The screeching alarm filled the small bedroom and awoke Karlyle from his slumber. After the fight with Owen, he desperately wanted to go to bed but got forced by Mimi to train. If only Foster didn't take a rain check on the celebration. Once he was dismissed by Mimi, he ended up sleeping for 13 hours and 46 minutes to be exact.
"SHUT UP!!!!"
He couldn't help but scream back at the thing that has been annoying him for the past 3 hours. Karlyle knew he wouldn't wake up on the first alarm so he had set multiple to go off and, as expected, he slept through them. Well, he had woken up for the previous 3 but went back to sleep after turning them off.
Realising what time it was, he shot up from his bed and ran to the bathroom to wash up. He only had 20 minutes before having to leave and meet up with Mimi and Foster. Originally, Mimi didn't set a time for when they were meeting up so he had to message her with the Arkana Network messaging system he had only recently got the hang of.
Their first conversation on it went like this:
¬ "Mimi its me lyle"
¬¬ "finally"
¬¬ "i was scared id have to explain this to you as well"
¬ "Ha ha, not funny"
¬ "What time tomorrow?"
¬¬ "lets do noon"
¬ "Alright"
Though Karlyle did have a lot of time, as leaving would instantly transport him close to the central tower, he was an 'early is early, on-time is late' type of person. He washed his face and brushed his teeth quickly. The hair that rebelled on his head was put into control after some brushing. That whole routine took him 10 minutes, leaving him with just enough to hurriedly get dressed.
He threw on some random clothes that were the first to be caught by his sight. In a short description, he put on jet-black baggy jeans, a leather belt, a white button-up, and finally, a checker woollen jumper.
"Housing exit."
Karlyle instantaneously appeared in the training grounds, outside the training room this time. Some random guy behind him wolf-whistled when he appeared. Karlyle turned around to see Foster standing next to a door with the sign 'Safe Corps Personnel Only' on top of it.
"Hey Lyle!"
Unlike Mimi would, Foster didn't wave and kept one of his hands in the left pocket of his sweatpants while the other remained laying on his waist. He did however slightly nudge his head to the right, telling Karlyle to come towards him.
"Didn't expect to see you yet."
"Well I had a meeting to attend and thought I might as well wait here. I can't enter the actual training ground so I had to stand by this boring door."
"Why can't you?"
"I can but then I'd get bombarded with warnings and so would my superiors so.."
"Ah I understand."
Karlyle, in fact, did not understand. Why would an elite-level member of the corps not be allowed to enter the training grounds with, possibly, aggressive kinetic wielders? As Mimi said, some will kill. Guess they weren't worried about that though.
"Anyways let's go Lyle."
The pair walked out of the training grounds and went through the kinetic-nullification barrier. Karlyle's energy, as expected, was sapped away but it had come back to him in a matter of seconds though it felt like hours.
Mimi was patiently waiting by the main entrance to the tower itself. Compared to her, it was gigantic although Karlyle wasn't much taller. Her outfit was also quite simple. Loose cut jeans with a flannel tied around her waist acting as a belt, and a white cropped tank top.
All of their outfits were in a different style so the whole group was mismatched unlike when they first would do stuff together and match outfits on accident.
"So where are we going?"
Karlyle spoke first once they walked up to Mimi, excited to know where they'll celebrate this time.
"Sorry to burst your bubble but we're going to the same tavern."
"Damn..."
"Don't fret I have some good news. I got a private reservation so we can do anything we want."
She stared at Foster for a moment.
"But we have to stay aware of the snitch.."
Foster rolled his eyes and lightly chuckled in response to her remark.
"Yeah we do."
"Well let's go!"
Mimi went ahead first and the two followed behind. It wasn't long till the party got to the same tavern they were at about a week ago. The person to greet them was the burnt out server that took care of them last time.
"Welcome back."
After mentioning the reservation to the server, they were led down a hallway. The entrance had a sound-proofing barrier and once they passed through the noise of the tavern was muffled to a point it could barely be heard. They went into a private room with 3 seats positioned equally around a large round table which they sat down on.
There was a stunning arrangement of flowers - mostly consisting of roses, carnations, scarlet sage, and amaryllis - used as a centrepiece but by Mimi's request, she had the server take it down. Karlyle couldn't help but moan about the removal of such a treasure.
"It was so nice though."
"Yeah but now we can actually see each other while we eat."
"My point stands."
Karlyle's stubborn nature would never be able to rival Mimi's so he gave in before he even realised he had already lost. They placed their orders which were the same as previously, just without the heart apple pie and Mimi actually got her juice. Alongside that, the server had also brought in a ticket for a rather large cake. It was designed by Mimi on short notice so she had to pay extra; and the payment had caused a large and painful scar in her wallet but it was ok, sort of, because it was to celebrate Karlyle.
"Enjoy it, Karlyle, or else you're paying me back."
"How do you even make money? You never work.."
"I do work."
"When?"
"I am your welcoming ambassador and trainer."
"So, what I'm hearing is you're getting paid to be my friend? Wow."
"I'm being paid to guide you around Enchark and answer your questions so right now I could be at home, plus being your trainer pays extremely little."
