[Third Mission: Help the villagers in the snow mountain to get enough food for the next 'Blizzard Season'
Reward: 10 Pecuniary]
Theo and the captain walked out of the forest and looked at it .. from a distance ... both with complicated feelings ...
"So the next teleporter ...?? where is it ..." Theo asked looking around ...
"Uhm .. it's not here .. the snow mountain might be just up ahead ... " and up ahead literally meant something altogether ...
Theo looked at her and glanced in all directions ...
if going back to the Ice Village meant completing the third mission .. he might as well just fail Theo whole thing ...
but considering what he had promised the captain after saying they didn't need anything from the Rock chief ... he took it all back ...
and looked at the captain again .. looking for the direction .. hoping it wouldn't be straight towards the Ice Village .. where they would undoubtedly meet the elder brother and the annoying disciples ...
"It's just up ahead ... we don't have to go back .. it turns out the system just had the whole situation covered ... but it's more than a 100 miles ... we might have to take stops at the other neighbouring villages and ... what do you know .. we might coincidentally step inside the mission zone of another village ... and I for one hope for that to be the most dangerous mission .. so that we can get on with it ..." Theo nodded ....
"So how many miles from here ...?" he asked suddenly ...
..the captain smiled awkwardly apologetically at him ... Theo frowned "What ...??" ...
"It's a ..." .....
................
the road for the two companions was long ... but the person at the back .. didn't take it well ...
at first he was kind of happy that they were going after the next mission but after asking a question ... he regretted everything ...
judging from their current position on the map .. he doubted that they had covered at least one tenth of the island ... which held the prestigious villages ...
and just to clarify his doubts ... he checked the map ... and suddenly two dots appeared ... one red and one blue ... he was the blue one .. and the lady leading .. was the red one ... they had run for miles ... yet they have only come upon a great mountain .. which was the home of terrifying creatures and entities ... they didn't want to anger ...
and the great mountain .. was already many times bigger than the biggest village on the island ...
even without magic engraved upon it to put an illusion .. the mountain was a big 'journey' .. considering the fact that they were just cautiously walking just so they would not anger the creatures ...
even without putting the creatures into the picture ... the road was still long and even when he looked on the map .. there was no shortcut nor was there any nearby village ...
he turned off the navigator ... and walked with heavy steps hurriedly towards the captain ..
"So ... what will happen if you use your elemental beast ... I'm just curious .. it might be our solution to getting to the next mission zone .. much more quickly ... we don't know what reality holds ... do we ... " he leaned over to the captain .. making the lad take a side step away from the weirdo ..
"If I use it ... it will just attract danger .. or better yet ... it might attract a creature like the Leporid Emperor .. but a mindless one ... without intelligence ... then .. how are we going to stop that kind of 'monster' ... you must remember that .. you're just a Golden Ranked ... and I'm just a commander who just went from being captain to the strongest ... I don't have a powerful control over my current abilities .. it's possible for me to mess up and wave a red flag ... in the bull's den ... how amazing would that be ..."
"On second thought .. maybe we are better off walking across this large mountain ... just the two of us .. all alone ... across this .. monstrous mountain ... why didn't nature just create a damn cliff ... so I can throw myself over ..." the weird guy said making a crying face as he nagged the captain ... all the way ...
.........
by now .. the two have been at it for two days .... without break ...
they have not even passed by a lake to drink water from ... much less any trees with edibles ....
their journey was just a boring road with no obstacles to make things even more lively and more interesting ...
Theo even felt his hands itch ... he felt like if he didn't get to punch anything with flesh except for the captain ... well he might punch the captain .
and of course the leader didn't take that seriously but she made sure to keep him in line ...
Theo walked alongside her in silence ...
although the ground was filled with green grass of which flowers sprouted from ... the duo didn't even glance at the flowers .. because you never know what is what on a weird giant mountain ...
though after a few hours ... in the present timeline .... the two talked about a few things and indulged themselves with life in the military base ... and the captain ... created a shortcut for Theo and opened their own little personal school ...
she told him everything .. she knew ... and in return Theo gave her a few Core Eggs with the fire element ...
but because their rank was so low it wouldn't even affect her .. she bound them to her soul ....
of course she already knew the price of a low ranked Core Egg ... it was already high ... if she were to bring a 'few' high ranked Core Eggs ... she might even rent out the entire kitchen for herself ... for at least 5 days and 20 hours ...
yes .. that long ...
after walking for so long ... Theo spotted a cave just down a small hill ...
the entrance was covered in vines ... which spread over to the outside like dangling body parts ...
before walking in though ... he asked the captain to check for any dangers ... and seeing the smile on her face ... he sighed and immediately went inside ...
about ten steps inside the cave .. he could hear ... a stream ... flowing past ... in a calming sound ...
he walked towards the sound and finally found himself ... looking at a small stream filled with water which flowed upstream ...
there were birds around flying and tweeting ...
even trees with edibles ... at last ...
he could see crops ...
wait a minute ..
