Chương 5: Happy Hunting while the Imperials Drown
After having her fill of playing with dry sand, Junko stumbled onward as she decided to walk around the lake a little before venturing out since something had caught her eye.
Carefully walking so as not to trip on anything, she kept looking at the ground in case something would block her steps.
Taking a few glances in the direction she was walking, her eyes glistened as her smile lit up the area around her.
'Ground crystal tall!'
She thought with glee as a moment later she arrived at the point of interest.
It was very similar to the rest of the surroundings of the lake, what made this spot stick out to her were the crystal spikes that extended out from the ground.
All in various shapes and sizes, none of them even resembled a stalagmite as one would expect.
Curved and cracked. Sharp and smooth.
Glistening. Colourful.
Each different yet strangely similar.
One was nearly three times as tall as little Junko herself.
The tall one was what stood out to her most.
'Uoooahhhh! Biggu!'
She looked at the shining shapes and spikes, some seemingly more manmade than others.
Looking straight up at the tallest of them all, Junko was enamoured.
From the ground up, it was glistening in violet and with strings of gold covering its cracks. It shot straight up, as unbending as a pole. At its top, in contrast to its bottom, a visibly sharp edge.
A glaive spear with a sharpened tip.
If one were to closely observe the surrounding crystal structures, one may find that each extending crystal is an old weapon.
Some were simple to recognize.
A katana, a pike, a warhammer, a battleaxe.
Others, not so much.
Each weapon was entirely crystallized as if they were morphed from the material, forged from it.
Most of them had their blades stuck in the ground. Nearly all of them were dull except for a few. Besides these flaws, there seemed to be a time when the crystal material that the weapons were made of was in a liquid state. Bits and pieces of some weapons seemed to have been melted, and 'drops' of crystal a few inches from touching the ground drooped from a few weapons.
The glaive spear was the one that was in the greatest condition. The only one that could be in working condition.
Junko, having no idea what a weapon could even be used for aside from a possible Achievement or Class, had no idea what even surrounded her.
She simply gazed at the tall spear for a few moments.
Tall, big, dangerous and unbending.
'Junko wants that.'
She reached out her hand as she grabbed the crystal glaive spear.
Pulling on it, she couldn't quite make it budge.
After struggling for a minute, she looked it over again.
'Ah! Stuck in ground!'
She crouched down near where the shaft of the spear was stuck in the crystal floor and looked at it in interest.
'No Stuck!'
*SHATTER*
She slammed her fist into the crystal shaft of the spear.
Shattering the bottom of the shaft completely, the spear fell to the ground with a few *Clink*s.
'Power works!'
Walking over to the fallen spear, she picked it up from its cracked bottom-most part.
Swinging it around without much trouble, she stumbled back a little as she turned and smashed it into the sandy ground some ways away from her.
A loud *THUD* echoed as she had smashed the ground using the sturdy side of the glaive, not the edge.
Smiling at her new item, she walked off towards the strange fauna in the distance, her glaive spear being dragged along behind her.
...
The Central Laslands Empire. Capital City.
Dark flames scorched the ground of the impact zone. A portion of the city's wall disintegrated due to the blast.
Soldiers nearby were already dealing with the constantly spawning beasts.
Skin of red and grey, some of black and scarlet. They clawed at the ground, growling like dogs as they tried to frighten all life near them, waiting for a moment to strike.
"Further reinforcements have been called! Water Element users are on their way!"
The shout of a soldier from the back lines rekindled the morale of the soldiers who had been keeping the demonic threat as far away from the civilians as they could.
Their weapons were drenched in blood and armour dented yet their eyes were lit with blue and calm flames.
A soldier slashed at a nearby demon whose horns grew like lightning bolts from its head.
Cleaving the beast in two, his head swung from side to side frantically as he observed the situation of the battle.
After a quick moment, he dashed to his right and started assisting his comrades in battling a beast of black and scarlet skin with sharpened claws, unnatural and distorted limbs and eyes of pure void.
From the shard that had landed, demons naturally arose from the flame and stone.
Furthermore, any corpse that was left in the vitality-draining flames was morphed and changed into a demon itself.
The fight had barely gone on for a few minutes. The situation was in favour of the Empire's knights and soldiers. The only problem was the demons with skin of black and scarlet, the ones born from the corpses of their allies.
