Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! AN EARLY AND NORMAL SIZED RELEASE! HOORAY!
ANYWAY, Today’s chapter, with a bit of familiar relationship and a mysterious old man that I’m sure half of you know exactly where this is going! And I also give the real opening for this arc! Which, by the way, is different from the other arcs for a very deep and significant reason. It’s reason of existence is for the sake of a single joke! Hooray!
ALSO, I plan on doing Insania tomorrow too, and maybe the day after before the next (Re)Install update, since it’s been at a long time since we had a bit of our daily Gon dose, right?
Have a good read!
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“Is this that girl you were speaking about?” My father asked me while he looked at red.
“Nah. This is Barbara, remember her?” I told him while pointing to Red besides me.
“Hi there, Roger!” She greeted him with a smile. “Or should I say, Wulf?”
“Oh! Baah!” My father said cheerfully when he linked the elf to the girl he knew. “It’s been some time! When are you going to cook something for us again?”
“I’ll have to see it... Maybe next weekend?” She said after some thought.
Last time she came to my house, she cooked some pasta for us, and my father simply loved it, and now he has been expecting the next time she would appear. But leaving that aside, for some reason his name was fairly familiar.
Taking a good look at him, I couldn’t help but think that he looked just like what I initially thought. He had picked a barbarian and left his height similar to his in actual life, towering about half a head above me, but thanks to his race, he was a lot more muscular than in real life. Not that he was weak, mind you, but he was definitively not as muscular as that. His hair was long, falling a bit below his neck.
He wore a heavy plate armor and carried a large battle axe on his back, all of them having a slightly ominous black coloration. Above him, was the floating name Wulf.
Taking my attention from him, changing it to the fairy who was flying around him who was looking around in wonder, smiling a bit wryly at the name floating above her head.
“Pea, really?” I said with a wry smile.
“What? It’s her oldest nickname.” He answered with a wry smile.
I sighed while looking at her again. I initially thought that she was a fairy, due to her size and the fact that she was flying around in wonder. But taking a closer look at her, I saw that she had a small pair of slightly transparent horns, as well as that her wings, instead of butterfly-like the usual, had a shape similar to a dragon’s. Besides that, she was just like her usual self, with her hair a medium brown tone falling up to her back and a face that just made people want to pinch her cheeks.
She used a full cloth set, looking oddly similar to one of the princess from her cartoons. On her hand was a wooden wand with a small gem on its tip that shone lightly.
“Why does Booh look strange?” She said while I examined her, and I smiled a bit awkwardly at this.
“Well, this is how Booh looks like inside the game.” I explained to her and she made a surprised face. “Just like how lily looks like a fairy in here… Or dragon… Or draco-fairy… Or something like that…” Loosing track here.
I turned my attention to the last person who was here, and this was the only one I didn’t recognize. It was the old-man who came on the other horse. He had set his race as a human, much to my actual surprise. He had a dark gray hair that looked to be in the mid-term between the original color and the white hair of old age.
And old aged indeed, as he had many wrinkles in his face, but the rest of his body looked surprisingly fit beneath the cloth armor he wore. His eyes were slightly pulled and his skin was slightly yellowish in tone, giving him an oriental movie. All of that, together with the spear he held in his hand made him look just like one of those martial artist masters that appear in anime.
And just as I looked at him, he also examined me intensively, as a smirk appeared in his face.
“Sonny, this is Ronin.” My father said to me, and I nodded. “I met him at the starting place and we have been helping each other.”
“And let me guess, he is a good drinker?” I said with a smirk, and my father smiled widely. I turned back to the old man and introduced myself. “Pleasure to meet you, Ronin. I’m Wargon.” I briefly introduced myself, and the old man laughed loudly.
“So you are the famous Wargon then?” The old man said with a wide smile before bowing respectfully. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Youngling!” He said with a mischievous smile. I took a glance at my father and he smiled at me. “But you truly are just the spitting image of his. Even when you look so different.” He said while scratching his shallow beard.
