Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! One day delay, but here it is!

ANYWAY, we finally get to see Wallace and find out how important the task that brought him to Eldor is! (Snickers). We also get to see some fairly interesting relation with another character at the end. Who would have guessed?

ALSO, Sorry for the delay. Sister was sickly yesterday and I had no motivation whatsoever to do anything. It was serious to the point that I could barely get myself to play some games, and even that lasted only around ten to twenty minutes. Nothing serious, though, just lack of motivation.

Have a good read!

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After hearing Arcus words, I quickly ignored the beer-drenched Yami and stared at the beast-man for some time while trying to process the information.  Dragon General was the old man’s class, right?

Ignoring the wine-drenched slime that looked at me in anger, I quickly used the hem of my armor to clean away the beer and looked at Arcus, who seemed surprised by my sudden reaction.

“Where’s the old man now?”

“Huh… Last I heard he was going to the general industries sector…” He said a bit stunned.

I looked at him for some time before nodding. Thinking better about it, I had absolutely no reason to go and meet the old man right now. Except that I was curious on what he was doing here, so feeling my curiosity driven motor engaging, I quickly chugged the remaining of the weak wine down and felt myself become tipsy for a moment.

After making sure that I could still think and move fine, I quickly gave my goodbyes to Lila and Arcus so that I could go and take a look at the old man. Now that I had already spoken with them and wouldn’t find Goulder inside anytime soon, I didn’t have much reason to stay around.

Arcus and Lila quickly gave their goodbyes to me and then to the girls, who seemed to be curious about Wallace. And stopping to think about it, they never met him, right? Seeing that this was as good of a chance they would get, I decided to let them come with me. Yuu could find us using the map, so no need to worry there either.

Seeing how we were all ready, I turned back to Lieutenant who was in the middle of one last game of poker. I made eye contact with him and through a series of intrinsic gestures unknown to any one other than us, managed to tell him: ‘Finish game. Follow.’

The cat gave a quick salute to us as a way of telling us that he got the orders just fine before sitting straight up and rubbing his paws together, as if saying that it was time to get serious.

I nodded satisfied before turning and leaving the guild.

We didn’t take more than two steps out when I felt a hand grabbing my head from behind and starting to squeeze it with anger.

“What if you had stained my clothes?” Yami asked angrily. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to remove wine stains?”

“How would that happen? Your clothes is also made of slime!” I said while yanking my head out from her hand.

“…Oh yeah.” She said suddenly with an ‘that’s right’ face. “I forgot about that.”

“…Wait, you were angrier about the fact of having to wash the clothes than the whole spewing thing?” I asked confused.

“Have you ever washed stained clothes?” She asked with a deadpan face.

“Touché.” I said with a nod before suddenly stopping to think for a moment. “Wait, do clothes even get stained in here?” I asked curious turning to Crys.

“Yes.” The elemental said with a nod. “But all you need to do is repair them item to remove the stain…”

Barely had Crys spoken those words, the slime suddenly threw herself to her knees and made what looked like a praying pose.

“I thank thee, oh great goddess Cygnas for bestowing such a great blessing upon all of us house workers. I thank thee for slaying one of our greatest foes and ending such a long-lasting war against the household disaster known as disaster…” She began praying right there and then in the middle of the streets.

Me, Crys and Hanbei were caught a bit by surprise by her sudden reaction and could only stare at her in confusion for some time before starting to smile awkwardly. Crys even started scratching her head awkwardly with a smile that said she was at loss.

“You… are welcome?” She said not sure how to react.

“Huh?” Yami suddenly stopped and stared towards Crys with her head tilting slightly. “Why did you say by that?” She asked confused.

…

Oh yeah!

“I may have forgotten to mention, but Crys here is none other than Cygnas herself.” I told her with a quick nod.

Yami blinked and stared at Crys for a moment, then back at me, back at Crys, back at me… Suddenly her jaw dropped in a pretty comic way as she pointed towards Crys.

“You have a goddess as a pet?”

“Well… Technically, yes…” I said while trying to explain my situation. “But it would be better if you didn’t tell this to the NPCs. They might get a bit crazy if they were to learn that.”

“I knew that you were one who was always chea…”

“I only have access to the most basic data that can easily be accessible while in this form.” Crys interrupted her.

