Chapter Fifteen: Obtaining A Mysterious Weapon

Standing in the centre of Great Haven, Karl watched the hustle and bustle of people who were going to and fro from their occupations, such as a blacksmith or a healer. When they noticed him though, they would give him a wide birth like he was a plague or a rat on the street.

Starting to sob because of how much it reminds him of the past Earth, Karl had flames streaming down his face, but they were dark blue flames that were only 10 degrees Celsius and they were hidden by his goggles.

Some people noticed the movement of his shoulders, so they thought that this new General had gone crazy with power and was about go on a killing spree.

Fleeing the area rapidly, everyone started to hide in their houses, which were made out of mushrooms, and a young girl on the street decided make a gamble and run across the street to her house.

The people who had been following behind Karl started preparing spells and readying their weapons, that was when they saw the young girl start running across the street. While running, the young girl was about to pass in front of Karl when she tripped over her own feet out of nervousness.

Sliding to a stop directly at the feet of the new General, the young girl didn't even dare to move for fear of accidentally incurring the ire of this new General. Holding her breath in anticipation, all of the onlookers waited for the outburst from the General.

They were waiting to see how cruel this General would be compared to previous ones who had been locked away. The young girl was short, maybe 5'2, African-American descent, she had shoulder length black curly hair, her eyes were a bright green, but they were filled with fear and trepidation at the moment.

She was wearing a short white skirt with black leggings and a purple blouse with a small insignia of a bird on the right shoulder. A few feet away from her right hand was a wooden wand made of oak wood, the end of the wand that was held had a small clip that was meant for a belt.

Looking down at the young girl in front of him, Charlie slowly bent down and lifted her by her armpits, and he placed her on her feet. He then crouched down, picked up her wand and handed it to her, she absentmindedly took it while looking at his masked face.

While staring at the mask, there was a loud thumping coming from a hundred metres down the street, and then an incredibly large dog came into view. It was making a mad dash in the direction of the two.

Even compared to most other dogs that were still here, this dog was massive, it is over 4 metres tall weighing at least 900 kilograms. Being pure white in colour, it had large golden eyes, extremely fluffy fur, and large teeth.

Feeling the vibrations in the ground, the young girl snapped out of her daze and looked at her companion that was approaching. The dog's hackles were raised as it was charging towards them. Because of the mutation that the selected animals had received, they had increased intelligence and a better memory, they even were able to understand human speech.

This large dog had seen the badge on Karl's chest and it knew what it signified since it had seen it before. That was why it reacted in the way it did, it's master had almost been taken advantage of by someone wearing the same medal a while ago, the reason she wasn't was because of the group of people stalking every General.

Barking at Karl, the dog had dragged it's master back by the blouse, it was then ready to pounce on him, but it stopped and started whining. Peering into the goggles of Charlie, the dog felt something, something that it had never felt before.

It wasn't fear. It wasn't terror. It was something beyond that, something that couldn't be explained due to the lack of words that the dog knew. Slouching to the ground and not moving, the dog made no noise whatsoever, it barely even breathed.

Stunned at the reaction of her dog, the young girl looked at the General, who was staring at her dog, and she tried to open her mouth to get their attention, but multiple people inside houses and shops made a shushing gesture.

Even though she didn't say anything, the girl had already gained the attention of Charlie, who no longer looked at the dog. Realizing that the feeling it had before was gone, the dog looked at Karl with it's ears lowered and it's nose to the floor.

"Are you alright?" Flinching in fright, the young girl looked around a few times before looking at the General and pointing to herself. "Yes. Are you hurt anywhere?" Hurriedly shaking her head, the young girl put her hands together and twiddled her fingers.

A mosquito like voice then came from her lips as she asked, "Y-you aren't a-angry with me for falling in your w-way?" "No, why should I be? It wasn't on purpose that you fell in front of me, so there isn't a reason to be angry, is there?"

"Of course not! I just thought that you would be like previous Generals who would abuse their power!" Shouting this out because of the tense situation, the young girl clamped her mouth shut and widened her eyes. Was she about to get killed?

