| Roleplaying |Age Of Heroes - Hunter Board

Age Of Heroes ​

Here is the Hunter Board of AoH (Age Of Heroes), the others thread, related to Age Of Heroes, are just below !

Registration | Hunter Board (Where you are) | Arena | Central Plaza | Official Counsel | Offline Thread
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Hunting, this is what the world is turning around because of many reasons.

In hunts, a single or more masters/heroic spirits go and try to rid the world of either a corrupted heroic spirit, mages or heroic spirits that are a menace to the population, or mythical beasts.

In the continent of Initium, the aforementioned threats lurk in various regions including.
Currently, there is only information of the regions around Golden City as for now, the other regions are just way too dangerous or faraway.


Here is the current map with all the places around Golden City.
As for now, only the Neverending Forest is forbidden of access as it is reserved for the organisation named Arena.


Current targets:

The current targets for hunts in Initium are only minor heroic spirits and beasts, and various mages, sometimes even small cults praying to false gods. In addition to the common ones that anyone can always go for, threats of greater importance and those other masters or heroic spirits have brought back information about will also be noted down here, so that those capable of exterminating them get to know about them.


How it works:
You, as a player, are always free to write a hunt and post it here. You are not required to apply for anything, and as long as the story is realistic, it will increase your heroic spirit’s power as the heroic spirit acquires more fame.
Of course, the hunts can be made with way more than one player, but it is advised not to go further 3 players as it would be harder to compile afterward.

However, you are required to write a proper story with at least 300 words and the limit of words for one hunt is 30K words. Also, it is recommended not to make too much of a mess, as anything you destroy might be home to mythical beasts, and the nations have enough trouble at the moment.

 

Hunt Areas​

For now, there is only information about the regions near to the Golden Capital, further than that, it is currently lacking in information as it is already too dangerous.

Spoiler: ”Aureum”

Fairy Forest: The Fairy Forest is a mystical forest that's pretty pumped full with magic. All kinds of mythical creatures live in there, but they are mainly in the direction of Fairies, Elves, and stuff like that.


Iron Wall: The Iron Wall is a great wall build by a country to ward off the monsters outside. Here, many mages and servants are stationed to make sure the country stays safe from outer threats.There often are skirmishes nearby.


Golden City/Capital: The Golden City/Capital is the prospering capital of the country Aureum, and as a harbor city, it is a major trade hub, with wares and species from all around the world being surprisingly common. It is called golden due to the large amount of money being in circulation there.


Corpse Hills: The corpse hills are literally hills that formed out of corpses, which were the result of a giant, terrifying, decisive battle of the country. Due to the amount of death and negative emotions there, many undead, ghosts, and other demons that can only thrive on old battlefields, like the Jubokko, exist there.


Roaring Mountains: The Roaring Mountains are a mountain range in the north of the country, that form a sort of natural wall to the country north of it. There aren't that many monsters inside, but mysteriously, the mountains frequently rumble, causing avalanches and thus aren't considered safe.

Foggy Swamps: A swamp that is home to many witches. These witches range from the friendly ones, to the child cooking ones. Even with that many differences between them, they still live together peacefully in the swamp. It is constantly covered by a spell that conjures a magical fog, causing anyone that enters without permission to get lost and drown in the swamp.

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Yes, there can even be threats inside of the city. Once known, they are given high priority. Any master or heroic spirit is allowed to go on hunts at his/her own discretion, but is not required to actually remove the threat. Even information brought back is valuable, and both masters and heroic spirits are precious, so they don’t have to risk their life to accomplish a hunt.

 

Current Missions :​

Aureum :

Specific Places :

Spoiler: Mission : Corpse Hills

Guard the Surroundings of the Corpse Hills

Requirement : No criminal record / A certain reputation, not infamy.
Description : Recently, there is less monsters on the surface which makes things quite odd, it is so suspicious
Reward : A copy of a book related to the Corpse Hills.

___________________________________

Researching a way to enter

Requirement : A little of knowledge about magecraft and magic.
Description : As the Underground of the Corpse Hills seems to have no access, some people are needed to simply find a way to enter efficiently, it can't be a one voyage,
Reward : A Magic Tool and a copy of a book related to the Corpse Hills

A bit everywhere.

Spoiler: Mission : Hostile Servants

Capture the Hostile Servants.

Requirements : Beneficial Actions to Aureum
Description : Most of the current servant that are considered as hostiles are often known while some are hidden and are most likely to be what 'we' are searching for, information.
In other words, your mission is to search for those 'hidden Servants' which are hiding something significant.

Rewards : Depends on the performance. Nothing is guarantee. The equipment taken on the Servant can be kept within some regulations depending on the riskiness they can represent.

Limited Missions

Spoiler: Current Information

About what is know :

• They are planning to summon something or someone that may endanger the nation.
• There is actually two leaders whose relationship is quite peaceful.
• Under each leaders, there is four people having great power that are currently unknown.
• Each people belonging to the cultist's organisation have a tattoo of two deformed 4 crossed into each other.

Spoiler: Cultists

Requirements : None
Description : It was said... that cultists were wandering, often around the Fairy Forest, no, there was actually an organisation, however, except that they are planning to summon something dangerous.
We likely know nothing.
What's the magic they are using ? What's the name of their leader ? What's the different ranks ? How could they set up such an organisation so near ? What are they going to invoke ? What...

Rewards : As for now, the country is in danger, there is nothing people can do. It might be odd, or even cruel, but the ones doing this mission won't be greatly rewarded.
The country is gathering their money to form army, defenses, to hunt the monsters, they are already so busy.

Most likely, the reward may be land, in other words, a property.

 

[Hunt - Corpse Hills]

Spoiler: Part 1

'I need power!' The boy thought to himself.

Right now, he was in a foreign world. Though he had met a kind one-chan, it was no guarantee that other people would be the same. Also, although the stay and meals in the Public House were free, the boy did not quite believe that.

'Everything has a price!'

He was young, just ten or so years old but thanks to his experiences, Bob clearly understood this point.

'Power! Power! Power!'

It all came down to this one word. If he had had enough strength back then, he would not have become a slave. If he had been powerful enough, he would not have been used as a lab rat.

"Strength, that is what I require." The boy murmured.

Bob unconsciously sent a surge of explosive power into his hand and as he clenched his fist, the stone inside turned into a fine powder. But, seeing this stunt, he was disappointed.

'Weak, I am too weak!'

How to acquire great strength? Right now, the only thing he could do was to rely on the experiments of the Caster and continue the process. There was no other choice.

Bob closed his eyes and in his mind the inner world of his body appeared. HE started at the brain and descended down the vertebra to his chest, where he looked towards a bright red gem radiating crimson halo from within his thumping heart. It was his first gem, ruby and right now it was ready to begin its enchantment.

What he needed to do right now was to continuously inject it with life force feed it essences of beasts and stimulate it. like that, a new ability would be born. After that, the cultivation of the second stage would be considered finished and he could find another crystal seed as cultivating the third stage would take an extremely long time.

What ability should he focus on? Bob did not know and he did not care. Right now, he did not have the qualifications to choose.

So, what location should he set off to?

Fairy Forest and Foggy Swamps focus more on magic and the ruby was cultivated through life force, so they were directly eliminated from the list.

Iron Wall would be ideal, however, he had already asked, it was impossible to with his age and power to be conscripted. Perhaps if he had a master, it would be possible, but not for now.

Golden City ....just useless.

Roaring Mountain. Not much was known about them, so no!

The only location left was Corpse Hills. What attracted Bob to it was the Jubokko. With it, he could feed the Ruby and if he obtained enough life-force from them, he could save on food. As for the negative energy, who cares?

And so the young boy took on his tattered cloak and with a few pieces of bread headed towards the location without looking back.

It was time to hunt!

The journey was long. He used various means of transportation as a black passenger and was kicked out nearly every single time. This confirmed that not everyone was as nice as Leona and made Bob treasure that one happy memory even more. Still, he was capable of covering about two thirds of the journey like that and as for the rest, he simply walked.

He fed on anything he could find, but still could not repress the feeling of hunger. There was only one way to satisfy it and that was to tap on the life-force stored within the Ruby. Bob did not regret it. He knew that in order to fight, he had to be in top condition and so, by the time he arrived about one third of total life-force stored was spent.

Nevertheless, Bob finally reached his destination.

The blue sky was barred by grey heavy clouds which looked like they would grace the land with rain any second. However, they never did. The only thing they released was negative energy, which nearly drowned this poor land.

Even the ground was sickly yellow-grey with taints of dried blood. Not even weeds strived on this deadly ground. Every step Bob took, he could almost hear a grieving voice of an unfortunate soldier, who met their end in that same place.

A battlefield? This was simply a mass grave and the corpses have long since turned into dust, upon which Bob now marched.

The young boy did not stop to appreciate the scenery as he could already see his target in the distance, Jubokko!

As he ignored the mournful cries for help of the lowest of the low ranked vengeful souls, which only had enough power to perhaps scare a little kid, Bob walked towards the nearest Jubokko.

This one seemed to be one of the weaker ones. Though assuming by the colour of the bark, it was not at the end of the line yet. A perfect target for the young child.

Stopping twenty metres in front of the tree, he could feel faint shaking beneath his feat. The demon knew about him. Just like two western cowboys facing each other in a deserted street in some little western town, the tree and the boy scrutinized each other. No action went unnoticed.

Suddenly, it happened.

The tights and calf of the boy contracted and released an explosive might as he sped off at the tree. The Jubokko, however, was not an easy opponent and immediately used branches and roots, everything in its disposal to obstruct his way.

The boy tilted his head as a root pierced the place and jumped just as it was used as a whip to sweep him off. Landing on the root, he once again made an explosive leap, which also made his pedestal, the root, to break.

With that ten metres distance was crossed. Right now, it was too late to back out. The roots formed a barrier behind him, so the moment he would turn back, a terrible fate would await him.

Forward, he could only move forward.

However, this route also was not easy. Numerous branches made a net and enveloped him within. Bob did not hesitate and sent all of the explosive strength he could into his right fist.

His arm shivered from the might. His muscles screamed as they contracted more and more. His blood vessels rippled and drops of scarlet blood flew into the hair.

Just as Bob was about to be trapped, he punched.

*Crack!*

Popping sounds could be heard as the branches fell apart and Bob jumped from within the tree branch cell with crazed look in his eyes.

With his feet landing onto the ground, Bob made the third great leap. His right arm was fractured. It looked like a porcupine with some many cracked bones pointing out. Nevertheless, he fearlessly faced the final assault of the Jubokko with a fiendish grin on his face.

The tree did not have enough time to recover the branches and so could only use the bit it had reserved to make a final stand.

