Parkbridge is a bustling town, filled with merchants, visitors and employees of the Garden. Keeping an institution the size of the Garden supplied supported many business, and it helped that most of the large noble houses had a ‘branch’ or ‘holiday-home’ here, for their own descendants, or for visits.
Ethan's destination, the temple itself was really easy to locate, because it was just next to the train station. The track tracks would also lead to the city of Fortuna, but that's a few more hours away.
The temple was a small shrine, and he touched the statue of five goddesses standing together located in the middle.
[You’ve gained 5 fragments of divine energy. You now have 1 Shard and 2 fragments]
[You’ve visited 3 of 128 Five-Goddess Temples or Statues in the Kingdom]
As he walked out of the temple, he saw Yannie Housan, had boarded the return trip. She was fuming, and kept cursing.
Camelia Everfrost, on the other hand, walked around the town of Parkbridge. Curious, he summoned Kaname.
“Kaname, can you follow Camelia Everfrost and see what she’s up to?”
“As you command.”
Ethan decided to explore Parkbridge. He passed by stores that sold apparels, foods, and noticed most of them supplied their goods in bulk, or were warehouses for their retail shop in the Garden. Retail space in the Garden was fairly limited, and storage even more so.
He briefly wondered how did they transport goods to the Garden, and whether the trains made logistic or shipping runs overnight.
It also seemed like every third shop was an inn, though right now, they converted their street-floor to restaurants, or warehouses.
[Kaname: Camelia Everfrost is meeting someone from her family- no. It’s one of her family’s messengers. She seems fairly upset]
[Ethan: Could you make out what’s being said?]
[Kaname: Something about her father. But they got out of distance and the place has magical wards.]
[Ethan: Just keep watching.]
He continued to browse the shops, but gradually made his way closer to the Kaname’s location in Parkbridge. He saw some fairly interesting shops he couldn’t afford now, and updated his personal notes.
[Kaname: Master, I see the dark shadows. Camelia has left the residence and the shadows are following her. She’s walking to one of the parks.]
[Ethan: Follow her. Keep watch and interfere if she might get hurt.]
Ethan ran. “Seriously?”
Camelia was well aware of the presence of shadows, as she snaked through the town and eventually arrived at a secluded park, and waited for the shadows.
“Come out. I know you're there.” She said, and the shadows appeared. Three human-shaped shadows laughed, and then charged at her. She created a spear of ice and slammed into the shadows.
The spear of ice pierced the shadow, and the shadow shrunk slightly. But, all of them attacked together, and their shadow claws slammed into her ice armor, and shattered it.
"Cowards." She cursed.
"Join us, Lady Camelia." They slurred. "We'll help you!"
"Lies." Camelia dodged their attacks, and tried to counterattack "All lies."
"We don't lie."
"That's a lie." Camelia could defeat them one-on-one, but three of them put her on the defensive. All three shadows attacked concurrently, and their attacks were quite strong. She had a small protective layer of magical ice that absorbed the attacks, and also a mix of ranged attacks.
"The darkness shall prevail, Camelia. There is no use resisting the end."
"Foul creatures, begone." Her ice spear glowed and smashed into the shadow, and the shadow slithered away. The shadows though hurt, didn't seem defeated.
"It's not easy to defeat us." The three shadow-humans merged, and transformed into a larger shadow-human with more defined shape.
“Lady Camelia.” The shadow spoke. “Why so hostile? Are we not friends? In the world of darkness, everyone shall be our friend.”
Camelia’s face twisted in anger. “Friends! Don’t be friendly, foul beast!” She surrounded herself in a layer of ice, and attacked. She thrusted her spear at high speed, but the shadow-human materialized a shield of shadows that blocked it easily.
The shadow-human manifested it’s own spear of darkness, and the two exchanged blows. Ethan retreated even further, because the ripples of magic from their attacks were really strong.
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Camelia’s spear of ice bent and transformed many times, and tried to keep the pressure, but the shadow-creature was just as strong, or even stronger. She winced in pain, as the hits from the spear were stronger than before. “Ugh!”
“You’re not strong enough to challenge us. The Dark Goddesses will soon rule the world. Join us, Camelia.” The shadow taunted as their spears met.
“Never.” Camelia said. “I’d rather die.” Her spear glowed white and blue, and she thrust for the body. She missed.
“Heh. Too slow-” The shadow taunted.
But Kaname didn’t. Kaname’s shorter katana, her wakizashi, stabbed into the dark shadow-human from the back. She read his movements and struck when she got a good prediction of his movements. “[Multi-Strike].” She tore her wakizashi through the shadow’s body and ripped it apart.
The shadow slithered through the floor, reconstituted it’s head and stared at Kaname, appalled. Yet it was enough, as the strike weakened the shadow-human. “Meddlesome creature!” The shadow retaliated, and stabbed with it’s spear of darkness.
The spear of darkness smashed into a wooden log, and small daggers stabbed the shadow’s body on the floor.
