite strong, appears to be the party tank as he is the one with a big shield, and he is probably from the region or somewhere warmer since he is the one which is not sweating at all even while wearing a bulky armor.

The priest is hidden behind a lot of spikes which I sincerely don’t know how he isn’t wounding himself, there is no need to even think to see that he is a priest of Rald, as no one else would wear that many spikes, not even evil algozes do that, his weapon of choice is a morningstar mace which surprisingly has less spikes than his pauldrons, no doubt he is quite skilled with it, otherwise he wouldn’t be a priest of rald. he would probably look as stoic as a slab of stone from most people, but I can see or rather feel that he is having funny with Nessa and Cedric’s banter, being able to smell pheromones is useful like that~

The skinny woman, wearing purple and a really big witch hat is Mary and I can see why she hiding below the oversized hat, she is as white as snow, maybe some skin sickness or she simply has had no business with the sun for a long time, she wears glasses but it doesn’t look like she really needs them, her short grey hair furthers my suspicion that she does indeed has a reason to not get on the sun, and she has an almost overwhelming scent of mana emanating from her, so she either have a really big mana capasity or he is purposely or unconscious making her magical aura known, also her glarince face looks quite cute.

The swordswoman, is quite strong, she is wearing half plate armor, and the way she positions herself shows that together with Min’ha she the only ones with their guards up, she probably doesn’t like crowds or something, and her movements are fluid indicating that she used to battle, her brown hair is kept in a braid and her eyes are attentive.

Cedric is well… Quara’s description is quite on the stop, he has an trendy hair cut, and blond hair, he is wearing a bulky armor but it doesn’t look like he is almost as nimble as Nessa herself, his weapon is a spear so speed is useful indeed, but the guy what is really catch on this guy appearance is not how much he must have trained himself to achieve this, but the fact that he is blond and has blue eyes, a pretty shiny armor which actually is probably just steel like Brak’s but its oily scent tells me, that he gave his attention to its maintenance, his weapon also is razor sharp even though I can see that it has seen quite a lot of work and is probably old, but even so its sparky… seriously the guy probably is just caring for his equipment and do its maintenance quite seriously but because his armor and weapon are so well maintained they still has steel’s shiness and coupled with his looks, a lot of people must think he is just trying to show off….

Brak speaks to me cutting me from my thoughts

“Miss Kat, I couldn’t help but listen to you saying that you are here alone? so would you like to join us? we are just enjoying some foods and drinks while waiting on the line”


I don’t need to think as I had already made the decision when Quara appared

“yes, lets have some drinks”

Spoiler: ”THE S”

We passed the day talking and enjoying a feast, but before the nightfall we did manage to get out chance. By that time Cedric was already dead drunk, and Nessa wasn’t much better, both of them saw how much I was drinking and decided to start a drinking competition, there is no need to even ask who won it, Brek and Ursula stopped after a few drinks saying that they still had to give a try at the sword and shouldn’t be drunk, Quara doesn’t enjoy much drinking so she didn’t participate, but I did manage to drink Nessa, Cedric and surprisingly Min’ha under the metaphorical table, and I won the right to be served by Mary who pouted in a incredibly cute way when Nessa said that she would have to pour drinks for whoever won the competition.

Those guys were really funny and nice, my smirk was threatening to split my face, while I saw Quara trying to convince the wobbling Priest to lie down again cause he was a safety hazard wobbling like that with so many spikes, my hood was down already and we were laughing at Brek’s jokes and stories on how Cedric got dragged in fights just cause of his look, apparently they were childhood friends and Cedric’s talent of attracting problems through his look was what got him to learn how to wield a spear in the first place.

Mary wasn’t as shy as I thought she was (though she is indeed shy), dunno why but she got a liking to my eyes… that really surprised me cause normally people think its creepy, I still didn’t asked why but she apparently got more interested in me when she noticed that I was a Mutated human.