“…You should have let me call him a cheater.” Yami turned to the elemental with an annoyed tone. “Then I could go to Yuu-dono and tell her that he was cheating… It would be fun to see her reaction.”

Please no. What if she got angry with me? I’m living less than one hundred meters away from her right now, you know? As I thought that all I could keep doing was smile awkwardly at her words while shaking my head.

But… If she got jealous… It would be something nice to see, I guess…

No, no no. let’s not play with fire, it’s dangerous unless you have a fire resistant gear like mine… But then Yuu specialize in Ice magic, so rather than playing with fire, shouldn’t it be playing with the ice?

As my mind wandered on this kind of random semi-useless thoughts… Okay, completely useless thoughts, we had already reached the main elevator which seemed a bit more crowded than usual with people using armors and so on. Although most were NPCs, I did spot one or two players amongst the crowd.

Seeing as we all dropped around the general industries sector, I guessed that they all probably came here for the same reason as we did. Well, this was proven correct when I saw everyone moving towards a fairly familiar part of the sector, where a certain leather-worker’s house stood.

There was huge crowd in front of Melinda’s house, spanning a mass of bodies that was easily tens of meters long in all directions. Letting out a long sigh, I started to make my way through the crowd by squeezing myself through it.

There were some people giving me cold stares, others were trying to impede my advance, but the moment that they caught sight of Aura who had her teeth poking out from her mouth, they immediately changed idea about trying to stop us.

Still, I found out how a sardine feels like when it’s stuffed inside the can. This much I can say for sure.

The moment that we reached the door, though, we found an amusing scene, to say the least.

In a radius of at least one meter of the door, there wasn’t a single soul. Feeling like an Oasis amidst the sheer amount of people, I quickly dashed into it to take a deep breath. Hanbei, who was smaller than me seemed even more exhausted, while Yami…

She slid from beneath the crowds feet as a puddle and quickly reformed herself. She looked annoyingly fine to me, and even dared to give me a victorious smile.

Ignoring her, I turned to look at the crowd which was suspiciously distant from the door. But seeing as they weren’t making any effort to come closer, I ignored it and quickly turned to the door, knocking it.

At that moment, everyone in the crowd near us froze, and I saw as worried gazes appeared through all of their faces, the closest ones even trying to get some distance.

Looking at their reaction in confusion, it didn’t take me much longer for me to understand why they did that.

“WHAT DID AH TELL YOU! GET LOST!” An overly familiar voice boomed from the door, the sheer strength behind it almost sending me flying.

“It’s nice to see you again, o… Wallace.” I told the sharp looking old man that appeared at the door while trying to not appear scared out of my wits by his blood lust.

Wallace looked at me confused for a moment before finally widening his eyes in surprise. He stared at the girls, my pets and me before staring at the crowd. He let out a short snort before grabbing me by the head and throwing me inside. The girls looked shocked for a moment as I fell face-first into the ground within the room.

Since I was having a very intimate date with this beautiful being known and ground, I didn’t get to see what was happening behind me, but I did get the chance to see black puddle form besides me as Yami was also thrown in.

Hanbei probably was a bit smarter, because she wasn’t thrown in. The same could be said to Aura, Crys and Rio, who probably would be left for last. After some time I finally recovered and put myself up while Yami quickly reformed herself besides me.

Closing the door behind him, Wallace stared at me with a confused face for some time before looking towards the girls.

“Damn brat! What are you doing here?” He asked me while signaling for me to follow him.

“Well, I heard you were nearby and decided to take the chance to come and see you.” I said while dusting off my robe. “Also had to warn you that I’m leaving for Sandroze, so I might not come back for quite some time.”

“Sandroze? What are you going to do that far away?” He asked me with a raised eyebrow.

“Well… Hunt?” I said with a shrug.

The old man stared at me for some time before shrugging with a chuckle. He then turned to the girls who were with me, to which he frowned slightly.

“So, who are these two?” He asked rather bluntly.

