Prologue
“Genéisst mäi fräie Fall
Wann ech iwwer den Himmel kräizen
A schloen d’Atmosphär
Also ech wier vun allen bekannt!
Meteorä!”
A giant fireball that bigger than a house rampaging from the sky towards a camp as its target.
The blinding light and the scorching fire was the last thing that could be felt by the goblins and their shaman. It only took one hit before everything around the camp become dust with nothing but a crater left in its path.
Success!
Anne’s voice was heard in my mind.
“A huge success I could say!” I replied with a smile while still gliding down towards the ground.
It’s been months since my first training with Eve and Anne starts. I am now adventuring with Anne, the black cat from PortHumming who was actually the Hero of War before she met her demise and reincarnated into a cat.
“I guess we could use this tactic from now on.” Anne then teleport us back to the ground.
The Meteora spell was actually Anne’s idea. She suggested that I could prepare a bigger Fira by enchanting a longer chant and when it's almost ready, Anne will then teleport us above the sky facing our target.
Let’s not do this too much.
“Hmm? Why?” I asked.
You can’t finish the quest without bringing any proof of your hunt, can you?
“AH!”
I looked at the Meteora after-effects only to found nothing remains at the location.
“Ahh… all that for nothing? There goes my 11th Rank pendant…”
I am now registered as a 12th Rank Adventurer. I did some hunting quests with Anne after I depart from PortHumming. Most of it was goblins as Gabe once said but I also did some wolf pack hunts and monsters alike, but nothing as grand as the Tesák-Worm though.
But at least we can now be sure that you will get the 11th Rank Adventurer title easily.
“Us, not just 'me’. We are in this together, Anne.”
Right. I misspoke, forgive me.
I replied with a smile.
The day was bright and the sky was clear, it’s a good day to hunt so it probably better if we tried to look for another goblin shaman camp to obliterate.
“Are you not missing Portland, Anne?”
Hmm? Why sudden the question?
“Cuz, I miss them already.”
I still remember clearly how Gabe cries his eyes out when I depart from PortHumming with Anne. I also remember how Eve holding Gabe down when we left.
To be honest, I never thought that I could have a chance to see Eve sobbing all night like that in my lifetime.
“Well, this is your second lifetime so…”
Haha… true enough. Yes, I missed them already.
Even though Eve looked like some brave warrior without tears when Anne and I depart, the three of us cried our hearts out in my room the night before we left. We spent our last night together awake to soothe our sadness from the split up. Eve was a good friend and a great master even though she didn’t acknowledge it herself. I learned a lot of things just from those few months of training.
“I wanna ask you if we could go back but I think we need to move forward.”
Yes. I also agree that we have to move forward. We can always get back later and show them what we achieved. And even if something wrong did happen to them we could always know from the pendant.
Before we left, Eve gives back Anne’s pendant to her as a memento and a tracker to know each other location and condition. The green pendant will glow red if one of the wearers were in mortal danger.
“Yeah, and you should be fine with teleporting the both of us back right away, right?”
The unique skill that Anne has was teleporting. She could move herself a few times a day before but after we tweak the skills and tried everything we could think of, we are now capable of teleporting anywhere as long as we already mapped the location on my grimoire. And the huge amount of mana requirement from long-range teleportation would also be charged from my grimoire. Anne would only need to cast it from the book instead of her body.
Yes. Anne replied on my mind directly.
“Alright, let’s see now. I think the camp we got just now was from this one quest so the other one should be still lingering around.”
I put out a few papers from my leather bag and read them with Anne on my shoulder.
“It should be that way.” I pointed out a direction and starts walking.
After a few minutes' walk, Anne and I arrived near the other goblin camp location. I immediately hide in the bushes when I sensed that fighting has already begun in the camp.
SLASH! JAB! SMASH! TRING!
The sound of all kinds of melee weapons clashing with each other could be heard even from this distance.
“Aww… other adventurers already on the case…”
Keep your eyes open, they didn’t strike me as someone with experience. They might need your help.
