Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! Crazyness may be late, but will not fail!
ANYWAY, Sorry for the late update. Today is the start of a new study year for me (don’t ask, It’s complicated… Brazilian things(^.^’)) so I kind of got caught up into going to class and having to see a few other things. The next couple of updates may be a bit rocky and I might have to reduce the update speed a little if things get a bit too overloaded, so sorry in advance for any possible failed updates.
ALSO, Recently I have received a couple of a bit more detailed reviews. I received a pretty bad grade for grammar, which I won’t complain at all since I do know there are a lot of errors, but I simply am unable to see them myself. Heck, I actually like when people point me at what I am lacking in my stories. But now, HOW THE HECK DID I GET FULL FIVE STARS FOR STORY? I mean, really, is there even a story in here? It’s just a guy fooling around as he plays! This left kind of surprised… (O.o)
ALSO(2), Look who’s back! And we even have a dispute for the position! (LOLZ)
ALSO(3), Some people may be thinking that the reason Wargon still don't have his class by now is because I kept forgetting to add it. MUAHAHAHA!(Thunder for dramatic effect) YOU FELL FOR MY TRAP CARD! Actually, from the VERY FEW THINGS I have planned for the story, this not getting a class is one of them. But this is about to end with this actual arc, since it IS about him getting a class. So yeah.
Have a good read!
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Leaving behind worthless doubts like the one I just had, I distractedly made my way towards the central elevator, deciding to consider the whole talking lieutenant thing nothing but a one-time fluke and that it would never happen again.
We reached the elevator, and on a last minute, decided to go towards the alchemy store and show her the depleted Crystal since I still wasn’t very sure of when the guild would open. I also had the feeling that no matter the time, I would be received the same way at her place, since she lazes around all day long.
Before we even reached the place, we saw as the huge dwarf stood in front of the door while talking to the little hag. I raised my eyebrow in confusion as I watched the duo talk to each other, and Torg took out something from his pockets and showed it to her. The hag’s usual tired look completely vanished when she looked at it.
When I got close enough, I could see that in his hands were a few elemental crystals. It seemed that he came here for some advices on the whole crystal and metal ingot thingy.
“Those elemental crystal thingies are sooo yesterday! Literally.” I said as I approached the two of them. Torg jumped in surprise, but the hag simply smirked in response.
“So, not only did you get me, but you also managed to hook Torg onto the whole Crystal thing, huh?” She said in a slightly mocking tone.
“Wait, you also know little Gon?” Asked Torg surprised.
“Yep. He’s that crazy and irresponsible disciple I told you about.”
“Oh, no wonder I thought that he seemed familiar when you described him!”
“Hey, you two do know that I’m still here, right?” I said slightly annoyed at the fact that they were ignoring me standing right in front of them.
“So, what brings you here, boy? I still haven’t gotten anywhere with your request, before you ask.” Said Sol.
“Nah, I came here for a different reason! And actually, it’s good that the two of you are here, since I think this might interest you.” I said as I took the depleted crystal from my inventory and spun it around a couple of times.
“Is that a mana crystal?” Asked Torg slightly confused, but granny answered for me.
“No… It looks like a mana crystal, but it feels different…” Sol said in wonder.
What did she mean by "feels different"? No matter, I threw the crystal to her and she quickly caught it, putting herself to examine it. When Torg started to get curious, I got another one and gave it to him.
Sol’s eyes immediately started shining, as she suddenly got herself a new toy to play with, but Torg looked at me slightly confused.
“Why did you think this might interest me, little Gon?” He asked slightly confused.
“Did you try breaking it like the others?”
He blinked in surprise, and immediately held the crystal between two fingers and tried to break it with his other hand, but he slightly grimaced when the crystal held its ground against his strength. I’m pretty sure that if he went all out, he would be able to break it, but then I also think a steel sword would break with arms of that size, so I don’t think that it would be a good comparison.
