Magic Association Magic Association - Task Reporting Board

Help out in the Library
Rank: E
Type: Researcher, Simple Task
Description: A simple task to help organizing the library. It’s always messy due to the constant flux of people.
Reward: [ 1 L. Wooden coin| 10 Merit Points ]

----0000----​

"Um, I'm finished with my task..."
*hands over note*
"The person at the library told me this was proof I was there."

Spoiler: Library

Peeking through the Library doors, Raven glanced around the entryway as she entered.

Aside from a tired eyed young man reading at the desk, there was no one else around, but when she thought about it a little more, that was normal. People go to a Library to read, and since there were plenty of places closer to the bookshelves to sit and read, there was no reason to hang around the entryway.

"Hello? I'm here to help out in the Library?"

The young man looked up at her, then shrugged and returned to his book.

"Great. There's a couple books that I haven't got back on the shelves yet, so you might as well do that. They're in the back, here's the key."

While still buried in his book, he dug a grey key out of his pocket and stuck it on the desk. Raven took it and he gestured to a closed door right behind him, which she entered.

Inside were stacks upon stacks of books, some of the piles brushing the ceiling. As she stared in astonishment at the towers of tomes, paper plane flew in, circling her head before she grabbed it out of the air.

The books were exactly where the note said they were, hidden behind the open door. She noticed that there were six of them, not five, but since the note said around five, she felt someone probably added the extra without the man at the desk noticing. That seemed likely.

The six volumes were neatly stack atop one another, making them slightly easier to carry, but the combined weight of six volumes was pretty heavy, and it took her three breaks to reach the Index, a large tome listing every book currently in the library. From there it was a simple matter of stating the book title and author, after which the tome directed her to wherever the copies of that book should go.

The first four took her about half an hour, since she had to take the specified book to the location designated by the Index, then sort it among all the other titles by that author, but the fifth title was a nightmare to deal with.

It turned out that the library had never deal in titles related to Bill Trout, therefore he had never been registered in the index, requiring Raven to do so herself, which, while not a complex procedure, required a number of minor details from the book being registered, which took about twenty minutes to find and enter.

When she managed to get the book where it was supposed to be, she had been working for almost an hour, and was rather tired from walking the corridors of the library over and over. Grabbing the final book, she looked it over, but found it lacking any distinctive markings for title, author, subject matter, or anything really.

The cover was completely blank, made of heavy cloth, a perfect and untainted black, and the pages were aged parchment, slightly yellowed with age. A silver lock held the volume closed, likely a magical one, since there was no opening for a key.

Odd...

Frowning, she looked over the book again, then sat down and stared at it in confusion. After thinking for a moment, she went back to the front desk, and passed it back to the young man.

"They're all back, except this one."

The young man looked up, then his eyes went wide and he took the book from her hands. He tapped the lock with his finger, and the book sprung open, after which he began flipping through the pages.

The book seemed much larges than the number of pages she could see, since the young man had been thumbing through for the past minute and had still yet to reach the end of the tome. Pausing, he looked up at Raven, then grabbed a pen lying on the desk and scribbled a couple words before handing it to her.

"This'll be proof you helped out here. I've been looking for this book for a while, so I'll gave you something special when we meet again."

Taking the paper from his hand, Raven was confused for a moment before she shrugged and left.

@The Everdistant Utopia

 

An homumculus staff bowed apologetically. "I'm very sorry, but Mister Sorgre isn't available at the moment, so please allow me to proceed."
The homunculus skimmed through the report, not noticing any glaring error. Placing a bag over the table, they said. "Everything seems okay. Here's your reward." Tilting their head, the homunculus added oddly. "Godspeed...?"

 

Task: Collecting of Herbs Near the Association

Spoiler: Report

I apologize for my terrible writing skills. The Magic Academy always told me I was bad at it. Sun took off right when her task got accepted. She spent about an hour looking for herbs but didn't find any herbs she liked enough to pick. She was going to grab her cloak out of her storage ring cause it was getting pretty chilly, only to realize she forgot it. As she didn't want to go back she decided it would be fine. Heading over to a river she found 2 types of lilies, she picked the first one which was on her side of the lake and as she was being lazy today and didn't want to cast magic decided it would be a good idea to try and jump over the river. As you can see now, she failed. She fell into the water and as she cant swim ended up having to teleport. Of course her being her she managed to teleport right on top of some mud. Now being both wet and dirty she is quite annoyed but wants to finish the quest as soon as she can so she decided to pick a few Liar Flowers and Silent Grass. Along with the Morning Glories she found earlier she thought she now has enough. But wait this girl is super lazy and decided she wants to teleport back to the guild instead of walk. Well she's wet right now and its not an enjoyable kind of wet so as she cant see the place she is trying to teleport to and is uncomfortable and cant focus, she gets lost. Now she has no idea were she is cant use her teleportation properly and cant find her storage ring. Looking inside of her bag to grab a snack she find that there isn't any food in there. "Wait, wait what?? But I had food?" Suddenly she stops being dumb for a second and realizes that it must had fallen out near the river. She looked around her surroundings and recognized the place. Its behind the association. Feeling dumb and never wanting to share this story with anyone, she walked back in looking defeated, ears drooping and tail dragging along the floor, Her silvery-white hair stained with mud.

"I want to take a bath so badly right now." She said looking defeated while dripping wet with splotches of mud all over her clothes, silvery-white hair much much dirtier than when she left. She only left 2 hours ago. Looking in her bad to retrieve the herbs she almost cried when she found the silver storage ring. "Also is there a cheap inn anywhere near here I can stay in?"
@Haxagen

 

"Well, that's a first if I ever saw one. Here."

Nadia handed over a bag containing 3 L. Wooden Coins and a bundle of herbs, while writing the number [20] next to Suneli's name.

"You did quite well for your first quest. Unlike a certain magician who blew up half a town, another who set the greenhouse on fire, and the last one who had nearly cleared out an entire forest...Ahem. Anyways, you probably want to hear a lecture another time."

She cleared her throat.

"There's an inn associated with the associated in the city. It's free for the association's mages, so just follow this map. Here."

[Gained City Map x1]

((There's no actual map of the city yet, because @The Everdistant Utopia broke his laptop...I totally blame @BB_Tensei.))

 

Help Conducting Experiments
Rank: E
Type: Researcher, Joint Task (Min. 2, Max. 4)
Description: The association researchers are always in need of extra hands in their experiments, so this task is always up for groups of newcomers.
Reward: [ 1 L. Wooden coin and 20 S. Wooden Coins | 10 Merit Points ]

--- --- ---

"Hello hello! We are finally back!" (Qaesar)

Spoiler: Compilation Final Version

Victor enters the inn which also works as a tavern. He has an average face, a lean and muscular body, and wearing commoner clothes, but the most notable features are his body covered in green scales and his reptilians eyes, clearly indicating that he is not human. Following him is a blonde woman taller than him, with a beautiful face and her body covered in heavy armor. They sit at a table at the corner of the inn.

It is morning, so most of people are eating their breakfast. However, it is possible to see one or two people already drinking alcohol in the morning. Feeling reproachful glances from the waitress who was watching them simply occupying the table without ordering nothing, Victor requests a meal for the two of them. While they are waiting for the meals, he looks around the place.

“They don’t appear to have arrived yet. I knew I should have delayed it a bit so I wouldn't have to wait.”

“It's not good for you to arrive late to your assignment before you make a reputation for yourself.”

“Yes, I know,” Victor sighed. “I hope that they are not unreasonable people.”

He then looks at her. “It's a pity that you need to wear that armor.”

“You're the one who requested me to do so.”

“Yes. It decreases the number of people bothering you and picking a fight with me, but it still doesn’t prevent them from happening. I really don’t want to make a ruckus yet. I will make a review of the things that I wrote last night. If you see one of the tell me."

It was then when somebody suddenly approached Victor and sat on the table while putting down the oatmeal he has as his breakfast.

"Hello, nice to meet you again. Has the leader not come yet?"

It was a male in his teens who seem to have Eastern features from the Marden Union on his face. The most noticeable feature being his slit eyes and his bright blue jacket bigger than his own body.

“Hello,” Victor says as he stores his notes while also picking his breakfast that has been served as he was reading his notes.

“I think I am the only one that has arrived so far,” he says while looking around the tavern again. “Did you already do these types of experiments with the association?”

Suddenly entering the tavern, Glace and Sroska saw three people waiting for them. "Hello everyone. Glace apologizes for being late," said Glace. "Sorry, I was dealing with the library stuff." Sroska added.

Glace is a heavenly ice demon. His complexion is whitish due to the metallic scales on his body. A silverish wind with a black tint flies around his body. The wind seems to carry small ice crystals that glimmers with reflected light.

Sroska Hyd Abriel, one of the librarians of the magic association, is a demonic elf. She sports the usual elven ears. Her hair is blue in colour and her eyes, azure. She has a golden quill in her hand that still has liquid ink dripping from it as the quill was in recently used in the library.

"No problems," Qesar said and turned to Victor answering: "As for you, I don't know what were even going to experiment. Leader, do you know?"

"No. Glace just took the task. Glace did not read it."

"So the leader doesn't know what we're going to do either... well, it shouldn't be impossible for us though. Else it wouldn't be approved by the receptionist after all", Qesar said and finished his breakfast.

"Well then, shall we go now? The experiment might take a while, so I think the sooner we begin, the better."

“Wait for a bit. I already picked the details earlier in the association. Here look at this.” Victor hand over a piece of paper to Qesar. “We basically need to test a powder. I already selected a few locations that we can go to test it. What you all say?"

"Let's go then," said Glace. "Let's go to the research labs first to collect the powder,"
Sroska added. "So who can record the findings and data properly? Both of us can write, but I have never done such a task before and letting this blockhead record sounds like a bad idea."

"I can write and read, but not in Nuffik. So I believe that Miss Sroska will have to be the one to record the experiment.

As for you Mr... Victor? Does the details entail what kind of powder it is? An explosive, a drug or something else?"

“It's a powder created to repel creatures. The researcher said that it should work against weak creatures, but he wasn’t sure about the stronger ones. I picked some locations where frequent agglomerations of creatures are next to a river. I already have some of the powder with me, so we can begin as soon as everyone is ready. And don’t worry about the annotations, I can say what is important to put on it.”

"Alright! Thanks Mr. Victor!"

--- --- ---

"Found some slimes! I'll kill them!" Qesar shouted and went off to the forest next to the river.

"It has not even been ten minutes and he already forgets his mission...?" Victor asked himself rhetorically.

"Well, at least he is optimistic about it," said Srorska while smiling wryly as well.

The armored woman looks at Victor. “I will take care of him,” she says while running towards Qesar.

Victor only nods and proceeds to analyze the river.

“I think this is a good place to begin. Creatures appear frequently to drink water here, or to hunt those who do. We should apply the powder here and hide ourselves a little distance away, to make sure that our presence doesn't affect the appearing of creatures.”

He looks around searching for a place that they can hide and observe the experiment.

“To whoever is going to write down the results the following things, you will have to write the quantity of powder used, a description of the place and why we choose it, details of the weather, and numbers of creatures that appear. We also need to observe a similar place upward of the river and write the same for the comparison of results. We can do both at the same time." He pauses putting a hand in his chin and trying to think whether he misses something or not.

He then looks at the remaining two people.

“So, do you approve of all that I say? You can say your own opinions. I am not trying to lead this, but if nobody will do that I will take the position of the leader."

Sroska made a table based on Victor's requirements.
"The quantity of powder used - 50 grams."
"Place - Southern of Association City, at the bank of a tiny tributary of Sanzu River. This place is chosen as the forest here is lush, thus becoming one of the rare places with water for animals. It is rather active too."
"Weather - Scorching heat with higher than normal humidity due to the forest."

"Let's hide on other side of the river then," Glace suggested.

As the three took their time walking to the other side, Qesar was still killing slimes in the forest until he eventually got stopped by the armored woman.

"I'm back! My bad, my bad... I kind of got excited since it is my actual first quest involving monsters and all... at least I got some of their cores though!"

"Hush! Be quiet! If a monster notices us, we would have to redo everything all over again!" Qesar suddenly heard a whispered voice. Although it didn't seem like anyone was talking, Qesar responded with a whisper of "Oh. My bad!" Moments thereafter, he asked Sroska: "...say, where is Mr. Victor?"

"He went upwards the river doing the same experiment so the data becomes more reliable."

"Oh! In that case I will go there and see him, bye!" Qesar said as he went off.

At other part of the river, Victor is silently hanging on a tree. Even while bored, he is paying attentions to the small animals that appeared to drink water, and is meticulously recording it.

OOC Zone: Did we even have enough powder? I remember you saying only having some powder.

OOC Mlaser: We are newbies, they will not entrust us with rare materials. It was created with the intention of being cheaper than what currently exists on the market, so I have a few kilos of it.

"Hello Mr. Victor! Who are you talking to?" Qesar says as he taps Victor's right shoulder from behind.

Victor looks at his back feeling a little surprised by the sudden movement and sees Qesar smiling at him.

“What are you doing here? I didn’t even talk. Also, please speak quietly; you can scare the animals."

"Ah... Again huh...? First my alter ego and then you..."
"My bad, my bad..."
"That aside, how is the progress up here? Still no monsters?"

Victor tilts his head. “Alter ego? What are you talking about? And yes, it's occurring normally. I have already seen some small monster and animals.”

"Yeah, didn't you know? I have multiple personality disorders. I am the one in charge most of the time though. As for the animals... did they avoid the powder?"

"The place with the powder is with the other people. I'm only analyzing what is the normal
appearance of monsters around here for comparison. You should learn from this. It's really important to have various tests in an experiment to compare the results."

"I see. So you are observing the surroundings in its natural state... got it." Qesar laid down and gazed at the sky. Victor got slightly upset and whispered "Qesar, you are supposed to observe, not doze off."

"I know, but I can't. You may not notice it, but I am using a spell as we speak. It is a spell which assures me that my other persona won't take over my body." Qesar smiled as he closed his eyes. Whether this was the truth or simply an excuse to not observe the surroundings, Victor doesn't know. "...but, you are right. I shouldn't doze off. I am actually covered in mucus from the slimes from before so I will go wash my clothes back downwards!"

--- --- ---

The following hours passes quickly without any major incident. In that time, they changed places twice to gather more data in different locations. It is evening when Victor decided that they have done enough for the day. The group is now around a bonfire, waiting for the armored woman come back from hunting.

"Glace is hungry. When will that woman return from hunt? Glace should have went with her."

"Don't worry Mr. Glace! She'll come back soon. In the meantime, how about playing rock-paper-scissors?" Qesar asked, but Glace refused. "...by the way, does anyone know anything about the slimes' mucus? They kinda made my skin soft and shiny."

"It depends on the type of slime. In many types the mucus are used to make cosmetics, but don't try to use it without treating it; it's bad for the skin on long term. Also you are lucky, because in most of them the mucus cause damage." Qesar became shocked when he heard that.

The armored woman then came back carrying a bunch of dead rabbits. "Master, I brought the food."

"Thanks, I will prepare it right now. My magic is pretty convenient while cooking meat."

"So, while master is busy, how did experiment go? We have little opportunity to talk because we needed to not make any noise."

"Humu. Well, from what I have seen, the monsters didn't approach the powder. However, there was nothing which indicates that they avoid it either. Then again, I was going back and forth between you two so Glace and Victor should have the more concrete data. Rather, it is impressive how I didn't get to see even a single monster when I did that."

After some time passes, a rich smell of meat flows in the air, dancing around Victor.

“You should all taste master’s cooking. His unique magic make the food delicious,” the armored woman says.

"Ooh! A unique magic which enriches the taste of our meal? That sounds magnificent! This Ser... I mean, I'll have one please!" Qesar shouted.

“We should use some of the powder this night. The objective is to protect travelers at night after all,” Victor suggests and begins using the powder. “Well then, how will the guard rotation be decided? I can take more time because I don’t need much sleep.”

"I agree that we should use the powder at night, but would this also mean that we are going to study its effects at night as well?" Qesar asks, but the question never got answered. "...oh and Victor, please take over my turn and let me sleep longer. I am already exhausted from running back and forth today."

"Glace will keep guard after Victor's turn," said Glace while munching food.
Sroska then replied: "We can just make my skull servants stand guard. They won't have much problem taking notes."

"Miss Sroska, you have skull servants...? What are those?"

Sroska summons the seven skull servants. For some reason they look too meek after there recent rebellion. "Listen you all, you have to keep watch at night and also record the data of the powder's effect. And record it in Nuffik. No messing up or your punishment increases."
The lump of bones seem to clatter with fear under their equipment but they stand in a row accepting there task. After giving the skulls instructions, Sroska said to Qesar, "This lot. They will be keeping watch."

Qesar: "One reaction: "

"So master will take the first turn, I can take the second because is the most difficult one and Glace will take the last one. The skull servant will be accompanying us in all turns, correct?"

"No turns for me sounds like a great idea. Welp. Good night then!" said and Qesar immediately fell went to sleep thereafter.

The second turn is proving to be boring like the first. It is almost time for the third turn. Only the woman and the skull servants are awake. The night is dark, but with the full moon on the sky it is possible to see well without lighting a fire.

The woman, that was playing with the fire heard the sounds made by the skull servants and stood up to verify. Coming in her direction is just a little slime that can be easily killed with one sharp slash in the core. There was no necessity of waking people for one slime.

But the situation is starting to became strange. The slimes began to appear frequently, in a few minutes after the first one could catch sight of hundreds of slime surrounding the camp. Victor already got up when the confusion started and is trying to awake the remaining sleeping people holding their shoulders and shaking it.

"Eh? What is going on? Are there enemies?" Qesar woke up from his sleep and asked.
"What is it?" Sroska asked almost half asleep. Glace was already outside by the time first of the slime wave arrived.
The skeletons were taking the frontline, serving as a defensive wall against the sheer numbers.

