Smooth pulses of force rippled from Shin’s hand. He could hasten the frequency or slow it for a concentrated strike or wide spanning burst along the surface but the pulses were always uniform and smooth, a sensation he had become accustomed to. Shin imagined destruction. The ripple collapsed into a swirling mass of mana, erratic bursts of raw force spurting as it threatened to fall apart. He pushed further. More erratic, more chaos, more destruction. The mana swelled and condensed in a burst of fading lights, leaving behind jagged ripples, more intense and sporadic than before.
[Ripple has upgraded into the epic skill Tremor.]
Shin closed his fist and his body flickered. A rare tier training dummy shattered into splinters at his punch. Shin didn’t relent, willing a destructive tremor around his foot as he kicked another dummy apart and another via jagged ripples from an elbow. Shin came to a stop, inspecting his body. All of the impact had transferred outwards on his targets with no recoil towards himself.
Suddenly, he dashed to the side at a speed that escaped the eyes as an invisible force closed around the space he had just stood. He blitzed several more times, easily evading the subsequent attacks. Maxing Rapid allowed him to triple his speed now, the impact of his bare strikes far too much for his Constitution and his vision barely able to keep up to a functional degree with the buff of Quicken, but it was a necessary tradeoff.
“C’mon, let me test it.” A certain mage whined from the side.
Shin stood still and a force locked him in place in an instant. At nearly 200 strength he couldn’t even so much as twitch his finger, the product of her efforts in upgrading Clutch to epic tier Grasp after she had maxed Firebolt. By the effectiveness of it even in the low levels, it seemed to have been a good choice to focus on.
Shin vanished, appearing to the side as the specter of Kong faded away. Yen clicked her teeth. “Fucking teleporters…”
Donny let out an provoking roar, aura surging through his body as his mere presence inciting all around to direct their hostility towards him. Yen raised her hand on reflex but caught herself halfway, snapping out of the taunt. The atmosphere lingered for only a moment before Donny cancelled it, standing in place mostly satisfied.
“I almost blasted you!” Yen called out.
“Yeah, my fault. Growing pains, you know.”
“What is it?”
“Swagger. Taunt and debuff all in one, and it only uses aura.”
“You can aim it, right? A taunt with friendly fire is a problem.”
“Yeah. Sort of.”
“What the fuck do you mean ‘sort of’?!”
“It’ll work itself out.” Donny turned to Shin, obsidian shield found his arm as he held it ready. “Test out that new skill?”
Shin appeared in front of him, tremors pulsing from his palm as he slammed it into Donny’s shield. A reverberating cover of aura absorbed force of the strike completely, all trace of impact and recoil vanishing from existence. Bastion, the higher tier of Bulwark. A costly skill according to Donny but by all tests they had done, it was more than worth it.
“Three or so hours then we hit the dungeon, yeah?” Donny glanced up at the position of the afternoon sun.
“And then we come straight back here.” Yen decreed. “The second boss won’t be much now, even the other elements, but we need to get our epic tier classes and get our skills up as much as possible or we’re all dead against the final one.”
“We won’t die.”
“So you keep saying…” Yen walked off to the shade of the wall, ring of meditation finding her finger.
“Go a couple rounds?” Donny asked Shin.
“Yeah.”
The two burst into sparring immediately, dashing and darting all around as the slowly expanding forest surpassed a third of the training grounds. Kamala sat on a chair of vines in the middle of her grove pushing the forest past its limits, inch by gradual inch.
---
Yen glanced back at the town wall. “Pablo Escobar isn’t watching us this time.”
“Must really be worried about staying on top. Might have a new leader when we get back.”
“Isn’t that something you were worried about?”
“Not really. I was just doing the bare minimum.”
The party stepped through the portal as casually as passing through the door of a house, finding themselves in an empty cavern.
“Shit…” Yen looked out at the first step of the maze they needed to pass through just to get back to the bazaar.
“I know the way.” Shin assured them, heading off to the left.
“If you two clear out the mobs quick, we can hit the boss as soon as we get there.”
“Not a problem.” Donny rushed forward, beheading a drake clean without use of a skill. He and Shin darted around felling the drake pack with each, switching sides for Shin’s estoc to pierce a guard drake through the eye and Donny to take the head of the horned one. The others joined up with Shin as he walked towards the next tunnel.
“Keen Edge, right?” Yen asked Donny.
“Yeah.” He flourished the blood off his obsidian axe. “Constant uncommon sharpness, basically, except it costs nothing. Don’t have to waste stamina on the weak monsters now.”
“And that’s why you chose the most durable rare tier metal…”
“Smart, huh?”
“You just stopped playing like a cavem-”
Shin glanced sharply at the mage whose words cut off, finding all three of them standing perfectly still in silence with blank faces. Prismatic eyes darted around, locking onto a group of souls emerging from a tunnel. A soul stepped right in front of him in an instant and the world of colors melted away.