“What are you talking about? Can’t you see I’m way more handsome?” I said in a fake annoyed tone. My father hit my head playfully, only to grimace slightly at the backlash from my higher stats. For some reason, Crys giggled slightly.
“Now I must say… That is quite the interesting sword you have there.” The old man said while eyeing the sheath on my back. “Mind giving this old martial artist a look?” He asked me. Giving another quick glance at my father and seeing him nodding, I took the blade out from my back and showed it to the old man.
He quickly took the blade from my hand and weighted it around, moving it from one side to the other with an amused expression. He made a few moves that looked oddly familiar with the blade, before finally making an odd expression and giving it back to me.
“Waah! Boo’s weapon looks cool!” My sister said while approaching the sword and flying dangerously around it, I gently pushed her away before she did something dangerous.
“I agree with her there.” My father said with a curious tone. “Where did you get it?”
“Oh, I made it.” I said with a shrug, and this made him and Ronin blinked surprised.
“You… Made it?” Ronin asked surprised, before shaking his head. “Good joke kiddo, try again.” The old man said with a laugh, but help came from an unexpected side.
“Actually, sir. It is true.” Red said with a sigh, and the old man blinked surprised. “If you look at the items description, it says that it was made by him.” She told him, and following her cue, I set the item description to appear for others.
While they read the description, the old man’s eyes widened slightly at the end of the text, while Wulf’s clearly widened his eyes at the status, same as Red, who was seeing the details for the first time. Pea… Simply looked confused. She didn’t really understand what was written there.’
“So… Sonny…” My father said after a brief moment. “When are you making a weapon for me anyway?” He asked me with the straightest face ever. I smiled a bit awkwardly at this.
“Already done it yesterday.” I told him while taking out the axe I had crafted after receiving his message that he was coming here today.
“You are my favorite son, you know?” He said as he took the black crystalline battle-axe. By the way, besides Lily, who is a girl, I don’t have any other siblings. Just so you can get the joke there.
I made it using the crystallized mana and some low-level wolves materials so that he could use it. From what he told me, he was around level thirteen or so by now, so it would still take him two more levels before he could use it effectively. “Do I also get a present from Booh?” I heard the fairy dragon asking, and I smiled a bit awkwardly while taking out a small wand with a star-shaped crystal on the tip.
Her eyes widened and she quickly took the want from me, and after quickly putting it in her inventory, it reshaped itself to a more sizeable form.
When I looked back, I saw as Ronin’s eyes shined brightly. I smiled a bit awkwardly, since I didn’t expect the old man to shamelessly want a present too. Seeing my reaction, his face changed into one of shock and then depression.
“Look, he didn’t warn me that he was bringing a friend, so blame him, ok?” I told the old man, who started to glare at my father hurtly.
“Hey, are you passing the blame to me? Your favorite father?” Wulf asked shocked and I simply stuck my tongue out at him before returning to the old man.
“So, what did you think about the sword? As a martial artist?” I asked the old man curiously. I already heard it from Yuu, but hearing from another person is also a good idea.
“It was… Odd…” He said honestly, and I nodded. “The balance wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly correct. And that shape… Isn’t very practical.” He said with a thoughtful face. “It shouldn’t cut very well in that shape.”
“Well, practical may have a bit of a twisted meaning here.” I said with a wry smile. “The damage is defined by the weapon stats, so the shape doesn’t influence the damage all that much.”
The old man nodded in a thoughtful position as he started to think on my words. From the look of it, he had even less experience at gaming than my father.
Hmm? Why does this feels oddly familiar?
“Now, who could these be?” My father asked while crouching and meeting Aura eye-to-eye and gently moving his hands around her fur.
At first, Aura looked a bit apprehensive, but soon started to enjoy herself and let my father pet her. My sister had long since sat down on her back while saying: “Big doggy!” And diving into her fur. I was envious of her at that moment, but made sure to not say anything. Meanwhile, Ronin noticed Lieutenant and the two started to exchange glares.
