“I'm Eden of course and these are new students for this school. I believe all the paperwork to transfer them in has been done already” replied Eden to the question on who he was.
The receptionist bowed and said, “Of course h-”
Eden quickly placed his finger on her lip stopping her from talking and whispered low enough for only her to hear, “Not yet...I want it to be a surprise” with a grin on his face which caused the receptionist to blush red.
“Y-yes of course. Are you guiding them to their dorms or should I?” asked the receptionist.
“I believe I can do that on my own.”
“Understood.”
With that, Eden took the six to one of the buildings to the left side of the island where there was a old looking building made of wood and stone. Actually it wasn't made of those materials but was disguised to look like it.
In actual fact the materials used for all buildings on this island was the same as the tall tower at the back. Metal that was carefully made to be resistance to all kinds of damage whether it would be explosions, lightning strikes to acid rain.
As a gathering place for the golden goose of the next generation, they needed to have the most perfect defence as possible.
“If I recall the four buildings on this island each have an unique name. The tower at the back is called 'Stein', the building at the front you saw was called 'Fate' and one to the east is called 'Akatsuki' and the one we're going to is called 'Dusk'. Remember them when you can or just call them the north, south, east and west building. Honestly I have no idea when why these names are...” said Eden chattering on as he led the group to the building that was 4 stories tall.
Through the front doors he and the group walked up the stairs that were there onto the second...third floor, took a right and then into a corridor which connected to six rooms.
“This place is where you will all live for now” he said.
The group looked around.
It has the look of a high class orphanage written all over it” said Shadow sarcastically. Eden smiled to this though darkly.
“Anyway I'm going to leave you all for your own devices. There should be a capsule in each of your rooms. You can move them where ever you want if you desire to sleep in the same room. There are some basic stuff as well like beds, tables and chairs. Also I arranged for you all to have some spare clothes to wear as well as your school uniform.”
Saying those words quickly, Eden hurriedly went away leaving the group not knowing what to do.
xXx
On the ship, the group didn't have much to do.
All of them were practising to get their skill levels up a bit higher for later.
A total of 1 week passed peacefully on the ship without that much going on...
xXx
At the other side of the 1 week sea journey...
“Mannnnn, it's nice to get my foot on proper land!” said Lyndis happy to not get sea sick again. The others looked her her warmly since she made it entertaining for the rest of them seeing her struggle with her own body.
“What's with those looks?” she asked with everyone else looking away and Miriel letting out a small chuckle under her hand.
“Nothing” said Sain automatically.
“I think they were referring to your...aliment throughout the boat ride where you...had a problem” said Viv replying to her question while the others crept away a bit.
“Heeeey! You guys said you wouldn't judge me based off it!” shouted Lyndis.
“We not judging you based on that alone. There are plenty of other stuff we can judge you from; like your spending spree on food” Shadow pointed out to everyone.
Miriel sighed and muttered, “At least there was no chance for her to spend money on the ship...”
“Actually she was gambling and lost 3 gold” Shadow pointed out again.
“WHAT?!” screamed Miriel. Sain was also glaring at Lyndis as well.
“W-Wait...that was my money you know...” said Lyndis over and over again backing away from the two that were approaching her, one with a whip and the other with a spear...
“That's enough now” Viv clapped his hands and awoken everyone to his presence again.
He looked at the bull and carriage ready to go and said, “Let's go. We have a different arrangement on the carriage this time.”
A few seconds later, it was Lyndis, Miriel and Serena on the carriage getting a free ride while Sain, Raven and Shadow were forced to run behind them.
Lyndis was happily gloating at the boys when Miriel hit her in the head and said to start her training.
At this point, everyone more or less knew what they had to do for the best for the team.
xXx
Lyndis was working on her fire skills which at some...no most levels related to Fire Magic. However the main difference that prevents her from using Fire Magic was her 'Fire Manipulation Mastery' skill which allowed her to use all fire as her weapon...and also shield according to Viv.
'Do not limit yourself to simply trying to attack with fire. Fire can also be used to defence as well but not in normal ways since it does not have a physical form. There are more ways than one to block an attack he says....'
Lyndis remembered the precis words that Viv used to hint at what she had to work with. The only problem was that with her nature, she wanted to do big experiments and not these small ones right now.
