“Gather around everyone!” Jacob said, his voice boomed across the training ground. All the recruits stopped with their practice and gathered in front of him.
Seeing that everyone had settled down, Jacob said. “It’s been a long week. You have shown great progress. You are some of the brightest recruits and some of the hardest workers I ever had. It brings me great joy to teach you. However, we have only a week left before I leave you to Instructor Diana to teach you strengthening magic. But before that happens, I want to make sure I have prepared and trained you well. I have seen the majority of you have already grasped the essence of The Golden Armament Blade. You need a little more to get to that next level and gain deeper insight into the skill. That is why you need to observe it in real-life combat.”
All of the recruits began to whisper among themselves. The majority of them were excited, while few showed faces of fear.
Jacob waited and let them settle down before continuing. “I apologize for ruining the mood but you won’t be fighting. Rather it’s the ghosts of our past guild members.”
Confusion marked the recruits' faces. What did Jacob mean by ghosts?
“Everyone here knows that ghosts and devils exist, but I doubted many of you have seen them. And that is a good thing, for I fear for the places that you have been at to be able to see them. But the place that we will be heading to today is not dangerous. Rather, it is a memorial for our brave, dead guild members who sacrifices their lives to ward off the devils and undead of Hell’s Gate guild. Today, we will be heading to the Golden Battlefield, the resting place of the Golden General, Robard.”
While the recruits were merrily observing the path to the Golden Battlefield, Nox was going over The Golden Armament Blade. He was trying his best to memorize all the Mana pathways and all the sword movement diagrams from the two manuals that each recruit was given. He refused to fail and lose his chance at a leisure life. He had to try. He did not want to go back there—to his old life.
After going up and down a mountain, then crossing a large bridge, they arrived at a small cave. There were two guards in golden armor with a spear in their hands standing in front of the entrance.
“Hello, instructor.” They said in unison as they stepped aside for Jacob and the rest of the recruits to enter.
Jacob nodded and took the recruits inside. No one knew how all of them were going to fit into such a small cave but to their surprise after taking the first step into the cave, they found themselves outdoor again, but in a desert that stretched far and wide. The golden sky hung above.
Everyone stopped in their track as they stared in amazement. The cave was the entrance to a dungeon world, a hidden fragmented world, a separate space from the world they came from. Even Nox who was busy studying the manuals looked up and stared in disbelief. He had seen supernatural phenomena before. He had seen humans who could soar in the sky or send flames and bolts of lightning out of their hands. He had seen beasts that could split small mountains. But this was his first time being in a different dimension.
Jacob looked at their expression in amusement.
“Now come along, there is much more to see.”
Jacob led the recruits deeper into the desert. Except for sands and more sands, there was nothing much to see. That was until Jacob stopped abruptly at a strange sound.
“Did you hear that?” the recruits asked one another.
“A moan right?”
“Who let out a loud moan?”
Before anyone could answer. Gold and black specters rose from the ground and surrounded them.
Nox let out a loud shriek. It was his first time seeing ghosts and for a second he thought it would be his last until he saw how calm Jacob was.
In the next second, he realized why. The gold specters began attacking the black specters using an array of weapons and skills, one of the skills Nox had now cramped into his head-The Golden Armament Blade. The black specters fought back using their fang and claws. The two fractions ignored the recruits.
“You probably realized it already. The gold specters are our guild brethren who sacrificed their lives fighting off the black specters, the monsters of Hell’s Gate.” Jacob said his voice clashing against the sound of weapons and screams. “Now don’t be so surprised, anything is possible in these inter-dimensional spaces since it's a mixture of reality and corruption of the creator’s wish. But enough of that, this is a good chance for you to learn from those that came before you. Don’t be afraid to take a closer look, they can’t hurt you.”
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With everyone going off on their own to observe different fights, Nox sat down on the sand as he tried to cycle his Mana in the same way as shown in the manual.
“Eh, why are you still going over the manual?”
Nox looked up and saw it was Jason.
“Isn’t it obvious? He still hasn't gotten the basics down. Observing the fights won’t do him any good. It would overwhelm him,” Brett said, standing by Jason.
“Ah.” Jason looked at Nox with a pitiful expression.
For some reason, it bugged the heck out of Nox. He didn’t like feeling like this.