Bob also could not afford to waste times as the branches behind him could recover any second. He jumped from left to right, but every time, he moved forward and before long, he was four steps before the tree.

At this moment both from right and from left, the branches both as spears and whips came for him. Bob just released a crazed laughter as he made a final explosive leap, this time greater than ever before. However, it came at a price. In this fight, he would no longer be able to use his legs.

But that did not matter, because after this move, the fight would be decided anyway.

Bob accelerated so fast, that a tiny little crater could be seen below the place where he stood and several dents appeared on branches, which were caused by the little flying stones. With this one leap, Bob entered the striking distance and punched with his left fist.

*Crack!*

Likewise, his left hand became useless, however, the same could be said for the trunk of the Jubokko. Though in did not cleave in half, a huge hole was punched and blood flew everywhere completely covering the young boy as well as the ground below him. The tree did not have much time left, but it still made one last move and with three branches, pierced Bob's body before perishing.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" A maddening laughter resounded throughout the Corpse Hills as the young boy employed the Ruby and fed on the blood of the Jubokko.

OoC: I really tried to make the fight berserkish.
@Naraku , @Quaesitor , @Exitiumm

 

The 1rst Hunt

Spoiler

After taking a well deserved rest, Anon Dy Mous went to the Hunting Board and accept a job in the Iron Wall , why would and assassin go here you ask? Well because it's a battlefield where many "humans" ennemies are gathered, and you can't expect someone who is used to hunt humans to change his occupations overnight, can you?
Why not Corpse Hill or Foggy Swamp? Mostly because although they looks like "humans" they aren't there aren't enough information on how they act or what kinds of trap they prepare in their own territory.
Therefore Anon Dy Mous go to the Iron Wall.
The so called battles is only some random skirmish appearing here and there. Fighting head on is certainly not an assassin style, so Anon proceed to ambushe the various ennemies encampment. After wandering for a while Anon spotted a group of 10 soldiers lazy around, after waiting for a while to see if there are more soldiers to join and to obtain more intelligence.After a while Anon is sure that they have nothing more to know and no reinforcement, he decide to finish them, first he actived his speed up magic then throw his darts towards the 3 nearby soldiers, while the remainers are dazed he throws anothers 3 and kill the 6, he finished the others 4 with his daggers skills.
After finishing the fight, Anon proceeds to the looting and was dissapointed, barely a fews coppers coins, then again what can you expect from randoms soldiers, they don't get paid properly and spend their money as soon as they can.
Anon decide to end the day and go back to the Golden City. Next time he could try his luck in there, many merchants and wealthy people should give more money than in a battlefield. He grumpily walks back.

@Naraku
@Quaesitor
@Exitiumm

 

[Hunt - Corpse Hills] - information

Spoiler: Part 2: Escape

In the outskirts of the Corpse Hills, a small bloody figure stood atop a pile of bloody branches. Quiet happy shrieks rang within the silhouette's ears as the vengeful souls welcomed a new brother. At the same time, the stronger and bolder ones appeared directly in front of the figure's bloody face and laughed sinisterly. They reminded the fellow that sooner or later, he will also join their ranks.

To their actions, the figure just indifferently sat down and close its eyes. As soon as it did, the all of the fresh blood seemed to become possessed as they madly rushed towards silhouette and entered its body.

It did not take long for all of the dark red liquid to disappear. The only things which remained were the pile of now shrivelled branches beneath. It was only at that moment that the features of the figure could be seen.

It was a small, black haired boy with rough figure and clothes so ragged that even a homeless person would scoff at. The boy finished his meditation and two eyes as black and deep as the abyss itself opened and graced the devastated land with their gaze.

"Soon, it will be accomplished." The boy murmured.

After many battles, the magical ruby located within his heart was finally showing some improvement. The boy's regeneration ability was being increased. The explosive power of his limbs was steadily becoming stronger. The life-force the Ruby could release per second also showed a significant progress. Though compared to the first three stages of the crystal cultivation, these boosts were not permanent and he had to activate the crystal manually, it was a sign that a new ability would be born.

And so the boy fought, fought and fought. Finally, the active increase of regeneration, explosive power and life-force gushing output met their limit. Now, just a final push was needed.

To combine them all.

But for that, these vampire trees were not enough. The boy needed a better stimulant. So, unhesitatingly he marched towards the middle regions of the Corpse Hills.

The first thing he noticed was that contrary to his expectations, the amount of vengeful souls around him seemed to be decreasing. They remained at the outskirts shouting at him from a distance. It was as if, they feared something inside. What could it be?

'No matter what it is, I hope I will not encounter it!' The boy thought to himself.

As he was slowly moving forwards, the vegetation grew scarcer and scarcer. It was quiet, perhaps too quiet. Occasionally, a corpse could be seen on the ground. It did not turn into ash? No one buried it yet? No monsters ate it? There were only few possible explanations and the most probable was a zombie, or rather a former one.

Once the boy crouched down and inspected its body, he could feel nothing. No life-force, that was obvious. No magical power, that was a bit strange. However, the weirdest thing was that there was not even a strand of negative energy. Even the soil beneath the corpse seemed to be more eerie. IT was as if something forcefully suck all of the grief away. And judging by how the negative energy from the soil did not permeate the corpse yet, it was not a long time ago.

Suddenly, a chill ran down the boy's spine. His breathing became heavy. The mind was getting cloudy and he could feel weakness spreading over his entire body. There was also a comforting feeling to his soul. Something was telling him, that soon everything would be fine. He just had to stay put and wait for the salvation.

The boy reacted immediately.

Run!

An explosive power quickly gathered in his legs and he sped off into the distance. He put there just the right amount for his legs not to break apart. With every step the boy took, the ground trembled under the might of his stomp. The boy did not have a direction in mind, he just wanted to get away as soon as possible.

The feeling gradually decreased, however he could never get rid of the feeling of an approaching death no matter how fast he ran.

After a short while, the boy looked backwards and saw a transparent humanoid armoured figure running after him. No, it was not running, but flying. The altitude was not high, but it did levitate. A hazy grey mist filled with negative energy enveloped the figure. The features could not be seen, however, the boy did not care. He knew one thing for sure, he was no match. The only way to live was to run.

When about half of the life-force within the ruby was about to be wasted on healing his legs. When it seemed that no matter what he did, being caught by that strange monster was inevitable, the stifling feeling suddenly ceased.

The boy glanced back only to see the grey mist standing on a spot not moving an inch. After a short while, the grey mist around it retracted revealing a silhouette of a transparent armoured hobgoblin.

"What?" The boy did not understand. How could such a weakling induce a fear in him? Even if it transformed into a ghost it should not be that strong! There were some hobgoblins within the souls on the outskirts and they were harmless.

Nevertheless, the fact that the ghost-like thing stopped were good news. However, if it stopped, what was hiding over there?

The boy looked in the direction where he ran.

@Naraku @Quaesitor @Exitiumm

 

Spoiler: The hunt

---Leona---
"This will be a first then, Do you need to prepare anything before we leave to this iron wall?" I looked over at him, he seemed prepared but I wanted to ask first in case he did not. "Perhaps you need to bring food for yourself?"
---Zayne---
Seeing Leona saying good bye to the receptionist Zayne does the same thing and says good bye. He walks after Leona to collect the neccasary supplies for the journey while consulting with her for the items we need.
---Leona---
"We have about 4-5 fruit looking things, 4 vegetable looking things, and two pieces of bread, I don't think we need anymore unless they lied about my not needing to eat." walking outside the public house, I looked at Zayne "Where is this, Iron wall?"

---Zayne---
"The iron wall is located north past the never-ending forest and corpse hills. We can just stick to the other perimeter of the East side of the forest and continue heading north in order to reach iron wall from the capital."

---Leona---
"I think that's a good plan for now." Looking towards the east, I started walking in the direction with Zayne following behind me. "What would you be doing then, since I don't seem to see a weapon on you, well, besides the sword you lended out to me."

---Zayne ---
"I can use reinforcement to strengthen some ordinary objects and my body. Can i trouble you to find a good sturdy sized branch among these trees? For now I'll make an improvised club out of it and support you while you fight."

---Leona---
"Would I be able to do that with just a sword? I guess I'll have to find out." I got into one of my stances in front of a durable looking branch and felt a bit of energy leave and go into the sword, the next second I've executed my stance and I could hear the sound of the branch falling off behind me.

I felt that, If I had been a bit more partial in my previous life, I would have retained more of my sword skills since that stance would have taken half the time I took just now, and that was for a new sword.

I walked up to the branch and cut off and leaves and tiny branches on it before handing it back to zayne "Will this work?"

---Zayne---
As Leona executes her technique, Zayne watches her and falls into a small daze. His eyes glow prismatic and he only regains his senses when Leona hands him the branch. "Oh, thank you. Yes this branch will do." Zayne was puzzled. What was that just now? He felt like he was sucked into another world with only the figure of a girl executing that stance over and over again. He felt as if he....understood that stance. He felt as if he were holding a sword right then he would be able to somehow imitate it. Snapping out of his ponderings Zayne begins to snap off twigs from the branch and begins to channel magical energy to strengthen the branch. Purely out of a whim Zayne takes the stance the girl used earlier and moves his body in the same way.
---Leona---
"That's...." He was able to do it sloppily, but he was able to do the stance like a person who has trained in it for an hour. "You can also do that? hmmmm" I think I'll just use half my stances on this trip now, even if I know the counter for all of my stances, and the counters to those counters, It's a fact that I don't know him much so I don't want to give him free things so easily.

"It's quite useful, but make sure not to reveal it easily to people alright? you never know what they may do and may try to come up with counters." I already continued walking forward though, since I liked a soft bed over the hard ground of the forest.

---Zayne---
After executing the sword stance? Zayne realizes that he just copied a person's sword stance just by watching that person use it once. Moreover he didn't even ask the person's permission before doing so! Zayne felt so ashamed as the common sense he learned from the books in the library told him that stealing and learning a person's technique was frowned upon, not to mention he considered her as a friend. He decided that he would apologize and made up his mind that he would compensate her in some way. Zayne hurries up to catch up to Leona. "Hey, um I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I, I didn't know I could do that. How can I make it up to you?" Zayne says all this in a very apologetic tone as if he were afraid of being hated by his friend.

---Leona---
Seeing him apologize sincerely I let out a small sigh, "I guess it's alright, Don't be so down." It was only one stance after all, "But I'll take up your offer and making it up, just, in the future since I don't believe I need anything right now, and because I don't believe we'll be in any significant danger, I'll let you learn the basic stances to be able to defend yourself."