Flick~
The flame in her hands moved from the left to right and right to left over and over again. Unlike Miriel and Serena, she couldn't giant spells since she only had half their mana but at the same time it was several times higher than normal swordsman and only a bit higher than normal mages.
'Life Burn' was a skill that directly used health instead of mana to power. It was fairly simple to use and very powerful at the same time as long as Lyndis didn't get hit and die before she could use it properly. The skill taking her health burst out flames from all corners of her body without end until she directs it as a tornado which according to Viv once again was extremely wasteful.
'Burning Touch' was a skill that consumed mana of course and came out of her hands. Using it without attacking anyone for the first time, she saw that her hands were glowing red, hot and anything she touched burst into flames.
'Flame Strike' was a skill that consumed mana and produced a spear like flame for her to shoot. Lyndis found out recently that using the skill with two hands will produce flames from both hands and make the attack by spreading her arms out before firing. Of course she can still point and fire but it seemed that once again the skill would be less stable and waste more mana.
She also had 'Fire Blade' and 'Pocket Fireball' but they were skills she couldn't use or were really useless now that she thought about it. She tried testing out 'Fire Blade' on her body but it did nothing at all while 'Pocket Fireball'....barely did anything besides light a small fire. 'Burning Touch' was far more efficient for that.
In the end, Lyndis wasted a lot of time on the ship not doing anything since she was sea sick. With an open space to practise it would have been the perfect place to develop new skill but she couldn't. As such she now has to spend the time here to develop them and hope they won't explode in her face.
“Sigh....”
“Lyndis....LYNDIS!” shouted Miriel.
“What?” asked Lyndis.
“The flame is...!”
Lyndis looked and saw that the flame was smoking up....more flame? There was a ball of fire that looked like a ball was set on fire and flames were coming out of it. Lyndis noticed that it was draining her mana but was about to put it out...
'Wait...this could be an interesting new skill....'
Remembering the sensation of the flame, she produced a second one and threw the first at a tree nearby...no one was going to complain about a tree right...?
BOOM!
The tree exploded and Lyndis got a new skill.
You have generated the skill: Fire Bomb
Fire Bomb Beginner Level 1
Produce a ball of fire that will explode and deal fire and explosion damage to anything nearby. There is a 3 second delay in the explosion when thrown.
Mana Cost: 50
“Interesting...” Lyndis made the second 'Fire Bomb' disappear since she didn't want to make another explosion for now.
“What...was that?” asked Miriel now wary.
Lyndis grinned and said, “A new skill.”
'This is good...unlike burning touch and flame strike, this skill doesn't seem to have a cool down. However it cost 50 mana per bomb while the other two uses 30 and 20 instead...'
Thinking about it, it was only a bit worse than the two other skills in mana consumption and yet the effects were probably going to be way better.
'Anyway while throwing around bombs will be more fun than it should....no it IS as fun as it should be...I need a skill that can defend myself just in case as well....full body flame armour? No...that will take too much mana to sustain...just a coating of flames can deter them...coating....'
Looking at her hand...how could she block attacks with this...?
'Since fire cannot directly block attacks...that means that if my body is made of flames I can't get hit?'
Creating a basic flame...Lyndis slowly combined it with her hand....
Bang!
However the combine effect exploded in front of her and burnt her hand quite hard.
“Ow....” muttered Lyndis enduring the pain. She really wished that Serena could heal her right now...or Miriel could produce some ice to cool down her hand. Then she remembered the Bandages.
Taking them out of her inventory she took out a roll and wrapped it around her burnt hand quickly. With the passive effect of wrapping bandages around a wound, it would heal more quickly and give a slight health regenerative effect.
However this effect would only do that unless you have the proper skill that will increase the effects of bandaging and even heal health as well.
Back to developing a new defensive fire skill to use, Lyndis burnt her hands and other parts she dared to experiment on several times. And after the 20th or so time...
You have generated the skill 'Bandaging'
Bandaging Beginner Level 1
Allows you to stop bleeding and increases the life force of the person being bandaged.
She grinned seeing this and immediately started bandaging her hands again to which the effects were much better. The pain from the burns were disappearing much quicker.
