Elizabeth took a deep breath of the autumnal forest air, tinged with the light crispness afforded by the staggering amount of conifers around her. Head held high, she proceeded through the doors of the concrete building before her, home to the headquarters of the Aroostook United Federation of Guilds chapter.
Originally, it would have been hard to believe that this spacious area was once an abandoned call center, and before that, a retail store that supplied Air Force soldiers and their families with home goods and food. In the wake of "Dragon's Night", which fundamentally changed the laws of the world, and reality itself, areas like the Loring former-Airforce-Base-turned-Commerce-Center found new life as adventurer support hubs, and this one was no different. The almond color strands on Elizabeth's neck stood at attention, the excitement from bustling adventurers plying their wares at the shops, discussing their conquests over meals, and teams registering for missions at the reception counters was truly electrifying to the teenager. As she glanced around aimlessly, taking note of the environment, she completely missed the calls of a receptionist.
"Miss? Excuse me? Miss?!"
The kind voice of the receptionist shattered the dreamlike atmosphere that she had been list in as Elizabeth's body twitched back before grasping her eggshell robes and staff tightly, the rosiness of her cheeks being slightly hidden behind her bangs. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" she said with gentle breath "I'm here to register as a student adventurer!"
The receptionist held her hand out, the blue sleeves of her dress shirt doing her slivette arms no favors in hiding. "Ok, I'll need either a drivers license or school identification card please!"
Reaching into a pocket hidden in the sleeve of her robe, she produced her School ID and passed it along to the young woman before her. "Ok, Ill go ahead and get your information processed, feel free to have a seat anywhere around, and we'll bring your adventurer card when its prepared!"
Nodding, Elizabeth turned away from the counter before looking around the room once more. Finding a quiet corner away from everyone, she found a pair of couches separated by a coffee table and made her way to it. To sit down on this couch was an understatement. The deep blue leather almost felt as if one was not careful, they would be swallowed alive by its softness. Letting out a contented sigh, Elizabeth exhaled deeply as if on instinct as she layed her head back against the rest.
"Keep your guard up or it'll eat you alive." the gruff, yet laid back voice chided. Lifting he head back up suddenly. Not realizing that there was an adventurer laying on the couch directly across from her. "Seriously, do you know how many people we loose a year just to couches these alone?" he smirked, staring up at the ceiling, "Too damn many if you ask me."
From what Elizabeth could make out of the mans form, the wrinkles through the mans face and the dark circles beneath his hazel eyes gave the distinct feeling that this man was significantly older than her, but the scars along his exposed arms showing that he had far more experience. His clothing seemed like a mixture of dirty blue rags stylized into something of a martial arts gi, his head bearing a turban made of bandages. On the table before her laid his daggers, Simple construction, but looked to be far better kept than his clothing. The man slowly rotated upwards, swinging his legs from the couch to balance into a sitting position, yawning slightly before stretching his arms over his head and pivoting his neck, several audible cracks could be heard from the mans vertebrae.
"Did...Did I wake you sir? I'm sorry!" Elizabeth spoke sheepishly
"Naw, you're fine kiddo. I needed to get up anyway. The Guild Admins don't like it when homeless guys like me sleep here anyway..." the man snickered "See?" as he nudged his head toward the coming receptionist.
"Alright Miss Argen" the receptionist smiled "Here's your adventurer card and identification! Congratulations on passing your provisional exam! From what I saw, you had one of the highest test scores among your classmates! We look forward to big things from you in the future! For now though, you'll only be able to handle 'Stone' jobs and dungeons, but with scores like that, Im sure you'll move up the ranks quickly!"
Elizabeth began to blush out of embarrassment once more "Th..thank you!" she sheepishly stammered, looking toward the table, as if she was trying to fade into nothingness.
The man whistled in amazement. "Top of your class huh? That's impressive."
The receptionist's posture took on a more aggressive, stiff feeling toward the man. Her eyes narrowed and brow furrowed in his direction. "Oh, you're here too Mist. When are you gonna stop sleeping on our couches and actually take on a guild job for once! You're our laziest adventurer, you know that!".
Mist sighed softly "Oh get off it Reba. I take missions too!"
Reba got further frustrated at Mists lack of concern over his status. "You've been 'Stone' for so long, I think you're starting to grow moss in your head!"
"And on my chest thank you! Which is more than you can seem to say.." Mist smirked cruelly back before getting absolutely flattened back into the couch by Reba's straight right to his forehead.
"Ass!" she grumbled as she stomped back to the receptionist area, helping the next adventurers with their tasks.
Elizabeth was completely taken aback by the exchange. Who was this man? How could he be so bold as to insult a woman on the size of her endowments?! Is he this rude to everyone? If he's an adventurer, why hasn't he progressed in rank? Why does he look homeless?
