《The Skeleton Warrior & The Young Priestess》 The Young Preistess Miria ¡°...SUMMON!¡± The magic circle at the student''s feet emitted a purple light, and a large floating eye with tentacles and bat wings came out. ¡°A Floating Watcher they can be used as an excellent scout, good job.¡± [Summons Instructor] ¡°Thank you!¡± [Student Ranger] ¡°Next!¡± [Summons Instructor] The next student in line came forward for their summoning ritual. This student was a Mage named Alexia. Alexia came from a rich family, but that never needed to be told to anyone as every day she was wearing a different very expensive dress. Normally you would have to become an experienced adventurer before you would be able to do the {Familiar Summon}. However, at this school they had a teacher gifted in summoning magic allowing the students to summon their familiar. This is invaluable to them since their familiars were often stronger than they were. This did have the risk of their familiar fighting back, but that was just for those stupid enough not to respect their familiar. Alexia stepped in front of the magic circle and began her chant. ¡°I call upon you now to serve me, SUMMON!¡± [Alexia] The magic circle at Alexia¡¯s feet emitted a red light. A meter long red salamander came out clad in flames. ¡°A Flame Salamander they can use weak fire magic and boost your own fire magic, make sure to train your own fire magic.¡± [Summons Instructor] ¡°You should expect nothing less.¡± [Alexia] ¡°Next!¡± [Summons Instructor] The warrior call Borick stepped forward. He was the definition of a muscle head. If you ever asked why a school was made for adventurers he is the reason. Borick would be the kid that starts adventuring and immediately gets in over his head and dies. Teaching the weak points of monsters, survival skills, combat training, and his familiar should help to keep him alive. ¡°I shall not disappoint you!¡± [Borick] ¡°Just get on with it.¡± [Summons Instructor] Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.¡°I call upon you now to serve me, SUMMON!¡± [Borick] The Summons Instructor pulled back his arm and then WHACK! Hit the Borick on the head. ¡°It seems that you have forgotten my instructions already. There are no set words for a {Familiar Summon}. You have to look inside of your self and then call out the words that feel natural.¡± [Summons Instructor] ¡°Right! ¡­...Show your power to everything in your path, SUMMON!¡± [Borick] The magic circle at Borick¡¯s feet emitted a brown light. A large bull monster came out of the circle it had two massive horns and a large club. ¡°A Minotaur they boast high physical prowess, but not much else. Make sure not to be killed by it.¡± [Summons Instructor] ¡°Of course!¡± [Borick] ¡°Next!¡± [Summons Instructor] The last student was a student priestess named Miria. She was a bit short for her age but had long light blue hair and big light green eyes. Just looking at her made you feel healed. She looked nervous since it was her turn for the {Familiar Summon}, but it just added to her cuteness. ¡°Looks like you''re the last one. Start Whenever you''re ready.¡± [Summons Instructor] ¡°y..Yes. ...Come back to me ,please, SUMMON!¡± [Miria] The magic circle at Miria¡¯s feet emitted a black light. Out of the magic circle came a skeleton other than being taller than an average man he had no special qualities. ¡°Oh! its a Skeleton. Probably the worst familiar you could have gotten.¡± [Summons Instructor] End of Chapter 1
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Ch 2 The Weakest of Them All I was drifting through the darkness. Where am I? Who am I? What am I? The man in the dark kept asking himself these questions as he was floating. He doesn¡¯t remember anything and just keeps running these questions through his mind like a senile old man constantly forgetting that he has already asked these questions. ¡°Come back to me ,please, ...¡± [?] All of a sudden after who knows how long he heard a voice. He turned his attention to where it was and saw a faint light. Then the small light flashed and consumed him. ***** ¡°What!¡± [Miria] ¡°As a priest your healing will deal damage to the undead. It can¡¯t even act as a shield with all of the holes in it. It may be able to fight, but Skeletons are notorious for dying quickly. It is practically useless to you.¡± [Summons Instructor] ¡°HAHAHAHA¡± ¡±Way to go Miria!¡± ¡°And here I thought mine was bad.¡± [Various Students] ¡°Ok you brats, get a move on to my classroom my assistant will help you with the next step.¡± [Summons Instructor] The students start to leave, but Miria stays. ¡°Is it true that it is worthless?¡± [Miria] ¡°... It isn¡¯t worthless, but I wouldn¡¯t bet on it being useful any time soon. Now get going¡± [Summons Instructor] Miria leaves with her skeleton and tries to catch up with everyone. When she arrives at the classroom several students¡¯ Familiars have already been graded. Miria gets at the back of the line and waits for her turn. When it comes to Borick the second to last in the line Miria listens closser. ¡°So its a Minotaur this time, I can¡¯t think of something better suited to you Borick.¡± [Avia] ¡°THANK YOU MISS AVIA!¡± [Borick] Miss Avia is the assistant to the Summons Instructor, and unlike him has learned the students names and much kinder towards them. ¡°Now come over here so I can show you his {Status}¡± [Avia] Avia said a small chant and a screen appeared before her and Borick.
Species:MinitaurLevel:12
VIT:BLight:Weakness
STR:A+Fire:Weakness
AGI:C+Earth:Superior Strength
END:BWater:Neutral
DEX:A-Wind:Weakness
WSD:DNature:Strength
INT:FDark:Strength
¡°OH!! ...What does it mean?¡± [Borick] ¡°Forgotten already? Well I suppose it has been a while since we started.¡± [Avia] ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ll remember this time.¡± [Borick] ¡°I¡¯m sure you will. Now then, In the first column our his base attributes they show the talent of your Familiar in each field. These are ranked from F- up to A+ it is possible to have an S rank, but I have never seen one. Vitality determines health, Strength and Agility are obvious, Endurance their stamina and physical defence, Dexterity determines their talent with weapons, Wisdom determines magical defence as well as their mana pool, Intelligence determines aptitude for magic. So what is your Familiar good for?¡± [Avia] This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.¡°Same as me BASHING HEADS IN!¡± [Borick] ¡°Good next are the elemental affinities. It is common to have just as many strengths as you do weaknesses. Affinites affect both your ability to cast magic as well as receive it.¡± [Avia] ¡°Why do we just see this. By meditating I can see my own status with way more information than this.¡± [Borick] ¡°That is because you just got him. Normally you wouldn¡¯t even be able to see this without my {Identify}. However, as you two grow closer together you will be able to see his {Status} just like your own.¡± [Avia] ¡°Ok I think I get it.¡± [Borick] Borick left Avia and stood with the rest of the students. Miria came forward and took his place. ¡°...I see so Miria got a Skeleton. Well lets see what it can do.¡± [Avia] ¡°Please be strong.¡± [Miria] Avia said the small chant again and the screen appeared before her.
Species:Ancient SkeletonLevel:1
VIT::FLightUltimate Weakness
STR:FFire:Ultimate Weakness
AGI:FEarth:Ultimate Weakness
END:FWater:Ultimate Weakness
DEX:FWind:Ultimate Weakness
WSD:F-Nature:Ultimate Weakness
INT:F-Dark:Ultimate Weakness
The two just stood there dumbfounded. It went on for so long that a student got behind them to see what it was. ¡°OH MY GOD, Its has F¡¯s across the board and is suuuper weak with all magic!¡± [Student] Miria was sure she would cry now so she looked up to Avia for help. Avia¡¯s eyes were full of pity as she could think of no way to help Miria. When Miria saw this she just ran out of the room crying with her Familiar chasing after her. ¡°For the rest of the class try to gain an understanding with your Familiar, but sparing is forbidden.¡± [Avia] Avia gave these instructions to the students before trying to catch up to Miria. But before she could make it three steps out the door she was stopped by the Summons Instructor. ¡°Miss Avia where are you going?¡± [Summons Instructor] ¡°I¡¯m sorry Mr. Abgon I need to console a student.¡± [Avia] ¡°The one with the Skeleton familiar? I was wondering what its {Status} would be.¡± [Abgon] Avia quickly said the {Status} of the Skeleton before trying to leave, but was stopped by Mr. Abgon. ¡°You always forget the important stuff don¡¯t you...¡± [Abgon] Mr. Abgon reminded Miss Avia of something before letting her chase after Miria. However, by the time she began to chase them again they were out of sight. ¡°Level one huh. Looks like the Skeleton isn¡¯t that weak.¡± [Abgon to self] End Ch 2
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Ch 3 The Cemetery I was standing in front of a little girl and for whatever reason she seemed important to me. I don¡¯t know why. She talked to the person next to her for a while before leaving. I felt the need to follow here so I started walking after her. After a while we entered a room with many strange creatures. They were so interesting that I got lost in time, and almost missed when the little girl told me to enter a circle. After a short while another child laughed behind her then the little girl ran away crying. When I saw her running away I saw an image flash in my mind of a girl just like this one running through a meadow. It was odd, but I paid no mind to it as I continued to chase the girl. ***** Avia was running around just outside of the school looking for Miria. The school building was large, but it didn¡¯t have walls around it as it was outside of town, and close to the forest. Avia was looking towards the forest hoping that Miria didn¡¯t go into it. Luckily out of the corner of her eye she saw something white running to the river. Before Avia could confirm what it was she started running to the river hoping to comfort Miria in time. Miria had run all the way to the river before she tried to stop crying. She couldn''t bear it. Miria¡¯s mother died during childbirth and her father, an adventurer, had died from a monster attack before she was born. She grew up in an orphanage, but never thought badly of her situation. Miria loved everyone at the orphanage and always tried her best to help out she always wanted to help people. It was common knowledge that in the orphanage you had to leave to get a job at age 15 some would even leave as early as 13. Miria knew this and when she was almost 15 she told the nuns that worked at the orphanage that she wanted a job where she could help people. Every nun offered different options for her, but few appealed to Miria. Until one suggested that she become an adventurer to help others. Miria had grown up with stories of Heroes saving thousands of people, but never considered that she could also be a hero. All of the nuns appreciated Miria¡¯s help so when they found out she decided to be a hero they scraped together what money they had to send her to the adventurer school in the neighboring town. When Miria got to the adventurer school she was like a little kid ready for summer camp. She wanted to help everyone as soon as she could so Miria promised herself that she would put all of her will into becoming a hero. Right after she finished her registration she was given an aptitude exam. The examiner told her that she was best suited as a priest, and asked her to accept this as a class. When she said yes there was a small glow around her. The examiner told her that she was now an apprentice priest as well as some basic information about the priest class. The next day classes officially started. Miria went to each of her classes and received a lender''s textbook for each class. About a week after classes started Mr. Abgon, the Summons Instructor, told the students that they would be summoning their Familiars today. One student in the class told her that if she didn¡¯t get a good Familiar she should just give up as an adventurer since Priests need strong Familiars. Miria was stunned when Mr. Abgon told her that her Familiar was the worst. Then when she saw its {Status} she fell into despair. Miria got it in her head that she wouldn¡¯t be able to help anyone without a good familiar. Of course this wasn¡¯t true, but she believed it to be true so after her dream was shattered Miria just started to run since she couldn''t handle it. At first she was just running randomly then she went towards the river that linked this town to her home town. Miria stands there now trying to think of something she can do. Shortly after she stopped running Miria felt an oddly warm touch on her shoulder. When she looked up to see who it was she saw her Familiar staring back at her. He started to panic a little, and Miria found this strange. After looking around for a while her Familiar gave her a leaf and gestured for her to use it. At this point Miria couldn''t hold back any longer. ¡°HAHAHAhaha, what am I doing here. I¡¯m not the only one in this hopeless situation there is also you. Ok we are in a tight spot right now, but at least we¡¯re here together¡­you. First order of business will be giving you a name!¡± [Miria] The Skeleton nodded in agreement. ¡°Ok how about Skelrad, ...Morat, ...Drache.¡± [Miria] The Skeleton kept shaking his head no in response. ¡°Hmm... I know how about Sephtis.¡± [Miria] The Skeleton knew that Miria really wanted this name and it wasn¡¯t so bad so he decided to nod his head in agreement. ¡°MIRIA!¡± [Avia] Miss Avia ran up to Miria and grabbed her. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything rash I can help you so promise me you won¡¯t do anything wrong.¡± [Avia] ¡°...huh?¡± [Miria] ¡°Weren¡¯t you so sad that you were going to throw yourself in the river?¡± [Avia] ¡°No I just came here to try and calm down.¡± [Miria] ¡°Oh my god, that is a relief. Anyway Miria you left before I could remind you. Skeletons are undead so light magic¡¯s healing and buffs give negative effects.¡± [Avia] ¡°I already know that. I won¡¯t be able to heal him. Which is the main reason Sephtis is useless.¡± [Miria] ¡°Yes but dark magic is also reversed. Its damage and debuff magic heals and buffs undead!¡± [Avia] ¡°But he has Extreme Weakness to dark so won''t healing do very little if you have bad affinity with the element?¡± [Miria] ¡°Normally yes, but since dark is reversed for him it will instead be healed for a lot. Your Skeleton still can¡¯t use the magic well, but at least he can receive it.¡± [Avia] Miria jumped up and hugged Avia. ¡°Thank you so much. Did you hear that Sephtis? We still have a chance to make use of you!¡± [Miria] ¡°On that Note I do know of one place you can go for some special training.¡± [Avia] Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.Miss Avia lead them away. On the way there Miria asked Avia a question. ¡°So what is this special training?¡±[Avia] ¡°Well it''s training that helps undead, dark mages, and a few special cases to gain more power.