A beautiful woman with bronze skin and rich purple hair reached out gracefully and pulled him into a deep kiss. Long and passionate as if to make up for the time they had been apart, she held for as long as her breath allowed. A few strands of her hair brushed down Shin’s face, shoulder length with thin elegant braids on the sides decorated by simply ornate clips and cut into a neat bang. She pulled away, just barely, gazing into him with the domineering amber eyes of a lioness overflowing with jubilation and a smile that knew no defiance nor such joy before.
“I waited for you.” Her words of sweet tyranny held no criticism nor spite, only expectation. “We can be together now. Just the two of us.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“I can’t.” Shin’s eyes never left hers, with a genuine slight smile.
“Why not?” Her hands slid around him as she pulled him closer, her love and confidence unchanged.
Shin thought about how best to answer. “I need more.”
“Hmmm…” She glanced up towards the others, a sharpness finding her eyes. “Them?”
“Yeah. Others too.” Shin seemed oblivious to the hostility lying beneath the surface. “Will you join my party?”
The woman hesitated for a moment, drifting within the question. She looked back at him, her smile returning to before, having made up her mind. “I’ll wait a bit more. Until I don’t have to share.” She vanished away, her back visible for a moment as she returned to the dark of the tunnel. The eight players with her followed with glossy firm eyes.
Shin lingered on the tunnel until groans and movement began behind him, and turned to the others waking up from their daze.
“What…” Yen murmured, still half confused.
“...Sereth?” Kamala asked Shin.
“Yeah.”
“Number 3?” Yen sharpened up. “How did you know it was her?”
“She is the only I know of that is capable of this and would leave us unharmed. Although she could just as easily have done otherwise.” Kamala looked at Shin.
“She wouldn’t.” Kamala kept quiet under Shin’s sure words, not wishing to expend the effort in arguing the matter.
“Another clan kiddie, right? Are all they all telepaths like that? They’re worse than the gold fuckers, we were helpless!”
“Sereth is an outlier, fortunately…”
“Shit…” Yen’s frustration boiled up the more she thought about what just happened. “Let’s get out of these dens.”
----
The party exited the tunnel to their chosen bazaar after half a day of travel to the customary stares and identifies. Nothing more of significance had occurred for the remainder of their journey and tensions had simmered down although a scowl couldn’t fully be removed from Yen’s face.
They moved quickly through the marketplace with Donny approaching the first vendor along their way. “How much lightning essence you got?”
“How much do you need?”
“More than you have?”
“57. One and a half gold each.”
“It was one last time we were here.”
“Time is running out. People are buying more, price has gone up.”
Donny eyed him for a few moments before putting a bag of coins on the table. The vendor assessed the money then handed him an light yellow orb with the number 57 in its name. The party moved on looking for the next without fanfare.
“We’re going to have to do a lot more quests than planned.” Donny said.
“Or rob people.”
“Hey.” A familiar hay blond young man waved at them as he walked their way. Behind him trailed a few familiar faces, namely the buff woman bruiser, the old woman mage, and the fat shield monk.
[Human Wizard (rare) - Intermediate Lord]
“Oh, it’s Freckles.”
“Didn’t think we’d end up at the same bazaar.”
“Didn’t think you’d make it this far. Good job not getting ganked in the dens, Freckles.”
The young man mustered an awkward, slightly embarrassed laugh. “We got lucky… But I found a good party, most of us are from Ladron-”
“Shin.” The party glanced over to a young man sporting a bandana just above his sharp eyes, contrasting his laidback expression and demeanor. Behind him stood a full party of what seemed to be solely Igarashi members of all ages, ranging from a man who by appearance seemed near the end of his days and a child of no more than three, carried by a burly man.
Shin tilted his head at the one that called him. “Kanda.” He remembered out loud.
The man seemed somewhat surprised Shin remembered him but moved on without fuss. “Have you been to any other bazaars? We’re trying to find where the clan is setting up.”
“Yeah.” Shin noticed the toddler staring at him and waved and the boy waved back. He took out a piece of long scroll paper and etched a simple map in rapid strokes, highlighting the path to the first bazaar they found. “Renzo and Yugo were there.”
“Thanks.” Kanda glanced over the map in an instant and handed it behind. “Not gonna join up with us?”
“No.”
A disapproving grunt sounded behind Kanda. “The clan has become more unfilial by the generation. Where is your sense of duty as a member of the main family, boy?”
Shin tilted his head at the decrepit old man. “Who are you?”
“An ancient relic. You younger ones wouldn’t know about him.” The burly man well into his middle age shot the old man a look. “We should get going.”
“Yeah.” Kanda nodded at Shin and the party took their leave down the tunnel Shin just came from.
“Are you, like, ah, nobility?” Freckles’ awkwardness increased as he tried to start back up the conversation.
“Not really.”
“You are, essentially.” Kamala corrected him.
“Nevermind that.” Yen looked at Freckles, her scowl mostly gone now. “You tried the boss yet?”
“No… We just got here.”
