It's been quite some time since the incident at the Sorcery Tournament, and business is looking better then ever, which of course leaves a lot more on the workers' plates than ever before. However, they've been able to overcome it with the addition of former Head Court Mage, Zagritz. However, unbeknownst to the rest of the Inventory Crew, there will be some changes in the operations of this place.
Luka walks through the doors before saying "Alright guys, pack your things. We're going on a trip".
The others were very confused by this news, understandably.
"A trip?" They all questioned.
"Yeah. I had some things organised and now we have another branch in the Hurm Kingdom. We also have some merch to take over there so let's go"
Humanity is split into four separate territories: the Gran Kingdom (where we are currently), the Hurm Kingdom, the Guo Kingdom and the Lindz Kingdom. Together, they make the Four Great Human Kingdoms, each with their own royal family to govern the territory as well as work together for the sake of all four. Due to Hurm and Gran being neighbouring nations, making a branch there was the easiest for Luka.
"Yay! I've always wanted to go and see the world!" Rebecca shouted for joy.
"Take a breather, lady" Luka said back. "We're here strictly for business. You'll have plenty of time to go out and explore or whatever when we take care of matters over there".
"Uugh. These guys are so needy I'm sounding like a dad" Luka thought to himself.
"Anyway, go get whatever you need to get and we'll meet back here at noon, I've arranged transport to Sapphire City harbour. With any luck well get there in an hour or so and from there we'll go by boat". Luka said. He then looked around before asking "wait, where's Lucia?"
"Hi~" Lucia said from behind Luka. For the first time in a while, she's back in her royal guard armour. "I've been called to go to the Hurm Kingdom to discuss their situation with the large increase in monster attacks they've suffered lately".
"Oh. Coincidentally that's where we're headed" Luka responded.
Lucia then started blushing, to the confusion of Luka. "We both thought about going to the same place! Could it be love?" She said. There was absolutely no correlation between those two things, but Lucia believed otherwise for whatever reason.
"Don't count on it" Luka responded. "Anyway we meet at noon"
Meanwhile, there were people who also had 'business' at Hurm. Their business, however, by no means had good intentions. In a dimly lit room, there was a group 7 of people: 6 sitting around a table, with a man sitting on a large throne at the head of the table.
"Our messengers say that the Gran Princess and the Hero have been dispatched to Hurm in order to assist in their situation" one man said.
A women then responded to that statement. "My my~ this could cause us a little trouble" she said. "So what's the plan then, Boss~?"
The man on the throne sat with his head leaning on his fist.
"Admittedly, the presence of the Princess and the Hero's party would prove itself to be unideal" said 'Boss'. "However, it's simply a matter of making sure they have no way of getting there. And we have 'methods' to ensure this"
"And what of the princess?" Another lady asked.
"I can ensure the safety of the princess, we just need to make sure neither her nor the Hero leaves this country".
With the plotting of this group as well as this 'Boss' character, it would seem that Luka and the others may have a difficult time ahead of them.
It was the afternoon, and things were getting lively at Sapphire Harbour as Princess/ Knight Commander Lucia and the Hero Emilia and her entourage were making preparations to set sail to Hurm Kingdom.
"Commander, Hero, your ships are ready" A knight said. "Both the royal fleet and the Hero's ship should be ready to leave in half an hour, Ma'ms"
"Much appreciated, Sir" Emilia thanked. "Alright everyone! Docking will take place in 15 minutes! If we leave in the next half hour we should make it to Hurm by dawn tomorrow! Thank you all for your help!"
"As Emilia said, all your hard work is greatly appreciated!" Lucia added.
The Princess and Hero allowed a calming aura to flood whatever area they were in, this boosted the morale of the troops.However, Emilia's happy and cheery demeanour was about to fade.
"Weeeell weeeeell weeeell~" Emila's least favourite person said. "Is that who I think it is?"
Emilia's face turned bitter as she slowly turned around. "Oh you've got to be joking" Emilia said with gritted teeth.
"Ouch. If looks could kill, am I right?" Luka said in an irritating and joking manner. "Is that any way to greet your old friend?" Luka asked while putting his arm on her shoulder.
Emilia slapped his hand off her in annoyance. "Now listen here, Randz!" Emilia shouted furiously. "You and I are not 'friends' and we never will be! I don't even remotely like you!"
