Humans and troubles come together
U city, a city made by humans and filled with them, the name ‘U’ comes from the h’U’mans, the city is known to be always ruled by humans and filled with humans who hate other kinds, well not all humans are like that, but most of them are. That city got some strict cruel rules about races, only humans can buy houses there, or make a lasting business, if someone who isn’t human wants to work there, they got no choice but work under one of the humans, the city tries to make its economy from its own so they don’t buy things from other cities except A. city.
A. city on the other hand is quite different, but we will talk about it later on, A. city provides U city with many raw recourses while U city provide it with many products, considering the fact that A. city is managed by a human as well we can easily say that humans are trying to take control over trade in Yarsel lands as a whole.
Humans in U city are known to despise other kinds and so many non-humans adventurers prefer to either go through town without stop or to spend the only necessary time there.
IGNORANCE MISTAKE
Loran, Luka, Ren, Saia and wistas have arrived to U city, they head for the closest tavern, and it was half empty, Luka goes over and take a seat and order some drink while wistas goes and sit next to him, Loran just stands next to Ren who seem to be counting the gold coins she got, Saia sit as well but she orders some food, a plate of scrambled egg with some cheese above it.
Lora: we can rent some rooms to rest with the gold you have, what do you say guys?
Luka: As long as it’s not from my gold coins!
Ren: um, it’s better if we just eat and drink and keep moving…
Wistas: why? We need rest…
Luka: Yeah! We need to rest in a nice bed that it’s not paid by me! Not to actually mention we need to go to the market and stock up, I need to find a blacksmith to sharpen my broadsword blade, it started to get dull thanks to that giant thick skin.
Wistas: (Nods) same.
Ren: (sighs) alright alright, I will rent some rooms… two would do.
She heads to the place owner and talk to him and then they all head to the rooms, Luka and wistas in a room, Saia and Loran in a room, while Ren went down again and waited.
In the morning they all came down filled with energy, they found Ren talking with a human girl in a black dress, but before they reach them they seem to have ended their talk and the woman left, they gather to leave and just as they do wistas notice something.
Wistas: wait guys.
He head out to the alleyway right in front of the tavern, and come out pulling a man in black hooded robes, he was a Diablo as well.
Diablo: let go of me! What do you think you are doing?!
Luka: Why did you bring that guy wist?
Lora: he looks suspicious.
Ren: …
Saia: um, wistas you shouldn’t pull someone like that, violent isn’t good and it will lead to problems.
Wistas: this is a thief, I saw him exiting that shop through the back window, and a normal customer wouldn’t do that.
Diablo: I was just in a hurry and the shop entrance was filled with customers! I work for the shop owner!
Wistas: Nice try, but I can tell a thief when I look at him, give me what you stole.
At that moment, the Diablo face turned into anger and jumped out of his cloaks, leaving it in wistas hands and with swift he shoots a magic fireball at wistas and start running.
Luka: watch out!
Luka covers wistas with his shield and then throws the shield like a boomerang in a curved angle at, it hits his feet from the side making him fall head first and Ren rushes there and grab his hands from behind.
Ren: it would be less painful to surrender, just handover what you stole!
Thief: tch! Why was I sent to steal this stupid thing anyway!!
Ren carefully let go of one of his hands, he take out a rock from his pocket, Ren extend her hand to take it, but then he threw it and push her and make a run for it.
Lora: forget about this pitiful thief…
Ren: wait look there, that’s the rock he threw.
Lora: Don’t be naïve Ren, this is just a rock he tricked you with, just leave it there.
But Ren have already picked it up, and when she stands up she just froze there.
Luka: what’s wrong?
Lora: wait, don’t actually tell me that’s a …
Ren: Rune… its “U” rune which we are supposed to find!
Lora: Well, that’s was easier than I thought…
Wistas: But don’t you think that’s strange?
Luka: how?