Everything held their breath at this moment, the sudden outburst horrified many onlookers, they thought that the outburst would be the last straw and cause the General to go on a rampage, but their expectations were once again overturned.

Clenching his fists, Karl looked at the young girl, "Where are those Generals now?" Since his voice was slightly muffled, the young girl couldn't hear the unbridled rage that was in Karl's voice. "T-They are imprisoned below the giant mushroom."

Releasing the tension in his fist, Karl relaxed, and he walked closer to the girl. "Do you know where a good blacksmith for forging helmets is?" Asking the question, he waited for a response, he hadn't come here for the sole purpose of sightseeing.

"No, I mean yes! I do! If you would be interested in me leading you there, I would happily do so." Answering the question truthfully, the young girl slowly started walking away while watching Karl, who had started following behind her after a few seconds.

Sighing in relief, all of the onlookers slowly came out of their houses with surprised looks on their face, they had thought that this new General might be like previous Generals. Continuing to follow behind this new General after a few more seconds, the group of stalkers monitored Karl closely.

"M-My name is Theresa, my friends call me Trish, well... they used to. I don't know where they are now, maybe they're in a different Safe Haven, but I haven't made any new friends ever since the first attack. It's because I'm not good at anything except for dancing, which isn't useful in the current state of the world.

I had turned 19 today, which was why I was out and about, it's also why I'm dressed so nicely compared to other days. Rarely do I ever dress this nice, even before the accident, I would usually just wear some jeans and a sweater, but after the accident I now wear a knee-length robe.

Buddy is the name of my dog, he's been with me ever since this whole situation happened, in fact, he was actually my dog from before the Earth became what it is now. He's quite friendly as long as you can gain his trust."

Leading him down a small alley in between some houses, Theresa and Karl soon arrived a at small blacksmith's shop called 'Itami's Workshop', it had the sound of metal hitting metal originating from inside. Glancing at Theresa's back, Karl wondered if this was really where a good blacksmith would dwell and not just a random shop that she had found accidentally so she could ditch him.

Stepping through the door, Karl saw that Trish walked up to a small counter, on that counter was a small silver bell, and Trish rung the bell. A resounding chime was produced from the bell as it was rung and a short muscular mixed ethnicity man came out from behind a curtain door while the sound of metal hitting metal had stopped.

Standing at 5' tall with a shiny bald head, brown eyes, and a magnificent beard and moustache that was red in colour and braided. Eyeing Trish since she was holding the bell, the short muscular man smiled and went over for a hug.

Hugging her, the top of his head only reached her chin, so his face was in her breasts, but Trish in't appear to be disturbed by that and continued to let him hug her. After 10 seconds the man let go of Trish and looked behind her, the smile on his face then disappeared immediately and he turned pale.

Everyone was afraid of the Generals, especially the new Generals, so when he saw that this was an unfamiliar General, the short bald man thought that he was going to get killed or beaten. Turning around, he was about to run away, but Trish grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Wait! He's not a bad General! I tripped in front of him and he helped me, Buddy also growled at him and he's still here, so he this guy is a good General!" Freezing in motion, the short bald man looked at Trish in shock, "You tripped in front of a General!?"

Peering at Karl, the man cautiously walked up to him and examined him from top to bottom, "Are you really not going to hurt us?" Nodding affirmatively, Karl slowly reached out his hand towards the short bald man.

"My name is Kral, it's a pleasure to meet you." Watching the gloved hand carefully for any twitch of the finger, the bald man reached out his hand and shook Karl's hand. "Its a pleasure to meet you Kral, my name is Sam Itami, you can call me Itami

Rubbing his bald head, Itami nervously looked at Kral, "So, what did you come here for?" Asking this as he went behind the counter and sat on a chair, Itami looked at Trish and Karl, who both looking around.

"I brought him here since he wanted to get some armour, I don't know how much or what kind of armour, but he just wanted armour." Trish spoke while Karl continued to look around, he was looking at the weapons and armour on the walls, wondering which one would work best for him.

