"You did it, Yan Mei!" Fei Lei shouted as she threw her hands up in a cheer of victory.
While the armored humanoid collapsed into segments again, Yan Mei was sweating and breathing heavily, her complexion looked a little pale as she sat down and started using her family's Mantra.
After a few seconds of her repeating the Mantra, the color returned to her face alongside her spirited attitude, although not completely.
She stood up still feeling a little fatigued from her mana loss, and shouted as she pointed to Dolly, "Is this normal for testing dummies?"
"No, this one is special, it was a gift from a Dwarven friend of mine. Furthermore, we upgraded several times together to help Tetra find a suitable training partner," Weissman said looking on fondly of at the helmet that he teleported over.
"After all most people would try to kill a person that could transform into a magical beast, Tetra needed to learn how to fight humans without killing them and we worked hard to make sure this thing could keep up. Of course, he broke it several times, you have no idea how many times we had to repair dear old Dolly here," Weissman sighed as he put the helmet back on the chest plate.
Fei Lei smiled as he listened to Weissman speak fondly of his teacher and said, "So, we passed, right?!"
"Okay, C-Rank privileges for you too. Work hard in trying to rank up," Weissman said as tossed the helmet to Fei Lei and continued to say, "Take it with you, Dolly can help out in the long run."
Weissman then teleported away with a sour and depressed look on his face.
Fei Lei scratched his head and wondered what the story was between his master and Weissman. Placing the magic dummy Dolly in his ring, Fei Lei then thought, "I'll just ask when I see him again."
Fei Lei returned to Yan Mei's side and picked her up by her waist as he said, "Good job, babe! You did it! You're an Adventurer now!
He spun her around while Yan Mei laughed happily, Fei Lei then slowly let her down and kissed her before saying, "Not only are you smart and beautiful, but you strong too! I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world right now."
Putting her down, Yan Mei kissed Fei Lei back before she said, "
Yan Mei smiled and walked up next to the elder from the testing room, who was still standing there in shock after witnessing their fight. She then held out her hand and said, "Our I.Ds please."
The old grey-beared man pulled out a silver card and placed sent some Mana into it as he handed it over to them.
His hands shook as he excitedly looked at the two future legends that they could become and said, "Just insert you Mana into the card and everything will be finalized."
As Fei Lei and Yan Mei touched their cards all of the information they filled out on the registration forum appeared alongside a picture of their faces. The two then took their Guild I.Ds, held up their cards for each other to see, and let out a goofy yet proud smile.
Yan Mei then jumped into Fei Lei's arms before shouting, "We did it. We're adventurers now!"
Fei Lei put her down and the two went back downstairs to see that their soon to be teammate was in the middle of a drinking contest.
She was surrounded by dozens of Guild Members shouting and waving around their betting money.
"Come on Gorge! I got 50 thousand on you!"
"Kick his ass girly! Make me some money!"
"Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!"
The crowd roared with excitement as her opponent fell over with a pale face, Hina laughed at the pathetic pose her opponent took and finished off her mug of ale in less than a second. Licking the foam her lips, she then pumped her arm in the air and shouted, "Next!"
A skinny man came up and handed Hina a large stack of Gold Bills while another adventurer sat down and started to fill his mug. The competitor then looked at Hina and declared, "You can't keep this up forever!"
"Okay, she has to be hitting her limit! So I bet 10 thousand on Yin Bu."
"I think she's just getting started, this girl can really handle her liquor! 30 thousand on the new girl!"
Yan Mei, seeing that Hina was busy began to plot her revenge, "Quick, while she's busy let's name our group!" Yan Mei whispered.
"How about, Mages of Fantasia?" Fei Lei suggested.
"Fan~ta~s~ia?" Yan Mei questioned as she tried to sound out the foreign word.
"It means something that is composed of a mixture of different forms or styles, and our team certainly has that," Fei Lei explained while scratching his head.
Yan Mei nodded her head as she repeated the word again, "Fantasia...I like it."