Lora: actually, since you mention it…
Wistas: that thief went for the sole purpose of stealing this rune, while it can be easily mistaken as a normal old rock, and he even said “Why was I sent to steal this stupid thing anyway”… he didn’t know what it was, but he was sent to do that… just how Zora sent us to find those runes…
Saia: that makes you think…
Luka: Maybe he was sent by Zora too?
Lora: Leader Zora wouldn’t send a thief for that! And more over he did mentioned that he doesn’t want the runes to be gathered by someone else… maybe that ‘someone else’ is the one who send the thief?
Wistas: … (Nods)
Ren: that’s one down, let's find the other, the water rune, Zora said that it was shaped like a small water drop on a surface.
They all nod and start looking for it; everyone goes in a different direction so they can cover this large city more easily.
While doing that, Luka finds a blacksmith and sharpen his broadsword since it was a bit dull, Saia finds a potion shop and buy some potions just in case. Wistas finds a weapon and armor shop and so he bought armor better than the one he is wearing, he also bought two belts of throwing knives and hid them under his ‘shadow cloak’[1].
With a struck of luck they all end up meeting in front of a jewelry shop.
Luka: oh? You prefer to buy some accessories Ren?
Lora: idiot, she probably wanted to see if they got some ‘enchanted items’[2] to make her stronger.
Wistas: (nods)
Saia: but it wouldn’t harm if they were nice looking too right?
Ren: Guys, how did the search go with you?
Luka: I only found arrogant guys, but the blacksmith I found was surprisingly nice and understanding, not that he knew about the rune or anything though, what about you wistas my man?
Wistas: well, most of them ignored me, those who didn’t insult me without a reason, and I went into weaponry shop and bought some useful things, not that the shop owner was helpful. Lora?
Lora: Nothing in particular, thanks to those foolish human fools.
Saia: um, in my case the people did try to help me but they didn’t know anything about it… the potion shop dealer even gave some discounts, maybe because I am sister?
Luka: So, Ren, why did you stop here for? You want buy something as well?
Ren: Actually, I am here just to visit…
Everyone: Visit??
LONG WAITED VISIT
As they all are still confused by what Ren said, the jewelry door opens and the same woman in a black dress they saw earlier comes into view. She looked cheerful and energetic.
Woman: I see you brought your friends! Welcome to “Yu & Yu Jewelry”! My name Is Yuna! Come in what are you waiting for?
They follow Yuna inside the shop, various beautiful accessories are hanged up and put on shelves in the shop, and some glow magically and there is a sound of metal hammering from the back.
Yuna: I was totally surprised when I saw you at tavern earlier! I am glad you actually decided to come here Ren!
Luka: How do you know Ren?
Yuna: huh? You didn’t tell them Ren? Then I wi—
Ren: No, I will tell them myself. (She turns to them) guys, Yuna and her sister are my step sisters, as you know I have left my family manor house long ago and so we didn’t see each other since then end of story.
Yuna: awww, that’s exactly why I wanted to tell them! You made the story too short and too boring!
Ren: we may get into details later, but we are actually busy searching something.
Ren describes the water rune to her and asks her if she saw it.
Yuna: Hmm, I bet I saw Yui holding something similar, let me ask her!
Just after she finished her words and turned to the back door, it opened and a copy of Yuna came out, wearing also a black dress but it was taller and with longer and tighter sleeves, though her face was the same as Yuna, it was depressed and tired-looking.
Yui: sis, I finished enchanting the dagger and strengthen it— huh?
Yuna: nice timing as usual Yui! Ren came to visit us! Also I want to ask you some—
Yui gets back into the backroom and shuts the door.
Yuna: Hey! This isn’t the time to get shy!! Sorry she is always shy when she sees some strangers, and that is why our shop is split into two! The front where I take care of customer orders and such, and the back where she enchants and creates the shop jewelry…
Lora: but, Ren isn’t a stranger to her…
Ren: she always was the exact opposite of Yuna, an introvert.