There was a single weapon that peaked his interest, it was an expertly made scythe that was made out of some kind of metal, and it was on a pair of hooks that held it against the wall. The blade was 1.5 metres long and double-sided, the shaft was over 2 metres long, and a small ring was on the bottom of the shaft.

Walking closer to the scythe, Karl thought that it would probably be a good weapon to use and he looked at the small note under it, which made a bewildered look appear on his face, 'Free as long as you can lift it'.

"Why is this free if someone can lift it?" Hearing the sudden question in the middle of their conversation, both Trish and Itami looked at Karl, who was still examining the scythe. "Because no one can lift it, many have tried, but no one has successfully been able to lift it. Even the leader had tried at one point."

"If no one can lift it then how did it get attached to the wall?" Karl asked this as he started reaching for the scythe. "Because it was here when I had bought this store from the previous owner, they had said that it just randomly appeared on the wall after waking up from a sudden nap."

Unbeknownst to Karl, or anyone for that matter, there was a very dim glow coming from the palm of the hand that he was reaching towards the scythe, and it shot into the scythe like a bolt of electricity when his hand reached a centimetre away from it.

Grabbing the scythe, Karl effortlessly lifted it off of the hooks and held it with one hand, and he ran his other hand along the curved blade. Widening his eyes and mouth to as large as they could get, Itami pointed breathlessly at Karl and the scythe, and he fell to his knees.

"H-How? How did you lift it off the hooks? Scratch that, what level are you and how high is your strength?" Crawling in his hands and knees, Itami looked up at Karl as he asked these questions, but he wouldn't receive a satisfactory answer.

"I don't know, I just lifted it like any other thing, also it's super lightweight." Standing up, Itami looked at the scythe that was black with purple specks, and gestured for Karl to hand it to him. Slowly lowering the scythe into the hands of Itami, Karl was about to let go of the scythe when Itami pulled his hands back as if they had touched boiling water.

Gazing at him, Karl asked two questions. "Why did you pull your hands back and is it still free?" Wiping his hands on his pants, Itami looked at the scythe frightfully, and he answered Karl's questions.

"I had a feeling that if you had let go, then I wouldn't have my hands anymore, and yes it's still free. Also, I will give you a gift since you are a new General and also because I want to make a good impression for our first meeting."

"Oh, no need to give me a gift, I already have a good impression of you, so don't worry about it." Raising an eyebrow, Itami looked at this new General who was almost to nice, and he insisted. Giving in to Itami, Karl would accept whatever gift he gave, and he was grateful of the gift that he received.

Wheeling out a suit of full-plate armour that was a little bigger than what Karl needed, Itami gave it as a gift. The armour was solid steel that had it's durability and toughness increased by magic, it also had an engravings that would allow the wearer to store 2 cubic metres of stuff.

It wasn't that the space inside was a set space, it was a space that could hold 2 cubic metres, so if you had a stick that was 3 metres long, it could still be put inside the space. Taking the armour, Karl went into a room that would allow for the changing of clothing and armour to see if it fits.

Putting on the armour, Karl walked out of the room, Itami nodded approvingly while Trish looked at him with light in her eyes. "Thank you Itami, for the scythe and armour, and thank you Trish, for bringing me here. If either you ever need my help, just post a notice at the Association and I will come and help as soon as possible."

Saying his goodbyes, Karl started heading back to the Association with his new scythe in the storage of the armour. Watching his back fading away, Trish sighs longingly, "I think I have fallen for him, he's just so nice compared to most people nowadays, and he's probably good looking too."

"I agree with all of the things you just said, you have most definitely fallen for him, even if you haven't seen his face. Well, I need to get back to work, I have 3 commissions that I need to get done within 48 hours, so I have lots to do."

Pushing her out of his store, Itami went back to work while Trish got on Buddy's back and started heading towards one of her jobs. She was a Healer after all, and she was employed at the main Hospital for the people who go out exploring and come back injured.

(AN. Same as usual, but I did remove some stuff from in the first chapter. Peace out!)