|
Chapter
7
The next morning, Astreryl left her room, ready
to travel to Perion. She stepped outside and was a bit surprised by Grendel
standing there.
"Ah, Astreryl dear," he said with a smile, "You had finished the training so
early, this completely slipped my mind." He reached into his pocket and pulled
out a blue, diamond shape. He stepped up beside Astreryl and put it on her
shoulder. It stuck on easily, without any pins to hold it on, she guessed it was
made that way somehow. As he removed his hand from it, it began to glow faintly.
When it faded, there was a number eight on it.
"This is your Hunter's Badge," Grendel explained, "When you wear it, it will
show what rank of Hunter you are by number. The higher the number, the stronger
you have become as a Hunter. Come back to me once it reaches thirty, I will have
much more to teach you then."
"Thankies Grendel-kun! But ne, do I have to wear it all the time?" Astreryl
thought it ruined her look a bit, having a number on her shoulder.
"Ah right, you only have to wear it when you want to see what number rank
you're at. You may leave it off any other time. Only... don't lose it, or you'll
have to buy another one."
"Okay then, I'll be careful with it," she said, stuffing it in her pocket.
"Good luck then, Astreryl. Remember to come back immediately when it hits
thirty!"
"Thankies! See you!"
Astreryl left through the clearly shown path near Grendel's house toward
Perion. She practiced her Energy Bolt and Magic Claw spells on some real
monsters on the way. Only stumps and snails were anywhere in sight though, and
they were defeated quickly with only one or two spells.
By the time she made it to Perion, it was late afternoon. She climbed the
steep mountain city up to the stone building at the top. She found a bench just
outside the building. She had just sat down when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
She turned around and saw Raquen smiling at her. Schimmel and Bryenn stepped out
of the building just in time to see Astreryl jump into Raquen's arms in a hug.
They both turned away awkwardly.
"I told you that would happen," Schimmel laughed.
"I didn't doubt you for a second," Bryenn said, turning around to see them
still hugging, then turning back to Schimmel, "That's love at its best."
Schimmel let out a sigh, "I guess they can't help but show off like that in
public... but it makes me a bit jealous..."
Bryenn immediately gave a confused look and loudly whispered, "You like
Astreryl!?"
"No!" Schimmel shook his head, "Not jealous for Astreryl, for love itself...
The way they show it off like that makes me wish I had someone to love. Never
mind though, you probably wouldn't understand."
"Of course I understand," Bryenn said defensively, "And believe me, you will
find someone. Sooner or later, it always happens. Trust me, I've seen it happen
enough."
"Whatever the case, I'm a Hunter now. I shouldn't even be thinking about
that. I should be focusing on getting this badge to show me thirty," Schimmel
said, trying to get off the topic. He glanced at his badge that showed the
number ten on it.
"Yeah, me too. You wanna go do some job requests with me?" Bryenn turned
around to see that Astreryl and Raquen had stopped hugging and were now sitting
on the bench next to each other talking about something that he couldn't hear.
"Now that they cut it out, us four may as well go do some job requests. We
can go and get J Man too," Schimmel said, turning to see them. Bryenn nodded and
they approached Raquen and Astreryl sitting on the bench.
"Hey," Schimmel said from the side of the bench, "You guys want to come and
complete some job requests with us? We can pick up J Man down in Kerning and do
some that are listed there."
"Sure thing, Schimmel," Raquen said while Astreryl nodded, "Astreryl and I
would love to help."
"Great! Let's head off and get these darn badges to say thirty!" Schimmel
smiled and started in the direction of Kerning before he tripped on a rock, fell
and landed on his face. He rolled over and looked at the group looking down at
him and he burst into laughter, shortly followed by the rest of them.
J Man stepped out of the tavern to see a group of four just coming into
Kerning, he recognized them as Schimmel, Astreryl, Raquen and someone he didn't
know.
"Hey guys," he greeted them, then turned to the one he didn't know, "Who's
the new recruit?"
Schimmel introduced him, "This is Bryenn. Bryenn, this is J Man, the one I
mentioned."
J Man and Bryenn shook hands as J Man spoke up, "You talk about me to other
people? I must be quite the memorable guy!"
"Nothing good of course," Schimmel laughed, "Anyway, I met Bryenn during the
Warrior training. He's going to do some job requests with us."
"Great," J Man smiled, "So are we splittin' up to do some requests or are we
stickin' together and workin' on a toughy?"
"I'm up for a toughy," Raquen spoke up, "May as well test out our new
abilities."
"I'ma comin' with yas!" The teen who was in the training room with Koslow
before stepped up, "Name's Barbarius, J Man already knows me. I finished the
training a day before him though. Anyway, I'ma take on a toughy too! I'll show
yas how sneaky I can be!"
"I'll vouch for him, this kid's got skill," J Man said, "Outsneak me anyday,
but he's trained for that. Anyway, he's a good guy."
Before anyone could say anything, a girl stepped up to the group.
"You're taking on a 'toughy', huh? Well good luck, you should fight along
with friends of your own level instead of relying on me all the time," she said.
Barbarius turned around, "Koslow! Hey, I don't rely on you all the time, you
know I'm just as sneaky as you."