“Oh yeah. These are Tatenaka Hanbei and Tanto Yami. They are some friends I met some time ago.” I said while pointing towards the girls, then I turned to Aura and the others. “Those there are Aura, a freezing tail, Crys, a lesser crystal elemental, and Rioreia, a greater wyvern. They are either my pets or companions.” I introduced them briefly, and they all nodded towards the old man. “Girls, this is Wallace, also known as the Dragon general and one of the strongest man around right now.”

“You give me too much credit, boy.” Wallace said while waving his hands. “Ah’m just a simple leatherworker right now. Nothing too much.” He sighed loudly.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.” Yami and Hanbei introduced themselves politely. For a moment I even managed to believe that Yami was actually a proper polite girl.

“Dragon general? Does that make you friend?” Rio asked curious while tilting her head. This seemed to leave Wallace surprised for a moment, because he widened his eyes and stared at Rio for some time.

But his true shock came from the last one who spoke.

“Thanks for helping Master since his early days, Mister Wallace.” Crys said while bowing.

“Wha… She can speak?” Wallace asked in shock before turning to me. “Geez brat. An illusive Freezing tail that some people still think that it’s a legend. A Young mighty greater wyvern that most adventurers never thought about meeting, and now an elemental Ah have never even heard about capable of speech? What the hell have you been doing?”

“Ehrmm… Adventuring?” I said with a wry smile. Wallace simply stared at me for some time before sighing and shaking his head.

“Whatever. Come inside, Mah daughter is waiting in the kitchen.” He said while signaling for us to follow him.

I turned to the girls and they nodded, meanwhile I made the question that had been hanging on my head ever since I first heard that Old man was in town.

“Hey, Walace, why did you come to the city?” I asked curious. He turned to me briefly and gave a dry laugh.

“All Ah wanted was to come and bring Mah daughter some fine leather I got my hands on.” He said with a sigh. “But then an old friend of mine recognized me on the streets, and before I noticed it, everyone knew who Ah was.”

“Sounds though, huh?” I said and he nodded heavily.

“Now Ah can’t even take a step outside without people stopping me.” I started laughing at the old man’s situation. Luckily, he also gave out a dry laugh himself and didn’t bother with flickering me into a wall or something.

As I stopped laughing, I felt as a soft hand touched my shoulder while trying to get my attention. Turning back, I met with Yami, who looked at me with some strange serious suspicion.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Who exactly is he?” She asked in a low tone. “When he gripped me… It didn’t feel like a human gripping me at all.”

“Didn’t I tell you. That’s Wallace, the Dragon General.” I said with a smirk. “He’s around level three hundred or something, grumpy as hell and a skinner on his limitless free time. But he’s a good guy, as long as you don’t call him old man.”

“What are ye talking about?” Wallace asked from ahead.

“Just a sec, Old man, I’m telling them the rul…” Don’t you just hate when the response comes automatically? “Oh crap.”

Turning to him just in time, I managed to get sight of him extending his hand towards me, his finger getting ready for the death flicker as a frown appeared on his head. Acting more on survival instincts, ingrained into me after so many brushes with death, I somehow managed to take a step aside and activate roll just in time.

Missing the flicker, Yami who was right behind me stood around one meter away from the weapon of mass destruction. Even if the flicker never got to her, the wind was still strong enough to make her slimy pony-tail flutter up as if a strong wind was blowing, as well as topple down a cup of glass on the table behind us.

Feeling as cold sweat ran down my back, I stared at the hand that stood now a few meters away from me and couldn’t help but feel strangely happy at the fact that I had somehow managed to survive it.

Still, Yami looked scared out of her wits by the sheer strength behind the flicker.

“Wha…” The slime murmured in shock, which made me smirk slightly. But the moment I took enjoying her surprised proved to be fatal.

Before I knew, Wallace was in front of me once again and soon the world was spinning. There was pain, confusion and the feeling of something breaking in my head.

A message popped up saying that I got some kind of debuff, but I couldn’t really care much as I felt my conscience slowly fading away. The last thing I heard was an oddly familiar voice that shouted.

“Father! What did I tell you about breaking walls with guests?”

“Whoops. Mah bad!”

After that, it was only darkness.

…

Passing out inside Insania is quite a strange experience. You lose all your senses just like what you would expect, but instead of simply passing out, you are kind of sent towards what looks like some kind of black room or something. It was fairly similar to being passed out as you could somehow still feel what people did with your body, but you still had the chance to log out and come back later if you wanted.