They held strength beyond that of a normal knight.
Many had already died, some civilians even becoming demons themselves. Thankfully though...
"Reinforcements have arrived!"
A familiar shout rang out as the morale of the knights and soldiers increased.
Currently, a party of soldiers along with three knights were battling a group of four demons with skin coloured black and scarlet.
The dark flames on the ground were absorbing the party's vitality constantly, making the situation a difficult one.
A soldier swung his blade at a demon, missing. The demon then pounced on the soldier and ripped out his throat.
A knight two metres away dashed at the demon, like the wind itself, slicing at it.
The demon backed off quickly as it enjoyed bathing in the fresh blood.
The knight, with a disgusted frown hidden by his helmet, decapitated the soldier who had just lost his life.
Taking a step towards the demon, he attacked with a cross-slash.
The demon barely avoided the attack but was still struck down as a second knight appeared from its side and clubbed the beast in the head with a swing of her flail.
The head of the demon simply went *SPLAT* as it died on the spot.
Thanking the knight for her assistance with a nod, the knight with a sword swung his sword at her which she ducked to avoid.
Cutting into a demon that had attempted to pounce on her.
The knight's eyes glowed in a navy dark flame as countless slice marks appeared across the demon's body in a split second.
Receiving a quick "Thanks." in return, the two knights moved on to fight the last demon that the soldiers were supposed to be dealing with.
Yet there were two.
The soldier that the sword-wielding knight had decapitated had still risen as a demon.
The soldiers were dealing with the two beasts effectively but were still receiving injuries because of the dark flame's constant burning.
The sword-wielding knight clicked his tongue as he and the flail-wielding knight moved to assist the soldiers.
Before they could, however, a man with brown hair and blue eyes appeared behind the demons with two long daggers made of water in his hands.
A blast of slices that left traces of water droplets in the air occurred and the demons fell down, dead.
The Prince had made his move.
Dashing further across the battlefield, all the dark flames beneath his feat were put out, leaving patches of scorched, wet ground in his wake.
Decapitating another demon, he threw his daggers at a single soldier who was fending off three demons by himself near the walls.
Both daggers hit the stone wall of the city before exploding into slashes of water that killed two of the three demons, leaving one alive as he had used another of his kind as a shield.
The soldier, without missing a beat, took a stance and ended the last demon there.
Turning to the prince, the soldier saluted before making his way to more demons.
The prince smirked before reaching out his hands and cupping them.
A swirl of glowing water appeared above his palms as a small lady with aqua hair and silver eyes appeared, her clothes made entirely of blue water that covered all that was supposed to be covered in human society.
The small lady sat on his palms as the prince whispered something before receiving a nod in agreement.
The small lady started flying as fairy wings made of water and mist appeared on her back. She landed on the shoulder of the prince as he started chanting a spell while cutting down a nearby demon with a longsword made of water.
A few moments later, as he slashed his sword down to clean it of any demon blood, rain clouds appeared above the blast area and it started raining glowing blue water that was putting out the flames.
With the first move made, the rest of the Water Element users made their entrance.
Pressurised water cannons were launched at the shard of red stone that stood untoppled.
Cracking and shattering the shard in a few moments, a few Earth Element users nearby dashed to make their move.
Gathering all the loose shards of red stone into a giant pit, they nodded to each other and began chanting in unison.
A giant stake of stone and earth came into existence in the air above them and after ending their chant, it fell into the pit, crushing the shards of red into dust.
Removing the stone stake and making it crumble to mana outside of the pit, the Water Element users gathered at their location, filling the pit up with a sizeable amount of water.
As they did this, the prince was escorting a few mages to the location.
Motioning to the pit, the five mages started chanting and purifying all the water in the pit along with the shards and dust of demonic red that were floating in the water.
The situation was cleared. No more than 30 casualties were recorded.
The prince left the clean-up to the stationed soldiers and mages as he made his way back to the castle with a few knights in tow.
'And we just finished that damn meeting.'
The other countries were dealing with their own demon problems with similar ease, none reaching above 80 in casualties.
Researchers across the globe started studying the Red Devil Moon closer so as to get a preemptive warning on any more 'Devil Shards' that were to fall to Esa.