"You're more like my babysitter?"
"Hm I haven't thought of it like that but let's say yes, now eat your food."
"Ok ok I'm eating."
From that threat, Karlyle felt like Mimi would experience heart failure if he didn't eat everything, especially the cake she paid for, so he got straight to his pasta. For something loaded with kelp, it was shockingly addictive to eat. The texture was pleasant and the taste was simple but heavenly at the same time.
He did miss the heart apple pie though. The feeling of warmth and its enchanting aftertaste that was left behind made him crave it, especially after fighting Foster and only being able to taste blood and pain. Only after those fights did Karlyle find out what pain tastes like and it isn't great, he wouldn't recommend it.
They were halfway through their individual orders and soon were going to get started on the designed cake until a group, consisting of roughly a dozen people, walked past their room. The voices all seemed to have a similar accent and were discussing a rather particular event.
"Did you see its wings? They were humongous!"
"Yeah but what about its tail?"
"I agree, I barely evaded it when that thing swung it at me."
"I prefer its elemental breath. That was the first time I saw a creature use an element."
Karlyle overheard this and immediately turned to Mimi for answers.
"What are they talking about?"
"How should I know? They're probably some random group who got lost on the way to Enchark and ate some Hallusotripea."
"Hallu what?"
"Hallusotripea. It is a flower that resembles a heaberry. Though once you eat it you begin to hallucinate random things. The hallucinations are very easy to influence so they probably affected one another and all saw some creature."
"Wouldn't they know if it was a hallucination after the effects wore off?"
"Since they saw it as a group, I doubt that they would notice because they'd convince each other it was true. Plus, Hallusotripea's effects are incredibly realistic."
Getting an explanation, Karlyle got back to his food but he couldn't drop the idea of a potential mythical beast roaming this world and wielding a kinetic power. After Mimi and Foster went to the bathroom, Karlyle's body shifted to autopilot and he left the room to go speak to the previous party. He knocked on their door thrice lightly but got no response so he knocked again but harder.
The door slid open and the one to welcome him in was a tall and muscled man. He had rough long and frizzy black hair alongside some stubble on his face. The man's clothes were all leather and fur, most likely from the animals he'd caught.
"So sorry to interrupt your..." Karlyle saw the food they had ordered, mostly raw steak, "..uh.. meal but I overheard your conversation about some beast."
"Ahh so you're interested in the dragon? Come on in boy, we'll tell you all about it."
"No no it's really okay I just wanted to-"
His speech was cut short as the random man nudged him inside, but with his uncontrollable strength and Karlyle's low resistance, it was more like a push. Holding onto Karlyle's shoulder, the man guided him to take a seat in between him and another tall and muscular woman. Unlike the man's, she had short hazel hair that was loosely braided on the right. Her clothing style was the exact same. It was like a dress code for the entire group to wear leather and fur.
"So, what do you want to know?"
"Mostly, what is it?"
"You haven't heard of the myth?"
"What myth?"
"It goes like this..."
The myth of the Great Wyvern of Enchark was prominent 50 years ago and became abandoned quickly as nobody could prove it. Its story was rather simple. On one fateful night, a mother was coming back to her family after a week spent away, hunting for food.
They lived in Enchark's Farming Province, the same place Karlyle came from. Her journey home was quite easy in the beginning until she stumbled into a seemingly never-ending forest. Roars and hisses filled the air while progressively getting closer. When she started to run, she managed to find a cave.
Seeking sanctuary, she used her powers to lift the earth and barricade the entrance into the cavern. Now that the entrance was closed off, the light from the moon abandoned her. She pulled out a Luxmotia, otherwise called 'Petal of Light', it was a small orb made out of a special crystal called 'Reflathyst' and the petal of a 'Solar Poppy.' Its name came from the colour pattern it had and its ability to store light that it emitted at night to help its fellow Solar Poppies.
The Luxmotia shone bright enough to fill the surrounding area but the cave ran deeper. Unwilling to wait by the entrance until the unknown monsters eventually break through, she made her way through the tunnel.
Near the end of the rocky pathway, it had opened up into a colossal opening. In it, there was an equally tall marble door that the woman couldn't see the top of. On it, there was a sculpted dragon that she had disregarded as simple detailing.
She lightly touched the doors and they open wide to reveal a sleeping wyvern. It was larger than an entire village and its single head could bite a dozen men at once. One thing that the woman was not made aware of till it was too late was that it could breathe elemental force.
Trying to sneak away without disturbing the beast's slumber, she had head back to the pathway but it was already shut without her noticing. Her abilities were limited and she couldn't miraculously dig out another path and so she was trapped with the wyvern. Another opening appeared above the wyvern's body.
She pulled a boulder out of the ground and hopped onto it, gradually getting closer to the opening. However, when she was above the wyvern, a piece of the boulder had broken off and fallen through the undisturbed air. It hit the wyvern's wing and woke it up.
Its roar filled the cavern and shook its walls. The woman had nearly lost control over the boulder due to the sheer strength of the vibrations caused by the sound. The wyvern moved in a circle and looked up to see a human trying to escape its lair.
The wyvern roared once more and released fervent azure flames at the defenceless woman.