Luka kept a static smiling expression before simply sticking out his tongue and saying "bleeeeeh cry about it".
Emilia then had a serious face before saying "alright let me at him". She then began throwing multiple punches at Luka, with the latter dodging every one of them.
"You see that fist you've got there? It's supposed to actually hit the opponent." Luka said in a mocking tone, which only riled the Hero up more.
It was then that the berserker of the Hero's Party said "Emilia, I doubt here is the place to make a scene" he said.
"Your boy in blue here is right, lil Emilia" Luka mocked.
"Stop calling me that" Emilia said, bitterly.
"I have a name you know" the berserker said as a response to Luka's reference to him. "It's Aiden"
"I didn't ask" Luka said, slightly annoying Aiden.
"What the hell are you doing all the way out here anyway?" Emilia questioned.
"Wow…why would anyone go to a harbour? Could it be that I'm going on a boat?" Luka said, sarcastically.
"I mean where are you going you idiot" Emilia responded.
"I'm off to Hurm to do business" he responded. Emilia was wearing a thousand yard stare as a result of this information. The thought of Luka still being anywhere near her was terrible to her.
"BABYYYYYYY~!" Lucia shouted from the distance as he ran towards Luka, giving him a hug.
"Get. Off." Luka said, irritated.
Lucia then regained her composure, but the hero's party saw it already.
"Uuuuh what was that?" The assassin asked.
"Nothing!" Lucia responded, embarrassed.
"Aaaanywho" Luka said. "Guys, bring the merch to the boat. Sooner we leave sooner we get to Bronzeport".
Luka began walking towards his boat before sensing something was off.
"lil Emilia, tell your guys to get off those boats" Luka demanded.
"What?" Emilia said in confusion.
"Get them off the boats, idiot" Luka responded. "You deaf or something?"
Emilia grew angry. "Who the hell are you to tell me what to do-"
Luka interrupted her with an annoyed groan. "You're useless" Luka said, further angering Emilia.
Luka used wind magic to drag the soldiers off the boats. Barely a second after, a creature emerged from the sea, destroying the boats they were standing on. Emilia had a shocked expression in her face.
"You knew that was gonna happen?!" Emilia asked.
Luka only answered her with a nasty side eye, almost like saying 'what do you think, dumbass?'.
Everyone then focused their attention on the creature that just shot out of the deep, and it shocked everyone present.
"Oh no" Lucia said.
"Could it be?" Wondered Emilia.
"You're joking" said Zagritz.
"I really don't get paid enough for all this" groaned Luka.
At that moment, they all witnessed the ascent a seaborne scourge, it was an Alpha Leviathan Dragon.
The sea houses many creatures great, small and dangerous. And the Leviathan dragon is one of them. There is a ranking system used on many things and people. Adventurers, gear, dungeons, monsters, and people are all examples of the things that get graded using this ranking system. The ranking system was designed by the Adventurer's Guild to rank the power and dangers of certain people, things and phenomena, and this ranking system goes from D-class to Special class (S-class for short). D class is relatively weak. C class isn't strong nor weak, but strong by the standards of regular people. B class is very strong. A class is exceptionally powerful and powerful enough to cause widespread destruction or the like. and S class are exceptionally powerful people, monsters or groups, which are very rare and special cases, thus the name. An S class monster is powerful enough to pose a threat to a large city at the very least, and this Alpha Leviathan Dragon was an S-class threat.
"That looks like something straight off of a trading card" Zagritz, Zaine and Luka all said in perfect sync.
"Oh crap you guys collect cards too?" Luka asked.
"Oh I didn't know you were a collector, Boss" Zaine pointed out.
"I have a whole binder of them, I can show you guys at some point if you'd like" Zagritz said in a plain and serious fashion.
"I'm down" Luka said. "You willing to trade tho?"
"Guys… we have a situation here" Emilia said, clearly aggravated.
"Oh…Well then" Luka shouted, so it was obvious. "I'm a mere merchant who's too weak to deal with all this so I'll go hide like a loser now!"
He said as he ran for safety. In reality this was all an act in order to put on his magic item, the recognition negation cloak. When he wears it, no one will know it's him who's wearing it unless he tells the person. Luka has maxed out his level, giving him the legendary title of a "Max Leveller". However, it could pose an issue of people know about his max level and has the risk of bringing unwanted attention towards him. For that reason, he doesn't fight with too many people around if he can help it.
