Chapter 11

The Mooncutter

    Pristine was sitting on a huge stone chair that looked like a crude throne embedded on the wall. In fact, it was part of the wall, directly sculpted from it. It was covered with fur rags. She can see the entire room from her position.

    She was in the boss room of the Ajucanis dungeon and mine that she raided alone. Thinking back on it, it was a ridiculous thing to do. She had close encounters with death, but managed to live through it all. It was her choice, and now she was quite happy with the results.

    There were a lot of corpses to loot, but for now she had to rest to recover her Vitality and Mana. Leafy was tottering around the room, curious about the things inside. In the center of the room lay the split corpse of the Ajucanis Chieftain. Every now and then, Leafy would look at the corpse and make noises as if mocking it. This made Pristine smile warmly.

    After restoring her Vitality and Mana to full, she looted the corpse.

The Mooncutter

    The Mooncutter is a sword believed to be once wielded by a God. It was originally intended to cut the moon into two halves.

New Information: Divine Artifacts

    You have discovered a Divine Artifact. Divine Artifacts are weapons, armors, or tools once used by the Gods, imbuing them with divine energy. These artifacts are not meant to be used by mortal men. It's true power will only be unleashed when the necessary requirements are met.

    "Divine Artifact?" Pristine pondered. During the battle, the Ajucanis Chieftain used it like an ordinary two-handed sword. That means it has not met the requirements to unleash its power. She tried wielding the sword, but nothing happened.

Ajucanis' Grimoire

    A forbidden book containing the instructions on how to use the spells that the Ajucanii are familiar with.

    Any spell in the book can be used by the owner as long as the requirements are met.

    Pristine jumped with joy. This was a treasure beyond compare. She quickly equipped the book. It had a chain on its binder and she used that to attach the book around her waist. A new skill appeared on her status screen under the unique skills.

Ajucanis Magea: Beginner ( 0% )

    Fireball: Beginner ( 0% )

   Ice Bolt: Beginner ( 0% )

   Stone Bullet: Beginner ( 0% )

   Wind Blade: Beginner ( 0% )

   Shock Bomb: Beginner ( 0% )

    She gained five spells in an instant! Excited, Pristine tried casting one of the spells, Wind Blade. Wind gathered around her hand forming a transparent blade. It consumed her Mana over time at an alarming rate. Quickly, she dispelled the skill.

    "I thought it would be a projectile skill," she said, a little disappointed. After recovering her Mana, she tried the other skills.

    Fireball shot a ball of fire and explodes on impact causing fire elemental damage on the area that was affected by the explosion, and the burn debuff status.

    Ice Bolt shot an icicle that pierces the target, and if the target has any form of fluid on the hit area, it freezes the fluid and forms icicles from it, causing the target to rupture the affected area from the inside.

    Stone Bullet shot a small bullet of stone with enough power to cause the target to stagger even if the spell was blocked because of the impact.

    Shock Bomb releases a ball of compressed lightning that spreads for an instant after a few seconds. Targets hit receive lightning elemental damage and a chance to be paralyzed.

    "Why is it that Wind Blade is the only one that's not a projectile?" It wasn't important, but it bothers her a bit. She tried using wind blade once again, and when she tried to slice a boulder, it easily split in half, but consumed all her Mana in the process. "A one-hit kill spell, huh?" It was a powerful spell, but was heavily restricted by range and Mana consumption.

    After that she took the core from the chieftain's corpse. Luckily, her attack didn't hit the core and broke it.

    She went back to the entrance of the cave, looting the corpses along the way. She got a lot of coins and some low quality equipment along with some potions and herbs.

    "I dunno what to use with the herbs." As she said that, Leafy on her shoulder began to nudge her cheek with its head as it tried to reach out the herbs in her hand with its front legs.

    "You want these?" Pristine put Leafy on the ground and spread the herbs in front of it. It began to move towards the herbs, leaning its head to each type one by one. Finally, it stopped in front of an herb with sharp looking leaves and began to munch on it.

    "I thought you only eat seeds and nuts," she said as she poked Leafy's back covered by sparse leaves. After finishing the herb of its choosing, Leafy tucked itself into a sleeping posture.

*          *          *

    It was already past three in the afternoon when Pristine arrived in the town of Macca, a half-hour walking distance from the Ajucanis dungeon. It was a much bigger town than Lancendai, and was heavily populated. She searched for a shop to sell the low-quality equipments she looted from the Ajucanis. After a few minutes, she found a joint blacksmith and tailor shop.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    "Are these all Ajucanis equipments?" the female vendor asked behind the counter as she saw Pristine magically bring out items after items out of nowhere. In Tataria lore, Travelers make use of a magic infused technology called Technomagea. One of the common uses of Technomagea was the Travel Portal. Another common use is for the item storage. It converts items into ether then converted them to data which are stored in the inventory. The data can then be again converted to ether and materialized. This use was already widely known since 20 years ago in-game time, when Travelers first appeared in Tataria.