"There are a lot of slimes over there. Qesar, you that killed slimes earlier, did you perhaps collect something that may be a treasure or killed their loved ones for them to be in this way?" Victor says half-jokingly while delivering a sharp blow to a slime core with his dagger.

"Nope! I only collected the slime cores from the slimes! ...ah, one of them is shining by the way. Should I throw this to them?" Qesar said as he threw multiple knives to the slimes.

"Wait, what? Give that to me, let me see it."

Qesar threw the shining slime core at Victor. The core is has a smooth round curved shape, which seems prettier than the normal slime cores. Aside from that, nothing is particularly different though.



“Probably a mutated slime core. But if this is the reason, we should be attacked way sooner.” Victor slashes another slime, making it splash a lot of mucus on his scales. “You all should take care, these mucus can injure you."

The assault is actually a serious one, while a slime is a monster that every beginner is capable of confronting, in the quantity that they are facing now it can become a problem with the accumulation of fatigue and injuries. Victor and I22 are capable of defeating all of them alone. With their powerful bodies,the damage and exhaustion are negligible, but the time required to do so is considerably big. Victor isn’t sure whether his group is able to endure for so long.

“This is becoming dangerous. We are surrounded. Do any of you have an AOE spell? Because if not we will need to break the encirclement.”

"I can only throw my daggers and summon them back! -you know, perhaps we should have introduced ourselves better when Glace dragged us into this quest," Qesar said as he threw a dagger, piercing through another slime.

Glace applied Resonance on all the Slimes while Sroska started casting Explosion. "Twenty seconds. Prevent them from reaching me till then."
"Glace advises you all to take cover before the spell goes off," said Glace while starting his heavenly gale full of ice crystals to weaken all slimes.

The skull servants then started going all out to stop the slimes as if they already knew their explosive fate.

"...hm? Twenty seconds?" Qesar looked around and sees that all five of them -excluding the seven skeletons who are slashing the slimes from outside the encirclement- are still surrounded by the slimes. "Yeah uh... that might be difficult. Victor! Do you think it is a good idea to -I don't know- break the mutated slime core or throw it to this hoarde?"

“I don’t think destroying it will made the opponent stop. They are already here after all. Twenty seconds is no problem, I22 and I will take the damage.” Victor says as he and I22 position themselves in front of the magicians, protecting them.

"Argh, fine! I will cover the rear! Glace, you as well!" The four are now covering every side from Sroska and did their best the wave of slimes back. While they were pushed back bit by bit, the promised twenty seconds soon passed and Sroska finished chanting her spell.

In a matter of seconds, the skull servants were unsummoned, much to there delight as they had avoided there explosion filled fate. A splitsecond later, Sroska had finally completed her spell.
"Take cover," said Glace while crouching down and forming protective ice layers around himself and Sroska. The explosion went off in a peculiar donut shape, straight on all the slimes. All the surrounding soil and vegetation was destroyed creating a huge crater with its center partially intact. Winds full of ice crystals radiated outwards in all direction causing further damage. No fire was lit as the wind pressure and resulting wind boom extinguished all the sparks.

Sroska fell down, exhausted. The mana requirement was too much. She couldn't even stand without falling down again resulting in Glace carrying her on his back.

Although Victor and I22 took cover in time, Qesar didn't manage to act in time and got blown away by the impact from the explosion. Although he was relatively unhurt, the blast had him flying into the river. "...ouch! We'll definitely need to work on our coordination next time we go on a joint task again. Rather, wasn't this experiment supposed to be easy?"

Qesar took off his wet reserve clothes to dry them and put on his dried clothes from this morning back on.

"Mr. Victor, what do you want to do with that slime core?"

"Well. You can either send it to the researchers or you can keep it. The researchers will need to contact more people later to do more experiments anyway, because this night raid is definitely affecting the results. I22 and I will be cleaning ourselves on the river in turns, so you all can rest or go along. We are also going to keep watch hereafter, so go get some more sleep until morning."

"I see... well then, I'll keep it in that case. You never know who might want to buy this mutated thingamajig after all."
"It's kind of a shame this experiment is more or less ruined though. I wonder whether it will count as a success or not?"

"Well, the experiment per see is not difficult, but it can be risky because we are doing it in a forest after all. However I once heard from my master: "Experiments are never failures. It can not meet your expectations, but there are always results. You can always analyze an experiment afterwards and draw conclusions that can make the next better." Of course, experienced researchers already know how to get more results."
"Earlier I organized the experiment, so we have a control group; the thing when we observed the place without using the powder. We can also collect information of different places with all of its characteristics documented, so we should collect a fruitful amount of data that can be compared."
"Most people do only what is said on the contract. Ours are technically concluded, but if you don't mind, we can pass another night to see if this occurs again. I already worked with various people when serving my master. I have met people that are very narrow-minded and some even falsify and hide results when some unpredictable results happen; things that I think are unacceptable."

--- --- ---
@The Everdistant Utopia

 

Entering the Task building, Trima and Leon both headed to the desk where the staff member who gave her permission for the assignment was and handed in her report.

"My apologies for taking so long with this task. I got sidetracked reading the books."

Spoiler: Task 3: Help out in the library

Leaving the Task building, Trima looked around for where the library could be, but was unsure. Not really knowing exactly what a library was, she started walking back and forth a few steps in each direction, trying to figure out where to go.

Um….what and where is the library? I am such an idiot, I should have asked where this place for my task was before leaving…
…
…but I am too scared to ask anyone…what if they lead me into a trap and attack me, like those people in the past did to me…?
Hmmmm…..

As she contemplated what to do, standing close to the entrance to the Task building, she suddenly found a hand on her shoulder.

Eh?

Turning around jerkily, her eyes looked at the hand, then traced along the arm to the owner – Leon Cassler.

Ah! Oh no! I have been captured!

“Hehe~ Hello, Trima~! What’re you doing here, standing in one spot and walking around as if you’re dancing?” Leon gave a warm smile, his hand still on her shoulder.

“Um…I was…um…” She didn’t know how to reply, mainly because she was getting more and more flustered over how this entire time, Leon had not removed his hand from her.

Seeing her distress over him touching her, Leon gave a wry smile before removing it and returning it to his side. Trying to appear as non-threatening and kind as possible, he noticed the slip of paper with the stamp on it, saying she was allowed to do a task.

“Oh? What’s this, then?” He swiped the paper from Trima’s hand with ease, before reading it. “Hmm? The library? You don’t know where it is?” He examined her with a careful look.

“Um…that is…um….task…paper….mine….back….” My task paper….please give it back to me…I don’t want to get in trouble for not having the proof of permission….

“Ah, sorry, here’s your permission slip.” He handed it over, taking the opportunity to hold her hand in his a few moments, before letting go.

“Th-thank you…”

He leaned forward, “Hmm?”

“…for back it giving…” Thank you for giving back my slip, even though I do not know if you have put some kind of tracking thing on it….

“…Ah, no worries, I shouldn’t have taken it off you without asking. Hmm…” Leon looked Trima up and down, before giving a mischievous smile. He then grabbed her hand and pulled her in a certain direction.

“Eh? Eh!?! Where are you taking me!?!”

“Don’t worry, it’s a secret~”

“…”

After being led around the Magic Association for about fifteen minutes, walking at a brusque pace, the two of them finally came upon a large building with a sign above the doors reading:
[Library]

“…”

“Here we are~! The secret place~!” Leon let go of Trima’s hand and gestured towards the building in front of them.

“This is…”

“Hmm~?” He looked at her smiling warmly, leaning close to her as if he couldn’t hear her if he was a little further away.

“This is the library?”

“Hmm, I believe it is. The largest collection of tomes, reliquaries and spells from the Golden Age that this country has to offer. Pretty big, huh?”

“This is…task place me?” This is the place for my task? He took me here?

“Hmm? I think it is, I mean…there are no other libraries this close to the Magic Association, nor are there any with this many visitors and items inside. I’ve seen many an Association member entering and helping out the staff.” He continued to smile, happy that he was able to help this beautiful woman who was obviously quite shy, now that he had conversed with her a bit more.

“Tha….ou…” She mumbled.

“Hmm~? What was that~?” He leaned in closer, his face close to hers. Any onlookers might have thought they were about to kiss, if they weren’t listening to the conversation.

“Um…thank…you for guiding me…here…”

“Ah, no worries, Trima~! Anything to help such a beautiful maiden in distress~” He caressed her cheek, before moving away from her. “Alas….I need to go now. *sigh* Unfortunately, I was supposed to be handing in a report about my group’s patrol. If I leave it any longer, my leader will get angry with me. I’ll see you later, bye~!”

He began heading back in the direction of the Task building, before pausing a few moments and turning back to her to shout out:

“Ah! You need to show your slip to the person sat at the desk in front of the entrance! And good luck in your task!” He waved to her, before running off around a corner.

He is somewhat…maybe…might be…tricking me into losing my guard….

Staring at the huge doors before her, Trima pushed them open and entered. What she saw inside made her look on in awe as lined up before her were bookcases after bookcases with shelves filled to the brim with books, scrolls, tomes and other items of learning.

Moving forward, careful not to accidentally bump into someone, Trima looked around and saw a desk with a woman working at it.

That must be a lie-brare-rian…I should probably show this slip to her…

Walking toward the desk, she timidly placed the slip on the furniture and said:

“Um…I perform am task here.” I am here to perform a task.

“…”

“…” Why are you not responding? Did I say it wrong?

The woman looked at the slip whilst staring at Trima with a little confusion. She then turned her eyes to the slip of paper and saw it was a permission slip from the Association Task building.

“Ah, you’re a member of the Association? Tri-ma…hmm, okay!” She waved over a boy who was carrying a pile of books and he soon came over, items still in his arms.

“You wan’ed me fer som’in’, Miss?”

“Yes, this woman is a member of the Association and she is here to help organise the place. Will you take her to Study Room No.36, please?” She gave him a meaningful look, before smiling at Trima and saying, “This boy will lead you to where you can help organise some things. He has all the details you’ll need.”

She then went back to writing and stamping the huge pile of books and papers in front of her on the desk. The boy, still carrying the books, began moving away from the librarian without even turning back to check if Trima was following. Not wanting to get lost, or get in trouble for not going to where she should do her task, she kept pace with the boy several steps behind him, clearly nervous about her surroundings.

After about ten minutes of walking, the boy finally came to a room near the back of the building on the 3rd floor, a door was in front of them reading:
[No.36]

Placing the books on a table nearby, the boy took out a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. He then looked at Trima and gestured inside the room.

“This’s where you’ll be workin’. The Miss wan’ed ya ta organise the books in t’room. There’s no time limi’, bu’ the Miss usually wan’s task ‘elpers to be finished by sunse’. Oh, an’ ya’re free ta read t’books whi’ ya’it taa. I’ll be leavin’ nah Miss. Go’t’ese books ta put in’ta reet shelves. Later, Miss!”

With that, the boy picked up the books and went back down the stairs to the ground floor.

“…” How do I organise books?

A little unsure of what to do, Trima moved into the room and looked around. All before her lay books strewn on the floor, shelves and small writing desk. Thinking on how to go about the task, she immediately used her Natural Sense and Wood Manipulation magic to quickly examine every book, before putting them all on the shelves in what she assumed was alphabetical order.

After roughly 2 hours of her placing books on shelves using her multiple branches and roots to move them all, she soon saw that everything had been properly organised. Not wishing to seem odd for having completed the task so soon, she took another look at the titles of the books, interested in what they could be about.

Hmm…’Water Manipulation: 101’, ‘Water Manipulation: 102’, ‘Water manipulation: 103’…I wonder if these books will help me understand more about how to control water…Picking up the three books from the shelf, she went over to the small writing desk and opened the first book.

Four hours had passed and Trima finally put down, ‘Water Manipulation: 103’. In the length of time she had sat there, reading the books, she came to a realisation of how she had been using magic differently from most other people. Yes, the concepts on how to move the water and shape it were similar to hers, but the process of actually using magic was very much different.

Looking through the window in the room, she saw that the sun was halfway down the sky, another few hours and the sun would be setting. I should put these books back and return to that li-brare-rian and get the stamp proving I completed the task. Getting up from the desk, she put the books back and left the room, only to see the boy from before was sat at the table outside reading a book.

“Oh! Ya’ve finished a’ready? I though’ you woulda taken longa ta comple’e tha task. Well, Ah finished me jobs so came back ‘ere ta wai’ an’ guide ya back to the Miss a’ tha desk. Bu’ firs’, Ah need ta see tha room.”

Removing himself from the chair he was sitting on, he entered the room and took a look at the books. After a few minutes of examining each shelf, he eventually left the room, closed the door and locked it.

“I’ sems ya did a good job. No’ many coulda done i’ so fas’. Well, Ah’ll take ya ta tha Miss nah.”

Putting the key back in his pocket, he led Trima back to the front desk of the library where the Librarian heard the boy’s report on the room.

“So, you managed to complete the task. Well done. I’m glad it took less time than anticipated, we’ve been having a lot of Association members coming in here wanting private study rooms to help them get better at their magic. *sigh* If only they would leave the studies in the same condition they entered them in…Ah, I almost forgot,” She stamped the permission slip and signed it in elegant, cursive writing, “here. Proof that you completed the task. I hope you will visit again to expand your knowledge and further the community’s understanding of magic.”

Smiling at Trima, she held out the slip of paper for her to take. Receiving the paper, she bowed her head slightly, then replied:
“Th-thank you.”

Trima then left the library and began making her way to the Task building, only for her to bump into a familiar face once again.

“Oh? It seems I got here at just the right time~”

“…”

“So? How did it go? Did you find out any juicy secrets of the library that must never be known about? Did you manage to do the work okay?”

“…”

“??? Hello? Trima?”

“Wh…”

“Hmm?”

“Why are…you here…?”

“Can’t I go to the library for some light reading after handing in my report and doing some training?”

“…Um…I…do not know…”

“*sigh* You know, Trima, you need to learn when people are teasing you. I came cos I thought I could help you with your task, if you needed it. For if there is something I, Leon Cassler can do, it is help a maiden in need.” He moved towards her and grasped the piece of paper.

“Ohhh? It seems you left a good impression on the librarian on duty at the moment. And wow, she gave you Study No.36 to do. *whistles* You’ve done well to complete that task so soon. I’ve heard how that room is haunted and that the room always ends up inexplicably in a mess.”

“…Eh…?”

“But worry not! As long as I’m here, you shall not meet a terrible end like the last person who cleaned out that room.” He smiled mischievously at her, before hooking his arm around her waist and guiding her towards the Task building.

“Wh…what happened…to the last…person…?” Looking worried and a little scared, Trima subconsciously leaned into Leon’s side. Something which Leon was absolutely elated over.

“Hmmm…it’s difficult to say…I mean, they say he was sleeping like the dead on the floor.”

“Dead…? He died?” Trima leaned in even closer, obviously perturbed by Leons words.

“Hmm, yes. When they woke him up, he got a right good beating for not completing the job~”

“…”

“…”

“But…you said he…died…” She moved away from him, even managing to escape from his arm around her waist.

“Ah….um…it was a joke?” He looked a little down from not being able to be intimate with the beautiful, yet adorably shy woman.

Trima tilted her head to the side and asked, “What is a joke?”

“…Ah…nevermind…it’s a little hard to explain….um…just think of it as me wanting to tease you a little.” He scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed that he had to explain himself to her.

“…I see…” I feel like if I ask him what teasing means, I will be perceived as quite strange…I had best keep that to myself…

Not wishing to seem like she didn’t understand what he was talking about, Trima began walking in a faster pace, starting to put some distance between the two of them.

“Ah! Wait for me!”

Catching up to her side, Leon looked at her with an apologetic expression, before an awkward silence surrounded them as they made their way to the Task building.

Spoiler: Notes

Got a better grasp at Water Manipulation magic.

@Ddraig

X

 

Ooc : ship trima x leon

Ic :
"Looks like you did the work perfectly," said Momo. "Here are your rewards - 1 L. Wooden coin and 10 Merit Points . "

 

OOC: ...@Ddraig, is it impossible to confirm our own Joint Task? Utopia seem to be offline ever since Sunday.

 

@Zone Q11 @Ddraig @Mlaser

"Oh ! Welcome back~!" Umbrum's voice somehow echoed as he approached both of them since it seemed Sorgre was currently away due to some reasons. He didn't know why, he just thought that he was overworked as usual... he sighed sorrowfully at the thought and showed a sad smile who was forcefully replaced with a cheerful expression.

"Mm, I hope it goes well... mm, anyway, let me check the report !" After checking it, Umbrum seemed to be quite disappointed, this powder could be... quite useful to him, to avoid monsters. When he started reading the report, he had faint shreds of hope but now they disappeared. It made him sigh but at least...
"The most important is that you are all safe~! And even succeed the task which was 'Helping Conducting Experiments', even if the experience failed, it doesn't matter, you needed to help, not to make it succeed it~... well if you intentionally tried to make it fail though, you wouldn't get any reward of course... anyway ! Here is are your rewards !" After a few awkward coughs, Umbrum smiled widely.

"So.. it was... 1 L.Wooden Coin... 20 S.Wooden Coins... and 10 Merits points each ! Here goes your merited rewards !" he said while handing to each of them their rewards.

OOC: Mmmm... hehe, OCC talk~

 

@Naraku
Task:

Spoiler: Report

Nana immediately flew off for the infirmary, which she now knew the way for, due to visiting Joan there often. Flying out of a window, she passed by the tall walls of Association HQ, and flew by several windows, heading downhill along the building, which was built up along it. The Infirmary was placed in a spot near the south gate of the HQ complex, right to the left, as you enter. One thing Nana had to wonder is why the lord had a barrier and the presumed best Magic Association on the continent didn’t. What it did have was 2 meter high walls, most of which were too thin to be patrolled upon, not to mention having rooftops with a decorative iron fence sticking out of their tops. Nana didn’t like it very much, as perching on something quaint and monotonous wasn’t part of her tastes.


Locating the infirmary window, a place she recently became familiar with, she pecked on the glass and cawed loudly, until somebody let her in.

