Ezra wandered out of his room during the early morning. He went through a variety of training and leveled up several skills.
[Basic Grappling] - Lv. 22 > [Basic Grappling] - Lv. 23
[Titan’s Fists] - Lv. 5 > [Titan’s Fists] - Lv. 7
[Basic Striking] - Lv. 10 > [Basic Striking] - Lv. 13
[Cortian Ironflow] - Lv. 8 > [Cortian Ironflow] - Lv. 10
Ezra returned back to the village square and wandered into Miss Marnie’s. He was greeted by the sight of a dozen or so people in white cloaks sitting down. They’d moved the tables together so that they could be together.
When Charles caught sight of Ezra, he waved him over. “One-Eye, over here! Come join us, we saved you a plate!”
Ezra grimaced, and then walked over to Charles. He put himself in the only empty seat and stared down at his eggs. He looked back up at Charles.
“How’s your arm?” he said.
Charles laughed and slapped his elbow.
“Good as new! Let me tell you, you’re pretty good at the whole wrestling thing. You’ve got to teach us how to do that.”
Ugh. Ezra was hoping that Charles would be grinding his teeth together.
Charles looked over toward the end of the table. “I should introduce you to everyone.”
“That isn’t necessary—“
Charles pointed to a familiar face—Pete. “That over there is Pete, our resident bowman.”
Pete had filled out since Ezra had left. His arms were more defined and he didn’t seem quite as nervous—though there was definitely a trace of awkwardness in how he avoided eye contact with everyone at the table. He waved a hand toward Ezra before returning his attention to the food on his plate.
He stopped, then looked back at Ezra and narrowed his eyes.
“What?” Ezra said. “Is there something on my face?”
“Sorry, you just look kinda familiar.”
Nope nope nope! Not good, abort, abort! “I’ve shown up in the newspapers, according to Idia. That’s probably where you saw me.”
Pete shrugged and looked back at his food.
Charles pointed toward Yuki.
“That woman over there is a master of buffs, debuffs, and healing. Yuki.”
Yuki didn’t bother looking up from her food. There was a dark, tired look in her eyes. Ezra tilted his head. Had his leaving done that to her? No—she wasn’t so weak to fall apart just because he left. There was something else going on.
Perhaps she might’ve just been having a bad day?
Charles coughed into his hand. “This is Dorian.”
Dorian folded her fingers together and rested her chin on them. She looked pointedly into Ezra’s eyes.
“Hello, One-Eye—“ she paused, then her jaw slowly opened. “Wait a second, E—“
“And this is Steve over here…“
Ezra filtered out the rest of what Charles was saying. Dorian had been about to say his name, he was certain. Even now, the two of them were staring at each other. Dorian with wide eyes and a slightly open jaw, while Ezra’s lips were tightened into a thin grimace.
“And that’s everyone!” Charles pointed at Ezra. “In case you didn’t hear the news, this is One-Eye. He saved a town down south and killed a boss monster in the process. The queen was so impressed that she requested that he mentor us while we hunt down the third boss monster.”
One boy snorted. “What could some mercenary teach us—“
A girl next to him elbowed him.
“Don’t you remember what happened to Charles yesterday?” she hissed.
The boy clamped his mouth shut.
“So, where are you from… One-Eye?” Dorian said.
Ezra stabbed his fork into his eggs, clanging it against the plate.
“The far east, across the ocean. You wouldn’t have heard of the place.”
She stared into his eyes. “Interesting.”
“Can you tell us about your experience saving Toria?” Lackey 2—Steve?—said.
“The guildmaster turned out to be working with the Demon Lord, so I killed him,” Ezra said.
The table went silent. Dorian smirked.
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“What was your homeland like?” Dorian said.
“Dry and hot.”
“Why did you come here?”
Ezra grinded his teeth together. “Just wanted to get away from it all, you know? Travel and see the sights.”
Dorian sucked in a slow, deliberate breath.
“You seem to rely mostly on unarmed combat. Kind of strange, don’t you think? Did you ever use a weapon? Like, say, a long, pointed n—“
Ezra stood up. “Right, we need to talk.”
“I agree.”
The two walked out of Miss Marnie’s and exited out into the snow.
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As soon as they were in a relatively isolated section of the woods, Ezra turned around, a frown on his face. He was going to make sure that Dorian knew not to—
She grinned widely. “I honestly didn’t expect to see you again, Ezra. How have you been?”
Ezra blinked. He held up his hand. “Wait, we need to talk about what was happening at the diner. What were you doing? If you were planning to expose me, why not say so?”
She tilted her head.
“Expose you? Of course not, I was just teasing, Ezra,” she said. “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question. How’ve things been?”
He’d almost died repeatedly, he’d been betrayed, and he’d gotten involved in some stupid plot to destroy the kingdom. Basically, he’d had a great time.
Her smile slipped. “Oh, I guess you didn’t have it much better than us, huh?”
Ezra stared into her eyes.
“What do you mean?” he said.
She clasped her hands behind her back and looked to the side.
“We weren’t prepared,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of horrifying things, and its hit everyone hard.”
He opened his mouth to respond when Dorian’s head swiveled toward him. She smiled.
“I’m glad you’re alive, really. I was kind of worried that you’d get yourself killed,” she said.
“Why?” Ezra said. “We’re not buddies or friends.”