Luka: whoa whoa hold up, are you saying that you got a twin who look the same and act very differently as your step sisters and you never told us that?! Moreover she can enchant items!!
Saia: Yeah I don’t see why you didn’t tell us about your sisters Ren…
Ren: because it was trivial[3]… none of us talked about their families or personal life in depth, so it didn’t matter.
After sometime Yuna manages to get Yui to open the door, then she asked her about the rune.
Yui: oh, it was useless to me considering I don’t get in combat, so I sold it… it’s an enchanted rock that increases the amount of mana you got as long as you have it with you…
Lora: you did WHAT?!
Yui: (stands behind Yuna) I-I didn’t intend to, a Diablo little girl came and asked me about it even though It was inside my pocket and never told anyone about it, she wanted it, so I asked her some money in exchange, s-sorry.
Ren: it is alright, it just sounds like we are late that’s all.
Wistas: a Diablo girl… and a Diablo thief… came after the runes and they somehow knew their places… this doesn’t sound like a coincidence guys, now what to do? If David were here he would knew.
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Luka: we don’t need David to tell us what to do! We will just go after the girl, simple! Yui where did she go after she took the rune from you?
Yui: She went directly out of town… th-through the road leading to A. city…
Luka: see? It’s easy! We get out of here and head to A. city just as we were intending to! She is a small girl according to Yui; she wouldn’t have gotten too far!
Yui: y-yes, that’s right.
Wistas: (nods)
Lora: actually this sounds promising.
Luka: since we are here, can you enchant my sword Yui?
Yui: y-yes… since you are Ren friends I won’t demand payment this time…
Luka: great!
Yuna: Hey Ren, since we are at it why don’t you let her re-enchant your mother armor?
Ren: No its fine, plus it will take time to take care of this full set armor and we may lose the track of the girl that got the rune.
Yuna: if you say so, but come sometime later to turn it back to what it used to be alright?
Ren: (nods)
Lora: hmm, this shop actually got some high quality items…
Yuna: Of course we do! We make our products by ourselves after all!
Yui: You mean I make them all by myself…
And so, Yui took Luka sword and he explained the enchantment he needed, at the same time Loran picked a ring that increase her magic strength. When Luka's sword is finished, they head out, on the way the enter a Decud office, they find out that they got an invitation to the HQ at A city to finish their official applying, that increase their excitement to reach Adventure city and collect the rune from the girl on the way, they increase their pace and make sure to look around.
While they are on the way, they spot two men fighting, out of Luka insisting curiosity they head to find what is going, but before they get too close they notice something very strange and alerting, the first man was Human, in metal armor top and wide clothing in white, red and gold colors and markings, on his left shoulder was a metal guard that got some scratches, his right shoulder is missing the metallic guard, but instead there is a red coat with gold markings at its ends, his long brown hair was out of place as well as his overall get-up.
The man was punching the shit out of the second, who is the thief our heroes met at the morning, he was yelling with things like ‘sorry’ and ‘mercy’, the man in armor seemed to ignore his pleas and hit him without saying a word.
Lora: (whispers) so I have got two guesses here, either this brute is the owner of the shop the thief stole or a bodyguard of it. Orrr he is the bad guy who sent the thief, your votes?
Luka: (whispers) Bad guy.
Ren: (whispers) Bad guy.
Wistas: (whispers) Bad guy.
Saia: (whispers) Bad guy.
Lora: first time we all agree on something, let's go!
The man throws the thief away, and then turns at Lora and the others, looks like he heard her last yell.
ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, ROCK
The man stumps slowly towards them.
Loran: hey! I assume you sent that thief after the ‘U’ rune right?
The man is standing a few meters away from them, he stopped going any further.
Man: Name is Eno Shegami, that earth rune belongs to its rightful bearer which is me, give it back.
He points at Ren, who were holding into the rune inside of her pouch, it was a strange thing that he knew she had it, and that makes them all draw out their weapons.
Eno: A fight… you had better chances at persuasion.
