Chapter 35: Chapter 35 - Rumors
{A/N: And now we return to the normal path of the original story of TBATE, I hope y'all enjoyed these extra events that have become relevant thanks to our new main character!}
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[Insignificant Adventurer's POV]
I was at the Dragonspine Inn, sitting and chatting with some adventurers while drinking my mug of beer.
"Hey hey, did you hear about the rumors going around?" I asked one of them.
A burly man sitting at the same table finished off his glass before slamming in on the table. "If you're talking about these two famous masked adventurers, I say Bullshit!!!" From the way his cheeks were reddened and the look in his eyes lost, it didn't take a genius to know he was drunk.
"No, apparently this rumor is true. An acquaintance of mine once joined them in a small team. Both of them always seem to be with Jasmine Flamesworth, plus one of them has a beautiful cloak that shows nobility. So it's very difficult not to notice." A skinny guy with tied hair came over to our table and joined in our gossip.
"So what did your 'acquaintance' say about them?" The drunk exclaimed, growing impatient.
"Well, they were together to explore a small dungeon that had been completed before. Apparently, both are small. And rumors are true that one of them is not a mage." The skinny guy just shook his head as he told us that.
"Bah! I call Bullshit! This masquerade that people say doesn't use mana must be an augmenter, or the rumors are just exaggerating. I mean, have you heard the stories about them? There are rumors that the 'non-mage' completed a dungeon alone and that the other masked adventurer defeated a Class S mana beast in less than 10 minutes! Is this even possible?!? According to these same rumors, they both started out as Class A Adventurers and now one is AA and the other is S !!! Are you going to tell me that I'm going to believe this all?!" The drunk said as he shook his mug asking for another beer refill.
"About this rumor of completing a dungeon alone... I honestly think he was with Jasmine Flamesworth, and she helped him without wanting to take the credit." I said taking another sip, already feeling my head a little light.
"And as for that rumor about the masked man with the starry cape... I feel like they're exaggerating a lot, the rumor says that Kaspian Bladeheart along with an entire party was there. Maybe he paid everyone to take the credit..." I continued talking, taking another long swig of my beer. I didn't believe my theory all that much, but it was a valid alternative.
"Exactly! I bet those two are hiding and taking all the glory from more important people! I want to see them call themselves Adventurers in front of me! Bring them in and I'll finish them off any day!" Things were getting flashy with the drunken adventurer getting more intoxicated with the beer. The most talked topic among adventurers these days was about the masked adventurers duo.
A short stature pure elf with insane mobility skills, and a small swordsman who never used magic. Some people believe that both are Jasmine Flamesworth's apprentices, but that was hard to believe. It was well known that in the rank exam they were placed as A-class adventurers, which was extremely rare. But the most shocking thing was that one of them rose from A directly to S in less than a year.
I just shook my head, feeling sorry for myself. Here I was, an adventurer who was at the core of Class C. Over the course of three years I had failed three tests to rise to Class B. Once gained enough merit points by going into dungeons or completing quests, adventurers could do a test to rank up. But each test was different for each rank.
Supposedly, to reach Class AA, which was the second class considered 'elite', the examinees needed to fight 3 Class AA at the same time and at least last against them for 10 minutes. And for the Rank S, you had two options, either complete an AA rank dungeon purely alone, with an examiner always watching and evaluating you, or fighting 2 S rank and last for half an hour without the equipment beeping indicating fatigue.
The most bizarre part of the rumors that were talked about both, was that this Elf got the S rank by the method of completing a dungeon alone, unlike the Swordsman who did the classic method of battle. According to everyone who saw this Swordsman fighting and surviving the 10 minutes, he was an Augmenter, but even so everyone who saw him in missions or dungeons swore by their very names that he didn't use any mana, just sword techniques, and yet he was a monster.
That drunk adventurer in front of me was drinking little now, still complaining about it all, he was annoyed that a midget swordsman who supposedly didn't use mana was better than him. He was a Veteran B-Class Augmenter after all, I could imagine that was the whole source of his pride.
I could hear the inn door click open and I let go of the fork I was holding as I started to eat what I had ordered, when I saw a silhouette enter.
"Well speak of the devil! The little midget swordsman everyone's hyped up about is here! Where's your little guardian or that little elf?" The drunk was getting up from his chair, his cheeks still red.
One of the masquerades responsible for all these crazy rumors... He was here in the flesh!
