Early in the morning at a silver concrete, western mansion-styled manor: Sunlight beamed into a bedroom with a tall, dark-haired boy resting his eyes. The light covered his eyelids, forcing him to wake up with a groan. He took a look outside the window and watched the several multiracial merchants and little kids running around the stone road that had a pebble-like texture. The sky was light blue and cloudless; like a bright summer day. He heard the laughs of the children and the footsteps of the dozens of horses stomping around.
After scratching his eyes, James squinted at the Leviere castle with a frown.
James: [This mission may not be from this selfish king, but my life could very much be in a lot of danger.]
He raised his arms to stretch and hopped off his bed. Someone above James began to speak.
???: [You're doing that thing again, where you talk to yourself.]
James turned around and saw another man that looked similar to him, sitting with his inventory open. This man was carrying a little more fat than James, but the similarities between the two were unsettling. It's his younger twin brother, Jacky. James groaned
James: [Shut up, Jacky.]
Jacky sneering: [Wow, love you too.]
Jacky was laying on a bed above James'. His was connected to the wall and above the window, but quite far below the roof. James walked out of the bedroom while rolling his eyes.
James: [Be quiet.]
Now out of sight, Jacky raised his voice to reach his brother.
Jacky: [You heading over to do an inspection again?]
James: [Unlike you, I work outside of the family business,]
He peered his head over the corner of the door and smirked with a toothbrush in his mouth.
James: [and it's with royalty.]
Jacky: [At least my life isn't constantly in danger. You're going on that Hydra quest today right?]
James went back to the bathroom right beside his bedroom and turned on the water.
James: [Yeah.]
He spit out the paste foam into the sink and turned the water back on.
James: [Jime has suspicions that Hydra is hiding out in the late king Roshan's abandoned castle.]
He turned the water back off and wiped his face.
James: [I got word last night that Jime is hooking me up with 3 of their best adventurers. If they're as good as I think, we should be out pretty quickly.]
Jacky: [When they say three of the best, they could just be talking about some cousin fuckers.]
James chuckled a little. Jacky smiled a little after noticing his brother's reaction.
Jacky: [Just be careful out there. Be sure to come back, or mom will blame me for it.]
James smirked and peered his head over the corner again.
James: [Because I'm her favorite. You can't deny the truth, Jacky.]
Jacky pulled down his interface and gave James a raised brow glare.
Jacky: [Only because you're so damn domestic. Learn how to fend for yourself, and she won't treat you the same way anymore.]
The loud clanking of the morning bells began to ring down the street from outside their house. The moment they heard it, the both of them fell silent and looked out the window. Like always, the half-cat bellboy rang early in the morning, though today was a different case.
James: [He's later than usual, do you think something happened?]
Jacky shrugged it off and walked into the bathroom.
Jacky: [He probably broke up with a girl or something. Anything can happen with the NPCs.]
James stepped away from the window and began thinking to himself.
Jacky: [Don't think too hard. You'll age faster-]
James: [NPCs aren't supposed to have any life outside of their main job and reproducing. They follow a schedule and go by it till the very end.]
Jacky peeked over the window and glared at his twin brother.
James: [What?]
*
In the middle of the frozen forest, Vijan and the blonde Ruby were walking around on a stone-covered pathway toward the kingdom of Leviere. Due to the announcement at the kingdom of Jime, every and all adventures made sure to clear the path for the ninja.
No one wanted to live a short life.
Though the journey was peaceful, the conversations between the ex-princess and Vijan were as dull as an empty cookie jar. For the past couple of hours, they've done nothing but have a few conversations every now and then. Vijan began to get quite bored. Ruby lowered her head and wrapped her blonde hair around her finger. She let out a chuckle before speaking.
Ruby: [Sorry for being so awkward.]
Vijan slid his hands into his pockets and looked at her from the corner of his eye.
Ruby: [I just don't know what to talk about without looking like a-]
Vijan: [Don't worry about it.]