"Is this an illusion ...???" he looked back and saw the captain walked slowly behind him ...
"Cap ... what do you see ...??" she raised a brow and looked at him with a weird face ..
"Trees with edibles ... and birds ... and a stream flowing upstream ... " Theo nodded and clasped his hands together ...
he then went to every tree and took a bite into every juicy fruit he found ...
some he found sweet ... some just disgusting medicine he stored inside his system ... for future uses ...
after a few fruit snacks he still didn't feel anything ... his taste buds only felt a second lasting effect .. and they wanted more ...
the latter sighed as he walked over to the stream .. taking off his shoes and soaking his feet inside ...
he laid on his back and looked up to the sky ... with a wondering look ...
the missions that they accepted were their doom ... he thought ...
but so far so good ... their journey was worth it ... he smiled in realisation ...
he felt ... alive ... he felt even more free when thinking about the past few days he had spent with the captain ...
everything was very beautiful in its own way ... the laughs and the mice conversations they had ....
but then .... he recalled that strange dream he once had ...
connecting the dots .. he could tell that that dream was one of his memories ... but to come and think of it .. unlike his normal memories ...
that memory didn't have any essence ...
but it was disturbing ... that he knew ....
and then all of a sudden ... he felt sad about something ... his breathing became heavy as sadness welled up into his throat ...
his heart swum in pity ...
"Why now ..." he muttered ... in a low deep voice ... not understanding the sadness that suddenly crept up to his heart ...
he laughed to himself ...
the cackle was only for a second ... as he felt heavy out of the blue ...
but he knew that .. this was not a physical load ... but an emotional one .. of which he couldn't understand ...
it wasn't as easy as A B C ...
he felt like a student who didn't study for his geometry test ...
"Hey ... what are you doing ..??" a beautiful melodic voice resounded from behind him ...
he stood up and glanced back at the alluring smile of his captain ...
he wanted to smile back .. but he felt like he couldn't ...
"Uh ... I'm just chilling ... and listening to the stream .... " he said quickly as he laid on the ground ...
the captain giggled as she sat next to him ... holding her knees together ... as her feet splashed with the cool water ...
"It's nice isn't it ...?" Theo turned his head ...
"What is .
??" he asked ... turning to look at the sky once more ... his conscious wandering after the story of his dream ...
"The stream ... the breeze ... everything ... the calmness of this place ... and well ... the freedom ..." Theo nodded blankly ... looking at the sky ...
"Sure .. sure it is .. nice ... " he said softly ...
whilst he was in his thoughts ... he suddenly felt something clashing with his left foot ..
it was not a powerful clash but it was enough to make him aware that there was something inside the stream ...
he ignored it ... like he was ignoring a fly ... thinking that .. it was just something that was passing by ...
but after that first clash .. he was poked ... in the very same way ...
he sat up and looked down into the deep stream ...
his toes could definitely feel something smooth underneath them ...
they went across strange bumps ... that they could only feel ...
he removed his feet from the water and crouched down looking intently at the spot he felt something ...
the thing he felt .. had a lifeforce of it's own but it was very distinct ... he couldn't tell yet if it was really a lifeforce or something else ...
with that in mind .. he reached down his hand into the water and grabbed the thing ...
before picking it from the water .. he first felt it's entire surface and found it smooth ..
the bumps .. he felt were actually inscriptions ... that were inscribed directly onto the surface ...
after feeling that it was safe and very normal to bring it out ... he pulled and ...
out came a full body armour ...
it was like a mithril kind of metal ... but when looking at it closely .. he could see that this was by far the correct metal ..
the captain crawled up to him and looked at the armour he fished with great interest
"This .. isn't mithril ... then ... is it ..."
"Adamantium Armour ..!!!! ..." the captain exclaimed in surprise and shock ...
she looked at Theo ... with eyes asking for permission to touch the armour ...
the latter nodded ... and pulled the armour with such force it dug into the ground ...
but before it could reach the captain ... Theo felt a painful itch on his thumb ...
he quickly let go ...
wait ... a painful itch ...
