Chapter 8

Leo was horrified at the news that he was growing a tail in reality. The thought of becoming a real life cat boy was mortifying in itself. Would he end up ending every sentence with a ‘nya’ or something? The thought of that alone made him want to throw up.

“It's not all that bad right?” Luna said, trying to be comforting after seeing how hard he was taking the news. “It will just serve to make you look even cuter!”.

Leo looked blankly at his sister, he knew it wasn’t intentional but her words felt like she was kicking him when he was already down.

“Astra! What is the meaning of this!’ he angrily shouted , shaking his wrist in frustration

[We don’t know. All we did was pour our energy reserves into your body!] Astra replied, clearly nervous at the sudden surge of anger directed towards it.

“Well you clearly did something! A Tail? A tail of all things. I am going to look like a freak” Leo moaned, holding his head as horrific scenarios played in his head. Even Astra seemed disturbed by what they were seeing.

[Gross…] Astra said after a moments pause.

“Tell me about it!” Leo groaned, slowly growing fearful towards the day he would log out and be back in his own body.

Leo felt a tap on his shoulder, turning his head, he saw his sister looking at him with an extremely concerned look on her face.

“Umm. Who are you talking to Leo? Who’s Astra?” Luna asked, afraid that she had hit her brother so hard that he might have started imagining things.

“Astra is this. The bracelets on my wrists” Leo explained, feeling wronged “They are my weapon and they are very talkative, a little bratty sometimes. Don’t you hear it?”.

Lunas eyes watered a bit before she gave Leo a gentle hug, “I am so sorry. Your sister didn’t mean to hit you that hard!”. She was fully blaming herself for her brother to start hearing imaginary voices.

“No… he was saying that before you hit him.” Barry interjected. “He was mentioning this Astra before so it wasn’t you who broke his mind…you may have broken his skull before” he said, the last words closer to a murmur but still didn’t escape Lunas hearing. Luna glared at her teacher accusatorily but decided to not pursue the matter.

“Wha… Astra is able to speak! They are a soulbound weapon or something! C’mon, tell them Astra!” Leo shouted, hoping that his partner would vouch for him.

[We would but it matters not. They wouldn’t hear us anyways. It’s not like we have an actual voice. You are hearing us inside of your head. We communicate via telepathy…] Astra replied non committedly.

This revelation was like a bucket of cold water being dumped on him. He had thought Astras voice was coming from the bracelets. It somehow never occurred to him that Astra wasn’t physically saying anything. No wonder why Barry had looked at him like he was pitiful when he first explained it.

“Soulbound weapon….? Wait I think I have heard about that sort of thing before” Barry said with a furrowed brow, trying to recall where he had heard that term before.

When he remembered, his eyes widened in shock as he shouted “I-is it really a soulbound weapon?! I thought they were a myth! Each one is said to hold some earth shattering power. Power that can let one challenge even the gods!”.

[I like this one. He is aware of our greatness.] Astra remarked, their self esteem spiking from the shock and awe Barry was showing.

Despite Leo nodding yes, Barry leaned in closer to inspect the bracelets and said with furrowed brows “Are you sure you weren’t swindled? These look a little… shoddy to be such a mystical piece of gear. What grade is it anyways?”

[....Nevermind. We take it back. We don’t like this ignorant gorilla!] Astra said, offended about being called shoddy.

“Well if I read the description earlier, Astra is currently at the Rare Grade. I was the one to name them too” Leo replied honestly. Perhaps Barry would have more information about what sort of entity Astra was.

“Rare? That settles it, you were scammed. Lets go down to the village and find the scamming piece of trash who took advantage of you. I will help you get your money bac Barry growled in rage. Luna nodding in approval at his suggestion. Barry picked up his axe and began storming off in the direction of the village but stopped after a few steps.

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With his back facing away from the 2 siblings, he said “Hold on…Did you say ‘currently’? What do you mean by that?” he asked, having noticed something off about the way Leo spoke of it.

“Yeah… Astra was normal grade earlier but they ate 2 shields and upgraded to the Rare grade. Can even transform too!” Leo explained, raising both of his arms, the bracelets glowed briefly before changing into the form of the gauntlets.

Luna thought the transformation was cool, growing a bit jealous, wanting a cool transformation weapon herself, staring at them with stars glimmering in her eyes. Barry on the other hand felt his body shaking in surprise. “Go see that old fart Pyrs. He is the village blacksmith. He will be able to teach you more about your weapon I think. You should go now” he explained, not wanting to embarrass himself in front of his apprentice.

“Ehh? Alright..” Leo said with a confused look on his face. He wasn’t sure why Barry was so intent on getting rid of him so soon.

“Alright Old Man, I will be back later. I will be going with my brother now” Luna said, waving goodbye to her Teacher who was in awe when he turned to see Astra transforming back into a set of bracelets. Luna grabs Leos hand and pulling him along and away from the log cabin.. Unable to break free from his sisters grasp, he waved with his free hand to Barry calling out.

“I will make sure to visit Comrade… Bye for now” he said while Barry waved.