I saw the blue eyes beneath his mask as he watched the drunk man intently with an expression I couldn't identify. He wore a simple black robe that reached up to his thighs, with the hood of the robe covering what the mask couldn't hide. If I had walked past him, even though he had a mask and two swords, I wouldn't have noticed anything in particular about him, but when I look closely at him, there's a sense of strangeness.
The masked figure was around 1,6 meters, which wasn't very tall. His body looked quite thin under his cloak, which suggested he was either an ordinary person or a conjurer. At his waist was a small sword and what appeared to be a black rod. I wondered if in fact all the rumors were wrong and he was a conjurer, with that rod being his staff while the small sword was just a means of attacking at close range. What most supported the idea of him being a conjurer was the glove he had on his left hand, with three magic stones glowing a pale yellow.
After staring at the drunk who was calling him, the masked man simply walked past him, uninterested, as if he wasn't worthy of the time.
"Hey bastard! Are you ignoring me? Just because you got a little famous for these stupid rumors, you think you're better than me?" That angry adventurer spoke aloud as he seemed to grab the giantsword that was on his back.
"Calm down! You know we're not allowed to kill anyone here!" I was trying to stop the man, holding his arms to stop him swinging his sword, the masked man on the other hand still didn't care, not having turned around to see the scene, just continuing to walk towards the main balcony of the place.
This made the drunk man even more pissed off at the situation, with his body and sword reinforcing themselves in mana, both emitting a silvery glow and so he tried to attack the masked man.
I heard explosive thunder and looked up in terror, imagining the bloody corpse split in two by the force of the attack. However, contrary to what I expected, the giantsword had created a small crater in the ground next to the masked man.
"Whew... At least the drunk has enough sense not to kill the man, he probably just wanted to scare him." I thought while soon got up and went to the man to stop him from swinging the sword any more, but that's when I noticed his wrist that was holding the blade was surrounded by vines...
I looked towards the origin of the vines and saw another masked one, everything about him looked identical to the midget swordsman, even the height, with the thing that differentiated them being the color of the cloak and the design on the mask, in addition to carrying only one sword at the waist. It was the masked elf.
"Sir, would you please stop these bad jokes and leave my colleague alone?" Said the elf, with one hand pointing at the drunk, possibly he still had control over the vines on the drunk's wrist. His voice sounded smooth and elegant like a nobleman in his mid-twenties.
"You think you're better huh?!? I'll destroy you worms!" the angry adventurer said aloud.
The situation was already intense at the time, that adventurer had called the attention of many people there in the dining room where we were. I sat back down in my seat when I noticed the elf watching me too and he simply nodded, as if understanding that I was no one acquainted with the person causing trouble there.
"Hm... Go get what we came here to see... If this guy wants me, then come get me." The swordsman said making his masked colleague undo the magic of vines and took a majestic leap, having passed over the drunk and heading towards where his friend was going.
The veteran got angry and started to go all out against the masked swordsman, who was dodging all the attacks as if he were a liquid. It was such smooth movements that I wondered if it was some special magic, but when I analyzed the mana around him, I couldn't feel anything, he was using no mana for it, it looked like it was pure consequence of some kind of elite training.
"You only know how to dodge?!" The veteran screamed in rage, which turned out to be a horrible decision, as he put his hands on his own throat.
"Are you done?" The masked man asked
I also began to feel intense strength surging into place, with my entire body shaking with fear. I looked at the possible source of that bloodlust, the masked swordsman. There were reports that such an intense presence was achieved by adventurers the more they slew powerful mana beasts...
If he was making me shiver in fear almost instantly... How many monsters did he kill?
The fear was getting closer to me, making me feel underwater, unable to breathe, as if the air was so tense it would crush me. I looked at the man who had started this fight, he was dropping to his knees on the floor as he seemed to whisper something I couldn't hear. It looked like he had just urinated on his pants as tears came out of his eyes and ran down his chin.
Suddenly, the midget swordsman extinguished his bloodthirst and I was able to breathe again. I desperately took as much air as I could, but ended up coughing. I could see all the other adventurers and workers in the place having the same reaction as me, others reacted worse. However, one person was not affected, the masked elf, who was now in front of the counter, where there was a young lady extremely pale from what had happened there.
"I believe there are some sacks of rations in the name of 'Note' and 'Diamond' that a friend of ours ordered not long ago." The elf spoke in a precise and clear voice.