Many started to fear the omen of the Devil Shards and another incident occurring. Many more feared the existence of an unknown Devil Shard that had yet to be found as that could truly turn into a large-scale catastrostrophe.
At the Central Laslands Empire Capital City.
The meeting that had just ended began anew, rekindled on both sides.
This incident, on one hand further means that they have to focus more currently on state business inside of the Empire.
On the other hand, it means that the mission must begin sooner than planned as what if a Demon Shard were to have fallen on the Great Dragon Continent outskirts, where no powerful dragons commonly roamed?
The possibility of a demonized dragon was a great threat. It was near the scale of a Unique Deviant being born.
The last documented Demonic Dragon appeared many centuries ago, during the era of the Great Hero Kestin who united the Eastern Isles.
The Demonic Dragon of that time was more commonly known as The Living Destruction, Demon Emperor Zamananth.
Though even the Demonic Dragon Zamananth couldn't conquer the Dragon Continent, he still conquered a large portion of Niafin Esrotnia and most of demon kind bowed to him as their ruler.
In the end, he was slain by the Hero's Battalion.
At present, the world is without a Hero.
One is to be born within the next few years but this makes it an even more pressing matter.
A demonized dragon could wipe out half a continent by the time the Hero is even conceived.
Thus, the mission changed.
Instead of soldiers, a battalion of knights was to escort 24 Rank B Adventurers and 10 Rank B Mages with one Rank A Mage acting as the safety net of the group.
And the time of departure would be immediate. They had until dawn to prepare everything.
Compensation for the task would be 20 Gold, the personal gratitude of the Emperor and a small personal wish that could be made of the Emperor.
If one were to die during the mission, their family would be reimbursed.
The mission was to be kept silent until a certain predetermined time after the mission's completion and all participants would be specially chosen by the Adventurers' Union Head and the Mage Dungeon Head.
The Knights would be chosen by the Emperor and Prince themselves.
...
Back on the Great Dragon Continent.
In the deep and strange foliage some ways away from the central lake.
Rain was pouring and drowning the few small critters that could survive living on the continent.
Pushing aside the bush leaves of blue and yellow, there was a small crater in the ground that had seemingly been there for a century if not longer.
There was a small puddle at its bottom, filled with rain water and blood.
Covering the view of the sky, the tall trees with huge leaves over a metre in size blocked out most of the sun and rain from reaching the crater.
Near the edge of the crater, a small stream of blood was flowing in.
Besides the large tree leaves and colourful bush leaves that block most people's sight, there was a familiar little girl. Hair golden blond and eyes deep purple.
Sitting down on the ground, she was eating.
Next to her lay a striped brown and black boar of incredible size. Nearly two metres tall.
Its head had been smashed in by a blunt object and its guts were hanging out from the huge gash on its side where a crystal glaive spear was pierced into.
The little girl had no visible reaction to the raw internal organ she was munching on nor the blood that stained her hands and face.
No, rather, she was enjoying her meal.
Even if she was a little angry that the boar in question tasted better than her own blood.
Finishing the small part of the heart she was eating she threw the rest away.
In a small pile, there was half-eaten, well, everything. The hide, tusks, liver, tongue and even a single eye lay on the ground half eaten.
Though she didn't quite enjoy all of the parts of the boar, she did enjoy the meat itself along with the heart and liver.
With her normal, casual smile, she looked on at the System notification in front of her.
[<Experience Gained>]
[No <Class> Selected. Thus All Experience Will be Stored.]
[Gained Temporary Skill: EXP Storage LV 1]
'Mmm.'
She thought silently, now munching on the intestines she had just pulled out of the boar.
"Ah!"
She shouted while leaning forwards toward the System notifications so much so that she almost fell on her face before catching herself with her hands.
The intestines were now sadly all muddy, but she wasn't even worried about that.
'Junko Remember Classes!'
She thought happily as she opened her Status and tried to giddily grab the [Class: Unchosen] section of the screen like a child trying to grab a toy that was just out of reach.
As her hands flew right through the System screen and slammed into the body of the boar, leaving a small dent in its hide, she barely noticed her 'attack' as a new screen appeared in front of her.
'Where is the Junko Class?!'
She thought in excitement.
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