Chatting is not allowed though. You can read messages, but you can’t post anything.

The maximum time someone could spend passed out was thirty minutes, something I learned the hard way during my hunts. Usually, only certain attacks would have this effect, but thanks to the hard-mode, strong attacks to the head also had a chance to cause it.

Thankfully, besides my usual moves and so forth, I could still access some others basic menus, like the forum, skill menu and so on.

This time, I spent my time writing down a bit more of my story. Not much, really, but enough to make Cyg stop nagging me about it. Since I wasn’t posting anywhere, I could simply write it down and not bother too much about it.

After some time, I finally felt as my consciousness drifted back to my body, leaving me with a slightly light headed feeling alike the one when I log in.

I took some time to recover myself from the hazy place that my mind had been sent to. The feeling of pain and confusion now gone, instead I felt some strange soft feeling that was actually quite comfortable if I had to say so myself.

Opening my eyes slowly so that the light wouldn’t hurt them, I let myself slowly get used to it.

What met my eyes was a sea of blackness. A slightly shiny blackness that somehow reminded me of a slime.

Okay. I knew exactly what was happening when the mass of slime jiggled slightly as the owner of the body moved around.

Soon enough, there was a fairly familiar head looking down towards me with the usual expressionless with a hint of mischief deep in her eyes. Frowning slightly, it didn’t take me much time to understand what exactly was the situation, so I simply stared at her with a raised eyebrow and asked.

“What are you doing?”

She took both her hands to her cheeks and made a fake bashful face as she started to mechanically, or the closest of a mechanical action a slime can make, shake her head.

“You don’t remember? What you did to me last night?”

“I passed out by having my head slammed into a wall. There’s no way something like that would happen. Try again.” I replied in a dead pan tone. She blinked and took her finger to her mouth as she stopped to think. Snapping her finger, which actually made a wet sound, she looked like she had an idea.

“You dragged yourself to my lovely embrace while you were unconscious.”

“You are just trying to get me embarrassed, right?” I asked her, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Well, I think I might just stay here. It’s quite comfortable.” I said in my best serious face. When she blinked in surprise by my unexpected response, I gave the final blow by turning to the side and meeting with a Hanbei who watched us in amusement and said. “I’ll be taking your maid from you to use as a pillow, okay?”

Just to get something clear, but that was a hell lot more embarrassing to say out loud than what I initially expected, and my voice almost stammered. Still, I couldn’t fail now and lose the joke, could I?

The response was almost immediate, as Yami threw me aside brusquely and made her way towards Hanbie while hugging her.

Ouch… Face hurt.

“No! The only one who can use me as a pillow is milady!” She said in a mix of rage and indignation.

Shame though, she WAS actually quite comfortable. Scratching my head as I got up from the ground, I looked around trying to gather what had happened in the mean-time I was knocked off.

We were in the bedroom that Melinda have opened for me a long time ago, but never got around using it. I had been in my bedroom, but after being thrown out, I was now on the ground.

“Shishou? What are you doing there?” I heard Yuu saying as she appeared from beyond the door with a tray with a pail of water . Quickly, she put the tray down on the bed and helped me up.

“Yami stole your position when she noticed that Gon was waking up to try and play a joke on him. Didn’t work very well.” Hanbei said while being smothered by a slime with a slightly silly smile.

“Stole my position…” Yuu said while blinking a bit at loss, then she suddenly reddened slightly in embarrassment as she looked down. Not being able to help it, I ended up petting her a bit while chuckling at her situation.

“Okay, leaving Yuu’s boldness aside…” Her tails jerked slightly at these words. Adorable. “Anything happen while I was passed out?”

“Well… We had a talk with Wallace and then Melinda after bringing you here.” Hanbei said. “Crys left to buy cooking ingredients and took Aura and Rio with her as help.”

I nodded, so that’s why I didn’t find them here when I woke up. Nodding to myself, I saw as Hanbei frowned slightly.

“Also, Wallace told us to say that he was sorry.” She said suddenly, which got me rather off guard.

“Why would he do that?” I asked confused.

“Hmm… Something about not knowing that you took off the goddess blessing, so he might have hit you a bit too hard.”

