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Hello, this is the Author here, sorry for not posting for a while but I was held up and was changing a few things in the story. I changed all the die into dice in the story so you all can get off of my back now. I also am planning to release the prologue and a few more chapters for a new story called "End Everything" right after this goes up (Prologue is going to be dark and sad so you have been warned). I am gonna do better at this whole writing thing and see to it I post at least one chapter a week on Wednesdays. During the other days, I will try to stockpile chapters and hopefully, in the future, I can change the schedule. That is all now enjoy you guys deserve it.
From, Author
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As Mike was sitting on the ground catching his breath Dike was looking at the three who ambushed Mike just now. He was trying to see if they had some sort of marking on them or another such item that was visible to identify whatever group they were a part of however, seeing that there were no definable features just from a glance Dike walks over to Mike and pulls him out of the alley and back into the street.
"Alright Micheal just waits here while I take care of these bumbling idiots," Dike says as he leaves Mike at the opposite end of the street from the alley.
Mike does not say anything but just watches as Daniel walks back to where Mike was just standing before time stopped. Then as I some pressed play on a DVD player all three of the men fighting Mike rush forward at Dike. Mike pays attention to how Dike is going to handle the situation since Mike had never seen him fight before so he hoped to gain some insight from this fight and hopefully come up with an idea for what path to take in this new world.
Since Yoro was at the front he got his swing in first before the other two and he aims to cleave Dikes skull in two. Now the other men beside Yoro were also startled to see that Mike is no longer there but has now been swapped out with someone else, but Yoro did not care at this moment about who was in front of him he would only kill. Yoro swings his ax with all his might but a loud Clang is heard as it strikes something hard and solid causing Yoro's arms to vibrate from pain as a result.
Before Yoro's strike connected Dike cast a spell creating a floating shield to appear out of nowhere and block the strike. Seeing that his strike got blocked Yoro's eyes turn red as more and more veins pop out all over his body to become visible to those who look.
'Ding'
Yoro has entered a 'Raged' state
Seeing this Mike cannot help but break out in a sweat but for now, he knew that just staying across the street would be for the best as to not hinder Dike so he can bring out the big guns if necessary.
Yoro brandishes his ax and swings at Dike again and while he was under the effects of Rage he was even more powerful. The shield moves to block the ax and this time a visible crack forms on the shield as they connect. Dike sees this but knows that Yoro was not the one who caused the crack on the shield. The reason is that the shield spell he cast can only block up to three attacks below a certain level of power which Yoro is below even though he is in a Rage. Now the other two men next to Yoro get next to Dike's sides causing him to actually pay attention to them as they stab at him only to be dodged as he does not want to waste the shield's last block.
Seeing as Dike cannot go any further back against the wall of this dead-end alley Dike instead begins mumbling incomprehensible words while his off-hand made weird gestures.
"He's casting a spell!" One of the men yell
Seeing that Dike is about to cast a spell the three men start attacking more and a bit faster to get a hit in and break his concentration on casting the spell. Dike controls the shield to block Yoro's third attack which stops the ax but the shield shatters, while he dodges the other two men's attack. With that Dike has now finished preparing the spell as he stops making hand motions and speaking in tounges. As he does a cold aura starts to spread around the area and as he ducks another stab from one of the men surrounding him Dike places his hand on the ground and shouts, "Release!"
As he does the ground surrounding Dike immediately turns into ice which advances throughout the alley and encases the three men around Dike. Seeing this Mike cannot help but feel excited and scared to learn higher-tier spells since they are a lot more destructive and versatile than the cantrips that he has in his arsenal. Still though seeing the power of magic was scary since he knew that these types of spells could easily end his life, but still Mike was sure that being from the 21st century which focused on science he was sure that he would be able to deal with high-level spells with ease. Still, Mike wanted to see if he could still learn things through the old-fashioned way of reading books, studying and practicing instead of relying on the system and having to spend something to learn and improve everything since hard work pays off more than cheating.
Still, Dike looked very powerful and cool at this moment as he stood up from the ground and walked by the three new ice sculptures. It was all cool looking at least before Dike, slipped on the ice and fell on his butt. Seeing this Mike rushes over to help Dike up and hopefully prevent him from making more of a fool of himself. Successfully traversing the ice they both walk out of the alley.
"So are they dead?" Mike cannot help but ask
He was having some inner conflict as he had never seen blood before today let alone a dead body so he was not keen on crossing that off on his bucket list now. Now when Mike was playing with his friends he was a different person entirely as he adopted the persona of his character and would easily act without a care in the world cause it was all make-believe but that was then and this is now so this is still a bit difficult for him to comprehend what was going on around him as his gaze kept on drifting towards the men he had a hand in killing.
"They are still alive but it will take a while for them to melt out of the ice, even more so since they are in that alley" Dike replies as he takes out what Mike assumes to be a wand from his robes and points it down the road.
