Again, sorry for the slow releases that amount to basically what manga chapters get. I've mostly been planning what I'm going to teach for the Summer and making lesson plans for those classes. I've only been writing when I get some good ideas.

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

Another creature suddenly jumped down from the trees down next to Ban. It had dark orange hair and was shaped like a humanoid more than a monkey. It wore a green and gold armor. He dressed kind of like Xiaomei, but with heavy armor instead of something light. The way he jumped around kind of reminded Garnet of Xiaomei as well. It placed its red and gold staff down on the floor and took a close look at Garnet. "You were the thing up in the trees!" said Garnet.

"I'm surprised you noticed," said the monkey.

Name: Sunny

Level: 292

Class: Divine Warrior

Sub-Class: Master of Seventy Two Transformations

Stats: High Strength, High Agility

"Who are you?" Garnet asked.

"Name's Sunny," said the monkey. "I'm surprised you can pass Ban's test."

Garnet stood still as Sunny circled around her to get a look and smell of her. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Just trying to see how strong you are," said Sunny as he jumped on top of its staff and balanced himself on it. "Not that impressive."

Sunny was already done and bored. He climbed on top of Ban and grabbed a fruit from one of the trees on the turtle's back. Garnet watched as Sunny laid himself down in the tree and began to eat the fruit. "I thought the others did not want to meet me?" said Garnet.

"Sunny gains interest and loses it fairly quickly," Ban explained. "Try not to mind him too much."

Garnet wondered if Sunny was putting her through his own test. She had no way to be certain. For now, she just decided to ignore Sunny and focus on Ban. "Thanks again," said Garnet as she turned around and began to walk.

Sunny suddenly appeared in front of Garnet. "Where do you think you're going?" Sunny asked.

"Again?!?' said Garnet. "I already went through this once with Ban."

"I can't let you leave until you make me interested," said Sunny.

"Interested in what?" Garnet asked.

"Interested in you," Sunny answered.

"Sorry, but I'm already married," Garnet replied.

"Not remotely what I meant!" Sunny shouted angrily.

"The fact that you appeared before me and won't let me leave means you're already interested are you not?" Garnet asked.

"Tsk," Sunny was surprised by this statement. "I mean stay interested in you," he corrected.

"If I can do it then what?" Garnet asked.

"I will give you anything you want as long as it is within my power," said Sunny.

"Deal!" said Garnet. "No take backs." Garnet had already figured it out. All she had to do was to continue to ignore Sunny. Whenever she ignored Sunny, he would have to try to draw her attention. The problem was getting Sunny to admit that he was interested. As strong as Sunny was, he clearly did not know anything about playing mind games with others.

Garnet turned around to the turtle and began to talk. "Can you tell me stories about Sunny?" Garnet asked.

"What?!?" shouted Sunny. "That’s cheating."

"You didn't say I couldn't," said Garnet. "All you said was to make you interested in me, so I'm collecting information to find out how to do it."

"Don't tell her anything!" Sunny shouted at Ban.

"I won't," Ban replied.

Garnet was disappointed by this. "Well, since there's nothing here of interest, I'll be going now," said Garnet as she turned to the exit.

"Where are you going?" Sunny asked.

Garnet stepped around Sunny and headed towards the exit. She was completely ignoring him. "I'll see you the next time I'm here Ban," said Garnet.

"Stop!" Sunny shouted as he raised his staff.

Garnet could suddenly feel an intense amount of killing intent being released from Sunny. It was enough to even get past her own aura. BAM. Sunny's staff had transformed into a flail, but it had clashed against one of Ban's purple barriers. "She won did she not?" said Ban.

Sunny angrily looked at Garnet for a second. Garnet could tell that Ban would not let Sunny hurt her. "Fine," Sunny said angrily as he reverted his staff and stabbed it into the ground. "You win."

"What do I win?" Garnet asked.

"What do you want?" Sunny pouted.

Garnet thought about it for a second. "I want your staff."

Sunny instantly grabbed and held onto the staff. "It's mine," he said.

"I want something like it then," said Garnet. "A weapon that can transform."

Sunny looked at Garnet. Ban suddenly bumped him in the back with one of its feet. "A promise is a promise," said Ban.

Sunny angrily grunted as he took out a hair from his head. It expanded into a staff similar to Sunny's as he turned his head away from Garnet and shoved it towards her. "Here," he said.

Garnet slowly reached out to grab it, being wary of Sunny. As Garnet's hand clasped around the staff, Sunny suddenly turned around to look at her with a silly face. "Huh?" said Garnet as she looked confused.

"I was hoping for at least a laugh," said Sunny.

"Haha?" said Garnet.