Fei Lei turned to the receptionist and said, "We'll be registering our team under the name Mages of Fantasia."
The receptionist smiled and filled out some forms before asking for their cards. With a devious grin, Yan Mei called over Hina who was in the middle of winning her match.
Hina chugged the last bit of ale out of her mug when the competitor slumped over and was foaming at the mouth drunk. She took her winnings and walked over next to Yan Mei and saw that she left her out.
Hina then pouted as she handed over her Guild Card, "No fair, I wanted to be called Mage Slayer 2.0!"
"Early bird gets the worm!" Yan Mei said as she stuck her tongue out.
Hina grinned and leaned against Yan Mei and whined out, "Not fair!!! Friends are supposed to talk with each other before making these kinds of important decisions!"
Yan Mei blushed slightly at hearing the word, friends.
The receptionist cleared her voiced to get their attention while she used a small circular stamp that was enchanted with some kind of magic spell. She then said, "Congratulations on joining the Adventurers Guild."
As she hit the surface of their Guild I.D with the stamp, suddenly, a new section appeared on their cards showing their team name.
When they pressed against it, a screen flew up that showed the members' activity in abbreviated forms, such as; AoQ: Away on Quest, and Available: Ava.
They were also informed that they could add contacts to them and send them written messages through the card's magic functions.
Another ingenious function allowed one to show up on a small circular radar that covered a 3-mile radius, allies were in green dots, everything else was red, and unfortunately, it didn't show structures of any kind in the map though.
Fei Lei smiled said, "Neat! It's kind of like a cell phone and GPS Locator!"
Before placing the card in his ring, he turned to his new party members and said, "Let's go find an inn and get some rest, tomorrow we conquer our first dungeon!"
"Yeah!" Yan Mei threw her hands up, spending most of her life alone, she felt like she was more excited than anyone else to conquer a dungeon.
"This will be my third dungeon," Hina said with a grin.
The three then left to go searching for an Inn. After a while they found a top-tier hotel and decided to stay there for the night, renting the rooms they were offered a meal to eat, and a hot bath, which was rare in this day and age.
They went all out, there were several kinds of magical beast flesh, and even more, tasty treats for them to eat, such as cakes, and jam-filled bread rolls.
As they ate, Fei Lei asked, "So has Teacher ever conquered a dungeon?"
Hina laughed, "No, in the beginning, he was too weak to enter on. Even when he discovered how to use his Sigil, he was afraid that he would be mistaken as a real magic beast, and that he would be targeted by the other mages."
"But what about after he took on the Elder Dragon's form?" Yan Mei asked as she ate her food.
"Once he killed the elder dragon, Dungeon Diving became pointless to him. So, he just wrote it off, and any time he needed a weapon or magic item, he could just pay for one with the money he earned from completing a high ranking quest." Hina took a large swig of wine and continued on, "Master loves auctions, he can just throw away money there, so he often ended up buying us stuff, but will only give it to us if we need it."
"How does that work?" Yan Mei asked again.
Hina laughed as pointed to Fei Lei with her fork and she said, "One time your elder student was fighting for his life, and master didn't intervene until his opponent brought out a higher tiered magic item. Only when he was about to die did our beloved Teacher toss out a sword that was equally ranked. Next, he sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed the show."
"No!!!" Yan Mei couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Yep, Big Bro was really on the verge of dying after that hard-earned victory, he ended up staying in bed for a few months to recover after that beating," Hina replied.
Yan Mei was shocked by their teacher's behavior, and even more so when Fei Lei said, "Yeah, that sounds like my Teacher. Listen to this! Once, while I slept, Tetra carried me out of the house and without waking me, brought me out to the wilderness, and put me in a bear's den."
Hina laughed as Yan Mei went wide-eyed and pale.
"What did he make you do?" Yan Mei was almost afraid to hear the answer but still asked anyway.