"Are you going to come out or am I going to have to force you to?" Dike says to thin air
There is no reply but Mike understands to situation perfectly cause after all there have been many similar instances of someone pulling the strings behind the scenes and as a result, they would send someone to handle any problems. Since Mike has played through similar scenarios in games he knew that invisibility is a thing that people can do quite often, so he also readies an Ice Blast cantrip in one of his hands and prepares to unleash it if necessary.
"Fine if you won't come out I guess I will use force," Dike says as he moves his wand in a circular motion and gives it a light flick before a spike of ice appears out of nowhere and flies down the road. Dike does the same motion a few times and makes multiple ice spikes fly down the road as well and after they reach a certain distance they evaporate into steam preventing them from striking any of the buildings. Seeing this happen Mike also unleashes his Ice Blast just to do something and help a little in case this person is close by the two of them.
Dike saw Mike's actions and knew that he would not have to worry about this invisible person coming close since Mike was handling it perfectly. Eventually, one of the ice spikes gets stopped from flying down the street like the others and stays in place before it falls to the ground. As it falls to the ground a figure appears in its place dressed all in black and a hood that prevents both of them from seeing their face. The figure had caught the ice spike and was not able to actually harm the figure. Dike was running low on mana due to the Time Stop spell he cast earlier as it drained almost half of his reserves and with the addition of all the other spells he had less than 25% of his full amount of mana. A wizard without mana is essentially useless as wizards are usually regarded as glass cannons due to their amazing firepower but weak bodies and other related combat skills.
Now the figure did not know that Dike was running low on mana because of the Time Stop and assassins were generally only good at sneak attacks and surprises when hidden so when this one was found out they had two choices, fight and finish the mission potentially at the cost of their life or flee to fight another day. Seeing that they had been found out the assassin had been found out they quickly reach into their robes and pull out something before throwing it onto the ground causing smoke to pour out and allow for the assassin to escape in the smokescreen.
Seeing that the assassin has now left Dike puts away the wand and Mike stops his cantrip blasting. Dike turns around and Mike follows after him so that they can get to where they were originally heading before they were ambushed. Mike was curious as to where they were going since Dike did not say anything about where their destination was before they left the inn, but seeing how the craziness had passed Mike could ask.
"Um... Dike where are we going?"
"To the adventures guild"
"The Adventurers guild? Why there?"
"So you can gain some experience fighting things," Dike says rather bluntly not hiding the destination
"Okay..."
They continue their walk down the road in silence until they stop in front of a building. Actually, now that Mike was looking at this place he realized that the look was that a regular house since there was even a white picket fence around the place with a garden on the lawn. This confused Mike as Dike said that they were going to the adventures guild and this place did not look like what he had been imagining at all.
"Um, Dike didn't you say that we were going to the adventures guild?" Mike questions believing they are at the wrong place
"This is the adventures guild"
"What, really?!"
"This is this towns guild masters, mothers, home, and from here he runs the guild and issues quests to the adventures in town"
"Um... isn't there supposed to be a guild hall or something like that?"
"From what I read about 10 years ago the guild ran into some financial troubles and the old guildhall burned down, so the place was moved here since they could not afford to rent a new building"
"...Really? How interesting" Mike comments as he had never encountered this situation before
Dike opens up the fence gate and they both walk down the path and stop in front of the door. Dike knocks and after a few seconds, the door is opened... by an orc. Orcs in most fantasy novels and stuff are angry testosterone-filled beasts that only know how to fight and breed with anything that they can. This was the image that Mike had in his mind but when he looked down from the battle-scarred face of this orc he realized that this orc was wearing an apron and hand oven mitts covering their hands. A sweet scent wafts out of the house and into the nostrils of Dike and Mike making their stomachs grumble.
"Ah, I assume you two are looking for Wendel yes?" the Orc says
"Yes," Dike says politely
The Orc smiles at both of them before opening the door wider and gesturing for them to enter. They both enter a hallway with a set of stairs heading up and directly behind it is a set of stairs leading down on the left side of the wall. Further down the hall, there is a doorway which is wide open and it is where the smell was coming from and another doorway which leads into some other room which is closer to them. They both follow the Orc who leads them into the doorway closet to them which happened to be the living room the Orc gestures for them to sit down on one of the two sofas facing each other and they do.
"Wendel! You have visitors!" The orcs yell shakes the entire house
A few seconds later stumbling is heard as someone comes falling down the stairs. A few moments more and a figure enters the doorway of the living room it was a halfling. Halflings are as the name suggests short people about this one was about the height of up to Mike's waist, they look like humans, but don't confuse them with dwarfs as those are known for their beards, forging, and drinking lethal amounts of alcohol. Halflings are more known for their trinkets and inventions. This halfling was wearing simple brown clothes, but they looked like they needed to be washed and he looked like he needed sleep due to the bags under his eyes.
"Yes, Dad?" The halfling who is presumable called Wendel asks
"These two are here to see you about the guild I presume, now be a nice and hospitable host while and I will be in the kitchen baking if you need anything," the Orc says as he walks out of the room and into the kitchen.
The Halfling sits down on the couch opposite to Mike and Dike.
"So what can I do for you two?" Wendel asks