“Hmm… I think I might have an idea on how to fuse these two crystals together…” Granny said while watching the two of us. And I’m pretty sure she had the exactly same idea as me, because she immediately ran towards the inside of the house and came back with a portable distiller, where she immediately put on the acidic solution before throwing the depleted crystal inside. “So, while we wait the crystal to dissolve, mind showing us how you got these new toys?”
I shrugged as I took out a normal mana crystal and a wind crystal, holding the two together in one hand, I quickly activated them while aiming at the ground. After the wind-ball exploded, I showed them the depleted mana crystal.
The two immediately tried to copy this, but both failed, as the elemental crystal poofed into oblivion. Thinking that this might be a limit from the low skill level, we decided to test something else. Since these are consumables, if I made something with them and then passed to someone else, would they still work?
I hastily made a wind leather ball and stuffed a crystal inside. It was easiest one of the ugliest leather balls ever, but it would work, so I passed it to one of them. This time it worked and the crystal depleted its mana, but when they tried to change the crystal by themselves it stopped working.
For now, since we didn’t have another way to produce these until they got to intermediate, I made another thirty crystals for each for them to run their tests.
Meanwhile, the depleted crystal had already dissolved into the acid, so Sol threw some grinded elemental crystals inside and shook the whole solution to mix it before picking another solution and throwing it inside before boiling it again. I didn’t forget to notice that the solution she used this time was different from the one from last time.
However, against my predictions, after distilling the solution, we didn’t get a crystal right away. In fact, if I didn’t look really closely I would almost miss the small crystal slowly forming in its center. It was definitively growing, but would take a couple of hours before the whole liquid would be concentrated back into a single crystal.
“Isn’t this a bit too slow?” I asked slightly worried, but Sol shook her head.
“Precisely because it’s taking so long that I’m sure its working. If this was a normal mana crystal, it should have already condensed in a blink.”
“I see… And why would you have a solution to change the solution back into mana crystals?”
“Boredom.”
Perfectly valid answer.
We decided to leave the condensing crystal with Torg for now, since he would be the one to test it on the forge when it was done, while Sol looked for some other applications for the depleted crystal. Right after our goodbyes and we started going back to our places, a commotion happened in a nearby alley, as somebody dashed away from it and ran into my direction.
“SOME ONE HOLD THAT CYCLOPS! HE’S ESCAPED FROM PRISION!” I heard a girl’s shout coming from the same alley the cyclops came running through.
Wait, Cyclops? Prison? When the Cyclops reached us, I could see that he had a pair of broken handcuffs on his wrists while nothing covering his upper body, but I still managed to recognize him.
It’s my old victi*cough*friend! PK-cyclops!
I really need to learn his name sooner or later…
Nah, not worth it.
It seemed that he also noticed me and immediately his face contorted into a mix surprise and fear. It seemed that I really am becoming somewhat of a trauma for him. I feel honored! He immediately changed his direction when he noticed me.
“LIEUTENTANT!”
“NYA!”
“Do you see that cyclops? Flash him down and stop him, soldier!”
“NYA!”
He made a hasty salute before darting away. Even if the cyclops had the starting advantage, Lieutenant was still much faster than him and quickly surpassed him before turning back and jumping. He looked at Cyclops right into eyes and smirked as he pulled down his military hat and lifted a flash-bomb.
“WHYYYY! WHY ALWAYS MEEEE?” I heard the cyclops preemptive agony cries as the bomb started to explode.
As soon as he fell down to the ground in surprise, lieutenant took two of the freezing knifes I had passed to him earlier and threw at the guy’s hand. I had set all of his knifes to activate on a two seconds delay so he could throw them at ease.
Oh, it also seems that his throwing weapons mastery just reached level four with that, and he earned a new skill that allows him to throw multiple knifes at the same time! Nifty! The range is kind of short though.
This whole scene took around four seconds, and just then I saw a shadow darting from the alley with an absurd speed and run towards the cyclops. It seemed surprised for a moment after seeing Lieutenant sitting triumphantly on the guy’s belly. He even took his hat off, licked his paw, combed his fur back like one of those hunks from the cinemas, and winked to the newcomer before putting his hat back.