I continued walking, when I spotted the wall "That is one large wall..." I was speechless, It truly was huge.
---Zayne---
Hearing her response Zayne is immediately filled with joy. His first friend he made didn't hate him! In a joyful tone he replies "Yes! Just call me and I'll immediately run to your side rain or shine whether there be a sea of swords or mountains of bodies to climb!"

Turning his head to the wall in front. Zayne nods and agrees. "Yes that is a really large wall. Perhaps we should go look for missions over from the local guard forces. They'll surely be able to give us useful information."
---Leona=--
Being pretty sure that He was Over-Exaggerating things I walked forward to a board that had lots of wooden notices hanging on each pin, denoting reward and the level of difficulty of each hunt.

"Let's see..."
[Slay the Rat Queen: The Rat Queen has been over-breeding, and they are causing un-necessary work because the defenders have to kill them since if they get in, the farms will be damaged and cause irritation for many.]
[Reward: 10 1x1 meter treated Rat pelts]
[10x Kilograms of Dried Rat meat]
[2x 12oz bottles of Rum]

[Capture or Kill the Rouge Swordsmen group who have started living on the fringes of the wall, robbing hunting parties of their loot and leaving them defenseless to the beasts]
[Reward: The gratitude of the robbed]
[4x 12 oz bottles of rum]
[Half of whatever does not get claimed by the victims of the attacks]

[Gather a basket of herbal plants]
[Reward: 2x herbal lathes or 1 bottle of Rum]

"I'm thinking on this rat queen and capturing the swordsmen, what do you think?"
---Zayne---
"Let's capture the swordsmen first before taking on the rat queen. Perhaps they'll have decent clothes and weapons on them. I also want to see the standard of these swordsmen and see what kind of movements they can male."
---Leona---
"And it seems that they are living on the fringes of the wall, so they won't be that much of a significant threat but never under-estimate an enemy no matter how weak they seem to be."

I took two of the wooden plates and handed it to a soldier who nodded and marked the wooden plates to show that it was in progress. "Now that that's out of the way, we can start now."

The path to exit and enter the wall were clearly marked, leading to a side-door beside a heavily guarded gate.

"Be careful" I said as I went through the door and started walking into the forest infront of the iron wall, and immediately started looking for any tracks.
---Zayne---
Consciously activating his Mystic Eyes, Zayne searches for any traces or out of place features around them analyzing the possible paths people could use to remain concealed in the forest. Spotting a few oddities among the growth of the grasses and healed up nibs of low lying branches Zayne signals to Leona. "Here, look at this. It seems this is a hidden path to go deeper into the forest. Someone or perhaps a group of someones uses this path to stealthily observe people coming from the gates.

---Leona---

"Alright, Lets go down this path quietly." I made my footsteps a bit light but the realized it was grass that did not have much, or any branches on them because the rouge swordsmen did not want to be heard.

"Do you want to go stealthily, or charge right in? I say we go Stealthily."
---Zayne---
"Stealthy, definitely stealthily. I want some time to observe these guys so we can get the drop on them. If there are too many we can slowly whittle away at their numbers." Saying this, Zayne thinks back to the time that man Anon approached them with his fuzzy appearance. His magical energy revolves and his reinforcement technique is slightly altered. When he opens his eyes again, his presence seems to have become a little bit harder to detect. "Let's go."

---Leona--
I nodded then continued to follow the path, after a while I Diverged a bit and spotted in the distance four men standing around a small smoke-less camp-fire, swords on their wastes and a pile of loot badly buried to the side.

It seemed they were in a festive mood though, as they were drinking rum happily "After they have drunk a bit more, I'll knock them out and you be on the lookout to see if theirs any more of them."


New
---Zayne---
"Roger that!" Saying this, Zayne slowly circles around trying to pay attention to where they might have come from and if there are any more of them. Finding no men around the vicinity, Zayne listens in to their conversation around the campfire.

One of the swordsmen, a strong burly looking fellow in half-plate with a bastard sword and short bow on his back exclaims. "HAHAHA, it was a good choice back then to follow the boss! Ever since we submitted and obeyed him our loot and kills have been growing and growing!" Another swordsman dressed in leather armor and armed with a short sword strapped to his waist replied. "Haha yes, thinking back, those swift strikes with a spear were barely able to be made out and he knocked us all out in an instant. When we woke up and he asked us to follow him you made the right choice boss!" A third swordsman dressed in chainmail and with a pair of scimitars spoke in a quiet tone, "Say, where did the boss go? The last swordsman, who dressed rather strangely in a robe with no visible weapons replied that he recalled the boss saying that he would be scouting the area and would be returning shortly.

After hearing this bit, Zayne is startled and makes his way back to Leona telling her of this conversation. "It seems like these swordsmen are not so simple after all. It seems someone extremely skilled in a spear recently defeated them and took them in as his underlings. What should we do?"
---Leona---
"Let's knock them out and make them look like they are sleeping, then before that boss returns, we ambush him and It's it's too difficult we'll have to kill him." Leona gripped the sword and found a path to go to these four without alerting them. "I'll take down three of them then you take down one of them."
---Zayne---
"Right, ill take down that guy in a robe, he looks fishy and out of place among this group." Zayne grips his reinforced club and sneaks over to the robed one's back. Zayne signals to Leona that he's ready.
---Leona---
Readying my sword, I jumped out and hit the two weaker looking swordsmen's necks first before double striking the strongest looking one of the swordsmen knocking the three of them out.
---Zayn---
The instant Ieona comes out Zayne revolves his reinforcement technique and swings his club hard at the robed swordsman. The robed swordsman was hit hard by the club and was sent flying into a tree cracking it and he spit out copious amounts of blood. Before he passed out, he took out an amulet hidden beneath his robes and crushed it and fell unconscious.
---Leona---
"Get ready!"
I drew my sword and parried a spear out of the way as I counter-attacked and was parried again.
"It's time for you to stop doing this."

The man grinned "No, for you lady, It's time to become mine."
We parried and striked, and after a few seconds I was on the defensive due to me still being new to the sword.

"Zayne, look for an opportunity to get him!"
---Zayne---

"Yes Maam!" Zayne circled around to the back of the spear wielding man and attempted to swing his club at the man. However the man dodged in an almost contemptuous way.

Flicking his spear the man smacked Zayne away and grinned. "Haha, is that all you guys have?" Turning back to the woman with the sword he grinned at her with a rogue-like smile. "That man of yours seems dreadfully incompetent. He knows no movement techniques and his club wielding is full of blind-spots! All strength and speed but no technique! Just become mine already!" At this moment the man speeds up as if his previous speed was nothing more than him playing around. Now he became serious.

Zayne after being flung away coughed out blood and rolled on the ground. "Cough, cough. Damn this bastard!! He's too fast and skilled!" His eyes lit up in prismatic colors and he attempted to analyze this man's movements. Unfortunately his broken ribs hindered his concentration and he was unable to see through them.

---Leona---

"You can say that to the end of my sword!" I stopped using my basic stances and sstarted using some of my intermediate stances to parry and block him, he was as good as an elite soldier in my army in my previous life, but it was at that level that I was confident I could survive a match with him.

Though, I don't like taking injuries, which would be something I'd take if this continued for too long since he's most likely to have more stamina then me. "Zayne, Get back up! fight!" Using my ability to encourage, It caused him to gain focus back a bit.
---Zayne---
Feeling somewhat invigorated from her encouragement Zayne forcefully ignored his injuries and operated his eyes at max power. Feeling blood gather at the corners of his eyes he concentrated on the man's movements and finally, he was able to see a slight pattern. the man would retreat after every 5th strike in a row. He vaguely felt as if the mana in the world was gathering around this man and he was building up his momentum in order to do something big. He felt that this was the decisive moment and everything slowed down.

The spear wielding man found that the woman he was fighting was a tenacious one. His speed and technique were above hers but whenever he tried to give a decisive blow, she would block it at the last second and counterattack. Although she was accumulating slight injuries she didn't seem to feel or even notice them at the moment. Thinking that this fight had gone too long, he stepped back to unleash all his accumulated momentum and magical energy. "NOBLE PHANTA-----"

At this moment Zayne saw his chance. The man was using it! His ultimate move! Now! If not now NEVER! MOVE! Zayne dashed behind the man finding the last bit of vitality within himself. Throwing away his club Zayne grabbed the man as he was shouting and interrupted him. "LEONA NOW!!!!!"

---Leona---

I was getting tired from the constant attacks and tiny injuries he was inflicting on me, when I heard "LEONA NOW!" I saw Zayne grab the man and I knew it was time to deal the critical blow.

I jumped forward with my sword, cutting the man's tendons in his arms and his legs, turning him into a useless cripple. "What do you say we do with him? He's dangerous." I let out a large breath, This really was tiring.

that's when I spotted a different kind of blood on his leg, and it was a different color from human blood "You think he was fighting a monster when he came rushing over here?"

And that's when I noticed a pained squealing of a large rat "That's...a coincidence."
-zayne-
"A coincidence?" Hearing Leona say this Zayne who was on his last legs and standing on willpower alone looked around. Operating his Mystic Eyes once more though it pained him to do so, he saw them. "Aw crap god damn it. Look over there!" Where I was pointing was the direction the man had come from. There he saw a very, VERY large rat......along with a swarm of smaller ones charging at them from a distance away.

-leona-
Ignoring his vulgar language I spoke up "I'll take care of this, if this piece of meat" I kicked the spearmen in the groin "Can escape that monster, it must mean that it's weaker than him since it seems the Queen rat was injured and just chasing after him in a rage."

Saying that I ran over in the direction of the queen and ambushed the rat queen from the side, and once the queen was over, the rat army dispersed out of fright as I had just taken the queen's head.

"And with, that, we have finish--" coming back and seeing zayne standing there really tired, Leona supported him from the side. "Rest against a tree or something for now, I'll get the evidence, and any of the loot."

I had taken the queen rat's body, which was the size of a small dog, and put it into a bag I got from the loot pile.

"It seems they already pawned off most of the belongings of the victims, I was able to find 4 small lather bags, 4 sets of woolen clothes, Two bottles of medical lathe, a rusty sword, and 2 small silver bars."

As I was saying that I used both the bottles of the medical Lathe on myself and Zayne "I don't know how rare it is, but If it's not used, might as well not use it at all. plus, we need to get back to heal your injuries at a medicine place."

-z-
When Zayne was placed against the tree his hood had fallen down and revealed his true face. Being dizzy and delirious from having overused his Mystic Eyes and having lost quite a bit of blood from internal injuries Zayne smiles at Leona not knowing that his robe's hood was dislodged revealing his appearance. "We sure got them good right big sis? Make sure to get that guy's spear it seemed special somehow." After saying this Zayne fainted and fell against the tree.