¡±[Avia] ¡°Ok, but what do we actually do?¡±[Miria] ¡°Kill undead.¡±[Avia] At that moment they reached the cemetery. The cemetery wasn¡¯t close to the school, but it wasn¡¯t exactly far away either. They wanted it to be close for training against the undead, but they didn¡¯t want to be too close because it risks invasion. Undead rise from places where the dead gather. At the same time they also rise from not being properly put to rest, because of this graveyards are put outside of town walls close to a church. ¡°The idea is pretty simple. All you have to do is walk around the cemetery until you find an Undead, then kill it.¡± [Avia] ¡°Isn¡¯t that just how you get stronger, and isn''t it dangerous to fight undead?¡± [Miria] ¡°For the first part I¡¯m actually not too sure, because I have never done it. This training will work though so kill the Undead and I¡¯m sure you will see why this training is so good. As for your second point only weak undead come out during the day. Plus you have the healing spells that they are weak to. On that note I have to leave you. I kind of ditched the school.¡± [Avia] As Miss Avia ran to the school. After a few seconds she turned around to remind Miria about one last point. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that curfew is at sunset!¡± [Avia] Miria stood there mulling over the fact that a teacher left her at a cemetery. As she debated over just how much she should trust Miss Avia, Miria noticed that Sephtis already entered the cemetery. ¡°Do you feel any different Sephtis?¡± [Miria] Sephtis shook his head no as he looked around for any Undead. They were unable to find any around the entrance to the cemetery so they started to move deeper in. After about five minutes of searching Sephtis noticed some movement and pointed to it. Miria strained her eyes to see what it was. It was hard for Miria to see it since it was in the shadow a tree. ¡°Ah! Its a Zombie Rat. Sephtis you kill it you could use the practice.¡± [Miria] Sephtis tried to approach the rat without it noticing, but when he got to the edge of the tree the rat turned around and saw him. He jumped forward in hopes of catching it and was able to grab the rat by its tail. The rat turned around and bit his hand. Sephtis felt a few bones breaking, but he ignored it as he started to punch away at the rat. After he felt the jaws on his hand loosen he let go of the rat. Miria walked up to see how he had done. ¡°It was just a rat but it looks like it broke your hand. Do you know if it will heal?¡± [Miria] Sephtis shook his head no again. Miria thought that this could be a problem and promised to find a way to heal him tomorrow. They looked around the cemetery for a while longer and found 3 more zombie rodents. One of the rodents escaped from Sephtis and Miria had to heal it to death. Miria decided to call it a night as it was a little over an hour till sunset and Sephtis had received quite a bit of damage. Unfortunately for them they had made it to the center of the cemetery, and encountered a rather difficult enemy. ¡°Its about time we...Sephtis protect me!¡± [Miria] Sephtis immediately jumped between Miria and what she had seen out of the corner of her eye. It was a Zombie wolf. Miria was staring at it in panic, because she knew it was strong. Wolves were the number one noob killer and children were always told to avoid them. Miria had the advantage since it was a zombie, but one wrong step could still be her end. The Wolf examined Miria as prey it paid Sephtis little mind since he had no meat. It started walking in a circle after a few steps it dashed towards Miria. Sephtis tried to intercept the wolf, but couldn¡¯t make it in time. In panic he desperately thrust his broken arm at the wolf. The arm did very little as the wolf continued to run past Sephtis, but as the wolf hit his arm it shattered. As the wolf kept running Sephtis shattered arm snagged on the Zombie Wolf, and brought it to a halt. Seeing this chance Miria used her {Weak Blessing} on herself and started running. This was by far her best option. She had little chance of beating the Zombie Wolf without help. Her Familiar was still too weak to help her in serious combat. So she took her best option and used {Weak Blessing} to raise all her stats a little and then run for her life. Miria was a few feet from the exit of the cemetery when she heard some foot steps behind her. She dared not turn around. {Weak Blessing} was about to run out, and she still had some distance to go. Miria couldn¡¯t think of anything but leaving the cemetery. She knew that there was a boundary around the cemetery that prevented weak Undead to leave, but she didn¡¯t have time to consider if the wolf would pass through it or not. Just as she was about to reach the boundary she felt something at her heels then ¡°{Binding}!¡± [Scary Cloaked Figure] Miria was lying on the grass on the boundary line. She looked up at the Zombie Wolf inches away from her face being held back by black chains. Behind the wolf was a cloaked figure who held some of the chains binding the wolf. Then Miria fainted due to pure fright. ¡°What is a new student doing out here. Doesn¡¯t she know it''s dangerous. Well I guess it is unnatural to meet a Zombie Wolf during the day. Hey! Slack Jaw carry her back to the dorm.¡± [Scary Cloaked Figure]
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Ch 4 Combat Class As the little girl ran away I realized that I was slower than her. I will need to do some serious training later. She stopped in front of a river. I caught up to her and put my hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her. At moment I saw my hand for the first time. It looked slightly different from everyone else''s, but I paid it little mind to it. When the girl turned around to look at me I saw more flashes. They were of the identical girl crying and me handing her a handkerchief. I tried to look around for a handkerchief, and when I couldn¡¯t find one I settled for a leaf. ¡°HAHAHAhaha, @^&% am &$% doing here. I¡¯m $%^#%^* only one in this &^**^ situa$%& there is also you. Ok we are in %$^#$%pot right now, but at least %^& here together¡­you. First$%^& business will be giving you a name!¡± [Little Girl] As she spoke parts of it seemed to be in a different language. I understood the basics so I nodded my head to try to indicate that I understood. ¡°Ok &^w about Skelrad, ...Morat, ...Drache.¡± [Little Girl] I didn¡¯t like any of these names so I continued to shake my head no. ¡°Hmm... I know how about Sephtis.¡± [Little Girl] I didn¡¯t like this one too much, but I could tell that this girl really likes it so I guess I¡¯ll just go along with it. Besides its not like we chose our names. I nodded my head in agreement, and Sephtis became my name. ¡°MIRIA!¡±[Older woman] So thats the name of this little girl, Miria. Miria and this older woman talked for a while and I was barely following along. After a while we left and walked to a cemetery. After a bit more talking the older woman left. She had given us instruction to kill the Undead in this cemetery so I entered it. There were small black pillars of smoke coming up every once in a while. After touching one it didn¡¯t hurt so I figured that it was normal. We started to look around for some Undead to fight. After a while I spotted an Undead and pointed it out to Miria. ¡°Ah! Its a Zombie Rat. Sephtis you kill it you could use the practice.¡± [Miria] I slowly walked up to the Zombie Rat. It was looking away from me so I wanted to get the drop on it. Unfortunately when I got too close it noticed me. Before it had the chance to run I jumped forward to catch it. I caught the Zombie Rat by the tail, and it turned around to bite me. There was no pain, but it looks like a bone was broke. I started punching away at the rat, and after a while it died. ¡°It was just a rat but it looks like it broke your hand. Do you know if it will heal?¡± [Miria] I shook my head no. Miria promised to find a way to heal me later. We kept hunting Undead for a while. Only one was able to escape from me and Miria had to kill it. One of my arms broke from all the fighting; I will need a weapon soon. ¡°Its about time we...Sephtis protect me!¡± [Miria] I quickly looked around and saw something to my left. I took my position between it and Miria. There was a Zombie Wolf in front of me. It felt like it was looking through me at Miria. It started walking in a circle and then rushed Miria. I knew that I couldn¡¯t stop it in time so I threw my broken arm at the wolf hoping for something. The wolf was going so fast that it shattered my arm. After that it splintered and cut into the back leg of the wolf pulling me along and stopping the wolf. I saw Miria glow with a faint light and start running away. I felt relief that she would survive. The Zombie Wolf then turned around and began tearing me apart. It was pissed off at me and just started crushing each of my bones. I tried my best to damage its legs so it wouldn¡¯t be able to catch Miria. In the end the wolf brought it¡¯s mouth around my skull and bit down. Everything went white and I thought I had died. Then I realized that I could still move so I looked to my left and saw a blue screen. Further to the left was some odd black matter. I decided to check the blue screen first. It said
SephisLv: 1
Ancient Skeleton Warrior???
Miria¡¯s Familiar, ???
Stats
VIT: 8Light:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
STR: 8Fire:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
AGI: 7Earth:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
END: 7Water:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
DEX: 8Wind:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
WSD: 4Nature:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
INT: 3Dark:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
I wasn¡¯t sure if my stats were good or not, but Ultimate Weakness doesn¡¯t sound like a common thing. The ??? seamed odd to me and when I concentrated on it another screen appeared. ???A class obtained by??? and ??? Elemental release(passive): loss of ??? Elemental Concentration(active):focuses all elemental ??? Self reliance(active): Use mana to directly???
Looks like I can¡¯t see most of this information. I guess its worthless to me for now so I didn¡¯t bother checking the other one. Thinking that I moved over to examine some of the dark matter. It was floating around in mid air not keeping a definite shape. When I touched some it was hard but malleable. After a few hours of messing around with it I figured out how to make weapons out of it. At first I wanted to make a sword, but then I remembered what happened just before I came here. I need to be able to protect Miria. So I started making a shield. Judging by how much I had to work with I made a Kite Shield. It was a rather basic design with extra material on the edges to help stop attacks. I made a cross shape in the middle of the shield where the different angles came together to make the shield more sturdy. (like this but pitch black http://www.outfit4events.com/runtime/cache/images/productFull/120328.jpg) Shortly after I finished I heard Miria¡¯s voice again. ¡°Come back to me ,please, SUMMON!¡± [Miria] There I was a flash and I was standing in front of Miria with my new shield. *** Miria woke up in her dorm room. Confused for a few seconds trying to remember what happened. ¡°Looks like you''re up. Now then could you tell me why you were unconscious in the lobby this morning?¡± [Landlady] Miria told her what happened yesterday. When she talked about Avia leaving her the Landlady rolled her eyes. ¡°Go and get yourself some breakfast I¡¯ll go get Miss Avia.¡± [Landlady] Miria went to the cafeteria and started to have a light breakfast. Shortly after she was done Miss Avia came running into the cafeteria. ¡°Miria! I¡¯m so sorry I should have never left you at the cemetery by yourself. I never would have thought you''d meet a Zombie Wolf.¡± [Avia] Miria just stared at Avia with disappointment. Its not a good idea to show your weak side to kids. ¡°Look I¡¯m sorry I won¡¯t make you do something that dangerous again. Also since you left early you didn¡¯t hear some important parts of Familiars¡± [Avia] Miria continued to stare at Avia it was obvious that she had forgotten to mention it. ¡°First, so long as you don¡¯t die you''re Familiar can¡¯t die. If they receive so much damage that they ¡®die¡¯ {Return} is auto used. Otherwise you can just use {Return} to let your Familiar rest and heal by using your spare mana. Second, you are not allowed to have your Familiar in the dorm. Most people don¡¯t even let them out during classes, but you can leave them out to let them train. Finally, your Familiar most likely had a forced {Return} so wait as long as you can before using {Familiar Summon} to give it time to heal.¡± [Avia] After giving advice to Miria Avia left in a hurry. Miria was relieved that Sephtis wasn¡¯t dead. She left the dorm and headed to her classes. All of them were uneventful until Mixed Combat Class. ¡°Ok listen up maggots! Today¡¯s Combat Class will be with Class 1 & 2, and consist of magic training. Come up to me if you need to know where to go otherwise get into groups.¡± [Combat Instructor] Many kids lined up to know where they would go. Most of these kids were Warriors and the like; kids who never thought they would learn magic. The school requires classes like this to make students well rounded. Most would end up using magic for odd things in their adventures so magic classes were required for everyone. The same goes for mages learning close combat. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Hey Miria! What are you doing over there!¡± [Combat Instructor] Miria turned around confused she had joined up with the Light Magic group, but ran over to the Combat Instructor when he called. ¡°Normally I would have to let you in the light group even though you can¡¯t use it for combat. However, since you have an Undead Familiar you will train with the dark group instead.¡± [Combat Instructor] Miria went over to the dark group without complaining. It¡¯s not that she didn¡¯t want to complain but the last person who complained¡­. Anyway its not like Light Magic doesn''t have offensive spells it''s just that those spells are super high level spells. When she arrived at the dark group there were three other people there. One was Alexia and the two others were from Class 2. ¡°Oh Miria, I¡¯m glad you decided to come here to.¡± [Alexia] Alexia was always friendly with the entire class, but since this morning she was even more friendly with Miria. It was because she considered them to be in the same boat. She wanted a cute Familiar to dress up and pamper. Alexia was happy when she got a Flame Salamander since it had its own charm. As soon as the students had bonding time with their Familiars Alexia tried to dress up Princess Fluff (pre-decided name). At first she was shocked since the dress for Fluff went up in flames. Alexia kept on trying with different kinds of material in different places, but all ended up melting or catching on fire. Her last attempt was using nail polish. This ended in a disaster with Fluffs¡¯ nails becoming black. Since it was impossible to make Princess Fluff cuter Alexia was disappointed and compared her Familiar to Miria¡¯s. Alexia also wanted to paint Miria¡¯s Skeleton like a mexican skull with bright colors. ¡°Thanks Alexia, but why are you here I thought you were a Fire Mage?