"Morge I really don't see why we're here…"
"Aww come on! You've been super bored since you went on vacation, right? Plus, you're being petty so you're not with Noelle, come on a quest with me! We need some more sibling bonding time as is." Morgiana pulled Magnus along to the adventurer's guild. "What if we find something interesting?"
"I could just wait for someone else to find something interesting, and then I can finesse the guild for it later."
"Wow you're fun. I finally see why Noelle likes you so much…" Morgiana said.
"Thanks, that sounded so sincere…" Magnus said matching her sarcasm. "Do we really have to bond in the wilderness though? We literally have the most modern city in the world with countless attractions and you want to go bandit hunting or dungeon diving? I grew up doing that for my survival! I'm tired of it!"
"We haven't even picked a job yet, the possibilities are endless! I've been this bored all my life as a princess only ever studying and training, then I spent eternity as a bored statue who could only think. I want to stretch my legs and do something exciting."
"You just want to swing a sword. Most normal girls want to go shopping or to a concert."
"…If you don't want to go in, we can go do something else…" Morgiana said sadly starting to walk away with her head down, dragging her feet. You could see her shoulders start to tremble as tears welled up in her eyes.
"(UGGGHH! WHO RAISED THIS BRAT!) Fine we can go on a quest..."
"Yay! Let's go pick all the dangerous stuff!" Morgiana grabbed Magnus arm but he didn't move.
"I have one condition."
"What is it?"
"We cosplay. No one can ever know I worked for Galileo."
"Fair enough." A while later they returned to the guild in full disguise( they even went as far as to conceal their more prominent powers to make the job more interesting. Eye powers and swordplay were not to be used, but Morgiana still had a random sword on her hip. Since superheroes were becoming popular and Magnus' need for discretion, they decided to dress as the great saiyaman and saiyagirl, Magnus wore a green gi over a black bodysuit, with white gloves boots, a red cape and an orange helmet with a dark visor. Morgiana wore an almost identical costume with a blue gi and peach colored cape and helmet. They used transformation jutsu to look like adults, so people didn't try to talk kids out of dangerous quests.
The guild was nothing like Dragon tale. It was neat and orderly for one thing. The main incredibly large common area, which could hold several thousand, had a lounge and food court on the side. At the center of the room was a line of reception desks for registration and accepting quests, and several booths at the end were for collecting rewards. On the far wall was a series of message boards with each one being a higher tier than the last. S class and up were on a different floor entirely so only people of a certain level could reach them. As she grabbed an entertaining looking job, some S class guild member tried to talk her out of it but before a scene could unfold, she sent him flying with a simple backhand. "Mind your business." She practically skipped downstairs, and Magnus had already registered their group as Odd Jobs.
"This one looks fun!" She handed him a slip of paper. The terms of the mission were simple. Slay a mysterious creature called 'The Avarice'. It didn't give much information about the creature only it was as elusive as it was dangerous. With no real definitive characteristics besides stitches across it's body, it steals treasure and food from nearby villages. Those who have confronted it are all dead or traumatized so badly they can't even speak. "Sounds sketchy right?" She asked getting hyped up. "They say it's holed up in the depths of a man-eating monster infested forest, the Forest of Despair!"
"Sketchy indeed…(With this little information how can this be considered SSS class? It says the client won't even meet with us to discuss details farther. Why did it even go up on the board? I knew Gali couldn't run a…)" Morgiana smiled triumphantly when he looked at the rewards posted. A million gold coins, ten ingots of a rare metal found in meteor in the neutral zone called 'uru metal', several dozen kilograms of an ore called unmanned rock, and a plant called the 'ten thousand cures plant'. "(No way…the value of these items… how can anyone have gotten their hands on all of these?)"
-Uru metal- what Mjolnir is made of
-Unmanned rock- a mineral that produces electrical energy when submerged in water, a single bead can generate 20,000 volts for a whole day.
-Ten thousand cures plant- a plant that can be used in medicines to treat over ten thousand different diseases
"The job poster already left the rewards at the guild so it's definitely legit, and if we get succeed it's all yours," Morgiana assured him. "Can we go pleaaaase?"
"Hahahahaa! Avarice prepare to face justice at our hands!" Magnus yelled out for the whole guild to hear, while he hit a dab pose.
"After today the foul beast will trouble our kingdom no more! Hahahaha!" Morgiana followed Magnus' lead doing an inverse version of his pose.
"What's going on over there?"
"I don't know someone's talking about going after the Avarice.
"The SSS class quest? No one has ever come back from that, why is it even still up?! I thought the executives were going to handle that one."
