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As the once kind and caring Guild leader lost control and continued hammering his greatsword into the earth, shock waves could be felt all over that district. Spittle flew from the man's mouth as he heaved and continued his two-handed assault. A crater into the earth began to form under the sheer pressure exuded from his strength alone. Purple mana in the air continued to feed into the man, only serving to increase his fury and renewing fervor to his powerful attacks.
The rumbles shaking the kingdom and the purple mana's theft woke a response from the city guard. Auron scrambled backward as he watched the kind man who had invited him into his home, lose control. He knew that if he dropped the man's health down a certain level, it might take him out of the madness, but there was no way he could get anywhere near the flurry of attacks being directed downward. There was also no saying that a berserker enthralled by their own power was entirely similar to someone under the call of dungeon madness.
Gregory had the sense to not attack anyone, but the damage was beginning to send cracks toward buildings.
As if summoned by his pleading thoughts, a group of yellow flashes signaled four men wearing gold-tinted steel armor, their faces were hidden under helmets.
??? Class: Speed Rogue assassin lvl??
Auron prepared to summon Zander and fight off these men to protect the Guild leader. Pausing, he noticed they were moving slowly and did not seem to be trying to kill.
They began to chip away at the man with non-lethal attacks as Gregory swung his greatsword like a bat. One of his wild swings caught a man off guard and slammed him into a wall. Following this, a similar group of men appeared though their colors were different.
??? Class: Gravity blood tank lvl??
The men were wearing blackened steel armor that could have been mistaken for suits had there not been a glint from the sun.
A consistent clicking on stone then rang out. Auron could hear someone getting closer. A woman sauntered down the walkway on the side of the guild.
Regent Queen Yu Yan Mind mage lvl ??
The lady was wearing a regal armored gown littered with splashes of dark purple interspaced with lighter shades of the same color. She was the most beautiful woman Auron had ever seen. Shocked into not moving, he just watched as the scene unfolded. More men came from the street. These men dressed in plain vermillion armor that had accents of other red hues. Behind those men lurked another group, their armor just a simple grey and shining silver. Auron did not see these men, but he heard their shouts and cheering on the Queen and her Guards.
The Gravity blood tanks advanced and threw up their arms surrounding the crater Gregory had formed. Black mana began to coat their palms, and a haze flowed out as the gravity around the Berserker knight increased dramatically. Falling on one knee, Gregory increased his pull on the purple mana in the air as the surrounding people watching began to collapse, holding their heads. The Rogue assassins and Blood tanks were no exception. Falling to the ground, all of the men now made themselves prime targets for the enraged Gregory. As he used the flat of his blade to sweep them away like bugs.
As his rampage continued, the woman calmly walked up, deftly dodging swings of the metal weapon, and placed a hand on his cheek.
When she did this, the mana seemed to flow up and out of the man. Dispersing into the air, all of the surrounding citizens seemed to recover from their head pains immediately. "Time to stop stealing all of my mana little brother," she said softly.
Like a puppet with its strings cut, Gregory fell to the earth.
As he dropped, his eyes glanced over to Auron and the tattoos on his arms.
A flood of purple mana then flowed back into the man as his leg muscles expanded, suspending his fall. He hefted his sword to his sister's throat and stood straight, towering over her.
"Are you the one who did that to the boy" The words ripped out of his throat as his forearms flexed and his grip tightened on his blade. When he finished speaking, he tipped his head toward Auron.
Casually ignoring the threat, she placed a hand on the blade and looked over at Auron.
"What use would I have practicing my enchantments on some commoner boy." She spoke, her voice dripped with apathy while she examined her reflection in the blade. "Was it your daughter then," Gregory began again, losing some of his rage as the conversation progressed.
"I swear on the Ancient dragon god I have never seen the boy," She said coldly, becoming annoyed at the continued line of questioning.
"Fine." Gregory seemed to take her vow seriously as he lowered his blade.
"Although seeing runes tattooed like that is rare. I am interested." She said quickly, returning her eyes as if he was a commodity for sale in an appraisal of Auron.
"He is with the guild," Gregory said the sentence with a ferocity that made Auron worry he was going to relapse into his frenzied state. The loud metal grinding sound of his sword returning to his back settled those worries.
Strutting away slowly, the men of the kingdom followed her. She turned back to simply say, "You must come by the castle for dinner soon, my dear little brother. I miss you so" in a sweet, but clearly fake tone. With a sweep of her hand, some men that looked like those who guarded the wall came over and repaired the stone ground.
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??? Stone Knights lvl??
The crater smoothed out as the men channeled grey mana to their hands, and forced the earth to flow as if it were liquid. With what seemed like strain in their bodies, the ground hardened and looked as if the previous crater was not but an illusion.
Gregory walked toward Auron with his arms out and bent over to pick up his bracers. "We will be talking about those later" He motioned to the tattoos, and looked Auron in the eyes.
"I am sure you had a run-in with dungeon madness before. This is what happens to a class when you give in to it and accept it fully. You become a berserker. I did so out of necessity in a moment years ago. A... friend and I once thought of it as a game. I am barely able to control it, even with decades of practice. Keep that in mind when advancing your class. Purple mana is not something to play with casually. I am sorry for the scene, Auron. I mean you no harm, and I know the path your life has taken so far is not your fault." The man had genuine remorse in his eyes, so Auron accepted his apology with a stiff nod. He knew the feeling of losing himself to that mana.