Dorian looked at the ground and sighed. “Sometimes I forget how obtuse you can be.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ezra, you saved my life, remember?” she said. “I didn’t just… forget that happened. And believe it or not, I am capable of showing gratitude.”
Oh, yeah, Ezra had forgotten about the life save thing. “I was just repaying a debt.”
“Well, anyway, I guess we should be making our way back before Charles sends out the search parties.”
Ezra looked at Dorian.
“Quick question. What happened to Synica?” he said.
Her face darkened.
“She was ‘promoted’ to the front lines in some kind of suicide squad,” she said. “Everyone knows that Idia had something to do with it.”
Ezra frowned. He’d need to look into that. He owed Synica a lot. It wouldn’t do for her to die or something.
They walked back to the diner. Ezra stopped.
“Should we, like, explain ourselves? I mean, they might come to the wrong conclusion,” Ezra said.
A slow grin spread over her face, her eyes wide and flickering with insanity.
“Oh, Ezra, what could they possibly think we were doing?” she said
She slammed the door open and strode in with her back straight. Ezra slapped his palm against his face and followed. He took his seat as if nothing had happened. Dorian hopped into her seat. She leaned over to a girl next to her and whispered something in her ear.
The girl’s face turned bright red and she stared at Ezra for several seconds before squeaking and covering her face.
“Right…” Charles said. “Well, now that that’s over with, I think it’s about time that we buckle down and discuss what we came here for.”
“What’s that?” someone at the end of the table said. “I missed the memo.”
“The boss monster,” Charles said. “And everything we know about it.”
----------------------------------------
Charles stood up and crossed his arms.
“Right,” he said. “From what we can tell, this particular boss monster specializes in stealth. It’s pure white, making it perfectly matched for the landscape. It was spotted about a month ago, though at first, the villagers thought it was just an ordinary monster. A recon team later confirmed that it was a boss monster.”
“How are we going to track it down?” Dorian said. “I hope you have a plan.”
“Of course I do,” Charles said. “I sent in a request to the mercenary’s guild to send us a tracker and they’ve promised that one will arrive within the week. But we might not even need that.”
Pete frowned. “I hope you’re not planning to put anyone at risk, use someone as bait or something?”
Charles paused.
“Of course not,” he said. “I wouldn’t do that, Pete.”
“Would you?”
The room fell silent. Ezra raised an eyebrow. Challenging Charles like that? When had Pete grown such massive cajones?
“I would not,” Charles said. “And anyway, that’s not needed because I have a pretty good idea of where this thing is, anyway.”
He pulled out a map from a belt and spread it onto the table. Multiple X-marks were scattered over the map in seemingly random locations.
“Each of these marks a point where the third was spotted. It might seem random, but I’m fairly certain that I’ve picked up on the pattern of its movements. If we’re fast enough, then we might just be able to deal with it.”
“What about its abilities?” Ezra said.
Charles nodded. “Good question. From everything we’ve picked up, it sounds like it relies heavily on ranged sneak attacks.”
“It’s a sniper?” Dorian said.
Charles laughed nervously. “I mean, I wouldn’t put it like that…”
“But that’s what it is.”
Charles’s shoulders dropped. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“Do you have any plans for how you’ll spot it and deal with it?” Ezra said.
“Well, honestly, I was hoping you’d know what to do, Sir One-Eye—”
Idia snorted.
“No need to ask the mercenary,” he said. “I’ve dealt with several foes similar to this thing. We simply put our ranged fighters and warriors with high Wisdom up front. That should take care of sighting it.”
“What about defense?” Charles said.
“A strong offense is the best defense. We strike first before it has the chance to get an attack off.”
A few of the students glanced at each other. Dorian sighed. Pete rolled his eyes.
“Keep in mind that I’m your commander,” Idia said. “I know best.”
Charles’s lips drew taut against his face.
“Right then,” Charles said. “With that, we come to the final problem. The Dark Seal.”
Ezra leaned in. He wasn’t planning to use it or anything, but the information could be valuable.
“This creature has been confirmed to be carrying an active Dark Seal. It’s an S-rank variant, capable of turning just about anything into a fully-fledged Archdemon. When it drops, don’t touch it, don’t even look at it. Both Idia and I have the spell for safe disposal, so leave it to us.”
“An Archdemon?” one of the girls muttered. “How terrifying.”
Filamenta hadn’t mentioned that there were various degrees of Dark Seals. Depending on the one you got, it would influence how powerful you became?
The call of power was alluring… until Ezra remembered that it would turn him into a mindless slave. That didn’t sound like a good move.
The final details of the plan were hashed out and they agreed to set out in an hour. As Ezra exited the diner to check over his things, he felt something crawl on his shoulder.
“Filamenta,” he said. “Where were you?”
“Turns out that the guild boy has a small library,” she said. “I was researching.”
“And?”
She paused. “My condition, Ezra… it’s…”
He stopped in his tracks and looked down at her. Was she in danger?
“No, it’s nothing major,” she said. “Forget it.”
“That didn’t sound minor. What did you learn?”
“I promise, it won’t affect my combat ability. I swear. I’ll still be just as useful.”
Ezra clenched his jaw. There was something she wasn’t telling him. He would’ve gone to Sen’s library and tried to figure out what Filamenta was doing… but he didn’t even know where to start. He untensed his jaw and sighed. There was no point trying to force it out of her.
“Fine. Feel free to tell me what’s going on when you feel like it,” he muttered.
She stayed silent. He headed back to Joe’s room.
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