-Leona-
"And he goes down..." I gather everything I could carry and placed them down near Zayne, The spear also since it seemed like he wanted to see it. I then looked over his injuries and bandaged him up, at the same time I rested against a nearby tree.

After a few moments of resting, I made a makeshift sled and put zayne and the items on it and starting pulling toward the iron wall.

@Raineternal

 

[Hunt - Foggy Swamp]

Spoiler: The witch and The Musketeer Part 1 { Noisy mansion in the night }

cring*
A magic circle appears of nowhere,in the middle of it a silhouette of a musketeer appear.
Rook successfully transported to the mansion where his main base of operation exist.
"ohh Rook is back~" said a witch that sipping tea in the couch near him.
"i'm back Cecillia" Rook smiled gently at her and sitting to the opposite couch.
What seems normal to them was a strange pair of sight a for this world,since most of Witch usually lives in secluded place alone,yet both of them enjoying a small conversation in the middle of the night.

The conversation deprived from many object about territory,witchcraft,supply and many more thing until a door opened and quite a sensual lady out of the room. Her messy hair,unbuttoned button and the final bonus of pillow being cuddled in her right hand is undoubtedly going to make many healthy man become wolf and going to devour her.
"huaa~,i'm still sleepy..."she yawned.
She looking at the sight of musketeer in front of her.
"oh Rook is already here"she continued.
"sigh~ a freeloader as always Viona" Cecillia looking at her with emotionless disgust at her sight.

The moment Cecillia pointed the fact Viona start pouting and tried to argument back with her.
"hey,it's not my fault there's few person going to trade with a witch like you"Viona launch a verbal attack
"ohooo,then can you said it once more with that kind of sign" Cecillia countered the attack while pointing outside.
Rook then remembered how childish the signboard in the front of the mansion,a colorful text that almost unreadable that actually spelled as [Witchcraft item shop we sell special stone here] yet the ["W"] word from witchcraft almost written as ["B"] .
"ugh....at least i can use my servant to help hunting and isn't your fault the magic stone quality is not that good "Viona tried to launch the second attack.
"so she accepted she was wrong"both Rook and Cecillia muttered in their mind.
"Arune work is arune work,she paid her lodging fee for herself"Cecillia shielded the second attack flawlessly
"BUT I AM THE MASTER!!"Viona yelled back almost crying
"then you should register yourself in Aureum as a master and start working"Cecillia TRIPLE COMBO!!!
"hey,you avoid to answer about the magic stone" at least Viona make a decent argument.
"huh,isn't you also avoiding my previous question,well isn't because my magic stone quality is good i still allowed to stay here isn't that right Rook"at least Rook got dragged to the storm.
Rook looking a bit hesitant to accept the truth cause he will hurt Viona indirectly yet he also doesn't want making enemy with Cecillia,yet before he answered they hear someone crying....
"sob*sob*i'm sorry my magic stone quality was bad my little viona"
....

The sound interrupt all the pointless debate and everyone looking at the source of the sound,a fine ice cold lady that almost like a damsel in distress appeared in front of them with a tears in her eyes.
"HEY! you make my little sister cry again!!" Cecillia bloodlust directed at Viona.
"i'm sorry it's not that Raine magic stone was useless right Rook?" Viona tried to lead the conversation to Rook.
"yeah, Raine your magic stone is the best to keeping [my dolls] beauty"Rook tried to cheer.
.........

A long silence come with the Rook last comment as it delivering the unexpected final blow and make all the girl in the mansion averted their gaze.
"ahh.. i need to supervise Arune hunt result that coming yesterday,bye"Viona tried to leave.
"yeah... i also need to create more magic stone"Raine also leaving after saying it.
"i almost forgot about it,Rook there's a mission for you"Cecillia giving a letter to Rook before leaving Rook alone.
Rook just smiled wryly while holding the letter,he sighed as usual and open it....
"i see another hunt mission" he muttered alone.

Continued in part 2 ->

Spoiler: R.C.B Mansion Residence

-----------------------------
name:Cecillia Angrayu
job: Witchcraft Developer,Foggy swamp mediator
short introduction: R.C.B mansion permanent residence,she with her little sister creating a witchcraft item to sell especially magic stone that giving short buff.She also the network master that giving Rook and Arune hunting request by other witch in the foggy swamp.

Spoiler: Cecillia Appearance

--------------------------------------------------
name:Raine Angrayu / Raine schneider
job: Witchcraft Developer
short introduction: R.C.B mansion permanent residence,she with her big sister creating a witchcraft item to sell especially ice magic stone that can be used as emergency weapon.While she looks like the Big sister she actually the little sister.She is pledge loyalty to become Rook [doll] as her life spent almost reaching the end,she pretending to become a good mother using Viona as the test subject.

Spoiler: Raine Appearance

--------------------------------------------------
name: Viona Demi Lioness / self proclaimed [Viona Schneider]
job: Master of Lancer Arune
short introduction: R.C.B mansion recent permanent residence,she was a young talented master who can use royal demonic sword that giving her a demonic appearance as she wield it,giving her a flight ability and making her ace of flying combat.Unfortunately she is very lazy and living relying only on her servant and Raine doting since they meet each other in the Foggy swamp.

Spoiler: Viona Appearance

--------------------------------------------------
name: Arune Fraile
job: Servant class Lancer [Spear of Bale]
short introduction: R.C.B mansion permanent residence as her master decided to staying there.She also doting Viona a lot while bearing the risk hunting alone to avoid Viona from getting harmed.

Spoiler: Arune Appearance

--------------------------------------------------

@Naraku
@Quaesitor
@Exitiumm
------------
ooc : it's the continuation of central plaza debut, i want to create the hunt story this time,but i want to make a spice to make the character around them feels real like he living in his own world so i added the NPC and my future second character(probably). well the hunt will be told in the next part while this part giving strong introduction to where his hunting mission usually begin as a veteran in this world.

 

[Hunt - Corpse Hills]

Spoiler: Part 3: Life Cradle

Below the heavy grey clouds, Bob and the spirit of hobgoblin saturated with enough negative energy to threaten a group of orcs, faced each other. Between them, there was barely 100 metres distance. Although it was good for Bob that the pursue had stopped, the little guy did not really want to continue on his way. After all, the hobgoblin had to stop because of a reason. However, that damned spirit just refused to move. It seemed that waiting till it gave up would be fruitless.

And so, our little guy could only clench his teeth and set off to meet his fate. Without looking back, he marched off into the distance.

It was quiet. Perhaps too quiet. However, it differed to the sensation he had experienced when firstly venturing into the middle area. This time, the silence had a speck of a comfortable warmth in it. Though the grey clouds were as menacing as ever and the soil as sick as one could imagine, the overall feeling was like returning from the land of death to a city with an exuberant life.

*Badum* *Badum* *Badum*

Unknowingly, Bob's heart started to beat faster and faster. No, it was not the heart. It was the Ruby inside it, which started to react. It was as if something was calling it. Something was begging it to come closer. Bob became like a possessed. His thoughts ceased and as if he was being in a trance, the little guy marched into the unknown.

It was only when he came to a crevice that he came to his senses.

"Jump in!" Something inside him said.

Bob hesitated. After all, this was something completely unnatural. What was calling him? How come that the words gave him so much warmth? What is on the other side of the crevice? Bob wanted to know. It was urging him to know. However, at the same time he was frightened. He could explain none of what had happened so far. What if at the other end, he met his fate?

But, he did not remain scared for long. Rather, he was not allowed to. After a brief moment, the grey clouds seemed to descend. The negative energy concentrated around him as the whole space turned pitch black. At the same time, the grey clouds turned pure white. Strangely though, even if the colour was as pristine as the first fallen snow, the grief and wrath it seethed knew no bounds. The clouds became like the white of the eye.

Something was watching him. Something was wishing he was dead. Something did not allow him to come to the crevice.

Bob could nearly feel death's grab. He instinctively knew that the only possibility to live was to jump in. And so he stepped forward. The black space around him wanted to stop his advance, however at that moment, the crevice turned crimson and countered it.

As Bob was falling down, he could see a revenant knight, way stronger than the hobgoblin, flying towards the crevice at an incredible speed.

...

Below the Corpse Hills, The Life Cradle

They say that light is inseparable with night. That wherever is yang, one would eventually also find yin. The evil cannot exist without good and chaos is a shadow of an order. Even life and death cannot be put apart. Corpse Hills is a classic example of that. At the surface, a land of death and grief awaits the traveller, however, once one ventures into the depths, they would find a place with an exuberant life. It was as if while the sadness, vengeance and negative energies concentrated on the surface, the hope and life escaped underground.

Years after years, the surface wished to exterminate the underground. The lord of Corpse Hills was ambitious and the underground was like a thorn in its back.. It led many campaigns underground. However, even though its forces had visible superiority, it could never give the final push. One day, it even reached the core, however, for some reason, it turned around and left. The lord however did not give up. It changed its ways and set up formations around the crevices and made sure that the place stayed isolated. Why it did so, no one knew.

This day, however, after many, many years, the underground received a visitor. It was a small weak little boy. With proper guidance and disruption, the guards did not notice his existence until it was way too late. Why this boy though? Would not someone stronger be better? Yes, they would, however only this boy could connect to the world of underground.

And now, he finally opened his eyes.
...
He closed them again.

'Let this be a dream, let this be a dream, let this be a dream, pleeeeeeeaaaase!' Bob thought.

'Are they gone, are they gone? I know, let's slowly move one of my eyelid up...'

'Nope, still here! What in the world are they?'


In the meantime surrounding the bed of blood vessels was a group of small tiny red humanoids with silver triangular head.



One, seemingly larger, a leader glanced at his side kick.

"Hey, on je vzhůru, že jo?" [Hey, he is up, right?]

The side-kick nodded.

"Davide! Kde je kýbl?" [Dave, where is the bucket?]

A small little guy ran towards the leader with a bucket full of ice cold blood five time his size.

"Tady šéfe!" [Here, boss!]


'Perhaps, I should look again?' The Bob slowly opened one of his eyes again only to...

*Splash*

"What the HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL???"

The boss little guy ignored Bob's rant and touched his forehead.

{We are the Cradle Guardians, It is a pleasure to meet you, ape!} These words rang within Bob's mind.

"Where am I?" The little guy replied.

...

...

...

The guardians tilted their heads.

"Where am I?" Bob repeated his question.

"Je blbej nebo co?" [Is he stupid or what?] The guardian turned to Dave.

Dave: "Asi jo, šéfe!" [It seems so, boss!]

"Možná jenom neumí mluvit srdcem, šéfe!" [Perhaps he just cannot talk by heart, boss!] The side-kick interrupted.

"Ne, sázim, že je fakt..." [No, I bet he is really...] The boss was about to reply when a bloody hand grabbed his neck and squeezed.