Luka rushed back and said "I'm back"
The others were confused. "Who are you?" The asked.
"Oh yeah, recognition nullification. Yeah it's Luka. I wore the robe so people don't know it's me" Luka responded. "Anyway let's do this, quickly if possible"
Luka then started looking at the Leviathan dragon, wreaking havoc on the dock. He then began to notice something particularly strange.
"Hm. It's not actually attacking anyone. It's trashing up the ships. Why is it doing that when there are humans here for it to eat? It makes no sense" Luka thought. "Whatever. I'll just kill it"
Luka flew up into the air then said "Simple Magic: Slash", sending a flying slash of magic towards the leviathan. However, what shocked everyone was when the attack ricocheted off of the dragon and was sent flying back to the merchant.
"Oh-" Luka said in a strangely uncaring voice as he got knocked out of the air by his own attack. He maintained a straight face as he got knocked out of the air and crashed on the floor.
"Well that's not normal. Alright I'm trying again"
Luka flung a series of spells at the aquatic menace but to no avail. The dragon was completely impermeable to magic.
"Oh. So magic is a no go then, huh?" That poses an issue" Luka stated.
"Alright, my turn" Viktor said. "Time to use sone brute force"
"I agree" Aiden said with a smile.
Aiden got his hammer, Viktor got his axe and together they rushed the dragon with a flurry of attacks. However, this has no affect. The dragon proceeded to use magic to fling them back.
"No dice, huh?" Viktor said.
"We can't use physical attacks. We can't use magic. Well what can we use?" Zagritz thought aloud.
"From the looks of those scales, swords won't cut it either. Literally" Rebecca pointed out.
Luka then used his Identify skill to look at the skills, level and stats of the Dragon. These left him surprised.
"Ooooo that's not good" Luka said, grabbing the other's' attention.
"What can you see?" Aiden asked.
"You guys aren't gonna like this" Luka said. "that dragon over there is level 400". This news put the group in shock.
"400?!" The Hero said in disbelief. "But even normal alpha Leviathans are 200 max!"
"Whine to the system, not me" Luka said back. "But that isn't even the worst part. It has a ton of skills, but the three that are any real issue are Magic Deflection Scales and Shock absorption Scales. I'm sure the names are self explanatory"
"All the intel is good and all, but how are we actually supposed to win?!" Aiden questioned.
"Oh, lemme just ask the harbour destroying dragon and find out" Luka replied with sass and sarcasm. "How am I supposed to know?"
"It is strange though" Luka said in his internal monologue. "A leviathan dragon of that level, with those skills? Any way you look at it it's not naturally occurring. What's going on here?"
"Change of plans" Lucia said. "Focus on protecting and evacuating the citizens"
"Don't waste your time, Princess" Luka said. "It's not out for the citizens. It's here for the boats". After careful observation of the monster wreaking the ships, they realised he was right.
"Curious. What business does it have with boats" Zagritz wondered.
"That's what I'd like to know" Luka said. "And more importantly, how to beat it"
"I say we divert it away from the dock in any way we can for now" Emilia said. "We can focus on beating it once we get the ships out of harms way". Emilia is truly a woman of heroic qualities.
The group began attacking the dragon, with all of their attacks failing to push it back. Even the mighty hero was facing a difficult time. The Leviathan then made a move for the Sacred Inventory's boat, then Luka punched it in the face, sending it flying although not dealing any damage.
He then, out of spite alone, proceeded to throw multiple punches at the monster's face. This kept going until he landed his final punch, which chipped one of his scales. He then had a realisation, and began to smirk because of it.
"We win guys" Luka said, confidently.
"How do you figure?" Viktor asked.
"These scales bounce magic off so magic won't work no matter what we do, but physical attacks are a whole different story" Luka stated. "The scales absorb the impact rather than redirect it, and they absorb a lot at that. However, it's not all-enduring. There's a limit to the amount of force the dragon's scales can take at one time"
"So if we hit it hard enough, the scales break and we win?" Lucia asked.
"Correct" Luka responded. "However the force required to break them is, from what I can see, equal to that of a bomb that could probably destroy an entire nation in one go"
The others were shocked by this fact, as none of them had the power to make that happen, except Emilia. However, Luka then smiled before saying "I guess this means I should get a teensy bit more serious"
He then threw multiple punches at the in rapid succession, each actually having the power to wipe a country off the map. Scales continue to fly off the dragon as the onslaught continues.