¡± [Miria] ¡°I am, but look at the fire group. Its so crowded that I wouldn¡¯t learn much from my seniors. Besides most mages learn three types of magic.¡± [Alexia] ¡°I¡¯m just glad that we actually got some people to teach. Now then I¡¯m sure you already know but we are from Class 2 so we¡¯re your seniors. I¡¯m Miguel, a Dark Mage, and that''s Randall, a Necromancer. Seeing as we match up I¡¯ll teach Alexia, and you can teach Miria.¡± [Miguel] With that the dark magic group broke up into two groups to teach. It may seem strange for students just half a year older to be teaching, but most students need in depth instruction and an attentive teacher to learn magic for the first time. There aren''t nearly enough teachers to do this in an effective manner so they have seniors teach the basics of elements to start the process. It''s also a chance for older students to brush off their basics so this style of class is always used at the start of the year. ¡°So I''m Randall a Necromancer. Why don''t you tell me your name and why you''re in the dark magic group.¡± [Randall] ¡°I''m Miria a Priestess, and I''m in the dark magic group because my Familiar is a Skeleton.¡± [Miria] ¡°Ah so thats why you were at the cemetery yesterday, but I think it''s still a bit too dangerous for you; considering what happened.¡± [Randall] ¡°Wait, you saw me there?¡± [Miria] ¡°I guess you didn¡¯t see my face or maybe you just forgot. I was the one who saved you from the Zombie Wolf.¡± [Randall] ¡°Ah! Thank you so much for saving me.¡± [Miria] Miria said this with a bow. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. Now then to start with training how much do you know about magic and Dark Magic?¡± [Randall] ¡°For magic, you manipulate the world around you based on one of the seven elements. Not all spells aren''t definitive, and you can make up spells with decent mastery of an element. The better you get with each element the less mana you have to use to manipulate that element. As for the dark element I know nothing.¡± [Miria] ¡°Ok, the only thing you missed from basic magic is that different elements require different ways of thinking to use, but that isn¡¯t too important. Now then why were you in the cemetery if you know nothing of dark magic?¡± [Randall] ¡°Miss Avia told me to train there to make my Familiar more powerful, but neither she nor I knew how it works.¡± [Miria] ¡°I see, well while in places like a cemetery dark mages and Undead can collect dark matter to make themselves more powerful. You can use this to strengthen yourself or cast powerful spells. I use it often for Necromancy so I am often at the cemetery.¡± [Randall] ¡°I don¡¯t think I got any dark matter. What should I have my Familiar do with it?¡± [Miria] ¡°He probably will have already absorbed it to make himself more powerful. What type of Skeleton is he?¡± [Randall] ¡°Miss Avia¡¯s {Identify} said he was an Ancient Skeleton Warrior.¡± [Miria] Miria decided to omit the rest of the status out of embarrassment. ¡°Ok well since he is a Warrior he probably can¡¯t use magic well. Oh, don¡¯t worry too much about the Ancient part it really only means that his soul has been dead for a long time. Oh yeah this class is for you. We should get to learning some dark magic.¡± [Randall] ¡°Right.¡± [Miria] ¡°Ok lets start with the basics. Watch closely.¡± [Randall] Randall brought one of his hands forward. A small ball of darkness concentrated in his palm. He then fired it at one of the target dummies scattered about. ¡°Ok now you try. Put your arms out in front of you, and think of collecting darkness in front of you. Some people think that taking it from their shadow makes it easier others say thinking of dark thoughts other than anger is best.¡± [Randall] Miria raised her arms up and thought of collecting darkness. She kept her fingers open so she could see that it wasn¡¯t working. After she thought of taking the darkness from her shadow little bits of darkness started to gather. ¡°Don¡¯t fire it. If you can take it back in to replenish some of your mana otherwise just release it.¡± [Randall] Miria doubted that she could properly absorb it back for a mana refund so she just released it around her. Miria felt winded. She knew this was because she was still bad at using Dark Magic so she used a lot of mana. ¡°It was good for a first try. When you can fire it off it''s often called {Necro Bolt}. You can use it to deal decent damage or heal your Familiar. Practice it whenever you get the chance¡­.Do you feel up to trying something more advanced?¡± [Randall] ¡°I can always try.¡± [Miria] ¡°That a girl. I¡¯m pretty sure that a priests¡¯ {Weak Blessing} will work on Undead, but you¡¯ll have to check. However, I know that normal light buffs won¡¯t work on them so you will have to use dark curses instead.¡± [Randall] Randall thought to himself for a little bit wondering if this was ok. ¡°Well the idea for curses is simple enough. What you do is force dark energy into your target to debuff them. You get different effects by doing this in different ways. Most Dark Mages only use one or two sets of curses since they take a lot of...experiments.¡± [Randall] ¡°Is there anything else I should know?¡± [Miria] ¡°Yeah, for now only use curses in emergencies. Come see me or another magic instructor after you have the hang of {Necro Bolt}. So that you can start learning curses for real.¡± [Randall] Miria and Randall continued practicing Dark Magic; until their Instructor blew the whistle to come in. ¡°Ok, Class 2 get out of here and get to your next class. Class 1 summon your Familiars it''s time for some light sparring.¡± [Combat Instructor] Everyone started to use {Familiar Summon} the familiar magic circle appeared at their feet along with the glow. ¡°Come back to me ,please, SUMMON!¡± [Miria] Sephtis came out of the black shining circle carrying a kite shield. At first Miria was happy that he had already applied his dark matter, but then she realized that a shield with no weapon would be near useless for sparing. Meanwhile Sephtis was just happy to see Miria again.
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___________________________________ Authors note: The story is about Miria and Sephis(name may change when he remembers more), but since Sephis didn¡¯t have much going on in his head when he first came in it would have been awkward to have his little nonsense intermissions. So I put his perspective of the last chapter at the start of the next one. However since he is now caught up and has some knowledge the two characters sides will simply be told together for the most part. Unless you guys really want me to keep going with the style I was doing up until now. Ch 5 First Match ¡°We¡¯ll be drawing lots to see who goes up against who. So everyone make a line.¡± [Combat Instructor] ¡°Mr. E my Familiar isn¡¯t suited for combat what should I do?¡± [Ranger Student] Mr. E stared dead eyed at the student. Mr. E slowly walked up to the student and said ¡°We¡¯ll be drawing lots to see who goes up against who. So EVERYONE make a line. Any more questions?¡± [Mr. E] ¡°no sir.¡± [Ranger Student] Everyone in the class got in line to draw lots. Miria¡¯s drew 16 so Sephtis would be fighting who ever got 15. ¡°Now then we will be using four mats for practice. 1-8 come up and take your places. There can be no interference with your Familiar other than instructions. It doesn¡¯t matter if you make it to the death since Familiars can¡¯t die, but if any one wants to end it early just forfeit...Any questions?¡± [Mr. E] The students numbered one through eight were already in their rings, and no one dared speak. ¡°One last thing I don¡¯t care who wins so don¡¯t come telling me... Begin!¡± [Mr. E] Most Familiars took this as a time to square up but not Borick¡¯s Familiar. His Minitaur took this as his time to charge his opponent, an Anubis. Although the Minitaur wasn''t as tall as other Minotaurs it was still bigger than most people standing at about 6¡¯5¡±. The Minitaur swung his club at the Anubis. Hitting its unguarded side. It was true that the Minitaur had good stats but the real reason for this devastating blow was that simply no one saw it coming. The Anubis was so stunned that it almost couldn¡¯t dodge the follow up attack from above. ¡°Watch the matches closely Sephtis. It could be good experience.¡± [Miria] Even without telling him Sephtis was already super into the fights. He was able to keep up while watching their movements, but he doubted that he would be able to move with them. In one corner everyone knew that the fight was already decided with one on the Familiars backed into a corner. Sephtis had already seen through its actions thought. It was a faint. The Familiar wanted to be in a corner he just didn¡¯t know why until it teleported behind his opponent and suddenly had his attacker on the back ropes. ¡°Wow¡± ¡±How did it do that.¡± ¡°Amazing!¡± [Various] The other fights were pretty standard, but the one with the Minitaur interested Sephtis. He could tell that the Anubis was more skilled at combat than the Minitaur, but the Minitaur was stronger and had set the pace of the fight from the beginning. If Sephtis had any chance of winning later he would have to do something similar to the Anubis. The Anubis was dodging and parrying most of the Minitaur¡¯s attacks, but it wasn¡¯t able to counter attack. The Anubis was keeping its own, but it was slowly losing. Wanting to finish the fight the Minitaur brought up its club for a flashy finish. The Anubis saw this as an opportunity. There was a dark green glow around the Anubis¡¯s arm. Sephtis knew that this could change the outcome of the fight. The Minotaur was open, and this attack looked strong. The attack was right on course when ¡°I forfeit.¡± [Student] Not seeing their Familiar final attack the student gave up early. Sephtis felt empty he wanted to know who was stronger. Sephtis sighed in disappointment. That match was the last one to finish leading directly into Sephtis¡¯ fight. ¡°It¡¯s our turn.¡± [Miria] ¡°Right.¡± [Sephtis] Mira was surprised that Sephtis was able to talk. Having the ability to speak was rather rare. Sephtis had never thought to talk until now. When he noticed that he lacked lungs he didn¡¯t even try to talk, but after an audible sigh he decided to try talking. Although he wanted to say ¡®Right let''s get going¡¯ only one word came out which was enough for him on a first try. When Sephtis got to the ring his opponent was already there. He was up against a big black cat that looked similar to a panther. Miria was trying to remember what kind of Familiar this was to give some sort of help, but she couldn¡¯t remember. Sephtis held his shield trying to cover as much as himself as possible preparing for an attack. Sephtis had already thrown out the idea of winning the sparr, and just wanted to practice blocking a fast attack. ¡°I know your chances are bad, but please win Sephtis.¡± [Miria] Miria said this without much care. She just wanted to see Sephtis try hard. Sephtis on the other hand saw another flash of memories and felt that he had to win this match. He turned back to the panther causing it to flinch. The bloodlust from Sephtis could be cut with a knife. ¡°Lets have a good fight!¡± [Miria] ¡°Sure.¡± [Student] ¡°Ready, Begin¡± [Mr. E] The moment Mr. E said to start the Panther jumped straight at Sephtis. The Panther was too scared of Sephtis to give him the first move. Sephtis was glad to see his haste and was already ready to block the attack, and counter with a punch to the face. He blocked the attack and his fist was going to hit the panther in the face...but didn¡¯t. *clang-clang* Sephtis looked down to this mysterious sound below him to find some broken bones. Sephtis looked at his arm only to find it missing. The attack he had blocked kept on going and hit his arm. The Panther smirked acting like that was its plan while preparing more claw swipes and bites. Sephtis was doging most of the attacks, and blocking the ones he couldn¡¯t with his shield. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The Panther was getting annoyed by how long the fight was taking. It let out a screech and half of its fur turned yellow. ¡°Sephtis watch out for the lightning!¡± [Miria] Miria had remembered that this Panther was a Lightning Kitty. Their defining feature was a mastery of lightning magic. The Panther started to cover itself in lightning. Sephtis brought up his shield and prepared to dodge or block the attack. Faster than other attack the Panther charged at Sephtis clad in lightning. Sephtis took a stance in reflex to the charge. The Panther hit Sephtis¡¯ shield head on, but it didn¡¯t matter the shield broke and sent Sephtis flying out of the area. The match was lost. Sephtis stood up; he was disappointed with himself since he didn¡¯t win for Miria. Miria came up to Sephtis worried about him. She was surprised to see that he only had a few fractures other than the missing arm. Miria chose not to {Return} Sephtis so he could keep watching fights, but she did learn how to {Return} just his broken Shield and arm(which would heal). Miria and Sephtis were concentrated on Alexia and Princess Fluff¡¯s match. Fluff¡¯s match was against a giant worm covered with scales. ¡°Good luck Alexia!¡± [Miria] Alexia responded with a thumbs up. ¡°Ready Begin.¡± [Mr. E] The match started and Fluff took the first move attacking with a fireball. The worm shrugged it off as if it were nothing, and charged Fluff. Fluff sprang out of the way before biting the worm and letting out a fireball at point blank. The worm flinked, but spared no time to turn around and swallow Fluff. The worm let out a small fiery burp after eating Fluff and all thought the fight was over. Then the worm let out another burp and another. Then it just started to spew fire from its mouth. The worm was lying on the ground with smoke coming out of its mouth as Princess Fluff victoriously came out. Sephtis was stunned by all of this. Of all the matches so far this was the first where he saw the true power of magic. He knew that this magic was far more advanced than the magic of his time. A fireball of the size Fluff was firing would only be possible from the most advanced human sorcerer he knew of. After the matches Sephtis decided to start training while Miria had classes. He started with doing laps around the school until he could do no more. Then he found a tree and did various muscle trainings: pull ups, push ups, crunches, etc. After that he found Miria and had her {Return} him. Miria on the other hand started training right after sending Sephtis back. She came up to the same tree and started firing {Necto Bolt}s at the tree. At first she could only fire off three before she ran out of mana. In the end she could fire off five of varying sizes before she ran out of mana. She felt that her mana pool had even grown by the end. So she started to meditate to check her {Status}