The daggers slowed the shadow momentarily, just enough for Camelia’s ice spear to stab it through its shadowy body. Her spear glowed. “[Ice Explosion]!”
The magical spear of ice detonated into sharp pins of ice, and the shadows lost most of it’s mass.
“This is not the end of us~” It said as it evaporated, magical energies lost.
Camelia turned to face Kaname, and nodded. “Thank you-” She took a good look and realised she was familiar. “Eh. You’re the one Grandmaster Greenwood spoke to. Kan-?”
“Kaname Kaga.”
Camelia actually smiled at her and nodded. Kaname just shrugged as she surveyed the place.
Ethan remained hidden, and watched the two interact from a faraway corner. Camelia briefly glanced in that direction, as if she sensed him.
“How did you realize I was under attack?” Camelia asked.
“I walked past, and saw you in a battle.” Kaname walked closer to where the shadow vanished, and saw a small black marble on the floor. “Can I have this?”
Camelia walked closer and stared at it keenly. “You can have it. Thanks... for helping me.”
Kaname nodded. “No worries. I have to go, see you in the Garden. Hope you get back safely.” She walked somewhere secluded, and then vanished.
Ethan arrived at the train station first, and he sat at the waiting area. It was the evening train, and then, Camelia walked through the gate. Their eyes met, briefly, and unexpectedly, Camelia walked towards his bench and sat on the other side.
The two sat quietly.
“You saw us fight.” She said, after an awkward silence.
Ethan didn't reply to her statement.
"Are you an agent of the dark?”
Ethan was bewildered by the theory, that he didn’t know what to say.
“Probably not. But you were stalking me.”
Ethan realised he was now a 'stalker'. Great.
Ethan gulped, and remembered what he said last time. He pretty much confessed to her, and he decided to double down. “...yes. I saw you fight, but I’m too weak to help. I’m only in my first realm, and with a common-grade core, I’ll get slaughtered if I try to fight that monster.”
“A wise choice.” Camelia said, her eyes were staring at the clock. The train would arrive in another 10 minutes.
The male student didn’t know what to say to that.
“What core do you have?” She asked.
“A common-grade shadow-blade core.”
“Shadow element?!” She turned to face him, her eyes suddenly seemed to pierce through him.
“Uh... yes.”
An awkward silence descended for a few minutes, the clock was ticking down.
“The agents of the dark won’t be so stupid to admit it to me directly.” She said, breaking the silence. “What is your full name?”
Ethan smiled, and decided this was a good chance of reconciliation. He offered his hand for a shake. “I’m Ethan Blacktree.”
She didn’t take it. Their social status were too far apart, and there were other students around. Ethan withdrew his hand after offering it for about a few seconds, and it was just pure silence until the train parked at it’s stipulated platform briefly.
Her eyes were still locked on the train, and then, she asked. “What do you like about me?”
Ethan was a little dumbfounded by how the conversation shifted, but after a short 10 second to think, he decided to just say the facts. “You’re beautiful.”
She turned to look at him briefly, face a little bit pinkish, and then sighed. "Such simple creatures. Beauty is but a byproduct." She stood, and boarded the train.
Ethan decided to follow a short moment later, as the attendant began to call for boarding. He sat on the other side of the shared cabin, but felt her gaze on him every now and then, throughout the entire ride.
***
Kaname gave him the marble once they were back in his room.
[You’ve gained 1 shard of divine energy. You now have 2 Shard and 2 fragments]
“Huh. An entire shard of divine energy.”
Ethan rechecked the skills given by the goddesses’ and wondered what would happen if he upgraded these skills?
[Skills given by the Goddesses]
[Summon Master - Summoned Warriors - Level 3]
[Goddesses’ Outfitters - Level 1]
[Eavesdrop - I hear everything in the room - Level 1]
[Administrative Control (School-office) & Academic Pass - Level 1]
“Any views on what I should upgrade?” He asked the ninja, and the ninja shrugged. If he wanted to level up Zaram’s strength to solo the Level 2 Rifts, he would need stronger summons.
That took priority over everything else, and so, he decided to go for it.
[Summon Master - Summoned Warriors - Level 5] (+2)
[Overall strength of summons increased slightly]
[Overall strength of summons increased slightly]
[Summon Focus Shop unlocked. You may now spend shards on specific summons to grant them additional strength. Number of shards may not exceed level of Summon Master]
[New summon unlocked: Platinum Rank - Patricia the Engineer]
“Ooh. Must be for the repair quest.”
He dispelled Kaname, and summoned his new summon. Patricia appeared in the garden uniform, and he had to admit, she looked super cute in a school uniform. “Ayyyyyyy! Nice to see you again, master! What needs fixin’?”
[Summon : Platinum-Rank Engineer Patricia- Level 5/20]
[Skills : Repair Structure, Store Materials, Backup Power to Buildings, Makeshift Maps]
“As I suspected, you’re going to be fixing statues.”
“No problem boss. It’s still work and statues are fun!”