“Why are you so happy to get burnt again?” asked Miriel with a eyebrow raised.
Lyndis continued grinning and said, “Because I got the 'Bandaging' skill just now. Now we don't need to completely rely on Sain to heal us.”
Miriel frowned and then said, “You do realise that using Sain's healing would be quicker than using your bandaging skills...well the skill when raised can be used when Sain or Serena when she gets her healing abilities back can't.”
“That's right and now I have a way to heal myself better from these burns!”
“Then don't get burnt in the first place” muttered Miriel with a sigh.
“Yeah but I'm trying to combine my flame with my body you know...to create a defensive skill to use.”
“Wait you were trying to do that?” said Miriel quickly grabbing onto Lyndis.
“Y-Yeah...”
“Are you an idiot?”
“What?!”
Lyndis looked startled at the accusation. Seeing this, Miriel sighed and then started to explain, “There is literally no way you can do that unless you have a special race or class. While using fire related skills and magic may make your flesh more resistance to flame it simply cannot become flame. Someone like Ron who was able to is a monster basically. Unless you can replicate what was done to him try something else.”
“....”
'Damn...why didn't I think of that earlier? I did think of coating myself with flames but it would be way better if I was simply flame itself....'
As such Lyndis instead of trying to combine with the flame which actually did work for a split second, decided to cover her hand in fire that didn't stray too far when she moved it. After an hour of maintaining this state, she got a new skill to go with it.
You have generated the skill 'Flame Coating'
Flame Coating Beginner Level 1
Coat an object with flames to increase the attack of it. It can also be used on the body itself to create a protective area where enemies that go to close will be damaged by the flames.
Mana Cost: 10/Sec
With this, she decided to practise heavily for it would be still extremely useful later on.
xXx
While watching Lyndis work her way with her fire and manipulation of it to create new skills to use and train, Miriel too was trying to create a new spell as well which involved Sound Magic.
Aaaaaaa
AAaaaaa
AAAaaaa
Creating and manipulating sound using her mana, Miriel was practising on increasing her skill level for 'Sound Magic Mastery' as much as possible from now on from Beginner Level 5 first.
By creating variations of certain sounds, Miriel discovered that she could steady increase her mastery over it. However at the same time she needed a way to do this and got to making a spell...which she failed to do in the end and asked Viv about it which he gave her a spell book to learn and got this spell.
Sound Tunes Variation Beginner Level 4
Using mana to create sounds, almost all types of sounds can be created this way, blended into songs as well. It is a spell that all bards and music related personal desire! If the sounds are stung together in certain ways, new effects can take place for those who heard them
Current Tunes:
- Tune of Cheerfulness: Increases Mood (5mp/sec)
- Tune of Depression: Decreases Mood (3mp/sec)
- Tune of Alertness: Increases Sensitivity to danger (5mp/sec)
- Tune of Distraction: Decrease Sensitivity to danger (8mp/sec)
- Tune of Sleep: Causes Sleep (10mp/sec)
- Tune of Awakening: Causes one to wake (2mp/sec)
Mana Cost: 1/Sec per variations of sounds
When Miriel got this spell she spent a whole week working on which tunes can cause what effects and as a result she discovered six different tunes to use so far.
'This spell is mainly about discovering new ways of using it. Eventually I hope that I can find different tunes for more valuable buffs like increase health or mana in there....though it would cost a lot to sustain.'
Looking into the future of this spell, Miriel continued to train this spell for what it was worth.
After that she needed to practise with 'Illusion Magic Mastery' and finally with her new mastery skill that she gained on the ship.
Barrier Magic Mastery.
Barrier Magic Mastery Beginner Level 2
The mastery in using all kinds of barrier type magic
Barrier Strength increase: 20%
Decrease in cost of Barrier Magic Spells: 2%
Like that mastery skills, it passively increased the strength of the magic that they align to as well either increase affinity to an element, increasing casting speeds or decrease the cost on using those types of magic
There were also one spell that she gained along with this new mastery skill.
Ice Barrier Beginner Level 1
Creates a barrier of ice to block attacks. The strength of the barrier however is based off how much water can be turned into ice in the area.
