Chapter 12
Title: General Problems
I wandered down to the dwarf's shop, barging in without knocking.
"Old man, you in here?"
Sabet's voice bellowed from the back. "Back here, brat!"
I made my way through the cluttered shop, finding the dwarf at his workbench, putting the finishing touches on a set of armor.
"Here," Sabet said, standing proudly. "I adjusted it to your size and inscribed a few more defense runes. Added an extra layer of plating on top of the old tattered armor and went with black for the main color scheme."
I stared in awe. My summer set now gleamed with a sleek, deadly design. The chest piece, shoulder pads, gauntlets, pants, and boots were all reinforced with dragonite and behemoth leather. Glowing purple runes ran along the center of each piece. The armor was light, breathable, and tailored for mobility, with only small gaps behind the knees and under the arms.
The winter set was nearly identical, except it was lined with warm, luxurious Westian beast fur for insulation.
I quickly threw on both sets, testing the fit.
'Perfect.'
"This is amazing. You did an incredible job, old timer!" I said, practically glowing with excitement.
"Hmph! Glad you like it, kid," Sabet grunted, though the proud smirk on his face betrayed his tough-guy act.
I pulled out my hardened mana sword. "You wouldn't happen to have a sheath that fits this, would you? Kinda need a new one."
Sabet's eyes widened as he caught sight of the weapon. He studied the shimmering purple blade, the way it reflected light unnaturally.
"What the hell did you use to make this?"
"Eh, long story. It's basically condensed and hardened pure mana. Made it a while ago."
"You… made this?!" Sabet pointed at the blade, then at Basil, utterly flabbergasted. "The craftsmanship alone is at least that of a semi-master! Would you ever consider being my apprentice?"
"Yea I had a lot of time to kill, so kinda perfected my craft with the materials I had" I shrugged. "But no I cant. Not right now at least. Got some things I need to take care of first."
"Right… well, I think I've got a sheath somewhere…"
Sabet rummaged through a few barrels before pulling out a beautiful scabbard, black leather with gold trim and a silver-capped tip.
"Made this for some noble prick back when I worked in the capital. He never picked it up, so I brought it with me when I left." Sabet said handing it over.
"Amazing. How much do I owe you?" I said, my face glowing.
"Eh, take it. It's only gathering dust around here anyway."
"Thanks. I'll have to come by and learn how to draw runes from you sometime. It's been on my to-do list forever." I gathered my things and walked towards the door.
"That's fine. But it'll cost ya," Sabet said, rubbing his fingers together with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll make sure you get what you want," I called as I walked out, the shop door swinging shut behind me.
Now fully suited in my summer armor with my mana sword sheathed at my side, I made my way to a towering building fronted by a statue of a blindfolded goddess holding a scythe. I walked through the grand doors into a dim, candle-lit chamber filled with pews and a red carpet leading to a golden effigy of the goddess of death.
"Quite the following you've got, Adith," I muttered as I circled the statue and found a door tucked behind it.
The room beyond buzzed with activity. Men and women in black uniforms rushed about, carrying scrolls, talking in hushed voices, and scribbling notes at desks that lined the walls. I walked up to what appeared to be the front desk.
"Excuse me. I'm here to see Lace. Said he'd let you know I'd be stopping by."
Everyone stopped. The entire room fell silent, and whispers rippled like wind through dry leaves.
"That's him? He doesn't look that strong."
"Is it true? He survived a strike from Captain Lace?"
"I think Lace was holding back. No way that guy beat him."
I chuckled to myself and smiled awkwardly pretending not to be able to hear their whining whispers.
The woman at the counter blushed after looking at me. "U-um. He's up the stairs, first door on the right."
"Thanks!" I gave her a wink before heading up.
Once I disappeared down the hallway, the room slowly returned to life.
I reached the door and knocked. "Yo!" I called, poking my head in.
Lace didn't even look up from the stack of paperwork on his desk. His silver hair bounced slightly as he scribbled away.
I stepped fully inside. "What's all this?" I asked, picking up the top page.
"Don't touch that," Lace said slowly.
I skimmed it anyway. "You know, a good leader knows how to distribute work properly."
Lace let out a long, tired sigh. "Just wait over there. I'm almost done."
I wandered to the wall, eyeing the array of weapons, two finely crafted daggers and a simple-looking sword with a skull engraving on the hilt. It looked cheap, but the wear on the handle told another story.
Bored, I sat in the corner and slipped into meditation. Out here, the mana was so much thicker and richer. Pulling it in was effortless, like drinking from a river instead of a trickling faucet.
Minutes passed. Then hours.
*Swirl*
Something shifted. A surge. The air around me folded in on itself making a clapping noise before fading back into a quiet whisper.
'Yes. I did it!' I thought.
Purple light pulsed through me. I opened my eyes, only to see Lace leaning in inches from my face.
