A certain man in light brown leathers and a cape walked down the stone brick hallway deep in the crystal cavern. He was in his seventies, but well built, and had muscle tones of a much younger man. He had a gray goatee, and a dull glimmer in his eyes, that periodically shined from sparks of electricity. This was Ryno.

When he finished walking the hallway, he was met with a round room, dimly lit by lanterns of colored light. In here were two others at a desk in the center. One was a massive man. Morbidly obese, from his proportions. He was nearly hairless. Completely bald, clean shaven, eyebrows almost unaccounted for. The only item resting on his pudgy face were thick framed glasses. He looked to be in his fifties. This was Blaine. His body almost engulfed the chair he sat in.

The other one sitting behind the desk was similar age to Ryno, but was much skinnier and frail. He wore maroon robes, barely noticeable from the large white beard that hung in front of his chest. He had liver spots on his head, visible through the thin wisps of white hair. This was John Reech.

“Ah, Reecher the creature!” Ryno declared, raising his arms up in an act of joy. Ryno always had a new nickname for his leader.

“Please, don’t call me that,” John politely requested. It was a request, and that’s all it could be. John couldn’t force Ryno to take him more seriously, though he wished he would.

Unfortunately though, that wasn’t Ryno’s personality. The man did almost whatever he wanted. No one within a great distance could stop him. It was just from a mutually beneficial relationship that Ryno took on whatever jobs John Reech had for him.

Ryno wasn’t unreasonable, though.

“Alright, fine. But I’m gonna come up with a new one for ya, just you wait!” Ryno said, wiggling his finger in a silly fashion at John.

Ryno then centered his attention to Blaine. “And here’s the big man! How’re ya doing buddy?”

Blaine didn’t reciprocate the bubbly personality Ryno had. He remained serious.

“Have a seat Ryno. John has a new job for you,” Blaine responded.

Ryno was a bit sad that his two friends weren’t as excited he was. He promptly took a seat, a pouting look on his face.

Blaine began speaking again, once Ryno was seated and engaged. “First off, here’s a letter from our contact at Nocturne.”

Blaine produced an envelope from his back pocket, and slid it across the desk for John to read. It was crumbled up a bit, forced into a curved shape that perfectly matched Blaine’s rather large posterior.

John made an effort to flatten it out on the desk before opening it. When he did so, he began reading the contents. The handwriting was sloppy, but that was a sure sign that it was written by the very person it came from.

John was a fast reader. His old eyes darted left to right, reading line after line. After a moment or two, which was making Ryno quite impatient, he folded the letter back up and set it to the side.

John folded his hands into his lap, and took a moment to think and reflect from the letter.

The amount of time passing was detrimental to Ryno.

“Well? What’s going on?!” Ryno bellowed out, slamming his fist onto the desk.

“It seems that Oscar’s visit with Marin has jostled him to some degree. He has set out from his castle to apparently find stronger allies to defend his kingdom,” Reech explained.

“I doubt he’ll find success,” Blaine responded in a booming, low voice, throwing his two cents in. “Who would believe his current situation?”

“I wouldn’t think he would make his predicament public. But that’s not the only update we’ve received. Confirming what I knew earlier, RAM is indeed in the process of filing Nocturne to be a sovereign kingdom again,” John added.

“Looks like that King has been busy,” Blaine said, grasping one of his many chins in thought. “Still don’t know why you care so much about him. He’s a deceased man walking. So what. Our resources are spread thin as it is.”

John nodded. “Let me handle it. I have reasons for everything,” he reminded him.

Blaine understood, and said no more to the topic. John Reech was an incredibly smart man, and though he hadn’t shared reason with why Marin was so intensely on his radar, he trusted him.

Blaine slid his chair back, excusing himself from the room.

“It’s time for me to get back to training the young ones. I’ll let you know as soon as I get any new letters pertaining to Marin,” Blaine said forcefully. Despite being so fat, he stood up quite easily.

However, he couldn’t stop himself from rocking left and right as he walked. His massive fat body did not fancy moving about. Ryno and John watched him walk down the hallway until he disappeared.

Once Blaine was out of the room, Ryno turned back to face John.

“So I hear you got a new mission for me,” Ryno said excitedly.

“Indeed,” John responded, reaching under the desk to grab some paperwork.

“Lay it on me,” Ryno casually demanded, grinning, showing all his crooked yellow teeth. He leaned back in his chair, and brought his feet up on the desk before him.

When John came back up, he was quite annoyed to see the bottom of Ryno’s soles resting on his workspace. He debated telling him to return to a more proper seating form, but understood the fine balance of working with Ryno.

John cleared his throat.

“Let me give you a bit of a backstory,” Reech began.