“Here take this.” Jason pulled out his manuals. There were notes on every page. “I have got it memorized and it won’t do me any good, but it might be of help for you.”
“That is enough. Let’s go, we don’t have time to waste.” Brett said, dragging Jason along.
Their departing figures did not lessen the turbulent helplessness inside of Nox. He crumbled the manuals with his hands.
Quest: The Hero Rises
Heroes are often underestimated because they refuse to parade their potential. Instead, they focus on developing their skills until one day, their rivals, betrothed, and other people who had underestimated and cast them away would beg for forgiveness. Unleash your potential and challenge Brett and Jason to a fight. Make them regret looking down on you.
Task: Defeat Brett and Jason
Reward: Satisfaction
“Can’t you read the mood? It was more pity than anything. I wish they did look down on me. Then, at least, I know what to do with this frustration.”
Nox straightened out the crumbled manuals and began going through them. But before Nox could delve more into it another menu popped up.
Quest: The Hero is Always Lucky
It is known that the hero has the Goddess of Luck on his side. Whether is it a thousand-year-old treasure that no one has found or mastering a skill that has less than 1% of achieving, he will always achieve the unachievable and recover the unrecoverable.
Tasks: Find the Golden General’s inheritance
Reward: Path Expanding Vials x7
“Can you stop? I’m trying to learn this damn battle skill so—your hero—won’t get kicked out of the guild.”
It had been a while since Nox felt the forced headache so when it hit him, he was sent sprawling to the ground.
“Fine, fine, shut up. I’ll go on your treasure hunt.”
.
.
.
Nox had been walking for what seemed to be hours but he still could not find any trace of this so-called “inheritance”. He doubted it even existed and was more likely a delusion, but he kept up the act of searching, hoping the quest would expire or something.
Suddenly, a golden string emerged from his shadow and raced through the sand across to someplace distance.
“You can’t expect me to follow something so dubious right?”
“Ouch.”
“Okay, let’s follow it then.”
He didn’t know how long he had walked or how he was going to get back. He was so far from his group now and there weren’t even traces of the specters. The sand looked quite comfy right about now. He did not know if it was a mirage or some kind of trick, but he swore the sands moved.
“There it moved again!”
Suddenly, the ground shook and a large thing pushed up from the ground and continued rising and rising. It wasn’t until a good few seconds after the sands slid down and revealed a giant human in golden armor did he knew what that thing was.
The surrounding sands seemed to cave in, revealing hundreds and thousands of black specters, surrounding Nox and the golden giant.
The golden giant was unfazed and unsheathed two giant golden sabers.
The giant let out a roar that seemed to trigger the darkening of the sky and focusing of the sunlight on where the giant stood, making his golden frame shine even brighter.
The avalanche of black specters came crashing, but the giant would not relent. The giant spun creating a golden whirlwind, slicing and dicing all the specters. The battle that should take hours ended in seconds with all the black specters disappearing, leaving Nox alone facing the giant.
The giant as if it could see Nox, glared deep into his eyes. Golden light shot out from its eyes and pierced Nox.
Nothing should be able to hurt him, yet he couldn’t help but felt his whole body burning hot on the brink of exploding.
Something was inside of him. Something was burning everything, his consciousness, his being, his everything. Was this how he was going to die?
Seed of the Sun has been embedded in you. Increase affinity with fire by 30.
Lvl 1 Solar Physique has been acquired.
Solar Physique
Lvl: 1
Rank: Legendary
Type: Physique
Permanently increase Strength and Constitution by +20.
Increase affinity with fire by 30.
Increase all attributes by 10% when in direct contact with sunlight.
Lvl 1 Solar Rotation acquired.
Solar Rotation
Lvl: 1
Rank: Legendary
Type: Mana Cycle Technique
Permanently increase Mana by +20.
Permanently increase Insight by +1.
Increase affinity with fire by 30.
Improve comprehension of fire-based spells and skills
The Golden General, Robard, has given you his inheritance in exchange for your oath to fulfill his requests. Failure to keep your promise will have dire consequences.
Nox was choking and his eyes were burning, but it seemed he was alive and there were quite a few notifications in front of him. He lied on his back, breathing heavily, trying to make sense of all that had happened only to be further confused at the events that had transpired.
The Hero is Always Lucky has been completed. The rewards are being distributed.
Seven small vials emerged above him.
“...it’s not satisfaction?”