***

15 minutes after departing for the task, a murder of ravens flew inside Reception once again, cawing in excitement.


"Umbrum! The head healer is looking for you! I have to bring you back~" Nana reformed and quickly shot out.


"..." Hearing that, Umbrum immediately forgot his pain and began to run away directly, leaving his receptionist's work undone.


"No ! No and no !" He thought about using Physical Enhancement, but it will be too dangerous for himself if he does that.


One thing that has to be said about ravens is that they fly much faster than humans can run. Nana cheerfully formed up in a V of ravens, bypassed the running Umbrum, and reformed in front of him with a cheerful smile, tilting her head.


"You don't want to go~?"


"Why would I be running otherwise ?!" He was panicked because contrary to Nana, he was weak. At least, that was what he was thinking.

All he could was to disappear and to run away.


"I don't want to go ! I don't want to hear that I need more rest !" He couldn't help but protest.


Nana tilted her head to the other side, then returned it upright, blinking twice. She had an idea.


"Hey why don't you come with me to talk to the head healer? Let's go have fun and say I helped you heal!" Nana smiled sweetly after saying that.


"Hmm..." That was just too good to be true, Umbrum was pondering it, honestly, it wasn't such a bad idea. No, that was good but...


"...Alright, let's do that !" Without any hesitation, he took Nana's hand and hesitated to take a step, going to the infirmary was still something he didn't want to... but…


"Yay~" Nana gently pulled on Umbrum's hand and started leading him to the infirmary. "Why is walking so slow..."


***


Stepping inside the Infirmary with the receptionist in tow, Nana cheerfully shouted out to the head healer.


"I've brought Umbrum! Let's talk about something~"


"Oh, that was quick. Put him on that bed over there, and watch him, so he doesn't run away. What do you want to talk about, by the way?"


"O-Oi ? Putting me on a bad and getting watched ?! Am I a criminal or what ? I don't even need to get healed ! I am perfectly fine ! Look at me !"


He slightly tapped his legs but he regretted the moment he did as his back crouched.

"Uggh... n-nevermind ! Nana already healed me you see ! I can walk ! What's left is only time and it will be perfectly healed !"


"Right."


The healer produced a cane out of somewhere and lightly tapped on Umbrum's wounded leg.


"Ugh..." Umbrum quickly bit his lips as he restrained himself to scream out of pain, he gulped a few times before clenching his fists.


"...uuu..."


"You can't hide it, you're a wreck. Go to your bed, and stop moving, until you're done getting back in shape." the head healer ordered.


"Uhm, I can heal him, though~" Nana interjected


"Why haven't you already then?" The woman leaned over Nana, looking her straight in the eyes.


Nana was unphased however, and merely blinked before responding.


"I can transfer life force! There was nobody to take it from, so I haven't."


"... This is the first time I hear of such a horrible healing method. And who will you take that from?" (HH)


"Magic Beasts~" (Nana)


The head healer facepalmed.


"You're going to take a patient who is about to roll over out in the wilds? Are you insane?" (HH)


"I can take care of both of us, plus we only need one... Or two maybe~?" (Nana)


"This is idiocy. Why should I allow that?"


"Fair point... uhhhh..." As he couldn't refute the head healer, Umbrum lied down on the bed with a sulking face.


"Haaaaaaa..." he was displeased with this situation which couldn't be worst in his opinion.


"Transferring life force...?" Umbrum tilted his find as he find this magic quite... ODd...


"Allowing that... maybe I can ask something to Sogre... I will owe him one..."


"Muu!" Nana pouted. This was hardly what she had in mind.


"Snap to attention, rookie! Since the other patients don't want you near them, you should take care of this one and Joan." (HH)


"Eh?" Nana looked around the infirmary. There were scowls all over. "I don't understand humans~" She pouted even more.


"Just do this and I'll consider the task completed. Good deal, right?" (HH)


"Fine~" Nana said, and pondered for a bit, before going to take some sort of gruel designed for patients. She saw Silvia doing that with Joan, and decided it would be good. Taking a bowl and spoon along with her to Umbrum, she put a spoonful in front of his mouth.


"Say ahn!"


"U-Uhm..." Feeling conflicted about getting taken care by Nana like this, Umbrum slightly opened his mouth as he thought that it was...


"...too awkward..." In the end, he closed his mouth but then he thought about it more cleverly... or reasonably, his face twisted since if he didn't do that, wouldn't that mean that they will be forceful and... He didn't want to think about it.


"Maybe... I should just disappear..." Isn't that a great solution ? Wouldn't ev- Umbrum be happy if it happened this way ? No, he will just delay the unavoidable and he couldn't disappear a few days, that wouldn't be good for the Magic Association.


"...Ahhhh..." Umbrum hardly opened his mouth.


Nana gently placed the spoon inside Umbrum's mouth. She was a bit puzzled about the whole situation.


"I wonder why people do that? It doesn't have anything to do with healing, does it? Oh you can't talk like that, can you..." The gothic lolita said and removed the spoon. She looked wistfully at the window, wanting to fly outside this very instant.


T-The taste was disgusting ! It could even kill someone by just drinking this thing, is that even humane to give that to a patient ? Umbrum choked and restrained himself to vomit what Nana just put in his mouth.


"Urpfpfbbb...!!" He couldn't even mutter words, only after some minutes and gulping forcefully that 'liquid' that he could talk properly.


"...uuuu... do you think I understand...? I don't..." Honestly, he didn't want to explain as he didn't have any experience in stuff like this which were meant for people who were quite close, maybe too close.


"Eehhh~" Nana crouched down by the bed, and leaned her upper body on it.


"Hey, why didn't you say you wanted to go outside with me? I think everybody should be free, so we should fight for it~ I still don't get why we do tasks, anyway..."


"Heee... well... you know, I want to go but, that will be dangerous for me if I did~ since I am injured and all you see, and well, since I can't do properly what I want I can still do it partly, and sleeping can be quite nice~ Though... I need at least some rest~ after all didn't I almost died a few times during the attack ?"


“I see…” (Nana)


“Hey is that over there tasty? I haven’t had a bite in a while!” Joan said, pointing at the bowl of porridge.

Hearing Joan suddenly appearing and saying this, Umbrum turned his head and sighed while handing to her the porridge since it seemed like she may like it.


“It has a terrible taste but… well… sure ? You can take it !” To him, it was better to hand it to someone who was willing to take it, he didn’t care the slightest about the fact that it was supposed to be for the patients, he thought that it was torture to them to give them… this thing to eat.


“Nothing could taste worse than those antidote potions.” Joan took a spoonful and gulped it down, then became blue faced. “I stand corrected, blegh!”


“Is it really that bad?” Nana tilted her head. Not that she did care that much about taste. Well her kind was one, where you wouldn’t know what was going on in their heads.


“Hey, you there!” Joan shouted at the head healer “What do you put into this stuff, anyway?”


“The food in the infirmary is for your own good. It also serves an educational purpose, not to get hurt so often.”


“Oi, oi, you picking a fight? Give us something that isn’t rubbish!”


Some of the other patients were silently cheering on, though others were trying to remain uninvolved, more aware of the head healer’s wrath and its many forms.


“D-Don’t fight ! Come on ! It’s not worth it !” Despite the taste of the food which almost made him vomit, he couldn’t deny the head healer, indeed, they were right, in his opinion, he really got injured way too many times. Though, thank to this, he learnt how to use more properly Physical Enhancement, or so was it.

“Uhm… I can’t say that the you are wrong… but can’t you are right either… I mean ! You could even kill someone with this taste ! I think ! It’s just too… uggggh… disgusting… wouldn’t there be another… I don’t know… way to… convince me not getting hurt…? For example…? Because it just makes me want to run away from the infirmary… wait. I already did that…” Umbrum rubbed his chin while slowly preparing himself to stand up.


“Oh no, neither you or that catkin are going anywhere, until you’re fully healed!” (Head Healer)


“Wait, what is that over there?” Nana wondered quite aloud.


“Ooohh!” Joan joined in, almost smiling mischievously, before straightening up her acting.


“...Waaaaaiiit… Isn’t that Sogre ?!” Umbrum exclaimed when he looked at that, no, there was nothing of course, but, sincerely, it was plausible that Sogre may come since both of them are part of the staff, anyway, that was this moment that he used Physical Enhancement at the best he could, in other words, as long as he has mana, his legs’ wounds won’t worsen except if something hits it severly, a simple punch won’t harm it as the slow physical regeneration is going on.


“See you so- never !” And thus, Umbrum accelerated, running the quickest he could, leaving the infirmary while… surprisingly not forgetting his crutches.


“Oh dammit! You’re not getting away!” The head healer just up and ran after Umbrum, angry. “Raven-girl, you make sure nobody else runs away or dies in here, or I’m making porridge out of your feathers!”


“Eh?” (Nana)


“Don’t mind here, Nana. Here have a taste of this! Say Aaahhn.” Joan approached the murder collective with a spoonful of horrid infirmary cuisine.


“Aahhhn!” Nana did as told, then chewed up nicely, and gulped down. “Eh? Why does everybody say it’s bad?”


Joan facepalmed. “I forgot you aren’t even human… Eat the whole thing.”


“Thank you.” (Nana)

Spoiler: Notes

Aiding with Umbrum's hospitalization

 

Looking at the report, Umbrum could only laugh bitterly as he didn't know what to say... he coughed a few times while searching the rewards, it should be counted as a completed task right ? After all, he was... "healed", of course, he was healed, completely alright, completely fine...

"Here is your reward~ 1 L.Wooden Coin and 10 Merits Point along with my gratitude~"

 

Joint task with: @BB_Tensei, @Exitiumm, @MaliMi, @Kysil and @TiggerBane.
Receptionist: @The Everdistant Utopia

Sorgre seems to be missing, he should be on shift right now... Joan thought, getting worried something went wrong in the association, while they were far away on their task. Well, it wouldn't harm to ask around.

@Ddraig, @Haxagen, @Naraku

"Hello, I was wondering if you know if Sorgre is available? My party is back to report from the latest merchant escort, and we would prefer to be done with procedures, so we're free for other tasks as soon as tomorrow."

Spoiler: Report

Joan was leaning on the wall of the Gatehouse outside the West Gate, waiting for the rest of the party to gather. The Merchants they needed to escort weren't there yet, thankfully, but what she was more interested was whether Silvia was coming soon. She didn't get lost, right? The catgirl hoped homunculi had a good sense of direction in general, and Silvia wasn't an exception to that rule.

" Joan said East Gate or was it West... " (Silvia)
*At East Gate*
[West... ] - Lynch
[We're at East... Opposite Gate] - Luna
[ Come We might be Late now ] - Zeik
*The Dolls Tugs Silvia towards the Western Gate*

<Soremad>
As I quietly wait at the gate, I observe the party I recently joined.
...am I the only one without servants?
</Soremad>

Joan was still uncomfortable around that man. He did remind her of something rather sinister, that lurked at the edge of her mind. That didn't stop her from waving at him, however. You need to be professional on a task.

"Oi, over here!"

The two floating girls on her sides hid behind her back, when they noticed Soremad.

After buying some items from the market area, Luke headed towards the area they were supposed to meet at, 'The West Gate'. After walking for a few minutes he finally noticed the Beastkin that registered them for the Task, and the one called 'Soremad'.

<Soremad>
...Does my appearance scare them? Have they never seen a Mahjarrad? Oh, yea they probably have not. What about a demon then? What uneducated fellows!

...Wait, won't the merchants be freaked out too? Better change my appearance then.

I cast the World of Illusions over my little persona and the scary Mahjarrad transforms into a dignified old man with long white beard.
</Soremad>

What a handy ability to have Joan blinked, getting used to the new visage of the strange mage.
"Hello, Luke. So now that we're gathered here, why don't we tell each other a bit about what we can do, so we can decide on how to approach a possible fight? I shoot elemental spells with my weapons, generally. I can also enchant your items to obtain certain effects, but that is usually priced, unless it's an emergency. The other two I've worked with before, so I can give you an overview about them as well. So?"

<Soremad>
"It would be very appreciated if you did that. As for me, it is unfortunate for me to say this, but my combat ability is very weak, and it is unlikely for me to help you in direct fights. What I can do, however is to help you hide from the enemies. You have seen my ability, the World of Illusions. I can hide anyone with this and help them blend into the surroundings, however, the downside is that you cannot attack. Even giving your servants orders to harm someone is a no. You simply cannot be in combat.
However, I can use this ability on the merchants and injured, so they will not be inmpacted by the fight. I can also scout."
</Soremad>

"Mhm, I suppose it's indeed time for a better introduction?" Luke chuckled a bit before answering her question.

"You already know my name, and the fact that I'm a E-Rank Mage, so I'll just inform you of my abilities. I'm a Mage who can use Fire/Wind Magic, but rarely use the former. I usually fight with my sword though." Luke pats the sword holstered at his waist before continuing. "I have two different Self-Enchantments I can use, which I generally cast when fighting with my sword, but I can also cast a fireball or a wind blade, as well as spells such as 'Fire Tornado' and 'Wind Hold'."

"Very well, the other two are lightning users, and are somewhat reliant on subordinates for combat. During an attack, it would be best to rely on the mobility of our more offensive members, so I recommend I and Luke take a fluid role, depending on where we're needed, while Soremad makes sure our charges are safe. The other two would be best suited to crowd control, where necessary, but since they aren't here yet, we don't know what their opinion will be." (Joan)

Silvia Arrived at the West Gate While Piggyback riding Lynch.
" Joan? Joan! Hey Joan!! "

"Silvia! You're finally here!" (Joan)

" Yep~ what's the Task this time? I'll need the Merits for the Lab Permit "
Silvia Gets off Lynch and Retrieves it's core.

"We're guarding a few merchants to the West River and back. Let's work hard!" (Joan)

" YES~ "
Silvia Hugs Joan then stares at the other Mages
" My name is Silvia~ Best Regards~ "

"I am sorry for being late everyone I happened to get accosted by a small group of thieves in the city so I knocked the lot of them out before coming here." (Cadmium)

"Great. We're now gathered. The three of us were just discussing team roles in a fight. What did you bring today, Cad and Silvia?" (Joan)

"A group of thieves? Is he exaggerating?" Mumbling under his breath Luke brushed it off as he looked at the oddly dressed man and the girl who just arrived.

I brought most of what I have including 11 cannonballs and roughly 100 bullets for you Joan. Also I have a fun way of seeing who should be tanking who ever can lift this the highest is the tank. Cadmium proceeds to pull out a 10 m long poll with a radius of 5cm made out of blue metal.

You should speak a little softer if you don't want others to hear you mister Luke.

Luke let out a embarrassed chuckle as he realized he said his thoughts aloud again, but soon changed his sight towards the large metal pole that the man was carrying with him, curious why the man brought it here.

"Here try lifting it if you are so interested." Cadmium proceeds to put the metal rod on the ground.

Joan noticed the pole leaning on the city wall, as there wasn't much room for it in front of the gate. Association CIty was rather packed with buildings after the titular organization made its home here. She tried to push it up lightly, to measure the weight. It budged a several degrees, but that was it. "That must weigh around as much as a cannonball, Cad! Stop showing off." She said, losing interest.

"I'll pass... I think I'd break my back if I tried and lift that thing." Luke stared at the large metal pole in amazement before looking at Cadmium in even more amazement that he was able to carry the thing.

"If you are sure about that it's fine then, any one else want to give it a try?" (Cadmium)

"Why don't you just enjoy your new vanguard role, and take the front? Also where are the merchants, we're supposed to be protecting?" (Joan)

"Who knows where they are but I hope the caravan isn't that big and they have some loyal guards as well as us." (Cadmium)

"Perhaps they're outside the gates, so they won't have to go through cargo checks?" Luke suggested as he remembered some merchants like to stay outside the gates when they're on long journeys due to fees.

"Makes sense! Let's go check, then." (Joan)

"Mhm." Luke nodded in agreement as he headed towards the gates to exit, noticing the lack of guards compared to the South Gate.

Soon he notices a small caravan, of maybe 3 or so carriages and a small team of guards.
Joan took initiative and went to the caravan to look for whoever was in charge.

"Greetings, I represent a mage squad tasked escorting a merchant group to the west villages." She pointed behind her with her thumb "Are you the group in question?"

"So you're the one who took the task?" A short man exclaimed in an obnoxious manner as he looked at the Beastkin in an arrogant manner.

"Whatever, I have no time to wait, you people of the Association can speak with the Guard Captain." The short man hurriedly said as he gestured for a large man to come over, before entering the most luxurious carriage.

Joan raised a brow, and offered a handshake to the soldier.

"Let's have a good one. We're ready to depart as soon as you are."

The Guard accepted the handshake with a smile, "Sorry, about the merchant's attitude. Should I brief you on the details of the task or?"

Do any of you want to try lifting this light rod? (Cadmium)

"Is there anything that wasn't on the task board? It would be good to hear that, then." (Joan)

"There are some details missing on the task board that I can brief you about."

"First, as mentioned we're heading towards Fishing Villages in the north, but we're not going to be using the normal route due to there being some bandits roaming around the main road recently, as such we will take a different route that brings us closer to the lizardmen tribes."

"Second, the caravan intends to stay at the village for 1-2 days before coming back to the Association City due to a special event occurring during that time interval." The Guard captain explained some basic details that weren't on the task board.

"Anyway we will be setting out in around half an hour, so I'd suggest you get your items and equipment onto the carriages."


Joan waved at the party to gather up, and repeated what the Guard told her. She placed her travelling bag and tent near Silvia's, then asked Cadmium a question, before they depart.

"So what's the pricing on the ammunition? I need to know how much wealth I'd be wasting on the unfortunate creatures."

"Hmmh," Cadmium scratches his chin then says. "For the 100 bullets it's 2 LWC and for the cannon balls it's 1 LWC for each of them."

"A special event huh? Interesting I wonder what it is..." Mumbling to himself, Luke sat down in one of the cart/carriages and took out the whetstone from his bag and began to sharpen his sword.

