The next day arrived and the three of us got back on the grind. It was a pretty tough morning since we got ambushed by a pack of Dire Wolves and a few goblins, but we managed to get out of alive by defeating them and making the others retreat.
「Level UP!」
Captain Name: Axel
Class: Knight
Ability: N/A
Level: 3 -> 4
Rank: F
Attack: 17 -> 21
Defense: 15 -> 19
M.Attack: 8 -> 10
M.Defense: 11 -> 14
Speed: 14 -> 17
Luck: 12 -> 15
Celestia Name: Coco
Class: Mage
Ability: N/A
Level: 2 -> 3
Attack: 8 -> 9
Defense: 11 -> 13
M.Attack: 17 -> 20
M.Defense: 16 -> 19
Speed: 19 -> 21
Luck: 13 -> 17
「Skill(s) Learned {Coco}: Eruption, Whirlpool, Gravity Beam」
Coco sighed softly and sat on the grass then looked up at me. "That's the last of them...You're pretty good at this, Master."
I sheathed my sword and looked at Coco. I smiled at her then held my hand out towards her. "You're pretty good as well. You practically carried the battle with your magic attacks. Most of your skills have an AoE effect which really turned the tides of the battle."
Coco took my hand then I helped her stand up. "I couldn't have done it without your leadership..~"
I chuckled softly and looked back, noticing Adventurers and Captains traversing the area. I walked ahead and Pastel floated next to me. We all noticed how no one had their Star Guide and what Raven said was true. They all tossed their guides away after getting used to the ropes.
"I'm actually glad you didn't throw me aside. I can do more than just be a guide y'know." Pastel said and sat on my head.
"Like what?" I asked.
"I can actually work as a Support. Meaning you can summon me into battle for whatever you need. I do have to recharge however, but I can be very useful! I level up differently. I level up when I'm summoned into battle or I can be leveled up using EXP Shards, but I follow the same principal. I can't be a higher level than you." Pastel said.
"Huh, I wonder if that's the reason people throw their Star Guides away. They don't know about that feature." I said.
"Or they do know and it's just too much work to Level up, but we do have Level Caps so it shouldn't be hard to train us. I mean you can literally customize me however you want. If you want me as an Attack Type Class I can be that, if you need me as an Agility Type Class I can be that! I have access to all the classes you do plus my basic classes which is the Cleric and Mage classes." Pastel said.
"I'll look into your customization. For right now, you can just sit here and look pretty." I smiled.
Coco smiled as she listened to us. Her ear twitched as she heard someone talking behind us.
"Isn't that the old Celestia you threw away like last week? She's with the Rookie Captain now, look." A man said.
"Yeah that is. Hey Coco!" The woman called out and smirked.
I heard the woman's voice and stopped walking then looked back. Coco got embarrassed and hurried behind me. Pastel also looked at the group.
"Awe come on, Coco. Don't be like that." The woman chuckled and looked at her then she looked at me. "You're the Rookie Captain. I saw you in Erstonia Town. The name's Elizabeth Von Arcadia. I used to be the owner of that there kitten you're taking care of now."
I remembered Coco's words and the reason I took her in. I looked back at Coco and looked at Elizabeth. "I see. Well my name is Axel."
"Look at that. He even still has his Star Guide. How adorable." The man chuckled. "Oh, and I'm a Captain as well. I'm a part of her guild called the Black Lions. The name's Sekt the White Flame."
Pastel glared at Sekt and puffed her cheeks.
I scanned the two and decided to see what they were all about.
Captain Name: Elizabeth Von Arcadia
Class: Grand Mage
Ability: Shocking Temptress [Boosts MATK, SPD, & LUK by 120% for all allies, boosts Thunder Elemental attacks for all allies by 90%, Boosts Fascination and Paralysis ailment inducement on males by 50%]
Level: 39
Rank: C+
Attack: 89
Defense: 104
M.Attack: 301
M.Defense: 201
Speed: 296
Luck: 300
Captain Name: Sekt
Class: Holy Paladin
Ability: Supreme Light [Boosts all parameters by 90%, Boosts Light Elemental attacks for self by 120%, Damage taken restores Stamina by 10% per attack, reduces Stamina usage by 30% when using Skills]
Level: 35
Rank: C
Attack: 228
Defense: 217
M.Attack: 195
M.Defense: 201
Speed: 237
Luck: 210
I crossed my arms and closed the interface by closing my eyes. "So you're the woman who abandoned Coco right?"