{You are mocking me, are not you?} Those words reached out to the boss's heart.

"Přece jenom umí, šéfe!" [He can after all, boss!] The side-kick and Dave replied.

"Sklapněte" [Shut up!] The boss exclaimed in a hoarse voice while he tried to smooth things out with Bob.

{We would not dare traveler. We were just wondering whether there was something wrong with you.}

Bob: {Oh, really and what was the blood for?}

Boss: {That? I believe you need life-force to recover so we graced your esteemed self with fresh blood once we figured you were awake. We were worried that perhaps your great self might have suffered a harm and that was why you were unable to fully operate. Thankfully we were wrong.}

Bob: {Oh, really?}

Suddenly, all of the guardians sent their thoughts into Bob's heart. {We would not dare to lie!}

Though for some reason, the little guy did not really believe those strange things, he decided not to pursue the matter anymore. After all, they did saved his life.

Bob: {So, where am I?}

Boss: {This is the life-cradle! A city below the Corpse Hills.}

Bob: {Really, there is a city below the Corpse Hills?}

Boss: {Yes, yes. Sadly that scumbag on the surface wishes to isolate us and so you are the first visitor in... nearly ever really!}

Bob: {That's an honor.}

Boss: {Well, it is nothing compared to the benefits!}

'Benefits?' Bob's eyes sparkled. {What benefits might I ask?}

Boss: {25% discount for all wares!} Just you wait stupid Corpse Lord! I shall make the Life cradle into a trading hub! There is no way you can stop me!

@Naraku @Quaesitor @Exitiumm . Well, GM, basically all of the world building I wanted to make in the Corpse Hills is done. I think that what I wrote should be acceptable, hopefully.

 

Spoiler: The Illusory Fairy Forest Part 1

Spoiler: Title: Don't click this until you are done reading!

The Tsundere Apothecary

Having just returned from the Arena, Zayne mutters, "Looks like the Arena is only for fights, no practicing allowed huh?"I guess I'll ask around and see what kind of herbs can be used to treat bruised ribs."

Having asked around the Central Plaza, Zayne was directed to the only apothecary still operating whom he asked about medical supplies. However, the apothocary replied that they were all out of stock as unfortunately all the medical herbs gathered in the Golden City were from the Fairy Forest. Strange things have been happening there and all their normal suppliers and herb gatherers disappeared and haven't been heard of since.

Zayne, sensing that there was something afoot asked the apothecary if he could try his hand at gathering medical herbs. "If all the herb gatherers you sent have disappeared, then why not let me try? Do you have a book on the various herbs that could be gathered there as well as the methods required to obtain them?"

The apothecary scoffed at him. "Bah, a complete amateur wants to go trying his luck in the Fairy Forest? Are you mad boy? There are all sorts of natural illusions and formations in that forest and we herb gatherers have taken generations to memorize some of the correct paths within. Even if you did get lucky and stumble along the correct path so what? A herb could turn out to have gained spirituality and been waiting for you to get close to absorb your body! What could you do with that clearly amateur way of holding that spear!"

Zayne stood there astonished at the lecture the apothecary gave and in a firm unyielding tone he said "Sir, I would like to try anyways!" The apothecary mumbled "Youngsters these days......" "Fine, look over in that corner, those are the spare tools our shop's herb gatherer had before he disappeared. I'll let you take a look at the book but you can't speak of it to anyone nor will you be able to take it with you! You got until I finish gathering up all the herb gathering supplies you need!" "Bah I don't know why I'm even letting you do this, you can't learn all the methods to gathering herbs in the book in just a brief glance anyways." The apothecary turns to get the equipment needed and Zayne flips through the book titled 'A guide to Fairy Forest's herbs and fauna.'

A few short moments after Zayne had flipped through the book titled 'A guide to Fairy Forest's herbs and fauna' he had memorized it's contents and organized it in his head.

However there were a few places where the handwriting was illegible and important details were obscured. For example under the drawing of Maleficus Concius why did it say Good Ingredient to manufacture combat stimulants but then have a bunch of illegible text under the How to gather section? It was quite weird. However the text said it was quite a rare herb as it was an ingredients for one of the best one combat stimulants so Zayne did not bother too much about it. After all how likely was it for him to find such a herb anyways?

Zayne took a look around after having organized the text in his mind. The apothecary seemed to be taking a while. There were only a few tools he saw in that pile of things in the corner so it shouldn't have taken this long to go get them. He went out and saw the apothecary in the corner sleeping. No, wait a minute, those snores were way too uniform. One, two snore. One, two snore. One, two snore. And did he just see an eyelid twitch open and shut?

Zayne was quite confused as he observed the apothecary pretending to sleep in the corner. He cleared his throat loudly. "Ahem." The apothecary then opened his eyes lazily and yawned in quite an exaggerated way. "Eh, it seems my old age has caught up to me. I somehow fell asleep after gathering all those things." Zayne's eyelid twitched and he suppressed his retort with all his might to say: Mister!!! You don't look a day older than 35 at most!!!

Deciding to skip over the discrepancy between this middle aged apothecary's words and actions Zayne asked him if this was all the equipment that was needed to gather herbs. The apothecary had started to gather some other things and he nodded while doing this saying "Yes this should be everything." Zayne nodded and started to put the items away into his backpack when he noticed something. The middle aged apothecary seemed to be putting on journey clothes and was stuffing a bag full of food and water and other things. Zayne was even more perplexed than before, so he asked him "What's all that for?" The apothecary turned around and in a matter of fact voice said "Well I'm coming with you of course!" Zayne was dumbfounded. "No, you really don't have to." The apothecary said "How else are you going to find the safe paths in the forest?" Zayne replied "No, no no!"

OOC: For the sake of brevity let's skip over the part where they argued for a few hours and Zayne left for the Fairy Forest.. ...

 

[Hunt - Foggy Swamp]

Spoiler: The Witch and The Musketeer Part 2 { Annihilation }

"This is...."Rook hesitating to continue reading the letter
"Yeah, it was assasination mission, there's a drug cartel trying to get new sources of material from our land"Cecillia explained the mission
"But it was written by you,isn't it waste of paper"Rook sighed
"......so do you want the mission or not?"Cecillia looking straight into Rook eyes with full determination of 'don't you dare questioning me'
"Ok, i will finish it now" Rook sense a danger to prying a little longer and let himself dancing in the palm of Cecillia plot.

< Unnamed Ruin near North of The Foggy Swamp - night time >
A caravan was parked circling outside of the Ruin,lanterns decorated and brighten the caravan,and in the middle of the Ruin there's a sight of huge campground being occupied by around twenty people dressed in black while on the outside the horses was resting in the stable enjoyed their food.

"Alright fool LISTEN UP! Tomorrow in the dawn we will cut down the swamp tree,and you guys going to do your job protect us from those witches,we already give each of you a special bell that will react if there's a witch nearby,stay alert and give alarm signal to retreat or to capture them!"
At the speeches that looks like the leader,all of the men listening in serious manner,there's a sense of unity as experienced experts doing a mission.
"remember our top priority is the wood and any species of fauna or flora in there,we need many sample as possible, and as always we pray for our goddess Nixie for our success ame...."

BLAMM*BLAMM*

Two sound of explosions signaling that they almost reach the ending before it began in the first place.
"INTRUDER!!!....." the leader screamed while holding his left arm that already lost half of it.

"Gatling...."The musketeer whispers it quietly

Dar*Dar*Dar*Dar*Dar*Dar*Dar*

7 shots launched and pierced the leader body and few people behind it.
The musketeer that sniping from the attics of the ruin starting his carnage.
-------
< Unnamed Ruin near North of The Foggy Swamp - night time | Rook PoV>

The plan never work perfectly as usual.
A tattered leftover from canon i shot earlier is trying to stand up,those enemy that their living energy almost dried,yet it is really a human nature to hold into straw and tried to come back home alive.

Dar*ckling*
I killed the one who standing while reloading another lead bullet.Then i sensed a sudden killing intent behind me.

Grett*
"Impossible for a mere archer like you to stop my thrust" the lancer said
I barely holding the pole of the spear with my right hand,and pointing my musket to him.

Dar*
The spear losing its strength as the wielder death,then i put my strength to the spear and throw it to the Saber that closing to me.

Jleb*
The spear pierce through his head.

I descend from the attics and start finishing the rest who barely alive.
Some of them pleading,some of them is cursing me,yet in the end all that left is a silence.
-----
Tring*trang*tring*
The bell in the hands of the musketeer is ringing loudly as the sight of the witch coming closer.
"Hufh,you didn't left any survivors again?even the horse you killed it first with the cannon" Cecillia said as she coming to the ruin campground that rekt of blood.
"There's no escape and no mercy for enemies"Rook answered as he throw the bell to the ground and entering the giant tent while readied his musket.
"Hiii please spare us"
A sound coming from inside the giant tent,there's two young girl that dressed in tattered clothes inside it.
"Wait... his clothes are different are you a servant who saving us" looks like the previous sound also come from the black haired girl
"Hmm unfortunately i'm not in rescue mission" Rook replied pointing his musket to the black haired girl.
"Wait....don't kill me,i'm the daughter of well known merchants you can put ransom to me and papa will definitely paid it"the black haired girl pleaded
"Then..what about you"Rook slightly bend the pointing to the right side and aiming at the white haired girl
"I.... idon't have anything left except i can offer you my body" the white haired girl also pleaded while crying and touching her skin.
"Splendid."Rook replied

Dar*ckling*
Rook killed the white haired girl and quickly reloaded the musket.
"Kyaaaaa!!!" the black haired girl screamed
"Rook what's happen there"Cecillia quickly entered the tent and looking at the dead body inside the cage.
"No problem Cecillia it just an unknown origin,a potential threat"Rook answered as he break the cage and grab the black haired girl.
"Then what about her?"Cecillia look at the black haired girl
"Daughter of merchant,also a potential threat"Rook said as he stuck a needle to the black haired girl arm.
The black haired girl suddenly collapsed and get knocked out,Cecillia reflected turning her gaze away as she know what going to happen to her.
"Why so?"Cecillia questioned Rook
"The one who tried to raiding us is belong to the evil goddess believers,i'm sure if she get back to her parents,the believers will tried to caught some information from her that will lead a danger to us"Rook answered as he grab the two girl bodies and put them in one of the caravan carriage.
"And also let's go home quickly"Rook added
"Yeah...i'm sure Viona will mad at yours bullet expense cost, i just hope in the end all of this will turn into profit" Cecillia agreed while adding witchy predictions
Cecillia then summoning 3 mini golem to help scraping the rest of the camp,lastly she change the shape of her golem into horse for the caravan carriage and bring it back to the mansion.

