The party emerged through the portal into the rocky base of the mountain, glancing around, then focusing on the town in the distance on the verge of dusk.
“No ambush.” Shin informed them.
“Not here anyway.” Donny relaxed his posture slightly all the same.
“Hey, the dungeon’s mid rank now.” The other three turned back confirming what Yen had noticed.
“Then we get to do all that again but harder.” Donny started the short trek over to the town.
As they arrived at the gate without issue, a guardsman banged on the door and it opened. They continued silently, some increasingly cautious as they made their way up the wall to Chato’s post, his underlings and the whole town seemingly on standby.
“Give me good news.” Chato prompted with a smile.
“Cleared.”
“Excellent. Excellent, but I need some proof, you know. Still time to collect and bail.” Donny withdrew the severed head of the boss and Chato’s smile widened slightly after a pause to inspect. “I knew I could trust you.”
Chato walked over to Shin, standing casually and full of openings. A subtle tension gripped the air as Chato withdrew a large bag and dropped it in his hand, a tension Shin was completely nonchalant to. Chato backed away into the entourage with an exaggerated swagger and left.
“The 15th, next time.”
The party waited for them to leave before taking off themselves. Shin stored the coins and handed each of them a smaller bag, splitting their reward four ways. Kamala headed into the apothecary without a word again leaving the three of them behind.
“Plans?” Donny asked Shin.
“Inscription.”
“Alright. I’m heading off to the training grounds.”
“Same.”
“Mm.” Shin left with a flicker reaching the familiar store in moments. He reached out and paused. “I didn’t have enough mana for you. We’ll go out later.”
The ire of a certain white fox was not nearly pacified by such small compensation, having been directing constant feelings of outrage towards him since the end of the boss fight. He pushed the door open to temporarily bottled up complaints.
---
Shin flourished an ink dot and activated the talisman, forming a short origami golem, its body long and rectangular. It hopped off the desk and joined the line of attention beside its kin in front of another origami shaped exactly like it.
Grenda scanned over it for a few moments before turning to Shin. “You can move on to the next grade now.”
A talisman floated in the air in front of him and puffed into a human shaped paper origami, featureless save for the dotted square on its face. “Greater Origami. Still not fit for fighting but a lot more useful. They can handle more complex commands, labor obviously, but also things like scouting and travel. Makes for good canaries or mounts if you’re in no rush. Shape can be anything you want really. But they are a significant step up. Ready for a demonstration?”
“Yeah.” An annoyed jab came from the pit of his soul. “I’ll come back later.”
Shin took his leave from the store and blurred over the town wall, heading deep into the dark wild. Inari appeared by his side with a frown and pushed on ahead, making a show of not looking at him. Shin followed after her. She almost glanced back, instead darting in directions at random, only to become more frustrated as he kept up with ease. A monster came into view and lost its head before it could make a noise, the first victim of her venting rampage.
---
Inari darted around a blue bear, make shallow slashes into its thick hide. Its body as hefty as it was tall and its snout shorter and wider than normal bears, the rare tier Frostmoon Nandi thrashed its large paws at the evasive fox warrior, receiving only more cuts for its trouble. It stood tall with a gruff roar, higher than an ogre, the white circle on its underfur glowing. A wisping white light glowed from its mouth like condensed moonlight and breathed down the beam of energy at its foe.
Inari sped around as the moonlight attack followed, a trail of frosted destruction in its wake. She jumped over the breath and leapt off the air, spitting gray blue flames on the ursa’s back. Its moonlight attack ceased and it flailed around for only a moment before freezing in trembling place. Inari relentlessly attacked her paralyzed opponent, levying fire and blade without mercy until the great bear collapsed and fell silent.
Shin hopped down, having been waiting from the side due to a look Inari shot him before this fight started. He held his hand towards the rare elite spirit and its body turned into light forming a small condensed soul casually placing it within his own. He glanced at Inari who looked away in a pout.
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Shin hopped over to her, tilting his head with a calm smile around her further looking away. “I’ll find a way to upgrade you soon.”
Inari stood as she was for a few moments before glancing at his face. Conflicting emotions spread across hers before softening a little. She nudged him a little in complaint not wishing to let him off so easily but Shin could feel no ire coming his way. Shin glanced at her skills.
Skills:
Greater Trick Fire lvl. 7, Keen Cut lvl. 8, Greater Paralyzing Stare lvl. 6, Greater Celestial Fire lvl. 2, Superior Sword Combat lvl. 9,
Monsters didn’t advance the same way as players as far as he knew, but he imagined progress in levels would have some sort of effect on that wall hovering over the summon skill. Celestial Fire stood out from the rest. Having limited encounters with demons and undead meant it went severely underused compared to the others. Shin speculated that leveling that a bit may be the key, and more than anything, using her more. Something he would have much more leeway to do as soon as he fused his skills and moved on to intermediate rank.
Something caught his eye in the world of colors and he sped off ahead silently, Inari following behind. Concealed behind a tree he spied two men fighting, one bronze skinned with purple hair and amber eyes in mostly cloth and leather wielding a saber, the other red skinned like blood pooling under the surface and blackened eyes much like the demonic humans he had encountered on the first stage, muscular and lean, fighting unarmed. Both unreadable.
Shin stopped Inari from charging the demonic human as he thought. “I need you to do something.”