Eno stands still, he doesn’t draw any weapon neither do he look like he have one.
Luka: let's see about that! Hyaaa!!
Eno: (sighs)
Luka rushes at Eno while raising his shield for cover, assuming that Eno will cast some kind of magic since he didn’t have a sword or something.
As he gets close enough to him, Luka waves his broadsword horizontally.
Luka: What in the blaz—!!!
Eno have stopped
Luka blade with one bare hand, and then he pulls and throws Luka all the way to the rest of them.
Lora: How did he even manage to throw Luka?! He is fat and heavy armored! He can’t jump himself!!
Saia: Luka are you alright?!
Luka: Uh, I am fine, that didn’t hurt but I am not used into traveling by air…
Ren: change in tactics everyone! We were fooled by his unarmed look and though that he is a magician and tried close range attacks, we will do it the other way around!!
Everyone: Yeah!!
Loran fires her arrows barrage while wistas throws a couple of knives after engulfing them in dark magic to strengthen them, Ren holds her axe ready and Luka raises his shield to cover if Eno attacked them from afar.
Eno: (Waves his hand sideways)
A wall of rocks rises from the ground and blocks all of their ranged attacks, making it useless to attack him from afar.
Ren: Shit! If David was here things were going to be different… let's do both guys! I will distract him from creating the stone wall or break it!
When Eno lowers the stone wall Ren was already there, she jumped at him with her axe, at first Eno raised his hand to stop the axe as he did with Luka, but then his eyes widen and swiftly takes a couple of steps back out of Ren range.
Ren (to herself): huh? Did he find ‘it’[1] out?
Eno: (Smiles) I will take that rune no matter what.
Then, with those few words, he jumps at Ren with both his hands open, Ren waves her axe at him vertically, but he slides and stops the axe by the rod itself.
Ren: He got me! But I am not alone here!!
Lora: IMPERIAL ARROW!!
Loran shoots her wind infused arrow which goes like a green laser in an amazing speed directly at Eno head, with an intention to kill.
Eno (to himself): Not bad…
Eno punches Ren in her stomach, making her travel some distance, then he creates a stone wall, but Loran arrow was stronger than stone.
Loran: Got ya— what?!
The stone wall crumbles down to uncover Eno’s head which was covered with grey solid-looking stones; an arrow broken to three pieces was near his feet.
Eno: That was a good attack… you made me use my armor.
At Eno words, Wistas appear behind Eno back with his ‘shadow betrayal’[2] help, Luka dashing to him by the front, Ren falling down at him from above, Loran takes aim while Saia casted her ‘mercy shield’[3] on Ren to recover her from the last attack.
Eno holds wistas striking hand without turning at him and throws him at Luka while with his other hand he took Luka's ‘Loyalty shield’[4] and then with a swift move he get down on one knee and blocks Loran triple arrow shot with Luka shield and hold Ren axe rod with his other hand, but to his surprise Ren knew he is going to hold her axe rod.
Ren uses her axe rod to make a kick spin to Eno’s head, as Ren leg armor clashes with the stone helmet of Eno a lot of sparks spread out, but it was effective as it made him fly some distance to the back, before hitting the ground Eno recover from the hit and roll back and land safely.
Eno: All what I want is the rune woman.
Ren: And all what we want is to keep it!
Eno: (spits some blood sideways) so be it.
Eno dashes at Ren and in the same time stone walls rise in a circle and cages Ren and Eno inside.
Eno (to himself): Her friends are annoying, but if I am just against her for at least some minutes then I will be able to take the Rune back, the problem lays on that elf, some of her arrows are awfully strong and will pierce through both my wall and my metal armor, on the other hand if I did use my full stone armor I won’t be able to keep up with that black armored woman speed, they are not bad, but they miss more smart tactics.
Eno: its round 2 black knight[5]!