"Y-Yes!! I'll get that for you right away!" He gave the girl a slight shake of his head when she gave him two bags of food. He, along with the Masked Swordsman, left the inn shortly after that. No one had the courage to make a noise until both their footsteps couldn't be heard.
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[Arthur Leywin POV]
"What happened that took so long? I had to ask Luz to check on you." Jasmine said staring me deep in the eyes, while my brother was beside me with two bags of food.
"I had a little problem with one of the adventurers at the inn! Haha..." I scratched my head as I climbed onto my brown mount.
I could feel Jasmine staring at me more suspiciously, wondering what kind of disaster I had created.
"It's okay, Jasmy. I was there so that no real problems would occur. This adventurer hasn't even been touched by us." Luz said to smooth things over as he tied the bags of food to the luggage part of Jasmine's horse.
Jasmine took a long breath, believing my brother more than me, and she climbed onto her horse, ordering him to walk.
"Haap!" I did the same as her, following her. Unlike the two of us, Luz followed us on foot, using a continuous wind spell beneath the soles of his shoes.
As we traveled, I thought about the last 2 years. Jasmine really wanted to become a Class-AA adventurer and not only that, she wanted me to do the same as her, since Luz had achieved the feat of going from Class A to Class S in one fell swoop. But her real motivation for wanting me to rank up so much was so she could take me to a specific dungeon, which was the one we were heading towards at the moment. Even though Luz could go to this dungeon long before, he decided to wait for the two of us to do it.
Even though we are now in the same class as Kaspian, there was a big difference in technique between Jasmine and the guild leader, but she was getting better and better due to the training we did when we weren't on quests or exploring low rank dungeons. I still missed Elijah and Diane, they were amazing teammates, but since Luz returned from his little vacation with our family, I haven't seen them anymore. But back to my routine, every night before bed, I would meditate for a few hours. During those two years I had now arrived at the light orange stage, which I counted as success considering my total meditation time.
I wonder if this is how Luz feels when he breaks stages simply for battling, like when he evolved his mana core during the fight in the auction house incident. Or when he skipped another stage during a "Secret explore" that he had.
But the thing I've improved most significantly during this entire time has definitely been my body. Not using mana made me take a step back and remember how to use my body and sword efficiently, so I became even better when I augmented myself. I wouldn't say I was at 100% in terms of strength, due to my body not being at a mature stage. But at least now I don't feel awkward when I battle anymore. I had adapted my past life fighting style to my current body so that everything became more fluid.
This all wasn't easy, I even got some scars all over my body to prove how hard I worked. Having my dragon will-assimilated body and using mana rotation, I was finally sure that I was on the right path for the future.
Jasmine has also become much more powerful than before. During our journey, I noticed the flaws she had with the blades she carried, so Luz and I guided her to teach her some techniques we knew from our past life. Since she had been trained from childhood to be a fire mage, she didn't have much of a basis for the real element she obtained, forcing her to create her own techniques that were simple. I would say that one of the reasons she got up in rank was because she used the skills we taught her, in addition to her having created a double-blade technique by herself.
There were times when I used my mental-link to talk to Sylvie, but she mostly disconnected or said that she still didn't want to appear in front of me. She always said how she wanted to be prepared and ready for when I saw her in person again. Not even when it was my turn to visit my family in Xyrus, she wanted to come. I felt every time we mentally talked, my emotions of being prepared for anything must have caught up with her the day we arrived at Beast Glades.
When I commented on these mental conversations to Luz, he always started crying with a smile saying that his niece was doing very well and really wanted to make us proud. It was obvious to say that these words were not just his, but Sylvia's who was in his mind... I'm still not used to the fact that Sylvia is "alive" just as a "Essence" inside my brother's mind. But it's good to know she's happy with our choices.
Speaking of my family, when it was my turn to visit, we made an arrangement to meet at Guild Hall instead of going straight to the house. That way no one would watch me or follow me to the Helstea mansion. In addition to not being suspicious, because with Jasmine always there with me, people who knew my parents always thought they were there to talk to her. On the first visit I realized how much my father was training himself and we gave him the mana beast core that Luz had obtained. Their faces were priceless in surprise. The last time we visited I saw that my father was already on the Solid Orange Stage, which was impressive for his age and our simple origins. I still well remember the silly smile plastered on my father's face when he said that it was from him that my magical talent came.