Mana Cost: 50
While it is technically Ice Magic it is also a Barrier type Magic as well. As such Miriel had to talk to Viv to allow her to use this spell at least since her seal on Ice Magic was preventing her on using it after she discovered the spell.
“Fuuu......” taking a breather Miriel decided to train up these two spells since she didn't know when was the next battle and she was getting tired of producing sounds over and over again by now.
“Ice Barrier...” she chanted aiming away from everyone else as the spell created a physical entity that can clearly seen.
Water quickly gathered in the space Miriel aimed at and created a large block of ice that was thin enough to not block the way but large enough to protect a large enough area just in case. Compared to 'Cracked Barrier' which created a shell to protect the user, this spell was much more durable and would probably only break under large amounts of strain.
“....”
Miriel looked to her right where Serena was doing her usual training with leaves in order to further familiarise herself with the spell she recently got which to Miriel was an extreme offensive type spell.
'Serena should have at least her magic mastery skill in the intermediate level right...?' Miriel thought.
It was only on the ship and after a week that her 'Magic Mastery' skill reached Beginner Level 10 and thus turned to Intermediate Level 1 with a 50% magic strength bonus.
'At least our offence will not be hindered with the change...in fact I think we should be able to blow away enemies that come our way...unless they can endure our attacks for a while...it should be fine...'
Miriel repeated that thought in her head over and over again as time passed.
xXx
A day later, they were greeted with a battle at last. Surrounding the carriage there were numerous zombies appearing from the ground as the bull roared and stopped in it's path.
“Ahhhhh!” screamed Serena backing away from the zombies as much as possible.
“Get ready to fight!” shouted Sain seeing them.
However at the same time Lyndis shouted back, “What the hell are we waiting for?! We should attack now!”
It looked like the others agreed and Sain nodded and started firing off his spells at the zombies that already surpassed 20 in numbers around them.
“Flame Strike!” “Magic Arrows!”
“Damn there are too many of them!” shouted Shadow being held down by one zombie as more surrounded him as he was too far out.
“Root Bind!” Serena casted that spell and dragged the zombie off him which allowed him to barely get away as three zombies tried to attack that very same place a second later.
“Zombies are level 50 right?!” complained Shadow remembering an old extract of some players fighting zombies in a cave.
“Actually they range much higher than that...these ones look like they are around level 80” said Miriel observing the zombies and determining their stats. As she said this the number of zombies increased to 30.
“Retreat as much as possible! There are too many of them, where's Viv?” shouted Sain using his spear to chop at a few zombies at a time with little effect.
“Disappeared!” shouted Lyndis looking at the front of the carriage where the bull was gone as well.
“Damn...!” muttered Sain. He hoped that Viv would at least warn them beforehand of an attack. He didn't have Luna out nor did Shadow heard anything.
“Wolf Summoning!” chanted Sain calling onto Luna into the battlefield. When Luna appeared, he immediately backed away a bit from the zombies due to the stench that was worse for him.
[Master...is there a need for me to be here?]
For this reason, Luna was not exactly happy to be fighting these smelly zombies.
“Yes there is” replied Sain as he looked at Miriel who was casting a spell, “Are you done yet?”
“Just...about....Melody of Agility!” chanted Miriel as fast as she could.
Party in range has been buffed by 'Melody of Agility'
Agility increased by 51% for 10 minutes
With the passive magic strength increase of 150% with 'Magic Mastery' and the passive sound magic strength increase of 50% with 'Sound Magic Mastery', Miriel's 'Melody of Sound' spell increased from buffing from 17% to three times it's normal amount to a 51% boost.
With a agility boost, Sain found that it could work well if he stack it with his own buffs that would in turn be buffed by the spell as well.
“Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!”
You have been buffed with the spell 'Iron Skin'
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell 'Iron Skin'
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell 'Iron Skin'
“Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! ”
You have been buffed with the spell 'Swift Legs'
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell 'Swift Legs'
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell 'Swift Legs'
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“Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury!”
You have been buffed with the spell 'Berserk Fury'
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell 'Berserk Fury'
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell 'Berserk Fury'
With the three buffs on them, the formation was as such. Raven and Sain were at the front on one end. Shadow was on the front at the other end and the three girls were on the carriage casting spells.
