Ch 84 – Getting to Know Each Other
"Raiden, remember to follow her instructions and don't be lazy! Magic is a complicated subject, but I'm sure you would be fine!" Lute shouts as both Kira and Lute were outside their house while Raiden was standing beside his instructor who was a short young lady with blue hair and wearing a dark brown cloak over a white dress.
"I will!" Raiden shouts as he waves his hand high up in the air, while his instructor chuckles and pats him on the head.
As both Raiden and the instructor watched Lute and Kira's figure disappear into the distance, he turns to the instructor with a bright smile.
"Hello! It's nice to meet you!" Raiden greets the instructor with an amicable smile.
"It's nice to meet you too, Raiden-chan. Now, why don't we go inside so we can start learning some fun magic!"
"Magic!" Raiden shouts as both enter the house, and the instructor locked the door, for Raiden is starting his magical body, and to build the foundation for the third component in a certain project.
(Honda POV)
As Honda looks at himself in a large mirror with squinted eyes, he rubs his chin while glancing at his new outfit.
Instead of his usual tracksuit, it was replaced by a black shirt and black pants, and he also wore a black cloak to cover most of his body, especially his face by covering it with the cloak's hood. An appearance that was both normal, but also sketchy at the same time.
'Sigh, this looks so fucking stupid. Let's just hope that what Don said is true, that nobody would believe that I am Honda. Instead, I'll be known as Yuuya.' Honda thought, clearing his throat, he sighs and leaves the room, as he is now set for a new adventure.
Arriving at the open street discretely early in the morning, he starts to walk towards the exit of the Pendragon Kingdom while nervously rubbing the golden ring adorned with a violet gem on his right arm. The ring is actually a Storage Ring, an object made by Louis, even though he is a piece of shit, his usefulness for the team can't be undermined.
As Honda silently walks on the empty street with only a few citizens and adventurers around, Honda can't help but start to imagine what was inside the dungeon in Tyburg.
'Hmm, though the monsters inside dungeons are not determined by the monsters around the area outside, it is theorized that the terrain in a dungeon is perhaps similar to the area outside it. So Tyburg is in a vast open field of grass, so maybe a plain or forest? Hmm, A rank monsters… Shit, what if the monsters inside are Wyverns?! If so, I would die a shit ton amount of times trying to complete that all alone. Maybe I need to make a team to complete it.' Honda thought as his mind already made him have anxious thoughts, that was until he arrived at the exit of the Pendragon Kingdom.
'Now that I think about it, I haven't spent a lot of time outside the Pendragon Kingdom alone.' Honda thought as he silently passed by the two guards protecting the gate, and after getting out, he lets out a sigh of relief that they didn't seem to notice him.
After arriving outside on the open field, he didn't see any cart waiting around and lets out a disappointed sigh.
'It seems like I'll have to wait for a while, though it is a bit early right now, or should I wait inside instead?' Honda thought. Leaning back on the tall walls of Pendragon Kingdom, Honda closed his eyes to think about what the journey might bring.
'Hmm, now that I think about it, my luck with the gacha of death is a bit bad. Sigh, I only managed to nab a few common attributes, my physical strength is only B Rank, some spells, and a few useless skills. Sigh, I guess most of my death was indeed due to causes not related to being directly killed, or me killing myself for a painless death. I am a bit pathetic, ain't I? Even Louis is a lot stronger than me.' Honda thought as he opens his eyes, but they shot wide open when he was greeted by a pair of violet eyes out of nowhere.
"Wah!" Honda shouts as he fell down to the ground on his butt and a chuckle was heard.
"You okay?" a soothing voice said which entered Honda's ears as he turns his head upwards, and he was greeted by a certain… man? With a short stature that Honda was even taller compared to him surprisingly enough, wearing a white cloak over a white shirt and black pants, along with a wooden staff that was held by the man's right hand. And as Honda saw his face, he can't help but feel his heart skip a beat due to the person's beauty.
"I-I'm fine," Honda said, grabbing the outstretched arm to stand up while a certain thought entered his mind.
'His hands… They are so soft.' Honda thought as he patted his pants to dust off the dirt that dirtied them.
"So, you planning to go to Tyburg too?" as Honda heard the question, he can't help but turn his head upward once more to see the man was indeed a mage.
"Y-yeah, I'm planning to go to Tyburg, for the dungeon, you know?" Honda said as his heart beats rapidly, fearing for his identity to not be exposed.
"Same, me and my partner here are waiting for a cart to arrive so we can head over there." The man pointed at his partner in the distance who waved at them. He has a tall frame, a lot taller than Honda that he towers over him. He wears a black cloak, a white shirt, black pants, and the most distinct piece was the featureless white mask that shows a pair of eerie black eyes that looks straight at him.
As he can't help but feel his body halt upon meeting those eerie black eyes, he felt a hand suddenly pat his shoulder which shook him awake.
"Hey man, wanna be a team for the dungeon? We could use some help, and it seems like you are alone here," the man said as Honda calms down.
"Why not, the cost is a bit pricy too, so it's good to divide the cost between us three," Honda said as they saw a cart arriving in the distance.
"Nice! It's nice meeting you, by the way, my name is Lute. While my partner over there is named Kira." Lute introduced the both of them while walking to the cart that parked near them.
'Kira? That's an odd name.' Honda thought as they arrived at the cart.
"Hey mister, we want to go to Tyburg, how much would that be?" Lute asked as Honda glances at the duo with intrigued eyes, both seem to be very interesting characters.