Ren: tch! Bring it on! {To herself: I can’t stand to him alone, and those walls are high so Loran can’t climb them and help me, I am not so sure if wistas’ shadow betrayal can reach him or not right now, I have to put it all at the chance that I can seal his earth element magic, then there is no more stone walls or stone armors!}
Eno sends a punch to Ren but she blocks it with her both arms, yet it knocks her back some distance.
Ren (To herself): Sheesh! This guy is just brute strength!!
Ren jumps back to increase the space between them even further, but somehow Eno manages to create a hand from stone behind her, and it pushes her straight at him, in the air she doesn’t have a choice but to block or attack, and she attacks! She slashes sideways at him to prevent him from punching her again and giving her some time to recover.
Eno block it with his shoulder guard and give Ren a taste of a powerful uppercut sending her flying high in the air, so high that the rest of the team outside the walls see her up there.
Ren: uh… no… way… is it even… possible to… beat him…
Ren lost consciousness, and fall like dead limb.
Eno: hm, I thought she can take it…
COLOSSEUM OF STONE
Angered by seeing the flying Ren, Luka heads to the stone wall and hit it with his shield end, creating a step, Wistas does the same by jumping at the shield and sticking couple of his knives making more steps, he almost reaches the top, and Loran is climbing underneath him, he picks her hand and throw her to the top.
Loran though startled, she uses the chance to start shooting Imperial arrows at Eno, making him dodge it and goes away from Ren, which gives time for wistas to help Luka up, now both Luka and wistas jump inside the stone wall circle, while Loran aims her arrows from above, it’s a Colosseum made of stone.
Wistas: Devil curse of death![i]
Luka: Phoenix Scarf![ii]
Lora: IMPERIAL ARROW: BARRAGE![iii]
Eno: Earth element magic: stone armor
3 sharp shadows surround Eno to stab him from three different sides while wistas himself is running at him from behind and Luka is dashing with his bursting flames at the front, Eno is standing there gazing, wistas death curse goes through Eno armors just as if it wasn’t there, it hits the target body only, ignoring armors and transept through them, hitting the surprised Eno directly and inflecting the curse.
Wistas: That’s for underestimating us!!
Eno: Tch!
The enraged Luka doesn’t give him anytime and come slashing swiftly with his large blade, the moment Eno tries to side-block Luka blade it sparks and ignite with bright flames, making Eno jump back right into wistas who tries to stab him in the back.
Eno: You think this dull dagger can break my magic stones?
Wistas: It can draw your attention!
Eno: Huh?!
Luka: This is for beating Ren! Hyaaa! Guided strike!
Luka blade goes directly at Eno head, Eno reflexes let him bend back to avoid it, but wistas slides and knock his legs making Eno falls, Eno now is like a turtle on its back, Luka slashes vertically at him.
Eno: The earth is with me! Earth element magic: body rejection!
Everyone: -!!!
The earth rumbles as Eno cast his spell, and in a blink all of them are in the air, knocked back.
Eno spell “Body rejection” is a spell made to push away all living beings inside of its range away from him, it creates a stone shell around Eno for a split second that is made from actual stones gathered from around him, then it is enhanced with magic to create poles of stone targeted at living beings around him, it can also be used on other magically made stones.
In other words his stone wall spell, By the poles from the shell around him he managed to hit both Luka and wistas and send them in the air, while hitting Loran who is standing on the stone wall Eno created earlier, Saia was targeted as well from the same wall but she tried to run and tripped down, she luckily avoided the hit. Now Eno is the only one still standing in the stone colosseum.
Eno: As I said, (clenches his fist dramatically) the earth is with me.
Though he had a chance to finish them off, Eno turns and start walking away, all of the stone walls collapse down, as Luka stand up, he saw clearly that Eno was heading north-east. That direction is practically close from A. city, but at the same time it was obvious that he wasn’t heading there.
…….
FLICKERING FLAMES
Our friends though their mouths are still filled with the bitterness of defeat, they take a stop to recover, Saia take care of the beaten up Ren, while Loran, Luka and wistas didn’t suffer from heavy blows like her because they made Eno focus on blocking their attacks rather than attacking them.
