"Ah. You're back for more training? I thought you would go to sleep tonight since you were training." Jandru's voice is heard.
"Well.. you always said strain on the brain (haha that rhymes) can be helpful if not done excessively. Besides, I was mostly doing physical stuff in my training. So I'm technically training a different part of my body." Kenneth explains.
Right now, Kenneth had already gone to sleep. When they had arrived earlier, their mother was happy that her kids weren't teleported by a Phase Gate, or had picked up a random girl from the streets. Seeing that nothing had been done to her kids, Mikaela let them go after a few questions.
"Heh. Good enough. Time for Round 2 of Music Torture, then?" (Jandru)
"Better not make any promises you can't keep, Jandru. I still haven't forgotten about last time, you dick." Kenneth is once again snapped to the same place, the chair. By this time all lingering memories of his loved ones had been removed from his brain, only for new ones to etch themselves in, seeming like it would last longer than the first. This was, of course, the first time they had the Music Torture.
Jandru soon placed the bag over Kenneth's head, and had already began fitting the headphones over his ears.
"You got a different form of music or something? If I'm going to get deaf again might as well make it happen while listening to some dope ass tunes."
"Yeah, sure. I'll look through the back to see if I can find any music that'll knock your socks off. Hehe." Jandru walks away, his footsteps somehow sounding like he was walking on a hardwood floor.
"Fuck, that still hurts my ears." Kenneth exclaimed when the loud portion of the song had started playing. Jandru had chosen, to Kenneth's surprise, another rock song. Does Jandru really like this type of genre of music or does he just want to make him permanently deaf?
The next day.
'Fuck, I still can't hear shit.' Kenneth arose from his bed and began shaking his head to wake his burst eardrums up.
Kenneth had lost his sense of hearing around three times during their seven hour session last night; the music seemingly more extreme than the first one he had listened to. Jandru was right though, the music was really nice. For the first half hour or so, of course. Everytime Kenneth had lost his hearing, Jandru would heal it back up again, then give him a five minute grace period, before once again assaulting him with the ear-piercing madness.
"Finally.. it's back." Kenneth sighed when he realized that his hearing had now returned. "I wonder if this is the standard norm for the training for the other apostles. I've never really asked Lena what her training was about."
"Good morning, young master." Catalyn had opened the door to Kenneth's room and came over to dress up the baby.
"Uh, good morning to you too." Kenneth replied.
In the blink of an eye, Kenneth was already in his stroller. Accompanied by the entirety of the Karman Krew, plus Tyrone, they were heading towards the Wizard Guild to accept their second mission. The first one only had Kenneth, Lena, Lucas and Tyrone in it, but this time they had two new additions to their members, so Lucas had proposed to pick the slightly harder missions.
Once entering the Guild, they head straight to the Quest Board. Scanning through the various quests for a good bit of time, they had decided to choose a relatively harder quest than last time.
The type of quest we had chosen was, sort of a "it's fine if not many choose it, but it's better if more do." It involved the aftermath of The Rumbling; multiple monsters were still affected by the interstellar event had still affected Gaia's inhabitants to this day.
The aftereffects could still be seen. Monsters were spotted leaving their habitats and roamed closer to the human settlements. This could affect the outside villages, Kenneth thought.
The species of monsters this time were listed to be Mischief Monkeys, a particular type of Monkeys that engaged in occasional mingling with other animals. Their magical beast types were known to be able to use Illusion Magic, a version of Mental Magic not categorised in the main types of magic.
The Monkeys would use their Illusion Magic to disguise themselves as the same species as other animals, and when the time was right, would often steal from them or cause a few non threatening injuries. "It's just a prank, bro!" Truly, these monkeys were natural pranksters.
Magical Beasts seem all the more common now, and this worried Kenneth.
"I guess this job works. Better watch out for their Illusion Magic. Got my first pair of gauntlets stolen from me when I first fought one." (Lucas)
"Right, they can mimic humans too, right? We should watch out for anyone we aren't acquainted with." (Lena)
"Even if the person they disguise themselves as is someone you know, don't trust them blindly..." Kenneth adds.
"Should we buy stuff for Catalyn and Aurelia too? The last time I visited an equipment shop waa quite a long time ago, and it was with Kenneth." (Lena)
"Good idea. They're still unarmed. I just hope you two can pay for it haha." (Kenneth)
"I can pay for it, but I want a bigger cut in the reward. The last time we went out on the Mana Grass expedition we received only around twenty to thirty something dollars, contrary to how much we worked.." Lucas sighs.
"I'm fine with it. I'm not planning on taking anything from the reward, so you can take my portion, big bro." (Kenneth)
"Hello, welcome to the Wizard Guild. May I ask what your buisness with us today is?"
"Yeah, the Karman Krew would like to take this quest." Lucas rips apart the paper and hands it to the receptionist.
"Very well. If I may confirm, this particular mission is significantly harder than your first one. You may choose to forfeit it whenever during the two day time limit, but you won't be receiving any rewards. Would you like to proceed with the quest?" The receptionist asks once to confirm if they really wanted to take the quest.
