(Sunday, 12th of Lover's Harp Moon, 2021)
Jack ducked underneath Mansa's left footed kick, then he tried kicking the shin of Mansa's right leg. Mansa jumped away and landed on his hands before flipping onto his legs. Mansa ran towards Jack with his fists raised, and Jack raised his hands in a defensive position. When Mansa reached Jack, he reeled his fist back to punch the archeologist, only for Mansa to suddenly kick Jack's only good leg. Jack sucked in air through his teeth and fell onto the ground, clutching his leg.
"WHAT THE SHIT." Jack cried out while clutching his leg, which freaking hurt since Mansa was stronger than Jack was.
"Hey, no one's gonna play by any rules in a real fight, but your boxing stance was spot on, kid." Mansa helped Jack back into his feet. "If I were you, I would have jumped and used that prosthetic of yours to kick me in the jaw."
"Speaking of my prosthetic, what if I learn to just...kick really good." Jack suggested to the man, who raised an eyebrow. "Like no punching, just kicking bad guys with my prosthetic. I don't need to worry about strength, just gotta hit it."
"I don't know dude, how much force you packing behind that bad boy?" Mansa asked, and Jack turned around and pressed his foot against the nearby tree.
"Super mode!" Jack kicked the tree upwards, sending it at least a kilometer into the sky before it crashed down somewhere in the distance. "I had Molly give it voice recognition tech, so now only I can turn it on or off with my voice."
"Holy shit, with force like that, then you could definitely defend yourself on the off chance that you're unarmed." Mansa put his hands in his pockets and watched Jack turn off the leg's super mode. "So I got word of your next mission, you're protecting some princess from Hinode."
"I think Mifu is from Hinode, is she coming with us?" Jack asked Mansa, who shook his head. "Darn, then who is?"
"Three of your classmates, names Lucky Luna, L314 A1, and Yuriy Grigorev Rasputin." Mansa informed Jack while looking at his phone. "A gambler, robot, cleric, and archeologist...this is gonna be a fantastic team combo."
"Hey Mansa, I have a question." Jack remembered Billy from his first mission. "I noticed that almost everyone around here is a human, or at least looks like a human. Why is that?"
"Oh right, you have amnesia..." Mansa bit his thumb. "There actually used to be way more non-human species like animpromorphic animals and stuff, but they lived somewhere called the Enchanted Forest."
"Used to be?" Jack repeated that most concerning phrase there, and Mansa nodded. "Did something happen?"
"Nine years ago, there was an event called 12/12/12, an event that almost destroyed the entire continent." Mansa informed Jack. "The exact details are classified, all the people know is that there was so much destruction, and many things were lost. Lives, people, and the Enchanted Forest. With the destruction of the Enchanted Forest, 90% of all non-humans were killed. So now they only make up 19% of the total Desponia population."
"Yikes...a part of me is glad that I don't remember any of that." You thought to yourself. "Still, did anyone cause this?"
"I'm not sure, but all anyone remembers about that day is the black sun." Mansa continued. "People say that cause was Solomon, due to it radiating an ungodly amount of magic and acting like a black hole, absorbing everything it could to gain more magic. So Solomon was condemned as a criminal and forced to go into hiding."
"So Desponia's population is currently 81% human/human-like species and 19% non-human?" Jack asked, and Mansa nodded. "Yay, I learned something new about the world around me!"
"Come on, Idiot, we should get you ready for your mission." Mansa smiled before patting Jack's back. "You know, while I'm not gonna give you the tempest, I can give you permission to use both my artifacts."
"Eh? You have two?" Jack questioned the man, as he followed him back to Sanctuary.
"Yeah, The Tempest and Beowulf." Mansa held up two fingers to represent the two artifacts. "I like the Tempest better, but I never use Beowulf because it's a bulky set of armor. You can have the armor, since I'm not a FAN of it."
"Oh gods, I'm a big FAN of puns myself." Jack basically just copied the same pun Mansa used. "I guess you can say they BLOW me away."
"Finally, someone else who gets the greatness that is puns." Mansa smiled before ruffling Jack's hair. "Everyone else just groans when I bring them up."