Smiling a bit awkwardly, I ended up letting out a wry laugh at that, not knowing exactly how to react. Well, it was his style, I guess. Asking for forgiveness for hitting the wrong way, instead of the act of hitting itself.

“Well, I think I’m going to have a talk with him again anyway. He might have a tip or two for our travels.” I said after some thought.

“I don’t like Shishou having to talk to that man. He hit you!” Yuu said while grabbing the hem of my robe.

“Well, I did kind of deserve that for my chatter-box, I think.” I said with a wry smile. “He did leave it clear enough that I shouldn’t call him that anymore.”

As I said that, I couldn’t help but smiling awkwardly when Yuu started to pout, her tail’s fur bristling up in anger. Nothing a few seconds of petting didn’t solve though. Leaving the room, I quickly made my way towards the workshop where I kind of thought that I would find Wallace and Melinda. However before I got there, I couldn’t help but appreciate the new work of art that linked the corridor to the workshop.

It seems a bit bigger than the ones back at the village. Did he have to use more strength?

While observing the hole like an expert sees an work of art, the door besides me opened, and Wallace came out from it while moving his shoulders around as if flexing them.

“Damn daughter. Working me to the bones…” He complained out loudly until he saw me standing there. “Oh, brat! Just in time.” He said while motioning me to get closer.

“What happened?” I asked confused seeing that he had a slightly troubled expression.

“Well, you see. Mel some times talk about this new apprentice, but Ah have no idea who he is…” He said while scratching his head. But new apprentice? Did she have another apprentice besides me? “It’s a guy named Gon or something… Ever heard of him?”

It took me a whole five seconds to actually understand what Wallace had asked. And even after understanding what he said, it took me another ten seconds to understand what he meant with it.

While staring at the old man for some time and he staring down at me, I finally reached a conclusion that left me a bit in conflict.

“Err… Wallace.” I said with a wry tone. He raised an eyebrow. “Do you remember my name?”

“Huh? Of course Brat! It’s… it’s…” He stopped and took on a pensive pose for quite some time while he rummaged through his memories. “It’s… What’s your name again?” He asked while looking back at me.

“CYGNASDAMMIT WALLACE! You complain when I call you Old man, but you don’t even remember my name? For Cygnas’ sake!” I shouted at him in annoyance.

“Aah? What are you talking about?” He shouted in the same tone. “Did you even tell me your name brat? I don’t remember you doing it!”

“Then why the hell didn’t you ask? Couldn’t have hurt, right?”

“And why the hell would I want to know the name of a brat? It’s not like I would need it!”

“Then what the hell was that talk about passing me your dreams and whatnots? You did that without even knowing my name you damn geezer!”

“Geezer? Where’s the respect for your elders, you unruly kid!”

“And where the hell is the elder that deserve respect, huh?”

“Don’t you dare start on m…”

Our shouting dispute was interrupted when we heard a knock on the door. Wallace immediately frowned at the sound and let out a loud tired sight while turning to the door.

Blinking surprised by the sudden change in temperament, I immediately looked towards the door and with that my gaze ended up passing through the mini map on the corner of my eyes.

It was Lieutenant at the door. Seeing that, I quickly tapped Wallace’s shoulder and told him to calm down as I made my way to the door.

“…ave to come here?”

Just as I opened the door, I heard a familiar voice together with the sight of a familiar person. The elf shade half stood there, besides Lieutenant while looking at the cat confused only to turn to look at me.

“Oh, Gon. Did you ask your cat to call me?” Sol asked me with a confused gaze.

“Nope. I didn’t even know he was bringing you.” I said with a shrug.

“Then why DID you bring me here?” She asked to the cat, who just turned to me and made a salute while wearing a mischievous smirk.

“What’s happening, Bra…” Wallace suddenly froze as he spied over my shoulders. “S-S-SOL?”

“Wallace?” The elf asked surprised while looking back at him. Then she gave a mature smile that sent shivers down my spine. “My, isn’t it fancy meeting you here!”

As she said that, she licked her lips lasciviously.

Wallace paled to a new shade of white before closing the door behind him, leaving me, the cat and the elf stuck outside.

“Aww… He’s still the same shy boy he was!” Sol said in a tone befitting her little girl appearance.