They were always talking to Luz and I about what was happening at the Hestea house. Our sister still seemed far from forming a mana core, on the other hand, Lilia had awakened her mana core a few weeks ago. Her awakening caused the bed to implode, which was the usual effect level for mages, which reminded us that our awakenings were intense and insane. Her parents were excited to say the least, that their daughter would enter Xyrus Academy. After being tested, while her mana core was categorized as common, it was found that the efficiencies of her mana veins were excellent.
She had an extreme ability to absorb mana from her surroundings, something essential for Conjurers and with this information Luz filled himself with happiness as he was the one who had helped her in the beginning. But we got a little serious at the thought that Lilia would be our senior at school, it was irritating.
"We are here." Jasmine announced, snapping me out of my thoughts.
At her signal, we both made our horses slow their ride as we entered a clearing in the middle of the forest, while Luz simply deactivated his wind magic and quickly climbed onto Jasmine's horse, sitting behind her holding her waist, to so that he could pretend that he was always with her and not running.
That clearing was surrounded by tall trees and was where the entrance to the dungeon was located. There was a small group of adventurers who were breaking up their camp, some checking their weapons to see if everything was ready.
"Apparently we're stuck here with more Augmenters." A very familiar voice said while clicking his own tongue.
Leaving my mount, I headed towards the adventuring party, to see that the source of the voice was none other than the blond Fire Conjurer who was in place of my initial rank exam, this made me look disgusted. Jasmine and Luz followed behind me with an armored augmenter that stood in front of the blond boy so nothing happened.
"Please don't mind Lucas and let me introduce you to the party. My name is Reginald Brooks, and I'm an A-Class Augmenter. I'm an Earth atribute yellow stage core that specializes in using a hammer." He pointed at the giand warhammer lying on the ground where the group stood.
Studying Reginald, the man had short, messy brown hair that matched his eyes. His square jaw that was covered in a thick beard, coupled with his near-two-meter height and broad shoulders made for a very intimidating man.
The augmenters in the group, excluding Jasmine, Luz and me, consisted of Reginald, Kriol and Brald. Kriol was a very defensive, water augmenter that only wielded a gigantic shield as his weapon. He was a head shorter than Reginald with a large belly that says a lot of him as a "Guy that loves beers". I could tell he was strong, though, by how firm his body was overall, despite his belly.
Brald was a very noble-looking man, that stood just a bit shortet than Reginald. He wore a white, metal armor that corvered his shoulders and chest only, with a luxurious mantle flowing behind him. With trimmed blond hair and sharp, hazel eyes, he seemed like a real lady-killer. To my surprise, he was a real gentleman and offered us handshakes and a rather inocent smile.
"I go by Brald and just became an AA-class, light yellow stage fire augmenter. I'm specialized in the broadsword and shield. I'll be the one to lead us today." He beamed, shying away after meeting eyes with Jasmine.
After the augmenters introduced themselves, the conjurers stepped up. Including Lucas, there were four conjurers. One of them was a lanky man and the other one was a girl... But the last conjurer made my eyes wide as I saw him.
"Four-Eyes?!? Long time no see!" Luz exclaimed that pun at the sight of that last conjurer.
"I'm really surprised to see you again too, Masky, Planty." He said adjusting the glasses he was so proud of, Elijah had a beaming smile to see us, I even laughed a little when he spoke the nicknames he had given us during our temporary party.
"Oh! Do you know each other?" Brald asked with a curious look.
"We have a temporary party to start our adventures, as we have our rank examination tests on the same day." Elijah answered Brald and then look at us. "But not to be different from the others, as you already know, my name is Elijah Knight, A-Class Earth Conjurer, dark orange stage." He said with a smirk on his face.
"Hm so like us, you've evolved your rank and your core stage. Great to hear that." I said smiling at him and we shook hands
The beady-eyes lanky man that looked well into his thirties came forth next. He had a smug look on his face, despite his less than atractive appearance, with his crooked nose and greasy brown hair parted down in the middle. "Ahem! I go by Oliver, and I am a A-Class, dark yellow stage conjurer. I am an emitter deviant, specializing in healing." He stuck his jaw out smugly as he crossed his arms in content.
Despite his attitude,it was good to see a healer in the party.
"Hi! My name is Samantha Tempest but guys can just call me Sammy! Dark yellow stage, A-class conjurer with a single secialization in water at your service!" she threw in a wink in my brother's direction.