"Positive." Kenneth replied.
"Very well. The quest has started. You have a short twelve hour period to prepare, and it will officially begin by 07:00 tomorrow. Happy hunting!"
"Guess that's that. Should we head on over to Kenny's then? You can never go wrong with Old man Kenny's wares." Lucas suggests.
The group leave the Guild soon, and they head over to Kenny's, to buy Catalyn and Aurelia's first piece of equipment.
"Ooh, you're back, boy. And ya brought ya buddies too. Could've sworn ya bought those gauntlets from me last time. So? How they working out for ya?" They were already at Kenny's and had just entered the shop. Kenny, recognising Lucas from the gauntlets he had bought last time,
"They've been awesome, old man Kenny. If you'd give us some time, we're here to look for equipment for our younger sisters."
"Hah! Go ahead! I'll be waiting fer ya here! Take yer time!" Kenny leans back on the rocking chair he was sitting on.
It had been ten minutes already, and Aurelia hadn't yet found something for herself yet. Lena carried Kenneth over to her so he could help in choosing.
"Yo, Aurelia. Having trouble?" Kenneth asks, seeing Aurelia ponder about something, probably about her choice.
"My lord.. none of these feel right with me. These "guns" you speak of, I'm having trouble with understanding." (Aurelia)
"Oh, it's all good. Why not go look for something more familiar? You're only looking at the futuristic area. Go further back in time and maybe grab a sword, if that's your go."
"Hmm... I see. I will contine browsing, and will call for you when I want to buy something."
"Take your time. That weapon, or those weapons, if you want to buy two, will serve you for a long time." Kenneth says as he heads away.
Over on Catalyn's side, it seemed like she had already found her weapon, a whip that was around two and a half meters long. She ran her hands through the soft leather, until she stopped at the end, which had a different appearance than the rest of the body. The material used at the end was that of the Fahndranian Anteater's long snout.
"Whoa! Be careful in swinging that around, Catalyn. Almost hit me there. Anyway, is that your choice?"
"Young master! I'm very sorry.. I chose this whip so that'd it allow me to hit my enemies through the portals.. I create."
Fahndranian Whip: A whip made from leather. The end is made from the Fahndranian Anteater's snout, which are particularly sturdy.
'Oh, I kinda get it. Portal in an enemy's blind spot and attack through the other side. Smart.' Kenneth thinks to himself.
"Why not a gun, though? I'm pretty sure you can handle the recoil." Kenneth says, thinking of her strength that if matched, if not exceeded Lucas'.
"I'm.. not very good with it." Was Catalyn's reply.
"Fair enough. Call me if you're getting anything else, I'll be over there." Kenneth points over at Lucas and Tyrone, who were examining a collar.
"You like this one, Tyrone?" Lucas asks the dog, who woofs.
Animal Earth Collar: A collar that can be fit on an animal. It enhances the animal's power with Earth Magic. (M)
"Alright then. I'll buy it for you. Man, my savings are gonna run out soon..." Lucas sighs.
"How's the shopping going, brother? Find anything good for yourself?" Kenneth asks.
"Oh, sup little bro. Not really. I'm still fine with these gauntlets that I first bought. Though I could use a piece of equipment..." Lucas strode over to the Physical section, and picked up a regular looking armband. To his surprise, it's stats and effects didn't match it's boring appearance.
Phys Armband: An equipment to be fitted on the arm. When charged with mana, it stimulates the muscles when activated, increasing the overall strength of the arm. (M)
"Huh. I guess I will treat myself, hehe." Lucas began reading the equipment's effects and were happy with it.
"Ooo, little bro, let's go over there. I found something cool." Lena shakes Kenneth in her hand.
"Sure, go ahead. Why do you have to ask me anyway, you're the one carrying me.."
"I'm paying for this, Lucas, so no need to get yourself panicky."
"Oh, really? That's good.."
Reflective Glass Mirror: A piece of glass molded into the shape of a circle mirror. The glass is specially crafted to reflect more light. Who knows, it might work well with a certain element of magic...
"You sure? I wonder how you're going to use this."
"I got it. I was thinking of practicing my spells, and this one might be able to help us in combat too."
"Whatever you say. Grab it, Aurelia is calling for me."
"My lord, I have found my weapon." Aurelia presents to him a bow. Nothing specifically good looking about the bow, it was just a wooden bow.
"You sure? There's other types of bows if you want to use one." Kenneth asks Aurelia, unsure of why she chose one that would likely break more easily. Unlike the wooden bow, there were many others made of different materials, steel, woven fur, hell even gold.
"I.. really like this feeling. I plan to use this bow to help me deliver long range attacks with my powers."
'I can already see her new attacks coming. Maybe she will plant a seed on the tip and use her Overgrowth.. oohhh I can't wait.' Kenneth thought to himself.
"Very we then. Let's go, the others seem like they have finished."
"Yes, my lord."
Sharpshooter Bow: A bow made from a special type of wood. Stretcher Wood, the material, is designed to be able to bend in unnatural ways, allowing for this bow to shoot farther than most.