"Just stop," said Sunny. "You win, just please, stop."

Garnet took the red and gold staff into her hand. As she looked into it, she saw that it was not gold that was on the staff. It was a mana crystal or at least something like that designed to be wrapped around the staff. "So how does this thing work?"

Name: Staff of Transformations

Level: 1

Quality: Mythical

Effect: 0/2 transformations

The staff had levels on it, which was the first time that Garnet saw something like this. "Does it mean it will level up and transform as well if I use it?"

"You have to use it before it can transform," Sunny confirmed.

Garnet swung the staff. "Nothing is happening."

"It doesn't count if you don't hit anything with it," said Sunny as he put his hand to his face in frustration. "When you defeat enemies, it will gradually develop new transformations, up to a maximum of 108."

"How many do you have?" Garnet asked.

"Ninety Six," Sunny replied.

Garnet thought about how that contradicted Sunny's sub-class. It said Seventy Two Transformations yet Sunny could use ninety six. It probably would not update until Sunny acquired the others. Garnet took a quick peek at Sunny's staff.

Name: Staff of Transformations:

Level: 100

Quality: Mythical

Effect: 97/108 transformations

Sunny actually had ninety seven. He probably did not figure out how to use the latest one yet. "Thank you for this," said Garnet.

"You earned it," said Sunny.

"It was kind of easy though compared to the first trial," said Garnet.

"Shut up!" Sunny shouted angrily.

"Now now, keep it down," said Ban. "She won fair and square."

"I know," said Sunny as he continued to pout.

Garnet looked around, hoping to see the other two spirits. "The others aren't here," said Ban. "No matter how much you look, you won't find them."

Garnet forgot that Ban could do something like that. "Again, thank you two for the gifts," Garnet repeated.

"I hope you are able to save your people," said Ban.

"Me too," said Garnet. "Stay strong against the Invaders."

"You too," said Sunny.

"You really are not as mean as you look," said Garnet as she turned to compliment Sunny.

"Shut it!" Sunny shouted in response.

"Transform!" Garnet reverted back to her original state. Maintaining the double transformation reduced her maximum mana to ridiculously low amounts. Just over four thousand mana compared to her original state of nearing twelve thousand.

As Garnet headed back out, she turned around to see Ban and Sunny talking to each other. The two were really on friendly terms and their bantering seemed normal. Everyone had a few friends, even powerful god like beings like Ban and Sunny. When Garnet finally reached the outside again, she saw Lance and Zedd waiting there for her.

"How did it go?" Zedd asked.

"I got some help from two of them," said Garnet.

"Ban and who?" Lance asked.

"Ban and Sunny," Garnet replied.

"Oh!" Lance said surprised. "You actually got that monkey to help you."

BANG. A red and gold staff suddenly crashed in front of Lance. "I heard that!" Sunny shouted from the distance.

"Sorry Sunny," said Lance. "He doesn't like being called a monkey."

THUD. A rock flew onto Lance's forehead from the same direction as the staff. It looked like Sunny heard that too. "I think we should talk back at your place," said Zedd as he pushed Lance back the village.

"Those two are incredibly strong," said Garnet.

The staff returned in the direction of Sunny. From its motion, Garnet could tell that the staff was already on the move. It looked like it was moving towards the direction of the city.

"They've survived dozens of attacks from what you call the Invaders," said Lance. "They seem to get stronger with each one."

That was because they were earning experience from their battles. If they had fought off many of them, it would make sense that they were that strong. After all, Garnet had gotten numerous levels from only fighting a small number. If the four spirits had gotten together to fight the Invasion themselves, they would be very high level and very strong.

As the three made it back to Lance's place. They were met with another surprise. "You!" shouted Lance who was surprised by the sight.

It was Sunny. He was eating the fruits that he had gathered from Ban's back at Lance's place. "I told you that you got my interest," said Sunny. "I'm not leaving until I'm satisfied with it."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," said Garnet.

"Why not?" Sunny asked.

"I'm not a resident of this world," Garnet replied.

"I already know that," said Sunny.

Garnet thought about it for a while. This would be a nice opportunity. "Would you like to be my servant?" Garnet asked.

"What?!?" Sunny shouted angrily.

This was bad. Ban was not here to stop him. "It was just an offer," said Garnet. "If he wants to follow me around, that is my condition."

Sunny was seriously thinking about it for a moment. "I accept!" he said.

"What?!?" Lance and Zedd shouted in unison. They were both extremely surprised by this.

"You can't be serious right?" Lance asked.

"Yeah," Garnet added. "Don't you have to protect this world?"