"Useless, useless, useless, useless, useless , useless, useless , useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless , useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless , useless, useless, useless, useless, useless!" Luka shouted, visibly enjoying himself.
The leviathan had a large patch of scales missing from its head, allowing a final punch directly to the skull, finishing off the sea beast. It fell to the ground as the heroes all gathered around it to confirm its death. The citizens all came out and cheered for them. Luka then teleported away and walked back without his hood, as to not make it obvious that the hooded individual was him. He then rushes over to the dragon's carcass and examined it.
"These scales are ingrained with the skills! If I find a way to forge them these can make a great armour! Then the teeth have magical properties, mainly water based, that would be good for weapons and fishing rods! The meat of this thing is tough, but if boiled could make some great food too!" Luka rambled in classic Luka fashion. However, he then noticed something strange as he was examining the mouth. There was a peculiar and unfamiliar symbol on its tongue, which disappeared a while later.
"Huh. An unnaturally powerful monster with abnormal abilities for its kind and a weird crest on its body… it wasn't corrupted either… this is creepy no matter how you slice it" Luka thought. "Eeeh no matter!"
"Aaaanywho~" Luka said, after storing the dragon body in a pocket dimension. "Inventory employees, get on the ship. That overgrown tuna-lizard thing has wasted enough of our time as is"
The Inventory crew got on the ship, but Lucia also got on.
"Funny story, my ships got destroyed. Hehe" Lucia said, embarrassed. "So can I tag along with you guys since we're off to the same place?"
"Whatever. You're an employee anyway" Luka said.
"Aww I knew you loved me!" Lucia said back.
Luka side eyed her and said "Whatever helps you sleep at night".
"U-um" Emilia said.
Luka then looked down the side of the boat to face her. "Oh. You four. What do you guys want?" He asked.
"S-s-soooo our bo-boats alsoooooooo" muttered Emilia.
Luka mockingly mimicked her words before demanding "spit it out already".
"I can't believe I'm doing this…" Emilia said, in aid of embarrassment. "Our ship was also destroyed so please let us on yours until we get to Hurm!"
"Oh. That's it?" Luka asked. "Ok"
Emilia's face lit up. "Really?" She asked.
"Yeah" Luka responded, smiling. "3 gold pieces per head".
Emilia's expression then dropped. "What a rip off! You can't be serious!"
"Judging from the lack of ships available going to Hurm specifically, I'd say what's 'serious' is the lack of options you have. If I have no competition, I decide the price. Of course I can just leave you if you'd like" Luka said, arrogantly.
"Fiiiiine" Emilia said, begrudgingly.
"Alright then, pleasure doing business!" Luka said, collecting the money. "Alright! Next stop, Hurm!"
With that, Luka took the wheel and the team set a course for Hurm Kingdom.
Meanwhile, in an unknown location, a group of the more malicious nature were discussing.
"The Leviathan plan was a bust" a man said. "Sure it destroyed their ships, but the Hero and the Princess got on ship with some merchant and his group".
"While we're on that topic~" a lady said. "Our scout says that merchant group has 2 B rank Adventurers, the former Head Court mage and the current Head Court mage. Even though the merchant himself doesn't seem to be anyone strong or unique, he's still associated with all these big names. It makes you wonder: who is this merchant? And how I'd he with all these people?"
"Silence" 'Boss' demanded. "The merchant is irrelevant. He's just some merchant. He poses no threat to us or our plans. The issue is who he's associated with. With all of them, the ship is heavily guarded. However, compared to us they're not so strong. While that mysterious red hooded figure could be a threat to us, that person can come later"
"So what might the plan be, Boss" another woman asked.
"We will attack their ship tomorrow, stopping the Princess and the Hero's party from getting to Hurm, at least before we've taken care of business there. I'll leave this one in your capable hands, Marrinette" said 'Boss'
"Yessir" Marrinette replied.
"The condition: I need the Princess alive" 'Boss' demanded. "As for the rest of the riffraff, kill them"
A mysterious organisation is dead set on stopping Emilia and Lucia from making it to Hurm, and sends out a woman named Marrinette after the ship to destroy it. It seems that Luka and company will face a new problem.