“Leaf Slicer!” shouted Serena using that spell for the first time in battle properly. Leaves gathered around her glowing green with her mana infused in them and were shot at the zombies that were steadily increasing in numbers and heading for them.
Her spell hit three of the zombies at once and caused great cuts on their bodies but not to the point that they would be stopped.
Sain noticed that it was clearly weaker than the one she showed before...it was most likely under her state at the time, her magical and even physical abilities were being boosted.
“Urrrrrr...”
Because her spell was weaker than he expected, Sain didn't get to her in time to chop down the zombie. Naturally Miriel took out her whip and attacked a few time before Sain managed to pierce the zombie's brain out...in front of Serena.
As such Serena panicked a bit before Miriel had to calm her down.
“Serena! Use Blood Burst on them!” Sain shouted while firing off 'Magic Arrows' at the zombies as his other attacks weren't as effective on them.
Serena nodded as Miriel support fire the zombies as far away from them as possible and shouted, “Blood Burst!”
A red orb that hadn't appeared in a long while was created in front of Serena as she fired it off at the zombies passing through and sometimes rebounding off them to hit another target. After 10 seconds of this...
BANG!
Multiple zombies were destroyed in a moment and others lost limbs or large chunks of their bodies. The sight of the zombies gusting off organs and blood all over the place which was poisonousness mind you caused Serena to let out a shriek.
The blood almost touched the rest them directly and Serena was covered in the blood herself.
Party Member: Serena is now poisoned
“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!”
And made her faint.
“Serena!” catching her, Miriel had to place her on the carriage as Shadow commented, “Did she really have to faint right now? We are in big trouble losing an attacker here!” while slicing off a zombie's head.
Meanwhile Sain got to her and casted 'Poison Removal' which cured her of her poisoned status.
“I can't blame her” said Lyndis using 'Flame Strike' to burn down the zombies in her area near Raven who was slicing the zombies quite well, “These things look and smell really disgusting you know even from back here.”
“Say that when you're forced to fight them at close range!” Shadow shouted back at her while doing a flip and stabbing his dagger into the zombie's head while using his short sword to cut the head off.
“Umm...you guys, less talking and more fighting...here!” Sain swung his spear down at the head of a zombie spattering it's head into pieces in one go protecting the three from the zombies that got nearer to the carriage.
“Mana Bolts!” He then raised his right hand and rapidly fired mana bolts at the other zombies closing in on them.
“Damn...not effective enough...poison shot only heals them and paralyse shot can't do anything against them....” he muttered under his breath.
Sain noticed that the number of zombies have been increasing more and more quickly with them numbering 40 now even though they were killing them quite quickly. Without Serena and her clear firepower against these types of foes, they were struggling very much to keep up.
“Lyndis! Throw some of those bombs you can create at them” shouted Sain.
“Fine! Fire Bomb!” A single ball of fire appeared in Lyndis' hand as she casually threw one at Sain's direction at the zombies. The ball of fire rolled and stopped and after three seconds...
BOOM!
The ball of fire exploded and caught the zombies around it with it. The flames covered the zombies that didn't die immediately from her bomb.
“....”
Seeing this, Sain quickly said, “Lyndis continued using that skill as much as possible. You should have a lot of mana to do so. Shadow! Raven! Retreat a bit to let Lyndis so her thing!”
“Right.” “Understood.”
“Let's do this” said Lyndis excited on the act, “Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb!...!”
She started creating as many fire bombs as possible and threw them over and over again at the zombies.
BOOM! BOOM!......BOOM!
Eventually the surrounding area was burnt black and crippled with all the explosions and fire that were spread. The zombies didn't come out when the land was like this...else Lyndis killed them all with her bombs.
They had gained a level each thanks to this battle.
Party Member: Lyndis has gained the title 'Bomb Maniac'
Bomb Maniac
To blow things up is the best things for life! Explosion and destruction are so easy to make with this.
Bomb AOE: +15%
Explosion Damage: +50%
“Eh?” both Sain and Lyndis muttered those words as they shared this to the others as well.
Miriel looked at Lyndis suspiciously and muttered, “Lyndis you....”
“Wait wait wait wait! I'm not that kind of person!” she wildly waved her hands at their stares trying to deny this fact.