To be continued in part 3

 

@leegood @Raineternal

At Iron Wall, someone was waiting for Zayne and Leona, this person was just a messenger, nothing more, nothing else.
It was poor ol' Gravis, that soldier who wanted a rest but on who people counted on.

"Miss Leona, Sir Zay...ne ? It seems like he is knocked off. Please, excuse me. But this... Lancer. Let me check on him." It was an usual check on each Servant who were hostiles, first he noticed that Lancer seemed to be crippled now. That was easier to check on him if something happened since he wouldn't be able to resist.
Immediately, Gravis put a cloth in Lancer's mouth, to stop him from talking, screaming and all, then, he remove the Lancer's upper clothes and checked on his body, to see if there was what he was searching, something. Something that isn't supposed to be there but...

"Nothing." Gravis, that was he muttered under his breath, loud enough for both of them to hear what he said.
"Anyway, next time you meet an hostile servant like this, try to keep them alive. As for now..." Gravis tied up the Lancer with ropes while he pulled out a letter and said to Leona as Zayne seemed to be simply uncounscious and wouldn't be able to hear what he says.

"Miss Leona, here is a letter that was written actually for before the task. It was planned for people... capturing hostile servants without killing them like you just did." After opening it, Gravis began to tell it aloud, just in case if they didn't know how to read.

"Servants, Masters, Mysteries, Sirs, Misses, Lords, Nobles, Bourgeois, Commoners, whoever you are.
Know that no matter what or who you are, you will get only benefits by accepting this mission.
First, I would like to thank you for 'arresting' one of those many criminals, of course, you did it either for the rewards or to train, so all I will give are my thanks and nothing more.
Second, I hope you will continue do that, and well, Gravis, my soon to b..." Gravis suddenly stopped when reading before coughing and simply skipped a certain part of the letter.

"Gravis, in other words, I checked on the Servant because of some reasons that can't be revealed for now, you don't need to know." Gravis had trouble saying the end of the sentence, he continued to talk, explaining curtly what the letter meant.
"We don't trust you." That was normal, that was only their first interaction related to 'work', to 'hunt'. After all, his superior never talked to both Leona and Zayne, he doesn't know them personally or enough to trust them. It is the same for Gravis.

"However, you are still given a mission, if you accept if of course."

Spoiler: Mission : Hostile Servants

Capture the Hostile Servants.

Requirements : Beneficial Actions to Aureum
Description : Most of the current servant that are considered as hostiles are often known while some are hidden and are most likely to be what 'we' are searching for, information.
In other words, your mission is to search for those 'hidden Servants' which are hiding something significant.

Rewards : Depends on the performance. Nothing is guarantee. The equipment taken on the Servant can be kept within some regulations depending on the riskiness they can represent.

"I do hope that you will accept." Gravis bowed and continued to talk as he began carrying the Lancer to bring him into a carriage.
"I will go as my work isn't finished yet."

"It is said that the Corpse Hills are somehow becoming active due to a certain accident." Someone muttered in the streets.
"Did you know that a child fell ?" Another voice echoed in the backstreet this time.
"Hm ? Someone fell again ?" It replied on a bored time.
"No no, he fell into the depths, and we didn't find its corpse, in other words, he is still alive." The voice revealed what they knew.
"I see... so it will move." In the undergrounds of Aureum, someone said this as he began to write on a paper, the child did not return yet but he entered, that was the most important, the rest they didn't care, they needed to make something for it.

"And I need to report everything to the superior... Where is Gravis ?" Gravis was the messenger which was one of the most trustworthy soldier he knew, to avoid saying the most trustworthy.
"I just arrived, I needed to put a carriage somewhere, a prisoner." Hearing his words, he understood and nodded as he presented a paper to Gravis who seemed to be quite tired, with those dark circles, the travel must have been rough on him.

"Here it is, it's about the Corpse Hills, someone entered underground, a child, so we need scouts, more people to guard around the Corpse Hills."

Spoiler: Mission : Corpse Hills

Guard the Surroundings of the Corpse Hills

Requirement : No criminal record / A certain reputation, not infamy.
Description : Recently, there is less monsters on the surface which makes things quite odd, it is so suspicious
Reward : A copy of a book related to the Corpse Hills.

___________________________________

Researching a way to enter

Requirement : A little of knowledge about magecraft and magic.
Description : As the Underground of the Corpse Hills seems to have no access, some people are needed to simply find a way to enter efficiently, it can't be a one voyage,
Reward : A Magic Tool and a copy of a book related to the Corpse Hills

"For now, those two should be related to the Corpse Hills, I don't see anything else... on a side note, one day, I hope the superior will be able to create an organisation... a true one where we will be able to restrict more severely the places in the country... one we will be able to regulate through a hierarchy unlike now where most Servants are running free..." Gravis didn't know what to reply but internally he agreed to what his comrade said, it was... too messy, for example, the way he gave the missions was a bit messy... especially the requirements, they are too vague.

They needed to be organized, but the country wasn't, there was too much monsters to manage, so it wasn't possible as for now. They couldn't do anything against that.

 

[Hunt ended - Foggy Swamp]

Spoiler: The Witch and The Musketeer Part 3 { The journey begin }

<R.C.B Mansion secret chamber - night time >
Two beautiful maiden is sleeping inside a coffin where both of it filled with water.In front of them there's a witch in the middle of the chanting and a musketeer who lean his body in the wall near her.
"freeze" the witch chanted and at that moment both of beautiful maiden trapped in giant ice cube coffin shaped.
"thanks for the hard work Raine" the musketeer said while kissing gently the witch nape from behind.
The musketeer hand slowly hugging the witch,while the witch quickly turned around and kiss the musketeer back.There's a heart shaped pupil in her lovely eyes that looking straightly into the musketeer heart shaped pupil too.
"when i come back home next time we will make another beautiful doll"The musketeer said caressing the witch silky silver hair.
"hehe,leave the preparation to me Rook"the witch responded.
They kissed each other before leaving the room.

<R.C.B Mansion guest hall- night time >
Rook is opening the door while the other hand still holding Raine slender arm.The pair of lovebird sitting next to each other while in front of them Viona still busy writing something in the paper,and Cecillia just drinking another herbal tea next to Viona,yet her pair of vision focusing in a bell that moving slowly in her palm.Rook slowly grab a paper that already written and looking at it,when Viona notice Rook already in front of him she started the meeting.
"looks like we barely make a profit" Viona sighed
"hmm, i see the 8 bell from the last hunt obviously going to be researched as it's a dangerous item for us"Rook added while still examining the paper context.
"yeah,and those carriage will be disassembled for material that's the only profit"Viona giving the last paper to Rook.
"all those weapon and armor going to be smelted into my bullet this will take a lot of time...ahh they have explosion powder looks like the cannon cost is paid"Rook mumbled continues
"There's a excess food supplies at least you can sell it on the town the problem is..."Viona pointed part of the paper.
"Well it called drugs cartel for a reason"Cecillia looking into to the small bag that still being transported by her golem to special storage room.
Rook put the paper down and stand up "ok i will sell some of the material while going to the city,for now just leave the drug in the storage until you finished dealing with the bell first Cecillia"
Rook then grab some of the hunt results and crushing another teleportation stone. After Rook finish teleported Raine telling good work to Viona while patting her head then also leaving the room.leaving only Cecillia and Viona in the room.
"Wait a minute ....isn't this supposed to be called my work,then i am not freeloader,right?" Viona questioned Cecillia
"You just realized?" Cecillia smirked and also patting Viona head leaving Viona pouting like a cute small animal.

<Golden city - midnight>
Rook just finishes setting up the mini house with some furniture like a table,bed,and lightning with a lantern,Rook then opened the door and looking at the central plaza scenery that now empty,he walked away to the city outside gate while looking at the recent pamphlet about hostile servant and meet Gravis still guarding the outside city and just explained something to three person in front of him, one is a fine lady carrying someone knocked out while the other person being tied.
Rook expression then changed into a gentle smile,walking into them and offered some coffee drinks,bandages and dried meat then chit chatted about hostile servant information while walking with gravis escorting the tied lancer for a moment.

Prologue hunt end.

@Naraku @Exitiumm @Quaesitor @leegood @Raineternal

Ooc : maybe i will edit some part if i found typos and some word that make story a bit weird.
My character joined the conversation between gravis,leona and zayne

 

Spoiler: Roaring Mountains part 1

[I just joined something I do not understand] John thinks.
"Well, I should go to the mountains as it must be the coolest place with the best view nearby." says the young man as he walks toward the mountains.
[...]
After arriving, John hears a huge noise and begins to fall a few stones toward him.
"I just arrived and I've already encountered an avalanche," he says as he raises the temperature of the floor ahead of him, melting the floor and opening a hole in it, while also trying to melt the stones to decrease its volume.
[It looks like he has a monster along with the stones ...] thinks the young man as he sees a blue ball made of gel coming towards him.
John was lost in thought when he saw something strange.
"This monster is changing color !?" John speaks when he realizes that the monster made of gel begins to turn red as soon as it is affected by the temperature change.
[A very interesting monster, I think I'll get it for myself] he thinks when he sees the monster falling on top of his head.
"Hey, get out of here." When John says this, the gel ball shakes as if it means his words.
"If you do not leave then I'll freeze you" after that John lowers the monster's temperature, but to his surprise the monster is not frozen.
[Then it changes color with temperature ...]
"You can stay there then, but you will not disturb me," says John as he continues to walk through the mountains ...

 

Spoiler: The Illusory Fairy Forest Part 2

After leaving the overly friendly apothecary Zayne decides to head to the Fairy Forest. Zayne headed to the entrance of one of the safe paths and decided to pause at its outskirts. "That guy was really too helpful. When he saw that I was determined to go on my own he made me memorize the safe path which had most healing herbs I needed. However if I only look at one part of the formation, I won't be able to comprehend enough." Zayne's goal for this trip into the Fairy Forest was not just looking for medicinal herbs. He wanted to investigate the mysteries of the forest as well. Why did the herb gatherers disappear all of a sudden? What sort of illusions were there in this forest? He was hoping to get the answers to these questions as well.

Zayne carefully inspects the forest before him. He could already tell that the mana in the air had abruptly gotten thicker and that the source was in its depths. "That apothecary told me that even harmless looking blades of grass could be a trigger or a part of the formation. If I want to traverse this forest safely I'll have to keep my Mystic Eyes fully activated and constantly looking out for danger. Moreover I should gather information about this natural illusory formation while I look out for herbs. Perhaps it could be recreated artificially with magecraft. It would be useful to trap my enemies in an illusory maze. To start, let's begin by examining the perimeter of this forest. Only with a good understanding of its overall structure will I be able to form a good hypothesis on its inner workings."