Lora: Sigh and I thought that Luka was just a brute waving his huge sword and taking attacks head on, this day have changed my understanding of the word brute…
Wistas: Indeed…
Luka: even my new flaming blade and new skill that I was hiding did not work, man talk about depression here… I was sick of meeting lots of people casting magic on me so I wanted to keep up by making my sword bursts with flames; it is quite annoying you know? Always being behind like this.
Lora: Saia how is Ren now?
Saia: well, she isn’t actually that bad, he didn’t use sharp weapons after all… I already healed her, but I think she will take some time to wake up.
Lora: I see…
Luka: That guy was something else… he even bent up her armor…
Wistas: yeah…
After sometime, Ren comes back to reality and then they tell her what she missed.
Ren: hmm… Guys… I have to tell you that… when I fell down I was still able to see, I didn’t completely lose consciousness, that guy Eno… he came close to me and was saying some things to himself, It wasn’t clear but I heard him saying “— can take it… I should lower my physical output strength even more, he said I shouldn’t kill the people who are holding the runes, though it doesn’t actually matters but orders are orders.”
Lora: You mean?!
Luka: The bad guy has another bad guy behind him?!
Wistas: or he was just a henchman for the one behind the curtains… but the fact that he was so focused on taking the rune and to not kill us make you think about two things, Is he actually a bad guy? And why did he leave??
Ren: well, I guess he left because he already took what he came for… when I fell down he took the rune.
Lora: curse it! We are back to the start point now!
Luka: but you have the wind rune around your neck, don’t you? We are not actually at the start point, and Zora have another as well.
Lora: Aaaa, actually you got a point this time, why he didn’t take my wind rune though? Uuuuh! That man is a living mystery now!
Wistas: he did say that the earth rune belongs to him as a guardian or something… maybe that’s why he didn’t look for your rune.
Lora: but—
Luka: Alright alright! Enough already! Long story short, this guy took our earth rune, plus we didn’t find the girl with the water rune and she is probably far away by now since spent all this time fighting, moreover we didn’t reach A. city yet, so get up all of you and let's move! We need to become official adventurers, remember guys?
Wistas: Right, we have to keep pressing on, no time for idle chat.
Lora: Also I can report what happened when we reach there; we already know that brute name.
And so, all of them agree and start heading to Decud HQ again, though defeated, their heads are still high, they know what they have to do and they intend to do it…
To Adventure city!
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[i] Skill that manipulates shadows to make it stab the target, leaving a curse mark on the hit spot, when there is enough curse marks all of them will explode dealing great dmg, also each mark sabs a small amount of life energy and give it to wistas
[ii] Luka's first spell, he was hiding the fact he managed to learn magic, it creates flames all around his neck and all over his back, as a result his loyalty shield absorb the fire element and is surrounded in fire, the phoenix flames heal Luka slowly and increase his strength and speed.
[iii] Instead of shooting just one magic infused arrow, she shoots three, and then she repeat.
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[1] Ren’s Axe ability, Mana dinner, which seals one of the opponents magic elements temporarily
[2] Shadows from under wistas engulfs him and teleport him behind his target, allowing for fatal blow.
[3] Restorations spell which can be cast in two different ways, either to block some amount of dmg or to heal the target with time.
[4] An impressive and sturdy great shield which Luka's father made, it has an enchantment that heals the bearer slowly with time, and it also absorbs elemental magic.
[5] He means Ren.
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[1] Wistas shadow cloak is a special cloak with shadow element magic, it helps him become one with the shadows
[2]For example a necklace with magic that increases speed or mana pool and so on.
[3] And will cost me a lot of time to explain as the author.
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[1] Wistas shadow cloak is a special cloak with shadow element magic, it helps him become one with the shadows
[2]For example a necklace with magic that increases speed or mana pool and so on.