"I guess a few more fools are marching off to their deaths, it can't be helped."
"Who are they anyways?"
Just like Magnus wanted he had an audience for his acting, if he was going to do this quest he was going to have his idea of fun too. Morgiana didn't mind playing along, especially since she ended up getting her way. But she banned him from trying to rap their intro, Magnus's singing was so bad that he might give them away.
"Who are we you ask?" Magnus smirked striking more poses. "We are the defenders of peace!"
"Uplifters of the good and destroyers of evil wherever it may be!" Morgiana spun into another pose.
"I am the Mighty Saiyaman!" Magnus said taking a knee with his fist in the air "Hero of all things righteous!"
"And I'm the Mighty Saiyagirl!" Morgiana cupped her hands like a heart while standing behind him. "Champion of hope and love!"
"Together we are…Odd jobs!" They struck one final pose together back to back as confetti exploded from somewhere behind them.
"What the hell was all that?"
"They're gonna die for sure…"
"Where'd the confetti come from?"
It was safe to say no one was impressed with their introduction from the dull stares. Tsuchigumo could be heard laughing from the upper floor.
"Let's just go kill the damn monster." Magnus and Morgiana disappeared extremely embarrassed.
Having left the city some several hundred kilometers they found themselves at a sea of trees easily as tall as the skyscrapers of Hodge. All kinds of strange calls and roars could be heard from its depths, an evil aura of malice and predation made the air thick and heavy. "This is the place…it has to be," Magnus said staring at the crude map they were provided with. Alright let's go slay a monster! It might even have more treasure to take too."
"That's the spirit big brother!" She charged full speed into the forest. It didn't take long for them to realize this forest of despair wasn't as menacing as they had hoped. Even using their regular eyes most monsters were easily detected and put down with a swift strike or shuriken between the eyes. Morgiana was really hoping something interesting would happen, she dragged Magnus all the way out here against his wishes, so something had to give eventually. She could see Magnus' growing irritation as time went on. At least they had a similar sense of humor otherwise they'd have long since died of boredom. After an hour or two of wandering around killing weak monsters, they had ventured so deeply into the forest that they couldn't tell which way was which anymore.
"Aaaaand we're lost, aren't we Saiyagirl?" Magnus asked.
"N-no! I umm… well from what the others said it could pop up anywhere near here, we just have to be vigilant. Look moss on a rock! Travelers used it to navigate the wilderness in olden times! We should gooo…that way!"
"(Just admit we don't know where we're going or what we're looking for.) Right Spongebob…a dirty rock will lead the way…" killing a large magic beast that leaped from behind a tree with a nonchalant punch to its forehead.
"Come on Magnus-"
"Saiyaman."
"Whateverman! I'm trying to make this fun, sorry I picked an uneventful quest… I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of monster the Avarice is. We can go back if you want."
"Wait Saiyawoman, what's that?" Pointing down the path a goat that seemed to be decaying and held together with a patchwork of parts and darkness. It had the number 67 tattooed on it's forehead. For a moment it stood extremely still staring at them with dead eyes.
"A zombie goat?" Morgiana guessed "Gross."
"But what is it holding?"
It carried a severed arm wearing several top quality pieces of jewelry in it's mouth. It suddenly ran off of the forest path into the brush. "You see that thing?" It kind of fits the description, a little smaller than I thought though."
"Let's follow it!" The two of them took to the trees and stealthily followed closely behind the goatlike creature, it ran swiftly through the brush, using darkness to increase it's mobility. "Where is it going?"
"I'm not sure…maybe to its stash." Magnus said. The strange goat entered an old mine shaft. "You ready?"
"Of cour- look out!" From behind them hulking human zombie with a 78 tattooed on it's chest, raised claws of darkness smashed down on them. They both dove to the side and prepared a counter technique. "Taijutsu only right?" Morgiana asked.
"Unless the situation calls for more. North star triple kick!" Three swift kicks hit pressure points with pinpoint accuracy and the monster exploded from the impact. After it died a black shadow like object floated away.
"What was that technique bro- Saiyaman!?"
"A style I'm working on, if you're good I'll teach it to you when I perfect it."
"Looking forward to it!"
"Alright, let's see what's in here. Oh, and be careful not to let any of them bite you. If they are zombies it could be a contagious virus." Magnus said going in. As they went deeper into the cave the zombie creatures began to get more and more powerful with higher numbers tattooed on them; multiple limbs, chimera like creatures of different animal mixes and even a few powerful warrior corpses with augmented limbs and appendages, not to mention whatever powers it had while alive. All animated with dark magic and each one released a shadow that flew off somewhere when they were killed. Magnus and Morgiana used masterful martial arts to quickly dispatch the enemies and kept moving deeper into the cave. Strangely even the furniture and paintings even began to come to life attacking the two heroes. Magnus got tired of the overwhelming numbers and decided to clear the hall. "Solar style style; Sunbeam!" A great white hot beam of light incinerated the zombies attacking them sending countless shadows away. Seeing such a terribly hot attack the pursuing zombies began to flee in fear.