"Okay, well good luck, maybe I'll see you again soon," Koslow said as she
walked away from the group toward Perion. A few steps away, she turned around
again, "In fact, I have a store in the free market where I sell valuable
equipment, you can find me there sometimes."
Barbarius called to her, "See ya! I'ma visit sometime!" Koslow waved with her
back turned as she jumped, ran along the roofs of the buildings and disappeared
within seconds.
"Hey Barbarius, who was that?" Schimmel asked, "Why did she say 'of your own
level'?"
"I was her apprentice through the training, her name's Koslow. She's insanely
strong, her badge said forty-five the last time I saw it," he explained.
"Ah, okay, just curiousity kicking in. Anyway, let's head over to the job
request listings and see what there is to do, eh?" Schimmel began to walk over
to the large brick wall beside the large building which contained the potion
shop and the tavern that held up a bunch of papers with job requests on them.
The group of six looked through the papers for a few minutes before deciding
there were no real hard ones there. They decided to each take some individually,
besides Raquen and Astreryl of course, who took one together. They went on doing
individual jobs and promised to tell each other if a big one they could do
together ever came up. They knew one thing though, once their badges hit
twenty-one, they were allowed to try a team challenge called a Party Quest. So
for the next week, they tried getting their badges up to twenty-one.
At the end of the week, Schimmel's badge was raised to twenty. He went back
to Kerning to take another job and hopefully raise it up to twenty-one. He took
the pin that was holding the paper to the brick wall and read it. It was from
someone named John down at Lith Harbor. He wanted ten pink Viola flowers from
Sleepywood to make a flower basket for his wife.
Schimmel stepped into the crowded city of Henesys a while later, since it had
the most direct route to Sleepywood. He couldn't help but worry, it was his
first trip into the Victorian Dungeon. He made it through all the people to the
start of the path to the Dungeon, then stopped and looked ahead to see what he
would be up against. He could see iron hogs running around, probably set there
to defend the entrance. He also saw the regular monsters that he saw everywhere:
slimes, snails and mushrooms. He figured the only threat would be the iron hogs,
so he would just avoid them.
Once on the path, a few iron hogs caught sight of him and he had to run to
higher ground to avoid them, they couldn't jump with their heavy metal plates.
He travelled a bit farther, encountering blue mushrooms and slimes, which fell
easily. He suddenly came to a sharp cliff with no way to get across but to jump.
He looked down to see what he would face if he fell, and didn't like it. He saw
huge stone figures moving around, ones that could probably crush him if he just
came near.
He braced himself and built up his nerve before stepping back and jumping
across. For a second he thought he would miss and plunge to his death in the pit
of stone creatures, but he managed to hang onto the edge with his hands and drag
himself up. Once he was up, he immediately saw the entrance. It was into a tree,
and it looked like it was entirely dark inside. He braced himself again and
walked inside. When he stepped through, he could see somehow. He looked around
and saw that there were flowers giving off light in order for him to see. They
couldn't have been the Violas though, the picture John included with the job
showed a small pink flower, not giving off any light.
Schimmel looked around to try and get his bearings. It was a huge tree with
platforms emerging from the sides. He decided there was only two ways to go, up
or down. There were a vines everywhere which made climbing easy, so he decided
to go up first. He figured coming back down would be easier than climbing back
up later anyway.
Just as he was about to grab onto the first vine and start his climb, he
caught a glimpse of someone coming from a pit leading downwards a few feet away.
He walked over to investigate, but before he got there, a girl with waist-length
bright brown hair stepped up from where he was looking. She didn't notice
Schimmel standing there as she fixed her small yellow shirt that had green arms
and long yellow skirt. Schimmel also noticed a blue bow and quiver of arrows
strapped to her back.
"Oh!" She exclaimed as she noticed Schimmel there, "Uh, I didn't think anyone
would be here, hehe..." She laughed with an embarrassed tone.
Schimmel smiled, "I didn't think so either, especially someone as dazzling as
you..." He struggled to keep looking into her eyes and not her chest.
"Hehe, you're sweet," she giggled, "My name's Ayunli, what's yours?" The
introduction brought Schimmel back to his senses.
"Oh right, sorry, I'm Schimmel," he said as he held out his hand with a
nervous smile.
Ayunli giggled again as she clasped Schimmel's held out hand with both of
hers, "That's a nice name. I always make up nicknames for people though so...
I'll call you Schimmy!"
Schimmel laughed, "Now I have two, and I don't know how I got either of
them."
"Hehe, you're funny Schimmy. We should meet up sometime."
"Eh? Meet up how?"
"Like, meet up outside of this old, rotting tree."
"Good plan, this place is starting to get to me and I've only been here a few
minutes. Only, I have to get some Violas from in here before I leave."
"Okay, I'll meet you in a Party Quest sometime then?"
"Sure, my badge should get to twenty-one soon and then I'll be able to. I'll
meet ya there."
"Great! I can't wait to see you again, Schimmy. Byes for now!" Ayunli waved
back as she half walked, half skipped out of the tree. Schimmel waved to her
too, but didn't move. After she had disappeared from sight, Schimmel just sat
right where he was on the ground and thought to himself, "Bryenn was right."
|