“They say a title is a perfect representation of a person” commented Shadow on this which only made Lyndis scream louder not acknowledging that she was this type of person.
“She...did seem happy to throw all of those bombs” muttered Sain thinking about it. She had this mad look on her eyes as she looked at the zombies being blown up or burning.
“Not you as well!”
Miriel patted Lyndis on the shoulder as she started to tear up.
“Miriel my friend....”
However Miriel grinned with an evil smile and said, “I don't recall being friends with a bomb maniac.”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
Something in Lyndis snapped. Flames came out of her body and rapidly expanded knocking everyone away from her. Sain noticed that her right hand as well was glowing bright red as well.
“Ah she awakened because of that?” said a voice.
That voice was Viv who juts came back with the bull. Tying it to the carriage once again, Viv casually walked up to Lyndis who lost control of her flames and then lightly tapped the back of her neck.
Snap!
Lyndis fell onto the ground with her neck seemingly being snapped...
“....”
“Don't worry there is no permanent damage and she will wake up in a few hours” said Viv seeing the looks the other four minus Serena who was still fainted on the carriage, “I was thinking Serena was unusual to having a violent reaction to the 'mark' but it seems that it's more likely that you two, Sain and Miriel are the unusual ones.”
With Lyndis who was larger than him on his shoulder, Viv easily threw him on the carriage and told the rest of the group to get on as well.
“It looks like it's finally time to tell you guys about what Eden did to you.”
xXx
On the carriage was strangely quite. It took some hours for Serena to wake and then Lyndis. Noticing the mood Serena did not speak as well and when Lyndis finally awoke...
“My neck feels really....stiff....”
Snap
An arm from Viv promptly moved around her neck and caused another snap to it to which shocked her and then realised that her neck was now fine.
“By the way, why is everyone on here right now?” she asked looking around.
“Well actually....” Sain started explaining to her what happened.
xXx
“The phenomenons that some of you guys experienced...with the exception of Shadow and Raven now are due to the marks that Eden placed on you when you joined the guild” Viv started to explain.
“Your masters; Gen, Jenny, Mel, Ron, Park and Anna all have these marks as well and to some degree mastered enough for it to not control and consume them.”
“Control? Consume?” asked Miriel now worried.
“Yes control and consume. There are many phrases and tales of people being controlled by power and losing themselves with it. This is no exception...no...it is especially the case here with so many people seeking it not knowing what it will do to them” warned Viv.
“There is a good reason why Eden said to not speak about this power.”
“....”
The group was silent as they listened to this.
“One thing to know is that the marks are all dependent on the individual. They represent yourself...some of them quite obvious...”
Sain thought of the flames and the 'Lion mark' that Lyndis had or Serena's sudden power with the 'Warrior Mark'.
“While some others are quite difficult to understand...”
Sain then thought of Raven's one where it was a star. What could that represent and his own 'Serpent' mark...
“Are there any questions so far?”
“Is there...any chance that these marks would change? Like how people change over time will these marks also...change?” asked Shadow rubbing his right hand.
“As far as I know, no. There are only 12 cases and all of them are in this guild and none of your masters had their marks changed on them though evolved is another story.”
“And...the dangers?” asked Sain this time.
Viv replied in a grim voice, “Many.”
“....”
There was silence again as the group struggled to hear this. It was one thing to get some power up at random but another to know there are unknown risks on using them when they couldn't even control it.
If they end up in that state permanently...
“But none right now. You all are in the very early stage. This power is like a curse, it will only bring more danger the further it gets more powerful. Those small burst of power are only the beginning. Merely a faction of what this power can bring and what Eden is enduring...”
“How is...this related to Eden?” asked Miriel.
“This power that is inside you is his. The origin is his own...curse” said Viv in a low voice barely hearable to the ear.
“Where to start....yes at the beginning of course. It all began when Eden wanted to know the true limits of what humans can do. No...it was before that when...the days for us were much better than now. That day when he became so close to what he was meant to be....and yet chose to remain human in the end. That is the true beginning of this power and yet to far ahead and too behind.”
“One day an old friend of ours...dead at this point from war asked to take care of his apprentice for him. When Eden got to him...there were two more so he took them along as well. Actually there were more but when Eden turned up in Dragon form only three didn't run away immediately and so as promise he took them in.”