I quickly started to introduce Aura, Crys and Lieutenant General Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus Von Scratchy the third to our newcomers. My father grimaced slightly at Lieutenant’s name while Pea couldn’t even pronounce the first word correctly.
The old man looked a bit intrigued at Aura, probably because of her three tails and the watery jewelry, as even with his manners and antenna, Lieutenant still looked fairly normal. And taking into consideration that he looked like someone from the orient, he must be relating to Inari or something. He did say Inari earlier, right?
Afterwards, it was Red’s time to introduce her pets, making me notice that the pets outnumbered the players in this area. Smiling a bit awkwardly, I called the newcomers and started to show them around the city while continuing our talks.
“You still. Haven’t told me where is that girl you told me earlier.” My father said when we reached the main elevator.
“Oh, Yuu?” I said surprised. “Well, she should be on her way here already.”
“Oh, so you are going to meet in this city?” He asked me with a mischievous smile. I also noticed Red smiling in the same way. I sighed loudly while shaking my head.
“Nah. She’s on her way to our city. As in IRL.” I said with a sigh. “She should be reaching the airplane by now.”
“WHAAT? YUU IS ON HER WAY HERE?” Red asked surprised and I nodded tiredly. Immediately after I saw as she started to write something into the soon-to-be guild chat.
“Hmm… That’s interesting.” My father said as he picked a certain fairy who started to fly a bit too close to the elevator’s mechanism with curious eyes. “So I will meet your girlfriend sooner than what I expected?” He asked me.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
He didn’t hear me. I sighed loudly at this as I noticed that Red started to write even more furiously than before. I knew things would end this way, as even Ronin started to look at me with surprise in his eyes. Shaking my head, we left the elevator and I guided them towards the Silver Gauntlet.
On the way I made a quick detour through the bar where me, Arcus and El drank after our mission, just to make a point to my father and Ronin, whose eyes shone cheerfully at the mention of ale and wine.
Dragging the two drunkards away from the tavern, I quickly reached the Silver Gauntlet just in time to see the guild-master arriving with his full-armor set.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Gon, is that you?” He said with a surprised face before smiling. “Great timing! I heard something that might interest you!” He said in a cheerful tone and changing his direction towards us.
Some quick introduction later, between him and the others following me, he called us to the guild and had one of the waitress serve us a round of ale as he started his story.
Basically, the story was the following, he was returning from a trip from another city, and on the way he stopped at a friend’s house on a small village, and there he heard rumors of a wild beast that had been hunting the live-stocks of the region. Since the problem was far too recent, they still didn’t have anyone send for the capital to hire a mercenary slash adventurer to deal with their problem.
And even then, they couldn’t be sure that it was a beast as they thought, so there was still the need to verify the situation before being able to truly hire someone.
Goulder himself planned on checking the area, but since he had to make haste towards the capital, he couldn’t. But just when he was about to reach the guild so that he could send someone to the village, he met me and thought that I would be a good choice, since I was the one who had just earned the nickname of Beast-seeker within the guild.
I laughed a bit wryly because of the nickname, and felt as the others looked at me intrigued. Well, when all the quests I take only relate to hunting animals, you could guess that the nickname would stick sooner or later.
“Well, you can count me in.” I told him with a smile. The chance to hunt an animal no one knows what it is? I’m all for it!
“I knew you would accept!” He told me with a smile while taking out a piece of paper and giving it to me. “I need you to depart as soon as possible. From what he told me, it seems that the beast hunts far too often to let drag this too long.”
“Right now?” I asked worried while looking at the others who were with me.
“Well, at least within today if possible.” He said with nod.
I turned to the others and prepared to apologize, but much to my surprise…
“Is Booh going to travel? I want to go too!” Pea said cheerfully while flying to my shoulders and sitting there with shining eyes. But right before I could do that, Crys came and gently pushed her away. I watched the scene a bit surprised, but left it alone.
“That seems interesting.” My father said with a nod. “I’ll go with you on your trip.” He said with a nod, leaving me with no choice but to take him with me. Not that I actually minded it, to tell the truth, I just was a bit afraid of what I would end up finding there being too strong.