'Wait .. how is this painfully ... it does feel like being pricked ... but how can being pricked feel painful ...?' he wondered inwardly ..
everyone on earth was not normal ... even a commoner couldn't be as common as an ant ...
so the feeling of pain .. especially from a direct prick .. was simply ridiculous ... unless ...
Theo immediately inspected himself ... in and out ...
'My soul .... a part of it has been cut off ...' he immediately realised .. as his power lessened by 30% ... on top of the fact that he had already lost a lot of them ...
only the gold .. darkness and dark frost elements .. remained unchanged ...
but still ... he could feel that his Golden Rank elemental body had weakened so much it could be compared to a peak Silver Rank captain's elemental body ...
his physical strength had dwindled down to the middle stage of the Prodigy Rank ...
he glanced at the armour ...
the captain's eyes glued on it ... as it turned into a silvery smoke .... that flew straight right into his body ...
"What was that ...??" he asked the knowledgeable captain ...
the latter shook her head .. and snapped out of it ..
"That looked like .. an adamantium armour .. without a doubt ... and the whole process is similar to a soul binding process ... yet so different .... when one becomes a captain .. well it's a secret but ... you get an armour ... one specifically created for you .. the captain binds their soul to the armour ... just like your armour did to you ... but it doesn't become one with you ... like literally ... you can only change it into as many different objects you want ... so this is just need to me as much as it is to you ... " she said ...
Theo patted his body all over ... and sighed with relief .. noticing no bad differences on him .
.
he checked his body again .. and found out that .. he was still the same .. with 30% of his power lost ... left with a weak soul that he had to recover somehow ...
but aside from that .. he could feel something that was attached to his soul ...
but it wasn't directly attached but rather ... it was a part of him that stood beside another part of him ...
"Uh ... want to try it out .." Theo looked at the captain ... dumbfoundedly ...
"Try summoning the ... armour ... " Theo immediately searched for the other part of him that attached itself to the bigger part of his soul
.
he sent his focus towards it and tried pulling it with his energy .. which actually worked easily ..
his sight returned to the landscape outside ....
he then looked down on his body .. and could feel himself levitating ... with multiple armour parts hovering in place ... waiting to attach themselves to the right spots ...
"Eh ..??" a dark silvery light .. enshrouded the parts as they hurriedly moved to attach themselves to his body ...
the gorgeous ... godly looking helm ... with a glowing comb that flowed backward disappearing into a golden mist ...
and the cool and awesome looking visor ..
a thick chainmail ... a dragon scale like fauld ...
a gorget like a bicycle chain ... with a silvery hard cloth underneath ... for him to move without hinderance ..
a smooth elbow cop ... slim ... tight hard ... silvery greaves .. and nice fitting sollerets ...
and even more cooler and awesome ... the knee cops ... from both knees .. each had two beautiful indestructible diamond-silvery-metal poleyns ..
and the rest ... was just a beautiful amazing set ... that made the captain's mouth fall ...
"Woah ..." Theo exclaimed softly as he dropped to the ground with a soft *bam* ...
he could feel ... the 30% of his lost power returning back to him .. with a boost of strength in both of his bodies ..
the elemental body and his physical attributed body ...
his 4th stage Golden Ranked elemental body ... now changed to 8th stage Golden Ranked elemental body ..
a boost that could double his original power ...
his Demolition Ranked body ... was now only at the peak of its first phase ...
but that did not disappoint him .. instead it made him feel happy ...
when he asked the system ... the annoying voice only stated that it would answer his questions when he gets approved by the high ranked beings in the military ... as a captain ...
but now when he thinks about it ... if he took off the armour .. he was basically a peak Silver Rank captain ... with the physical strength of a middle stage Prodigy Rank ...
although in the military terms .. that would be considered real talent ... he felt like he was going to be even more inferior .. not to mention the fact that .. he couldn't cultivate on this mountain .. in hopes for not angering the dangerous creatures dwelling on this monstrous mountain ...
one single mistake .. could lead to death .. so he had to step forward with caution ...
also .. he had so many missions he had to take care of .. which will only hinder his cultivation progress ...
he sighed inside the helm ...
but after his eyes fell on his magnificent knightly outfit ... he took it all back .. but still felt bad ...
he then thought of the visor disappearing ..
and that thought came true ... as it disappeared ... and left his face revealed ...
from his expression the captain could tell that .. he was not okay ...
she felt it too when his power took a step down but she never thought of it making him look like that ... infact she didn't think it was about the matter of him losing a quarter of his power ... but about something else altogether ...
the Head Soldier ... then retracted his energy .. which dislodged the armour parts ... into a silvery smoke ... that went inside of him ...
he then walked back to the stream and hanged his feet on the edge ...