(Milo's Perspective)
While Emilia's taking her aptitude test, I guess I'll look at the quest board.
I walked up the stairs and over to the quest board, no one was around it this time.
Let's see what we have. I overlooked the C-rank quests and noticed several changes.
"Slay The Raging Minotar-☆☆☆☆☆☆☆. Reward: 2x Fire Mage's Book of Spells, Spatial Mage's Book of Spells, 7 Mana Crystals, 7 Gold, 2x High-Grade Healing Potion."
"Stake Out Potential Criminal Hideout-☆☆☆. Reward: 2 Gold."
"Guard Merchant's Life-☆☆☆. Reward: 1 Gold, 1 Mana Crystal, Grade 3 Azure Long Sword."
"Looking for strong warriors for tournament-Reward: Fame and Riches."
I want to climb the ranks faster, so I'll slay the raging minotaur, but it didn't have nearly as many stars. However, I'm a lot stronger now. Not to mention, there's also a pretty good reward.
I pulled the quest off the wall and brought it down stairs to Rachel.
"The raging minotaur. It's been causing problems in the Cave Biome for adventurers recently. It seems to be a variant as it's fur is black instead of the usual brown. Adventures even said it's roar alone caused their comrades to pass out," Rachel informed me.
"Black fur and powerful roar..."
"Here, take this. You know, it's strange, some say it had a collar or chain around it's neck," Rachel said, handing me a drawing of the minotaur.
It had a look of utter hatred on it's face, it seemed to have lost it's mind completely.
"Just bring us back it's fur and horns as proof, this is a quest from the guild itself, so you'll recieve your reward immediately upon completion."
This was nice to hear. "Thanks, I'll have it done in no time."
Emilia's still taking her test, I'll have wait around until she's done.
I took a seat at an unoccupied table, put my head down on my arms, and just thought to myself.
When I get enough stars, I'll probably have to face Lucian again. Last time he was holding back, but so was I. Again, I still won't be able to use all of Erythro's help, so I'll have to compensate with other abilities.
After this quest, I'll visit Vanessa again, mastering fire-magic and spatial-magic might be key here.
"We should call her and let her know via telepathy," Erythro said.
"You're right, let's do that," I agreed.
Calling Vanessa...
Vanessa
00:01
"What's up, Buttercup?" Vanessa said from inside my head.
Buttercup? Nevermind that.
"Yo, Vanessa, is it alright if I stop by later? I'm thinking about doing more training to master my abilities."
"We're expecting a rather intense advancement test," Erythro added.
"Anytime, but I noticed something strange with the simulation," Vanessa said.
Strange?
Vanessa sounded like she was thinking. "There were traces of foreign mana in the pocket space, nothing went wrong in the dimension, right? I wasn't observing for the full hour afterall."
"Uh-yeah, I fought my evil doppleganger, and he seemed like a powered up version of myself. He had all of my abilities too," I confessed.
"Hmm...I should look into that," Vanessa said.
Vanessa's voice perked up. "Anyways, how's Emilia?"
"She's taking an aptitude test to become and adventurer right now. She seemed prettg adament about it."
"Ooh~exciting, I hope she passes."
"I don't know how I feel about it to be honest. This stuff's dangerous, the last mission I took was falsely ranked, and several adventurers died trying to complete it. A kid like her shouldn't have her life cut short like that."
"I know how you feel, but that's why you're there to look after her. Until she gets strong enough on her own, you should stand by her side. I have to go now, bye, bye!" Vanessa said before hanging up.
Called Ended: 01:16
I guess she's right. I should establish some ground rules just in case.
As the call ended, I heard someone come and grab a chair next to me.
A new voice spoke to me now. "Are you the one who took the quest for the minotaur?"
I looked up to find a man and woman looking at me.
The man had blonde hair and wore a brown tunic with a sword on his hilt. The woman had black hair, and wore a short combat dress with a sword on her hilt. They seemed to be twins based off their facial features. Blue eyes, similar noses, etc.
Don't tell me their here to cause trouble for me.
I internally sighed before replying. "Yeah, I am."
The man scratched his head. "Awesome, we were wondering if you'd be willing to party with us to take it down. Truth is, we're low on money and we need mana crystals to upgrade our gear."
The woman interluded. "I've had special sight since birth, I could kind of see that you're stronger than a lot of the people in here. We figured we'd have better chances clearing the quest if we went with you."
"We're pretty good with swords. We can also use fire and ice magic pretty well. What do ya say?" The man added.