"WOAH! What are you doing?"
Lace stared. "How'd you do that?"
"Do what?" I asked with an awkward smile.
"Your aura. It just… became more powerful. I've been watching you for hours. The mana around you was practically vibrating."
I chuckled. "I was just taking a nap. What do you mean?"
Lace wasn't convinced. "Fine. Since you're not gonna tell me, let's make a bet."
I grinned. "Go on."
"I sent a team into Gate 47 to investigate an anomaly. It's supposed to be a B-rank gate, but there were reports of an A-rank demon near the entrance.Since sending them in I haven't heard from them in two days."
Lace stood. "We go in together. Whoever gets more kills wins. If I win, you tell me how you did that. If you win…" Lace hesitated, then sighed, "I'll owe you a favor."
My eyes sparkled, I could practically pry any bit of information I needed from him with this. "Deal."
Lace grabbed his sword and daggers off the wall and the two of us rode out on horseback, eventually arriving at the gate, a swirling black vortex framed by pillars.
"This is it," Lace said, dismounting.
"Ladies first," I replied, striding in with a grin.
The inside of Gate 47 (B) was a swamp. A crumbling castle loomed in the distance, and the screams of the damned echoed through the air carried by a chilling wind.
"Nice armor," Lace said as we made our way down a muddy path. "Where'd you get it?"
"It was my father's," I responded. "After he died, I adjusted it to fit me and now I wear it in his memory."
I paused and closed my eyes. Using Mana Vision I could tell they were surrounding us.
"Here they come."
"Where?" Lace asked looking around.
As soon as the words left his mouth, dozens of green-skinned demons burst from the brush, snarling and screeching.
I reacted first.
In a blur of purple light, I drew my sword, dashing through them like a whirlwind. Bodies dropped like chopped grass. Phantom Step let me cut down the ones who tried to run in fear.
2 minutes later, it was over.
Lace stood still, stunned.
I patted him on the shoulder. "You'll have to be quicker than that if you wanna beat me!"
"…What level are you?" lace asked, his face stunned.
"Seventy-five. But level doesn't mean strength."
"I could barely track your movements…"
"Right. That was thirty-two kills, by the way," I added with a smirk.
I scanned his stats when we dueled earlier and he was at level 83, if he could barely see my movements then I wonder what my actual strength is?
We gathered 32 (C rank) mana crystals and marched onwards.
We reached the castle without further incident.
"I'm surprised it's been so quiet. You think your team's dead?" I asked while admiring the ruin of the castle.
"They were all B-ranks around level 60. Should've handled this easily," Lace said.
The castle gates were wide open.
No guards.
No patrols.
Just silence.
We entered cautiously.
*CLANK. SCRAAAAPE.*
A massive green demon emerged from the shadows, dragging a slab of metal soaked in blood.
"I bet that's the anomaly," Lace muttered. "Demons from higher floors have started dropping down to lower floors. With their gates closed, they're bored, and hunting."
Lace charged, daggers flashing, but his strikes barely scratched the bloated beast.
The demon laughed and spun his metal slab like a whirlwind.
"Watch out!" I shoved Lace aside, taking the hit myself. I flew into a building with a crash.
Lace cursed and rushed back in, moving like lightning, slicing flesh from bone. Still, the demon didn't falter.
I stood from the rubble, face twisted in annoyance.
Just then, hundreds of C-rank demons began pouring out from the buildings that surrounded us.
"Great," I muttered. I leapt into the air and fired Earth Spikes. The fat demon blocked them all.
still in the air, I reinforced my entire body with mana. My eyes flared with purple light. I summoned my shadow blade and struck down on the demon as I was falling, driving the demon to its knees.
The shockwave caused Laces's hair to be blown back. "What power" lace muttered under his breath. "Ill take care of the small fry, you get the big guy!" he yelled and activated a skill, like a flash of lightning he appeared in front of the demons that flooded in.
"Alright. Playtime's over." I said
I flipped over the demon, sliced behind its knees, causing it to fall to the ground. It screamed at me with anger and malice in his voice but drove my swords through its neck, slicing its head clean off.
"A-Rank? Barely a warm-up." I said as I read the system message that appeared in my retinas.
Lace could be seen in the back ground zipping all over the place cutting demons heads clean off, making sure none got to close to me who was in the center.
handling the swarm like a hurricane he dodged and weaved, cutting down demon after demon. The demons tried hitting him but before they're blade could even reach where Lace was, their head was already on the ground. When only one remained, it gathered all its strength and charged Lace, he stepped aside with insane speed, the demon wobbled past Lace, dropped its weapon and fell to its knees, its green head rolled towards me leaving a trail of blood from its body.
I gave him an approving nod. "Not bad. Not many Guardians could take on that many C-ranks solo."
