บท 3: Acrine
Steve was standing upon a hill, commanding thousands of mages to fight with him. They were fighting a huge monster army! Ogres, dragons, centaurs… it was the biggest war Elea had ever seen! The battlefield was a bloodbath, guts and corpses were spread out all over the place.
For a long time, both armies were evenly matched. That was... up until Grand Mage Steve was about to join the action.
Just as he was about to summon meteors from the air, to crush the remaining monsters and quickly gain the upper hand, he got slapped!
"Who dares slap this Grand Mage?!" He roared in fury!
But he couldn't see a thing around him.
"Show yourself, or you'll regret this…" he threatened.
SMACK
"WHO DARES SLAP THIS OVERLORD?! I WILL KILL YOU, YOU F**KING PIECE OF S**T"
SMACK
SMACK SMACK SMACK
…
"Ahhh this useless senior, he won't even wake up after we slapped him hundreds of times… Let's just leave him…" Dave said as he wanted to give up and leave.
"But what if he gets mad for leaving him alone? We should at least try and curry some favor with him..." Frank replied, "Who knows... we might actually get a reward for helping him, hehe!"
At that point, Steve finally woke up. The boys quickly stopped talking about their 'senior' and turned around.
"Huh, why does my face hurt?" Steve pondered out aloud.
The boys' faces turned beet red, as they started poking at some ants with a stick.
"Oh well, my face must have been seriously hurt from falling onto that field yesterday, it should clear up some enough..." he thought, as he noticed the boys playing.
"Aha, you're still here? Quick, quick, lead me to your village, I'm hungry!" Steve told them.
"..."
"..."
the boys wept as they thought, 'Senior, the only reason we're still in this forest is because we were lost in the first place!'
--------
Five hours later, as the sun was about to reach it's highest point, the three were still running around.
Steve had a hangry* look on his face... If there was a competition for the angriest looking person, Steve would be a prize-winning participant right now.
He was thinking about what just happened earlier in that forest...
These two lying scoundrels promised him that they knew the way and that it was only a one hour trip...
But they had no sense of direction at all! They had been running around in loops for hours...
'I didn't even have breakfast yet...' he thought as he heard his stomach growling.
But those hangry feelings quickly faded as he saw a town appear in the distance, Acrine!
Acrine was erected in the middle of the forest and a barrier could be seen surrounding the town. The barrier served as a primary protection versus the monsters. In the end, without a barrier, any town would quickly get destroyed by a monster stampede!
The way it worked, was by blocking the darkness out of the town. This way, even animals inside the town wouldn't become monsters at night!
A power source supplying mana was necessary to keep a barrier up. In other words, a source is a necessity for every town. The power source was comparable to the batteries on Earth. It could hold mana, and mages would have to recharge it daily.
-----
A few minutes later, they arrived at the town's gates. Steve could not believe his eyes! The town was quite a bit larger than he had expected.
Mages were standing on the town's high walls, to keep order in the town.
Everything gave him a very medieval feel! It looked like those pictures in the history books, where knights were protecting their towns.
"Halt passengers, please pay the entrance fee!" an official guarding the gate said.
Steve panicked, 'They probably won't accept my MasterCard, would they?!'
Dave and Frank quickly showed the guard their Apprentice Mage badges, which would grant them access to the town without paying the obligatory entrance fee.
Although a 1* mage might not receive a robe, they would still receive a badge! Towns gave quite some benefits to mages, as mages could become stronger and make their city thrive!
Seeing the boys getting in for free, Steve quickly thought of a plan to get in...
"My dear juniors, Dave & Frank, " he started saying.
"You see, being a mage gives you quite some benefits. However! One has to remain humble and keep their feet on the ground. Acting high and mighty will never benefit you in any way!"
"You are letting the poor villagers pay an entrance fee while you have more money! You should pay the fee as well, as it would help the town develop even faster. On top of that, it would show the villagers how generous we, mages, are..."
Some villagers stopped to listen to that senior mage, lecturing his juniors. They couldn't help but think he was right! The world was unjust indeed! Why did they have to pay more than mages?
Dave and Frank had also stopped in their tracks and figured out that this annoying 'senior' of theirs was correct! They earned more money than the villagers, yet the villagers had to pay more than they did!
However, thanks to their senior's words, they now thought about making a contribution towards their hometown!
"... Which is why, my fellow juniors, you should pay our entrance fee!" he finished his sentence while looking very serious.
Hearing this, the surrounding people were all shocked! Does this senior know no shame? He's letting his juniors pay his fee!
Guard: "...."
Villagers: "..."
Dave and Frank: "..."
[Ding! Shamelessness +1
PS: "..." ]
'Senior, we were supposed to get a reward for bringing you here... Instead, you're making us pay your entrance fee!' Frank thought as he started to fear this senior.
After Frank paid their fee, the three of them were allowed to enter the city.
The first thing Steve saw was that Acrine was an economically thriving town. Businesses were everywhere, merchants were shouting all over the street, people were everywhere!
Magic was omnipresent as well, he saw spells being cast everywhere! An old lady was washing her vegetables with water that came out of nowhere, a merchant was using a spell to magnify his voice, a chef used a spell to cook some meat...
Steve was busy looking around the bustling town. Seeing this, the two boys hurried to take advantage of this opportunity.
"Senior, we quickly have to go to towards the Mage Hall to apply for our advancement!" they said, as they quickly wanted to get away from this mysterious senior.
"I'll see you later, my juniors," he replied with a bright smile.
'We'd rather not...' they thought as they ran away as quickly as they could.
---
As he was alone now, Steve quickly looked for something to eat to satiate his hunger. He went to one of the many stalls and asked for some roasted beef.
It tasted so good, he quickly asked for some more... and then some more...
After finishing his meal, he felt reborn! Food really is the best thing in the world!
As he was getting ready to leave and explore the town, the shopkeeper stopped him.
"Sir, that'll be 5 solar coins please!"
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Morinu
Morinu Since footnotes aren't implemented yet :
Hangry* = Hungry + angry: When you are so hungry that your lack of food causes you to become angry, frustrated or both.
Author has this disease too!
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