“Boo.” Ryno responded.

“Work with me here, Ryno. This is important,” John urged. He knew Ryno had an attention span of a ten year old. Hell, most of his personality was that of a ten year old – but his strength was unmatched and his effectiveness was undeniable, so John had to get pass that.

Ryno enjoyed the missions but hated the briefings. He just wanted to know where he was going, and what he was doing, that was it. He wasn’t one for petty details.

John eventually moved his chair to the side to see Ryno’s face after his feet had blocked it.

“As I was saying,” Reech continued. “There’s a school nestled deeply in the Arkari Peaks. Ah, it’s more of a monastery. Their sensei, as the students call him, is a certified wizard. During his time at Arkana, he developed a unique skill pertaining to the electric element.

It has made him quite powerful, and he refuses to share it. We believe he has recorded it in a skill book that he has locked up in the depths of his monastery. RAM wants it, and we’re going to give it to them. Well, to be specific, you are.”

Ryno removed his feet from the desk and sat up. “They’re electricians like me? So tell me what the skill is? I’ll figure it out myself!”

“It’s not that simple, Ryno. He will have specific techniques in that book that are unique only to Arkana. You never went there,” John responded.

Ryno swatted at the statement.“Yeah, because I didn’t need to go there. What good is that place when you can learn everything yourself? In fact, nobody taught me a thing, and I bet I’m more powerful than anyone there!” Extra sparks started dancing around Ryno’s body at the statement.

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“Alright, alright, calm down,” John tried, seeing that Ryno was ready to prove himself here and now. “I just need you to get that book. I don’t care how you get it, just bring it to me unharmed.”

“Whatever you say...”

John started detailing the location of Ryno’s new mission. With a map out, he dotted a few points to show Ryno where he needed to be.

“It should be quite close to there,” John said. “As I mentioned, they’re electric elementals like you. Since there will be quite a bit of sparks flying around, try to limit your own. We don’t want to open a portal to the tempest, right?”

The tempest was a realm of infinite twisters and thunderstorms. The winds were so strong that anyone so unfortunate to be trapped there was hurled around in the air forever. Getting blasted with bolts of lightning was also a regular occurrence.

Ryno gulped. “I hate that place.”

“Good.”

Just before Ryno left, John called out to him one last time. “And let me remind you, their sensei is a wizard. Not only that, I’m sure he will use his unique skill to try to defeat you,” he warned.

“There is no electric based skill that can stop me,” Ryno boldly claimed.

John was not entirely sure of the validity behind the statement, but shrugged it off. Ryno acted cocky, but so far it had never been over-confidence. Any claim he had ever made had been proven.

“Of course. Forgive me for doubting,” John responded.

Ryno instantly smiled, switching from a serious mood to a pleasant one. “You’re just looking out for me! A good friend you are! Although the advice is not useful, it’s the thought that counts! I am happy to explain why I don’t need it. Anyways, I’ll see you later. John… um… Long John… Well, I’ll have to think of that new nickname later. Cya!”

With that, Ryno paraded back down the hallway, and out of Reech’s quarters.

Ryno stuffed his map into his back pocket as he arrived into the large center room of the base. It was a massive cavern, adorned with colorful shining gems that were nestled into the rocky walls. They gave off a pretty glow, and it was enough to barely light the whole area. A few hanging lanterns supplied extra light to corners that needed it the most.

Ryno’s attention was immediately brought to the noises of battle. When he looked the right, he saw Oscar and Blaine having a sparing session inside the battle ring.

“Good! Good!” Blaine bellowed out as Oscar fabricated new crystals of varying colors. They launched towards the fat man, and he defended himself with a crystallized arm.

Ryno was excited to see his basemates practicing their elements. He ran up to the ring side, and leaned on the arena’s borders as he watched intently.

Blaine was a mastered crystal elemental. He had trained Oscar to also be one for a few years now. The young lad was showing great progress at twenty-three.

As Ryno watched the fight, he stood beside Chel, another one of Blaine’s pupils. She had fun shooting crystal shots from her pistols, a unique way of incorporating the elements into a regular weapon.

“Oscar thinks one day he can beat me! What a load, right Ryno?” She snorted as she flipped her red hair back.

“Oof, that’d be a shocker to see,” Ryno responded, satisfied he referenced his own electric element into his speech.

Oscar leaped backwards, battlestaff in hand as he brought it back for a forward swing. This was a full on fight with his teacher, and he was not holding anything back. Crackling sounds of crystals filled that cavern as they both produced and clashed their shards of minerals.