"I'll take you up on a batch of 100 bullets, and we'll settle the cannonballs after the task, depending on how many I use. Is that fine with you?"

"That should be fine." (Cadmium)


Finishing the trade, Joan spent some time playing with the shiny bullets. She wondered if the strange metal would damage the barrel, which made her hasten her plans to make an improved gun out of some rather exotic materials.

"Hmm? I wonder what this thing is?" A curious guard walked over to a giant metal rod and tried to pick it up, but soon dropped it on his toe and began to curse everything under the sun as he kept jumping up and down...

A sound suddenly came from the frontmost carriage, "The caravan will be departing in 5 minutes, I suggest you bunch of mages hurry up."

After hearing the announcement from the frontmost carriage Luke sheathed his sword and walked towards the others.

"You guys gonna walk the distance or get on one of the carriages?"

Soremad, still in the appearance of the dignified old man replied with a gentle smile on his wrinkled face: "I guess, it would be better for the humble me to get into one of the carriages."

"I will walk I believe I may be slightly faster than these carriages when walking. Also it's easier to react if I just stay walking." (Cadmium)

"I'll walk. My equipment is too heavy, and would slow the carriage down. Cad, take the front carriage, I'll take the center one with Silvia, and I guess that leaves Luke and the old man to the back one."

"The back carriage, huh? You sure Cadmium will be fine alone though?" (Luke)

"Can you stop a carriage with your strength alone and avoid being poisoned by the majority of poisons?" (Cadmium)

"He can be trusted, for sure. I and Silvia can react quickly to any emergencies from the center, so long as the rear is well guarded." (Joan)

"Ohh yes but who will be in charge of the group or are we just letting Joan do it votes?" (Cadmium)

"A leader huh? Can't we just handle this with a quick game of Boulders, Scrolls, and Swords?" (Luke)

"No it must be a vote as we have 2 minutes now we can change it again when we take a break to rest." (Cadmium)

"I like the way you think, but if we want it to be fair it should be 3 rounds each time, and there's five of us. We should decide this fast." (Joan)

"Joan is the Leader then!" Luke said with a smile as he looked at the votes for Joan to be leader.

Soon the sounds of the carriages moving begins to make it to their ears as they finish choosing a leader.

"Anyway I'll be near the rear!"

"I presume it shall be a nice experience working with you." (Soremad)

"Take care. Remember to shout out whenever something pops up." (Joan)

"Aye lets go." (Cadmium)

"I hope it will be a nice experience as well. Hopefully no magical beasts appear." (Luke)

"I doubt that we won't bump into magical beasts." (Cadmium)
***

As the caravan begins to set out peacefully, a certain lizardman tribe is becoming more wary and increasing the range of their patrols.

After a few hours the caravan slows down to a stop as it nears the area where they will split off from the main road.

Joan was walking along the central carriage, reading her monster processing book, while her ears moved around, listening to the surroundings. It was making it hard for her to concentrate on the material, but she wasn't one to waste time.

Silvia Hums as She Followed beside Joan, Dropping her Cores on the Ground, Letting them Rise. She Let her Dolls follow them as they walked.
"Hey, Silvia, I was wondering about something. It's about your complexion and silver hair..."

Cadmium was walking along in front of the carriages about 10 meters in front of all the carriages scanning the environment and waiting for monsters to appear.

Soremad was layzing around in the carriage having a casual talk with a random guard.

"Hmm? We've stopped?" Luke confusedly wondered aloud noticing the caravan wasn't moving anymore.

"Hey Soremad, can you check if anything has happened in the front?"

Trying to suppress a yawn, Soremad replied: "Sure." After which he jumped on top of the carriges and ran towards that sick in the head element in front.
"Mr. Cad? Might I be so daring as to ask you why have we stopped?"

"We are just waiting for a report on what is going on along the diverging path from the scouts that have been sent ahead about 15 minutes ago. As well as danger signals from my water spirit rats." Shouts Cadmium back.

"Thank you very much." The old man replied before taking off and sending the message to Luke.

Joan asked a nearby guard.

"Are we resting the horses, or is something the matter?"

"Nothing should be the matter?" The guard responded before remembering something.

"Actually we're probably near the area where we split from the main road, the Captain likely wanted to send scouts up ahead to make sure we don't run into anything, it won't take long.”

"I understand." The catgirl looked into the distance, trying to make out if anybody was coming.

"A scout? Why would they need to send a scout out? This split in the road is almost never used, so why would bandits or anything be there? How suspicious..."

After a few more minutes a scout runs back towards the group in a jog as he runs up to the Guard Captain and whispers something in his ear.

"The caravan will continue on it's path in a few minutes, nothing to worry about."

The water spirit rats come back with a small danger signal signifying that there is danger to them but it will have no impact upon Joan if she were to face it alone. They then proceed to return to the group from their exploration.

"I wonder if there's really a reason to scout out after we've reached the fork on the road. Or are we already assuming the bandits won't be striking here, and are looking for something else?" Joan asked herself.

"I believe there is a weak magical beast ahead so just be ready for a fight everyone just in case." (Cadmium)

"I'll go inform the others." (Joan)


"Oh yea, Luke, I have a favour to ask you." (Soremad)

"A favour? What is it?" (Luke)

"This, there are lizardmen here, right? I wonder whether it would be possible for you to only half-kill one of them? As long as their body remains in one piece, that is. If it is too much, a goblin might work out too..." (Soremad)

"I should be able to get you some lizardmen... Are you going to experiment on them or something?" (Luke)

Going to the back carriage, Joan interjected into Luke and Soremad's conversation.

"We might have a fight on our hands. What do you need a lizardman for, Soremad?" Joan asked, suspicious.

"A fight, huh? Any idea where the monster is coming from?" (Luke)

"Front, so Cad should handle it, but make sure to look around if something pops out from a different direction." (Joan)

"Something far better than an experiment." Soremad chuckled slightly. The laugh was a faint, but evil one. His face distorted and although he retained the appearance of the dignified old man, for some reason, the expression was even more terrifying than his original form.

"..." (Joan)

"If there is a definition of creepy and scary, screepy, then you're the definition my friend..." Luke stared at Soremad who seemed mad before letting out a chuckle to break the tense atmosphere.

"It's good that he's open about it. Sets me more at ease, actually. Let's talk about distributing corpses once we have any on our hands, eh?" (Joan)

"Mhm, anyway me and Soremad over here will keep the rear safe, as long as you guys don't let anything get past you and flank us." (Luke)

___

Meanwhile a small creature the size of maybe a mountain lion jumps in front of the caravan, snarling at the guards and Cadmium.

Cadmium proceeds to tackle it and strangle it with all his might. "Ahh the joys of hunting wild animals and cuddly kittens I think this may be a new water spirit."

Joan took a peek at Cadmium's fight, from beside the central caravan. He made that fuss for a single one of those?

The mountain lion tried and bite the man in strange attire and tried to claw at him, tearing his clothes.

"Well I guess they were right in that even Joan alone could deal with it."
Cloak rips slightly Cadmium thus rolls onto the monsters back so that it can't harm his clothing anymore than it already has.

After Cadmium gets on the mountain lion's back it suddenly collapses as it's spine is broke from the extreme weight of the being above it.

Soremad clicks his tongue as he thinks to himself: 'What a waste of material... Can he not be more gentle?'

The 10m long rod drops out from Cadmium's pocket whilst Cadmium proceeds to give the skin to one of the guards and put the bones, heart and the brain into his storage area. "Well that was some nice exercise for this early in the day."

" I'm Hungry agai- wah! "
Silvia Trips and falls on the ground. She recoveres fast enough to return some things
" Who Left this Rod! "
Silvia said as she lifted the rod with a little difficulty and rested it on her shoulder
" A bit heavy but not something Magic can't help "

"Ohh how did that get out from my pocket." Says Cadmium as he grabs the rod with 2 fingers and gives Silvia a piece of meat that was stuck to the skin.

" Meat! Thanks Cadbury! "
Silvia said as she nimbles on the meat



Soremad proceeds to scavenge the remaining paste of meat, blood and organs while murmuring: "Well, a third, no a fourth grade damaged material... Well, I am broke though."

"Ohh if you want the body parts of monsters in the future I can always kill them with my sword it's just that I prefer to keep the skin in perfect condition to sell it as it's the part that gets the best prices and has the least use for me."

"There is no need to. Now, it is just hard for me to segregate the organs, blood and flesh... Actually, even if I seperated it, the material would still just barely hit the level of usefulness. I cannot actually beleive why would anyone buy the skin? care to inform me? I deem it pretty useless..."

"This skin can survive strikes from small weapons such as daggers and it's also a nice gold colour hence the lower ranking priests from Schattenlicht love to buy things similar to this."

The guards seemed to be in a protective formation around the front carriage, as one yelled some orders.

"Oi, mage get back here! This kind of magical beast doesn't travel alone." The Guard Captain yelled at Cadmium as he drew his sword and getting in a defensive formation around the carriages as well.

Soremad strokes his illusionary white beard: "Hmmm, a half-dead mountain lion also does not seem to be half-bad."
Ohh so there are more of them to kill I see ohh there is three of them over there I'll go hold them still shout if anymore come out please.
Some shadows of mountain lions seem to be approaching from the distance...
"Luke, can you restrain one of them for me, pretty please?"

" Meat on 4 legs... Lynch... Bring me one please! "
Silvia asked her Knight Shaped Doll, who which bowed before charging and Kicked the head of a mountain lion. It then proceeds on dragging the headless body towards Silvia who was eagerly waiting.

"Restrain one of them? Yeah, it'll be annoyng though." Luke let out a small laugh as he answered while looking at the mountain lions in the distance.

Cadmium proceeds to slice the head off of 2 of them straight away and then start strangling the 3rd that he had seen before keeping it's body parts away from himself knocking it out and not killing it. "Hey Old man how about this one here it's still alive just unconscious."

"Well, after this I might actually have some combat ability. I hope that everything goes well."

Oh, Luke, it seems there is no need to. Both of you are so generous, I shall remember this favour." Soremad goes to the knocked out mountain lion and snickers.

"That snicker is nowhere near good enough it needs to be more like this." Cadmium's face becomes like a young master who is about to rape a maiden and then proceeds to snicker in a deep baritone.

Ignoring the element, which had gone haywire again, Soremad takes the knocked out mountain lion into one of the carriages while casting the Illusion World over it in order for the obnoxious merchant not to piss his pants.

Cadmium sees another mountain lion storing the 2 at his feet and then charging it and proceeds to kill it immediately and store it also and rapidly return back to the carriage. "ROOOOOAAAR are there anymore challengers out there."

Spoiler: The Ritual

Soremad entered the carriage along with the knocked out mountain lion.

As he reverted to his original appearance, he silently murmured"Hmmm, worse than what I had in mind, but should suffice. After all, one must begin from the lowest of the low when he is broke."

The Mahjarrad then proceeded to infuse his finger with magic power. As he dipped it into the meat paste he recently acquired, some of it got stuck to the tip and glowed in an ominous dark bloody light.

"Pro všechna kladná epsilón existuje kladné delta takové, že pro všechna x náležící definičnímu oboru funkce f průnik s delta okolím bodu a, funkční hodnota bodu x náleží epsilón okolí funkční hodnoty bodu a!"

As the ancient chant resounded throughout the carriage, the being of old, Mahjarrat, scribbled 160 elegant symbols in a hexadecagram.

After which, before the slight vibration of the magic power had a chance to subside, Soremad quickly, put the bundle of Deadmen Tears into the centre and nestled the mountain lion on top.

"TENZOR MOMENTU SETRVAČNOSTI!!!" The ancient being howled and in response, horrifying cries of the poor victim before him shook the whole carriage as the Mahjarrad's hand mercilessly pierced its chest and dug out its heart.

"MOMENT HYBNOSTI!!!"

Soremad took out the pitch black heart of his first creation, which unfortunately failed, and plunged it into the empty space inside the mountain lion's chest.

"GRYAAAAAAA!!!" Once again, terrifying shrieks resounded throughout the carriage.

The Mahjarrad, however, ignored them and started another chant: "Číselné těleso nazveme kačdou podmnožinu množiny komplexních čísel, která má alespoň dva prvky a splňuje pro každé alfa, beta náležící tělesu:"

"alfa plus beta náleží tělesu,"

The symbols on the ground sparkled in bloody brilliance.

"alfa krát beta náleží tělesu,"

The symbols started to levitate and the whole hexadecagram rotated around the mountain lion, which was in its centre.

"mínus alfa náleží tělesu,"

The Deadman Tears on the ground were also lifted and danced around the poor creature.

"Pokud se alfa nerovná nule, pak i jedna lomeno alfa náleží tělesu!!!"

The dancing stalks turned into dark green beams as they penetrated the mountain lion's body. The black heart inside frenziedly pumped black blood inside the mountain lion, whose fur was rapidly turning grey. The Blood Symbols let out crimson mist, which enveloped the whole carriage and gave it even more sinister atmosphere.

The first stage of the ritual was complete. The Mahjarrat satisfyingly nodded his head and prepared for the second part.

"Každá reálná monotónní posloupnost má limitu!!!"

*CREEAAAAAK*

Out of nowhere, a huge dark metallic gate accompanied by nether flames appeared within the carriage.

At the same time, the mountain lion finally awoke and stared at the gate and the Mahjarrat, not knowing which was more terrifying.

The gate was about to open and beckon the soul over, however, the Mahjarrat was prepared for this. His hand stabbed the creature's head. However, this time no blood leaked. It seems as if the space near the lion's forehead distorted and the line between material and mental became even more obscure.

The hand grasped the creature's soul and refused to let go.

The gate was angered and was about to increase its force, however at that, tiny green specks of light emerged from the mountain lion and enveloped the creature in a dark green cocoon.

The gate knew that overcoming this joke of a barrier would be as simple as lifting a finger, however, the value of the soul was too low for it to even try. Still, it could not disappear just like that and so with a great displeasure, a drop of murky liquid passed by its keyhole, penetrated the cocoon with ease and entered the mountain lion's soul.

Letting out a satisfying grin, Soremad proceeded to engrave his mark on the creature's soul, before proceeding with the third part of the ritual, the trial by slaughter.

However, the time for this ritual was not ripe yet, as the creature was too weak, fortunately, Soremas still had the Deadman Tears' tears. With a slight beckon, the liquid flew from his travel bag and entered every nook and cranny of the mountain lion, no a newborn demon.

"Lineární harmonický oscilátor." The Mahjarrad murmured. The tears got absorbed by the mountain lion and the third trial, was postponed.

"Within a week, within a week, the demon needs to complete it, otherwise, it will perish." Soremad said while gently looking at the grey mountain lion.

Then, he casted the illusion of the old man on him again and ceased the Illusion World on the carriage.

The ritual, was half-complete, what awaits now is only slaughter, slaughter, and more slaughter.

Spoiler: Summary

I turned the mountain lion into a half demon. Its colour is grey now. To turn into a full demon, it needs to kill enough in a week. If it does not complete its transformation, it dies.

Cadmium notices a sensation going on in the background which he is familiar with. Ohh so it's one of these guys again I didn't think I would run into one of these idiots so soon.

"Aye, I suppose I don't need to help you guys out then huh? It seems like you've killed them all..." Luke exclaimed with a sigh as he noticed there was no more mountain lions around.

After a few minutes the guards relaxed their guard and got back into their normal positions.

Soremad comes out of the carriage in an appearance fo the gentle old man with a grey mountain lion following his footspets. He heads towards Cadmium to, once again, thank him for the gift.

Cadmium is laughing about the fact that on a journey to make a demon disappear they brought a demon along.

Why do I feel signs of derision from that guy? Well, I guess he had gone haywire, silly element, they have always been like that. And he is even one of the stable ones.
Still, no sings of inner thoughts could be seen on Soremad's face as he bowed slightly and thanked Cadmium for the gift.

"You are welcome and how is your new half-demon" Whispers Cadmium so quietly only the 2 of them can hear it.

Not surprised by that question, Soremad replies: "Oh, not bad. It si only a half, has not killed enough yet. Actually, If I was not so broke right now, I would not even call this disgraceful thing a demon! But, what can one do. By the way, you seem to be awake for some time, how is the demonkind treated nowadays?"

"I was locked in a room for 7 years so I have no clue and your the first that I have met but don't say that so loudly or do you want us all to die?"

"Sorry about that." Soremad starts to whisper. "I was supposed to be sacrificed and die about two thousand years ago and only a few months earlier found out that I actually survived. Though, as you can probably see, I am in an extremely weakened state."

"Well that sure is a miracle but last I knew there was only a hundred of your kin left floating around we actually massively out number you guys now it's so funny."

"Well, that is to be expected. After all, you do not sacrifice your members to gain power every five hundred years or so. And what is going on with the humans? First time I came to the association, I was in my original form, yet no one recognized me. you also do not bother to hide your appearance! Are they right in the head?"

You mightn't think that I am hiding my appearance being able to sense my energies somehow, but all magic seems to have stopped completely an indefinite time ago and only returned weakly a millenia ago and my family had gone into a slumber and yours has likely disappeared for all intents and purposes so that no one remembers your race anymore and I am surprised you even knew of humans however they only have stories back to the tail end of what they call the legendary era, i.e. when humans basically dominated the world with magic. My family disappeared mostly around the legendary era for the legendary era going to slumber I was the only one whom decided to watch the new "rulers" of the planet but I had to slumber too when magic started weakening.

"Oh? So that cloak is not a strange fashion sense? As for the humans, well, before they learnt magic, I remember they were good test subjects. They breed like rabbit, are adaptable and develop pretty fast. Somehow they now rule, huh, never would have believed that..."

I believe that they breed far slower than rabbits but yes it's because they have a moderate breeding rate and moderate life span so the truly strong always have a disciple to pass down their teachings too. But the cloak humans seem to think that it is cool and all for some reason.

"Truly queer creatures. Though they seem to be hospitable at the very least."

"That is because they have forgotten the images of the things that go bump in the night."