Erythro made a deduction. "We may be limited since our full range of abilities can't be displayed in front of them."
"I agree, but I don't want to make any enemies by refusing them," I lamented.
I made my decision. "Sure, I'll party with you guys, I plan to set off today after my student is done with their admittance test."
"Great! You're a life-saver. I knew we were right to approach you," The woman said.
"No problem uh-emm?" I paused.
"Right, sorry, we never introduced ourselves. I'm Ella, and this is my brother Ethan," Ella said.
"Nice to meet you two, I'm Milo."
As we finished conversing, I heard the distinct sound of doors opening. I turned my attention from Ella and Ethan and saw that it was Emilia.
She had her arm around a woman who was walking her out of the testing room.
The woman wore a white shirt of some kind with gold accessories all over her body.
I flew over to them using wind magic.
"How'd it go?" I asked.
Emilia seemed out of it, she must be low on mana again. I linked mana with her and gave her some of mine.
"Ho~ and you must be Milo. Don't worry, she passed into D-rank." The woman holding her said.
I let a breath out. "That's good to hear, you must be her test conductor, nice to meet you." I extended my hand out.
"That's right, I'm Rizona of the Dragon-Clan. Your name's popped up frequently recently, Lucian talked about you a lot."
"He has?" I said, sounding confused.
"Almost too much, he seems eager for a rematch when you take the advancement test. I'd be careful if I were you, he's stronger than he lets on," Rizona added.
"I see," I crossed my arms to think.
Lucian, are you really just a B-rank?
"Master, I want to get some sleep," Emilia said, now standing at my side.
Rizona pulled a blank card out of her pocket and waved some magic over it.
It now had a portrait of Emilia on it as well as a D in the upper right hand corner.
She handed it to Emilia.
"Thank you Rizona," Emilia said.
I dropped Emilia off at an inn and left her with some pocket change.
Current Balance: 400C, 19S, 1G, 0P.
I returned to the adventurer's guild to find that Ella and Ethan were there waiting patiently.
"I'm back, you guys ready to go?" I asked from behind.
They both stood up and turned to face me.
"Hey, you're back, I'm totally ready."
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
"Great, Iet's get going."
We exited the adventurer's guild. I encompassed Ella, Ethan, and myself in wind and we starting flying to the dungeon tower.
"Woah! You can manage 3 people at once!?" Ethan yelled.
"Yeah, I've trained a lot with this ability, so it's gotten pretty strong now," I answered.
We arrived at the Cave Biome in no time.
This place is both the definition of mystic and creepy. It's as dark as a midnight sky riddled with pollution. Ella and Ethan insisted on taking the lead, they've taken out every monster that's jumped out at them so far. I haven't had to lift a finger.
We headed deaper into the cave, passing by other adventurers in the process. We decided to take a break and regroup.
"Where is this thing? For a minotaur, it sure is elusive," Ella commented.
"No kidding, we've been searching for hours," Ethan added.
"Combat Mode Initiated"
I looked into the darkness behind Ethan. I saw it, the raging bull. Again, even in my accelerated vision, it was fast. It swungs it's axe, bringing it down on Ethan.
They looked like they weren't moving. I stepped infront of Ethan, deflecting the axe to the side. It created a huge gash in the cave wall, which instilled the fear of realization in me.
This thing might collapse the cave.
The minotaur's axe looked expensive, like it was crafted by royalty.
It locked eyes with me and glared. I noticed that it was wearing a collar on it's necked, and on that collar was the engraving of a heart.
Reader's Bonus
Name: ???
Race: Dark Minotaur
Rank: B+ Class Monster
(Status)
Lv.40-Exp(23,000/40,000)
HP: 28,543/30,000
MP: 800/800
Strength: 720
Agility: 380
Endurance: 680
Intelligence: 32
Sense: 230
Mana: 55
Spirit: 20
Attribute Points: 0
Passive Skills:
Weapon Mastery (Lv.6)- Understanding of weapon-based combat.
Ailment resistance (Lv.Max)- Increased resistance to ailments.
Pain Tolerance (Lv.5)-Heightened resistance to pain.
Hyper Resistance (Lv.1)- Heightens resistance to all attacks.
Activation Skills:
Intimidation (Lv.9)-By will of thought, you can send waves or terror and dread through your enemies.
Berserker (Lv.Max)- Lose your sense of self to rage. Feel no pain, feel no fear.
Body Enhancement (Lv.3)-Enhance the abilities of the body via mana.