"Maybe we will start with introduction?" Asked Benjamin. Aura and Herman nodded.
"I'm Aura. I'm peak junior knight. I was send here by academy." Benjamin looked at her. 'She looks nice, but she is quite scary'. Aura was dressed in leather armour, and kept her in the ponytail. He himself also had some basic armour.
"I'm Herman, I volunteered to go here. I'm peak senior mage." 'Old man, and he looks crazy'. Herman was dressed in the mage robes.
"I'm Benjamin I get letter to come here. I'm middle junior knight." Everyone nodded. "So we should choose the leader. Do you want to be leader?" Herman and Aura shook their heads. Benjamin nodded.
"We should tell each other what these prototypes in our hands can do." Benjamin and Aura, agreed with Herman suggestion.
"My aura sword, can change its shapes. Also it also amplifies my aura" Benjamin infused his aura into the sword, and it changed into saber, after that he changed it back into sword. "It can repair itself over time, and if I want I can cause it to explode, for example after I stab monster and leave the blade inside." The rest nodded. Aura took her new sword, and swung it. Moment later the tree fell down, and they were able to see that the cut was clean. She then sheathed it back.
"It's extremely light, durable and sharp. It has great aura conductivity. Normally to wrap a sword using my aura, I need few times more of it, compared to this sword. Other than that this sword doesn't have any abilities." After that Herman cast fireball, it was however few times larger than normal fireball.
"This staff allows me to cast spells quicker than normally. It also reduces amount of mana I need to use, and increases the power of the spell. If necessary staff have option to become one time single target spell. His majesty wrote that, it will rival power of the spell cast by archmage." Aura and Benjamin nodded. There are already rumours about what Jax created, so something like this isn't shocking.
"We should train with each other to learn our abilities." Benjamin recommended.
"Sure going to battle without knowing our abilities will cost our lives" Aura said
"I agree. I don't want to die here." Herman said.
....
"I heard there are things called video games. How they work?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well. How to describe it to the person from this world?" Doll thought, few seconds later it snapped its fingers. "When you put box on your hand you have something called interface. Games are similar but instead of having GPS or other things. They have some story, you can do a lot of things there etc." It was hard to explain it. Elizabeth gained knowledge about Earth languages, and their definition, but knowing definition and understanding are completely different things. Doll then tapped few things into laptop.
"What are you doing?" Doll finished typing into web browser, and clicked enter.
"I am searching for the most simple games, for you." Doll said. Elizabeth looked at the results.
"Why some people recommended game called Dark Souls? Is it good for beginners?" Doll shook its head.
"Nope. It's a bad idea. You shouldn't touch this." Doll replied, but Elizabeth wanted to try.
"I want to play this game." She ordered.
.....
"Her pride will cause her some pain." Jax created popcorn and coke on the table next to him. "It's not like I will not enjoy it." Fortunately Jax saw this possibility, and made the laptop, practically indestructible.
....
Few days later, trio was sent to explore Dark Forest. Rex gave them supplies, and show suspected direction, where anomaly started.
They met several beats,but all of them were low rank, so they didn't have too much problem. Aura and Benjamin decided that unless necessary, Herman shouldn't use his spells, but instead he should focus on detecting changes in the mana. They explored until sun started to set. Benjamin found a cave, he only needed to kill a bear that was there. Few hours later they were roasting bear meat.
"Herman, did you found anything?" Herman took the leg of the bear, and shook his head.
"There are some changes, but they are so small that they could be caused, by beasts." He took bite from the leg. Aura had idea.
"What if the entrance or location, is protected by something not magical?" It was a possibility, some people in ancient times hide their laboratory using non magical ways.
"If that's true, we are dealing with very ancient magic." Herman said between eating the leg. Benjamin was thinking of the ways how to find something like this.'Wait if it's ancient, that means it should stick out like sore thumb.'
"Is it possible for you to detect mana that doesn't match the surroundings?" Herman's eyes glowed.
"You want to find the entrance by searching for stuff that doesn't belong here. Yeah it's possible, but we need to look for things that have the same mana signature. Over time they will match the surroundings. If you are right the location is at least few hundred years old. It's enough time for small things to match mana signature."
"Aura you should report all things that doesn't match Dark Forest, and are old." Aura nodded. She had the best senses from all of them, because of her rank. Then Herman made a barrier around the entrance of the cave.
....
"We are halfway through the path towards Old City. Did you prepare everything?" Max asked, to which Sela nodded. After he rested in Stone City, Sela joined him. He didn't know the reason, but one night a messenger came with the letter. This letter explained the Sela's life. She was an orphan. Her parents were friends with Luke, and during one of the adventures, Luke got arrow in the knee, and Sela's parents were killed. He took her in, raised her. Sela from her parents death, didn't show much emotions. But when she brought him in, Luke saw she was concerned. And this caused him to leave her in his care. 'Well she is nice companion.' Max couldn't complain. Sela didn't rush into battle without thinking, and she listened to his orders. When they returned to adventure guild, Sela gained gold plate. They took a quest for hunting wolves packs in Old City. The Old City, gained it's name, because it was just very old. The surroundings were covered in countless ruins. Each year people find something new. But now the wolves started to hunt people, who wanted to dig to find a treasure. 'Why I feel that in near future something big will happen?' Max just shook his head, these thoughts will not help him at all.
.....
"I hate this game! I tried to kill that fucking bastard 30 times, and he is still killing me! I did everything, I could think off!" Elizabeth started to hit the floor with the laptop, few minutes later she calmed down. "Last fucking attempt, you will die this time. I swear on my name that I will kill you." Elizabeth died 10 more times, and destroyed half of her room.
.....
"I found something." Aura said under her nose. They didn't raise their voices in the forest, but thanks to being a knight Benjamin could hear it. Benjamin saw some strange stone. 'It doesn't look like any that we saw in this forest, also it looks like, this stone has erosion caused by sea water' He then turned towards Herman.
"Could you use telekinesis to move it from the distance?" Herman nodded, and they hide behind some tree. Herman moved the stone, but nothing happened.
"Maybe it needs someone alive to move it." Herman suggested. They found some goblin, and Herman cast a spell on him. After that goblin started to move towards the stone, and it tried to pick it up, but once again nothing happened.
"Maybe we need to use blood to activate it or some sacrifice" Aura suggested. Herman then used telekinesis to move the dagger towards the goblin. Dagger cut the throat of the monster. Nothing happened, at least at first glance.
"The stone is absorbing the goblin's blood" Aura said, after that Benjamin focused his senses on the stone, and Herman enchanted his sight with magic. They discovered it was the truth.
"We need to report this."