MiriaLv:9
HumanClass:Apprentice Priest
Title:Student
Stats
VIT:17Light:Superior Strength(5)
STR:11Fire:Neutral(1)
AGI:18Earth:Weakness(-2)
END:15Water:Strength(2)
DEX:13Wind:Strength(3)
WSD:18Nature:Weakness(-2)
INT:19Dark:Neutral(-1)
Amazing, she had gained two levels and increased her stats. She hadn''t checked her {Status} since getting Sephtis, but this was still a lot of growth. Miria wondered if it was the school or just herself that prompted this growth as Randall came running towards her. ¡°Hey Miria!¡± [Randall] ¡°Hi Randall. What is it.¡± [Miria] ¡°We¡¯re starting the Familiar Tournament. It¡¯s a tradition at the school.¡± [Randall] ¡°I don¡¯t really want to watch.¡± [Miria] Randall started to laugh at her to which Miria tilted her head in confusion. ¡°You¡¯re not watching it. You¡¯re in it.¡± [Randall]
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__________________________ Authors notes: Hi I realized while writing this that I was trying to make something that others want. Which is partially why it took so long. So I am going to go back to writing the story I want to read. This doesn''t mean that you should stop making suggestions, because those do help me. Ch 6 Tournament Start After being {Return}ed and coming back to this white space Sephtis immediately got to work. He found that my body was almost entirely repaired. However his shield was still heavily damaged. His first thought was to repair it, but since it lacked use in his first fight he decided to try something else. Sephtis began fiddling with the dark matter once again. He tried layering it, making complex patterns, and organizing into something that resembled chain mail. However, all of these attempts didn¡¯t strengthen the dark matter by a considerable amount. Sephtis sat down to think over what he had done and what he had not. Then it occurred to him. ¡°What I want to do is make this stuff harder, and it¡¯s pretty light to start with. So shouldn¡¯t I just make it denser?¡±[Septhis] Septhis broke up what he had been working on and started to pack dark matter into his fist and squish it until he couldn¡¯t pack it any tighter. Then he moved onto the next bit on dark matter until all of it had been condensed. When he was done he was left with a little under a third as much dark matter as when he had started with. ¡°Well this makes things awkward. Theres not much to work with now. I could make a buckler, but that wouldn¡¯t do much for protecting Miria and I have nothing to counter with¡­. I suppose I¡¯ll just have to make a dagger. There isn¡¯t much else I can do with this small amount of dark matter.¡±[Sephtis] Sephtis started with the grip making it only a bit longer than his hand, and making the grip standard so he could hold it in multiple positions. After finishing the grip Sephtis contemplated adding a hilt for quite some time as it would take away from the size of the blade. Sephtis decided against the hilt since he wouldn¡¯t be able to sword fight. Finally the blade. He started making a two sided blade, but all of his attempts would either be too short and not have the reach he wanted, or it would be too long and break easily. After a brief thought Sephtis laughed. ¡°Hahahaha...I¡¯m going to have to make a kitchen knife.¡±[Sephtis] Sephtis took off one of the edges of his blade using the extra material to make his blade thicker. The final result was a very simple blade a bit shorter than Sephtis¡¯ foer arm not including the grip. ¡°Great I have a glorified kitchen knife to fight with. Now all that''s left is a bit of practice.¡±[Sephtis] Sephtis began doing practice swings to get used to the blade waiting for Miria¡¯s call. ******* Miria arrived to the matches in the middle of a normal round. She knew it was a normal round because Princess Fluff was fighting against the Lightning Panther Sephtis lost to. The two were running around the plaza avoiding ranged magic and trying to corner each other. Chears were coming from other students sitting outside the plaza. Some of them erected barriers for themselves and sat close others climbed up trees to get a better view and still others simply watched from their rooms. All of them focusing on the fight some even making bets. ¡°Watch out Princess Fluff!¡± [Alexia] Fluff had been cornered and knowing he couldn¡¯t dodge took a bolt of lightning head on. ¡°Finish it, Tyrone!¡± [Rouge Student] The Lightning Panther(Tyrone) covered itself in lightning and went straight for Princess Fluff. Fluff stood his ground feet back and jaw clenched. Tyrone Leaped up ready to tear Fluff apart, but before he could Fluff opened his mouth releasing a fire ball big enough to envelop Tyrone. Tyrone continued to fall onto Princess Fluff before being forcefully {Return}ed from being burnt. Alexia ran over to Princess Fluff to see if he was alright. She was relieved to find Fluff with only a few scratches and minor injuries, but she was exhausted from using too much mana on the final attack. Alexia used {Return} on Fluff before running off to find Miria in the crowd. She quickly found her, but before they can even start talking Miguel steps into the middle of the plaza and shouts to the crowd. ¡°Well I think we can all agree that that was a good fight.¡±[Miguel] ¡°Whoooo¡±[Everyone] ¡°Good good, the next match shall be a loser round; between Miria and her Skeleton and Fredrick and his Anibis! Would you come on down.¡±[Miguel] ¡°Go get them Miria!¡±[Alexia] ¡°Are you sure this is ok? Fighting here?¡±[Miria] ¡°Don¡¯t worry everything is taken care of. Now then I know it''s scary but go on and have your familiar fight. Its tradition after all.¡±[Randall] If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Well if you say so.¡±[Mira] says worriedly Miria nervously walks out onto the plaza. Her opponent had spared no time summoning and was already to fight. ¡®I hope your ready for this¡¯ Miria thought. ¡°Come back to me ,please, SUMMON¡±[Miria] Sephtis came forth holding not a shield but a dagger. Miria realized that she had forgotten to tell Sephtis to absorb the dark matter. Still, she was glad that he had a weapon now. ¡°Sephtis you will be fighting against that Anubis.¡± [Miria] Sephtis started to examine the Anubis in close detail. The Anubis had short black fur covering its body. It had small gold cufflink on its arms and legs, but other than that no armor. It also held a long golden staff. ¡°What are you guys waiting for! Fight!¡±[Miguel] The Anubis took the initiative and made a heavy swing with his staff. Sephtis dodged and tried to counter only hitting a cufflink leaving a small cut on the gard. The Anubis continued with his attack with the butt of the stalf; pushing back Sephtis and leaving some fractures on his rib cage. The Anubis continued to attack Sephtis this time taking things safe with smaller swings and not leaving any openings. The Anubis had more reach so Sephtis could only dodge and parry. The fight was going on as a stalemate with the Anubis attacking and Sephtis defending. This dance continued for several minutes as the crowed cheered. The two fought for all this time as it started to get routine. The Anubis hoping to land an attack, and Sephtis waiting for his chance to counter. The Anubis begins another lunge and Sephtis doges, but too early. The Anubis had not committed to his attack and quickly changed direction to land a solid hit on Sephtis. It lands a direct hit throwing Sephtis back. Sephtis stood up and examined himself. He lost most of his ribcage and part of his left arm. He would have to end this soon before he takes another attack. ¡°End it now!¡±[Anubis¡¯s Summoner] The Anubis started to gather nature magic in his right hand. Sephtis saw the magic gather and dropped low and charged hoping to finish the fight before the magic went off. The Anubis looked panicked at the Sephtis who began charging as fast as he could. Sephitis was close and shot up aiming for the neck of the Anubis, but too late. The Anubis punched forward with his claw sending a green flying claw at Sephtis. The attack continued through him hitting a shield behind him, but only through him. With everyone surprised at the intact skeleton Sephtis continued with his attack splitting the Anabasis throat. The Anubis bleed out for a shot time before having a forced return leaving Sephtis the victor. ¡°..a..And the winner is Miria and her Skeleton!¡±[Miguel] Miria ran up to Sephtis and hugged him. ¡°Good job Sephtis. Now get some rest you need it.¡±[Miria] Miria used {Return} and Sephtis disappeared into light. ¡°Congratulations Miria I knew you could do it.¡±[Alexia] said as she ran up and hugged Miria. ¡°Congrats Miria, but come out of the plaza we¡¯re gonna announce tomorrow''s matches.¡±[Randall] Miguel steps into the center of the plaza with two hats and began his speech. ¡°Now then everyone settle down, settle down...I know that was quite the match, but we have to chose the matches for tomorrow. As you all should know this is a free for all. Anything can happen. Drum roll please.¡±[Miguel] All the students start stomping their feet, clapping their hands, or making noise. Miguel reaches into each hat and pulls out two numbers. ¡°8 vs 3 and 16 vs 24. Thats all for tonight. Now get to bed there''s gonna be a big night tomorrow.¡±[Miguel] ¡°Wait, What!¡±[Miria] ¡°Now thats some bad luck. Looks like you¡¯ll be fighting tomorrow too.¡±[Randall] ¡°but..but...¡±[Miria] ¡°Its a free for all. You can be in every match or just one. If you keep winning you keep going. It keeps things interesting and it''s tradition. Now you need to get to bed. You have a big day tomorrow.¡±[Randall] Miria left being pushed along by Randall. She went into her room prepared for night got in her bed and ¡°What!¡±[Miria] Miria slept nervously that night. Still not quite believing what had happened in the last few hours. She found out she was in a tournament had to immediately fight and then she found out that she has to participate tomorrow too. ¡®I hope tomorrow is less hectic.¡¯ thought Miria. Ch 7 Second Round Miria and Alexia were eating their lunch in the cafeteria. ¡°News sure travels fast. Everyone¡¯s been talking about the tournament last night.¡±[Alexia] ¡°I just wish it would stop. Hearing everyone talk about me is so embarrassing. One person in our class even came up and asked how Sephtis survived that last attack.¡±[Miria] ¡°Oh yeah, wasn¡¯t he really weak to magic! How did he survive it?¡±[Alexia] ¡°I have no idea. I¡¯ll have to ask him.¡±[Miria] ¡°Wait, you can already have conversations with your familiar!?¡±[Alexia] ¡°Yeah?¡±[Miria] ¡°Familiars can tell what their summoner wants them to do, but to be able to actually speak takes years. You''re progressing way too fast. Let me and Princess Fluff catch up to you!¡± Alexia said while faking tears. ¡°I¡¯ll slow down if you give me your pudding Alexia.¡±[Miria] ¡°You and your sweet tooth. Here take my pudding.¡±[Alexia] Miria began to eat her newly acquired pudding as Borick came up and with a massive plate of food and sat down. ¡°Miria, have you heard everyone talking about you. You¡¯re so lucky you get to be the center of attention today and tomorrow!¡±[Borick] ¡°Oh My God that¡¯s right. I¡¯ll be fighting again tonight. This won''t end for another day.¡±[Miria] ¡°It¡¯ll be fine Miria. Borick, be of use and make a big show of your match tonight; to draw attention away from Miria.¡±[Alexia] ¡°What are you talking about?¡±[Borick] ¡°You''re kidding me right. They announced your number last night. Your participating tonight.¡±[Alexia] ¡°...Yessss! Sorry Miria, but I¡¯ll be taking all your attention tonight. Tomorrow there won¡¯t be anyone who doesn¡¯t know the name Borick.¡±[Borick] *Ding Ding Ding* ¡°Looks like lunch is over.¡±[Miria] ¡°Borick, have you even started eating?¡±[Alexia] ¡°Tell the teacher I¡¯m in the bathroom with major shits.¡± Borick said as he began cramming food into his mouth. ¡°No! Thats so disgusting tell him yourself!¡±[Alexia] Miria giggled at their exchange taking her mind off of her own issues; as she and Alexia left for class. *********** Shortly after sunset Miria, Borick, and Alexia walked up to the courtyard for the tournament. When they arrived they saw that almost no one was here. There were very few students watching from their windows and others sitting around, but it was dead compared to last night. ¡°Where is everyone!¡± [Borick] *feww* [Miria] ¡°Good to see you made it for round two with this we can begin.¡±[Miguel] ¡°Wait a minute. Where is everybody. Who will witness my brilliance?¡±[Borick] ¡°Its simple really. Most people don¡¯t watch every match, but everyone wants to watch the first match and the last. Which is why there were so many people yesterday. A lot of the first years are too tired after the first day and skip the second, and finally the second years have a test tomorrow. So there are few people here today.¡±[Miguel] ¡°*urg* Can¡¯t we move my match to tomorrow so more people can watch?¡±[Borick] ¡°Nope we have to stay on schedule. Just win today to fight again. Now then can we get started?¡±[Miguel] ¡°Just fight Borick. Its the one thing you''re good at.¡±[Alexia] ¡°Well we''re already behind so just {Summon} and start fighting.¡±[Miguel] ¡°Show your power to everything in your path, SUMMON!¡±[Borick] ¡°Come from the earth to serve me, SUMMON.¡±[Geordt] ¡°Cairne, destroy that thing!¡±[Borick] ¡°Galion, win by attrition.¡±[Geordt] Cairne charges at Galion useing the extent of his knowledge to hit the golem with his club. Galion raises his hand to block the swing. Galion is slow, but fast enough to block the swing. Small cracks start to form on the golem¡¯s arm. ¡°Galion, change of plans take him out now!¡±[Geordt] Galion uses earth magic to turn the ground in front of him into mud. All the while Cairne keeps beating on Galion with his club even as he begins to sink into the ground. Galion keeps taking hits as Cairne sinks deeper and deeper. Cairne kept swinging, but as he sinks almost to his waist Cairne can¡¯t keep his balance and has to stops swinging. Cairne looks confused at the ground as he keeps sinking deeper and deeper. Finally as the mud passes his waist with no sign of stopping Cairne panics and tries to go for the solid land. Galion begins to turn the mud back into solid earth as he sees Cairne escape. Cairne reaches some solid land and begins to pull himself up, but not before his legs and knees get caught in now solid ground. Galion walks up to the stuck Cairne and starts pounding him with some big devastating punches. The last of which sent Cairne flying out of the ground. He quickly recovered and charged at Galion again not learning his lesson. Galion turned a thin layer of the earth, between him and Cairne, into mud. Cairne started slipping on the mud towards Galion until he was meet by a mortifying kick from the golem. Cairne was left in a bloodied mess lying on the ground as Galion approached. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Don¡¯t give up Cairne! Never give up!¡±[Borick] Cairne slowly stood up breathing heavily. Cairne stared at Galion fire in his eyes. Cairne screamed at the top of his lungs and activated his only skill {Rage}. Cairne charged at Galion ignoring all of his pain, and began recklessly swinging at the golem. With every punch the scene got more and more bloody. While the golem stood there taking all of the abuse. Punch, Punch, punch,...punch. Cairne kept losing blood and started slowing down until he was left almost leaning on the golem for support. ¡°Finish it!¡±[Geordt] The golem raised both of his arms above his head and brought them down on the unmoving Minitaur. It hit with a crack sending Cairne¡¯s limp body to the ground before {Return}ing. ¡°Good work Galion {Return}¡±[Geordt] ¡°Congratulations Geordt. The next match shall be a loser round; between Miria and her Skeleton and Josef and his Lesser Angel! Lets start this thing.¡±[Miguel] ¡°...good luck Miria...¡±[Borick] ¡°Bo, I¡¯m sorry you lost.¡±[Miria] ¡°...forget about it...¡±[Borick] ¡°Become my blade, SUMMON¡±[Josef] ¡°Come back to me ,please, SUMMON¡±[Miria] The other student had {Summon}ed his Lesser Angel. The Angel was almost entirely white, but with its two small wings having a gold tint. It also held a great sword, but without any armor other than some robes. ¡°Show everyone why an angel will never lose to an Undead!¡±[Josef] The Lesser Angel flew up and started to glow extremely brightly letting all know that this was a divine being. Sephtis prepared for whatever attack would come his way. ¡°Freeze!¡±[Unknown] Out of nowhere ice encapsulated everyone''s feet rendering them stationary. Miria looked around to make sense of what had happened. Ice shards flew towards Sephtis and the Lesser Angel damaging them to the point of {Return}ing them both. From where the Ice shards were shot a teacher approached. ¡°You three are all first years right. It figures you never have discipline. I¡¯ll be back soon with your dorm manager don¡¯t even think of leaving. From true ice serve me, SUMMON.¡±[Third year Magic Instructor] A Drake made of ice appears to watch over the three students. ¡°*Pisst* Miria.¡±[Alexia] Miria looks over to see Alexia hiding in a tree. ¡°Alexia what are you doing there you should leave!¡±[Miria] ¡°No I should join you guys in this. I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s going on, but I¡¯m involved.¡±[Alexia] ¡°But if we get in trouble so will you. There¡¯s no reason for more people to get in trouble. Just go.¡±[Miria] Begrudgingly Alexia leaves. Shortly later the dorm head comes to see the students. It is decided that they will question them tomorrow morning in front of the Dean. ************* The next morning in the Dean¡¯s office. There are six people in the office: Dean, Mrs. Horcheckx the third year teacher, Mr. Abgon, Miria, Borick, and Josef. Mrs. Horcheckx has just finished saying what she witnesses. ¡°I see. You three were told that it is against school rules to have your familiars fight, and yet you did it anyway. Borick, we know you were fighting because Mrs. Horcheckx heard your Minitaur scream. Then she found you three because of Josef''s Lesser Angel¡¯s light. What I want to know is why you three were fighting?¡±[Dean] (yes the dean¡¯s name is Dean. I know someone named Dean so shut up.) ¡°Sir. we were told to fight by an upper classman he said it was tradition to have a tournament between the first years..¡±[Josef] ¡°Oh, and do you know the name of this upperclassmen.¡±[Dean] ¡°I...I don¡¯t know sir.¡±[Josef] ¡°It was Miguel sir also Randall was the one who brought me to the fight.¡±[Miria] ¡°Mr. Abgon could you go and fetch Randall and Miguel. Now then, what about you Borick who brought you to this fight?¡±[Dean] ¡°I was told about it through an upperclassman I don¡¯t know who though.¡±[Borick] ¡°I see so all three of you were told to fight by upper classmen saying that it was tradition. You must understand why I think this is far fetched. Considering how there was no one watching this tournament, and the upper classmen you called out are honor students.¡±[Dean] ¡°I¡¯ve brought them Dean.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°Miguel, Randall, I¡¯m sorry from pulling you away from your test, but can you tell me anything about this fight that you supposedly orchestrated between these first year students?¡±[Dean] ¡°...What fight?¡±[Randall] ¡°What are you talking about?¡±[Miguel] (Authors note: When I started this I was afraid I wouldn''t be able to make good conflic) Ch 8 Punishment ¡°What fight?¡±[Randall] ¡°What are you talking about?¡±[Miguel] ¡°You now, the tournament between {Familiars} you guys organized.¡±[Miria] ¡°What are you talking about Miria? Having a fight between {Familiars} is against school rules. Did you guys have a fight?¡±[Randall] ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have fought with each other. Either talk it out or talk to a teacher for disputes.¡±[Miguel] Miria, Borick, and Josef stand there shocked at these two. ¡°Well, do you three want to blame someone else or are you just going to take your punishment?¡±[Dean] ¡°They¡¯re lying there were people watching last night. You can ask them. Miguel was hosting the fights.¡±[Josef] ¡°Josef, if you want me to pull some of your friends to back you up I will, but you are trying to pin blame on some of our best students.¡±[Dean] ¡°Guys just take your punishment. You''re not going to get expelled for this; it¡¯s normally just community service. Right Dean?¡±[Miguel] ¡°Thats right I plan on the punishment being community service. Although a bit more than normal all things considered.¡±[Dean] ¡°But!¡±[Josef] ¡°Stop! Whether on or not they had us do it we still broke the rules. We are at fault.¡±[Miria] Dean waited for any other rebuttal, but seeing that Miria silenced them he began with the punishment. ¡°Josef every Saturday you shall go to the town''s chapel and do whatever work they need. Arrive at eight sharp, and you can leave at five if they don¡¯t let you out sooner. You will go there every Saturday until further notice. Borick, you will be helping Mr. Suthers with his farm. Since it is close you¡¯ll be going Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after school until dark. Mr. Suthers will tell you when you¡¯re done. As for you Miria¡±[Dean] ¡°Dean, If I may make a suggestion?¡±[Randall] ¡°...Go on.¡±[Dean] ¡°I would like to help Miria rehabilitate. So please put her on the Cemetery Cleaning Team with me.¡±[Randall] ¡°Hmm...it¡¯s a good idea, but I worry about her safety.¡±[Dean] ¡°There¡¯s no need to worry I¡¯m in the same group as Randall, and our group is larger than normal we can keep Miria safe.¡±[Miguel] ¡°If you insist Miria, you will be in the Cemetery Cleaning Team with Randall and Miguel. They can tell you about the specifics. You will be on the team until further notice. You are dismissed.¡±[Dean] ************ Miria, Alexia, and Borick sat down for lunch. ¡°So tell me already. What happened?¡±[Alexia] ¡°Gimme your cookie first.¡±[Miria] ¡°Fine, here take my cookie just tell me about what happened!¡±[Alexia] Miria started eating the cookie, and jestered to Borick to start talking. ¡°We called for Miguel and Randall to explain what happened but they pretended not to know what was going on. We all got ¡®community service¡¯ for who knows how long. I¡¯m helping a farmer and Miria is helping Randall and Miguel at the cemetery.¡±[Borick] ¡°What! You''re going to be working with the same people that sold you out. I don¡¯t care what you say I¡¯m admitting to fighting too! I can¡¯t leave you alone with him!¡±[Alexia] ¡°Dooh *gulp* No you probably wouldn¡¯t even be in the same group as me. Besides I¡¯m sure Randall had a reason for what he did. I¡¯ll find out what it was, and this will all blow over. Besides we did break the rules.¡±[Miria] ¡°Well I broke the rules too I should join you guys.¡±[Alexia] ¡°If you tell them you were fighting you¡¯ll need to say who you were fighting with then you¡¯ll just get them in trouble too.¡±[Miria] ¡°Well I¡¯ll just say that fighting with Borick.¡±[Alexia] ¡°That won¡¯t work. I said that I was fighting with Josef. I¡¯ll get in more trouble for lying. Besides we don¡¯t blame you for our punishment. I blame Miguel.¡±[Borick] ¡°Well then if I-¡±[Alexia] ¡°-Just let it go. There are more important things to do, and if you really want to make it up to me you¡¯ll get me some more sweets.¡±[Miria] ¡°Fine have it your way.¡±[Alexia] ¡°Yay more sweets!¡±[Miria] ************* *Ding Ding Ding* Miria and the rest of the students in her class packed up and left for their dorm, club, or other extracurricular activity. ¡°Miria, over here!¡±[Randall] Miria walked over to Randall he greeted her and lead her towards the cemetery. Miria kept trying to start a conversation, but Randall dismissed them each time. As they were almost there Randall finally spoke. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°I know you have a lot of questions so why don¡¯t you start.¡±[Randall] ¡°...Why didn¡¯t you and Miguel say that you organized the tournament?¡±[Miria] ¡°Simple we didn¡¯t want to get in trouble.¡±[Randall] ¡°What! Why did you have us fight then.¡±[Miria] ¡°Simple I wanted you to get in trouble. So that you would be here now in the cemetery group with me.¡±[Randall] ¡°Why did you want me to be here?¡±[Miria] ¡°Cemetery Cleaning is normally reserved for third years. This year Miguel and I are in it, and as the youngest in the group we have to do all the grunt work. You are here to do that grunt work. As for why you. You have a Skeleton Familiar so the Dean would allow you into the Cemetery Cleaning Team.¡±[Randall] ¡°What, but how did you know that I would get caught.¡±[Miria] ¡°I was hoping you would ask that. The first night was to deceive you. I had so many people there to make you think the tournament was real. No teachers noticed, because there was a teachers conference that night. The second night we had no one there, but we had a decent excuse as to why so you continued with the tournament. Finally, I put you against Josef''s Lesser Angel. With the amount of light it gave off I knew a teacher would come to investigate. After you were caught I knew you would call on either me, or Miguel to bail you out. Then we just denied it, and suggest you join us in the cemetery.¡±[Randall] ¡°You did all that just to get out of some work?¡±[Miria] ¡°Yep, no hard feelings. Now come on I¡¯ll show you everything you have to do.¡±[Randall] Miria followed Randal to a shed bearing the insignia of the school. He unlocks it revealing shelves of weapons, potions, and other items. ¡°As Cemetery Cleaners it is our job to clear out Undead from the cemetery. This is everything the Cemetery Cleaners need. All of the weapons have a Light attribute. We have mana potions and health potions. As well as flares and other consumables for emergencies. Since you will be assisting us you shall be caring all of this for us.¡±[Randall] ¡°What! Theres no way I can carry all of this!¡±[Miria] ¡°Don¡¯t worry you don¡¯t have to carry all of it just most of it.¡±[Randall] Randall threw Miria two back packs. ¡°Why two?¡±[Miria] ¡°One for you and one for your {Familiar}. Now {Summon} him.¡±[Randall] ¡°Come back to me ,please, SUMMON!¡±[Miria] Sephtis came out with his black knife. He looked around confused by his surroundings before Miria gave him the backpack. ¡°Now lets get you loaded up. 10 healing potions, 5 mana potions, 5 Light grenades, 50 feet of rope, and two Light daggers. Put that in your bags for emergencies. Strap a Light sword and mace to each side of your bags and strap this flare to your arm straps. Get all of that into each pack.¡±[Randall] Randall left the shed with a sword to practice. Miria started to grab all of the material and pile them up while Sephtis copied her. The backpacks were big, but the pile of material was so much bigger than the backpack Mirai had to repack it three times before everything fit. ¡°Hungh...hungh¡±[Miria] Miria tried to lift the backpack, but the backpack was too heavy to lift. Seeing that Miria was struggling Sephtis came over and took the weapons off the side of the bag, and put them on his own. They both lifted their bags and adjusted their straps for comfort when Randall came in. ¡°Good to see you got ready. Now then for your equipment.¡±[Randall] ¡°Huh?¡±[Miria] ¡°What you have now is emergency supplies for the entire team. You still need to hold onto equipment for yourself. Considering that you can use healing magic all you need to take with you is three mana potions. Other than that you¡¯ll need a Light stalf to help channel your magic.¡±[Randall] Miria grabs the potions and ties them to her belt. She ends up using the stalf to help her balance. ¡°Good, now then we go out for a cleaning every third day. You need to be ready to go into the cemetery at sundown no later. The shed will be unlocked an hour before that. When we go around the cemetery we will be cleaning up. So mainly just killing Undead. Your job will be to follow along, and help out when you can. Any questions?¡±[Randall] ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±[Miria] ¡°Good, we¡¯ll wait for everyone to get here and then start on the cleaning! In the mean time try to memorize that map of the cemetery.¡±[Randall] Ch 9 The Begining and End of Baenebridge-Octavanus-Eddwardo ¡°Okay, everyones here. Let¡¯s head out.¡±[Brian] It was slightly before sundown, but since everyone was present the leader of the Cemetery Cleanup team decided to head out. The group went into the cemetery with a standard formation to start, but then morphed as Miria, with a heavy load, fell further and further behind. Until they were split into two groups one with Miria, Sephtis, and one of her seniors who stayed behind with her and one group with everyone else. The senior that stayed behind was covered from head to toe in heavy armor. He also held a large shield and a mace. Miria knew that he was the tank of the cleaners. ¡°Thanks for staying with me.¡±[Miria] ¡°It¡¯s fine. What kind of senior would I be if let trouble come to my junior?¡±[Senior] ¡°Still thanks. I¡¯m Miria what¡¯s your name?¡±[Miria] ¡°Well my name is Baenebridge-Octavanus-Eddwardo.¡±[Baenebridge-Octavanus-Eddwardo] ¡°Uhm..¡±[Miria] ¡°Yeah I know its long, but at least it¡¯s better than my full name.¡±[Baenebridge-Octavanus-Eddwardo] ¡°Do I want to know?¡±[Miria] ¡°No, we would be here all night, and you can just call me Boe. Everyone else does. By the way how did you end up in our group?¡±[Boe] ¡°Well...¡±[Miria] Miria proceeded to tell Boe her situation with the tournament and Randall up until this point. All the while Boe noded at what she said. ¡°Well that explains a lot. You were the latest victim of Randall.¡±[Boe] ¡°The latest victim?