“You too ... .take care. Also I am not an old man. I am middle aged at best!” Barry replied with a somewhat forced smile but still retorted to the rude behaviour of Luna. He had sent out his apprentice to grab him some supplies and she had left without handing them over. Once the two of them were out of sight, he let out a sigh. He shook his head at the thought of his silly apprentice but his thoughts kept drifting back to what Leo had called Astra.

“Pyrs will have a field day if that is really a Soulbound Weapon…If it’s growth based too…. We may finally have some hope…” he murmured in front of his cabin. He looked towards the forest which had begun to grow darker with the setting of the sun.

Hand in hand, the siblings arrived in the village relatively quickly. At some point during their walk, Luna managed to regain her composure, acting all cool and mature again but her own rabbit ears twitching betrayed her joy and excitement that was hidden.

The two of them arrived at a small stone building with a large chimney, black smoke emanating from it, the scent of burning coal and metal hanging heavily in the air. On the door was a sign that said ‘Pyrs Smithery’ which meant they were at the right place.With nothing to lose, Leo pushed the door open and entered the shop, Luna following closely behind him.

“Whoa….” Leo exclaimed in awe. Along the walls were weapons of various types lined up along the walls. Behind the counter stood a bald man wearing a pair of heavy goggles with a grey beard and was covered in soot and ash. The man grunted before shouting “Oi Young Lass! What are you doing here! Did your teacher send you on another errand? That brat still owes me 10 silver for fixing that axe of his!” in a loud gruff voice.

“He sent us here to talk to you Sir. Besides, my teacher said that he covered the cost of your tab at the tavern again. He said its you who owes him now. 2 silver was it?” Luna replied back cooly, not even flinching at the mans shouting.

“HAHAHAHA” the man guffawed before coming out from behind the counter. Leo was shocked when he saw the man was actually a dwarf, barely over 4 feet tall but had a strong muscular frame. Leo couldn’t help but stare at the dwarf, something he had never seen before. His gaze while pure, seemed to agitate the man

“What are you looking at lil lady! You have a problem with me? Never seen a dwarf before?!” he growled at Leo. Being called a lady again made Leo frown but before he could retort, Luna interjected.

“Mr. Pyrs… this is my BROTHER Leo. My teacher told him to come see you about his weapon. He said you may know something about it.” she said with a slight smile. While it did seem like she was being polite, her eyes were staring at the dwarf coldly, clearly not okay with her brother being treated so rudely. Pyrs didn’t overtly react, simply turning away and saying “My bad lad. Follow me to the back. I shall inspect this ‘weapon’ of yours”.

Somewhat happy that someone else had stood up to protect his pride, he flashed a grateful smile to his sister before following the stout dwarf to the back of his shop where he saw a decent looking forge, anvil and long table.

“I will be back in a bit. I am going to go meet my friend. When you are done we can go hunting in the forest and level up. Olay?” Luna said before turning to leave the shop, not bothering to listen to Leos response, before leaving him alone with the Blacksmith.

“Alright then. Show me the weapon. Though be warned if it involves pulling your trousers down, I will beat your skull in with my hammer” Pyrs warned arrogantly, leaving Leo appalled at the statement.

“Its not that…” Leo said, suppressing the urge to try and beat the Blacksmith up. Instead he raised his arms, showcasing Astras transformation ability.

“Hohoho~! Now that is interesting. Where did you get this? What Grade is it? SR, SSR, UR?” the blacksmith said, his curiosity now piqued.

“Well it tells me that it is a Soulbound Weapon and it is Rare grade for now. It can be upgraded apparently” he answered. Just like Barry, Pyrs froze upon hearing those words. Without a word, Pyrs rushed closer to Leo, fully intent on studying Astra. He looked like a little kid opening presents on Christmas day.

“ I have never seen one before but I have heard the legends and myths. Plus its a growth type? That’s even rarer!” Pyrs gushed, clearly believing every word Leo had told him. “I shall use a high level analysis of that gear, what did you say its name was?” Pyrs began to explain but remembered that he had yet to ask for its name.

“Its name is Astra” Leo replied, a little caught off guard by the sudden change in the behaviour of the gruff dwarf.

“Ahh. Astra huh. Pretty name for a pretty weapon~” Pyrs chuckled softly.

[Hehehe! This one is much better] Astra giggled, clearly pleased at the praise.

“It will take a bit to get the spell ready. Would you like a drink while you wait. I have coffee, tea, ale and water… I mean I guess humans would consider it beer.” Pyrs said, showing surprising amount of hospitality.

“Im good thanks. I’m fine” Leo said with an awkward smile. Pyrus walked a short distance away, preparing to do a deeper appraisal of Astras abilities.

While Leo was waiting for Pyrus to finish, he noticed a small blinking mail icon in the corner of his vision. Someone had sent him a message.

Opening it, Leos expression crumpled into a frown as it was a letter from a Pharmaceutical company.

To Mr. Haronyu

It has come to the attention of Samael Pharmaceutical Corporation that you are experiencing a previously unseen medical phenomena. We seek your cooperation in the betterment of society and request that you donate your body to our medical research team. Please be aware that if you choose to deny our request, we will have no choice but to seek compensation for the unpaid medical bills from your sister. Please take your time and consider your options. We look forward to your cooperation in the near future.

Regards,

Anthony Samael.

“What the hell is this?”