"That'd be 10 Gold, but for a beauty like you riding my old cart, I'd lower it to 9 Gold." The old man said which caused Lute to chuckle.
"Thanks, old man, here you go," Lute said, taking out 9 Gold coins and handing them over to the man.
"Hey, are you okay paying for all three of us?" Honda said as he got in the cart.
"It's fine, I'm a bit wealthy with the business I run." Lute shook his head, dissuading Honda from paying him money.
Upon hearing that Lute was running a business, Honda can't help but feel intrigued and asked, "You run a business?"
"Yeah, it's just a stall where I sell some potions Kira makes. We earn a bit of cash from it daily though it does take a lot of hard work sitting on that crappy wooden chair all day." Lute groaned as Honda chuckled.
"Oh yeah, we haven't heard your name yet!" Lute said as Honda finally realized his mistake.
"Oh, sorry about that. My name is Yuuya, it's nice meeting you two." Honda said his name as Lute and Kira nods their head.
"It's nice meeting you, Yuuya. And just so you know, I'm a Mage while Kira here is a Fighter, Tank, and Ranger hybrid." Lute introduced the both of them.
"Oh, well, you can say I'm a Mage, Fighter, and Ranger hybrid. But I'm most specialized as a fighter, B Rank fighter to be more exact," Honda said.
"Ooh, you're a B rank too? Same!" Lute said as he took out his adventurer card and showed it to Lute.
'Huh, a B Rank mage? And he looks so young too. I wonder if he has a White Soul.' Honda thought as the three, or mostly the two conversed with one another, and Honda silently listened to Lute's stories.
"Yeah, my first encounter with Kira here was when I was being chased by a pack of Orcs after accidentally stumbling into an Orc encampment and we worked with each other without a second thought. And Kira here was strong enough to kill an Orc with only a single blow using his white sword, and we managed to kill the Alpha Orc with only three strikes! Well, I technically did tens of strikes with the spell I used but it's only one spell, so yes, three strikes," Lute said as Honda chuckled.
"So what spell did you used to kill the Alpha Orc?" Honda asked, curious about this spell Lute used.
"Well, I call it "Mana Arrow Barrage" which is just me packing tens of Mana Arrows into just one spell instead of spamming them, and it was actually the first time I used the spell so it was miraculous it worked in the first place." Lute boasted about the spell's instant success.
"Wait, I haven't heard about any spell like that?" Honda said, noticing that there seems to be no spell similar to [Mana Arrow Barrage].
"Oh, it's because it's a self-made spell. I'm kind of a genius, believe it or not. I made most of my own spells, actually." Lute added with a smug smile as Honda raised his eyebrow.
"Oh really?" Honda said, considering spells are hard to make, he was pretty skeptical about Lute's boastful claims.
*Kachak* *Boom*
"W-what?!" Honda shouts as they felt the cart rumbling from the shaking ground as the old man's voice was heard.
"It's-It's an Ogre!" The old man shouted as the three interlocked eyes for a split second and decided upon a single direction.
Instantly, the three got out of the cart and arrived outside the dirt path that was leading through the forest and saw an Ogre that was weirdly big compared to what a normal Ogre should be which made their eyes widen.
"Fuck! It's an Alpha Ogre!" Lute shouts as he instantly pointed his staff forward.
"[Haste], [Strength], [Resistance]!" Lute instantly casted three spells which made Honda's eyes widen in shock upon Lute's feat.
'Single word chants?! Is he a fucking genius or something?! Not even Flare can do that, only Don can!' Honda thought as he felt his body getting a lot stronger while activating his Storage Ring and summoning a high-quality sword out of nowhere.
Instantly, both Honda and Kira rushed forward as he saw a weird white material erupt from Kira's hand to form a white blade similar to a katana and also saw Kira's eyes turn white.
'What is that?' Honda thought before arriving at the Ogre and swinging his sword forward while chanting.
"Oh river of time, push me forward faster like a raging beast, [Time Acceleration]." Honda discretely chanted without anyone being able to listen as his body moved three times faster, his sword instantly arriving at the Ogre's chest and slashing harshly.
Then as he slides to the side, Kira's sword plunges through the deep wound he made and Honda saw countless spikes suddenly pierce throughout the Alpha Ogre's body which was quite insane considering it was a B Rank monster known for its physical capabilities.
"[Mana Bullet]!" Lute's shout was heard in the distance, and Honda saw two blue bullets whizzing through the air and directly piercing through the Alpha Ogre's two eyes and head instantly, an accuracy so insane Honda can't believe Lute wasn't a Ranger.
"I didn't know you were a ranger," Honda said as he watches the countless swords retract from the Ogre's body and return into a single white sword that got reabsorbed into Kira's arm.
"I told you, I'm a genius," Lute said with a wink, for the three's bond got stronger, but unknown to Honda, two certain individuals could hear well enough that they have echolocation, so perhaps his discrete incantation was not that discrete as he first thought.
AN: This is 2136 words, you're welcome.
The fight was just lazy writing, writing for 2 fucking hours straight is hard okay, so send me some powerstones.
Boom, what a smooth fucking transition.
But you know what's smoother, future author here. So Arc 3 is starting called "Travel to the Northern Continent" and in that, Braun will achieve a crap-ton of things like finally gaining countermeasures against divination (though he still acts paranoid as fuck which kinda "stunts" his growth), finally seeing his true stats, and much more.
Writing is hard, so send me some powerstones.
(July 11, 2022 – 229th day of writing)