Ruby raised her head but forgot to unwrap her hair from her finger, resulting in her dropping her head back down and letting out a quiet yelp. Vijan laughed as she adjusted herself and giggled.
Vijan: [She's nothing like what she was before. Less strict and more clumsy.]
Ruby: [I've been wondering. Why would an ally attack my kingdom?]
For a moment, Vijan gave her no response. Every second of silence made Ruby even more nervous. Just before she could apologize, Vijan spoke up.
Vijan: [You can't trust everyone. For all you know, they could be snakes hiding in your garden.]
He turned to her and gave her a stone-faced glare.
Vijan: [That's why you gotta cut the grass every so often.]
Ruby lowered her head and stared at the ground.
Ruby: [Sounds like you've been through a lot.]
Vijan looked towards the sky and gave her a short response.
Vijan: [Yeah. Life's tough.]
This walk with him gave Ruby a small sense of admiration for Vijan. Though she still knows nothing about him, she can tell he went through thick and thin and can still manage to hold a smile.
Ruby: [He's kinda cool now that I think about it.]
She raised her head and looked at him with a smile.
Ruby: [Takes a lot to stay positive. I know the feeling.]
Vijan: [Yeah? I can't imagine you went through much growing up.]
Ruby: [With parents like mine, growing up was nothing but a struggle.]
She crossed her hands behind her back and continued to walk kicking one foot in front of the other. Vijan looked at her with concern.
Ruby: [It wasn't anything bad like homelessness or no one died, but there was always something to look out for. I don't know, I felt like I constantly had to please someone.]
Vijan: [They had high expectations of you, huh?]
Ruby nodded with a gentle smile. Vijan could feel his heart skip a beat upon laying eyes on her. Maybe it was because of her changed hair color, but talking to her was a lot easier for him.
Vijan: [You and me both. Where I came from, living up to familial expectations meant food on the table. It was torture, but thankfully it all came to an end one day.]
Ruby curiously looked at the serene smile on his face as he reminisced about the past. She didn't know what he had gone through and grew too afraid to ask.
The two made it out of the snow-filled forest and onto the great green grass plains. As the sun shined on the large area of grass, small lesser demons, and everyday animals roamed the field. They all seemed peaceful, so Ruby took one chance and charged into a field of flowers.
She collapsed into the multi-colored flower garden and took a large breath. The clean air along with the bright blue, cloudless sky made Ruby smile as Vijan took a seat next to her. She peeked at him and looked right back.
Ruby: [This world is amazing, Vijan! You should take some time to admire your surroundings.]
Vijan looked around at the lesser demons and farm animals roaming freely on the field.
Vijan: [You know you could be resting on cow shit right now?]
Coming to the sudden realization, Ruby panicked as she got up and tried wiping off any brown substance that got on her. Vijan couldn't stop laughing at the sight. The only brown thing on her was the smallest spec of dirt that was hardly visible.
-
Arriving at the kingdom of Jime, James was impressed with the large sky-scraping buildings in the capital city. Though the buildings there are a lot smaller than what can be seen in Leviere, he couldn't deny the fact that it is a spectacle nonetheless.
Jime was known as being one of the most financially stable kingdoms in the North-Eastern Alliance, second to none other than the previous beginner's kingdom, Leviere. Now known as the new beginner's city, Jime has been climbing the ranks when it came to financial status.
Without having to go into the city to search for them, James' support party was waiting for him at the front gates with warm smiles. James ran over to them with the party interface open.