The newcomer got surprised for a moment, but when the ice holding the cyclops hand started to melt, the newcomer made a quick wave of a hand, and not only was the ice refreshed, but it also appeared on his feet.
“Err… I would like to express my gratitude towards you for stopping this felon…”
The newcomer started talking with Lieutenant for a moment, but he started waving his paw away as if saying that he just did it on a whim. I heard Aura sighing at my side at his actions. I’m pretty sure she’s the second sanest of this group. After me, of course.
Still, I approached the newcomer and put my hand heavily on her shoulders while saying.
“You disappoint me, my disciple. You dare pass near your teacher and not even spare a greeting towards him!”
Yuu suddenly jumped surprised and turned towards me while staring at me wide-eyed.
“Shi-Shishou?”
“For this lack of respect towards your teacher, I shall now disown you from War’s school of gaming!” I said in a fake angry tone, making her open her eyes even wider in surprise.
“Wahh! Sorry Shishou! I… I hadn’t seen you there! I was too distracted and… and… Please, don’t disown-me, Shishou! Please! I will pay with my own life, but don’t disown-me!” As she said that, an ice sword formed into her hands and she immediately went to commit seppuku right there and then.
I stopped her by materializing my sword and hitting her head with the sheath.
-4 (386/390)
“Oww… Why did you do that, Shishou?” She asked me while crouching with her head in her hands. I kind of missed this scene.
“Don’t you know how to take a joke, you silly fox?”
She blinked a few times, and right as she was about to say something, some more ruckus occurred as suddenly a screech came from the alley. Me and Yuu turned to the source of the ruckus and we saw just in time as a huge hawk flew through the narrow alley with its wings folded and turned towards us. In its back were a dwarf wearing a full plate armor and a cat-girl with silver hair.
“There they are!” The girl said while pointing at the cyclops at our feet.
“Ya! I see’im.” The dwarf said as he pulled the reins and made the hawk land a few feet away from us. He quickly jumped out of the over-sized bird and walked towards us. “Are ya the lads who caught this dirty son of a mole?” He asked while looking at me and Yuu.
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“I fear that the credits should go towards the Lieutenant colonel over there.” I said while pointing to the trick cat standing lazily atop of the Cyclops. He made a quick salute at the dwarf, who simply sighed.
“I’ll be damned. Tha cat has a higher rank than me!” He said in a half joking tone while taking a heavy looking pair of handcuffs from his waist and locking the cyclops’ hands. “An’ don’ even try ta break these. There is an enchant in dem’ to shock ya if ya try.” He said as he lifted the whimpering ogre by the lobe of his ears. “An’ tanks to ya, Lieutenant Col. I’ll be sure to not let this lad scape again.” He said as he nimbly climbed the hawk. “Tank for yer help too, lass!” He said to the girl who just climbed down from the hawk, before lifting flight and somehow darting away through the streets, even if the ceiling was no more than a couple of meters above him.
The cyclops, by the way, was being held through the pants by the birds claws.
Not a very sociable dwarf, is he?
“Mou! Yuu-chan! Couldn’t you have at least waited for me to find someone to help?” Said the little girl.
“Sorry, Han-chan… It wasn’t my intention…” Yuu answered a bit downhearted.
“Hmm! Don’t do it again!” She finally turned to me again. “And if it isn’t Shishou-san!” She had a slight mischievous smile. “It’s been some time since our last meeting!”
“It’s been what, four days? I was just giving Yuu a lesson on paying respects to your masters before you arrived.”
“Oh… I see…” She smirked slightly. I think she has something in mind. I might need to teach her that with some people you don’t mess… “And who are these two cute little things? I don’t think you had them last time we met…” She said while looking at Aura and Lieutenant.
“Yeah, they are my new companions. That one is Lieutenant Colonel Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus the Third. He’s a trick-cat and a battle pet.” Lieutenant made a salute as he was introduced, then I turned to Aura. “And this one is Aura, she’s a Freezing tail, a three-tailed ice fox, and she’s the one in charge of cooking.” And I pointed to the fox at my feet.