Personally I was enjoying relaxing quite a lot, I didn’t drank that much just to make fun of the priest, (tho I will admit it was part of the reason) I drank because alcohol lowers cognitive speed and helps me cope with the overflow of smells, sounds and all kinds of stimulus from the crowd. When you have sense so sensitive you start to appreciate the time your sense get numb because of alcohol, its nice to not be able to feel what the person you are talking to is feeling throughout his pheromones or not hear the heartbeats of the person which is sitting close to you.

I smile and teasingly let a bit of my weight on Mary whose shoulder’s was almost touching mine.

while I was lazing around Brek comes back saying that his shoulders are aching and that he surely have damaged his hips, I look at the side and see that Ursula is sprawled on the ground breaking heavily.


“my turn?”
Brek look at the Priest and smirk


“sure I don’t think Min’ha will be up to it! hahaha!”
Placing my mug down and slipping my hand from below Mary’s I get up.

we all chuckle at Mary’s yelp cause she hadn’t noticed that she was practically holding my hand and I carefully walk through the pile of drunk bodies which the party had became.

I walk till the top of the hill and look at the oh so great sword and… f**k! it really is GREAT!
I mean BIG!
the thing sticking out of the rock at the top of the hill is a damn slab of steel as wide as my waist, at least a finger thick and even with it buried on stone it was still as tall as my shoulders…
“damn… this is ridiculous…”
I gingerly touch the sword and test it by giving it a small pull, just from that I can feel that the thing is REALLY HEAVY! it doesn’t even move a inch…
“f*ck”
Instead of holding on the handle which would give me an awkward position, I lower my body placing left leg close to the metal slab, the right leg is a bit farther giving me stability and lowering my position, i place my hands on the hallow holes at the sword and test to see if they are firm enough so I can for it.
I take a deep breath and forcefully try to lift the sword!

“F**********CKK!!!!!”
the thing is even heavier than I thought and I can feel my hands aching from being forced against the edges of the holes, I get closer to the blade trying to achieve a position where I can lift it as if I was below it. My back aches as does all my body,

“aahhh!!”

but I keep focusing
I force all my strength, all my muscles fibres start to scream

“HHRRGGG!”
by now I had found the right position and I all the force of my muscles, from my feets’s muscles, legs, hips, back, and arms was being focused solely on lifting the sword that my hands were holding!
“HHRRRRR”
“ARRRRH”
“AAAAAAA!!!!”
grunting and breathing heavily, everything was aching, all my body was hurting and my legs were feeling like jelly, my heart was beating so loudly that I almost thought I was having a heart attack, the pain I was feeling on my chest was growing to be almost insumornable, but I continued, I squeezed every ounce of strength I had then I squeezed more even after it was dry…

“GRRRRRRR!!!!!”
with a last heaving I sudden hear a loud crack! and everything becomes light…
the sudden lack of resistance makes me unable to control my strength in time and I fall on the ground as the sword slip from my hand…

...I watch the sword that looks more like a metal slab rotating slowly at the air and I think.

[oh! so that is why it wouldn’t move a inch! there was almost an entire meter of it buried on that stone! no wonder no one managed to lift it! it was truly stuck!]

I am cut out of my reverie when the colossal sword reached the peak of its flight and with a final rotation slowly started to fall and I noticed that it was unfortunately going to fall exactly where I was lying down….


“****! f***! F***! F***! F***! F**K! F**K! F**K! F*CK! F*CK! F*CK!!!!!”

I fastly roll out place here the metal slab was going to fall, just in time to watch the thing fall flatly on the ground.
coughing a lot because of the dust cloud that it lifted when it hit the ground, I stay there on the ground trying to get my bearings…

when the dust settles there is a weary silence… I look around and see that the entire crowd is there wasting me with their mouth open and simple look back while puffing trying to get my breath under control….

……

………..

…………….