After getting to know one another, they formed a party and gave one another the details about the mission. The party consisted of a human, two elves, and a dwarf. Being the only human of the three wasn't as awkward as it would normally be due to the chill nature in the three of them. There was a busty dark skinned elf named Seraphina. Her clothes were extremely revealing, though James paid no attention to her "fine details". She works as a bounty hunter for the advanced guild, Cyba. With a high ranking and an S-rank status, she was considered the best fighter in the guild. To the right of her was Omu, a bisexual, blonde, blue-eyed elf, and the healer of the party. Though his sexual orientation was appreciated anywhere in the world, as long as he kept a low profile, he was good. According to Seraphina, he was chosen by her and not Jime. If any high-status player had known about Omu's sexual orientation, he would be hung. Last but not least was the short, round, and plump dwarf named Tank. He specialized in blacksmithing and ironically can take hits like no other. His damage and armor stats are off the charts.
James: [Nice to meet you guys. My name's James. I'm the North-Eastern Messenger.]
Seraphina: [We've heard a lot about you. You're the one that never backs down from the mission. I'm pleased to be working with such a capable team.]
James was surprised to hear someone that wasn't royalty praise him for once. He couldn't help but blush.
James: [Same!]
The three of them looked at him with a smile.
James: [Well, enough lollygagging. Let's get started with this life-or-death mission.]
Putting their hands together in the center of their human circle, James counted down for them all to shout "We are the Elites" before they left. Excitement and joy covered the faces of his comrades. Though he was filled with glee, he couldn't get the thought of getting slaughtered by the hands of Hydra out of his head.
-
On their way there, the sun began to set and the nocturnal demons came out of hiding. While walking in the safe zone, James pulled a tent out of his inventory and began to build one with his bare hands. Rather than helping him build the tent, his party members went off to fight the demons. They spotted a small ultra that resembled a Gremlin and decided to take him on as a team. Once James heard the cry of the monster, he took a break and watched them in action.
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Seraphina pulled a blood-red dagger out of her large breasts and grinned at the Ultra. A bright orange magic circle appeared underneath both Seraphina and Tank as they were both running toward the demon.
Two bright blue balls formed on the palms of the gremlin, which shocked the party. Tank took a charge and ran ahead of Seraphina, making himself the main target. The gremlin hurled the two balls straight at the short dwarf.
Before the impact, a bright green light could be seen around Tank, but only for a split second.
BOOM
The balls blew up before coming into contact with the dwarf, releasing a blast of wind that made both him and Seraphina fly back to where they started.
Though he experienced an explosion head-on, the only scratch on him was from the fall.
Tank: [Thanks!]
Omu threw him a thumbs-up.
Seraphina disappeared into thin air, reappearing halfway towards the small ultra with the dagger in her hands. After spinning it around her finger, she hurled the small dagger at the monster's chest. Hitting the gremlin's nipple, Seraphina could hear the sound of it scraping a bone. The gremlin attempted to pull the dagger out of its chest, but once it got it out, Seraphina was right up to its face with a grin covered by a dark shadow.
While the gremlin held the dagger, Seraphina grabbed its wrist, twisted it, and slammed the blood-red dagger right into the ultras skull. Its green blood gushed out and splattered all over the ground as it collapsed to its back.
James stood in awe as he watched the elf girl cheer and run back to her partners. Completely forgetting about the tent, he ran and celebrated with them. A few laughs were shared, but all fell silent the second the tent went off with the wind.
James: [So what do you guys say to not sleeping?]
Omu: [If you want us to investigate Hydra, we're gonna need to be at our best. I don't mean to seem rude, but you-]
Interrupted by a punch to the shoulder, Seraphina continued,
Seraphina: [Don't. If it sounds bad in your head, don't say it out loud.]
The dark elf turned to James and smiled.
Seraphina: [We work off our sleep, so for such an important mission, we'd like to at least get some rest.]
James: [I mean, that's fine with me. We just need a new tent, or someone has to stay up and keep watch.]
Tank: [You suggested we stay up, so you can be the one that does so, alright pal?]
A red sleeping bag popped into existence and slowly fell into Tank's arms. He walked past James and gave him a small pat on the shoulder. James' eyes dropped dead. Seraphina threw her arms in the air.
Seraphina: [Alright!]