"Ban alone can easily do that," said Sunny. "Maggie and Ziggy are way stronger than Ban and me in terms of power anyways."

"Don’t you have to stay as a Divine Creature because of something you have control over?" Garnet asked.

"If I leave, another one will quickly take my place here," Sunny replied. "We are not bound by that duty for eternity. The only problem is when one of us dies while we still carry the power because it completely disappears for a while. Leaving by choice only causes the power to drain a little.."

Garnet thought about it for a moment. She suddenly realized why it sounded strange. It was exactly like how the Hero System functioned. Only one of them could have the power of a Divine Creature and they would be tasked with controlling an aspect of something. A Hero was tasked with holding back the Invasions. By comparison, the Hero System granted someone the power to be an artificial Divine Creature tasked with protecting the world from Invasions. The Divine Creature that Garnet had thought about when she met Lotan was actually herself.

If Sunny was serious, he would be a powerful addition to the team. "Alright," said Garnet. "Guardian Contract!"

The complex magic circle composed of numerous animals appeared. "What is this?!?" said Lance as he stared at the ground in disbelief.

"It's a powerful magical contract," said Zedd. "One that can even bind the strongest of creatures to do their duties."

"Do you agree to follow my orders?" Garnet asked Sunny.

"As long as you continue to do what is right towards your goal and as long as it does not hinder my own," Sunny replied.

New Skill: Call: Sunny

Summon one of the Great Beasts of the Animal World, Sunny

MP Cost: 50000

The magic circle lit up, accepting the conditions and creating a huge pillar of light before disappearing. "The contract is complete," said Garnet as she looked at her hand. A third petal lit up. This one was green. Sunny had become the third Guardian. Like the other guardians, Garnet would not be able to summon him if he was ever lost. She needed to increase her maximum mana quickly.

Suddenly, Garnet could feel an immense amount of power flowing out from Sunny, even greater than his killing intent from before. "What did you do to me?" Sunny asked.

"I made a special contract," said Garnet. "As long as you serve me, you will be stronger than you were before on your own."

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Now I'm very interested in your abilities," said Sunny as he looked at Garnet in the face.

Sunny was so close that Garnet could feel him breathing on her face. "Too close," said Garnet as she pushed his head back with the palm of her hand.

Lance quickly ran outside to make sure that everything was okay. "I'll be right back," he said as he quickly ran outside. He might have to reassure people who might have been surprised by the light of a magic circle. After all, they had witnessed humans for the first time in a long time and might be nervous.

"So when do we go?" Sunny asked.

"Almost," said Garnet. "Are we done here?" she asked Zedd.

"Yes," said Zedd. "I'm surprised you managed to get his approval though when I could not get one."

"That's because this old man here is like a doormat that everyone walks over," said Sunny. "I remember your trial very well."

Zedd was shocked to hear this. "You normally don't seem to care, why did you pay attention to me then?" Zedd asked.

"I don't," said Sunny as he continued to eat fruits. "I just have a good memory."

Sunny could potential be infuriating to others, but he was a welcome addition to Garnet's team. "What now?" Zedd asked.

"I suppose we should return and work on building our forces," said Garnet.

"What more could you need?" Sunny asked. "You already have me."

"I'm up against an unknown number of mages with special abilities and people who have skills that are meant to kill mages," Garnet replied. "Who know is they have abilities to counter someone like you."

"Then why don't you just switch it up?" Sunny asked.

"What do you mean switch it up?" Garnet asked. "Switch what up?"

"Use something besides mana for your magic," said Sunny.

"Wait!" Garnet shouted. She thought for a moment. Magic without mana. It would circumvent her transformation weakness. "How is it possible to use magic without mana?"

"Mana comes from here," said Sunny as he pointed to an area just under his heart. "You can feel it flow out from your body from there when you cast magic right?"

"Yes," said Garnet.

"Do you know about the other types of energies in your body?" Sunny asked.

"No," said Garnet.

Sunny pointed to the mid-point above his stomach and below his heart. "This is the Dantian," he said. "It is possible to train your Chi if you use that as a focus point."

"What are the others?" Zedd asked as he sat down and began to focus. He too was interested.

Sunny then pointed to a spot on the base of his spine. "This is the first of eight chakras," he said. "They are affected by your state of mind. Only by controlling your emotions can you open them."

"That's strange," said Garnet.

"What is?" Sunny asked.

"You don't seem like someone with a lot of control yet you speak of mastery of opening the chakras," Garnet replied.

"I opened five and none of them have anything to do with anger, so shut it!" Sunny shouted. "Anyways, if you want to learn any of the others, I suggest you stick to using either mana, chi, or chakras as your basics first."