………………………

…………………………………

……………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

no one knows who did it first or if it was a spontaneous action of the entire group but suddenly every the entire crowd was screaming and cheering!
“VIVA THE QUEEENNNNN!!!!!!”
“LONG LIFE TO THE QUEEEEENNNN!”

everyone was throwing up whatever it was that they had on their hands, meat and beer rained, and I saw Mary and other mages send fireballs and other spells to the sky like fireworks!

before I could even react a group of people came to me and lifted me, everyone was screaming something about the Queen and cheering as I was carried by the crowd like some sort of saint, I couldn’t really understand what was happening, but I saw that a group of strong adventurers and citizens started to carry to sword to acompain us…

The crowd only let me down when we were already down the hill where there was a circle of soldiers waiting for us together with many other citizens and a old man wearing nice but not overly gaudy clothes.
“hello my dear Queen, I am Bricmantur di Artma current mayor of this town, and I would like to invite you to my house”

at the same time the old men was talking a woman slipped through the crowd while carrying a baby and started to talk too!

“Oh my queen! I just had this baby! and she still doesn’t have a name please bless us with a name please!”
the woman started to push the baby towards me as I tried to wiggle my way out of the hands of the crying citizen which are crying and saying “the queen! something something something!”

while being overwhelmed by the situation and half screamed

“no!”

the old men made a weird face and backed a bit not knowing what to say, and the woman of the baby started to cry, so I hurriedly said:

“wait wait wait, it wasn’t for youuuuu!!!!”

I almost pulled the baby out of the woman’s hands when I took the baby

“he… no she will be called…”

I tried to think of a name while hoping that having a baby on my hands would delay the old men speak and force to crowd to be less touchy even if just for some moments…

“Her name will be Syringa, as the name of the Nymph which whose name gave the origin to Lilac’s name, as its know placing a lilac on top of a child’s head will bring wisdom and so this little girl will grow to be one of the wisest women of the kingdom!”
just after finishing speaking, I noticed that the crowd had became completely silent….

… so I gingerly give the baby back to the crying woman which barely managed to squeeze out a faint “thank you” between her sobs. and as soon as those words left the woman’s lips, we were shaken by a sudden explosion of cheerings!

Spoiler: ”The morning after”

I woke up on a nice bed which I sincerely didn’t want to leave from, after the baby naming, I had to convince the old mayor and half of the city that I didn’t want to go stay at his house, the guy didn’t looked that bad, but I just didn’t felt okay with going to the house of a noble on a short notice like that, who knows what would happen? besides I don’t trust nobles all that much…

After a lot of convincing and talks and many things really, I ended up becoming guest a widow woman called Lyv which funnily enough ended up being the same woman which had fled from me when I was on the town…
Lyv was the owner of a pretty nice bar called 7th heaven, she was feeling down because she had ran away from me, so she offered to let me stay at her house, thanks to that I managed to flee from the Mayor, her house was simple but big red brick building which had two floors, as we talked during dinner she told me a bit of her life, apparently she was married quite young, through a convenience marriage, her husband was a rich merchants, and while they never got to love each other she liked him because he was gentle to her and the daughter they had together.

After he died she sold most of the stores they had, and started to live alone with her daughter Amy while taking care of the bar which has been from her family through generations.

Amy was a small girl if about 8 or 10 years, she had a very light brown hair and blue eyes with a very… strange glow which definitely doesn't look like something I human should have, when I tried to ask about Amy's apparence, Lyv said that Amy looks like her grandfather, and while he was blond instead of having brown hair, his eyes were of the exact same color as Amy's.

We talked quite a bit during the night, so we both ended up working up late, when k dressed myself and went to the first floor, Amy was already having her breakfast, the little girl is quite cheerful and her dark blue turtleneck shirt matched with her pale skin and blue eyes perfectly.

I couldn't help but pat her hair, because she gave me a really bright smile when she saw that I was up.

We ate breakfast together and Amy kept bombing me with questions, apparently Brek has brought my things after the dust had settled so I should do something nice for the party and also for Amy and Lyv.

Lyv told me that I will have to talk with the Mayor today I liking it or not, so she would serve as my guide, when we left the house, the first thing we saw was the metal stab, I mean Buster Sword resting in the middle of the street and a crowd of people waiting for us….

Sighing I picked the sword, which I would like to notice somehow felt much lighter than yesterday, we walked our way through the parting crowd which had quite a few people crying and/or bowing, because Amy insisted i was waving my hands to the crowd and giving some handshakes, which for some reason cause the people to start cheering as "Long life for the Queen of the Sword!"