"...so about the fishermen village. Do you know some more concrete info?"
"I have zero clue however it is likely to do with some human insurrectionist force just like what they did to change the weather at the Marden-Novelias Foruim bridge. So there will be some fun torture to be had but if it actually is a part demon then it will become a far more annoying matter of dragging them to a hole and teaching them some manners."
"Nah, you got your priorities wrong. If it is an insurrection and our enemies humans, then if we are too ruthless, some stupid activists might annoy us to no end. Whereas with demons, we can do whatever we wish!"
"No we can't as sometimes demons have just lost control slightly and it isn't there fault but if it's humans we can just say we were getting information vital to the countries defense from them seeing as how they lack sympathy for each other in the most part."

"Demons have rights, from when?"

"Since they lost control of the world it's hilarious isn't it."

"....I have an urge to go sleep again. The whole world has gone nuts."

"Ohh well good night then." pretends to pull rod out of pocket and hit Soremad on the head.

"...Forget it." The Mahjarrad, whose sense of world just got shattered returned to the rear.

After cleaning up the mess that the crazy old man and the oddly dressed man made the caravan once again set out, the guards seem to be vigilant of something though? Almost like they're expecting something to happen.


"Hey, what's up with you guys?" Luke asked one of the guards that was near the rear carriage only to have a sword pulled on him, "What the hell?!"

"Ahh sorry..." The guard sheathed his sword while obviously looking anxious as he looked around in a paranoid frenzy.

"Is there something wrong with this area or something?" Luke tried and recollect his calm as he looked at the guard that continued to look around in a paranoid fashion before staring Luke dead in the eye.

"You don't know? There's recently been rumours of ghost sightings along this path... I hear there are even some banshees roaming around..."

"Ohh banshees are fun this means I have to start making a cleansing circle to remove it from the air this will take about 10 minutes if we do find it."
***

The grey mountain lion slowly approaches the guard and then stares at him with its hollowed eyes.

The guard cautiously looked around before his eyes landed on the grey mountain lion and he
suddenly seemed to freeze as he stood still like a statue before scrambling for his sword.

Suddenly, a gentle hand grasped the guard's arm, which was drawing thee sword.
"Do not hurt it. It is just a curious new-born." An eerie smiling face appeared at the side of the guard

"Who!?" The guard turned around in a panicked frenzy before calming down as he noticed it was just one of the mages that was accompanying them. "What do you want?"

"I am just interested. I know that the rumours are just rumours, but you see, I am very interested in these things. Care to tell me some of them?"

Tell him or you probably won't get sleep all night.

"Huh? So you're interested in the rumours... I only know some basic knowledge from the locals in the villages near here, but I heard that there used to be a Necromancer that used to stay in these lands a few years ago and sometimes stole people from the local villages and tortured them before using some type of magic to turn them into ghouls. Apparently the reason it's haunted is due to the resentment left in the souls of the villagers who were captured."

"Hmmm, interesting..." Soremad stroked his illusionary beard. "Are you, by any chance a local?"


"Ahh, no. I'm not a local, I actually came from a village that is a day or two north of the fisherman village. I just frequently pass through the area due to me being a guard of this caravan. Usually we never take this route though, even if there is bandits on the main road." The Guard seemed confused as well why they weren't taking the main road.

"A pity, truly a pity.... Nevermind. Listen chap!" Soremad pointed at the half-demon. "Try to stay close to it, especially when something, that you do not understand happens." Then, the Mahjarrad in disguise was about to leave, when he remembered something: "Oh, and if you by any chance remember some queer story about this place, tell it to the mountain lion, please." With those parting word, he returned to the carriage.

"Something I don't understand happens..? Why would I stay near this mountain lion though?" The Guard mumbled under his breath as he looked at the mountain lion before relenting, "Fine, I suppose I'll stay near this creepy thing..."
The mountain lion tilts its head and glares at him with its hollow eyes. It seems as if it did not like being called creepy.


***

"Ghosts? So you picked this over bandits? I assume there's a good reason, like it being just a rumour~" Joan addressed the Guard Captain.

"Not just bandits.." The Guard Captain said under his breath before replying, "It's indeed a rumour, but I suggest you stay cautious as all rumours are based upon something. And this route is faster than the main road anyway."

"We'll do a proper job, don't worry about us. More importantly you mentioned lizardmen. What can we be misfortunate enough to see?" (Joan)

"I hope so, even worrying about my own guards is tiring enough. The lizardmen, huh? We're unlikely to meet them as where we're going isn't commonly patrolled by the local tribes for some reason. If we do somehow meet a patrol though there would likely be half a dozen Lizardmen warriors, which are equal to maybe a trained guard." The Guard Captain explained patiently as he informed Joan.
Joan thanked the Guard Captain and returned to the central carriage.

"Captain is there any other creatures that we should be wary of such as goblins or ghouls in this area."

"Goblins or ghouls? There is some rumours about ghouls being in this land, but goblins? I don't think you'd find any unless it's closer to the lizardmen tribes where they may use the goblins as slaves."

"Hmm I wonder if they will force the goblins to explore these areas before entering into new areas and that is why they stay away as the ghouls kill off the goblins as do the merchantmen coming through it would explain why the lizardmen avoid here."

"An interesting theory, but I have my doubts on the rumours of there being ghouls here..." The Guard Captain replied with a slight laugh.

"I hope your doubts are right sir as ghouls can be very annoying to get rid of through any physical means as there weak spots continuously shift so using dispelling curses and magic circles is easier."

"Aye, I hope they are right as well. But if the rumours are correct then I hope your team of mages can assist us."
"Aye but I will not fight them directly I will only prepare a dispelling circle to destroy them permanently if we do come across some sir."

"Ahh, you did seem to be a physical fighter afterall." The Guard Captain replied with a smile as he looked at Cadmium.

Silvia pokes Joan's side
" Are we there yet? "

"No, Silvia, not yet. Be patient" Joan caressed Silvia's hair, as she said that.

" Okay~ "
Silvia blinks when her eyes lost their color.
" Hmm... Are we there yet? "

As the caravan continued on some strange happenings began to occur around them, sometimes people can see shadowy figures in the corner of their eyes, while others can sometimes hear the sound of branches crunching behind them...

Soon the day begins to grow dark as the caravan decides to park along the road…

"Silvia are you ok?" Joan was getting stressed out, so decided to ask.

The grey puma grew restless and ran towards the centre of the caravan.

"Oi!" The tired guard realized the mountain lion ran off and began to chase after it as he remembered what the old man told him...

The mana giving pets suddenly flew inside the carriage, alerting the catgirl to the intruder. She put her hand on her pistol, and looked the creature in the eyes.

"Hey Joan, are we setting up camp?" Luke yelled towards the center carriage as he noticed they were stopping.

"Wait a bit before you do!" Joan yelled back. She did think that was most probably the case, but decided to wait and see. Also the thing in front of her was testing her nerves.

The half-demon sniffed around the carriage and proceeded to lie on Joan's feet refusing to move an inch.

"Both of you, we'll be eating after the camp has been set up." She told Silvia and the mountain lion "I'm rather curious if the merchants have prepared something better than dried meat."

" Muu... Okay... "
Silvia touched the ground and made some Lifeless dolls.
" Guard the camp and defend it. If you can't, then return here to ask for help."

"I wonder what's happening over there..." Luke mumbled under his breath as he cautiously looking around, noticing that the shadows that seemed to edge on the corner of his vision stayed there. "Maybe those rumours were true and there are ghosts?"

Soremad looked at the silly human before him and decisively replied: "Of course there are."

After chasing after the mountain lion, the Guard eventually gave up and sat down near some of the other guards who seemed to be starting a fire.

Joan decided to help out, and infused a bayonet with a simple flame spell, lighting the twigs underneath the gathered firewood. Meanwhile her pets were floating rather high up above her, their light diminished a bit.

The mountain lion refused to move from the spot even at the mention of food and Joan moved. The half-demon just looked at the silly human before going to have a nice sleep.

"Hey Soremad, why are you so confident there is ghosts here? While ghosts aren't an uncommon monster they also aren't that common." Luke looked over at Soremad who seemed confident in the existence of ghosts in this area.

"I just feel like it." Soremad shrugged before proceeding to leave the camp. "I am gonna take a walk... Ummm... I need to, you know go to a toilet."

"Uhh right... Have a quick and painless travel?" A slight cough escaped from Luke's mouth, "I'm gonna head towards the central carriage they seem to be starting a fire."

"Thanks." The Guard Captain briefly replied as a grim look stained his face, no it stained all of the guards faces, but soon gestured for them to sit down, "Joan, isn't it? You're the leader of those mages I presume?"

"I am, I guess. Sorry for intruding, but I think all of us would rather eat sooner, no?"

As soon as the Mahjarrat entered the woods, he created an illusion of himself and morphed into a shadow.

"We only brought some basic rations, the only person who has better food here would likely be in there." The Guard Captain grabbed some bread out of a bag and handed it over while nodding his head in the direction of the carriage the obnoxious merchant entered.

Joan took the bread, breaking a bit of it, and putting that in her pocket, then returning the rest to the Guard Captain. "Thank you for this. Let's make our relations a bit more friendly. I'll make a trade with that guy, and all you have to do is chat honestly with me a bit."

The Guard Captain looked surprised at Joan, "If you can make a deal with that guy then we'll be willing to tell you whatever we know. That guy is pretty unreasonable though and gets irritated easily so please be careful. I never introduced myself did I? I am Andras."

"Nice to get acquainted, Andras. I need to make good on my word, of course, so I'll be back in a bit." Joan excused herself, and headed for the luxurious carriage. She had several plans on how to approach this, but decided to pick the least costly option. Considering it would be rude to just enter, she looked around for the driver of the carriage or a servant to talk to first.

A young man dressed tidily in a butler's uniform soon left the carriage and sat down, not noticing the beastkin.

The Gun Mage walked up to him, surrounded by the two floating divine-lookalike girls. None of the three were blinking, as they looked the young man in the eyes.

"Excuse me, I'm the representative of the Mage Squad, there is something I need to talk to your employer about." She spoke.

" hmm... "
With nothing to do, Silvia is Rolling around Joan's Bed Rag

The young man cautiously looked towards the beastkin who approached him and the strange girls around her. "The representative of a mage squad? Oh right..."

"My employer? You mean Mr. Alwyn? Why do you need to talk to him?"

***

Spoiler: Soremad's search

As the Mahjarrat turned into a shadow, he proceeded to move at fast speed towards a certain direction. He felt sorry for the quest, as the ghouls would probably attack while he was away. But that new born half-demon should take care of his job. After all, its perception of the supernatural was not that bad. On the other side, the magicians also had some skills.

Or, Soremad told himself in order to appease his conscience. But he had to leave, that was, because something here might be...

...

...

...

interesting.

And so, after exploring for just a few minutes, Soremad found a clue to his destination. It was a track near a dead tree. No, it was not an imprint in the ground or broken branches... In the material world, everything was fine. It was the slight distortion of mana. It was not much, but still in that one irregular interval, a strange spiritual track could be found. And the Mahjarrad knew, it was the ghoul.

Soremad turned in the direction of the camp hoping they would be fine and then without hesitation turned back and in the form of a shadow moved rapidly towards the direction the ghoul came from hoping that the necromancer's lab would be there.

Cadmium is just sowing his robe whilst wearing it and walking along.

A small hill can be seen in the distance with a giant fog covering it's top, but it seems to give off an ominous feeling as the shadows seem to be dancing around anyone who comes near and wails can be heard...

It is almost like a warning system to any beings whom wish to enter.

'Aaahhh, those wails are like music to my ears.' Soremad thought to himself. Then, he changed his appearance a bit in order to look like those dancing shadows and proceeded uphill.

***

"I'm terribly sorry, but we were tasked with bringing him a particular good, as part of a favor from somebody in the Association. The good needs to be traded in secret, as to not disturb the other merchants, thus it has to be done at this time. We should be done quickly. If anybody unrelated asks, I'm here to protest work conditions, or not here at all." Joan winked to punctuate the last sentence.

"Ahh, I understand. No one will hear of this." The young man seemed to realize something as he jumped up and looked around before informing Joan to enter.

Joan put on a business smile, and entered the carriage. "Mr. Alwyn? The Association brings our regards. It would seem your trade relationship has borne fruit!"


"The Beastkin from earlier?" Alwyn looked surprisedly at Joan before a knowing smile appeared on his face, "So even those of the Association can be bribed! I suppose you're the person Inquisitor Conway sent?"

"Even if it is the Inquisitor himself, I'm not supposed to know any of that, so let's keep names away from this, and focus on the trade. My employer wants to provide you with an opportunity to be seen in good light of the aristocracy, by doing him the favor of providing a certain good, which you will now be allowed to sample yourself. Please provide a chalice or small cup to recieve the sample." Joan continued, as she waited for Awlyn to produce a container. "It's a very rare type of drink, obtainable only through the favor of a local natural spirit. As the intermediary, you will serve this at an auction, hosted by a noble, I'm not privy to knowing. Aside from the sample, you can buy a limited quantity right now, which I'm authorized to provide to you for a token price, as part of my commission. Do note that we mages don't work that cheaply, but I'm a favorable negotiator for you this time."

Alwyn's face turned grim as he realized he leaked something he shouldn't have, "Yes, indeed let us keep names away from this." Alwyn seemed to salivate in desire the longer he listened though but soon snapped out of it and grew suspicious, "As much as I wish to trust you and your employer I have slight doubts about this 'good'. Can you perhaps sample it yourself so I can make sure it is not poison perhaps?"

"If I'm allowed to, then I will taste it by all means." the catgirl carefully took Alwyn's cup and sipped, smiling contently. She did truly enjoy that enchanted mead. Thankfully she also could hold her alcohol. She did want the merchant sober, though. It would be bad if he passed out, while negotiating for more of it.

[ Silvia... Stop rolling on her bed... ] - Lynch
" .... ZzZzZz.... "
[ You Fell Asleep!? ] - Lynch

"Hmm? Very well it doesn't seem to be poison." Alwyn carefully examined the beastkins complexion before a smile bloomed on his face and he grabbed a cup with decorations on it and poured the alcohol into the cup before drinking it. "Ahaha! This is good stuff, comparable to some of those wines from Lzarier!", Alwyn downed half the cup in almost an entire go.

"Enjoyed the sample, I presume? I will ask you to buy the rest, as well. It's 3 Small Coopers for a friend. I also got asked to improve relations with the guard, so I can lower that down to 2 Small Coopers, if you feed my squad and them some good food. Do that, and we'll all be rather happy, and my employer will hear some good news." (Joan)
"3 Small coppers? Derwyn, bring me some coppers." As Alwyn as enjoying the rest of the drink he suddenly yelled outside and soon the young man from earlier brought over a few small copper coins.

"And as I'm in such a good mood you can even take some of the food from my personal stash." Alwyn said was a joyous smile as he instructed Derwyn to bring over some bags of food to the Guards and Mages.

"Good trade, Mr. Alwyn! I will report to my employer after the task. Now I need to return to my duties, guarding your life, as well. If anybody asks, you were just being generous with food." Joan gave a wink and a smile, and proceeded to exit the carriage, discretely placing her new acquisitions in her pocket.

She returned to the campfire and looked around for the Guard Captain.



***
Cadmium looks up from his sowing and walks over to the guards sitting around the campfire. "Excuse me have you seen the old cranky man around here or did he go and wander off into the forest looking for ghouls?"

The grey mountain lion suddenly appears before Cadmium and points in a direction with its paw.

The sounds soon stopped but the ominous feeling continued to grow as Soremad climbed the hill, some areas seem to have odd looking mushrooms and herbs in them, while other seemed desolate and barren, but everywhere there was a fog around.

"Thank you and stay here with the guards you, and guard them well." Cadmium proceeds to rush off in the pointed direction at full tilt through the trees and over the hill until he reaches an area with dancing shadows. "Soremad come back now and do not touch anything of the necromancers you probably don't understand the way that magic works in this age."

The Mahjarrad also transformed his travel back into that of the shadow and when none of those things seemed to be looking, collected the mushrooms and herbs as he made his way to the top.

The mountain lion hit its forehead with its paw as it thought 'What a dumbass, he totally ignored the ghouls crawling here!"


As the being that resembled a shadow seemed to advance up the hill, some ghouls grew irritated and began to roam around frequently and neared the caravan.

A stone stele can be seen at the top of the hill with what seemed to be a puzzle on it, with very ominous words at the top, 'Whomever wishes to enter, must be prepared to face the abyss.'

'Hmmmm.... I remember going there on a vacation once. Also, could it mean death? But I already died once and should be ready for it. So, what should I do? Only if I had a good test subject..."
Then he glanced at that silly element making a clown out of himself.
'Oh, there it is!'
And so, Soremad proceeded to instigate the shadows against the element hoping to both shut his mouth and open the lab.

"Dammit he isn't listening better make a magical circle to banish all the spirits from this area that imbecile why do I always get stuck with someone."

There seems to be something messing with the Od & Mana on the hill as the magical circle seems to distort and shrieks begin to echo out across the hill.

'Oh, seems to be working... That silly element is useful after all. Now, let's just tamper with it for a bit..."

"Dammit better work faster he actually decided to mess with something when he is weaker than the original caster the fool."

Suddenly all the shadows nearby seem to turn their heads at the same time and look at Soremad with vicious grins on their faces, similar to devils looking at a unsuspecting mortal.

"Ohh dammit they didn't come at me. Faster me faster I have to do this in a flash."

"O-oh!" Well, time to take an old relic from the past.
Soremad dispelled the illusions and took his original form before proceeding to fish out his Book of Rites. Then he waited for the shadows to act.

The shadows seem to melt into the floor as the darkness continued to creep around Soremad, and shrill laughter seemed to echo across the hill, sometimes a hand would emerge from the darkness…

Soremad sighs. He did not think that he would be forced to use the only thing left from him before he was sacrificed so soon. He opened the book of rites and an old contract appeared. then, with a short chant, the page turned blank as a nether flames rose from the ground and enveloped a hundred meter area around him protecting the caster.