Fei Lei stood up and used his fork and plate to demonstrate as he said, "He started banging on some pans and shouted, 'Do your best, I believe in you!' and ran off leaving me to fight off the whole sleuth by myself."
Hina laughed even harder once she heard the punch line, while Yan Mei couldn't believe Fei Lei was even alive.
Hina then walked her fingers across the rim of her ale mug as she said, "One time he dropped me off a waterfall and said, "I'm doing this because my love for you is deeper than any ocean. Grow strong, my student."
Fei Lei and Hina laughed, Fei Lei then countered with, "Oh yeah, did you know that he used chains enchanted with gravity manipulation magic to hold me down while I climbed a mountainside with my bare hands? Every time I started to make progress he would throw stones at me from on high or use the chains to suddenly increase the weight! I fell a couple of times sustaining serious injuries."
"The training is easy, wait till you have to deal with his drunken gambling! Did you know he even tried to trade in his pants for chips at the casino?!" Hina returned fire.
"He didn't!" Yan Mei shouted.
"To be fair, his pants were made from dragon scales, and when he learned the casino was cheating him out of his money, he destroyed the whole place!" Hina laughed before she took another sip of her beer.
Fei Lei laughed and in return said, "That does sound like something teacher would do, one time, I found him sleeping on the roof of the dojo, he said that he was drinking with some friends and had no idea how he got up there!"
Hina looked to Yan Mei and asked, "So what about you, did your father train you?"
Yan Mei nodded her head, "Yes, he did! I was also trained by my Grandpa. However, they kept me on the family's estate and I wasn't allowed to explore like other Nobels my age. I know it was for my own good, but sometimes, I felt like a prisoner rather than a family member. Being born with Fire God roots put me a position of constant danger, and after the first kidnapping attempt, everyone started to treat me like a fragile flower."
"Kidnapping attempt!?" Fei Lei frowned and felt a surge of fury.
"First?" Hina followed up.
Yan Mei smiled, thankful for their concern, she held her hand up and said, "I was only a kid then, I was shopping with my brother in our kingdom's bazaar when we were both attacked by the dark guild. Brother got hurt and they kidnapped us, daddy was furious. He scoured the whole city and managed to save us, and when we returned both of us were given guards to constantly protect us."
"You have a brother?" Fei Lei asked.
Yan Mei smiled proudly as she said, "Mn! Big brother is from my father's 2nd wife, he's a few years older than me, and was lucky enough to be born with Wind God Roots. His name is Yan Shi, and he's attending one of the best Mage schools in the world right now! The Central Empire's Grand Arcana School."
"Oh, then you must be very pleased to have such a brother!" Hina said chowing down on the sweets in front of her.
"Yep, big brother is one of the strongest Wind Mages in the world, even the Mana Emperor is trying to recruit him to the Royal Magic-Knights," Yan Mei said puffing her chest out.
"Fei Lei's gonna have a hard time surviving your family's wrath, once they learn that their precious flower has been plucked, I imagine that they'll want his head on a pike," Hina said with a foxy smile.
Fei Lei grabbed his neck while Yan Mei slammed her hands on the table and shouted, "I...we...WE HAVEN"T GONE THAT FAR YET!"
Fei Lei's face turned bright red while Hina's grin grew wider as she asked, "Yet? So you want to?"
"You! You're an even bigger pervert than Fei Lei!" Yan Mei shouted as she pointed her finger at Hina.
"Me...no~oo." Hina said before breaking out in laughter, "Haha, Fei Lei's a Perv now, is he? I wonder what he did to earn that nickname?"
Fei Lei's face grew even redder as he avoided Hina's gaze and looked to the side.
"No answer, huh?" Hina poked his cheek before turning to Yan Mei and saying, "Little sister, you and I are going to have a long talk later."
Yan Mei then followed Fei Lei's actions and avoided her gaze.
"Can we please, talk about anything other than that?" Fei Lei pleaded.
Hina poked his cheek again and slowly said, "N~o~p~e!"
Yan Mei than eeped as Hina grabbed her breasts and said, "Now dish! What naughty things have you guys done already?!"