“Okay, so it’s a two headed spellcaster type drake. 850 Force plus a trait that boosts that, spits out a fuckton of lightning, or whatever element you chose, constantly. Has a 360 degree explosion attack if you get close, is pretty fast and has high Perception. Kind of squishy but not much, so make sure you have a lot of firepower before you go in or your melees got lucky and have epic tier resistances. Probably easiest to just make it run out of mana.”
“850…?”
“Try not to die, Freckles.” Yen said as she walked on. The party followed with Donny giving him a pat on the back.
“Charitable today, Yen.”
“I mean, he’s like a stray we picked off the street, right. Would kind of suck if he died.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Donny looked back as he haggled and bought essences from every vendor they crossed. “Anyone need a break before we go in.”
“No.” Kamala answered.
“It’s just a daily now, hurry up.”
Donny had no need to check Shin. He put a stack of a hundred in the dragon’s mouth and the party vanished.
---
The party dropped into the shrine room and burst into action instantly, Shin taking the vanguard with his cobalt sword drawn and Donny circling the edge of the walls in a sprint. The twin headed horned drake burst out of the dark entrance with a piercing roar, spitting a rapid lightningbolt and the center trio.
Shin slashed the bolt into fragments as roots erupted around the drake. A lightning explosion tore them away and an armored blurred sent the drake crashing away into the wall with immense impact. It had not a moment to collect itself as a dense firebolt exploded into it. Wails and anguished thrashed were silenced with a second and the beast fell flat.
Sparks zapped across Donny’s armor and body to limited effect as he tapped the chests open, purple aura surrounding the ring of one of them. “That’s four then.”
“Still got two more elements.” Yen reminded as she turned to Kamala. “Frost next would be easier…”
“It is fine.”
“Okay. We head back and make enough money to run this eight times. That gives us four days to deal with whatever the last layer is going to throw at us.”
“Price will probably go up again. We’ll need 1,600 gold.”
“Our payment barely covers any of that…” Yen scowled. “Hey, Shin, we really need to take him out and rob the place.”
“Then no one can defend the town.”
“So what?”
“The gnome?” Kamala inquired.
“Yeah.”
“Seriously…” Yen thought for a bit. “How about this. We just kill Chato, and put someone else in charge. Not much changes and we get the money we need.”
Shin thought for a bit. “Okay.”
“Finally, thank you.”
“Hundred people between him and us.” Donny reminded them. “He’s the next rank up too, at least. We should train up before taking him up.”
“Fine by me.” Yen caught notice of Shin staring of the twin headed drake. “What’s up?”
“Your firebolt should be stronger.”
Yen flinched into a shade of embarrassment. “...I can’t condense it all the way. Just the max firebolt alone puts me almost to the limit. Gets too much to hold together.”
“What’s your Control?”
“250. Force is 800. I can push the potency to about 3,000 it feels like, then it starts trying to blow up in my face.”
“Just hold it together?” Shin advised.
“You know, not all of us can just ignore the rules of the game, actually.” She snapped back.
“Oi, we’re heading on.” Donny and Kamala walked through the exit portal and Shin hopped through, Yen following just behind with a sigh.
---
The party walked through the gates of the town, oddly quiet with far fewer guards patrolling the walls than usual.
“Please don’t tell me he ran away…”
“Oi.” Donny called a guard. “Where is everyone.”
“Cesar went to take out the other town.” A gruff firm answer.
“You mean Chato?”
“It’s Cesar now. Don’t call him anything else.”
A loud whistle sounded from the front watchtower and the gates opened, Chato soon entered with a grim look in his eyes, followed by a few dozen others and a long line of players bound with rope and shackles. Hundreds of players of all types, classes, and ages, derived of gear and tied against each other under the watchful guard of the town lord’s underlings at the side.
Shin vanished, appearing in front of Chato at lightning speed, an eerie quiet intensity in his eyes. “Let the children go.”
Chato stared deep into him with cold eyes, barely a trace of the eccentricity of before. “They’re mine. I’ll do what I want with them.”
A sword and estoc found Shin’s hands, a tension emanating from his body like a coil ready to spring forward. Chato’s people drew their weapons and prepared for a fight while the man didn’t budge a muscle, keeping his eyes on Shin.
“If you want them so bad, then I keep your payment.”
“Fine.”
Chato motioned behind them and a chain of murmurs and orders resulting in the children below their teens cut free and pushed to the side.
“Good?”
Shin stored his weapons and Chato gave him a look before walking past, leading the procession of captives towards the center of the town, leaving behind a dozen children, confused, scared, and some despondent.
“Hey.” Yen approached him. “What was that? I mean, I get it, but it’s screwing up what we-”
“Stay in the training grounds.” Three talismans burst into large paper bird like forms with wide backs as Shin started ushering the children on. The birds sailed off through the gate, levitating more than conventional flying and Shin followed without another word, keeping careful watch on the environment around him ready to act on any threat to the kids in his charge.