"I guess they're not exactly a PUN crowd to be around."
"Eyyyyyyyyyy!"
Then they spammed puns at eachother for the rest of the walk home.
(Later)
"I feel like we need a new hang out spot."
"Why? Your room is the perfect place?"
"It's getting to be a pain to even move in this place."
"ORGY TIME!"
"MOLLY I SWEAR TO THE GODS!"
Jack decided to come up with a name for you little group, the Dumbass Squad. The Dumbass Squad currently consists of Jack, Alice, Othelia, Zane, Rico, Nico, Mifu, Galahad, Eve, Damini, James, Mary, Caroline, Freya, and Molly. Hero was almost a member, but considering how he trains nonstop, he didn't have time. Currently, Zane, Molly, Damini, Eve, James, Mary, Rico, Nico, Galahad, and Caroline were playing Luigi Kart on Jack's television. Mifu, Freya, and Othelia were discussing if swords, axes, or guns were superior at the counter of the kitchen. Meanwhile, Jack and Alice were reading about Jack's class features on his bed. Both of them were lying on your stomachs, with Alice laying on top of Jack and using his head to prop up her book on warlocks. Meanwhile, Jack summoned an amber orange magic circle in front of Jack to try using a class skill, Bone Collector.
"Oh I like that magic circle, it was a t-rex skull in the middle of it." Alice complimented the magic circle Jack made. "Way better than my pentagram looking one. What are you trying to do with that circle?"
"One of my class skills, apparently I can reanimate fossils and stuff." Jack informed the goth girl as the magic circle spun on the ground. "I just need to know what species I'm summoning."
"Wouldn't it be a better idea to summon it on the ground?" Alice wondered whilst looking at the circle from over Jack's shoulder. "Like, I don't know if you know this, but fossils are from the ground most of the time."
"Well it said location doesn't matter, I just need an understanding." Jack told Alice of this unique perk. "Right now, I'm trying to summon a Meganeura, but so far, I'm not having any luck."
"Meganeura...?" Alice didn't know what Jack was trying to summon, but Jack was too focused on the summoning to tell her about it.
A bead of sweat dripped down Jack's nose, and the circle began spinning faster and faster before there was a puff of dark orange smoke. In the magic circle's place was...nothing. The only thing Jack saw was the floor. Jack sighed before Jack heard the sound of his phone ringing, so he picked it up by pulling his phone out of his pocket. Jack raised the phone to his ear and answered the phone.
"Hello?" Jack answered his phone with a 'hello', not really checking the caller ID before you did so.
"Hello, this is the front office of Sanctuary Academy, someone ordered five pizzas under your room number." The office lady informed Jack, and he looked at Nico, who was on a phone call earlier. "It's already been paid for by the person who ordered it, but we need someone to pick them up."
"I'll be down in a bit, thank you." Jack thanked the person on the other side of the call and put his phone back in his pocket. "Alice, get off me, I have to go downstairs to get the pizza one of the idiots ordered."
"Why not make them get it instead, I kind of like us just vibing like this?" Alice whined before Jack rolled over, knocking Alice off his back and onto his bed. "Oof!"
"They're in the middle of a game, come on, I need a chance to stretch my leg." Jack sat up and put on his prosthetic leg, testing it by wiggling the toes. "Come on, I'll buy you a soda or something to make up for making you come with me."
"Sounds good to me." Alice got up from Jack's bed, and the two of them walked to the entrance of Jack's dorm room.
Jack and Alice exited his room to begin walking to the stairway that led to the bottom of the building. The two of them reached the stairs, and Jack looked down the stairwell in mild fear. Usually, Jack had trouble with stairs because he still wasn't used to the prosthetic. Jack always clung to the handlebars as he descended or ascended. Jack didn't want to look pathetic in front of his alleged best friend, so he tried walking down the stairs without holding onto the handlebars. Jack took one step, and his foot planted itself firmly on the first step down. One problem, Jack lost his balance and was now about to faceplant into the stairs. Lucky for Jack, Alice grabbed onto Jack's collar and saved him from losing a few teeth.