“Alright.”
The party in battle was consist of two gentlemen, one was brown-haired and the other was silver-haired. Their movements were definitely one you could not call a beginner but it's also not enough to face dozens of goblins at once.
“HAAA!”
DUMP!
A mace hit a goblin's face and throw him up in the air for a few seconds before landing hard on the ground.
“HEAA!!!”
SLASH!
Another goblin’s head split from its body to the ground.
“HAAA!”
The party was winning but the worse is yet to come. The goblins are an easy pick for beginners but the shamans are on a different level. They use wicked magic to disable their enemies.
Here it comes!
And like psychics my thoughts became reality. The shaman comes out from one of the goblin houses and immediately starts his spell.
“Let’s go, Anne!”
“Sha shaa ka kara Mu!”
Right before the spell finish, Anne teleports the both of us directly in front of the shaman to block it before it hits the two men.
“Sorry!” I shout to their face before I turned in the shaman direction once again.
The two men were confused after my sudden arrival but immediately continue the battle with the goblins.
“Volitare.”
I drew my twin dagger and dashed through the air and shrunk our distance in just a few moments.
“Acka!”
SLASH! SLASH!
The shaman's throat was sliced open after I finish my attack.
“WOAH DID YOU SEE THAT!?”
One of the men shouts to the other one.
“Watch out!” The silver-haired man shouts back.
It looks like it was too late but a black cat suddenly appears out of nowhere.
Shooop!
A blue warp gate shows up inside the attacking goblin’s stomach and another blue warp gate shows up in other goblin’s face. And then it swapped place making both the goblin dead with a gruesome body.
“WHOAAAA DID YOU SEE THAT!!!!????" The brown-haired man shouts again.
He did that multiple times after seeing some of our 'unique' attacks until the battle was finished a few minutes later. The four of us kill almost 50 goblins in total just from that camp alone.
“I’m so sorry to intervene in your battle.” I bowed to the two guys after the battle.
It was a taboo to intervene in someone’s battle unless they asked to. There are people who might claim the one who intervenes was stealing their kills.
“No, no, it's okay really. You saved us. I don’t know what happened just now but you probably think that we couldn’t handle the shaman and help us right?”
The silver-haired man replied and the brown-haired man nods excitedly.
“Well yeah, but…”
“Your moves were so coooolllll! How do you move so fast like that???” The brown-haired man cuts me out.
Thunk!
And get hit by his friend.
“Don’t ask another adventurer for their secrets.” the man said.
“Aww fine… by the way my name is Jack and this is Flael. Can I have your name, my savior? Or even your autograph?”
Thunk!
“Ahahaha… My name is Cyan Bernalette. You can call me anything you want. And this cat is Anne.”
“Thank you to you too Anne! You were really helpful!"
“She is indeed. I never thought I would see a battle cat.”
“Nyaa~” Anne replied.
“Well I guess you can start looting the hunt rewards then, I’ll take my leave now.” I said while preparing to leave.
“No, please take a bounty for yourself Cyan. It’s not possible for us to take down this camp by ourselves anyway.”
“Yes, senior! Take what you need before you leave!”
“You sure? Wait, senior???”
The both of them nod.
“Alright, I just need this.” I then slashed one shaman ear with their ring attached as proof I need to advance to 11th Rank.
“I am not a senior you know, we are all 12th Rank here.” I showed them my two-star bronze pendant after I saw theirs.
“But you are much above our levels, senior!”
The other man nods.
After I helped them looting everything they need both our parties start splitting up and say our goodbyes.
“I hope I can see you again senior!”
“May your journey be blessed and fruitful.”
I waved them goodbyes and we then start to walk to our separate destination.
So I guess mission completed?
“Hell yeaaa it is!!! Shaman’s Ear obtained! Here we come 11th Rank!” I shout my voice out after a few minutes walk.
The day is bright and the sky was clear. I bet my smile were also bright and clear as I moved another step forward with my goals.
To be continued to Chapter One.
~Terti