We soon reached the mayor's house, as Lyv's house was also inside the Noble part of the town and the crowd wasn't actually hindering our trip, the Mayor was waiting on the garden of his house smiling at us.

"Welcome Queen of the Sword!"

Spoiler: The Hush

During the meeting with the Mayor, it was decided (one sidedly by them) that there would be a grand festival and I was going to be the centerpiece of it.

They wanted for it to happen through all month, but I insisted that I had to leave soon, so we managed to reach an agreement on it being done just for 7 days, and I would depart on the third.

After that it was a hush!

Lots of stalls were open all around, they hanged even more colorful flags and I have no idea from where they got it, but there were swords embroidered in most of those flags!

You could see children running around happily while waving mini buster swords made out of wood, people were cheerful, there was lots of songs and dances, there were local cultural dances and dramas which I had to go watch, we also made parades, some in which I was being carried in a palanquin while waving to the crowd.

My days were really busy, but when I could sneak out I would meet with the party or lyv and Amy, the food was simply awesome!

Like really really awesome!

And since I was the centerpiece of the festival it was always free! /o/

In fact whenever I got close to any stall they would jump up and try to give handfuls of food to me which I gladly accepted.

The fried corn was great when doused on butter~♪

The sausages from the stall of a old orc which had a friendly smile called Bukta were super awesome, it was soft and had lots of juicy, it's spiciness was just enough so that you could feel its flavor but not it hotness and when I asked about the faint smoke taste he told me that he makes the sausages with wild boars meat which he smokes himself.

Another pleasant surprise was the draft beer from the local brewer called Joseph, the skinny guy with unkempt black hair and glasses is surely not the type of person you would expend to be brewing beer, but oh his beer~

It was absolutely divine! The guy was an apprentice mage when he was young and while not that great at magic he created a form to infuse Mana into the water he uses to brew, making the taste of his beer 200% more awesome! And you can feel just a hint of fresh Mana tickling your lips when you drink it~♥

The beef from the brown haired couple that is the owner of the restaurant called Bahamut was very juicy and done just at the right point, the seasoning they use are grown by themselves and is a special recipe passed through generations, I can't stop myself from drooling when I remember the scent when they were grilling it~♪

Nibelhein is close to the river and the sea so they have lots of fish dishes, the fried squid rings sold buy an tanned old lady near the Central square was super tasty! Like it isn't chewy like normal squid and even while breaded it had a lot of flavor 10/10!

The fish soup of the local inn which I ate when I sneaked out during the night to talk with Quara had lots of vegetables and the thick stock made every spoon a pleasure in itself!

The fried potatoes made by an small halfling were good too, they were crispy outside but fresh and soft inside, the guy took the care to cut and put the potatoes on a stick one by one, so it got totally different from the dry stuff we normally get to buy!

But my favorite by far favorite was Lyv's sea food lasagna! I had never eaten lasagna before cause its expensive but it was damn awesome! The salted fish and lots of shrimps with white sauce we're simply the best thing I have eaten! 15/10!

Talking about things I have never eaten! There was a sweets store called Choco-bo's feather which sold those brown sweets made of cacao which were great! But I really like that Parfait thing!

I got offered things by every kind of merchant actually~

From armor to jewels, obviously I didn't accepted those expensive things, but I was forced to accept some beautiful clothes because apparently I couldn't parade with the ripped clothes I usually wear…

And like that I passed 3 days enjoying the festival, I made sure to bring nice things for lyv and Amy everyday but unfortunately I had to go~

The villagers offered (more like forced me to accept) to help me on the trip, so we went with a nice carriage and ships till the capital to bring the Metal slab, I mean Buster Sword to the quest giver, there they also explained that it was a misunderstanding, the story is not about how the person who take the sword would be the king or in this case Queen of Ternus, but would gain the title of Queen of the Sword (or king), because long long ago even before the empire ascension, a hero was born at that town and he wielded that sword to save all the continent, the hero didn't ended up becoming a king but because of his indescribably advanced skill with the sword it was said no other swordsman would be able to win against him and thus all swords would bowl before him, so he used to be called King of the Swords!