The shrill laughter abruptly turned into a scream of terror as the darkness retreated from the flames in fear, almost as if they were afraid of fire.

The stone stele soon begins to crumble as well and a slight amount of magical power can be felt leaving it and heading towards an area in the northwest.

***
"Any luck?" Andras asked the beastkin in an excited tone.
Joan produced a bag full of various meats and some vegetables. They were still fresh.

"Let's make some skewers and share those among us. Is the charcoal ready to cook with?" (Joan)

"Haha!" A gleeful laughter echoed out from Andras's mouth as he looked at the vegetables and meat, and the other guards seemed to have a light appear in their eyes as they looked at the food as well.

"The charcoal is indeed ready!" Andras instructed the Guards to make a fire which they happily began.

"I'll go call my squad, as well." She said, then mumbled to herself "At least the ones I know to actually eat..."

Joan proceeded to look for the rest of the party, calling Luke and Silvia over to the campfire, and got annoyed Cad and the weird new guy went off somewhere without informing her.

Luke soon headed over excited at the idea of good food and sat down by the campfire and began to talk to some of the guards.

Some ghouls began to form into large groups and near the caravan slowly.

The catgirl was eating and enjoying the cheer around her, when her ears picked up small shuffling sounds in the distance.

"Excuse me, I need to go pick some flowers." She said, and moved toward the source of the shuffling.

"Ahh, have fun. You'll miss out on the skewers though." Andras answered with a hearty laugh as he noticed Joan moving towards the grass.

***

"There we go and now for the finishing touches I just have to light all the powder on fire and hope nothing got smudged too much."

Although the flames are certainly effective, they cannot be here forever, nor can they be recalled after being cast. The only thing they can do is kill those within and buy some time. Thankfully, even the magical power is being bound by them.
And so, Soremad regretfully poured out all of the materials he got on the way to the top and proceeded with another ritual. This time, it was the Curse of Mah, and the target was the magical power.

Cadmium spreads out a thin line of magical power all throughout the powder that he has spread upon the ground waiting to activate it until the coverage is completely even across all of it.

The mushrooms and herbs danced around the Mahjarrat.

"Planety obíhají kolem Slunce po eliptických draháh a Slunce leží v jejich společném ohnisku."

The materials started to give off a sparkling white light.

"Plochy opsané průvodičem planety za stejné doby jsou stejné."

Soremad pointed at the weir magic power and at his fingertip, a tiny ball of grey mist with hints of purple formed.

"Čtverce oběžných dob planet jsou úměrné třetím mocninám velkých poloos."

The white sparkling light entered the grey mist and the moment it did, the mushrooms and herbs withered and turned to dust.

"Izotropní centrální pole!"

The mist turned into a streak of grey and hit the strange magic power, which was trying to leave northwest. It stained it and changed its properties.

The Curse of Mah was activated. And anything which was caught by it, would experience great misfortune.

Though, whether the magic power instantly dissolves or just strays off its course is up to fate.

The magic circle lights up trapping all the mana in the area into that singular space and then cleansing it and returning it to an unattributed type of mana dispelling things such as ghouls and ghosts from the area.

The magic power suddenly dispersed after being hit by the curse, but a part of the curse seemed to continue following the original path and headed towards the north-west, whether it will reach the original owner of the magical power or not isn't to be known for a long time~

The Mahjarrat grumbled as he just made a loss and got nothing out of it. Fortunately though, the wall of Nether Flames was still up so, he reluctantly scavenged the ash of the shadow creatures along with some lucky only 75% burnt remains before transforming into a shadow and leaving the area.

***

The half-demon suddenly appears within the campfire and starts to growl in the ghoul's direction.

"Huh, why is this guy growling?" One of the Guards exclaimed as he looked at the mountain lion pointing towards the area Joan went towards.

The mountain lion shook its head, grabbed the meat and run off towards Joan baring its path.

"Oi!" One of the Guards noticed the mountain lin running off with some meat and chased after it.

The half-demon glanced at the Joan ignoring it completely. Then it whiffed the air and deduced that she should be fine, though these tin cans would probably meet their end and so, it ran back to the campfire and tried its best to keep the guards occupied.

Cadmium turns around having completed his task as one of the water spirit rats left on the roof of a caravan has sensed danger.
"Now I have to run back to there as a ghoul probably got past *sigh* I hope I am not to late."

With her eyesight in the dark being rather good, Joan noticed the gathering of twelve ghouls almost immediately. She wanted to make sure she had a good distance from the camp, but it didn't matter much with firearms. Time to test the storage

It was annoying, since she needed to keep in mind all the spells she was using simultaneously, but nevertheless the process was a simple one of placing a bullet out of storage in the barrel, casting Accelerator on it for more penetrative power, infusing it with a Ripper Blade spell with undead as the touch target and firing.

The creatures were faster than most undead, but not fast enough. The first cadmium bullet exited the barrel, activating the instant it entered a ghoul's body. Space bent in front of it in a vertical line, sucking in the creature inside, then a moment later returning to normal, resulting in the ghoul's body falling apart in giblets.

This repeated itself eleven more times, starting with the closest ones to the magical gunslinger. She counted every shot in her head, making sure that her Storage Magazine didn't run empty. She had seven more bullets, before needing to reload. Throwing a final bullet with her hand, infused with a fireball, she lit the corpses on fire, and returned to the camp, looking around for any more potential invaders.

***

"Umm sorry for disappearing it seems like an old man decided it would be a good idea to visit the home of a hidden necromancer that was surrounded by ghosts and then mess around with said ghosts."

"That's fine, just leave a note next time. All is quiet around here, aside from a merchant getting drunk and giving us some food."

"I asked the guards where he was going and then said I would be chasing after him to them and I think that is better than leaving a note something which is very hard to do without paper missy."

Soremad, in an appearance of the old man walked out of the bush and said: "And it would be just fine if you did not interrupt!"

"You hadn't even started when I got there old man so don't try and use that excuse."

Soremad ignores the fellow while thinking 'truly, only good as a test subject!'.

"Ahh, Cadmium!" Luke exclaimed as he noticed Cadmium walking towards the campfire, "Have you met the guards?"

The grey mountain lion proudly marches towards its master while the tin cans are hurrying after it.

"Have I met the people we have been walking with all day. Well actually I haven't properly so please introduce me."

"Soremad... I'm sorry, for how painful your bathroom trip must have been!" Luke exclaimed with a knowing smile, while having a pitying look in his eyes.

The Mahjarrat turns towards the silly human not sure whether he should ignore this retard or not…

"Very well! Here we have Andras the Guard Captain! And Bryant over there, and etc..." Luke introduced everyone enthusiastically.

"Wow you really got to know everyone so well I wish that I had as much time to spend relaxing with the guards as you did."

The flames of the campfire soon begin to flicker out…

In the end, the Mahjarrat just shakes his head and calls over his half-demon to the carriage. It was time to upgrade it a bit.

"Well then I think we had better have a long sleep I will be inside of that bush if anybody needs me." says Cadmium as he walks to a bush.

***

Spoiler: Linda

As soon as they entered the carriage, Soremad once again casted the World of Illusions to both bar any intruders or peeping Toms. Then, as his original form was slowly revealed, the half-demon prostrated before him.

"Do you hate me?" The Mahjarrad asked.

...several minutes passed, but the puma kept prostrating itself.

And so, the being of ancient times repeated its question: "Do you hate me?"

...this time, the mountain lion trembled, but still did not take any further action.

But, the Mahjarrat was not angered, he just gleefully smiled and asked for the third time: "Do you hate me?"

This time, the haf-demon mustered up enough courage and nodded.

"Good, very good!" Soremad said with an eerie smile on his face.

"Is it because I turned you into a demon?" he asked some more.

The puma hesitated, but eventually shook its head.

"So you understand that I gave you power?"

The puma nodded.

"But, I take it that you just do not like being controlled by me." Soremad whispered into its ear.

The half-demon, frightened more than ever before, hurriedly nodded.

The Mahjarrad chuckled and continued with the last question: "Do you hate me for, killing your kind?"

This time, the half-demon looked at him with its hollowed eyes. But there, inside of them, a speck of wrath glimmered inside. It understood that as the defeated party, it could not complain... However, how was it possible not to hate the entity before him?

However, then, at that very moment, the Mahjarrat whispered into its ears words so sweet that even devil would not be able to utter. And at that time, the half-demon finally decided to whole-heartedly serve its master.

An eerie laughter resounded throughout the carriage as the Mahjarrat was pleased with its work: "Now, I will bestow upon you a name. From now on, you shall be called Linda. Though I wanted to do after the ritual was complete, as you satisfied me, I am doing it ahead of time."

The grey mountain lion, Linda, bowed in reverence.

"Now, let's give you a 'property'."

Linda nodded its head as a sign of thanks.

Then, Soremad mixed the remains of the shadows, he had scavenged earlier, and dipped his finger in them before proceeding to engrave runes on the half demon.

With every stroke, the finger bore into Linda's flesh and the shadow matter mixed with her blood. However, the half-demon did not utter a single sound. It just stood there and bared the pain.

Very soon, the engraving was finished. The graceful grey fur was now filled with bloody-black obscure symbols.

Then the Mahjarrad began a long chant and in the process, Linda followed his words with silent purrs.

"Nechť V je vektorový prostor nad tělesem T a P je podprostor V. Nechť Q je takový podprostor V, který splňuje, že součet P plus Q je V a je direktní. Potom Q nazveme doplňek P do V a jeho dimenzi nazveme kodimenzí P."

As soon as the chant finished, the bloody-black symbols disappeared and Linda's fur returned to its original appearance. Only, her hollow eyes became pitch black.

Spoiler: Summary

The mountain lion's name is Linda. She absorbed some of the Shadow's powers.

***

After a few hours of rest, the morning sun reaches past the Lzarier mountain range and began to shine upon the caravan, soon it will be time to depart.

"Well that was an uneventful journey I guess that is good." The water spirit rat kings crown grew slightly larger again and he became purer water.

Spoiler: Gains

Cadmium gains 4 pure mountain lion water spirits

After the Caravan departed from the river, a small group of lizardmen noticed strange footprints that were quite deep, startled the lizardmen went back to their tribe to report their findings. The lizardman chief sent out an order for all patrols to increase security in fear of a magical beast attack.

Meanwhile the Caravan is once again on the road and is nearing the Fisherman village.

" we moving out again? These people don't get tired at all huh... "
[ It's their job to travel and sell things after all.. ] - Lynch

As the Caravan uneventfully sets off again the light of the morning sun can be seen rising past the Lzarier Mountains, and the ground around them seems to become greener and gives off a relaxing feeling of spring.

"It seems like we're close to the river that the Fisherman Village lies on, the 'Jaromir River'" Some of the guards can be heard talking to eachother as a large village begins to appear in the distance as well as a beautiful and clear river that seemed to sparkle when touched by the sunlight.

__

"It seems like we've arrived." Luke let out a breath of relief as he realized they've arrived and looked around in fascination at the nearby area that seemed to be blessed by the nature spirits and gave off a refreshing smell.

"Back in my day we would've completed this movement in 2 hours bah." Cadmium stretches and starts tottering around like a spry Grandpa would after a quick morning jog lasting 2 hours.

"What are you mumbling about?" Luke ran over to Cadmium in curiousity as he heard him say something.

"I was complaining about how uneventful and slow the trip was back in my day we would've been attacked 50 times by now and still have gotten to here in only 2 hours. Bah"

"..." Luke just stared speechlessly at Cadmium before giving up on reasoning with him and looking around, "It seems like we'll be reaching the village in a few minutes. Is Joan and the others awake?"

"I have no clue about those young whipper snappers are doing however last I saw Joan was getting tired walking along side the middle carriage and shouldn't you know what Soremad is doing you where in the same carriage? Younglings these days. *sigh*"

"Speaking like an old man, huh? And Soremad is odd, he always gives me a creepy smile whenever I look at him..." Luke said with a visible shudder as he seemed to be remembering something.

"Anyway, I'll go wake up Joan and the other unless you want to."

"I'll go try wake up the two girls if they are asleep you can try and get Soremad whippersnapper. Any way he should give you the creeps."

"Aye aye." After replying Luke jogged back to the rear carriage and headed inside and found Soremad lying down, before poking him.

As Luke's hand was about to touch Soremad, a shadow appeared on top of him and from within slowly emerged Linda, the grey mountain lion. Her pitch-black eyes glared menacingly at Luke.

Cadmium walked over to the middle carriage in which Joan had been staying and knocked on the door 13 times.

"Mmm Silvia, not there, it's too sensitive~ Nyaaa~" Joan stood up, awake. "Oh quit it, I'm awake already! What seems to be the issue?"

"We are almost at the village that we are going to be trading at so get dressed and get up ya whippersnapper."

"Ugh, what kind of weird shame play are you engaging in now, Cad? Disregard that, I'm coming out in a bit." Joan gently pulled her arm from under Silvia, got dressed rather quickly, and exited the carriage with a grumpy expression, looking around.

"Ahh!" Shocked Luke let out a yell as he noticed the mountain lion coming out of seemingly nowhere before calming down as he realized it was just the mountain lion that Soremad kept.

"Your name is Linda right?"

*nods*

A blue mountain lion walks in from the backdoor appearing to be made from water.

"No respect for your elders me engaging in a shame play why would I have a need to shame you."
Cadmium huffs like an oldman and is glowering with an extremely intense expression as Joan comes out.

"That guy is done for, he's finally gone completely bonkers." Joan mumbled to herself, while fastening Chaos to Mayhem.


Cadmium chooses to ignore this statement. "Speak up lass it's bad manners to mumble in the of presence of others and still let them hear parts of your mumblings."

"I was just thinking you're rather shiny for an old man. I guess you still polish yourself often, eh?" Joan gave a response that overall wasn't.

"Shine myself what do you mean this is all completely natural I will have you know and I am definitely not an old man. I am an old un-gendered being thank you very much. Hmph" Cadmium looks extremely insulted after this statement for no reason at all.

"Sure, as long as you don't have it, don't flaunt it either, then. I'm not a morning person, so bother me later, when I'm in the mood for this." Joan looked extremely annoyed, twisting around with her tail upright in the air, and headed for the guard captain to ask for some details.

"Bah humbug."

"The water spirit thing Cadmium made? And Soremad's has intelligence?" Luke mumbled aloud as he looked at the two mountain cats inside the carriage that made it seem cramped.

"Linda, we're arriving at the village, please do waken Soremad."

"Mreeoow Mreeow mreeow" The water mountain lion looks extremely insulted at Luke's insinuation that it doesn't have any intelligence.

"Aww, aren't you a cute little kitty cat!" Luke seemed to want to hug the water mountain lion as stars appeared in his eyes, oblivious to any dissatisaction that the mountain lion might have.

The water mountain lion purrs at him and also looks like it wants to be stroked.

Linda's pitch-black eyes were reflected by Luke's pupils as a voice rang within his head. No, it was not a voice. There were no words. It was simply an intention and it meant: "Let him sleep."

The stars in Luke's eyes seemed to brighten up as he leaned over to pet the mountain lion while looking into Linda's eyes before nodding silently to show his agreement to letting Soremad sleep.

Stars appear in the blue mountains lions eyes as it is about to get patted and it seems to somehow glow.

A smile dawned on Luke's face as he began to pet the blue mountain lion.

The blue mountain lion started glowing and shining in a nice blue light the other 3 mountain lions then proceeded to come in from outside the tent and sit on the floor. The one being patted grew 2 bigger teeth and became a saber-toothed mountain lion instead of a regular mountain lion it then gave it's thanks to Luke by giving him a big kiss and a hug.

"Joan?" The Guard Captain seemed to just be waking up as he yawned and looked at the approaching beastkin in curiosity, "What do ya need?" He asked in an inquisitive manner.

"Just woke up, I'm afraid, so I don't know what's going on. I heard we're getting close to the village?" Joan stated her business.

"That so? Anyway, yeah we are near the village and will be at the gates in a bit, the river of 'Jaromir' is nearby as well if you need any water." Andrys replied as he informed her of how close they are to the village.

"Thank you, I'm good. I'll take a vanguard position, just in case. Just send somebody if you need me for anything." (Joan)

"Alright, I do suggest you mages head towards the river of Jaromir though as I've heard rumours about it's natural properties of healing and can help mages like you guys to concentrate and convert mana to magical power due to rumors of it being connected to the tree of life in Belgard." Andrys exclaimed as he remembered some rumours among the locals.

"Ah that's very curious. I'll have somebody in the team check it out, thank you again!" Joan smiled for the first time this morning. She went searching for Luke, who seemed to not have much to do last night, aside from guard duty.

"Aye, very well." Andrys waved at her before heading over to some guard and talking to them about something.

Luke looked surprised at the sudden evolution of the mountain lion before looking at his hand in amazement and looking back at the mountain lion, soon a grin appeared on his face as he got hugged and kissed by the mountain lion, before looking at the other mountain lions contemplatively.

Seeing the look in Luke's eyes the other 3 mountain lions looking longingly but shake their heads in sadness.

Luke confusedly looked at the mountain lions who seemed reluctant before letting out a sigh and turned his attention towards the newly evolved water spirit tiger in interest, "What are you?"

"Mreooow Mreooow Mreoooow roar meeeow" (I am a sabertoothed mountain lion).

"Hmm? You can talk? No. Something more like telepathy?" Luke curiously examined the mountain lion as he mumbled to himself before composing himself again.

"You're a sabertoothed mountain lion? Interesting. Sorry I get a bit distracted when something interests me."

"Distracted means to get your attention dragged from something. I think?" Luke explained patiently towards the mountain lion.

"Mmmmreeoow." (ooooh)
"mereow" (master calls me) The 4 water spirits turn and leave.

Back at the middle carriage, Joan poked Silvia, who was still asleep.

" Recharge incomplete... Good night... zzZzZz"

“Well, I guess that ain’t happening.”