"FIRE!"
"HOT! HOT!"
"I DON'T WANT TO BURN!"
"When they saw fire, their whole disposition changed… that's it! They're weak against fire!" Morgiana deduced. "Then in that case…" Morgiana's body erupted into matatabi's blue and black flames set with cat ears and a pair of claws. "I'm ready!"
"(Hmm… I want a cool fire form…)" Magnus thought (no sharingan soooo….)THIS! Magnus let sunshine go through his whole body and began to glow with golden flames all over forming a suit of blazing armor.
"That's so cool big brother!" Morgiana liked the Majesty of Magnus's sunshine armor. While she was admiring it and Magnus was loving the adoration, neither of them noticed the shadow of a pair of scissors snip Morgiana's shadow until she suddenly passed out.
"Morge?! Morge! What's wrong?!" Magnus caught her and tried to wake her. She recovered quickly with Magnus' medical ninjutsu. She didn't know what happened, but Magnus' sunlight burned her somehow, so he turned his glow off. That's when they realized Morgiana had no shadow. She started to panic as she didn't know what that meant.
Fortunately, Magnus was well informed. This could only be the work of the shadow devil fruit owned by Gecko Moria. He would steal shadows from capable warriors and use them to animate corpses of powerful warriors who he had physically augmented creating a loyal undead super army. For him to have stolen Morgiana's shadow a powerful zombie was about to be born, plus she had to get it back or exposure to sunlight will kill her. Magnus made it clear they should hurry and get it back.
The two of them raced through the halls incinerating their foes with devastating fire based ninjutsu. Eventually they came to a final room. Several figures noticed them and quickly faded away leaving only a giant man(around seven meters tall) stand over an operating table holding what looked like a black silhouette of Morgiana. The man himself was a creepy shallot shaped guy, with small horns pale white skin, purple lips, sharp teeth and a mess of dark red hair. He had a stich running down the center of his face and dressed in a black coat, black gloves, a large caravat and bright orange plaid pants. His eyes were black and he had black tattoos showing he had demon blood in him.
On the operating table laid the corpse of a young man with long white hair and wearing noble robes, who's body had been freshly modified. An ornate katana lay next to him.
"Kishishishi! So you two were able to not only find my hideout, which I went through a lot of effort to keep hidden, but come this far inside as well? I was right to grab one of your shadows…I can feel the immense power in it." The little shadow Morgiana was fighting to get free from his grip but to no avail.
"Hey fat ass give be back my shadow!" Morgiana shouted.
"Tch, watch your mouth girl. The name is Gecko Moria. You can have your shadow back if you can take it from him." He shoved the shadow into the corpse and a surge of dark magic amplified it bringing the corpse to life and giving it magic power. Being Morgiana's shadow it received a massive boost in power. "You wasted a bunch of my soldiers, so I think it's only fair you offer your shadows to replace them. Kishishishi! It took a while to collect the shadows from all those adventurers! And with my new magic I don't even have to keep them alive anymore! Kishsishishi! I'm going to enjoy watching you get killed by your own shadow."
"Hiiiiii! The corpse grabbed it's sword and stepped down from the table posing and trying to make a cute face (mind you it's a decayed old man). It brushed it's hair aside and looked at the two heroes condescendingly. "Those costumes are really ugly, It's obvious you two should be allowed to dress yourselves." The zombie said staring at its nails.
"What? The zombie said it not me!" Morgiana defended herself from Magnus' glare.
"This is unacceptable when was the last time I had a manicure?!"
"Kishishishi! Behold, the most powerful zombie in this collection! Number 454 Reaver! I wonder how your techniques will compliment him girl. Alright Reaver go take care of them! (It seems I won't be able to use this lab for much longer if people this strong can find it. I guess I'll have to clean house and start fresh somewhere else.)" Moria thought taking a seat on the far side of the massive room, he could sense it'd be a hard-fought battle against these two but he wanted to see the outcome.
Reaver drew his sword with a devilish grin as he took a refined sword stance completely identical to Morgiana's Camelotian swordplay.
"Saiyawoman be ready, it knows all of your skills." Magnus warned.
"Hahaha! Don't worry cheap copy can never beat me! I'll slay him myself."