Hmm? Why is Aura and Yuu staring at each other? As I thought about this, Aura suddenly turned to me and started to pull my pants legs with her claws. I looked at her curious for a moment, until I understood that she was asking me to pick her up. I took her and held her into my arms as she nestled herself up happily.
When I turned back to Yuu, I saw her staring angrily at the little fox in my arms.
“Aww… Seems like Yuu-chan just lost her spot as the pampered fox…” Hanbei suddenly interjected, making Yuu jump in surprise and look at her with her face completely red.
“Wha-what do you mean?” She asked worried.
“Well, weren’t you looking all jealous when Shishou-san there started petting his little pet?” She said with a smirk.
Now that I noticed, I somehow had started petting Aura’s fur absentmindedly. It seemed that I might have gotten addicted to doing this.
“I-I wasn’t jealous!” Yuu immediately rejected her, but it’s kind of clear that she was lying.
Geez, if she missed it so much all she needed to do was say it! I approached her and started petting her head gently, making her stiffen for a second in surprise before relaxing visibly as her tails began to wag behind her. As I did this, I felt Aura moving around in my arms and looking at me with a sad face. I had to take my hand out from Yuu’s head to pet her again, but this made Yuu become sad.
I ended up doing this a couple more times before both visibly calmed down. All this time Han-chan was smiling.
“So, Shishou, what are you doing here?” Yuu asked me after some time.
“I was showing some things to a couple of friends before, and now I plan on going to the guild to see if I can get an idea for a class. It’s been four levels since I could get myself a class and I still didn’t.” I said a bit awkwardly.
“EEHH! Then you are still level fourteen?” The cat-girl asked, this also seemed to surprise Yuu. I nodded awkwardly. “I was sure you were, I don’t know, twenty or something by now!”
“I kind of got caught up with crafting, so I didn’t level too much… But I did get a nice set for myself, and am in the works to make an even better one, so I’m not all that worried.” I said as I opened my equipment window and showed it to them. They gasped as they saw the status in my gear.
“Wow, for a level five gear, these are amazing! Some of these are the same as my level fifteen gear! And this belt…” Han suddenly widened her eyes when she saw the belt and she looked at me, focusing to see my name above me. “So you are the one from the announcement!”
“What can I say? I’m a celebrity! And sorry, I’m not giving autographs.” I said while filling my chest with pride.
“See! I did tell you that Shishou was incredible!” Yuu also said full of pride.
“Yeah… Anyway! You said you were going to the guild. You mean you are already in a player’s guild?” Han asked surprised, but I shook my head.
“No, it’s a mercenary guild of the sorts. Where you can get jobs and such. I was on my way there right now, actually. Want to come too?” As soon as I said this, Yuu turned towards the cat-girl and showed her the super destructive puppy-eyes.
It seems that she got defeated rather quickly, as she simply nodded weakly.
On the way, we started talking on what we had been doing on these last few days. Yuu and Han had been mostly hunting around, but they did go into a dungeon with a group last time and got to level 18 before they had to log out. It seemed that Yuu got a classic sorcerer class, specializing in frost and fire magic. But she still kept rushing towards battle with her ice spear whenever she had a chance. Han got herself a swordsman-like class called Windseeker, and earned an attack draw passive skill that allows her to use attacks straight from the sheathe while increasing damage by 10%, and she uses some wind magic to improve her skills.
Compared to them, I feel kind of lackluster, as all I have are my basic sword skills, shield slam, flash-bombs and five different elemental throwing knifes…
This is slightly depressing.
Not letting this get me down any further, I started telling them of my adventures on crafting, hunting red and blazing tails, and finally my showdown with Aura.
For some reason Yuu looked shocked at hearing that Aura could be a battle pet and become ridiculously stronger, and for some reason, Aura only threw oil into the fire by sticking her tongue out at Yuu.
Wasn’t she supposed to be the serious one? Since when did she start to misbehave like this?
Anyway, this started another staring contest between the two. Han was dubious of these story of mines, so I had to show her the Recklessness skill to prove that my words were true. After that she stopped calling me Shishou with a mocking tone and started to say it respectfully. Although I did enjoy the change, it became slightly creepy the way her eyes started shining towards me.