“Are these...” said Sain.
“Those three were Gen, Mel and Jenny. The first to be taught by me, Eden and Al. Soon after we were gathering more comrades all of them ended up to be players like us but there were a total of three more NPCs that ended up in the guild.”
“Ron, Park and Anna” said Miriel.
Viv nodded to continued.
“The thing with the marks started with those three who wanted more power and seeing their desires...in the end Eden allowed them part of his magic skills”
Viv shook his head and then said, “That was a grave mistake that almost cost them their lives. The human body was too...fragile. He had to turn them into something not human to save them. Later on instead of seeking humans to turn into non-humans he turned non-humans into humans instead. But this didn't happen in the end and three more like those three were turned as well.”
Sain had to think about how much time that they spent in the guild...decades of experience....and yet at the same time they were so strong even though they were NPCs. What did Eden do to cause them to be...so strong?
“Anyway were was I....? Yes...one day Eden realised at this rate the NPCs in the guild won't last and had to increase their life force as much as possible and at the same time planted in them techniques to endure it. Eden did the same to you lot but with your mana instead which is more important as players.”
“Yes, he did mention it before.”
“Yes but even with this, they still had the problem of not being strong enough....not stable enough. Yes they were powerful in their own rights and would count as one of the strongest NPCs in the game sooner or later but yet at the same time lacking to what Eden needed. Therefore...”
Viv took a deep breath to speak the next words.
“He decided to transform them into something not humanly possible with his own core power as a catalyst.”
“???”
The group was now confused on this dramatically crucial part. To their expressions Viv smiled as he continued to say, “Right. You don't know about 'that' yet.”
Well just think of what happened to you when those marks were active. Serena and Lyndis both went violent when they were active no? And you seen Ron in his Hydra form as well causing destruction and havoc where he moved.”
“But...that didn't happen with me or Sain” said Miriel, Sain nodded.
“That I cannot explain....actually I think I can sort of explain from what Eden told me. I said that the marks are the reflection of yourselves right?”
Four people nodded.
“In that case what part of you are they representing? The human mind is far to complex for magic and even the marks that reflects on you to fully capture. So what part of you do they really represent?”
“Perhaps...repressed feelings?” said Raven slowly.
“When you are hurt and yet say your not. When you are sad and yet put up a smile. Every last time they are still there and exist in you but never made it out...” said Viv.
“You can say that the most common reaction is bottled up anger and hatred and instincts from deep within. Serena was bullied due to being inferior in some ways and could not lash out at them while Lyndis was bullied due to being superior in too many ways and at the same time could not lash out at them.”
“....”
Viv then looked at Shadow and said, “For someone who was ignored most of their life, there must be some anger or hatred in there” Shadow flinched, “And for Raven as a person who was bullied and beaten based on appearances the same is with you is it not.”
“....”
Raven stayed silent but was more stiff than usual in his expressions.
“Think of the marks as similar to the 'berserk' state where you gain massive strength but in the end will most likely attack allies as well.
“But...” Viv looked at Sain and Miriel, “But there are two that had already awakened and yet not reacted the same way. From what Eden said, the effects of the marks are more extreme at the beginning and end. The extreme change in personality will now only gradually occur.”
Viv looked at the two and then asked, “Seeing you two...your two are different from the others. You two would work well in other teams but with the others...not so much.”
“And what does this have to do with anything?” asked Miriel irritated now.
“What I am saying is that you want to be friends with people” replied Viv coolly, “Lyndis might seem like that but as you noticed is very fragile in any case.”
Miriel blushed red to these words but did not repute them. Sain on the other hand more or less new about this from the beginning and did not hide it so it didn't bother him. Also the thing with Lyndis was only a minor surprise there since she tried to hide her emotions quite a bit from them all.
“Is Miriel the Tsundere type...?” muttered Viv.
A few moments later and a couple of sentences exchanged Viv finally said, “From what I know, the marks will first 'awaken' in which you may experience some trouble. However after that, the marks will develop as an active skills or state you can use. I think Alena can explain it better to you when the time comes.”
“Alena?”
“The person we will meet later on at our destination” said Viv.