She smiled as a green sleeping bag fell onto her head. A multi-colored, blue, pink, and purple sleeping bag fell onto Omu's shoulder as he walked with Seraphina.
Seraphina: [Have fun watching over us. Don't get any wrong ideas, if you know what I mean.]
She winked his way.
The night was a long one. It didn't take long for James to nearly fall asleep as he watched the others rest peacefully in front of him. With the singing of the cicadas in the forest, along with the grunts from the lesser demons, James' eyes slowly closed themselves. However, before passing out, James raised his head and slapped himself across the cheek.
James: [I can't... sleep.]
His eyes began to close again, though he saved himself with another slap.
James: [I can't let them down. Must... stay... up.]
James dropped his head and began to snore.
Before he knew it, the two suns began to rise while three silhouettes stood in front of him. At first, they were blurry black shadows, and slowly turned into the colorful party members he has been traveling with for a couple of hours. After a groan, he scratched his eyes and wished the three of them a good morning. None of them seemed happy to see him waking up. A few nasty glares and a couple of sneers later, Seraphina shouted at him for not staying up and what could have possibly happened to them overnight.
James: [Hey! I said I'm sorry.]
Seraphina: [Sorry doesn't cut it! You could have killed us!]
Tank: [What's important is that we got the rest we wanted.]
Omu opened up a map-like interface that displayed the location of where Hydra was rumored to be hiding.
Omu: [We should spend the rest of the morning looking for the late Roshan's castle because we are pretty damn close.]
Seraphina calmed herself down and walked towards the map in front of Omu.
Seraphina: [Close or not, we can't forget that Veo was rumored to be walking with some girl. We should try our best not to-]
Omu: [HOLY SHIT!]
Omu suddenly raised his head while quaking all over. Seraphina turned to where Omu was facing with a hand reaching for the dagger in between her breasts.
A demonic laughter came from the bushes around them, intimidating James and making him shake. He looked all around him but saw nothing other than the still color, green. A shiver ran down Tank's spine, but he managed to keep his composure and whipped out a heavy aluminum steel shield.
A small light flare came from one of the bushes. At extreme speeds, a silver blade zoomed past James, heading right toward Omu and easily going through his skull. The blade forced Omu's body to move with it, slamming it against a hardwood tree.
All of this happened so fast, it took the three a couple of seconds to register their thoughts. Turning around, Omu's body was being held up against a tree, his blood seeping down his forehead and going through his eye pockets that slowly changed into the color of his pure blood.
James' eyes widened in fear. Countless thoughts started flooding his brain. Was that an Ultra, no, one of the Demon Lord's generals? Why would it target Omu before anyone else? Was it because-!
The blade that was once held against Omu's forehead was suddenly removed within a split second, and the figure of the murderer was visible. Omu's body collapsed beside the murderer's foot. The shadow black clothing and the extremely slim appearance led Seraphina to quickly come to the assumption,
Seraphina: [It's the Hydra ninja: Vijan!]
After hearing the name, Tank rushed ahead of the other two, raising his spike shield with a stone face.
Tank: [Wind Syphon-]
Vijan disappeared into thin air for a split second, reappearing beside Tank with the blade covered in Omu's blood. Vijan put the blade right against Tank's throat, slitting it open just a little bit. By the time Tank noticed, he accidentally walked right into the blade cutting his own throat right open.
Vijan coldly: [You can't win a chess match if you give away your strategy.]
Seraphina: [Don't try acting wise, cold-blooded murderer.]
Vijan chuckled.
Vijan: [I'm anything but a cold-blooded murderer. I'm not doing this just for fun.]
Vijan looked down at his blade and slashed it in the air, forcing the blood to go across the floor.
Seraphina: [What motive would someone like you have?]
James stood speechless as the two conversed. He couldn't utter any words from his lips like they were forced shut. His body quaked and shivered as he watched everything. Vijan raised his head and looked at the light brown elf with a raised brow.
