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Chapter
9
Schimmel tried to get up, but
could hardly move. He watched as Bryenn, J Man and Nemo attacked the giant slime
with everything they had.
"Power Strike!" Schimmel heard as the last of the slime finally faded away.
The three came over to see Schimmel, who had just had the last pass appear in
his hand.
"Are you okay?" Bryenn asked.
"I don't feel any pain, but I can't move," Schimmel explained.
"We'll have to carry you out to finish this then," Bryenn said, "C'mon Nemo."
Bryenn and Nemo each took Schimmel's arms and escorted him to the holographic
Lakelis. He used the last bit of strength he could muster up to give the pass to
her.
"Congratulations, you have completed the Party Quest. You shall receive your
prizes now and be transported outside," she explained. With a wave of her staff,
everyone's badge began to glow. Once the glow died down, Schimmel, Nemorian and
Bryenn's badges had been moved up to twenty-three while J Man's was moved up to
twenty-seven. They each received a small brown paper bag filled with some things
that sounded like marbles and a scroll.
"The small orbs are jewels that you can make new equipment with. The scroll
you each received is a way to enhance your equipment with a spell to improve its
power. I hope they are of use to you." Lakelis gave another wave of her wand as
the surroundings changed again, this time back to the sewers area of Kerning.
Bryenn and Nemorian set Schimmel down sitting against a wall. Schimmel
noticed four more people standing behind them. It was Astreryl, Raquen,
Barbarius and someone else he hadn't seen before.
"Heya guys," Schimmel waved with a weak smile, making Bryenn, Nemorian and J
Man turn around to see them.
"Hello there, Schimmel and company," Raquen smiled, "Jeez, Schimmel, you look
like you just took a beating."
"I did, that huge slime down there threw me into a wall, besides a few other
things that happened earlier. My back is paining bad now though and I can hardly
move."
"I thought you said it didn't hurt?" Bryenn interrupted.
"The feeling just came back... I think it was numb back there," Schimmel
laughed weakly.
"Well, I can try to Heal it, would you mind?" Astreryl spoke up.
"You can try, it's pretty bad though."
Astreryl stepped up to Schimmel's side and kneeled down. She placed her staff
on his shoulder as a faint green glow came from it. Schimmel winced in pain a
little, but quickly felt it melt away.
"Wow, thanks, that's amazing!" Schimmel exclaimed.
"No problem, I've been practicing it alot lately."
"Ah, someone getting hurt alot, eh?" He looked at Raquen and laughed.
"Hehe, not that much," Raquen laughed along, "Besides, I did some of
it on purpose to help you practice!"
"Oh come on," Astreryl put her hands on her hips and leant forward at him,
"You know Calydon-kun had to save you!"
"Er, Calydon?" Schimmel asked under a laugh.
"A friend we met while we were on a job request," Raquen explained, "We were
hunting monsters a little above our abilities when he found us and helped us
out."
"Ah, okay. Are you guys doing the Party Quest now?" Schimmel asked.
"Yeah," Barbarius spoke up, "I'm waitin' for these three to be ready."
"I'm all set," the other man said, patting a pouch probably full of healing
items.
"We're ready, we can head on whenever you want to," Raquen said.
"Great, I can't wait, let's go! C'mon Mitso!" Barbarius ran toward Lakelis.
"I'm coming, no need to worry about me," the man, who Schimmel now knew was
named Mitso, said as he followed them. The four approached Lakelis as she
repeated the same words that she had to Schimmel, J Man, Bryenn and Nemorian.
"To introduce myself, I am Lakelis. You four will be attempting the Party
Quest, correct? A show of your badges is necessary to make sure you meet the
requirements," she said in the exact same tone of voice.
Schimmel stood up and stretched, feeling much better after the Heal spell had
fixed up his back.
"So what should we try now guys?" Schimmel asked the three of them.
"I'ma go do some trainin' to get the badge to shine a thirty and get the
extra Bandit trainin'," J Man said.
"Heh, I think I'd rather some exploring," Nemo said.
"I think I'll go help some people with some job requests," Bryenn said.
Schimmel wasn't expecting three different answers, "Uh, I guess we should
split up for a while then, eh?"
"Yeah, I guess so, but how will we all meet up again?" Bryenn asked.
"How about we get the badges to thirty. Then when I'm in Ossyria and am about
to create a Guild, I'll call you guys with stirge messages and you can join,"
Schimmel suggested, thinking back to the Warrior's words on Maple Island that
said he should create a Guild with his friends. He figured stirge messages would
be a good way to tell them as the stirge bats that carry the messages were
well-trained and reliable.
"Sounds good," Nemo said.
"Sure thing," Bryenn said.
"Yeah, but that'll be soon for me, I'm already at twenty-seven, I'll start to
get impatient," J Man announced.
"I'll keep that in mind," Schimmel said with a laugh.
The four each took a different route out of Kerning, with Schimmel taking the
exit towards Lith Harbor. He decided to go look for Ayunli again. She said she
would meet him for a Party Quest, but he had forgotten that he wasn't able to do
it anymore after the first time. So he decided the first thing he said to her
would be an apology. Only a few steps out of the main part of Kerning he felt a
tap on his shoulder.
"Hm?" He muttered, turning around to see who it was. He stepped back in
surprise when Ayunli was staring at him with a mean look on her face only inches
away.
"Wah! Jeez, you scared me there, Ayunli," he laughed. She kept her mean look
on, not laughing.
"Schimmy! I thought you were going to Party Quest with me! I just saw you
come out of there with a bunch of people I don't even know!" Ayunli yelled.