"Woah, you good dude?" Alice asked Jack before pulling him back up straight and placing a hand on Jack's shoulder to help balance him out. "You almost ate shit."
"I'm aware, sorry, I just lost my balance there for a moment." Jack apologized, and Alice held onto his hand before smiling. "What are you thinking?"
"Put one foot in front of the other~!" Alice began singing as she put one foot in front of the other one and took a step forward. "And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor!"
"What the fuck." Jack was forced to go along with whatever Alice was singing because her cute smile contradicted her heavy eyeshadow and black lipstick.
"Put one foot in front of the other~, and soon you'll be walking out the doo~oooo-ooor!" Alice continued being a dork as she sang, guiding Jack down the stairs as she sang. "You never will get where you're going~, if you never get up on your feet~!"
"Alice what the fuck is happening." Jack asked the girl, and right now, he was scared of a lawsuit coming the author's way because neither Jack nor the author own the song.
"Come on~, there's a good tail wind blowing~!" Alice and Jack turned the sharp bend of the stairs down towards the night flight that led downwards. "A fast walking man is hard to beat~!"
"ALICE, WE DON'T WANT A LAWSUIT!" Jack shouted at the goth as the two of them reached the bottom floor.
"Oh please, everyone knows "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" by Keenan Wynn and Mickey Rooney." Alice lets go of Jack's hand and allows Jack to walk on the normal ground by himself. "We don't own it, so I'll try to support the original artist."
"Wow the fourth wall isn't exactly existent today is it?" Jack commented as he walked towards the entry office of the dorm building to pick up the pizza. "Also, thanks for coming with me, I know this must have been a hassle for you."
"It's not trouble at all, my dear man." Alice walked in front of Jack and spun on her heel to reveal a bright smile that was the complete opposite of her dark make-up. "I'm honestly glad to spend time with you one on one like this, especially since everything's been so busy as of late. Plus the fact you have this...charm about you that brings people together."
"Being weak and borderline useless?" Jack asked with his thumbs jammed into his pockets and a cynical smirk.
"Nah, your charm is that you're normal." Alice informed Jack, and he was confused. "Think about it. Most of these guys are from super high class families and we're trained from day one to be here, yet you came just because you felt like it. You being here is like a fresh dose of reality to slap them smack dab in the face to show them us common folk can achieve great things too!"
"Speaking of this school, how is your training holding up?" Jack asked the dark haired girl, who thought for a moment before shrugging.
"I mean, I'm making progress as a class, but nothing groundbreaking." Alice informed Jack before you suddenly got a phone call. "Damn, you're Mr. Popular these days."
"Yeah, let me see who it is." Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket, and Jack saw that it was Herakles. "Oh shit, it's Herakles, I gotta take this."
"No problem, I'll go grab the pizzas." Alice pointed her thumb further down the hallway that led to the office.
Jack watched as Alice walked towards the front office, and he checked the hallway around himself to see if anybody was listening in. Jack put his phone to his ear and answered, hoping that no one was eavesdropping for the sake of keeping Hero's deal a secret.
"Hey Jack, you're good friends with Alice the Warlock, right?" Herakles questioned a very random and concerning question.
"Dude, she's like 50 years younger than you, that's disgusting." Jack thought Herakles was asking you to hook him up with his student, and Jack could hear Herakles slap himself in the face.
"...Jack...I'm asking you to keep an eye on her." Herakles groaned in clear annoyance. "I have records of at least one other warlock hearing voices throughout her training, and I don't want the same thing happening to her."
"Voices huh?" Jack looked at Alice, who was spinning on her heel at the end of the hallway, trying to see how long she could last without getting dizzy. "I'll ask her about them."
"Wait, don't let her know about the voices, this is a very delicate procedure, so be careful." Herakles warned Jack, and Jack heard the sound of pages turning behind the phone.
"Nah." Jack politely and flatly rejected this mission from Herakles. "I may not remember much, but I know Alice has always been a strong person, so I trust her."
"Heh, I pray you won't regret that decision." Despite not seeing him, Jack could tell there was a smile on Herakles' face.
"Pray to whom? I have no idea how religion works here."
"Ugh."