    "Yes. Is there a problem?" Pristine responded.

    "This much... could it be... you got them from the mine southwest of here?"

    "Yes, that's the place..."

    Suddenly the vendor rushed out of the counter and held Pristine's arms.

    "Did... did you kill their leader?"

    "Uh, yes. I actually wiped them all out."

    The vendor suddenly bowed her head, and small voices could be heard from her. "Thank you... thank you... very much."

    "What happened here?" a loud voice came from a door behind the counter and big man wearing overalls covered in soot came out. The female vendor upon hearing his voice rushed towards him and hugged him, then she said some quiet words while sobbing.

    "I see," the man said as he gently led the woman towards a wooden stool. Then, he walked towards Pristine. Bending his entire upper body to form a right angle with his waist, he made a grand bow.

    "I am truly grateful for what you have done! Please, tell us your name, the name of our avenger!"

    Overwhelmed, Pristine could only respond with her full name while stammering.

    "I am Lenden Sewr. This is my wife, Zen Sewr. Well, then, Miss Void. If it doesn't trouble you, please accompany us for a while and tell us about how you defeated those minions of evil." The man gestured towards the door that leads to the backyard while flipping the sign on the front door from 'open' to 'closed'.

    "I'll prepare something to eat," Zen said as she hurried to the room behind the counter.

    Pristine followed Lenden to the backyard. There was a garden with a small round table surrounded by four chairs.

    "I made these," the man said as he tapped the table and chair. They were painted white, but they were obviously made out of metal. "I'm a blacksmith, and my wife is a tailor. That's the reason for the shop."

    After a while, Zen appeared carrying a tray of biscuits and tea. Pristine then told them about how she found the dungeon filled with Ajucanii and how she went on a killing spree and killed every one of them. She then mentioned the Mooncutter and showed it to them.

    "The Mooncutter is our family heirloom," Lenden said as he looked at the huge silver blade and stroke it with his hand filled with emotions.

    "We had two children, twins. Zanus was the elder brother, pretty good with the sword, and Lenia was the younger sister, a talented mage." He grimaced as he said those names. He was holding his emotions back. "The mine southwest of here belonged to Zen's family. They entrusted it to me when I married her. When the Ajucanii invaded the dungeon, I set out with friends and my two children to take it back. I brought the Mooncutter with me, hoping it would lend me its strength. But, we were overpowered by the chieftain who was blessed by their God. I was able to run away along with a few others." He stopped and clenched his fists. "Lenia was not able to escape. I can't imagine what atrocious acts they did to her. Zanus made it home, but he was heavily wounded and died the day after. I had also dropped the Mooncutter and left it behind."

    "Then, I'll return the Mooncutter to you." Pristine thought that this was the least she could do.

    "No, I believe it was fate that dictated this blade to fall into your hands," Lenden declined. "You said you were a War Chanter?"

    "Yes, is there a problem?"

    "No. There's none." Lenden began to ponder for a while then said, "Let me tell you about the legend of the Mooncutter that has been passed down in my family."

    Pristine nodded and gave him his full attention.

    "Long ago, during the age of the Gods, there was a God who was driven mad in his search for power. He tried to destroy everything around him until he could not be satisfied anymore. He roared for a hundred days and ninety-nine nights, and on the hundredth night he laid his eyes on the full moon. For an entire month, one lunar cycle, he hid in his temple. And the next full moon, he appeared carrying a sword. It was the Mooncutter. He wanted to cut the moon.

    But before he could achieve his goal, another God appeared before him. She was Luna Bellucantus, the God my ancestors worshiped, the singer of the Moon's hymns. She stopped the God and stole the Mooncutter. She sealed its power and left it to her followers to guard it."

    Pristine was amazed. The NPCs in this game had very rich and long backgrounds. The lore was surprisingly deep, and each NPC has a story to tell.

    "I have failed to guard the Mooncutter. It is entrusted to you by fate. I am sure, Luna Bellucantus would give you her blessings. She has a temple on the tallest mountain, located on the northernmost part of the continent. The mountain is called World's Peak. If you go there, you might be able to receive a divination from the Gods."

    "Thank you," Pristine said.

    "No, we're the one who are truly grateful to you." The couple bowed at her.

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Sorry, my head's not working. Intense migraines are killing me. :<

Please forgive me for this low quality chapter.

Tell me you opinion about the formatting. If you like it, say so.

I'll edit the other chapters to have the same format.