Ramses dodged another strike and slashed deep with his saber, cursing the demonspawn as the wound healed rapidly again. The red brawler charged again stopping his blow short into a flurry of true strikes and feints. Ramses moved before each one, targeting his counters with precision but the wretched player never truly let himself take serious damage. The battle favored him as he would whittle the bastard down in time, yet the demon relished in that fact, knowing full well the direction of the fight.
Ramses flourished his sword and slipped the demon’s combination, only to hear the clang of metal as the demon’s neck turned to iron. He pulled his saber back before the demon could grab hold, the failure doing nothing to dissuade the ecstatic smile of its face. Identify told him the man was a player but he would recognize this thing as nothing but a monster lusting for battle.
The demon charged again, suddenly lurched back as an arrow sailed by, his senses detecting it a shade before Ramses did. Ramses glanced in the direction to see a black haired boy dropped down, loosing arrow after arrow as he circled the demon. The shots were too slow, the demon slipping them with ease, and held none of the power he knew to be possible, but it was not without use. Ramses lunged and slashed deep into the demon’s torso through his guard once again.
The newcomer switched his bow for a needle like sword and buckler and charged, his speed not unimpressive. Ramses paused for a moment but resumed his attack on the demon, the newcomer’s thoughts filled with nothing but the incessant urge to kill the demonic human, as he called it.
The boy was slower but moved well, his body and mind accustomed to fighting. An Igarashi, Ramses suspected. But that was of less pressing matter at the moment. The two blurred around the demon as it seemed to take things seriously at last. Punctures and slashes peppered his body, healing just as fast as he fought with ferocity and skill, every counter back designed to kill.
The boy misstepped and the demon did not miss the chance. He swung his arm back into the boy, barely blocked by his buckler but shattering something around him as he flew back. Ramses did not miss his chance either. At the same time, he moved, his saber thrusting at the demon’s eye. And his body froze. A split second at most, but he could do nothing but watch the demon’s arm smash into his head.
He crashed back, straight into the arms of the boy as they wrapped around his head. The image of a young hollow eyed boy he had last seen years ago surfaced in his memories but it came far too late. A sharp crack was all he heard and then the world went black.
[Achievement: Apostle Slayer II. 50 Attribute Points reward.]
‘Slay 5 apostles.’
The demonic human looked at his fallen opponent slump to the ground, neck broken, in mild thought. Then over to the boy that interrupted them, unharmed, with eyes calm and threatening. A grin of the utmost amusement spread across his face.
“You’re a real piece of shit, ain’t cha?” Inari burst out of the trees towards the demonic human and Shin followed in turn, his speed higher. “But it was a bad idea to kill him.”
The demonic human vanished. Sight, sound, even the faint sense of his presence was gone. Shin burst around at random as fast as he could, eyes darting around searching for any trace of the demonic human. And then, all his vigilance dissolved as he easily slipped the invisible demonic human’s punch. A condensed ripple Shin concealed as he moved, thrust into the man’s side, sending him crashing away through several trees before the enemy found his footing again.
The man looked at Shin, prismatic swirling colors painted his irises, his body language showing not a single trace of the urgency just seconds before. The man’s expression once again broke into exhilaration, veins bulging across his red skin, his short spiky white hair and vicious black eyes growing even more distinct. And blood burst from his skin. His expression of slight shock relaxed into mild introspection once more.
“Time’s up.” He smiled at Shin before bursting away.
Inari jumped by Shin’s side as he watched the man disappear into the distance before suppressing his spirit eyes. Inari’s irritation flared up again, albeit this time directed at the demonic human whose type she so reviled. But shin hopped over to the corpse of the purple haired man to loot it. A fair chunk of change and some good items found their way into Shin’s spatial bag. Most importantly, loose thick silk black pants replaced his leather ones. Epic tier with the active skill of stealth, removing all sound and presence in use, a significant upgrade to the ninja footwear he had still planned to use. As well as a long saber with the passive ability Greater Keen Edge.
He glanced at the purple haired benefactor of his gear upgrade. He had last seen him nearly five years ago but recognized him immediately. Sereth’s eldest brother and heir to the house of Narmer. Shin sped off back to town, his goal in this chance encounter completed and the added bonus of better gear making this a valuable outing.
---
Kamala exited the apothecary well into the night, her profession training having progressed and her focus now aimed towards her skills. She glanced to the left as the enigmatic boy leader of the party appeared by her side in a blur, dropping into her walking pace. Shin looked at her.
“You ranked up.”
“Yes.”
“Skill options?”
“Thorns and fire resistance.” She answered his tacit criticism, pausing before adding more. “Uncommon tier.”
Shin hummed. He opened his mouth but closed in without a word, seeming somewhat confused. “My patron said to not to go past 2,000 this stage.”
She could see him think for a bit, seeming to recall something. “You didn’t remove the lotus trait?”
A coldness emanated from Kamala, though nothing showed on her expression. “No.”
“Can’t?”
“...Yes.” The atmosphere tensed worse, though the pair walked in calm silence. Kamala spoke again after a long pause. “Is that why you invited me?”
“No.”
She glanced at his calm smile, an odd sincerity about him through the mystery and eeriness. “...I see.”
The air around them relaxed as they continued their calm stroll to the training grounds.