As they chatted and laughed up a storm while goofing around, an obeast man came over, placed his hand on Hina's shoulder before trying to court her in the worse kind of way, and spoke with the smell of ale heavy on his breath, "Hey babe, why don't you ditch these guys and come to my table for some fun?"
"Get lost," Fei Lei said with a bored stare.
"What, this guy your boyfriend?" The bloated man said with a disgusted look on his face.
Yan Mei growled, "Didn't you hear him? Back off tubby!"
The obeast man then smiled while looking at Yan Mei's breasts, "Ooh, those are nice."
Yan Mei pulled herself close to Fei Lei and growled at the geezer.
Fei Lei gave him one more warning before he released his killing intent, "Get out of here, and if you so much as stare at my woman again, I'll cut em off!"
The Tubster looked back to Hina and said, "Well, see, she isn't you're girlfriend, so butt out!"
He suddenly tried to reach for Hina's breasts before he said, "They're not as good as the other girl's but you'll do."
"Please, don't, I was having such a good time," Hina said as she sighed and placed her mug on the table.
The man suddenly felt that his arm had become unusually light, he stared down in horror to see that everything from his wrist down was gone, and only a small bubble of water was keeping his blood from flowing.
Hina stood up and slapped him in the face with his own hand, the tubby man fell back in fear, and as he tried to scuttle away, Hina growled and said, "Get lost scum! Only people I trust can touch me!"
Hina threw the dismembered hand into the man's lap, Yan Mei then grabbed the shocked Yan Mei's breast and groped it as she said, "These tits belong to me!"
The fat man was pale in the face as he grabbed his hand and ran off screaming, "She's crazy!"
Yan Mei then saw her sit back down as she said, "Now no one here will mess with us, or Yan Mei's titties."
"I know that she has a great pair, but don't you think that was a bit...excessive?" Fei Lei said as he looked at Yan Mei's assets.
"Fei Lei, you don't understand around here, and with tits like those, you got to be lawless. Lots of men are gonna wanna give em a squeeze, so you got to do your part to protect them. Going this far is what it takes for boobs like them to survive out here." Hina countered.
"CAN WE PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT MY BREASTS!" Yan Mei shouted with a cherry-red face.
Everyone in the room was shocked at the events displayed, but such a thing happing was a common occurrence here, so it didn't take them long to forget about it and go about their own business.
Not too long after eating their meals, the fat boy came back with city guards, he pointed them out and said, "There, that's the bitch that cut my hand off!"
Hina sighed as she said, "That fat piece of shit."
Fei Lei and Yan Mei noticed a deep pain emanating from her expression as she stood up and she walked over to the guards before pulling out her Guild I.D.
After some talking, the guard's face turned sour, and the fatty's face turned pale.
Hina cast a spell over the man's face and he seemed to start spilling his guts about various crimes he'd committed.
In a surprise turn of events, the guards dragged the fat guy away while he kicked and screamed that he was an important fellow and that they could do this to him.
"Sorry for spoiling the mood guys. You know what? I'm tired, and I think I'll be calling it a night," Hina said as she walked away.
Fei Lei looked to Yan Mei and asked, "Can you go see if she's okay?"
Yan Mei saw that something was off with Hina and started to followed after as she said, "I would have even if you didn't ask."
Fei Lei then went upstairs to his room and sat on his bed, pulled out the cog he found at the market.
He studied it until the night overtook the city, the words written on the top of the cracked surface was, LS-SC010/100-PSD-1.
Fei Lei felt like pulling his hair out as he thought, "This could mean anything! Why are you so familiar? What are you?!"
Fei Lei suddenly yawned and fell back on his bed before he closed his eyes. Since he was tired anyways, Fei Lei decided to go ahead and get some rest.
As he dozed off, Fei Lei left the cog on his stomach with his hand placed over it, as it touched the bottom side of his wrist, it suddenly started to glow, and quickly sank into his skin.