Miriel raised her eyebrow in suspicion and asked, “Why can't Eden just teleport us there again?”
“Because you all need training and doing so without interference like now is the best way. Another thing is that Eden avoids that place for his own reasons.”
xXx
“So...that's what happened?” asked Lyndis, “That's all?”
“Yes, that is all” said Miriel not liking that Lyndis expected more from this.
“So...these...” Serena looked at her right hand, “Will do something bad to us eventually?”
“The problem is we don't know that yet” said Shadow, “Judging from what Viv revealed to us, this power is something we shouldn't rely on. It's better to just things go naturally. I'm more interested in why Eden doesn't want to go to the city we're heading to.”
“Yeah! That sounds super suspicious for Eden” said Lyndis grinning to find hidden secrets. Sain lightly hit Lyndis on the head, sighed and then said, “Shouldn't we be focusing on our own issues right now? We are in a delicate balance where we might or might not be attacked by zombies and skeletons right now.”
Sain looked around as he said that. The place they were in was a dead forest, cursed with undead and other foul creatures.
It is in such lands that barely anyone goes through unless they have a really good reason since the constant attack will force them to bring something of the Holy Alignment to get through. However none of the members in the group could use Holy Magic.
As such they would focus on the next best thing which was the fire element which was fatal to most undead and Serena's own nature magic which was powerful enough to chop monsters into pieces.
“Well I can take care of that fine” replied Lyndis not seeing the point.
Next was Miriel's turn to hit Lyndis in the head, “The point is that you don't have infinite mana to use and the oh so useful fire skills you have may be useless if we're not careful preserve mana just in case we immediately head into another battle each time we fight.”
Lyndis pouted and then said, “Things would be super easy if I had my sword.”
“So it would be if I could use Ice Magic while Serena can use her healing magic as well and Raven having a shield to endure attacks at the front again. Viv took those away since we trained them enough already. There are a number of skills and spell we need to learn in order to get stronger.”
“Wouldn't things get easier if we levelled up faster instead?” asked Shadow, “I mean skill training is important but in the end the quickest way to get stronger is via levelling. No matter how good our skill training is, we can't beat someone twice our level normally.”
“It's not like we're not gaining experience” said Sain, “While it isn't as much as a dungeon run, it is still experience. Plus I expect that we will have time for levelling later on.”
The conversation went on for a few more hours into the night....and as day broke...
xXx
The very next day...
The carriage moved along with the entire group on the carriage as the frequent zombie attacks were too dangerous to face them alone.
Click click click click click click click click click click click click click...
The carriage continued to move along...and it stopped.
“Hmm?”
Sain and the others looked around and found that they stopped in the middle of the road. Was there another attack?
“Get off” said Viv. The group silent and not sure on what to do caused him to say, “Get off now” again to which they quickly got off almost tripping over each other.
Viv went and looked at a particular area where there was nothing there and smirked. He moved his hand onto the air and ripped it apart.
BREAK!
Suddenly a large cave appeared leading deep underground.
“From the ship I learnt that there was a place that was producing a large number of undead in this area. As such I took on the task to get rid of it.”
The group had a bad feeling about this.
“You lot will go in and clear it on your own. Here are a month's worth of supplies” he said dropping several large bags onto the ground from his inventory, “And now get in the cave and kill those necromancers” he continued to say with a smile.
“....”
“Oh don't worry, the enemy is at most level 150. Most of the undead are your level and this will serve as good training against large mobs of enemies.”
With that, several roots appeared from the ground, grabbed onto the group and the bags and threw them deep in the cave.
Rumble Rumble Rumble....
As they were thrown in, the entrance to the cave closed leaving them trapped in but not before Viv said quickly, “When you find the necromancers, show them the guild badge. One of them should understand what it means.”
Onwards?PreviousExitNext
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Author's Notes:
- Word Count: 7400~
- This chapter was slightly shorter than what I usually write since I couldn't think of almost anything else to put in without causing it to extend too far. Well there were some more insights in this chapter...to be revealed later. For now I have to cramp 1 month into a chapter and skip 2 more months which will be a hassle for the pacing of things.
- This chapter isn't edited since I don't have time because my exam is tomorrow noon. I finished this up so I won't get distracted in the actual exams thinking of this chapter.