¡±[Miria] ¡°Yeah, he acts like a goodie two shoes normally, but in reality he is evil...no he is manipulative.¡±[Boe] ¡°What!?¡±[Miria] ¡°Randal is manipulative. He will do anything to get what he wants. If he was evil he would be doing it just for the laughs or something.¡±[Boe] ¡°So he got me in trouble so that he could benefit. Rather than getting me in trouble to laugh.¡±[Miria] ¡°Exactly.¡±[Boe] ¡°I guess I should avoid him then huh.¡±[Miria] ¡°Well thats where it gets complicated. He probably won''t set you up again since you¡¯ll be expecting that. At the same time he has nearly half the second years and some of the third years under his thumb for one reason or another.¡±[Boe] ¡°So I have to look out for that many people?¡±[Miria] ¡°No you¡¯ll be fine if you keep your head down, but make sure to reject anything Randall has you do. Right now you''re under his thumb, and he will try to use you to take control of the first years. This is a speculation of course. You know all this is too stressful for you. Don¡¯t worry about it and I¡¯m sure everything will work out.¡±[Boe] ¡°Hey Boe, I don¡¯t see the rest of our group anymore are we going to be ok?¡±[Miria] ¡°That depends. do you know any magic that can create light?¡±[Boe] ¡°Yes.¡±[Miria] ¡°Well then we will be just fine.¡±[Boe] ¡°But what if we get attacked? I doubt light will beat Undead, and what if the other group gets attacked? I have all of the emergency supplies!¡±[Miria] ¡°I said it would be fine. If we get attacked you can use your light magic or a flare to call for help. I¡¯m the main tank in our group, and you can heal us at least a little so we can last until help comes. As for the other group they can handle themselves. We are only expecting one or two undead tonight, and even if they get held up we¡¯re walking on the same path so we¡¯ll catch up to them and be able to help.¡±[Boe] ¡°Wow your really planned ahead huh.¡±[Miria] ¡°Not really. It just worked out like that.¡±[Boe] Miria thought that she souldn¡¯t put too much faith into Boe. ¡°Why are we expecting one or two Undead? The map I saw had a lot of markings of undead.¡±[Miria] ¡°Well everyone of those marks is where we encountered an Undead. We just got over a large wave of Undead, and last cleaning we only saw three. So today we are expecting even less.¡±[Boe] Miria and Boe continued walking and after a while the came across an unusually large clump of dark matter. ¡°Miria, you see that.¡± Boe said while pointing to the clump of dark matter. ¡°Yes, why is it like that.¡±[Miria] ¡°Dark matter will clump up like that before an Undead spawns. Have your {Familiar} walk into it. If he can absorb all of it then we won''t have a problem.¡±[Boe] ¡°Randall told me that Dark Mages use dark matter for spells. Don¡¯t you want that clump?¡±[Miria] ¡°Thats true, but I can¡¯t absorb dark matter. I¡¯m in the Cemetery Cleanup team to kill Undead to fulfill a class up requirement.¡±[Boe] Miria satisfied by the answer ordered Sephtis into the dark matter. The clump of dark matter was up to Sephtis¡¯ knees. As he stepped into the dark matter it rippled before slowly swirling around Sephtis and being absorbed. After several minutes Sephtis had completely absorbed the clump of dark matter. All the while Boe was taking items out of Miria¡¯s bag and loading his own. ¡°Ok, we¡¯re going to kick it into high gear from now on. The other group shouldn¡¯t have missed that clump. So I¡¯m worried that something happened to them. We¡¯re going to take a shortcut to catch up to them. Miria I need you to flash light slowly as we progress. Don¡¯t make it too bright just enough to light our way. Now lets get a move on.¡±[Boe] Boe lead the way through the cemetery as Miria followed. He kept looking back to Miria, and adjusted his pace. They were running past tomb stones and random trees. Unlike the road there was much more dark matter around them, but every time Miria¡¯s light flashed it would disperse a little, and light their way. After running through the shortcut the group again arrived at another road. As soon as they arrived Boe was in a bit of a panic looking back and forth down the roads. ¡°Are we lost?¡±[Miria] ¡°No we¡¯re not lost, but the other group might be.¡±[Boe] Boe continued to look back and forth down the path. ¡°Miria, take a mana potion, and start to flash light again this time fast and bright but not too high.¡±[Boe] Miria started flashing her light as Boe panickly looked around for any signs of the other group. ¡°Miria I¡¯m not going to lie we¡¯re in a pretty shit spot right now.¡±[Boe] ¡°Well what should we do? If were not lost we can still leave right?¡±[Miria] ¡°Yeah we could leave if we need to, but I¡¯m worried about the other group. They missed that clump of dark matter so they may be acting reckless, and got caught off guard. On the other hand we might be attacked, and not get backup from them since they can¡¯t see out distress signal. Either way we¡¯re in a bad spot.¡±[Boe] Miria was scared the simple cleaning as turned dangerous in a brief moment. The decision in front of her was hard, but she had already made up her mind. ¡°We have to help the other group!¡±[Miria] ¡°!.. Are you sure want to help them? They may be fine on their own, and we are put at greater danger if we go looking for them.¡±[Boe] ¡°I¡¯m sure. So what should we do.¡±[Miria] ¡°Humm¡­ We will need to go to the center of the cemetery. If they set off an emergency flare it will be fastest to get to them from there.¡±[Boe] Boe lead Miria down the path towards the center of the cemetery. He was hoping to meet up with the other group on the trail, but it was to no avail. They arrived at the center of the cemetery. It was a small paved open space that was slightly elevated. There were four pillars around at the cardinal directions for decoration. ¡°Miria, try sending some distress flashes again. They may see them now.¡±[Boe] Miria started to send out flashes, but after ten minutes no one had come. Boe was ready to call it quits and head for they exit. When Sephtis noticed something. ¡°...there...¡±[Sephtis] Boe turned to look at Sephtis; surprised to hear him talking. He followed Sephtis¡¯ pointed finger to find an Undead hiding in the darkness. ¡°MIRIA GET BEHIND ME, AND BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING!¡±[Boe] Miria got behind Boe having Sephtis do the same. As the Undead got closer Miria saw that it looked similar to a zombie, but it had less flesh and an oversized mouth. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Miria, start chugging mana potions, and hitting that thing with any light magic you know.¡±[Boe] ¡°Got it. Do you want Sephtis to help?¡±[Miria] ¡°No, have him protect you. Burn thy enemies, SUMMON.¡±[Boe] Boe summoned his {Familiar} a three tailed Fire Fox. Right after being summoned the Fire Fox jumped onto Boe¡¯s shoulder and covered his mace in fire. The first attack however came from Miria who started the fight by casting a weak healing spell on the Undead¡¯s foot. She wanted to cast a buff spell she had just learned, but she wasn¡¯t sure if it would hurt the Undead. The spell she cast created a small glow around one of the Undead¡¯s feet tearing off some flesh. The Undead became enraged by the attack and charged at Mirai only to be blocked by Boe¡¯s shield. The Undead started pounding on Boe with both of this arms relentlessly. Normally this would show openings for others to attack, but there was no one there to make use of these openings. Miria kept healing the Undead focussing on joints in the limbs, but it didn¡¯t seem to matter to the Undead. As the fight continued Boe started to get desperate. He was getting tired and his shield and armor was getting damaged. He knew that if this continued he would die. ¡°Miria, have your {Familiar} charge!¡±[Boe] ¡°Sephtis, attack that Undead.¡±[Miria] Sephtis replaced Boe in the fight. Boe knew that Sephtis would be killed soon, but he was looking his chance during this to land a fatal hit. The Undead immediately started going after Sephtis after he got in range. Wild swings started coming at Sephtis. Normally Sephtis would try to block these attacks, but seeing the Undead¡¯s power against Boe he started dodging from the get go. While dodging Sephtis eventually found an opening and took it. Stabbing his knife into the Undead¡¯s chest aiming for his heart. Too bad the Undead don¡¯t have working organs. With the blade lodged into the Undead it grabbed Sephtis, and started devouring him. ¡°{Return}!¡±[Miria] Boe jumped at the chance that Sephtis made. Hitting the Undead in the skull. His mace had a light attribute, fire attribute, and an extra boost from Boe¡¯s skill, but the Undead only took minor damage. ¡°Damn it! Miria that¡¯s a Devourer. It feeds on other Undead to become stronger. This fight just got harder.¡±[Boe] ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±[Miria] ¡°No its my fault. I should have realized that it was a Devourer, but that¡¯s in the past. We have to beat this thing now.¡±[Boe] ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we use the flare now?¡±[Miria] ¡°Don¡¯t! It will call for help, but it will also attract more Undead here. So unless we can hold out for a while it¡¯s useless.¡±[Boe] ¡°So what should we do then?¡±[Miria] ¡°When I say now cast all the buffs you can on me. If that doesn¡¯t work then I want you to run.¡±[Boe] ¡°But!¡±[Miria] ¡°No buts. I got you in this mess, and I will get you out.¡±[Boe] Boe squared off against the Undead. Thoughts ran through his mind. Why didn¡¯t I try to keep up with everyone, why didn¡¯t I try harder to class up, and did I leave the stove on. *Whiss* a lash went right by Boe. He started to dodge the Devourer¡¯s attacks rather than taking them since he learned its patterns while watching Sephtis. After dodging a particularly wide swing Boe used {Shield Bash} to briefly stun the Devourer. ¡°NOW!¡±[Boe] Miria cast all of the buffs she prepared. Using her only skill {Weak Blessing} along with a healing overtime spell and a speed spell both of Light attribute. With the added boost, and his own skills, Boe swung as hard as he could at the Devourer¡¯s body since the head was too far away. Ribs went flying an arm hit the ground. Boe would be able to beat the Devourer now that he was missing an arm. At least he should have been able to. The Devourer let out a high pitched scream when he noticed the missing arm. It was the skill {Call Undead}. Soon weak Undead would come to the aid of the Devourer only to be eaten and make the Devourer even more powerful. And Boe knew this perfectly well ¡°Miria you can go to the entrance now. That was his death scream it will take a while, but I can easily kill him.¡±[Boe] ¡°Are you sure its ok for me to go?¡±[Miria] ¡°Of course it is just go.¡± Boe said as he started to desperately attack the Devourer. Miria started to go leaving Boe to finish the job. Boe was glad to see Miria escape. So much had gone wrong today, and he didn¡¯t want Miria to have to deal with it any more so he chose to be a mortar. As the new Undead approached Boe steeled his mind to give Miria enough time to escape. (Author¡¯s note: No peaking) ¡°MASS HEAL!¡±[Miria] Everyone was wrapped in a gentle light Human and Undead alike. Along with several explosions from Light grenades. The weakest among the Undead were immediately killed. The others were limping, and the Devourer had lost all of it¡¯s flesh and was nothing but bones. This was not a happy moment for Boe however. He turned around to see Miria leaning against a pillar before she fell to the ground. She had just used the standard spell mass heal. The problem was that it was far outside what she could handle. This caused a relapse. At best Miria fainted at worst she just died. Either way she was totally defenceless. Whether she lives or dies depends on whether or not Boe can protect her. ¡°You idiot why didn¡¯t you leave...thanks.¡±[Boe] Boe charged at the Devourer not giving it the chance to eat the other Undead. He clashed with the Devourer. He was on the offensive for the first time. He left his back to his {Familiar} which was more than enough to deal with the weakened Undead. *Bash* the Devourer¡¯s head shattered. Its lifeless body fell to the ground. Boe continued to finish off the Undead always making sure that their bodies returned to dark matter. As soon as the last one disappeared he ran over to Miria and checked her pulse. ¡°Thank god, she just fainted.¡±[Boe] Boe took Miria in his arms and made a beeline for the exit. Along the way Miria woke up, and turned bright red from being held in a princess carry by her senior. She wanted to get down and walk herself, but Boe refused to let her down saying that she needed rest. When they arrived at the exit Boe finally let Miria down. They waited there for the other group to return while looking out for any distress signals. After about ten minutes they arrived looking confused at Boe and Miria who had arrived before them. Boe explained what they had dealt with with after falling behind. Everyone seemed questionable about his story. ¡°Hey Miria, is that all true?¡±[Brian] ¡°Yes, everything that Baenebridge-Octavanus-Eddwardo said was true.¡± Miria said while trying to be respectable to her senior. ¡°...HAHAHAHAHAHA¡±[Everyone ex. Boe & Miria] ¡°HAhaha...I¡¯m sorry Miria. He does that to everyone when he meets them. His real name is just Boe. That stupidly long name is what he made up as a joke.¡±[Brian] Miria looks up to Boe like a child looking up to a parent that lied about her goldfish dying. ¡°Sorry Miria, but its true my name is just Boe.¡±[Boe] Miria started beating Boe with her fists not really doing anything against his armor. Boe jested and acted as if she were hurting him. Miria¡¯s first Cemetery Cleaning ended in just over two hours. As she walked back to the dorms she heard about the other groups tale. They were trying to root out an Undead that was creating a large amount of black smoke. Which was blocking their vision from Miria¡¯s signals. Another day done Miria starts to go to bed. ¡°Ah! I forgot to tell Sephtis to absorb the dark matter. Oh well it''s too late now.¡±[Miria] Ch 10 Defence Against Nature ¡°Come back to me ,please, SUMMON!¡±[Miria] I was summoned by Miria. The last thing I remember was being killed by that Undead; so as I was summoned I was on high alert. Fortunately there was no danger. We were in Miria¡¯s room with nothing out of the ordinary.. ¡°Sephtis use the dark matter you got yesterday to WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ARM!!¡±[Miria] I looked down to find my forearm missing. I wasn¡¯t bothered by this since I held my knife in my other arm, but Miria seemed very concerned for me. ¡°...I¡¯m fine...¡±[Sephtis] ¡°Are you sure? Maybe you just didn¡¯t get enough mana to heal last night since I was exhausted. But what if it didn¡¯t heal since it was eaten! muu¡±[Miria] Miria went into deep thought over me. Ahh shes so cute when she¡¯s concerned it makes you want to hug her. ¡°Ahh I¡¯ve got it!