"What? Is that what the little kitty said to you?~ Yeah, I did abandon her and got some good cash for it too. Was able to get a better kitty who actually deals great damage. Coco was just too weak to deal any form of reliable damage." Elizabeth said and smirked.
"Or you were just too lazy to train her up." I said.
"What? HAHA! I know the F Rank, Level 4 isn't talking to us. Look chump, you're a bit too weak to be speaking like you got some backbone in you. Compared to us, you're still a bit too weak and by the time you grow as strong as us...we would've already skyrocketed even higher." Sekt said.
"Yeah?" I said then uncrossed my arms and looked at him.
"Settle down, Sekt. No need to pick on the lesser guy for protecting his sloppy seconds. We've got important shit to do anyway so let's go. See you later, Axel~" Elizabeth smirked and walked by me.
Sekt scoffed. "Saved by the Leader.." He said then followed Elizabeth.
I watched them and looked at Coco. Coco looked at them then looked at me. I pat her shoulder gently and smiled. "Stick with me, later down the road, we'll prove them wrong and they'll see how far you'll come."
Coco smiled at me and nodded. "Right."
I looked at the Quest and read the description. "Says here the boss is level 5 so let's grind up and I'll even get you some experience as well Pastel."
"Okay!" Pastel smiled and nodded.
We hurried off to grind up levels from the enemies that spawned around the area. Coco was hit with a stroke of motivation when I told her that she could stick with me. Her performance was outstanding and even hitting more critical hits and hitting harder damage.
「Status Discovered: Motivation UP! Boosts parameters of the motivated by 50%, Boosts chances of Critial Hits by 45%, and boosts all damage dealt by 30%, Increases Stat Growth by 15%」
I watched Coco as she battled and finally we were able to get enough levels for all of us.
「Level UP!」
Captain Name: Axel
Class: Knight
Ability: N/A
Level: 4 -> 7
Rank: F
Attack: 21 -> 38
Defense: 19 -> 35
M.Attack: 10 -> 26
M.Defense: 14 -> 30
Speed: 17 -> 33
Luck: 15 -> 31
「Skill(s) Learned {Axel}: Quick Parry, Dual Thrust, Spin Splitter」
Celestia Name: Coco
Class: Mage
Ability: N/A
Level: 3 -> 6
Attack: 9 -> 20
Defense: 13 -> 31
M.Attack: 20 -> 38
M.Defense: 19 -> 37
Speed: 21 -> 39
Luck: 17 -> 35
「Skill(s) Learned {Coco}: Whirlwind, Silence」
Celestia Name: Pastel
Class: Cleric
Ability: Pixie Miracle [Boosts Resistance to status ailments, boosts recovery of Stamina and Condition by 50%]
Level: 2 -> 6
Attack: 9 -> 19
Defense: 7 -> 17
M.Attack: 14 -> 29
M.Defense: 12 -> 27
Speed: 15 -> 30
Luck: 19 -> 40
「Skill(s) Learned {Pastel}: Star Shower, Guiding Miracle, Pixie Storm」
"Alright, we're strong enough to beat the first boss with little to no effort so let's go to the location of the boss and defeat him." I said.
"Right." Coco nodded and smiled.
We hurried over to the boss's location and managed to slip by the enemies with ease due to our high speed stats. Once we made it to the location, we stopped at the the top of a hill and scouted the area.
"Our target is the High Kobold. He's carrying a great sword and it's said that the Kobold is accompanied by other lesser classed Kobolds." I said.
"I see them." Coco pointed.
We looked at where Coco pointed then we spotted the High Kobold and his group at a makeshift shrine they crafted.