"Can you show me?" Garnet asked.

Sunny put down his staff and raised his arms into a fighting stance. "Earthen Uppercut!" As he threw and upward punch, the ground beneath him moved as well, creating an earthen pillar. When Sunny's arms retracted, so did the ground, reverting to its initial state. He then did a full spin kick in place. "Wind Kick!" A burst of wind followed the motion of Sunny's leg.

Garnet recognized a move like that. It was similar to the one that Anna showed her a long time ago. However, the difference here was that the ground quickly returned to normal. Unlike the magic Garnet used, it did not cause a change to the land, but its attack power was very low in exchange for the speed. "Was it possible that Serena, Anna, and Nian knew how to do this?" she thought. Being able to draw upon multiple sources of power would make it possible for them to ignore anything that tried to negate their abilities. It would even counter the Grey Ghosts who tried to use anti-magic fields and give them a secondary source of energy so that mana was not the only resource Garnet had to draw upon.

Garnet turned to Sunny. "Please teach me!" she said.

"I'm afraid it cannot be taught," said Sunny.

"What?!?" said Garnet. "How can it not be taught?"

"I can awaken your ability to channel it by force, but you have to learn to train and channel it yourself," said Sunny. "It cannot be taught because it is different for each person."

"Then awaken the ability," said Garnet.

"I refuse," said Sunny. "You will more likely burn yourself out and probably permanently hurt yourself in the process if you cannot control it immediately, so it is best to learn it the proper way."

Shortcuts almost always had a price in exchange for the quick increase in power. "Then how is it possible to even learn it?" Garnet asked. "You can't teach it and you shouldn't force it."

"You have to learn to sense it on your own," said Sunny. "It's something you can only learn with time."

"Want to learn it with me?" Garnet said as she turned to ask Zedd.

However, Zedd was already sitting on the ground and focusing with his eyes closed. "I've already figured it out," said Zedd. "All these years I didn't know what those teachings that I heard and read about meant, but now I know. I always concentrated it on the wrong part of the body, which was why the energy never stayed in my body. Now that I know, I just have to concentrate it in the right spot."

Garnet could feel there was something about the mana that flowed around Zedd. He was redirecting it in his body, trying to find that single point. "Impressive," said Sunny as he put his arm around Zedd's head.

"Let go of me!" Zedd shouted as he struggled to free himself from Sunny's headlock.

"I want to know where you learned that from," said Sunny.

Zedd could not break himself free from Sunny no matter how hard he pushed. "In our world, Chi based fighting comes from the Eastern Empire, but the fundamentals that allow someone to train in it is a closely guarded secret by those that can use it," he said. "If I wanted to learn it, I would have to steal it because the key points are always withheld and not passed down other than from master to student."

Sunny finally let go. "This world of yours is very interesting," said Sunny. "Let's hurry and get to it already."

"What about me?" Garnet asked.

"You know enough about where to focus, you just have to be able to find the trace amounts of chi in your body assuming you've been training your body," said Sunny.

Sunny began to push Zedd out the door. "Let's hurry and go already," he said.

"Alright," said Zedd. "Let me say good bye to Lance first."

As the group headed outside, the crowd had already dispersed. "I'm heading back," said Zedd.

"Feel free to come back again," said Lance.

"I will, but we're currently facing multiple threats," Zedd replied. "When things settle down, I may come again."

"Alright," said Lance. "Take care."

"Let's go," said Garnet. "I'm worried that they may try to attack while we're gone."

"Me too," said Zedd.

Back at the empty plains, he took out the cube and realigned the parts, opening the portal again. Through it, Garnet could see the ruins of the city.

"That doesn't look good," said Sunny.

"That's actually normal," said Garnet.

The three of them made their way back to Constantinople. Garnet with two new abilities and a weapon. Zedd returned with access to chi though he needed to train it before he could actually use it, something that would prove to be difficult without a proper person to train him in the use of it.

Spoiler :

Name: Garnet

Level: 44

Class: Chaos Mage / Queen / Hero

Sub-class: Queen of the Night

Stats:

HP: 3350/3350

MP: 11660/11660

Fame: 220

Strength: 122 (+5)

Dexterity: 82 (+7)

Intelligence: 336 (+22)

Vitality: 100 (+5)

Agility: 134 (+7)

Charisma: 42 (+20)

PROFICIENCY:Weapon:

- One Handed Sword – 7

- Hand to Hand – 4

- Staff - 1

Magic:

- Fire – 10

- Lightning – 15

- Wind – 7

- Water - 2

- Summoning – 12

- Blood – 6

- Shadow - 0

SKILLS:Weapon (One Handed Sword):

