11 Chapter 11 - The Hatching
The Reimagining of the Bow Hero
Chapter 11 – The Hatching
Author's Note: The story is going to go a bit faster now, since I spent way too long on the last few chapters.
Numerous days have passed, and my level had risen to nearly 30.
After splitting with Naofumi, my party and I headed to Lafan village, where we booked a room at the inn, and spent every waking moment in the dungeons. Slash after slash, shot after shot, the number of creatures decreased drastically. The amount of level ups was absolutely insane. Did legendary heroes have faster experience gain than normal people?
I waved goodbye to the innkeeper of this town, and we began our brief journey back to Castle Town. I forgot to check the Adventurer's Guild for quests, while I suggested that same idea to Naofumi based on what I'd heard from people on the streets. Maybe it would give me a cool quest, like something out of RuneScape.
As night fell, we entered the capital exhausted and out of breath. We were jumped by bandits along the way, and Rojeel and Welst did a good job holding them off while I sniped their leader from afar. The rest of them scurried, and we collected what they'd dropped. We gave some of it to the unfortunate poor we saw along the road.
We booked an inn to spend the night, and we would to go the guild at the break of dawn.
As the sun rose, we started our journey towards the Guild. As we walked into the door, a lavish and comfortable interior met our eyes. There were bulletin boards on each of the walls, with quests littered about.
Since time was of the essence, I skipped all of that and walked directly to what appeared to be the boss.
"Good Morning," I said. "Would you have any strenuous quests that would be befitting of a legendary hero? One that is high risk and high reward?"
"Yes," He replied. "As a matter of fact, I had just received one just now. Would you like to take a look?"
I followed the man into a room filled with papers. He grabbed one of the larger sheets from the top.
"Here it is."
I picked up the sheet and began reading through it. It contained information about a corrupt kingdom in the north that had been in civil strife for many years and was undergoing a massive famine. My goal was to remove the corrupt king and save the country. It also paid handsomely too, a full 15 gold, or the equivalent of 1500 silver. Which was many times more than what I had on me.
"I'll accept it." I spoke. "How long do I have to complete it?"
"You will have at most one month to complete this particular quest. The nation is in turmoil, and only you can save it."
I accepted the quest, gathered my party, and walked out of the Guild hall. We returned to the inn to pick up the filolial incubator and prepare for the journey north.
Just as I put my hands on the incubator, I heard a crack coming from the egg. It seemed like it was hatching, and I could see the filolial's beak popping out.
Suddenly, the eggshell burst into small fragments as what appeared to be a purple Final Fantasy chocobo emerged and immediately jumped onto my head, chirping cute sounds as it made itself a new home in my hair.
"Aww, how cute!" Eda remarked.
"It must think that you're it's mother." Rojeel helpfully added.
"This is imprinting, huh?" I commented. "Now, this might slightly delay our plans."
"Let's go out and gain some experience points." Welst said. "That might level it up faster."
We then proceeded to spend three whole days killing monsters, such as porcupines, giant lizards, giant frogs and giant bees while the adorable filolial sat on top of my head. We had to spend a decent amount of money buying food for it, as it grew from the sized of a steamed bun to a fully-fledged ostrich in such a small amount of time. All this time spent leveling up the filolial had led me to only gain four levels, and the rest of my party to gain two.
After being thoroughly exhausted from a full week's worth of work, I hit the hay and dozed off, finally happy that we had a faster mode of transportation.
But when I woke up and headed to the stable where I last left my filolial, what appeared absolutely shocked me.
What looked like a fat, round chicken stood before me. This was no longer an ostrich or chocobo, it was a totally different species. But, although it looked awfully ridiculous, it's purple feathers and tall stature made it look awfully majestic and menacing. I had to come up with a name for it.
Purple…
What other words meant purple…?
Fuchsia? No, Welst told me this was a boy.
Magenta? Wouldn't work.s
What about Indigo? That was a boy's name.
Indigo would do.
I slowly approached the towering beast and stroked his neck gently. He clucked in joy and lightly stomped his feet. I picked up a slice of raw meat from the ground that I had left earlier and threw it to him. He instantly gobbled it up. From what I heard, filolials should be hungrier, but this one ate surprisingly little for his size. That would save us a lot of money.
The rest of my party also walked in, obviously shocked at the sudden transformation.
Welst, the most knowledgeable of the bunch, walked up to me and exclaimed: "That looks like a filolial king! According to legend, they are rumored to be the powerful leaders of wild filolial flocks!"
"Wait," I spoke confusedly. "But we don't have a flock here."
"I don't know what to tell you, Satoshi. It thinks you're it's mama, so maybe it thinks we're the flock?"
"Kyah! Kyah!" Indigo clucked.
Sweet! Now I had a super rare chocobo on my side! Now the journey north could truly commence, after that small detour. At least I got something out of the delay. First though, we would have to go register to the dragon hourglass at the castle, and then go do some more grinding to prepare ourselves for our first battle.
Chapter 12 out tomorrow!