Vijan: [You don't need to know why I do things, brown elf.]
Seraphina: [I have a name, y'know? It's Seraphina, and I'll make you remember it.]
Her dagger reflected light from one of the two suns. She remained cool despite her circumstances.
Vijan: [Your name is irrelevant to me.]
Vijan looked down at her with a grin.
Vijan: [You'll still end up dead!]
Seraphina clenched her teeth and hurled the dagger at Vijan with rage.
As Vijan shut his eyes, the dagger stood frozen in place. The wind blew on the grass and trees, making a silent whistle, and the cicadas began to sing once more. James fell backward as he found it hard to stand any longer. Due to his own fear, James was incapable of doing anything but watching.
It was as if... the dagger froze in time.
Vijan opened his eyes and grinned as he walked towards the blade of the dagger and crouched down to the sharpest end of the blade. With his smirk, he began to laugh.
Vijan: [Blinded by your own rage! How pathetic.]
Seraphina charged straight toward the dagger with a loud cry. She put one of her hands to the right of her breasts and moved at a shocking speed; leaving behind a burst of wind that blew James' hair in the opposite direction. Vijan remained crouching with his forehead against the blade and didn't seem fazed at all. As soon as Seraphina came to an arm's length, Vijan tipped over the grip of the dagger which caused it to flip over.
Without realizing it, Seraphina threw her arm toward the blade and within a couple of seconds, blood gushed out of the back of her palm and got all over the place. Some of her blood got on James and in her eye, which caused the both of them to scream their lungs out. Vijan raised a foot and kicked Seraphina on her cheekbone, sending her flying toward a tree. Her impact was great enough to cause a couple of leaves to fall.
Vijan: [For an assassin, you're quite slow. It might something to do with the extra meat you carry around, but it's not like I would know.]
Vijan walked up to James and looked down at him with a death glare. James' teeth began to tremble and he started to ask for him to let him go.
James: [P-please, I have fami- they, they expect me to come back.]
Tears began to fall onto the ground and snot ran out of his nose. He started to cry uncontrollably.
James: [Please! I DON'T WANT TO DIE HERE!]
James began to have thoughts of his parents and brother. He looked back at the times when he would help out with the family restaurant, serving people food and laughing with his brother.
James: [I- I can't just...]
Vijan looked at Seraphina's corpse and noticed it had lost all form of life. She bled out. Looking around, everyone else had died at his hands, so he couldn't just let this one go.
After a sigh, he threw Seraphina's dagger in front of James and scratched the back of his head.
Vijan: [I'll give you a chance. If you can land a hit on me with your friend's weapon, I'll let you go back to where you came from. If you don't, you'll die.]
James lifted the dagger and looked at himself through the reflection.
James: [I-!]
Vijan: [You remind me of someone I once knew. Pitiful and weak. I won't use any powers... or my hands. Your only goal is to cut me with that blade. Let's start.]
He put his hands in his pockets as James stood up. James tightened his grip on the dagger and looked up at Vijan with confidence beaming in his eyes. He was shaking all over, but he felt a flame ignite inside him.
He knew what he had to do.
Grabbing the dagger with both his hands, a small light shined in between his palms. He magically pulled out a second dagger out of Seraphina's and surprised Vijan.
Vijan: [Duplication? Not bad.]
That would've been the case if the duplication magic wasn't always flawed. James knew his duplications were useless. Anything he would duplicate was made of a foam-like substance. Though it couldn't do any damage, he could use it as a distraction of some kind.
James couldn't think straight, but he managed to surprise the ninja just a little bit. He rose the foam blade up to below his eye and made it so that the blade looked like it was cutting off Vijan's head.
Vijan: [I need to hurry this up before Crystal wakes up. I've already spent too much time here, might as well just finish things.]