"Good job, Coco." I said then pet her head.
Coco smiled and blushed. Her cat ears folded back a bit and she giggled softly. "Thank you, Master~"
"Alright let's go crash their party." I said then stood up.
"Right!" Coco nodded.
We hurried down the hill and Pastel held on tightly to my hair. We rushed over to the Kobolds and some of them were alerted.
"Eruption!" Coco bellowed and an eruption of fire energy blasted the group of Kobolds from underneath them.
They howled in pain and the High Kobold rushed out of the smoke, dashing towards us. He spun around and slashed downward at us with his greatsword. I used my Quick Parry to parry his attack, knocking him off balance. I used my Upper Strike, slashing upward and launching him into the air.
"Pastel!" I sent her out into battle after launching him in the air.
Pastel spun in a circle. "Pixie Storm!" She bellowed and a bunch of pixie dust circled around her in a tornado motion, striking the Kobold then she stopped spinning and retreated back to me.
"Master!" Coco yelled as she was getting jumped by a group of Kobolds.
I dashed towards the group of Kobolds and jumped up while spinning in a circle. "Spin Splitter!" I yelled and slashed in a circle, knocking all the Kobolds away from Coco with a powerful attack.
Their defense was lowered due to the effect of the attack. They got up one by one and howled, boosting their attack stats.
"Dammit, they have an ability called Stat Defiance! If any of their stats are lowered, they gain a boost in Attack." Pastel warned.
"That's fine! We can still win this!" I said then readied my weapon.
"Coco use your Whirlpool skill on me!" I said.
"What?!" Coco asked in shock.
"Just trust me." I smiled.
Elizabeth and Sekt noticed us battling the Kobolds from the hill and stopped to watch us.
"O-Okay!" Coco said then used her Whirlpool skill on me, surrounding my body in a whirlpool.
I spun around and channeled the skill around my sword and bellowed. I slashed on a circle and with the whirlpool around my sword, striking all of the Kobolds around us. "Whirlpool...Splitter!" I bellowed and slashed down at the High Kobold then a burst of water energy generated around a vast area.
"What the hell..?" Elizabeth said in awe.
I panted and the water magic around my sword disappeared.
「Combo Moves: An attack that uses a skill from two or more people to create a powerful attack!」
"You just created a Combo Move!" Pastel said in awe.
The High Kobold dispersed into magic particles. He dropped a Large Monster Crystal and we looked at it in awe.
"Meow! Yes!!" Coco raised her hands in the air and cheered, laughing with excitement.
"We did it. ALRIGHT! That was totally epic! I didn't know if that would've worked but we did it Coco!" I said then grabbed her hands.
"We did it! Yeah!" Coco laughed and hopped up and down with glee.
"Tch.." Sekt said then walked off. "Just a lucky win.."
"Hm.." Elizabeth said then walked off.
We collected our loot then fast travelled back to Erstonia Town. We hurried over to the Adventurer's Hall and reported back to Marella.
Marella looked at us and smiled. "Well I see you're back and your levels have made quite the progress. I just saw the checkmark on your Quest and your beginner quest is complete. Whatever drops you've found can be exchanged for Zil and maybe Stars if you find rare enough drops."
I nodded then Marella handed me a card. I took it out of her hand then looked at it. "What's this?"
"I'm your official accountant now for anything Guild, Quest, and Rank related. Come visit me if you ever want to chat or get some Quests done. I'm here almost all day so I've always got some time to kill." Marella smiled.
"Okay!" I smiled and nodded at Marella.
We walked over to the exchange section so we could exchange all of our loot for money.
"Alright, and here you go." The man said, handing us a large bag of currency.
I took it and walked off then we checked inside the bag. Pastel, Coco, and I looked surprised and our jaws dropped.
「Acquired 2,000,000 Zil.」
"TWO MILLION?!" All three of us said then cheered. Some of the people looked at us as we cheered over the cash we made.
Marella looked at us and giggled softly. "Yeah...I can tell my job is about to brighten up for the better."