"Oi. Kid." Mist groaned, sitting back up slowly while rubbing his head. "So you just registered?"
"Y..Yes sir!" She stammered once more, unsure of how to address the situation. "Uhm.. you should be nicer to the receptionist."
Mist began to chuckle. "You mean Reba? Her and I go way back. We almost have a sibling bond of sorts. She insults me, I insult her back, She punches me in head. Happy lil family dynamic if you ask me."
"Weird dynamic..." Elizabeth replied, Deadpan. "Do you happen to know any good dungeons near by that I could enter? I'd...like to actually see what they're like as I haven't been permitted to go into one until today.."
"Kislev" Mist said, pulling out his cellphone and showing her a local map. "Its about ten minutes walking from here, the enemies in there go down pretty easy, which will make them perfect for a spell-caster like you, judging by the fact you're carrying a staff."
"Cleric, actually!" Elizabeth stated proudly.
"I see. Yeah, Kislev should be perfect then." Mist began to stand up, stretching once more. "I'll take you there since I got some business there myself, besides, it'll be nice to have some company."
As Elizabeth stood up, Mist placed his phone back into his pocket, and his daggers strapped to the belt around his waist and the team made their way for the door, but suddenly stopped.
"Oh, one last thing. Party!" Mist stated bluntly, a blue hologram appearing before the two of them.
"Oh! Yeah! Just so that we can enter the dungeon together! Accept!" Elizabeth spoke excitedly.
From the outside, Kislev looked as if it was a weapons storage bunker. The paint on its concrete entrance had been peeling from years of weathering. The years it had seen, the horrible creations of man with which it stored like a piggy bank of nightmares made it almost feel foreboding when compared to the evergreen woods and quaint and lightly staffed medical station feet from its entrance. As the two walked the well trodden path to the entrance, they checked in with the guard stationed stationed just inside the dungeon's entrance. Scanning their cards and wishing them well, they continued on, the clarion of an ambulance lightly giving rhythm to their step. It served as both a reminder, and a warning that dungeons, even ranked as low as Kislev was, can still be terribly dangerous.
Reaching the Elevator, Mist quietly activated its platform in the center while Elizabeth became entranced by the runes coming to life and dancing around the room. The sudden rattle, followed by the drop of the elevator's stone floor startled a scream from her lips, something the older Mist took delight in and had a good laugh at. As the elevator decended, and the new one materialized above them, he smirked slightly. "Excited?"
"You bet!" Elizabeth clutched her staff tighter. "I've waited so long for this moment! This is my first time in a dungeon!"
Mist smiled softly and shook his head. Dungeons were nothing new to him by this point. He knew Kislev fairly well, and he didn't mind acting as a pseudo-tour guide for the fledgling teenager, but it made him wonder about his life. If she were there, would she have the same reaction? Would he?
Before long, the elevator came to a stop, a set of large wooden doors before the duo, in a small hall lit by torches. Stepping off the platform, Mist rested his forearms against the daggers at his hips. "So, before we enter, would you like a couple pointers so you don't get hurt? Or would you rather let experience teach you?"
"I guess some information wouldn't hurt..." Elizabeth gripped her staff with both hands, preparing herself for combat.
"Kislev's main dangers come from what we call 'Jacks'. Think of them kind of like floating evil Jack-o-Lanterns. They like to try to ram their opponents head on, and have no real sense of self-preservation. They're quick, but predictable."
"Wait!" Elizabeth declared "If they're fast, how am I supposed to have time to chant my Holy Ray spell?!"
Mist stared at her face deadpan. "You...don't need to use Holy Ray..."
"But I'm a cleric!" she sternly claimed before him. "How else am I supposed to fight without using my Holy Arts!?"
"...Did...Did you not play baseball in school?"
"...What...?"
Mist sighed dejectedly, approaching the door. "Oh, they really need to change those provisional exams. Listen youngin, as an adventurer, your strongest ability, is going to be using your brain over just relying on route memorization. You're going to encounter situations that will require you to, from time to time, to think outside the box."
Throwing the doors wide open as if they were curtains on the breeze, Mist entered the next room, immediately drawing the attention of the three jacks inside. The jack-o-lanterns, lingered in the air a moment, staring at the older man as if trying to figure out who had the absolute audacity to enter their domain in such a way. The stares of the creatures immediately gave way to chilling chime of a childs laughter, one of the flying pumpkins charging Mist immediately. In an instant, without drawing a weapon or even breaking a sweat, he snatched the living gourd from the air, smashing it to the ground into millions of rotten pieces. "Next?"