¡±[Miria] Miria came over to my broken arm and held the stump in her hands. She started to release a black mist from her hands. The mist wrapped around my bones and they started to grow back. After I noticed what she was doing something clicked in my mind as I focused on accepting the healing. The process speed up, but still took over five minutes to regrow my arm. When Miria finished she wiped some sweat from her brow. ¡°That took a bit more mana than I was expecting, but at least you''re better now. Ok now that I know you¡¯re safe I can {Re-wait. Sephtis take the dark matter you got last night and use it to strengthen your body. Do you understand?¡± ¡°..yes..¡±[Sephtis] ¡°good {Return}¡±[Miria] I returned to the white space. I looked upon the dark matter I had collected there was so much of it; enough to fill a large room. I started to manipulate some of it before I came to a grim realization. It wasn¡¯t the same. Some of it was very thick other parts were thin as air. I began separating the dark matter into three different groups. One was very sparse and was similar to the mist Miria used on me. This pile had the most volume, but it was so thin that it had far less mass than the other two. The second pile was of fairly thick dark matter. It was fairly similar the dark matter I started with, but I had much more of it than back then. The last pile interested me the most. It was a very small pile, but it seemed alive. I was positive that this was that clump of dark matter I absorbed, but since it still seemed to be alive it worried me. I looked at the three piles while planning what to do. I wanted to leave the second pile for making a new weapon since I knew how to manipulate it. So that leave the mist and the living blob for absorption. I chose to try the mist first since it was similar to what Miria put into me, and the blob still freaked me out. I stepped into the middle of the mist and began willing it around my body. I learned that I didn¡¯t actually have to touch the dark matter to move it while making the piles, but it proved less accurate than doing it myself. The dark mist started gathering around my body and then went into my bones. More and more entered my bones then it just started gathering against my bones. There was a large chunk of mist left, but I couldn¡¯t fit any of it into my bones. I set the mist to the side, and decided to look into it latter. For now I had an Idea for that living blob. I went over to the blob like one would approach a caged animal that could escape at any moment. I kneeled down next to it and extended my hand. In my other hand I held my knife ready to cut off my hand if anything went wrong. I dipped the tip of my middle finger into the blob and it didn''t react. Next I willed it to move up my finger. Then I pulled my hand away. I had a small portion of it still stuck to my finger. I started willing to go in between my finger joints. I wanted the blob to hold my joints together and make them stronger. When I was done it was hard to see the dark blob in between my bones, and my finger had gotten much stronger. After that I carefully fused the blob into all of my joints. My limbs have been flying around so often so I hope that this will pose some resistance from now on. After I was done there was a little extra blob so I reinforced my arm joints. I smiled as I looked to the last pile. It was the dark matter that I was most familiar with. I think I¡¯ll call it dark metal since that''s what I use it as. First things first condensing. This process went by very fast since I learned how to use my will to shape the dark matter. When I was done I had a large block of dark metal. The first thing I tried to make was a great sword. I based its design off my knife to give it a large size. The end result was a giant kitchen knife bigger than me. Big swords are justice, but then reality hit. The sword was awful. It was too lopsided and heavy to properly swing. I had to disassemble it. My second try was to make a shield and mace like Boe had. I thought the mace would be easy to make, but it proved difficult. I make many prototypes that ended as failures one had terrible balance, one was too fragile, and one simply didn¡¯t work as a weapon. The design I ended with had a short handle with a pommel, and a head with six vertical blades that curved in and out with points too cut into flesh. For the shield I wanted to base it on my previous design, and to my surprise the dark metal quickly formed into my old kite shield. After a bit of testing I found that I could quickly form dark metal into my previously made weapons, but only the ones that I took out to the world with me. I had to remake my mace because of this. I started working on my shield by taking my old kite shield and adding my remaining dark metal. Just adding it around the edges gave the shield and odd shape. So I concentrated on making the shield taller to cover more of my body. I was conflicted on whether to round the shield so attacks could go around, or square it to stop the attacks. After considering I made the top much more square to stop attacks, but had to cut down the bottom of the shield to almost a point to add the extra defence to the top half. The last thing I did was make my arm fit into the shield rather than behind it. The end result was a bit smaller than a tower shield. When I was finished I looked over to the remaining mist I had. ¡°Ah! I forgot about you.¡±[Sephtis] I looked down to see my knife which was left out of my weapon making process. I picked it up thinking of what to do with it. I wouldn¡¯t mind having a side arm, but I have no where to put it. While looking down at the knife in my hand I got an idea, but first an experiment. When I made this knife I compressed the dark metal as much as I could. Now I want to see if I can condense it more. I start to squeeze the knife to my surprise it starts to condense rather easily until a certain point. It becomes about two thirds of its original size before I can¡¯t condense it any more. I try to condense part of my mace, but that doesn¡¯t even budge. ¡°I thought it was a bit heavy. I got better at condensing. This is annoying though. I¡¯ll have to pay closer and closer attention to just how heavy I make my dark metal from now on.¡±[Sephtis] With the new up to par dark metal I continued with my original plan. I started making a gauntlet. I started with the palm making it go straight through my hand. Then I made links around each of my fingers, and made sure they didn¡¯t hinder movement. When I finished the gauntlet I had a bit dark metal to spare so I added small claws to the fingertips and spikes to the knuckles. Satisfied by my work I took a peek at the blue box before taking some practice swings with my new mace.
SephisLv: 1
Ancient Skeleton WarriorUn???
Miria¡¯s Familiar, ???
Stats
VIT: 17Light:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
STR: 18Fire:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
AGI: 13Earth:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
END: 15Water:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
DEX: 16Wind:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
WSD: 6Nature:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
INT: 5Dark:Ultimate Weakness(-10)
****************** About a week had past since the first Cemetery Cleaning. A few days ago Miria was surprised to see Sephtis¡¯ new equipment. At first she was mad to see that he hadn''t absorbed the dark matter, but Randall told her that he had and that he could only absorb so much and not to worry about it. Now Miria was sitting in her homeroom waiting for class to start while talking to Alexia. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°So how was cemetary cleaning yesterday?¡±[Alexia] ¡°Nothing interesting, especially compared to the first night. We saw a few Undead, but they were quickly killed.¡±[Miria] ¡°What about Sephtis? Did he get new armor?¡±[Alexia] ¡°No, apparently there is a dark matter pool just like a mana pool. So he won''t have new armor until his pool grows.¡±[Miria] ¡°Oh, how disappointing I was hoping to paint his armor when it was done. What do you think about hot pink Miria?¡±[Alexia] ¡°Uhh¡±[Miria] ¡°Ok everyone class is starting get to your seats.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Miria was relieved by Mr. Aegon''s entrance. When Borick came running in late. ¡°Borick, I¡¯m sure you have a wonderful excuse for being late.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°I do. This morning I was checking my {Status} and I found out that I lost a level!¡±[Borick] Many people in class gasped and were at shock at this. None of them have ever heard of losing a level. ¡°*sigh* Borick sit down. It looks like I¡¯ll have to be the one to explain levels this year. Class we will be having a quick lesson on levels before class starts. So, does anyone know what a level is?¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°...A measure of your strength?¡±[Student] ¡°Better than most guesses, but no. If a level 50 slime fought a level 15 wolf who would win?¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°The slime.¡±[Entire Class] ¡°No, the wolf would win nine times out of ten. Any other guesses at what a level is?¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°...A measure of your experience?¡±[Josef] ¡°A good guess, but have any of you seen the level of a new born baby?¡±[Mr. Abgon] Everyone shakes their heads no. Most of them have never seen anyone else''s {Status}. ¡°I have several times. The highest I saw was level 95 and the lowest was level 75. Are there any other guesses?¡±[Mr. Abgon] Everyone was in shock at this information. A level 95 baby how did that even happen. There was no one who spoke up so Mr. Abgon continued. ¡°A level is a measure of your potential. When you hit level 100 you can¡¯t become any stronger unless you gain more potential. So Borick you lost a level because you gained potential.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°Then what use are they if it''s just a limit?¡±[Borick] ¡°What¡¯s important isn¡¯t your level. Its the monsters level that you need to worry about. The only way monsters can gain potential is by evolving and a few rare cases. Because of this finding the level of a monster is the easiest way to determine strength. If you know what the monster is.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°Why didn¡¯t we know this until now?¡±[Geordt] ¡°Simple, it doesn¡¯t matter to most people for their entire lives. We wouldn¡¯t even have you learn this until you learn identification magic, but if you ask about levels we will tell you the actual use of levels. Now we are running late. We have a double period today with your Mixed Combat Class. We will be walking down together.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Miria and the rest of the class walked to the gymnasium while talking about levels, but that stopped as soon as they got to the gym. At the center of the gym was a cage with an imp in it around the cage was a big red circle about 40m in diameter that screamed danger. ¡°Today¡¯s class will be all about defence against Nature magic. As you all know Nature is the most common affinity held by monsters, and the least common amongst humans. So you shall be training against that Nature Imp for practice.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°Are you sure this is safe?¡±[Student] ¡°You have nothing to fear. Me and Mr. E are here to intervene if anything happens, but that doesn¡¯t mean you shouldn¡¯t take this seriously¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°Every student will go into the read ring and have to spend as long as they can inside.¡±[Mr. E] ¡°Listen up these are the rules. Don¡¯t {Summon} your {Familiar} this is your training. Stay in as long as you can and get as close as possible. You may use any method to stay inside, but leave the circle when you have to. The Imp¡¯s magic can¡¯t pass the circle so you¡¯ll be safe as soon as you leave. If I determine it to be too dangerous I shall pull you out of the circle by force. If this happens it will be seen as you not knowing your limits and you will be docked points. After you leave the circle the next student may enter after Mr. E signals you, and I shall tell you wether to get back in line or sit to the side and wait for everyone else to finish.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡±Now get lined up and we can begin.¡±[Mr. E] Everyone in the class got lined up Miria was in the middle just in front of Alexia. Borick ran to the front of the line, and was getting ready to enter the circle. Everyone in class was waiting to see Borick¡¯s trial. They all wanted to know how hard this would be. ¡°Enter when ready.¡±[Mr. E] Borick charged to the center only to trip when he was half way there. Many people in the lineup started laughing at Borick since he had tripped on flat ground, but as they looked down they stopped laughing. A small root had come from the ground, and it wasn¡¯t the only one. Many roots started to come up to grab Borick who was still laying on the ground; some covered in thorns. As they were about to catch Borick he went flying out of the circle, and was caught by Mr. E. ¡°You got pretty far in, but didn¡¯t stay there long enough. Get back in line.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Borick still in shock walked towards the back of the line. ¡°Are you ok Borick?¡±[Miria] ¡°Yeah I¡¯ll be fine. Just need to...just need to calm down.¡±[Borick] Borick left looking like a ghost. ¡°I¡¯m worried about Borick. I¡¯m scared that he''s hurt.¡±[Miria] ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him Miria. The only thing that got hurt was his pride. From his point of view he had to run away from the Imp.¡±[Alexia] ¡°Are you sure? He looked really hurt.¡±[Miria] ¡°I¡¯m sure. That muscle head just runs in swinging his sword and never thinking. All he cares about is winning. It will be good for him to learn how to lose.¡±[Alexia] After that Miria and Alexia had idle chatter while watching other students. They had learned several things from watching. First it can only use the big vines when you''re close to it; if you stick to the outside of the ring it can¡¯t reach with big vines. Second, if you are far away it will throw various Nature spells at you while trying to trip you with small roots. Third, although you can burn the roots the Imp is protected inside of his cage, and can¡¯t be hit. Fourth, the Imp seems to have unlimited mana. Miria¡¯s turn was next. She was watching the student in front of her; a fire mage. He was using a method established by the first fire mage that went up. Run around the outside until you get tired, and then step closser and use fire to burn all of the roots. Currently the only students to pass were those versed in fire magic. The fire mage ran out of mana, and the roots approached him as he ran to the safety of the red ring. ¡°You spent enough time in the middle and outer rings. You pass take a seat.