She then moved toward the back carriage.

"Joan? Why are you here?" Luke noticed the beastkin walking outside seemingly looking for someone.

"Looking for you. I got some information about the wonderous healing properties of a local river. It would be very helpful of you if you take a buddy and go see if there is any truth to that. If indeed there is, we might get an extra reward from the Association, or at least have some research samples to take back home. Also heal any wounded if something happens. You're hardly obligated to do this, but you're also probably the most reasonable man I can think of for this. So you ready to stretch your legs a bit?" Joan asked in a direct manner.

"The local river, huh? Yeah, I'll go check it out with Soremad. I'd be surprised if the water truly does have healing properties but maybe it does... It'd make sense why a Necromancer would settle around here then, as he might of used the powers of this water to create undead or ghosts. Anyway, I'll go wake Soremad up then and head out, you going to guard the caravan?"

"Yes. You can take Cad as well, if he's interested. Just tell him to leave the caravan protection of his own, in case we might need it. Hope you get lucky!"

Luke let out a smile as he watched the mountain lions leave before turning back towards Joan, "Aye, I'll see if Cadmium is interested." Luke got up and began to stretch before heading over to Soremad to nudge him awake.

Cadmium appears from behind Joan and states. "I am not interested in the least it has no influence upon my abilities or power at all yay whippersnappers and outside sources of power have always been bad to rely upon whippersnappers."

"Would you find within yourself the power to keep that wisdom to yourself, and just guard the merchants in peace, then?" Joan asked, tired.

"I suppose that settles that, huh?" Luke mumbled as he looked at Cadmium acting like an old man.

In the meantime, inside the carriage, Soremad cursed under his breath. 'Damn! First Cad and now Luke! Cannot they let me be?!'.
Then he looked at Linda, who reciprocated his gaze being aware of what he wants.
Puff of grey smoke enveloped Linda and when it cleared, Soremad stood in her place. On the other hand, the place where Soremad lied just a moment ago was currently empty.

"Soremad, you awake?"

"What wisdom are you talking about? I haven't said anything for the past 2 or so hours?" Cadmium looks around confused before continuing "Anyway what am I doing here?"

"... Guarding merchants. Let's go, I'll fill you in..." Joan sighed and spoke.

"Okay if you are going somewhere take the big water spirit mountain lion with you would you please."

Soremad (Linda) stepped out of the carriage and replied: "As a matter of fact, I am. Is there anything that needs my assistance?"

"Assistance? Maybe not, but if you could come along with me to investigate something it'd certainly be helpful as your knowledge of Spirits exceeds mine."

"It certainly does, however most of it, I worry, is outdated." Soremad (Linda) shrugged.

"Mrreeeoooow" (Imposter go away and get your master) said very quietly.

"Still more then what I know likely, I only know the basics of Spirits from my time in the academy."

"Mreeeoooooow" (definitely more than I know unless it is a water spirit)

"Well, I guess I can tag along." Soremad (Linda) replied.

"Alright, then. If you have everything you need, we should be going."

"Mreoww mreoow meow meow" (hop on my back and you can show us how to get there)
"Mreeeeeeoooooooooooowwww" (You smell weird so get your own pet to ride)

"Ahh?" Luke promptly got on the mountain lions back before continuing, "We should head towards the east a bit, the river is there."

"Mreeow?" (where is your ride Soremad?)
"Vrrooom Vrooom" (Off we go)

Soremad (Linda) replied: "That sounds good." From under his feet, the old man's shadow extended into distance. The old man's feet then submerged into the shadow and his speed increased.

In the meantime, another shadow emerged within the obnoxious merchant's carriage. The shadow took on a humanoid form, however it had no distinctive features, except for one a bloody grin. The black doll then approached the merchant and although the latter was frightened a bit, they had a lengthy discussion. Its content, however, is not known.

Joan was standing at the front, when the caravan reached the village gate. She waited patiently along with the guards for it to open, somehow having a bad feeling about it, considering the flood of magic beasts near the Association as of recent.

Some rustling can be heard inside of the village as some guards came up to the caravan with a cautious expression.

Joan waved to the guards in a friendly manner, but otherwise left greetings to the appropriate people for the job. Like the guard captain and mechants.

The guards cautiously looked at the beastkin before one of the larger ones entered the first carriage before soon coming out and saying some words, soon the gates began to rise and inside could be seen some houses and shops.

The catgirl looked back at the caravan, and took a position near the gate, planning to go in after the last carriage had entered. Afterwards it was leisure time.

As the caravan began to enter the town there was some howls ringing out from the forest as it seemed like dozens of red eyes stared the caravan down.

"Shit, get the caravan inside faster." Some urgent voices can be heard from inside the town by the guards.

Joan quickly ran up to see what had happened. Seeing the magic beasts preparing to attack, she pulled out her gun, took aim, and shot an accelerated fireball at the biggest one. For the rest she would prepare poison bullets. Don't want to waste the pelts, after all.

A pained howl can be heard as the gun's flash caused a large wolf-like creature to be revealed, that seemingly glared at Joan in anger before retreating into the forest.

The magic gunslinger wanted to chase after it, but remained cautious and looked around for more creatures, as the caravan retreated into the village.

***

Spoiler: Soremad's Illegal Activities part 2

The obnoxious merchant was currently sitting within a tiny inn room. He remained still in the comfy armchair as he stared out of the window. He did not observe at anything particular. The merchant was just blankly looking into the distance.

However, the same tranquil scene could not be found inside his mind. Instead, new thoughts constantly swirled, collided and perished. It was, perhaps, the true epitome of chaos. The reason for this, you wish to know? The origin of the merchant's mental state can be found within his clenched right fist.

*Drop* *Drop* *Drop*

Below the armchair, a tiny puddle of blood could be seen. If one traced it back, they would find out that small streaks of this crimson liquid flowed down from the wooden arm support. If one tracked it further, they would arrive at the clenched fist. The fist trembled. No one knew whether from excitement or fear. But one thing could be seen for sure. At some point, the nails drilled into the palm and blood started to flow out.

The obnoxious merchant slowly opened his right fist and in it lied a sparkling crimson pearl. Upon a closer look an image of an embryo could vaguely be seen within. There was no way to recognize the species. The only distinctive signs was the tail and the pulsing black tridecagram.

It was this tiny pearl, that turned the obnoxious merchant into such a sorry figure. It was this very item that made him evaluate his life's values. It was this thing, which perhaps was not meant to even appear on the surface of the world, that made him excited of a colourful future, but fear it at the same time.

This thing was miraculous. It could directly promote an E-rank human into a D-rank...

...

...

...

entity! That was the right word, an entity. Not a demon, not a monster, not a human. Just a creature in the middle of the triangle.

And the price it took to make it? Just 5 large copper coins. Though the E-ranks, who the item was meant to, will have to take out all of their savings, they will be able to buy it. And if not, they could just work it off. It must be mentioned that although it was not large, there was a demon and monster market. However, most of the creations were luxurious goods only available to noble families. Usually only failures would be sold to low rank mercenaries and even then, it would usually require a soul or life span as a payment. The market just was not meant for the low.

However, that would change with this pearl, Demonic Embryo. It had its side effect. Mainly, upon consumption a new organ would grow which would encase both the regular and mana hearts. That would be the source of the new power. It would be a foreign entity having a symbiotic relationship with the host. During the first month after consumption, the body of the user would undergo transformation. It will also have to get used to the invader and in most cases, it would fight against it. So, during this period, the host would be in a very weak state. After that will be another month period when the symbiotic relationship would be set up. The host would also be getting sued to his new power. And finally, during the third month, the embryo would require large amount of od, so the host would have to kill a lot, otherwise the embryo would start sucking the user's vitality.

So, in the end, the one buying this will have to count with two months of being incapable of working. But after that, the new power should not impede his life. The user will even be able to reproduce and the offspring should be a regular human! After that the only side effect would be the increase of bloodlust and aggression.

All of this sound good, so why does the merchant fear the Demonic Embryo? Simple, because he witnessed its creation. And that was something horrifying. Also the gate, the black gate. When that had descended, his soul had nearly been sucked in and he had been able to peek at the inside...

*Thud*

The merchant fell on the ground and clutched his knees as he trembled incessantly. At that time there were only two products, one of which was eaten by the half-dead boy, which was currently undergoing the first phase. The second was left to him. If he was satisfied with the result of the test subject, he would then try to sell the Demonic Embryo and contact the devil. There was actually still an option to back out. Though the merchant was sure that although he would perhaps be able to retain his life, the devil would make sure his secret was safe.

There was a third option, actually. The merchant had a guess who the devil was. Actually, there was only one candidate in his mind. Even if it was false, he could still report it to the association. However, when he had seen the black gate. At that moment, all his intentions to resist had been destroyed.

***

As the odd trio of Luke, Soremad (Linda) and Unnamed Mountain lion continued they soon reached the river which seemed to sparkle.

"So this is the river Joramir?"

"mreeow" (So sparkly) lost in thought for the moment.

"Indeed, sparkly... It's almost like those gemstones that nobles wear, diamonds I think they call them?" Luke stared at the beautiful river in awe as he answered the mountain lion.

"Mreeooow" (No it's better)

"Perhaps.." Luke let out a breath of air as he continued to look at the river before calming down and took a deep breath, "Do you smell that? It smells like spring here... It's nowhere close to the season though?"

"Mreeeooow" (Yes very springy) The mountain lion looks around only to notice that Soremad is missing.
"Mreeow?" (Soremad doppelganger disappeared again master will be angry)

"..?" Luke looked around as well noticing Soremad missing in confusion but dimissed it and headed over to the river.

"Mreow" (Okay then I will listen to you.)

"Mhm." Luke let out a sound of satisfaction as he walked along the river curiously looking for anything interesting, "Hey, can you feel the mana in the air?"

(More in water than in the air but is that a person on an island over there?)

"More in the water..? Interesting." Luke mumbled some words under his breath before looking over at the island, "You sure it's a person? It looks more like some odd type of rock formation."

(Elf like person I think, but something dangerous in water.)

"Hmm, the rock formation seems to be moving? Perhaps it really is a person." Luke exclaimed as he examined the island a bit closer while nudging the mountain lion.

(Why are you nudging me? Didn't you listen to me saying that there was something dangerous in the water or did you forget?)

"An Elf huh? What do you mean something dangerous in the water? It seems perfectly fine to me." Luke said under his breath as he looked at the water that seemed calm.

(Have you ever heard of fish? But anyway it is some kind of creature that can stay still under the water for long periods of time but can also breathe in the air I think it's called a crocodile? You see that log over there that looks like a greeny/brown tree that is the danger.

"... I'm not stupid you damn cat. It just seems like there is no fish in these waters, it's too clean. A crocodile? Why would it be here?"

(Because there are lots of fish here?)

"But how could the water be so clean if there are fishes here..?"

(Aren't all rivers this clean they generally migrate and move around often also their excretion is pushed along by the waters in the river it's why the sea is so clean. Also fish in rivers generally need clean water to survive.

"Not really, most rivers near human settlements are dirty... I've never seen the sea though."

(That is generally because of humans I do believe you know there excretement is far heavier than a fish and dissolves less readily in water. However any rapidly flowing river will be clean and this actually moves at a fair pace.

"Why do you know so much?" Luke curiously looked over at the mountain lion that seemed to have a vast amount of knowledge.

(I do? But I am normal for a water spirit? It's like a person knowing about a city or a dog knowing the owners habits. Rivers, seas and oceans come naturally to us from comparing all of our knowledge in both worlds with each other. Anyway do you have any ideas how to get rid of the crocodile?)

"Ahh. So spirits have this type of power as well. Anyway why do we have to get rid of the crocodile? Why not just scare it a bit?"

(It's an apex predator I think? And it is definitely not scared of me.)

"It's scared of water though, you could probably scare it by making waves."

(Are they I never knew that are you really sure because I have heard they have some move called a death roll before?

"A death roll? Which idiot named it that? Go ahead, it's probably a scaredy cat on the inside.”

(Okay then it's on you if anything dies.) The mountain lion starts shaking the waves gently at first and slowly building up until the waves are at the same size as Luke.

The crocodile looks irrtatedly at them as it swims away.

(I feel that it will be back sooner than it should be and it really didn't look all that scared so we had better be quick in checking out that island.)

"How will we get over there though..?"

(I'll just walk over with you on my back it's quite simple ya know)

"It's a river, that is at least a few dozen meters deep, how will you walk over?"

(By walking over just get on my back would you I am made from water completely too you know except for 2 points so lets go.)

"Are you sure..?" Luke cautiously looked at the water that suddenly seemed very deep…

(Ohh hurry up you scaredy ape.)

"Like you can say anything, you cat." Luke let out a sigh before jumping onto the mountain lion.

The mountain lion proceeded to run across the water at it's fastest pace rapidly appearing on the island. (Umm hello is there anybody here the crocodile has gone.)
A Dark elf walks out from behind the rocks on the island. "Which country is this exactly cute thing." The Dark elf pats the mountain tiger like it's a cute pet.

In the meantime, a few metres away, there was a littly bay. Normally, it would be a pristine paradies and many of the forest animals came here to drink. Though some predators would also look for their prey here. And because if that none of them found it strange that occasionally, the paradise would turn into blood house. And that day, was the same. The crocodile lied there with blood sprouting from its neck.

"A dark elf? Why is she here?" Luke cautiously looked at the Dark Elf as he moved his hand towards his sword in case of an attack.

"I'm sorry wow I didn't even notice you were there little cat and no wonder you are made of water andI can't smell anything in water. OOps sorry for being rude to you I'm Yvrainne a blind dark elf and I was washed down the river when a bridge upstream broke and then I was trapped here because of that crocodile lurking in the water which I had no way of knowing where it was as you can't really smell or hear properly underwater."

(She is trust worthy or at least she isn't lying from what I can smell.)

Luke continued to stare cautiously at the dark elf as he kept his hand on the sword attached to his waist, "Fine, at the very least you don't seem to be lying, but why are you here? It's quite far from where the dark elves reside."

"Umm I was swept down the river when a bridge collapsed and on my way to the Magic association headquarters of Novelias Foruim to sign up as a mage.”

"Why are you trying to sign up to the Magic Association here? From what I remember there is not really any dark elf tribes in Novelias Foruim?"

"Well it's a long story that involves lots of pain which I don't mind talking about and the loss of my entire family back in BellowGravia and well a man in a grey cloak handed me a letter and so I followed it's advice and thats what I am not allowed to talk about."
(She is telling the truth.)
"Umm what is the cat saying I don't understand cat you see."

"I see, it's none of my business anyway. You're heading towards the Magic Association right? I'm a mage from the Association, if you want you could follow the caravan we are tasked to guard." Luke replied while reaching into his vest and grabbing his Association Badge to prove his identity.

"The cat? It's just saying gibberish for the most part."

"Okay I guess I will follow you all then."
(Well **** you. Only speaking gibberish hmph if I am speaking gibberish than what are you speaking pure stupidity?)

"Cat, is the crocodile still here?"

(Yes there are now 3 crocodiles instead of 1 as well)
"I thought you said it spoke gibberish so why are you asking it something like this. Shouldn't you have killed it before crossing otherwise how did you cross the water?"

"Hmm? I don't remember saying that. Cat, you need a name. Can you scare them away again?"

(I will try.) The wave start rising slowly and back up to the height of Luke.
"Well that won't work haven't you ever heard that crocodiles kill with a move called a death roll."

"No, it will work, I think?" Luke mumbled unsurely as he looked at the unfazed crocodiles that now seemed irritated and began to swim towards them…

(As expected it really didn't faze the crocodile before maybe it noticed these three coming over here and that is why it left.)
"Get ready to fight move towards the middle of the island and make them come to us."
The mountain lion starts pushing the waves back away from the island.

Luke silently drew the sword on his waist and got into a combat ready position, "I don't think I'll be able to fight these alone though..."

"I may not be able to see but I can definitely kill 1 of these guys out of water." Whilst saying this claws pop out of Yvrainne's wristguards.
(I may be able to fight one out of water so you only need to kill one.) moves to the backs of the other Luke and Yvrainne

"Great, I should be able to kill one with some difficulty, be careful not get bit though." Luke exclaimed as he watched the nearing crocodiles beginning to crawl on the ground.

Yvrainne proceeds to run towards the one that is seperated the most from the other two and stop just out side of it's leaping range and begin taunting it.
(Well that is annoying now isn't it.)

The crocodile turned around and began heading towards Yvrainne.

"Not bad, I suppose it's my turn?" Luke mumbled under his breath as he ran up to one of the crocodiles and began provoking it.

(Umm and why did you leave dammit I thought we were going to go back to back. I guess I will play chasey with it then.) The water spirit mountain lion starts running towards the last crocodile and to spin around it.

Yvrainne lets the crocodile jump towards her before jumping over its head whilst scratching it's head with her claws on her guantlet. "Well this is easy now.”

The crocodile rapidly turned around enraged and snapped at Yvrainne again, the claws seemed to only hit the scales on the head breaking some off and annoying it.

"Heh heh heh thats the way I like my opponents." Yvrainne continues doing backflips over the crocodile scratching it's head and scales a little deeper each time with her claws.

The annoyed crocodile continued to try and attack Yvrainne but soon began to retreat towards the water as the scales on its heads began to reveal it's hide.

"Hmmph not so fast there mister." Yvrainne proceeds to jump and land on it's back and smashes her fist straight into the top of it's skull with the claws retracted and proceeds to continue beating on it's head until she breaks it's skull.

The crocodile begins to roll around in agony as it tried to grab Yvrainne, its tail seemed to be lashing around as well and neared Yvrainne's back.

"Ohh yes just keep doing this yes oh this is so much fun it's glorious." Yvrainne has a thin sheen of sweat but looks really exited whilst smashing into the crocodiles skull still trying to break it with her punches alone so as to not damage her blades.

The crocodile continued struggling and rolling around until it finally gave up and collapsed as it's brain could be seen smashed into pieces.