"I know," Lace replied, cleaning his blades.
"What now?" I said scanning the area.
"We search for the team. Let's hope someone's still alive." Lace said as he sheaved his daggers.
We searched every building, every alley. Nothing.
"For a B-rank gate there's hardly any demons, I guess your team killed them all?" I said with a puzzled look on my face.
"Yea but where are the bodies if that's the case" he mumbled as thoughts crossed his mind.
"Main hall is the only place we haven't checked," Lace said grimly as he looked at two giant doors covered in blood.
"Let's go then." I didn't want to expose myself so I refrained from informing him, but I sensed two powerful auras from that place.
Inside, 3 humans and one elf hung from the ceiling by their feet, blood dripping from their mutilated and headless bodies. On a throne at the far end sat a demon with crimson eyes, resting his head on his hand with closed eyes and a bored look, a glaive resting beside his throne.
'2 floor generals?' I asked myself as I read
'General Zan of the 48th (A)' floating above the firsts head.
Beside him on the ground sat a bruised and battered, monstrous brute, who was named 'General Ike of the 47th (B)'.
Lace clenched his fists. "Can we handle two generals at once?"
"if your scared just stay out of the way" I said walking past Lace.
Zan licked the blood off a severed Elf head like it was a treat, and smiled.
Lace grabbed my shoulder making me stop.
"That one's mine" Lace said coldly looking at Zan.
He stepped forward, putting his daggers away and drawing his sword.
Zan, with out moving from his throne, kicked Ike forward. As if telling him to take care of it.
Ike grabbed two hammers that laid next to him, one in each hand. He charged Lace with a roar. Lace held his blade in front of him and closed his eyes. A blue aura formed around him as he opened them. As soon as Ike was within range, Lace kicked him in the side sending him crashing into a wall and continued forward emitting blue aura with every step.
"That kid" I muttered. "If I didn't know any better id say he acts just like me, hogging all the fun like that."
Ike climbed out of the wall and shook his dizziness off. Then attacked wildly. I yawned as I parried each strike, then casually chopped off his hand.
"You know, I came here because that kid asked me for a favor."
Ike roared, swinging his hammer with his other hand trying to squash me.
"And then he just goes and does all the work by himself." I said as I stopped Ike's attack by grabbing his wrist.
Ike tried pulling his hand back but it wouldn't budge, so he used his nub to punch me over and over covering me in his filthy blood that dripped from his severed hand.
"Like whats the point in me being here if your just gonna do all the work anyways." I said blocking the nub blows, And then kicked Ike backwards slightly.
"Your kind of in a similar situation so you know where I'm coming from right?" I asked Ike
Ike snarled at me and rushed. I slide towards him and stabbed Ike in the throat and sat on the corpse after it fell to the ground.
"Ehhh…Guess not." I said looking at Ikes dead corpse.
*BOOM!*
Lace smashed into the wall beside me.
"Would you shut the hell up?! By the goddess your annoying" he growled, blood dripping from his mouth. 'Fuck this guys strong I'm not sure if I can beat him' Lace thought to himself, and then looked over at Basil. Who waved back at Lace with a goofy smile. Lace frowned 'definetly not asking him for help'.
Lace generated a icy blue shield on his left arm and ran at Zan while blocking a strike from his glave, thrusting his sword towards Zans stomach. Zan dropped his glave and rolled to the side kicking Lace from behind knocking him over. Zan picked up his glave, made a swirling motion and brought it down on top of lace. Lace rolled over and used both hands to hold the shield blocking the attack. He then flipped backwards grabbing his sword and exchanged blows with Zan.
Lace yelled and got in close, slashing upwards giving Zan a wound from his leg to his neck. Snarling Zan kneed Lace in the stomach sending him a few feet in the air and then spun around and kicked sending him flying back towards me making a hole in the wall on the other side of me.
Lace coughed, his ice shield disappeared, and his blue aura fadded. "Alright your turn, I need a break." Lace groaned.
I smiled, stood up, summoned my shadow blade, and pulled my mana sword out of Ikes neck.
"Right, right. My turn."
I reinforced my entire body making my eyes glow purple, and walked slowly toward Zan, who was breathing heavy and dripping blood from his stomach. Zan put both hands on his glaive and launched a flurry of piercing strikes.
I weaved through them like a dancer.
"Tch. Show-off," Lace muttered from the wall.
I closed the distance, grabbed Zan's glaive mid-attack, and pulled him forward. Our faces now inches apart.
"Hi there." I said with a crazed smile.
I drove my sword through the demon's chin, straight up through the skull.
Zan slumped, twitching slightly.
I pushed the corpse off my sword and walked over to the wall and helped Lace to his feet.
"Let's get outta here, kid."
We walked out of the castle after saying a quick prayer for the corpses hanging by their feet.