I also sold her a couple of flash-bombs after she asked me.
We reached the Silver Gauntlet after some time and I immediately went towards the reception desk, asking for Goulder. It seemed that he had already arrived and was only arranging a few things before coming to the guild. Me and the girls decided to wait a bit and took a seat on a table and started to chit-chat about anime, manga and such… Which left Yuu and Aura pretty much in the dark. Lieutenant had disappeared somewhere, and after a quick look in the map, I found him staying on the road outside of the guild, probably working on his information network or something.
Sadly, it seemed that El, Arcus and Lila weren’t here yet, so I missed the chance of introducing the girls to them.
After around one hour, the door opened and an old man wearing a tattered cloak came in. I immediately got up and approached him.
“Hey, Goulder! Long time no see!” I greeted him heartily.
“If it isn’t Gondorrer! What brings you here?” He asked happily, I pointed to the table where the girls were seated.
“I’ve been wanting some help with a little something.” I said as I sit myself down again. Goulder took the seat besides mine and gave a quick acknowledging nod to the girls. “And, by the way, these are Yuuki and Hanbei, my friends.” I turned to them. “Girls, this is Goulder, certified badass, war hero and leader of the guild.”
“Why! Flattering will get you nowhere, you know!” He said laughing heartily. “It’s a pleasure to meet such lovely ladies like the two of you.” He said in a more polite tone to them. I could pretty much see Hanbei’s eyes becoming a pair of hearts as she looked to the old man in front of her. It seems that she’s into older and mature guys, huh? Well, I guess that Goulder does look kind of handsome…
“It is my pleasure to meet someone such as you who have been taking care of my Shishou, Sir Goulder. My name is Tatenaka Yuuki.” Yuu said in her overly polite mode.
“I’m… Hanbei…” Hanbei said with a dreamy voice.
“The pleasure is all mine!” He said with a gentle smile once more before turning back to me. “So, Gon, tell me what help do you need.”
“You see… I’m already level fourteen, and… I kind of need to pick a class still.” There, I said it!
“Hoh… And why did you come to me for that?” He said raising his eyebrow.
“You kind of seemed to know a lot of things, and I guessed that it would be a good idea to see if you had a class to recommend me…”
“I’m not sure I know as much as you think I do, but I’ll give it a try!” He said in a good mood. “So, what do you want for your class?”
“Hmm… Firstly, I want to avoid being too much dependent on magic, I have a reason for this, but it’s kind of silly, really…” I said with a wry smile. Goulder nodded as he made a pensive expression before motioning me to go on. “Secondly, I want a class to fight strong enemies…”
“Wait a minute kid, isn’t that what all classes do?” He stopped me with a confused expression. I smiled slightly awkwardly as I tried to put it into better words.
“It’s not like that… You see, I like to fight enemies a lot stronger than myself… Kind of like…” I turned around and picked Aura, putting her into the table, where she looked confused at me and Goulder. “This here is Aura, and she is a freezing tail. Do you know of them?”
Goulders eyes visibly widened when he looked at her, then got closer to Aura and lifted her straw hat to look her in the eyes.
“… A soul pledge? With a freezing tail?” He looked surprised at me. “Boy, what in Cygnas name did you do to get this? I always thought they were only a myth up to now, and then you come to me with one bound to you with a Soul pledge?”
I blinked in surprise, then I quickly recounted him my experience back into the woods with hunting red tails, how I met Aura, and such.
“And you did all that at level 14?” He said surprised. “Damn, boy. Now I see what you meant…” He said while thinking to himself, then he looked up to me. “One last question. What kind of weapon do you use?”
I was kind of caught by surprise by this question, but I still answered.
“Well… Right now I use a Sword and shield or a bow, I also played a bit with dual wielding some time back, but I plan on using a few others weapons as well.” I said slightly worried, and this made him start to nod seriously. “Is this problematic?”
He looked at me and laughed happily.
“No, boy, this is perfect! I think I might have the perfect class in mind for you!” He said with a big grin, making me and the others in the table completely curious.