- Horizontal Slash (Level 3)

- Double Slash (Level 3)

- Crescent Slash (Level 1)

- Triple Slash (Level 1)

- Delta Attack (Level 1)

- Spiral (Level 1)

Weapon (Hand to Hand):

- Palm Strike (Level 1)

- Wind Palm (Level 2)

- Explosive Palm (Level 3)

- Lightning Palm (Level 1)

- Sweeping Kick (Level 1)

- Horizontal Kick (Level 1)

- Uppercut (Level 1)

- Ki Burst (Level 1)

- Demsey Roll (Level 1)

Weapon (Staff):

- Thrust (Level 2)

- Swinging Smash (Level 1)

- Double Strike (Level 1)

- Triple Strike (Level 1)

- Quadruple Strike (Level 1)

- Vertical Smash (Level 1)

Class (Dark Mage):

- Fire Bolt (Level 5)

- Fire Ball (Level 2)

- Incinerate (Level 1)

- Fire Breath (Level 1)

- Lightning Bolt (Level 8)

- Chain Lightning (Level 4)

- Lightning Ray (Level 3)

- Lightning Blast (Level 1)

- Lightning Breath (Level 1)

- Light (Level 1)

- Air Bullet (Level 4)

- Wind Blade (Level 1)

- Wind Breath (Level 1)

- Aqua Strike (Level 2)

- Jet Stream (Level 2)

- Aqua Breath (Level 1)

- Shadow Bind (Level 1)

- Shadow Grip (Level 1)

- Shadow Crush (Level 1)

- Shadow Wall (Level 1)

- Heat Wave (Level 1)

- Lightning Fire Bolt (Level 3)

- Crimson Lotus: Blade of Lightning (Level 2)

- Tri-Element Breath (Level 1)

- Mugen (Level 1)

- Mana Armor (Level 2)

- Call: Cerberus (Level 1)

- Call: Revenant (Level 1)

- Call: Death Knight (Level 1)

- Call: Romulus, Knight of Blood (Level 1)

- Call: Sylvia, Priestess of Blood (Level 1)

- Call: Lilith (Level 1)

- Call: Nuria (Level 1)

- Call: Mazu (Level 1)

- Call: Sino (Level 1)

- Call: Meliae (Level 1)

- Call: Serena (Level 1)

- Call: Nian (Level 1)

- Call: Sunny (Level 1)

- Recall

- Dismiss

- Quintessence Force (Level 1)

- Lightning Fire (Passive)

- Essence Absorption (Level 1)

- Blood Bind (Level 1)

- Blood Scythe (Level 2)

- Blood Sacrifice (Level 1)

- Blood Bullet (Level 1)

- Transformation: Lightning Form (Level 1)

- Teleportation (Level 1)

- Teleportation Summoning Circle (Level 1)

- Instance Dungeon Creation (Level 1)

Sub-class (Queen of the Night):

- Supernatural Body (Level 1)

- Captivation (Level 3)

- Cosmic Awareness (Level 1, Passive)

- Embodiment of Lust (Level 1)

- Shadow Warp (Level 1)

- Sonic Scream (Level 1)

- Doppelganger (Level 1)

- Flight (Level 1)

- Aura of Nightmares (Level 1, Passive)

- Plate Armor (Level 1, Passive)

- Transformation (Level 1)

- Partial Transformation (Level 1)

- Transformation: Queen of the Night (Level 1)

Tradeskills:

- Hunting (Level 5) - Hunter

- Cooking (Level 9) - Cook

- Inspection (Level 5)

- Sewing (Level 4) – Tailor

- Advanced Magicraft (Level 1) – Alchemist

- Magic Seal (Level 1)

- Advanced Enhancement (Level 1) - Alchemist

- Disassemble (Level 1)

- Inventory Expansion (Level 4)

Passives:

- Hand to Hand (Level 1)

- One Handed Sword (Level 1)

- Staff (Level 1)

- Reflex (Level 5)

- Haste (Level 2)

- Scale Armor (Level 1)

- Aura of Leadership (Level 1)

- Aura of the Hero (Level 1)

- Summoning Commander (Level 1)

- Queen's Presence (Level 1)

- Fire Mastery (Level 1)

Unique:

- Hero System (Level 3, Passive)

- Minion Development (Level 2, Passive)

- Otherworldly Knowledge (Passive)

- Golden Tongue (Passive)

- Mana Compatibility (Passive)

- Quick Learner (Passive)

- Channeling (Passive)

- Charging (Passive)

- Night Vision (Passive)

- Guardian Contract (Level 1)

- Thaumaturgy (Passive)

- Magic Negation (Passive)