Turning to face the shocked students, motioning for Auron to run over and join them, Gregory collected himself. "Students you have seen my greatest strength, and also my greatest flaw. Those of you that are here would have found out one way or the other. If you choose to leave, you may do so now." He said and did a quick scan of the young faces. Seeing none of them move, he continued. "We will now test your compatibility with the 8 types of mana and have some friendly sparring matches." He spoke as he made a motion to a guild member to run into the building.
"You are all here because you recently gained classes and need training. Those of you from named families are most likely here because you are the youngest in your family, or from a branch family. Our three commoners have various pasts as well." He paused here so the young fighters would take in his words.
"I want you all to know I do not care about your past, I do not care who your parents are, and I have no care or time for those who disrespect their fellow guild members. We all start as equals here."
All of the guild members sparing or training with weapons on the field had stopped. They had all like heard this speech a hundred times, but the sudden decrease in ambient noise hammered in the importance of the words, and the solidarity in which the guild members supported them.
"If I catch any of you leaving a guild member behind, even a recruit like you ran away from earlier, I will throw you over the Kingdom ramparts myself." He finished the speech by gripping his fingers together in a fist, the bundled muscles on his forearm took on the appearance of iron.
The children looked away, be it shame or fear causing the reaction. Auron looked into the guild leader's eyes, his respect for the man renewed even with the display of his berserker curse.
Now that the day had fully transitioned into morning, the sun was midway in the sky.
With the change in time came an increase in the amount of activity in the training square.
Keeping a respectful distance, groups of five practiced together. Auron noticed Thatch, Rodney, and the Devens brothers running through numerous drills, and group movements. With a wave, he got Thatch to notice and earned a glare from Rodney.
"Auron pay attention," Gregory barked, and Auron's eyes returned to the man.
"Now, we are going to test your mana proficiency. Do not worry, you do not necessarily have to focus on your family's color, or that which you have been exposed to, this will just give us an idea of where you stand. Earning money through quests, you can eventually pay to gain access to the Noble temples and absorb whatever mana concentration you want." He said casually, making sure Auron understood the standard information.
With a wave of his hand, the guild leader had Marcus brought over a small device. The device had eight gemstones that looked identical to the ones Auron had made grenades out of from the random rat drops. Inside each stone, there was what appeared to be a tiny spark of mana for each color.
Walking down the line, each recruit tested and showed the various connections they were exposed to. Auron could only make out the commoner boy's test because he was next to him at the end of the line. The only colors that reacted to him were blue and purple. The orbs corresponding to those types gave off a bright glow.
At Gregory's request, Auron removed his gloves when it came to be his turn. A glow from Green, Purple, and Red lit up brighter than any of the tests before him. Some envious looks swept over the other recruits' faces, and Gregory had an odd look to him as well. Auron noticed that there was also a response from blue, but it was not as bright. This made sense to him because he had that gemstone equipped, but the red being so bright was a surprise. Maybe that was why his investigation skill came so naturally.
Moving on from the testing, a befuddled Gregory split the trainees into groups of two and began with a simple sparing session. Auron was paired with the noble girl with the black crest from earlier. Cursing his bad luck for being paired with the fittest of all of them, he raised his fists defensively as he reminded himself that his wind mana was off-limits.
A small explosion rocked the training ground, and Auron threw his head in the direction of the source to see what had happened.
Leon, the boy he had helped earlier, used his mana to make a rock with some sort of explosive qualities. Auron's theory was confirmed when he picked up a rock, and blue mana speckled with purple mana flowed out of him and into a projectile he tossed.
The rock hit the ground in front of his sparring partner and knocked them both back and out of their ring.
"Very well done, Leon. We need to work on your control though. As you grow, you will not be able to use such a dangerous ability on friendlies. Keep that in mind. Your weakness is the only reason that you did not just harm anyone." Gregory congratulated and cautioned the young man.
As Auron listened, he felt a fist rock his jaw as his opponent punched him.
Falling to the ground, he spat out some blood and looked up at her. She had her fists up, ready to continue.
"Did no one ever tell you, it's rude to look away when fighting a lady." Her voice was friendly, despite the words coming out of her mouth.
Auron could not help but smile as he got up and got into a fighting position once again. His inspect activating now that he was facing her.
Sylvia Ironclaw class: unassigned lvl 9
Auron quickly activated stealth as he sent a light punch to her ribs. As she was bent over from the sneak attack, he noted she had both a grey and black crystal on the back of her hands, respectively.
Trying and failing to hide a smile from the thrill of the battle, the girl began to fall forward. Much to Auron's surprise, he worried he had hurt her, so he started moving forward to help her up, wondering why she would be smiling as she fell. In his lapse of judgment, the girl completed her feint lightly, tapping Auron's right foot as she came in range to it.
With her touch, Grey mana mixed with black spots flowed into Auron's foot and bound it tightly to the ground.
With his foot stuck, Auron was momentarily defenseless to the blows the girl rained down upon his head, throat, and body. Using his stealth had no benefit.
Even if the young woman temporarily lost where he might be, she knew where he was, and he could not move away.
The attacks continued until a bloodied Auron surrendered. With a mock curtsy, the Noble girl Sylvia tapped the side of her head three times and raised an eyebrow.
With a smile, she turned and hopped out of the ring.
He got his ass kicked by a girl, but all he could think of was how cute she was.