“He is getting better, though,” Ryno stated, as he saw Oscar moving and casting the crystals faster than Ryno remembered he could do. Perhaps the boy would one day come to be a powerful elemental. There were advanced crystals with amazing properties that could be created with extreme skill. Maybe it was in Oscar’s grasp one day.

“If he ever beats you, though, Blaine would be the next one he would target,” Ryno finished with.

“I think you should duel Blaine!” Chel suggested, secretly dying to see a fight between Ryno and Blaine.

“Oh, now that wouldn’t be fair!” Ryno exclaimed. “I’m not gonna hurt my buddy. My BIG buddy. He’s my-” Ryno did a quick dance move, spun around in a circle, and pointed at Blaine. “-Friend!”

Chel rolled her eyes.

“Alright, fine. Hey, don’t you have a mission to go on or something?” Chel asked, losing interest in Ryno quickly.

“Sure I do. But there’s no reason why I can’t spectate a fight!” Ryno responded.

They watched as Oscar got hurled across the ring, landing in the corner, chest covered in crystal. His staff had flown in a different direction.

“Okay! Okay!” Oscar yelled meekly.

Blaine raised a thick arm, sausage fingers curled at the end. The crystals covering Oscar’s torso shattered away. Blaine then turned towards Oscar’s battlestaff. Crystals shot out from behind it, launching the rod into the air. The fat man caught it, and stuck it into the ground besides him.

Oscar let out a few coughs as he stood up.

“Good show! Good show!” Ryno quickly clapped, tiny sparks of electricity shooting away from each clap.

Oscar and Blaine turned their heads and took notice of Ryno as he shouted out.

Ryno then gave them a thumbs up. “You guys are great!” He added.

Oscar breathed heavily as he stumbled forward to retrieve his staff from the side of Blaine. When the defeated lad got close to grab it, Blaine’s huge arm came down on top of Oscar’s shoulder.

It scared Oscar, made him jump a bit.

“I’m proud of you,” Blaine stated to his pupil. Anything positive like that almost never escaped Blaine’s mouth. It was a rare thing for the serious, no-nonsense master to say.

It caught Oscar off guard. He was used to Blaine listing out every issue and short-coming he found in his elemental practice, especially after a duel like that. He wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Th-thank you… Blaine...” Oscar said, staring down at the ground.

“You’re growing in skill. You may not realize it, but you’ve become quite adept in the basic abilities. I will be stepping you up to more advanced stuff at this rate. Now, go get cleaned up. I’ll see you this evening,” Blaine instructed.

Oscar bowed, and left the arena. When he did so, he approached Ryno.

“CHEL!” Blaine bellowed out. She quickly turned her head. “You’re next! In the ring!” He commanded.

She groaned as she hopped over the guard rail.

“How are you feeling?” Ryno asked the exhausted Oscar.

“Like a million bucks,” Oscar weakly grinned.

“Blaine’s not the only one noticing an increase of power within you. I noticed it too! You’re growing from a boy to a MAN!” Ryno exclaimed, flexing his muscles in an exaggerated manner.

“Thanks, Ryno.” Oscar stated. “You’re heading out again?”

“Yep. Reechie wants me to retrieve some skill book from a monastery in the mountains. Regular stuff, you know.”

“A monastery? With a bunch of fighters? Let me guess, they won’t handle it over willingly, will they?” Oscar asked.

“That’s why John’s sending me,” Ryno grinned.

Oscar knew exactly what that meant. Ryno once again was going on a mission that would involve a lot of people getting hurt. When John Reech couldn’t get what he wanted with diplomatic means, he sent Ryno in for a more physical option. It was what he was best at.

“Just come back in one piece,” Oscar said.

“I always do.”

Chel was suddenly circling Blaine in the ring, shooting crystals from the barrel of her hand pistols. He was erupting sharp gems around her, trying to trap her in place.

“Well, I best be going. I have bit of ground to cover. I’ll see you again later!” Ryno announced.

Oscar gave him a simple wave back. He was fairly beat up from the fight with Blaine and had little energy left to spare.

Ryno nodded and continued his departure from the crystal cavern.

He was off to the Arkari Peaks. They were nestled in the northern region, but unlike the Murok Mountains, which were located in the northeast, these were located in the northwest.

The Arkari Peaks were the most jagged and hard to traverse mountain range on the continent. The fact that a monastery and way of living had been established there was nothing short of impressive.

Ryno wondered where this skill book would be, depending on the size of the establishment. If it was decent sized, it might reside in a vault underground. If it was a small building, it could simply be in the bedroom drawer of the person who wrote it. It made no difference to him.

Regardless of the small details, which frankly, he didn’t care about, he would get that book, and there wouldn’t be anyone who would stop him.

He did not earn the nickname Ryno for no reason.