"Er, uh... you weren't there... and they were my friends too..." Suddenly
Ayunli burst into laughter.
"It's okay," she said, stopping laughing as Schimmel had a confused look on,
"I had already done it with a few friends. I thought you would have been here
earlier."
"Oh, sorry about that... I would have been here earlier if the Forest of
Patience wasn't so annoying," he laughed.
"That's okay, I was really the one to blame for not waiting," she smiled.
"Nah, you shouldn't have to wait for someone you practically just met."
"Okay, it's both our faults then!"
"Sounds good!" Schimmel burst into laughter again along with Ayunli. Once
they stopped laughing, Schimmel realized he needed to get his badge up to thirty
soon so that he could get to Ossyria to create the Guild.
"So would you want to work on some job requests together? My friends are
convincing me to get my badge at thirty as soon as I can," Schimmel asked.
"That'd be fun, Schimmy! Let's go do some and make our badges glow!" Ayunli
waved back for Schimmel to hurry up as she hopped off to the job request
listings. Bryenn was already gone it seemed.
The next few days went by quick. Schimmel and Ayunli spent the days taking on
job requests. Schimmel's badge went up pretty fast, showing a twenty-nine by the
end of the week. While looking for a job to do on the Henesys bulletin board,
Schimmel and Ayunli saw a flustered Raquen running by.
"Hey, Raquen!" Schimmel called to him.
"Schimmel! Good to see you, can I ask you a huge favor?" Raquen said tiredly,
ignoring Ayunli, he was out of breath from running.
"Sure, just name it, I'll do anything I can to help."
"Well, it's a long story, but the thing is Astreryl and a few others have
been taken somewhere by a strange Fairy child named Wing to perform experiments
on. I need to find her soon, they should be somewhere near Ellinia," Raquen said
quickly, trying to hurry.
"What!?" Schimmel yelled, "C'mon then!" They started in the direction for
Ellinia, Schimmel stopped and waved back to Ayunli, "Are you coming to help?
She's a friend of mine!"
"Okay, I'll follow you guys!" She said as she started running to follow them.
Once they reached the rainforest, Raquen immediately began searching for
something.
"Do you know where they're hiding?" Schimmel asked him just as Ayunli caught
up to them, panting.
"I have no idea, but I'm checking everywhere," Raquen said in a hurry,
cutting through branches and bushes with his sword.
They all searched the forest for about half an hour when Schimmel suddenly
heard Raquen call out, "Guys, over here!"
Schimmel and Ayunli followed Raquen through some bushes, following a dirt
path on the ground that was marked with footsteps. Eventually, they came upon
what they were looking for. It was a clearing in the woods. There was a fairy
wearing a green tunic. He had shoulder-length white hair and four cross-shaped
blue sparkling wings. He was mixing potions on a table nearby ten other tables,
each one with someone strapped to it.
The fairy began laughing as he took a flask of potion and started forcing
some of them to drink little sips of it. This set Raquen off and he rushed out
before the fairy came to the table with Astreryl chained onto it.
"Let them go!" He yelled as he swung his sword at Wing, missing as the fairy
flew over to his table of potions.
"Hmf, finding me was one thing, stopping me is another!" He yelled, picking
up a potion and tossing it on the ground next to Raquen. It caused a small
explosion and blew Raquen back into the bushes with Schimmel and Ayunli. They
caught his shoulders as he passed, setting him upright.
"Okay, my turn!" Schimmel ran at the smoke that blew Raquen away. As the
smoke cleared, it revealed a stone golem, the same kind that Schimmel avoided on
his way to Sleepywood the first time.
It smashed the ground near Schimmel as he backstepped to avoid it. He ran at
it again with a Power Strike. He wasn't strong enough to even crack the stone,
his sword bounced off it. Schimmel ducked as a punch came from it. He
backstepped and saw two arrows come from behind to hit it. He looked back to see
Ayunli had drawn her bow and was firing while Raquen was rushing back with his
sword and shield drawn. Raquen or Ayunli couldn't hurt it either as Schimmel and
Raquen narrowly dodged more blows from the monster.
Schimmel noticed behind the golem that Wing was giving out more potions to
the hostages, "Damnit! We can get through like this. What'll we do?" Suddenly,
he saw something flash by, followed by the golem falling into two pieces with a
cut diagonally through it.
"You didn't think I'd miss something that's listed all over the job request
bulletin boards did you?" Koslow said, dropping from the trees.
"What happened!?" Wing yelled, turning around to see his golem in pieces, "Haha,
it doesn't even matter anymore though. I've already given the potion to all of
them, you're too late." He drew another potion and threw it on the ground,
causing smoke to cover the area. When it cleared, he was gone.
"Astreryl!" Raquen yelled, running up to the table that she was strapped to.
Schimmel, Ayunli and Koslow unstrapped the rest of the hostages while Raquen
unstrapped Astreryl.
"Raquen-kun, you came!" She exclaimed.
"Of course I did, is that potion doing anything to you?"
"I don't think so... I'm nervous though, it tasted awful."
"We should get you to a professional Cleric to have it checked out."
"Yeah, there should be one in..." Astreryl trailed off, a blank look suddenly
came onto her face.
"Astreryl...?"
"Ah..." She closed her eyes and rested her hands on her knees, "I... feel
really strange all of a sudden..."
"Oh no, we have to get to Ellinia!" Raquen panicked, "Let me carry you
there."
"Ah... my back is starting to hurt..."
"Come on, let me carry you!"
She suddenly let out a scream of pain, holding her stomach.
"Astreryl!"
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