Zayne started to take his time and walked along the outer perimeter of the forest. Quite a few times with his sharp eyesight he was able to spot common herbs called Slyph Dew most commonly called Slyph growing just inside the perimeter of the treeline. Slyph was a very common catalyst used for basically everything. He even heard rumors of it being used in food. He naturally picked these herbs after making sure that he wouldn't trigger anything. Other than that though, he circled the perimeter of the Fairy Forest and got a general understanding of its outer layer ending back where he started.

"Well, time to go in on this supposedly safe path." After resting a moment and double checking all his equipment, Zayne heads in activating his Mystic Eyes.

The path leading to the inner parts of the forest seemed to have traces of broken branches and flattened grass. This proved that this was a frequently traveled path. "Let's see the apothecary said that when picking herbs you should always stay within sight of the main path or you will be forever lost. But I can see farther than most people so I should be able to grab some herbs farther off the path. I really need to find some medicinal ones." And so Zayne got hopelessly lost.

OOC: What you guys want me to describe the process and not just time skip the important details? But I'm not like those Qidian authors who get paid by the word count......fine you guys win.

Zayne had been walking along the path observing the natural formations of the forest and noting mentally spots that seemed important. By now he had gotten fairly confident that he was able to understand the formations of the forest. He was sure that he could find his place in the forest even if he went off the beaten path. After all there were hardly any herbs around! Zayne had spotted the stock of an uncommon herb called the Calder Cup. It was a herb that could be used in medicine for internal bleeding! It would definetely be useful to him. It was just a little ways out from the road and he could definetely still get back after picking it. After Zayne had harvested the herb however, Zayne turned back and saw......nothing. Just an unending row of trees. Zayne blinked.

Zayne was lost, utterly lost. He attempted to find his way back to the road but couldn't. It seemed that there was good reason that the apothecary told him to stay on the road. Sighing helplessly Zayne could only wryly smile at his predicament. He put away the Calder Cup and proceeded to reexamine his understanding of the Fairy Forest formations. This time he won't be so arrogant as to assume he could break the formation but instead he will look for safe paths to travel and allow him to leave.

Zayne wandered around picking the occasional Sylph when he spotted them. He followed the lines of magical energy to the stronger anchorpoints in the formation. He found that uncommon herbs generally grew at these sites as the quantity of mana was enough there to support their growth. He came across more Calder Cups, Serpent Vines (used to reinforce the body) and Ling Leaves(used to stimulate mana regeneration). The Serpent Vines and Ling Leaves were herbs that had incomprehensible descriptions on their use but he harvested them anyways.

Zayne was heading deeper into the forest. He couldn't help it. He tried to go in the opposite direction many times but he ended up back where he started. He resigned himself to his fate and followed the lines of mana deeper still.

He followed them until he came across an invisible barrier. He was unable to cross it but he could still see and hear things beyond it. He saw a great lake like one of the ones out of a fairy tale. It had sparkling water and on it was a complete copy of the night sky. It had a gorgeous round full moon and various dots of starlight twinkled in it's calm waters.

It was unfortunate that a bunch of hooded figures were ruining the scenary. It seemed they were chanting something. Looking closer he saw a magical circle. "What were they doing?" Zayne muttered.
"Wait a minute those glyphs! Oh crap it looks like they are summoning something!"

Just then, a figure rushed into the hooded congregation. A commotion broke out and it seemed... no they were definitely pointing at him! "Oh Damn, they found me! Not good!" Zayne took off like a frightened deer. He retraced his path the best he could and attempted to lose his pursuers. Unfortunately it seemed they knew the forests and it's paths more than he did and so some pursuers caught up to him.

OOC: The next part should be the last.

 

Spoiler: The Illusory Fairy Forest Part 3

Zayne darted back the way he came. He unconsciously mimiced that lancer's movement he met before in his determination to be faster. He made small adjustments to his running form and went faster and faster. It seemed like he would get away entirely when he suddenly he seemed to step into a gorge. A cliff face hundreds of meters tall appeared in front of him and he was forced to stop.

"Crap, are these the illusions Fairy Forest is famed for? Where is it? Where's the anchor point? I need to break it to get out. I don't have much time before they catch up!" Searching frantically Zayne spotted a small discrepancy in the mana around him. The point was about 15 meters up on the cliffside. Zayne concentrated and did a running start. He would scale this cliff and make it out! Zayne jumped and stabbed his spear into the rockface. He used it as a foot hold to propel himself further and through this manner he got to the point and stabbed at it.

All of a sudden the illusion broke. He was in the middle of a clearing stabbing his spear into the lone tree that stood at its center. The tree let out a piercing screech and the vines entwined about its trunk lifted and lashed out. "Oh shit!" Zayne exclaimed and pushed off the tree. A rumbling sound echoed throughout the clearing and the soil all around dislodged as thick roots began to wave about.

Just then, the pursuers caught up to Zayne and were caught in the crossfire as well. Zayne witnessed several of them being struck by the whiplike plant roots but it seemed as if they had little effect on them. His eyes caught a hint of their secrets as the glyphs on the robes lit up and informed him that damage would be greatly negated against their robes. "Those robes look useful!" Zayne exclaimed in his mind.

The cultists, Zayne presumed they were cultists, jumped back and in an extremely efficient manner all started synchronized chanting. They drew glyphs in the air using their mana and terrifying fluctuations of magical energy started to be drawn into them. Zayne could somehow tell that they aimed to bombard the entire place to destroy both him and the tree. Luckily though the tree seemed to regard them as a higher threat and diverted most of its attacks to them.

"This synchronized chanting has to be stopped or I'll be blown to kingdom come!" Dodging the flailing tree roots and hopping from one to the next he made his way over to them. Zayne had an idle thought in his mind. Since when was he able to do this? Just a few days ago he was looked down upon by that Lancer for having no technique or grace and now he was dodging tree roots in such a chaotic battle. He was nowhere near Leona's efficiency or that Lancer's graceful movements, but he thought to himself that he did improve.

One of the cultists noticing that Zayne was making his way over smirked and drew a glyph facing his direction. It immediately gathered magical energy and shot out a streak of light. Zayne was in the middle of the air and seeing this glyph twisted abruptly by stabbing a tree root and forcefully changed direction. Unfortunately the light clipped him and he felt a burning sensation in his side. No time to look at it. He needed to disrupt them or he'd be finished!

If only he knew how to cast ranged attacks! Zayne bemoaned the fact that he only knew reinforcement right now. He had an inkling of the principles behind those glyphs the cultists just now shot at him but he needed time! He couldn't focus on unraveling it's secrets while dodging. He had to brute force it! Maybe if he poured enough mana into it it'll work!

Zayne sped towards the cultists and prepared to get as close as possible! Their spell was finishing up, the emanations of magical energy were reaching their crescendo! That same cultist who fired a shot at him grinned again at Zayne's approach. He drew a different glyph this time but Zayne didn't let him! Zayne threw the spear in his right hand straight at the cultist while drawing a glyph with his left!

The cultist flinched back and left the new glyph unfinished. Meanwhile Zayne poured all his remaining magical energy into the glyph in his left hand and aimed at the other chanting cultists! His small glyph flew out with it's unstable lines and patterns! It collided with the unfinished glyph and created a massive explosion!

KABOOOM! The glyphs chain reacted and drew in the other glyphs filled with dense magical energy. A conflagration insued tearing apart the dozens of roots and the cultists chanting. Zayne who was closeby had shifted into a defensive posture and in the split second it took for the glyphs to collide he threw himself into one of the ditches unearthed from the roots flailing!

The explosion passed by and buffeted his back! The tree let out a mournful wail as dozens of tree roots were broken and the cultists were sent flying! Zayne was crushed against the dirt ditch and he blacked out for a few moments.

Went Zayne regained consciousness a few moments later he ignored his scalded back and the likely cauterized hole in his side. He took a look around and saw that the cultists were remarkably still alive! They were scattered around the clearing dazed but the fact they survived such an explosion was bad news. Zayne rushed to the closest cultist next to him. He mustered up his strength and knocked him out with a piece of rock he found nearby! He dragged the body of the cultist and ran deeper into the forest.

When Zayne stopped to pant and regain his breath the pain in his back and side flared up along with his previously injured ribs. "Ahhhhhh. Dammit. This isn't good. I'm blacking out every few seconds." The cultist Zayne had grabbed started to stir. "I need him to spit out the way to get out of here or I'm as good as dead!"

Zayne grabbed the cultist and stripped him of his things. He found a small pouch full of herbs and bottles of a strange liquid. He also took the cultist's robes and put it on. His previous robes were burned off in the magical conflagration. Zayne then put a hand around the cultists neck and slapped him hard.

"Tell me how to get out of this forest and I won't give you a hard time." The cultist who was violently woken up stared dazed at Zayne. He began to breathe in to shout but Zayne squeezed and he choked. "I won't tell you anything! Once the others get here you'll be finished!! Zayne grinned. "Alright, let's do this the hard way."

-------------------------------------------------------------

A couple minutes later. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! STOP STOP PLEASE! I'LL TELL YOU JUST PLEASE NO MORE!!" Zayne laughed. It looks like that book in the library proved useful. Interrogation 101. 101 ways to make a hostage spill the beans. "Now begin by telling me the way out. Along the way we can discuss what your group has been doin in this forest." Putting up a brave front Zayne proceeded to let the cultist lead the way out. Zayne was completely spent and he hardly had the strength to walk.

The cultist spilled everything he knew on the way back to the Golden City. His group's objective back in that Fairy Forest was revenge. They had been preparing to summon something or someone to take revenge against this country. He frantically explained that he had no idea as to the true identity of this creature as only the leadership knew anything. He did know that whatever was being summoned, it was so powerful and nefarious that this country would be brought to it's knees. To this end they have been providing live sacrifices (the herb gatherers who entered the forest) and had been using the Fairy Forest's natural illusions and mana to provide the cover and power needed to summon it.

Zayne knew that he had stumbled into something big. He had to tell Gravis!
As soon as the Central Plaza of the Golden City came in sight Zayne yelled out. "GRAVIS, GRAVIS WHERE ARE YOU!!!"

@Naraku

 

[mission : hostile servants - The Neverend Forest]

Spoiler: Following the bug into the nest

<Golden city unnamed restaurant - morning | Rook PoV>

what's the best idea to hide a tree?of course the answer is in the forest. just like that way of thinking,there's a possibilities that the hostile servants was hiding among the citizen of this city.
"please,just give my material back"the blacksmith pleaded to the swordsman in front of his table.
that swordsman just sent back a sinister remark to the blacksmith and give a threat to him...
"only if you finished our orders"

the blacksmith despair faces,i vividly remember that after all it's the second time i see that expression.
The first one is when he found his daughter choose to joined my mercenary groups in the past instead living with him.
Henry the Effrenus hammer,it was his prime glory title as the finest iron blacksmith in the city with many insight of inspiration like the Effrenus ocean itself. Yet behind the deep of the ocean it lies an abusive father and talent killer as he stole his own apprentice ideas while breaking their morale to continue life as blacksmith.
while i continue to chat with a Ruler class servant who sitting in front of me i keep my focus to listen their conversation.