Apparently there is a saying on the legend that says "This sword is the symbol of my dreams and honor, and the one who inherit it will be my living legacy…"

The legend also says that this same sword was used by 3 different heroes through it's story and some even speculate that it has gained life…

...well I don't know about it having life or things like that, but the villagers ask for the contractor to return the sword after he study it, because it's a very important piece of the town's history, they also mentioned that it would be okay for me to pick it whenever I wanted cause I'm supposedly it's inheritor…

Well anyway I let the sword with the contractor and he said he will give it back next month, and then went back to the guild with the help of the villagers!

Spoiler: Notes

Town mayor refund all the money I spend of the trip.

The Adventurer's party which I meet invited me to join them on some quests.

Lyv told me I can go back whenever I want, and she even sneaked some keys of her house into my backpack when I wasn't looking.


I wrote a gastronomic review booklet of Nibelheim.


Got new writing utensils

2 extra blank booklets

2 nice sets of clothes

1 gorgeous dress (which I will probably never use)


Skills update:

Swordsmanship (0) - Knows that you should hold a sword through the handle and not the blade, and also that if you drop the pointy end on your own feet it will hurt a lot.


Metal Slabsmanship (1) - can lift the metal slab and even strike some cool poses!


Blessings of the Metal Slab' Spirit (1) - you was recognized by the spirit of the metal slab called Buster Sword, but you still have to prove yourself to it. (Kat doesn't know about this)



Title gained!: [Queen of the Sword] !!!

 

Spoiler: it's a mess indeed

Lyra was quick to send Dantia off with a marked map and her loved wyvern, which was named Lucia. Dantia wasn't a good map reader if the scale is too great, luckily Lyra had visited the spot a number of times and Lucia already memorized the location.

Dantia, riding comfortably on Lucia's back (although she was terrified by the new experience for a moment) had quickly reached the spot. She saw the icicle rain even from at a fair distance. On the ground beneath, she saw the icicle rain made a big frozen puddle, almost worthy to be called a lake.

"Wow... This is really no joke..."
She murmured, astonished by the spectacle before her. Then she spotted some people in robes around the outskirt of the frozen puddle, just at a safe distance to not be hurt by the falling icicles.

She descended to them for some information. They were the priests of Ton, and they were helplessly staring at the phenomenon.

"We tried to experiment something unusual. Usually magic circles are drawn in one surface only, but recently we found a way to extend beyond it: we made two other magic circles with a device that let us write the air. We made the circles facing each other, imagining like if the three magic circles are in a room instead of an open space." One of the old looking priest explained.

"We know we can do it in a closed space using traditional means and we wanted to try if we could do something similar, but outdoor... We didn't think the result was going to be like this..."

They began to cry.

Spoiler: in theory, and in practice

The priests of Ton were originally adept of their crafts, according to them. Their individual interests are widely ranged. This accident was made by a bunch of people who were interested in runecrafting and premeditated magical spells such as magic scrolls and enchantments.

A gathering of eccentrics, Dantia thought. But one of them might have the idea of what caused the magic circles to run wild, he proposed that it was due to the spirits of rain and ice getting their interests caught by their experiment. Sadly, their sole spirit whisperer was in a journey for a task. They couldn't dare to ask other fellow priests of Ton as it will surely be bad for their future atmosphere. Their only hope was a third party.

In their calculation, they made the circles not more than 2 meters each. But after they finished the circles and supplied the power, the circles were expanding. It stopped expanding just a few hours later and then "you know the rest of the story." They said.

If it was really the spirits being involved, then Dantia has an idea to settle it down.

"I recently got a lesson on how to speak with spirits. If they're really involved, I can try to ask them to stop doing it."

Spoiler: it was over rather quickly

Dantia danced like how she did while being trained by the dryad Feleiserem in a cave. She didn't have any colorsap branches anymore but she understood the principles behind it. Less effective, but should work nonetheless.