"Hmmph useless damm crocodile aren't you I could've continued on for another half an hour like that." Yvrainne looks extremely annoyed and kicks the crocodile strongly under the jaw.

The crocodile just began to ragdoll under the kick and fell back down, obviously dead.

As Luke continued to provoke the crocodile he chanted a spell under his breath, "Wind's Blessing." as he cast the spell time seemed to slow down for Luke as he watched the crocodile snap at him he moved his sword swiftly and aimed it stabbing the inside of the crocodile through its mouth, before pulling his sword out again and backing up.

The crocodile enraged began to struggle and attack Luke but couldn't reach him and collapsed due to internal bleeding.


As the crocodile continued to watch the mountain lion run around it, it became angry but frightful as it noticed its brothers dying and began to retreat towards the water.

(Oi no going in the water that is my domain.) The mountain lion begins sending the water away from the crocodile and continues slowly breaking off it's scales and sometimes dropping water onto it from above to disorientate it.

The crocodile began to roll around and trying to swim away not realizing it's not in the water.

(Silly fool how could you do that oh well I guess I may as well execute you now then.) The mountain lion proceeds to cut off it's neck whilst it is rolling in the mud.

The crocodile's struggles stopped as it's head was decapitated and began to bleed from the hole.

"Phew. You guys okay?" A sweat was wiped away from Luke's forehead as he dispelled his spell.

"It was too boring I the crocodile died to easily on the land." Yvrainne sighs after saying this.
The lion comes over panting (I just managed to beat the thing because it somehow got confused hop on so that we can get back to the mainland now please quickly I can carry you both.) Lion turns to head slowly back towards the place that they had started from thinking that this was too much excersise for one day.

"Let's go then." Luke hopped onto the mountain lion.

Yvrainne hops on behind where Luke was sitting and then the mountain lion dashes off and across the water where it then starts to run towards where it expects the town to be.

***

“And that’s basically it, as far as important events go. The aforementioned merchants’ leader soon announced he fell ill, and would be turning back the caravan, so our escort naturally followed. We met a few more ghouls on the way back. As far as the reputation of the association goes, I was left with the impression that, while the soldiers like us more, the failure of the caravan to turn a good profit, combined with the risks taken, has us look bad in the eyes of the smaller merchants, by proxy of us interacting with that obnoxious fellow the most.

While our task is just the escort, as party leader I felt that what I mostly had to work it was combat potential for a task that required little of it, and would request the Association acquaint me with mages who specialize in community work for the next task that is meant to ‘improve our relations’ with the citizens.” Joan waited for a sign the receptionist had finished assimilating the report, and added:

“The party will not request that people not assigned to the task prior receive the reward, despite other registered mages appearing mid way. Unofficially, I’d like to ask if any points will be deducted, thanks to the merchants’ disgruntlement? We didn’t work on mitigating that, due to the chance of backlash of the association involving itself more than necessary between different merchants in their hierarchy. This is all.”

A part of the Murder Collective, who was grooming herself nearby, while waiting for Joan to finish, thought, How pointless to try hard, rather be done quick and eat some rare steak.

 

"There hasn't been any news from him yet, but seeing as it is Sorgre, he should be still alive, at the bare minimum."

An extremely fatigued voice carried over the reception desk, which was swamped and overflowing with documents. Looking into the pile, Nadia was lying prone against a stack of files, her eyes drooping and her usual energetic counterance completely non-existent.

"The other two disappeared somewhere, and I haven't heard a scrap out of either for the past few days, either. If they're dead, hurry up and notify me so I can hire more receptionists. Otherwise, if they're still alive---"

Her sparkling turquoise eyes flared deep amethyst suddenly.

"---Hurry up and get back here to help with the paperwork! Don't force me to go Receptionist Hunting!......Apologies, I got a tad worked up there for a moment."

Flashing a bright smile that didn't quite go with the heavy eyebags and drooping hairstyle, Nadia shoved the pile of papers before her off the table, right into the fireplace.

"I'll go through your report for you, but for now I really need a nap. Wake me up in about 15 minutes."

Two seconds after that sentence ended, Nadia was on the floor and snoring away.

 

@BB_Tensei , @Exitiumm , @MaliMi , @Kysil and @TiggerBane .

"Finally done...You guys went way overboard with the details, honestly, it was like reading a novel that I had no intention of getting deeply into. But nevermind."

From under a counter flew a sack, landing on the table.

"Here, sort out the exacts yourself."

 

After reading this forgotten report, Umbrum didn't know what to say. He sighed and rubbed his eyes before taking out the rewards and giving them to Cad.

"I guess I shouldn't try to understand what you did there~?" He laughed foolishly before continuing to talk.
"Here is your reward, 1L.Wooden Coin, 10 S.Wooden Coin and 10 Merits..."

"Due to the lateness of our approval of your report... Mm, I don't know if it's enough but the rewards are double ! Only for this time !"

OOC: Wow... It's from months ago...
Anyway, will be sleeping now~

 

Collecting of Herbs in the Association’s Greenhouse
Rank: E
Type: Helper, Simple Task
Description: The Association has a constant need of herbs for cooking, healing and experimentation, and for this reason there’s a Greenhouse specially devised to provide it with a part of the needs for it. You task is to collect a basket of a single type of herbs there.
Reward: [ 1 L. Wooden coin | 10 Merit Points | Bundle of Herbs ]

Spoiler: Story

Garl happily took the paper and laughed. He waved to Momo and went to the Greenhouse. The sight was magnificent. Not even Gabriel had a garden as big as this. Everything was green, at first. It was only after he entered that Garl notoced the yellows, blues, purples and reds. The colors were everywhere, like a magnificent mess.

Garl looked at the sheet in his hands. He could read some of the words by now, as well as numbers, but big names were hard.

"Pretty blue flower! Haha! Fill...eh? What fill?"

Thankfully, a pretty Elf lady walked up, wearing overalls and a wide brimmed hat. The heat was nice for Garl, but for others, it might have been a little much.

"Are you from the Magic Association? Then you need a basket, right?"

Garl was surprised. He was wearing leather armor, so he didn't look like a wild or feral Goblin, but his appearance still shocked many people on the streets.

Garl remembered when he first arrived. He shivered and rubbed his neck nervously.

"Haha, you are holding a Quest Form, correct? Hm? Isn't this Blue Vervain? It is useful in reducing swelling and can be used in sedatives."

"...pretty flower help?"

The Elf girl looked at the Demigob and laughed to herself. Whenever she laughed, the plants nearby would dance. Garl gave a stupid grin, but said nothing more.

"Hahaha...yes, yes it does help. The Blue Vervain is actually a common flower, but as it is too useful, it is grown in bulk here. However, they don't have as much 'power' as the wild flowers. Here. Let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"Gihihi, Garl call pretty Elf!"

He waved goodbye and went for the blue flowers. The Elf chuckled and waved goodbye as well.

After about half an hour, the Blue Vervain was placed in the basket. Garl looked for the Elf, but she must have already left. Garl forgot about what he wanted to say and so left as well.

He hefted the large basket back to the Association Hall and found Momo.

"Garl found Blue Vervain! Garl do good!"

@Ddraig

 

Spoiler: quest taken

Spoiler: story

"Baaaah why does forging have to be the simplest task that they have I was going to give up forging for good but now it's the easiest thing that I can do to rank up quickly so that I can go and hunt something that is worth my time and effort." Cad walks moodily to the place that he has visited each time before the smithy enters and decides to make a dagger this time with an ability other than electric shocks. Something just a little grand but also demonic.
"Hmmm I should actually make myself a smithy after this so I can work on a bigger project than this like a demonic blade." Cadmium smiles to himself whilst thinking about the sword and smithy. "Ahh so that must be why all these disasters have happened so that I have a place to build a smithy huh because land costs next to nothing in Novelias now." The smile on Cads face grows immensely whilst he finally starts melting a single rod of cadmium. Cad flattens the rod and then begins shaping it into a blade for a dagger. Once this is done he douses it in water from his summons and carries it away so that he can find a good piece of wood for the hilt and then he needs to go and find enough blood to summon up some demonic entity...
Cadmium begins to wander through the forest and finds a nice dead tree which was knocked over by the passing of the ice phoenix. He proceeds to cut a section of the tree out. Then he notices something inside the centre point of the tree which is an old rune. Cad collapses. Then a sealed personality activates and grabs the rune. The personality proceeds to break the rune releasing a pitiful 1000 year old demon from within. The new personality of Cad forges the dagger and seals the demon within to bind it.
"Ugh where am I ohh well better go and turn in this knife I guess."

Spoiler: notes

The demonic being within the sword is dormant and only applies a strengthening magic to the dagger to make it semi-unbreakable. Furthermore it glows black in the dark of night and has a small chance of sending a burst of darkness into a persons body to deal damage as if it were the dagger when it enters into a persons body.

"Umbrum I have come to turn in my completed quest."

 

"The flowers are not damaged and picked properly and as such I declared your quest to be successful," said Momo checking the flowers.
"Here is your reward - 1 L. Wooden coin | 10 Merit Points | Bundle of Herbs."

ooc : that was a good report but try increasing report size next time tho

 

"Oh, Cad, already back ?" said Umbrum as he saw him coming back but then after reading the report... he couldn't help but sigh... sealing a demon into the dagger...? Is it even enchantment ? No, in the first place... is it "simple" ? Right, the task says make a SIMPLE enchantment, not seal a demon in a dagger.

"... why did I expect common sense anyway..." Umbrum sighed as he thought that it was bit... too much, he wondered whether to reward him or not... he decided that...
"I will just give a warning... don't find random demons in random trees next time please... and... is that even enchantment ? Yeah, true, somehow the weapon is 'enchanted' due to the demon being sealed in it but... it seems to be simply too much... also, the report doesn't contain much details I guess ? Short and... oh well, I don't find the fitting word, anyway, you will get your reward but next time, don't do something like this..."

"Here you go, 1L. Wooden Coin, 10 S.Wooden Coin and 10 Merits."

OOC. In my opinion, that is too much. >.>
Random tree + Random Rune + Random demon. <.<
Don't do something like this next time, okay ?

 

Helping in the Infirmary
Rank: E
Type: Helper, Simple Task
Description: A simple task to help out the in the Infirmary of the Association or nearby villages. Not only with the treatment of light wounds, but also organizing of medical supplies and etc.
Reward: [ 1 L. Wooden coin | 10 Merit Points ]

Spoiler: Garl learns of Medicine

Garl happily went for the Infirmary. He had no idea what it was meant for, but he knew he was going to help people. But as he got closer, he realized that there was something in the air. It smelled...sour, stale, and...sickly. The Infirmary was rather plain in its appearance, but then again, why would they waste their funds on such an unimportant thing?

When Garl opened the door, he was hit by a wave of chemicals. The Demigob scrunched up his face and continued inside. However, he quickly stopped as people started to scream and cry out. Immediately, several bulky men wearing plain white clothes charged in with angry faces. They saw Garl and took up fighting positions, but then saw the conspicuous badge on his chest showing he was a member of the Magic Association. They stepped back and returned to the patients to calm them down.

An elderly man walked up, using a cane to aid him.

"You there, are you here to help us?"

"Garl here to help!"

The man's droopy expression pulled back in surprise before it resumed its wrinkly appearance. He smiled softly and then escorted Garl to a relatively peaceful section of the ward.

"Usually, we ask the members of the Association to help clean the patients or fetch medicine and things, but seeing as you might cause more patients, we should probably have you back here."

The doctor gestured around the plain white room, but the smell here was absurdly strong. Garl covered his face and waved the air.

"Haha, sorry. Here."

The doctor handed a face mask to Garl to help him breathe. He then showed him the facilities.

"This is where we make the medicine that heals the people outside. We must make sure that everything is perfect, or else the patients won't get better."

Another man walked into the room carrying several plants. He sat down at a table and placed his ingredients around him. Garl pointed and cried out.

"Ah! Blue Vervain!"

The doctor and the medicine maker both made 'not bad,' expressions as they praised his knowledge.

"Elf lady at Greenhouse show me! Less swollen, sleepy drug!"

Both men chuckled at the simplistic description of the plant, but nodded. They were using it to relieve internal infections and inflammations through potions that people could consume. But in order to do that, they needed to crush the petals.

"Think you can help?"

The old man's eyes twinkled mysteriously, but Garl missed it.

"Garl help!"

"Good! Here. Follow what my assistant, Mr. Kun, does. If you will."

"Yes, Doctor."

The old man left while smiling, leaving the Demigob and the gangly looking gloomy man to make potions.

For the next several hours, Mr. Kun tried to patiently teach Garl how to mix the ingredients. He had crushing down to an art, but when it came time to measure out portions, he was prone to just upend the powder into the bowl. Mixing wasn't a problem, though, as he easily blended the mixture evenly. It would seem that simple jobs that don't require thinking were perfect for Garl.

"Hm? That's odd. I could have sworn I had enough for 15."

Garl became surprised at Mr. Kun's words and hastily began looking around.

"Oh no! Did Garl miss some?!"

The thought that he troubled someone scared him, but Mr. Kun just laughed.

"No, it is the opposite. I actually had enough to make 16. No? I just checked the report. I clearly only had enough to make...I see."

"Garl no see!"

"Hehehe. As I was pouring the mixture into the solution, I have to adjust my readings. The solution is never the same consistency, so I have to add different amounts of the mixture to make the same result. I didn't realize that the effect of the mixture worked so well today. As an added thanks for your help, you can have this extra potion. Not like I need it, after all."

Garl took the small vial of purple liquid and beamed at Mr. Kun.

"Garl thanks!"

Mr. Kun waved goodbye before returning to his report.

Spoiler: No Garl, so not in report

The assistant sighed and packaged the potions neatly into a box. He wrote across the crate in flowing ink, 'Belgard'. The old doctor soon joined him inside.

"So...is it getting that bad?"

Mr. Kun's shadowy face turned darker as he thought of his family still in Belgard. He nodded his head and handed over the report.

"Great Gods...has Lzarier gone mad?! If they try and start a war right now..."

"I am sorry, Doctor, but I might need to leave, soon."

The old man sighed and pondered for a while. he sighed again and nodded. He placed his hand on his assistant's shoulder before taking the report.

"I will go see if there is anything I can do. Maybe I can make a request of the Association, if they feel up to it."

They both thought back to the funny little Goblin and smiled, though both were sad.

"Doctor...I want to believe that I can be different, just like that Goblin."

"Don't worry, you are. Now then, let us prepare you!"

The old man slapped the assistant's back and walked away. Mr. Kun took a deep breath and followed. But, he hesitated once he got to the door. He turned around and looked at the place the Demigob had been earnestly working only a few moments ago.

How had the little thing managed to purify the mixture? No, had he amplified it? But expending energy or Mana just to infuse it into powder was wasteful. Who would put so much effort into such a small activity?

Garl placed the vial close to his chest, right next to his ID badge given to him by his leader, Gabriel. He couldn't wait to show off to the others. He was a little tired, but that was fine. A little work never hurt anyone! On the way out, one of the burly men handed a little slip with a sloppy signature on it.

"Here. Proof of work."

"Thanks!"

Garl waved again and practically bounced out of the Infirmary, ignoring the frightened patients. And just like usual, he duck, dodged, and tumbled around the cobbled streets as he evaded stupid warriors and guards who wouldn't give him time to show who he was. And then he heard crying.

Garl stopped and dove behind a large pile of leaves along the side of a building. He peeked over the top and noticed a mother holding a boy who was holding his throat. Food was lying all over the floor in a mess.

"You! You said the poison was removed!"

"Hey, lady, I can't guarantee anything..."

The greasy looking man with crooked teeth was hastily packing up his stall and running off. A look of desperation could be seen, even from the other side of the street.

"Guards! Anyone! Please!"

The man decided to only grab his money before running down the streets before the guards came. But the child's face was becoming purple and he looked...swollen.

Garl brought his hand up to the vial he just got and almost debated about whether or not to use it. However, the thought never made it to his head as he dashed forward, nearly causing the mom to faint from fear.

"AAH! MONSTER!"

Unlike the previous yell, this one caught many people's attention. People began running and screaming for help. Garl reached into his shirt and revealed the vial.

"Less swollen, sleepy drug!"

The mother looked at Garl with an incredulous expression before gulping down her saliva. She timidly grabbed the vial and smelled it first. Then she took a sip. She flinched at the medicinal flavor, but felt relief in her heart. She poured the rest down her child's throat and thanked Garl profusely.

"Garl help!"

The woman chuckled with exhaustion and noticed she couldn't get up. She looked towards the funny Goblin and pleaded with her eyes. She didn't know how to say it. Sure, the medicine was enough for now, it would give her child a few hours, but they needed to get to the Infirmary and she couldn't move! She was too frightened just a moment ago!

"G-garl?"

"Yes!"

"We need...to go to the Infirmary...do you know where that is?"

She was afraid. She wanted to be told everything was alright, but no one else was nearby as they were scared off by people screaming about monsters.

"Yes! Garl just left there!"

He walked off towards the direction of the Infirmary, not realizing the lady was not moving. When he noticed she wasn't following him, he returned to her and looked at her oddly.

"No move?"

She shook her head weakly. She pulled her child closer as tears began to stream down her eyes. Now she couldn't even speak!

"Garl help!"

Without a word, he picked the woman and the child up and began walking to the Infirmary. He held her in his arms while she held her son in hers. It would have looked romantic if it were her husband, but right now, she wasn't even thinking of that. Her nerves were shot and she didn't even realize what was going on. She was focused entirely on her son's well-being.

Thankfully, some guards arrived. They had to stay back so as to not hurt the two people, but that gave Garl enough time to show off his badge. The mother was surprised, but extremely relieved. She felt stupid for judging, but anyone would have been in the same situation. The child was saved and the guards were on the lookout for the stall owner that didn't follow procedures.

But now many people looked at Garl differently. He wasn't harassed the entire way back to the Association.

Summary:
Gained a Weak Antidote
Completed Task!
Used a Weak Antidote

@Naraku