After they leave their restaurant i keep tailing them from a certain distance,it's looks like they walked into Henry workplace.
I waited in the outside about an hour then i looked only the swordsman leave with a bag that packed full with something.
Then i focused my vision to the window glass of the front door of the workshop and i can see a trace of Henry lying with a sword stabbed in his chest.
"it seems it's the end for him" i continued to tailing the swordsman.

<The Neverend Forest - noon | Rook PoV>
Quite a surprise for me i ended up tailing him till here,the swordsman easily passing through the inspection...
"what's actually inside the bag?" i put my interest to his bag.
then another unexpected surprise come to me,there's a few hut near the entrance of the forest and i see around 6 other swordsman that having fun time with an ale in their hand.
oh well i readied my musket and finished them it didn't take a long time since they looks like a second rate thug and someone who they called the boss only a saber class servant with a sword that can shot a fireball.

I grabbed the bag and looking at what inside of the bag and inside there was only a thread bundle.my hand tried to grab and stretch over it and it's actually quite a durable one like a spider thread.
i nodded a durable thread for armor i suppose,then i search around the hut and found another few bundle of it and a magic circle.
"khukhu..."i laughed quietly when i read the magic circle written spell,it was a rare scroll to enhance a material into object quickly.
the rest is obvious choice,i used the scroll to enhance my uniform with the spider thread.

After that i searched around the corpse body and looks like i hit a bingo, i found a tattoo in the saber chest. That old man Gravis checking the yesterday lancer chest and looking at something that should been there. The next step left is clearing the evidence the weapon that killed them so i used the saber sword to burned the rest corpse and some of the tree where the bullet end up after piercing those swordsman body, For the saber i just added deep stab wound to the shot wound until there's no trace of shot wound.

<Golden city central plaza - dawn | Rook PoV>
after bringing back the saber corpse and his sword to the city guard,then the city guard lead me to an office building, i been told to waited outside when i heard a loud sound...
"GRAVIS, GRAVIS WHERE ARE YOU!!!" a young man in mantle screamed that while running passing through me...
it seems something big going to come soon.

@Naraku @Quaesitor @Exitiumm

 

[Mission: Cultists?]

Spoiler: First Mission Start!

The Central Plaza of this "Golden City" is too stuffy for me. Merchants everywhere, and adventurers crowding the streets as well. It was easiest to register at this, Hunter Group, and leave, rather than stay in one place and try to figure out my situation. As soon as I had left the city, I tried out the ability I had since I was a child. I pulled off a glove, from my left hand, and held out my right. Biting my left thumb, I drew blood and dripped it onto the gloved hand and spoke aloud.

"Come, [Lazarus]"

A light flashed, as the blood seemed to condense. A minuscule sphere formed, and I knew I succeeded. A small face appeared, made up of three holes in the blood.

(You called me, Shu?)

As he quivered, speaking, I couldn't help but smile in relief. I had at least one part of home with me.

"Yes, Lazarus. We are in a less than desirable situation at the moment, and I need someone to be watching my back."

The slime seemed to nod, and deftly began climbing my arm to my shoulder. With a wide sweeping glance around the world, Lazarus seems to have come to a conclusion.

(...this, is a different world. One that is almost, mana starved.)

I couldn't help but nod. Summoning Lazarus required mana, and his own forming needed a substance to form a body. The reason not just any material was used to call upon one of the spirits was because the base material and extra materials, especially at the beginning all affected the evolutionary path of a slime. And in this mana starved world, there were no better materials than my own blood. That, in itself, is a problem. I would have to either feed him sub-par materials, or keep him small and weak for an indefinite amount of time. Either option wasn't a proper answer to the current dilemma.

 

[ Limited Missions : Cultist - The Neverend Forest]

Spoiler: Shadow of Monster part 1/2 { a new residence }

<The Neverend Forest - night >
A statue of goddess been sullied by the blood of human.
"i see the Nixie cult isn't part of this" Rook said confirming the dead body of Nixie believers he just killed.
looking back into the statue,Rook putt out a handkerchief and cleaned it from the filth.
A moment later Rook bringing out his sword and burned the corpse.

Rook then moving into the hut where he found the previous hostile servants. As he expected there's few people there that investigated how their teammates are dying.
"its no use,no evidence left on the scene" said someone who dressed like a cultist that the young man in bought to the city previously.
"we should report it soon then,Everyone get back to the outpost now"said the other cultist next to him.
4 of them then walking in a formation going to the deeper part of the forest while Rook still scouting them.

<The Neverend Forest Cultist Outpost- night |Rook PoV >
When i finally reach their outpost i saw a luxury carriage out of the biggest tent,a few other mini tents,and one watchtower in the front gate, Then i focused my gaze in that luxury carriage that still being guarded by 2 knight bodyguard.
Which mean some kind of noble is backing up this Cultist movement...
As telling me that my deduction was right a young noble girl that dressed in elegant black knight outfit out of the tent with a muscular butler a few moment later.

"it's the sole granddaughter of Duke Crowfall, Ravenia Crowfall" i remembered her elegant young body cause she is almost like a living doll.
I see,Looks like Goddess Nixie pulling a string behind me and told me to capture the Duke grand daughter instead of her believers.
"i accept the trade" i said to myself smiling a corrupted grin.

<R.C.B Mansion secret chamber - night time | Ravenia PoV >
i was ashamed...
ashamed of my weakness,cause i can't fulfill the knight code of Crowfall bloodline.
"Thank goodness there's no that filthy brand in your body"said that white colored uniform soldier who inspecting my body right now.
I still can't believe why i am being chained while he undressing my knight uniform like a prisoner that just been bought to be tortured later.

A few moment ago i still sitting in my carriage to go back home when suddenly i heard a scream and my carriage showing a sign being burned,i quickly jumped out and break myself from the fire.
"what happen?" i looked into my bodyguard that forming defensive position.
i saw two of my bodyguard being burned alive with the horses...
ctar*tar*tar*
Loud noises quickly echoing in my head i reflectively blinked my eyes and what i see,all my bodyguard already fallen in the ground with a hole in some part of their body...
"who are you !" i screamed but the man that dressed in white uniform responded by leaping into me with a stone in his right hand and a unique weapon in his left hand,i readied my sword stance to receiving an attack when suddenly a flashing light come out from the stone.
Then the environment suddenly changed and he swiftly knocked out my hand with his weapon then followed by aiming his weapon at my neck.
"I...I surrender"

"Rook,is that our new doll"the witch beside him suddenly speaking waking me up from my deep slumber of thought.
"yes Raine,unfortunately she is too beautiful to become a normal doll,so i need that item"that soldier responded
"i see,its only one in the world since she died you know?you sure using it on her?" the witch coming closer into me after grabbing a suspicious paper from a box next to her.
"yes,she will become our daughter"the soldier answered
"yay~,you can call me Mommy from now on~"the witch continued
"Eh !?" i confused
Then the witch placed a paper with a mark on my chest as she muttered something and my conscious fading....

ooc: yatta my character family got a new member,i will continue the last part tomorrow
ooc 2: at first i just want to killed her but her name is so catchy and cool i decided to added her as my cast.
@Naraku

 

[ Limited Missions : Cultist - The Neverend Forest]

Spoiler: Shadow of Monster part 2/2 { Warning sign }

<R.C.B Mansion Guest hall - early morning >
The clock showing 2 o'clock as a sign morning will rise soon as the black night almost dried up like the ink in the paper that Rook just used to write the important intel from her new daughter Ravenia.
"is there anything else you want to ask daddy?" Ravenia showing enthusiasm leaking all she know about Crowfall connection to the cultist.
"good work" Rook giving her a gentle pat to her head as he stand up from the chair.
Then Rook kissed Raine who listening all the conversation while hugging her new daughter.
"thank you for staying up with me,but you need rest" Rook worried about his beloved Raine.
"mmm..,then i will slept with Ravenia for now" Raine still hugging and monopolized Ravenia cuteness.

tap*tap*
"oh a guest?" a lancer who carrying a deer from her hunt entering the hall.
"Arune perfect timing we have mission to finish now" Rook responded
"what about the guest?" Arune still being wary with Ravenia existence
"she isn't a guest she is Ravenia my new daughter" Rook walked away to the storage room hallway.
"wait? what? a new daughter that's mean..... my master younger sister?" Arune confused
"eh? i have big sister?" Ravenia shocked
"haaaa?" Arune get more confused at her respond
"ara..ara... where should i explain first?"Raine sighed to cleared up what just happened.
"Raine it's alright,i will be the one explaining it"Rook shouted from the hallway.
Scheneider family just got more twist and twisted from now on...

<Golden city Duke Crowfall Grand Mansion - morning | Rook PoV>
4 basic foundation to maintain a high level syndicate is military,influence,market,and resources.
But if one cut down i am sure the rest will fall soon.
"Boss of resources,Duke Corv Crowfall how it's feel to death in both of dream and reality?" i looked at the old man chest i just stabbed to death with a javelin.
There's the tattoo symbol that almost similar to Gravis mentioned unless there's a few decoration in the corner of it like a symbol for higher up tattoo.
"seriously why lance class weapon out of the rest?" Arune nagged but her hand doesn't stopped from taking away some precious document and book while the rest of human sized golem carrying antique weapon and jewellery chest from the hidden room.
"i just owned a sword today,so it's going to make me suspicious if i used any sword or my musket"i explained back then taking the Duke ring and necklace.
"leaving no trace lead to you as usual,anyway where's the hidden exit?"Arune received the ring and necklace from me.
"Right here"i pushed the wardrobe and a staircase can be seen.
"alright then lets go i need to make breakfast for my master"Arune lead the golem to entering it.
"you go first i need to finish sett up a wake up call"i pulling the Duke body with the javelin out of his bed.
"to who?"she asked
"a few people that need to know about the monster shadow" i answered in my mind the face of Leona,Gravis,and Zayne popped out for a second.

Prang*
I throwed the javelin with all my might and the dead body of the Duke crashed into the giant window and falling away to the central plaza near his residence.
After that i also entered the hidden exit and run away leaving no trace of me inside the Duke assassination and robbery.
As i run away by now people should know that the monster isn't just a normal monster summoning...
It's actually....
Coup d'État in disguise.