Finished her preparations, she rode Lucia once again to the top of the icicle rain. Sure enough, there were so many spirits gathered. Each of them were giggling while they threw water below and the others froze them just a bit lower than the top.

She asked Lucia to go closer to them in attempt to appease them to stop. As they were getting closer, the spirits began to stir and scatter about. A few of them were staying still.

Upon closer look, Dantia saw the spirits were a level smaller than goblins... And the few who stayed, they were crying.

"H-hey, why are you crying?" Dantia asked cautiously.

"Waaaa! Waaa! Lizaaard! Big lizaaards scaaary!!"

"...."

Were they perhaps very young spirits? They acted like how terrified kids normally do when they see something scary, Dantia thought.

"Lucia, can you please hover as steady as possible?" She asked. The docile wyvern complied, it gradually hover with just a small rocking felt from the wing motions.

"Kids! Look here~!"
Dantia shouted to the remaining spirits.
She danced a simple dance to calm the kid spirits. She performed a dance far above the ground, on an unstable footing of a flying wyvern. If she were to perform this before real audiences, she would be showered by praises.

After a few minutes of dancing, the kid spirits eyes were sparkling. They then tried to dance like how she did, cheerfully laughing like when they pour frozen water chips before.

At least, Dantia managed to make her words come through them. They agreed to leave the scene immediately.

But one of the kid water spirits suddenly hugged Dantia's right thigh, seemingly gleeful. She asked the spirit what did she want, and the spirit answered:

"I like you, I want to go with you!"

Dantia has never been a spirit tamer, she was only able to speak in friendly terms to the spirits, but that was also very recently learned. But seeing the cute face smiling, she couldn't refuse that water spirit.

The icicle rain had stopped, and Dantia went to the priests of Ton once again. Their tears bursting like a failed dam, their words of gratitude replaced the icicle rain pouring towards her.

"Maybe you can try forming a contract with the spirit?" One of them said before they part ways.

"Then, what do you think I should do with it?"

Spoiler: note

Clingy young water spirit is clingy...

@Quaesitor

 

"First things first, good job with the quest. Here is your reward, 10 large copper coins, and 4 guild points."

"As for the spirit..." Garret frowns, before continuing. "Should I get the documents for adoption? I mean, I doubt that she will stop following you anytime soon, so you should somehow take care of her."

 

"It's done~"

Spoiler: Kill It Until It Dies

"Oh, it's just plain old regular undead. There sure are a lot of them though."

She'd expected maybe a small group of ten or so, but there were at least twice that number amassing around the trees; some rabbit brains had been suspended with rope, hanging well over the undead heads and just in sight.

"I'm not charging in there."

True, the undead were focused on the rabbits right now, but if she got too much attention she'd probably end up on the menu too.

"We're on the edge of the forest. So...I think this will work, actually."

Elaine grinned as she held the flaming stick in her hands.

First, she tossed the branch into the centre of the dense cluster of undeads, out of sight. It did catch, but the squirming clump of bodies made it quite slow for the fire to catch. Even as she watched on, the fire made barely no progress, catching onto another ghoul only to be put out by some erratically floundering hand moments later.

"This is taking a while...A bit longer than I would have liked…"

Elaine mumbled unhappily, feeling her mana draining. She was compressing the air to make water, but making barely enough to cover the area in a thin loop still took a lot of mana. Still, she was able to do it unlike the last time when she'd failed.

"For a prank, this sure is a lot of cleanup. Enough to make it a higher ranked quest, even."

The undead couldn't see and relied on sound so she didn't have to hide and sneak around, but they didn't breathe either, so it was impossible to drown them.

"Forget it. I'll go ask some questions."

*****

When she got back again, the first thing she noticed was that some of the ropes had been severed. There were lesser brains still hanging there, and the restless undead on the outer ring of the pack had started to mill around. Any more and they'll start dispersing.

Amd then she'll have to hunt all of them down, which she preferred not to. Best was to get rid of them all while they were distracted, but she didn't have any fancy large scale magic yet. Lightning magic.