“A chance to see War fighting on his monster hunter way? That looks interesting…” Red said and nodded.
“Hmm… Sadly I can’t go.” Ronin said with a shrug, which actually surprised me. “There’s something I really need to do.” The old man said while taking a last chug of his ale and slamming it on the table with a loud sound and a wide smile. “Well, se ya’ll later!” He said before logging out in a pillar of light. For some reason his words felt a bit strange to me, but I couldn’t quite tell why.
“Geez, I never get used to that.” Goulder said with a wry smile. “Oh well, I’ll be counting on you, Gon!” And with that he pretty much kicked me out of the guild with a wide smile.
I sighed loudly while turning back to the other three, who were smiling widely while waiting me to do whatever it was that I was going to do. Shaking my head slightly, I decided to go and warn some other people before leaving the city. I immediately guided towards the nearest person I had to warn.
Taking Red and Wulf towards the streets of the commercial level and giving them a brief explanation of the cities inner workings, we quickly reached the shady looking store called Sol’s alchemy.
The two looked at me strangely for a moment, as if I was visiting somewhere sketchy. Not that they were wrong though. It does look very sketchy. Well, I don’t really care, so I simply went in and strolled through the corridor leading to the store, and then stopped on the door before her lab.
Telling the three to wait for a moment and checked the situation. The last two times I went in I was greeted with an explosion to the face, so it’s better to be safe and not let them receive the same greeting. Seeing that Sol was sleeping face-first into her bed, I approached her, feeling a bit mischievous, and prepared a small contraption. I made a small dome with the pillows, covering her head, and slipping in a small flashbang between the pillows and her face.
I learned the hard way that some alchemical here are vulnerable to light, so I had to be a bit creative.
The others had already come in and watched the scene confused.
“A… Kid?” Wulf asked confused.
“Who’s she, Booh?” Pea asked curious.
“Actually, she’s older than all of us combined.” I said while pointing backwards and seeing as a small flash of light blasted thorugh the gaps of the pillows and a muffled scream of pain came from in there. Sol raised herself and turned to me while fuming with anger. “And THAT’S for last time, you damn hag!” I said to her with an evil smile.
She raised a closed trembling hand towards me, but sighed loudly and gave up doing whatever she wanted to do and slowly crawled out of the bed, taking care to not go too fast and fall down, as she didn’t have her vision right now.
“Okay brat… I’ll give you this one.” She said annoyed while waiting for her vision to recover. “So, who are these together with you? I don’t think I’ve met them before.”
So, from my last exchanges with the old-hag, I kind of noticed that the old hag had some kind of sixth sense to magic, as more often than not she ends up blinded by my flash-bomb, yet she always turn to me when talking. But the moment that she have to move around the, she starts extending her hand to feel the area around her.
That would also explain how she knew when I was approaching, even when everybody else didn’t hear me approaching, and how she knew when the infusions were working before us.
“Yeah, these are… What’s your name, Red?” I said turning to the elf, she sighed loudly before saying.
“Naarya Wildbow. Wood elf.” She said with a light nod.
“I’m Uthred Uthredson, and that is Stiorra Uhtredsdottir.” My father introduced himself while extending his arm. I could see that he was still a bit dubious about her age.
“Hmm… Nice to meet you. You can call me Sol.” The old hag introduced herself while eyeing my father from head to toes, then turning to me. “You Chosen are weird, you know that?” She said with a sigh and I smiled awkwardly. “So, let me guess:” she said while clearing her throat. “I will leave the city and should be back in a few days. Please tell Torg and Melinda!” She said while imitating me.
“How did you know?” I asked in a fake surprised tone, and she sighed wearily.
“You come here do that every freaking day. It’s actually starting to get boring.” She said with a long sigh. “And no. There isn’t any advancement on that.” This time she actually sounded sad instead of annoyed.