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Miria took a step forward. She looked at the Imp and arena. All of the roots had already sunk down into the ground. The floor was flat again without even a crack. Miria was so nervous she knew a little Fire magic, but not enough to fend off the roots. She wasn¡¯t sure how she would pass. ¡°Enter when ready.¡±[Mr. E] ¡°Don¡¯t let Borick¡¯s sacrifice go to waste Miria!¡±[Alexia] ¡°Hey! I¡¯m still alive!¡±[Borick] Miria giggled at her friends exchange. At least she wasn¡¯t nervous anymore as she stepped into the circle. Miria was concentrated on the Imp. The Imp fired a bolt of magic at her. Miria side stepped to narrowly dodge it. Miria had watched many people run around the outer edge of the circle before being tripped and failing. So her plan was to pay attention to the ground around her, and only take small steps to avoid tripping. The Imp kept firing Nature magic at Miria who kept dodging, but after the third shot Miria noticed something odd under her foot and made a sprint to the side. Unfortunately, a wall of vines sprouted on both sides of Miria. Normally the Imp wouldn¡¯t be able to make that many vines so far away, but since Miria stayed in one spot the Imp had plenty of time to prepare. The walls on either side of her were closing in as the Imp continued to fire magic. ¡°Pull her out of there!¡±[Alexia] ¡°Her exit isn¡¯t blocked she can leave if she wants to.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°But she¡¯s going to get chru...where¡¯d she go?¡±[Alexia] (Author''s note: if you have a 3 affinity for Light then you will get more healing from Light magic than someone with -3 affinity. However this is only a small difference.) Q&A Setting I wanted to do a Q&A for everything, but that would be too hard. So I will be answering questions about the world. Ex. the nearby town, it''s surroundings, the school, skills, magic, classes, adventurers, monsters, etc. I will not be answering questions about specific characters or the story. I will do my best to answer your questions about the setting, and if its something that I should have described then I will go back and add it in. I will stop answering questions as soon as the next chapter goes up, and will not answer repeats. So BRING ON THE QUESTIONS! Ch 11 Defence Against Nature pt. 2 As a young girl Miria had often looked up at birds and imagined how nice it must be to fly up in the sky. Miria now knew how great that is, and it''s amazing. Mira was flying above the Imp. She had used two spells to achieve this. First was a Light magic buff on her legs. Second, was a Wind magic to boost her jumps. With these Miria jumped from wall to wall. Before jumping towards the Imp in the center. Adrenalin was pumping, and Miria was in her own little world thinking about how fun flying is. This only lasted a brief moment when she saw where she would land. Miria prepared a Wind cushion where she was about to land since the Imp¡¯s cage wasn¡¯t too soft. *Thud* Miria and the Imp looked at each other while grasping what had just happened. The Imp began forming an attack. While Miria jumped off of the cage and formed magic of her own. ¡°Smoke!¡±[Miria] Miria cast the Dark standard spell smoke. This time it wasn¡¯t to powerful for her. She just needed the fast casting time. From Miria¡¯s hands came a cloud of smoke. Normally you would use smoke to make a fast escape or make a big cloud to hide in. In both cases you would you the smoke on yourself, but Miria had a different thought. The smoke covered the outside of the cage not able to reach inside, but it still accomplished Miria¡¯s goal. The smoke screen blocked the Imp¡¯s view of Miria. Miria started running around the cage while random bolts came firing out. Miria was ecstatic as she ran around the cage. She was hyped up on adrenalin, and wasn¡¯t thinking about any of the danger she was in. Then a quick pull came on her from behind. Miria was pulled out of the circle, and landed on her but. Unlike everyone else who was caught by Mr. E. ¡°Ouchie.¡±[Miria] ¡°Congratulations Miria, the moment you touched the cage you passed. You were even able to stay there for quite some time, but I want you to look at where you just were.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Miria looked towards the Imp only to find a mess of thorned vines thrashing about the area where Miria had just stood. ¡°Think about how you would have avoided that and why you weren¡¯t able to, but for now you can sit down and wait for everyone else.¡±[Mr. Abgon] ¡°Good job Miria! Just wait for me over there I¡¯ll be right over.¡±[Alexia] Alexia ran into the ring the moment she was allowed. Miria and everyone else thought that Alexia would do the standard for Fire mages and run around before roasting the vines, but Alexia shocked everyone. She ran in covered herself in flames and ran straight towards the cage. Some roots came up to block her, but they were far too few and all turned to ash. Alexia ran straight through the circle tapping the cage on her way through. She arrived at the other side before Miria had sat down. ¡°So how''d I do?¡±[Alexia] ¡°You passed, and may take a seat. However, you turned your back on your enemy. Be careful about that.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Alexia and Miria sat next to each other before talking about what happened. ¡°¡°How did you do that?¡±¡±[Alexia and Miria] ¡°...I¡¯ll go first, but what part?¡±[Miria] ¡°The flying of corse. Its so cool. I want to be able to fly too. So come on tell me!¡±[Alexia] ¡°It wasn¡¯t really flying. I used Wind magic to boost my jump. Although I¡¯m pretty sure high level Wind magic lets you fly. Now lets hear how you did that. With all the fire and stuff.¡±[Miria] ¡°Well, everything I did was based on you. My original plan was to start in the inner rings then move to the outer rings when that got too dangerous, but after you went I knew that all I had to do was touch the cage to win. So I just ran straight through to pass.¡±[Axexia] ¡°No, but how did you get through? There are normally so many vines there¡¯s no way you could burn all of them.¡±[Miria] ¡°Oh, you didn¡¯t notice? The vines are very powerful, but they take time to form. When Borick charged he got pretty far before the vines could form enough to stop him. From there no one charged so the Imp had plenty of time to prepare the vines. Because of this I charged from the begining to minimize the number of vines I had to deal with.¡±[Alexia] Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.¡°What do you mean the vines took time to prepare? I thought they were waiting underground.¡±[Miria] ¡°Well that begs the question ¡®why keep them underground?¡¯ It would be better to just keep them above ground and ready to act. They reset the ring at the beginning of each run. So all I had to do was charge through before the Imp could stop me.¡±[Alexia] ¡°Hmm was it really that easy? Ah, Borick is up again.¡±[Miria] Borick stepped up to the circle ready to challenge the Imp again. So far every Fire mage, several other mages, Miria, and two rogues had passed, but no warriors. Borick was determined to be the first warrior to beat the Imp. He stepped forward ready to go. ¡°Hold on Borick.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Mr. E stopped Borick while Mr. Abgon got the attention of the rest of class. ¡°For the second round the Imp will remember your previous failure. So try to base your plan around that. Also I shall give you a hint to winning. That Imp is one of my summons. If you can remember enough from my class then this will be easy for you.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Borick stopped and tried to remember anything from Mr. Abgon''s class, but soon gave up since he couldn¡¯t remember what class Mr. Abgon taught. Borick decided to go with his original plan. He ran into the inner ring, and then stopped just inside the inner ring. ¡°Stone Spirit!¡±[Borick] Just after stopping a brown glow enveloped him. Borick used one of the few spells he knew to increase his defence. This spell was extra powerful if he stood still. Borick was committed win or lose, and he would do it here. The Imp was surprised by Borick¡¯s actions it had not expected magic, and was prepared for a charge. Because of this Borick had more time to prepare before small vines started wiping at him. As the vines attacked Borick held his ground and blocked as many vines as he could. ¡°Ouch.¡±[Borick] But he couldn¡¯t block all of them. Vines went through his defense and hit Borick. Some of the vines were cut, but they were quickly replaced by more. Soon Borick was standing still blocking his vitals, and taking all of the Imps abuse. ¡°Hey isn¡¯t this getting dangerous? Shouldn¡¯t you pull Borick out?¡±[Miria] ¡°He found his own way to beat this challenge. I¡¯ll pull him out when he can¡¯t take anymore.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Borick kept taking the attacks. He wanted to step back. Everything in his body told him to step back. All he had to do was step back and all of this pain would end, but he couldn¡¯t. No, he wouldn¡¯t Borick would not step back, because to him stepping back meant him losing. He couldn¡¯t bear that, but he didn¡¯t want to keep taking these attacks any longer. So Borick made a rash decision. He charged forward. One would think that after all the charging that Borick did the Imp would be ready, but because Borick¡¯s sword was covering his front the Imp was concentrating his attacks everywhere else. Leaving a straight shot from Borick to the Imp. Bloodied he approached. The Imp charged a bolt of nature magic to stop Borick. He knew this would be dangerous, but could not stop running. For him it was all or nothing; win or lose. He was prepared to win no matter the cost. It was this that allowed him to reach the Imp¡¯s cage and hit it with the tip of his sword before being pulled out of the circle. ¡°Even without touching the cage you passed. Take this potion, and sit down.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Borick chugged the potion as he walked over to Miria and Alexia. ¡°Congratulations Borick!¡±[Miria] ¡°Congrats.¡±[Alexia] ¡°Thanks. Hey Miria, can you heal me the potion wasn¡¯t enough.¡±[Borick] ¡°Of course.¡±[Miria] A warm light enveloped Borick. As the three watched the rest of the students. Most students were able to pass on their second try. A few on their third and the last on the fourth, but no one else passed by touching the cage. ¡°Congratulations everyone on passing, but don¡¯t let this go to your head. The real thing will be much harder and unexpected. Monsters that can use Nature magic are dangerous, and these lessons are some of the most important you will receive.¡±[Mr. Abgon] Side Story 1 Journal entry 3/12/354 Me and a group of C rank adventurers have completed our subjugation quest. It took longer than expected, but we killed the stray wyvern without major injury. So long as there are no more complications I will be able to be there for my daughter¡¯s birth.~ ¡°Hey Josef, stop writing in your journal. We have to get moving.¡±[Gordon] ¡°I¡¯ll be there soon just let me finish up.¡±[Josef] ¡°You keep complaining to us about moving faster, but now you¡¯re slowing us down.¡±[Shven] ¡°I get it I get it. I¡¯m coming now.¡±[Josef] Josef stopped writing and started walking again. Josef didn¡¯t want to take this quest, but he was practically forced to. He was a B rank adventurer, but was only taking small quests around his village while preparing for his child to be born. However just a week before the due date a wyvern was seen landing near the village. It was over a day¡¯s walk away, but it scared the village and had to be dealt with. Normally a group of C rank adventures would be enough for the quest, but the town only had one group of C rank adventures in town and they were below average. If they sent D ranks to help them they would only turn into cannon folder. So one of the workers from the guild came to Josef¡¯s house and tried to convince him to join the quest. She was an old friend of his, and was hoping to use that as leverage. At first Josef didn¡¯t want any part of it. He knew the the wyvern wasn¡¯t of any threat yet, and didn¡¯t want to leave his wife. The worker wasn¡¯t making any headway until she mentioned his child. How could he call himself a good father if he can¡¯t even protect his unborn child from future danger. What if the wyvern did come to the village. Would he be able to protect both his wife and child then. Josef didn¡¯t want to leave his wife, but he was now scared of what could happen. He decided to go on the quest so long as the guild worker would look after his wife 24/7 while he was gone. She happily agreed and Josef left on the quest with a group of 3 C rank adventurers. ¡°So what''s the kid¡¯s name gonna be?¡±[Jane] ¡°Well if its a boy his name will be Marcus, and if it¡¯s a girl she have her mother''s middle name M-¡±[Josef] The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.*Skreeeech* Everyone turned around to see a group of at least 12 wyverns. Josef stood ready to fight, but the others were nervous and shaking in their boots. The wyverns started clawing at the group. Josef took up his sword and started cutting up the wyverns limbs. The other three were trying to deal with the group, but the were getting pushed back and would soon lose their lives. As two wyverns charged the group to finish them off Josef jumped in front of them and took the attack. Three talons were impaling him, but he did not fall. ¡°TrUe RAGe!!!¡±[Josef] Josef was wrapped in a red aura as he started cleaving off the heads of nearby wyverns. They fought for their lives, Josef was being pierced over and over, he lost his sword and had to use his fists, but it made no difference to Josef. He mercilessly killed every last wyvern. When it was over he stood in the center of a massacre covered in blood. ¡°Josef are you ok?¡±[Shven] Shevn walked up to see if Josef was fine after the slaughter, but was held back by Gordon. ¡°Shven don¡¯t, he died. He died standing.¡±[Gordon] True Rage was one of the strongest skills of the Berserker class. Many joked that you only ever had to use this skill once, but that was a sick joke. True Rage can only be used when you''re close to death. It gives a massive boost of strength, but prevents all healing. It is a final move out of desperation. No one has lived through the use of this skill, but the results are awe inspiring. Josef saved this group and the village from their doom, but at the cost of his life. Gordon, Shven,and Jane stood there in shock just staring at their saviour. After they calmed down a bit they picked up Josef¡¯s corpse, and took it back to the village. They thought that would be the worst part of their day. (Author''s note: So I have an issue right now. I have the next three chapters written, but they suck. The next three chapters are based around an escort mission. So please post any suggestions you have for interesting things that could happen. I may have to end up rewriting these chapters so it may take a while before the next update.)