Vijan blitzed towards James, appearing as just a blur. Shocked, James dropped the real dagger and was too panicked to pick it back up. Vijan stopped running once he reappeared at James' left while mid-air.
In a hurry, James turned to Vijan and swung the dagger right at his chest. Once it came into contact, the dagger curled up on itself surprising both of them greatly.
James quickly recovered from the shock and raised a fist. He punched Vijan across the cheek, making him turn his head a little. A moment of silence went by as James bent down to grab the actual dagger from the floor.
Attempting to slash the dagger at Vijan's right arm, he was suddenly stopped midway. Looking at his arm, he noticed one of Vijan's feet kicking his arm back. Applying more force into the swing, Vijan lowered his leg and jumped over him in a cartwheel fashion, all with his hands in his pockets.
James stumbled forward and then looked around.
Landing on his feet, Vijan managed to block another attack that suddenly came from the stumbling James. He was using another foam dagger he made in a short period of time.
James steadied his stance and used the real dagger to land a cut. One of Vijan's feet was occupied with the fake dagger, so he was wide open.
Vijan raised his other foot and quickly smacked the dagger out of James' hand, and stood back on his feet. Now weaponless, James attempted another punch, but before he could hit, Vijan landed another kick that sent him flying into a nearby tree.
He coughed out blood upon impact and crumbled onto the ground.
Vijan: [Your duplications are flawed, as all are it seems.]
He spit out some saliva into the ground and then gently touched his cheek.
Vijan: [If you'd been a little faster, I might've died.]
James raised his head and saw Vijan giving him the death glare once again.
Vijan: [Just kidding. Since you failed to cut me...]
James: [No... please.]
Vijan walked closer to James step by step. With each footstep, James' heart rate rose to uncontrollable speeds. He wanted to run, he wanted to see his family one more time... but was incapable. His body was frozen, he couldn't move.
Vijan: [Tell me something, Messenger.]
He got down on his knees.
Vijan: [Have you ever spared a pig or cow as it begged for its life?]
James was incapable of responding, all he could do was shed tears. With a sigh, Vijan got up and lifted his foot.
*
Walking down the stairs of the manor and bumping into his mom, James apologized and explained his reason for being in a hurry.
James' Mom: [Oh, you're going on that mission?]
She furrowed her brows and looked down at the ground. She seemed worried, but James didn't want to scare her.
James: [Yeah, don't worry though! They assigned me with this really strong team.]
James' Mom: [Really? You think you'll make it back?]
James grabbed ahold of his mother's shoulders and had her look at him. He was holding a wide smile and said,
James: [I guarantee you, one hundred percent, I'll make it back safe and without a scratch!]
*
Crack
Vijan stomped on James' head, completely shattering his skull, and watched James' blood leak through every hole in his head. The skull had ripped open holes throughout his head, leaking more blood and killing James in an instant.
-
Vijan made his way back to Ruby, which was resting behind a bush. As he sat beside her, she mumbled, waking up slowly and rubbing her eyes open. Surprised, Vijan looked her way and caught her staring at him.
Vijan: [Good morning.]
The princess let out a yarm and stretched her arms.
Ruby: [Morning. Did you wake up early?]
Vijan: [Didn't sleep. Had to take care of you.]
Ruby: [Sorry,]
She averted her eyes to the ground and slightly frowned.
Vijan: [For why?]
Ruby: [It's nothing.]
She stood up and looked around the woods with a smile.
Ruby: [We should make it to the city by today right?]
Vijan nodded and stood up beside her. Ruby noticed stains of red plastered all over his pants. In a panic, she launched herself at him to inspect the stains.
Ruby: [Is that blood? Oh my god, are you okay?]
The ninja couldn't help but laugh at her concern.
Vijan: [No, it's just a stain from one of the flowers in these woods. It's like dry paint, touching it leaves a stain.]
Ruby: [Oh, well let's head out!]
Smiling, the both of them left the forest and by sundown, they arrived at the Kingdom of Leviere.