I grimaced at the news and nodded. There wasn’t much I could do to help her with that, so I left it alone. Different from the other times it seemed that this research was managing to leave her frustrated, and even though she could reproduce the alchemysteel at a fairly cheap price, the improved alloy that Excel-Loran used was still escaping her grasp.
It was the same with Torg and the crystal alloy he received from her a long time ago, and with the black-fair, the festival that occurs every so often in the city, right around the corner, he changed to full time working on a good weapon to put to competition, so he couldn’t work too much on the research.
While me and Sol were discussing this and I bought some potions I still couldn’t make myself, Sol looked back to Wulf and Red, who were looking curiously at the potions on the room, analyzing the area with curiosity.
“Just be careful to not drop them. Some are dangerous.” She told them with a smirk. Red flinched a bit, but my father simply nodded, as he was already used to seeing that kind of thing. “And… Where is the small one?” She asked confused, and now me and my father paled.
We quickly looked around looking for Pea, but thanks to her small size we had some hard time finding her. Finally, our fears came to fruition.
“Booh! Look at this! It’s pretty!” She said while flying with a small test-tube in her hands. It shined with a beautiful pink coloration.
I gave a quick look to Sol and saw as she paled slightly.
“Is that… Dangerous?” I asked worried, and she nodded.
“Yep. The most dangerous.” She said calmly in a low tone. “Such that I locked it in a chest under a fake floor beneath my bed. How the hell did she find that?”
“Never underestimate her skills in getting into trouble.” I said lowly, receiving a light nod from her. “Now, Pea, come here and give me that shiny bottle.” I told her in a low tone, but she suddenly pouted and pulled the test-tube away from me in a dangerous movement.
“No! I found it! Booh have to find one for himself!” She said pouting.
“Deary, give daddy the test-tube.” Wulf said in a worried tone, but the fairy pouted even more and flew away.
“It’s mine!” She said angrily, but…
“PEA! STOP THROWING A BEEPING TANTRUM AND GIVE ME THE BOTTLE TO RIGHT NOW!” I boomed to her, startling everyone in the room, except Red and Wulf, who had already seen me scolding her before.
Pea looked at me teary eyed while trying to hide the test-tube behind her, but I glared at her and she slowly flew towards me and reluctanctly gave me the test-tube.
“Now, tell Sol that you are sorry.” I told her, and she nodded.
“Sorry, Sol.” She said shyly, and Sol simply nodded, a bit stunned.
I gave the test tube back to the alchemist and saw as Pea ran away, hiding behind my father who was laughing loudly.
“It’s been some time since I’ve last seen the General!” He laughed loudly, and I smiled a bit awkwardly. For some reason, Lieutenant looked at me with shining eyes and made a respectful salute.
“Geez, boy. That… Surprised me.” Sol said while sneaking beneath the bed and storing the potion back into wherever she hid it. After a few seconds she came back and heaved a sigh of relief. “Geez, if that thing went out again… It would be disastrous.” She said pale.
“What exactly was that?” I asked, feeling curious.
“A love potion.”
…
I want to know why the hell would she have that, what she would use it for and why she was still holding it if it was that dangerous. But let’s not ask that because I’m a bit afraid to know the truth.
Sighing loudly, I gave my goodbyes to the alchemist, feeling relieved that I had adverted a crisis. But before I could start relaxing, warning came from an unexpected source.
“Master, Pea seems to be in possession of another test tube.” Crys said lowly besides me. I turned shocked towards the fairy and saw as she held another test-tube in wonder.
“Oh, that’s only an explosive one. Could be worse.” Sol said with a relieved sigh.
“Explosive?” The little fairy asked confused while hugging the test tube away from us again.
“Yeah! It goes boom!” The elf said while making a scary face.
“Waaah!”
And with that scared shout, the little fairy let go of the test tube, which fell into the ground shattering into a loud explosion. As I slowly removed the debris from atop of me, I swore that I would give the little fairy a good old scolding that she would remember.
As soon as she and Wulf resurrected, of course. Can’t talk to dead bodies.