Elizabeth was slightly impressed by the mans display. Everything she had been taught in school told her to rely on weapons or magic to eliminate monsters, but here was this older man, just grabbing them out of the air and smashing them like he was a comedian with a giant mallet. Unfortunately, this also meant that her attention wasn't on her enemies. She felt an intense pressure in her stomach as one slammed into her with perfect accuracy, spinning her around as it continued on its path and dropping her to her knees. Coughing hard, trying to keep down her lunch, she wiped the saliva from her gasp away from her mouth, trying to stand on her feet to regain her balance. Locking her gaze on the flying pumpkin, she readied her staff, trying to decide if she should chant.
The Jack's laughter tolled again, sending a shiver down her spine before it charged at her again. "No time to chant! Gotta just go for it!" she thought to her self as she pulled her staff back with both hands. As it got closer, she felt as if time was slowing. If she missed this shot, she might get dropped to the floor, or worse. Stepping into her swing, the impact of the staff against the face of the pumpkin was heavy, but she grunted as she followed through, sending it careening hard into a wall, smashing it to bits like the other that Mist had handled earlier. Panting, she looked toward the man she began to thought of as a mentor, who was holding the final orange creature by the stem that came from the top. Lifting it to eye height, he let go, quickly drawing his daggers, and in a blinding flash, diced it into a fine mass of orange cubes.
Making his way back toward the young woman, Mist smiled warmly. "See what I mean? They're fast enough that spells like 'Holy Ray' and 'Repel' can't be used in time, but they're so fragile that basic physical attacks just decimate them. Get too focused on using what you were taught in those classes, and you'd have probably been pretty badly hurt in that encounter."
Elizabeth panted to regain her breath, but nodded an adknowledgement at the lesson Mist bestowed up on her. "Also, be sure to keep your eyes on the enemy at all times. Just because the dungeons generate differently for everyone, doesn't mean you wanna be spilling your lunch all over the floor in the middle of a battle. Not only does it give the enemy a free shot, it can also be a slip hazzard."
After taking a moment to recover, the duo proceeded along. Elizabeth got more used to dealing with the Jacks that came after them, while Mist distributed more knowledge about dungeoning upon her. Some things such as explaining that sometimes enemies can drop items and equipment, or that enemies can have elemental weaknesses were things she already was aware of, but his rather unconventional way of demonstrating that idea on a Jack by roasting it with a lit torch befuddled her.
"By the way" he lightly said, as the scent of baking pumpkin filled the air. "Jack's taste like total ass. I wouldn't even feed Jack meat to my worst enemy. Plus the bubble guts you get after just isn't worth it."
"I-wha!?" Elizabeth said, taken fully aback by the statement.
"Jacks. Taste. Horrible". Mist reiterated.
The silence between the two was deafening as they continued on for another room, before coming to one final room with a large, mystical stone door, that seemed to shimmer and move as if it was a flowing water feature in front of them. Crowing its doorway sat a Stone dragons head.
"Here we go. Boss room. So, this things going to hit a lot harder than the Jacks did. We're going to need to change our tactics up a bit if we wanna get out of here without any issues." Mist stated bluntly, not resting his attention from the door.
"How so?"
"Well" Mist began, "The boss of Kislev is supposed to be a 'Bogey', Essentially, Think of a Jack but instead it has a more humanoid body. Its main attacks rely on its claws, so physically, its significantly stronger than a Jack, but its fairly slow by comparison. Generally you'll want to dodge it if you're fighting it solo. But in this case, Ill draw its attention. Their biggest weakness is they're 'Soul' Class monsters, or 'Undead' So Holy Ray should be fantastic against it."
"Wait, you said should, does that mean you're not sure?"
Before Elizabeth could hear his answer, Mist had already proceeded through the door undeterred. The room in which they entered was almost like wading through pitch in the night. The footsteps of both Mist and Elizabeth against the floor rattled her nerves. "Mist?" she whispered softly "Where are you? I cant see!"
"Its ok, Just keep walking" Mist replied at normal volume. "It'll light up once everything's ready!"
Taking one more step forward, the room exploded in magical light, revealing that Mist was only feet in front of her. Drawing his plain iron blades from their sheathes as he covered his eyes, giving them time to adjust, he smirked.
Dancing around in front of them, wiry black limbs flailing about in a mismatched seires of movements that looked more like the war dance of a small animal than something befitting the boss of a dungeon stood their target. The Bogey. Its head a large azure ball of fire. A sinister smile made of stone from which the flames burned ever upward. As its dance continued, Elizabeth clutched her staff tightly.
Remember your lessons, she thought to her self. Her voice suddenly echoing as she began to chant "Oh heavenly father, who's light banishes darkness from the world..."