Samantha seemed like the extremely attractive type of woman in her early twenties, and she knew it. She had beautiful blonde-almost-orange hair that reached down to her shoulders, with pale blue eyes that were silvery from afar. Those eyes of hers were big and round, making her look a lot more innocent than she should have and her small stature made that a stronger feature. The girl constantly swayed her hips whenever she shifted the leg that was holding her weight, attracting the eyes of all the men there, with the exception of Luz, who looked like he had a dead fish eye about it.
"Jasmine, Light-Yellow stage, AA-class augmenter. Wind attribute with dual swords." My guardian said at once, she hasn't changed a thing in that way of hers during these two years.
"Note, Light orange stage, AA-class augmenter. Fire attribute with speciaization in sword." I added impatiently.
Brald smiled in our direction. "It's great to see two more AA-Class Adventurers in our group!" The other two augmenters nodded, while Oliver and Lucas's apathetic faces showed that they didn't even care.
"But what about you, green guy? I ended up talking over the top before you introduced yourself, sorry about that." Brald said looking at my brother.
"It isn't a problem, it's always exciting to see high-class adventurers, as it demonstrates that the adventure is going to have some degree of fun or safety." Luz said adjusting his mask and now starting to introduce herself. "Diamond, solid yellow stage, S-class augmenter and conjurer. I-" He was interrupted by Oliver.
"An augmenter AND conjurer?!? What do you mean?" The healer said with an analyzing look, as if trying to get my brother to say he was lying.
Everyone looked at my brother in amazement, except for me, Jasmine and Elijah. Brald soon after removing the look of confusion from his face, asked him to continue.
Luz soon coughed lightly and continued talking. "Continuing what I was saying... Y'all can call me Diamond, I'm a S-Class Conjurer and Augmenter, my attributes are Wind, with deviant in sound, and Plant, because I'm a pure elf. I specialized in multi-weapon. That is, if there's a problem and someone gets hurt in the mid exploration, I will try to strengthen the situation while our dear healer does his work. And as for me being both Augmenter and Conjurer, it's because I can use conjurer spells and suck mana from my surrounding environment, but I started my mage life as an augmenter." He said calling attention to Oliver who had interrupted his presentation.
"It's really interesting and amazing that we have an S-Class among us that is multifunctional, from what you have now around your waist, I imagine the rest of your gear is inside one of your dimensional rings." Brald said, noting that my brother had two rings, the dimensional ring and the MW, Luz just agreed, as it was not a lie to say that, since that red and purple ring itself was the other weapons.
Lucas was asked to introduce himself to us, as he was the only one who hadn't spoken yet, he just released the information about his name, that he was a fire conjurer and that he was in the dark yellow stage. His voice sounded full of mockery. As I imagined, he still saw himself on top of the world, no matter how people rated him or who was around him.
"I'm sorry, but... As for you, Mr.Note, there are rumors that you're not an augmenter, but you've clearly announced yourself as one." Reginald asked as he lifted his giant hammer and put it over one of his shoulders.
"I haven't been using magic for personal reasons. That fact must have created this rumor." I said it at once. Noticing that I didn't want to catch the others' curiosity, he coughed uncomfortably and joined the party's formation.
The Party's formation was quite simple to understand. In front there was Brald, his fighting style involving sword and shield was perfect for that, on his sides were me and Reginald, as we were more offensive adventurers. Guarding the back was Kriol with his giant shield to prevent us from being flanked, while Luz and Jasmine were beside him, ready to kill anything that got through the massive shield's defenses. We were all protecting the five conjuters, who were in the center of the formation, with Oliver being the most protected, in the complete center, as he was the healer of the Party.
"We should head out immediately" Brald declared. He assumed the position as the leader since he was in the front line and Luz, the one in a greater rank than him, didn't want to take the role of a leader, at least for now, as if he didn't have a motive for.
This dungeon was deemed AA class, meaning parties with only A class and above were allowed to enter. Brald recently found out that there was a hidden tunnel that led to an unexplored portion of the dungeon, which we would be going into today. This meant that most of our dungeon-exploring would be through uncharted areas. Everyone unsheathed their weapons, I got my normal sword while Luz got his MW's bow form, even the conjurers wiped their smug expressions as we stepped into the dungeon named by the first explorers as "The Dire Tombs."
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