The strongest lightning bolts strike not from the hands of men, but rather from the sky.

She had no idea what her senpai was going on about sometimes, actually. The tales were wonderful, but she barely understood any of them. A baby that popped out of a giant peach and a sword stuck in a stone. It sounded like the ramblings of people living in denial, but she kept that to herself.

Falling from the sky.

During particularly heavy rain, she remembered. Hiding under the covers when deafening noises would sound out, a few moments after the blinding flash hurt her eyes. It took a few years for her older sister to coax her out from the safety of her blankets. But where did the bolt come from?

The skies above. The puzzle pieces started joining together in her mind.

What causes the lightning? It wasn't magic. Magic that controlled the weather on a large scale would be well into the territory of forgotten magic. Her senpai could do it, but again, if her senpai was really five thousand and counting, then such a thing was natural. The issue was that she couldn't do the same, obviously.

Even so, there should be a limit on how big someone's mana pool was. Her senpai's mana gauge was certainly fearsome---she could feel the ripples of lightning crackle around Mika---but it wasn't impossibly big. Yet her senpai could devastate the area with a barrage of lightning bolts, followed by a huge discharge of lightning hot enough to carve a crater into the ground, and still not look any more tired than usual.

So if she didn't conjure the lightning, why did it fall exactly where and when she wanted it to? Repeated lightning strikes without the barest drop of rain; it went way beyond weather forecasting.

Hm.

Air could be compressed to create miniscule drops of water. Which meant that there was water in the air, and it was easier to gather what already existed than to convert raw mana to water, which was a horribly wasteful process.

If that was the case, could lightning be present in the air, too? And her senpai was merely gathering it to create lightning bolts to use?

I'll have to ask Senpai more about this when she gets back. If not, the only plausible reason would be that she figured out how to bump up the mana conversion rate high enough to use it efficiently. Either way, knowing the answer would be helpful.

Shrugging, she threw away the stick in her hand, before closing her eyes in concentration. The rune lit up and sparkled.

"Manifest, purple lightning! Regulus Fulminata!"

The lion wreathed in sparks landed perfectly on it's mark, blasting the tree and the undead gathering around it alight. Caught on fire suddenly, the undead horde started dispersing, but it was too late.

"Stay where you are, peasants!"

The undead didn't move, despite it being clear that most of them had seen her. They stood unmoving in various positions, unable to so much as lift a finger…the mental countdown begun.

At four seconds, the sword was already out. At three seconds, the sword was lifted over her right shoulder, ready to make a diagonal cut.

At two seconds, the blade was extended by the water that surrounded it. A mass of furiously spinning waves.

At one second---

"Eat this! Somewhat Amazing Strike!"

The extended blade cleaved neatly through the old bones, long since brittle from age. Unhindered by the meagre resistance, it chopped the tightly packed bodies into halves from the centre, resulting in a symphony of bodies falling onto the ground.

Done. There were still some that were alive, but now approaching was easier and safer. She just had to crush their heads and ensure that they wouldn't be reanimating. And repeat the process about thirty times. But first...

Looking around, the trees in the immediate vicinity were smothering, unpleasantly so.

"Oops. Better put this one out before it starts getting too big."

Spoiler: Notes

Somewhat Amazing Strike: The second skill in Elaine's Somewhat Amazing series. It takes a bit to charge and unleash, but always doesn't fail to deliver in terms of output. Simply put, it's a Somewhat Amazing Strike.


Throw A Fire At It: Elaine's unique skill. If she doesn't feel like the effort is worth the results, she'll throw a lit torch/find a way to start a fire and try to burn enemies down to the ground in one huge blaze. Of course, it's a big no-no if the place is heavily forested, but since she does have some water magic in her, well...

@AliceShiki

 

"Contract? No need! I can stay with your mana instead!" The water spirit said to Dantia, which she relayed to the staff.

 

Welcome back Elaine-san~

Seems like you're learning how to do more and more things aren't you? Good job~

Your reward will be of 26 Large Copper Coins and 8 Guild Points.

Take care now~