Hearing her chant starting, Mist charged forward, with a massive amount of speed belying his age. In that moment, his body became little more than a blur followed by multiple flashes of light as the Bogey and he clashed against one another. The twang of Iron against the hardened claws of the spirit resonated throughout the arena, almost tearing Elizabeth's focus from her spell, but quickly regaining her composure to continue. She could feel the mana in the air gather around the tip of her staff. At first it flowed like water, changing shape from an orb, elongating into a spike made of pure white energy. Raising her right arm, the tip of the staff going airborne, before yelling "smite, O Holy Ray!", bringing her staff down across her chest, throwing the spear forward like a missile heading directly for the Bogey.
Breaking off his attack and darting to the side, the Bogey had its entire attention focused on Mist. When the spear hit its side, it let out a bloodcurdling "Kee!", the residual force from the impact slamming it shoulder-first into the stone wall to its right. Positioning himself between the young woman and the monster, Mist congratulated Elizabeth. "Nice shot! But its not over yet!"
As the dust settled, the flames making up the creatures head changed from a haunting blue, to a sickening neon green. The toothy Jack-O-Lantern grin it once held warping and changing into an open-mouthed frown. Taking a defensive stance, Mist prepared to go toe-to-toe with the creature once more, but its body began to warp and change. In that second, the creature disappeared from Mist's sight.
"Shit! Elizabeth! Watch out!" Mist yelled, whipping around just in time to catch Elizabeth getting swiped at by the creature from the front.
Elizabeth's body seemed to move all its own in that moment. Using her staff, she redirected the lunging creatures claw, before countering with a strong blow to the back of its skull, breaking off the tip of her staff and knocking the creature prone on its face. Mist quickly leapt high into the air, taking advantage of its position, and landing square on its lower back, driving both daggers into the back of its neck, and slicing outward, removing the Bogey's head from its body as if he had just used a pair of reverse bladed scissors.
As the flames on the creature died, Mist released a sigh of relief as Elizabeth fell backward onto her posterior. Letting go of her staff before wrapping her arms around her bent knees. As the body faded into magic particles, a small bag was left where its corpse once lay. Searching it quickly, Mist nodded softly to himself. Approaching the new adventurer, he kneeled down, placing his hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her. "You ok?" he asked with genuine concern in his voice.
"Yeah..." she muttered "Im..fine.."
The room quickly filled with white light, and the next moment, they were on the grassy knoll in front of Kislev's entrance. The sun had started to set, leaving the sky a burning red. "You did fantastic kiddo."
"I was so scared." she started to sob into her knees. "I thought I was going to die."
"I know" Mist muttered softly. Sitting down beside her slowly, crossing his legs, Mist patted her on the back. "Listen, What you did there, that little reversal and using his own momentum against him was beautiful."
"I..don't even know how I did that...All I could think about was how I was going to die in that moment, and my body just moved"
"That was a key feature that every adventurer needs that no book, no class, no teacher is going to be able to bestow upon you kiddo. That was your 'Survival Instinct'. We can't always rely on our magic or our skills to get us out of sticky situations. Remember how I said 'Think outside the box' as an adventurer? Well, Survival Instinct is about as out of that box as it gets. It overcomes all reason. It lets us move and continue when our mind has given up, and can be the thing that saves you."
"But...what if I hadn't moved?! What if he had stabbed me with those claws!?"
Mist nodded twice rolling his upper lip over his teeth and biting it while glancing away from her. "If I hadn't already noticed your body starting to move to counter him, I was going to throw one of my daggers through his spine."
"If you could have done that, why didn't you!?"
"Because depending on how you were moving, I could have hit you instead."
Elizabeth's eyes opened wide for a second upon the realization that the creature moved in a way so that she would have been a target if Mist made the wrong move. "As adventurers, we have to make split second decisions on the fly, and my dagger would have done significantly more damage if it hit you than that bogey's claws would have."
"I'm sorry.." Elizabeth stated, before trying to dry her tears, her sobs slowly stopping. "I didn't mean to yell like that."
"Its ok" Mist chuckled, standing back up, offering his hand to help her back to her feet. "Trust me, that was like being yelled at by a kitten compared to some of the scoldings I've received from the guildmaster. Now here, lets go report that you cleared your first dungeon, and I gotta report the spoils from the fight."
As Elizabeth grabbed Mist's hand, and regained her footing, she sighed, picking up her now broken staff. Shaking his head while chuckling, he began to walk toward the Headquarters.
"Hey! Whats so funny!"
"Nothing." Mist smiled. For the first time in a long time, he felt like himself. Like by partying with Elizabeth, and completing Kislev, that an old piece of him that hadn't been around since even before Dragon's Night reawoke. He felt lighter on his feet, his heart less heavy with the stresses of the world.
He couldn't explain it, but deep down, for the first time in a decade, Mist felt Happy.