Chereads / Tales of Zeroth / Chapter 3 - The Formed Party

Chapter 3 - The Formed Party

At the local inn in Dartine, the adventurer, Rapl awoke. Still groggy, the young man did his daily workout, his huffs and puffs made someone else in the room wake up.

Bok rose from his bed, "Is it already morning?" He asked Rapl, as he turned to another bed in the room, there, laying on the bed snoring was the sleeping body of Sevi, "You think we should wake him up?"

"A little guy like him needs sleep," Rapl remarked, but as he finished his set, he felt a heat under his foot, it began to burn him, causing him to scurry around the little room.

"I heard what you said," Sevi replied, pointing a finger at Rapl. Ever since the group formed, they bought a bigger room to fit the three boys, and another for the girls with Rico.

"Since you're awake Sevi," said Bok as he picked Sevi from his bed, "Let's do some workouts." Sevi tried to protest, kicking and punching, but he hit the air due to his size.

"I'm not going to work out, I'm a MAGE!!" Sevi yelled out, but then he was laid on the ground, Bok rearranging his arms and legs to a push-up position.

"And?" For the next few minutes, Sevi worked out with the two men. When they were finished, Rapl and Bok were huffing and puffing but were alright, meanwhile Sevi.

"I regret joining this group." Was in the middle of throwing up. When they finally got dressed for the day, the three boys went to meet up with the girls.

When they arrived at the girls' room, they knocked, Leena opened the door, "Hey, we just finished working out," she stated.

"See Sevi, even an archer like her works out," exclaimed Bok, but this led to Sevi rolling his eyes.

"It takes a lot of strength to pull the string back idiot." The six went to the tavern to get their breakfast, "Okay Rapl, are we sure our party name should still be 'two men and a salamander?" Sevi asked, Rapl, a mouthful of food, tried to talk, only to choke. 

After Bok gave him a cup of water, Rapl spoke, "Why'd you ask me?" 

Leena looked at Rapl kinda stunned, "Aren't you the group leader?" She asked, Rapl was about to retort, but when he thought of it more, he took Rico in, asked Bok to join, and with the request paper, got Leena, Sevi, and Alex. 

"Yeah that's true," Rapl stated, "I guess it's just our placeholder name currently, we'll just get a good one later." While eating, Rapl noticed Bok's sword, it was still his rusty one from before, "Hey Bok, do you wanna get a new sword? I'll pay for it if you can't." 

Bok turned to Rapl, "You sure?" he asked, a slight uncertainty in his voice, Rapl smiled as he nodded.

"You're our main swordsman, we can't just give you a rusted sword," Rapl stated, Bok felt grateful for Rapl's offer, and so, after the two finished their food, Rapl and Bok went to the local blacksmith.

While looking around the shop full of armor and blades, the Blacksmith approached the two, he was a man getting older with age, with grey hair where black used to be, "You two could try out a blade of your choosing if you'd like," the old Blacksmith informed the two, a warming smile on his face. After getting a hefty amount of blades, the Blacksmith led the two to the back of the shop, where the straw dummies were.

One by one, Bok tried out all the blades he and Rapl got, and the Blacksmith was impressed, "Sir, who are you?" The Blacksmith kindly asked, Bok, thought of it as well.

"I really don't know," he answered, the Blacksmith approached Bok, and he gestured for Bok to hit the dummies.

While training, the Blacksmith looked at Bok's movements, "I have given blades to swordmasters before, many ways older than you are now, yet your skills match or even surpass them," he disclosed, "Are you sure you aren't a secret master?" 

Bok's ears perked up with this question, "Well sir, I really don't remember anything past a month ago, or the things I do remember are very broad. But when I wield a blade, it's like my body remembers how to use it, so I might be." 

Rapl observing everything, noticed something with Bok's fighting style, "Hey Bok, when you fight, it's like you use slashing attacks more, you think you should get a blade that curves a bit to compliment that?" Rapl added, the Blacksmith looked like he came to a realization as he went back to his shop.

And when he returned, he brought out a blade not of that of Kendro's straight blades, it was a bit curved with a small hilt, "This is one of the blade of the Mizuminese people, a katana." Rapl recognized the blade design, he had one at home that his father used as a secondary weapon in the great war.

As Bok held the blade, something in his body surged with nostalgia. He turned to the straw dummy, and with one horizontal swing, Bok cut the dummy so cleanly, that it looked like the blade just passed through it. The dummy still looked like it was uncut, but when Bok pushed it a bit, its upper half fell.

The Blacksmith and Rapl were mesmerized, but the one who was the most shocked was Bok himself, "H-how did I?" He asked himself, then he turned to the Blacksmith, "Could I get this one please?" He asked.

The Blacksmith took a while to respond, but after collecting his thoughts, he gave Bok a warm smile, "Of course, you can have it." But when Rapl was about to pay, the Blacksmith simply didn't accept it, "You can get it for free," he remarked, causing Rapl and Bok to get a bit confused.

"What? Why?" Rapl asked, and this question made the Blacksmith give a bittersweet smile.

"Well, it's not a hundred percent free," he began, "When I was a boy as young as you are now, I worked with my father to produce weapons for Kendro during the great war, when the Kendrians pushed the Zanians back to their homeland, we went with Kendro's army, and when it eventually met up with the Mizuminese army, I met a Mizuminese commander, who… let's say… my once beautiful face mesmerized her, and eventually her stubbornness and fiery personality melted my once hard and rude heart." 

"Your… wife?" Rapl asked, the man nodded, remembering times of him trying to dismiss her insistent courting. 

"After we got married, I made her a blade that was like that of her own country. She promised me that her blade was the blade that was going to belong to a great hero such as her… I believed her, you know?" As the man said this, Bok and Rapl saw a tear go down the Blacksmith's left eye, "...So you could visualize my reaction when her soldiers returned after a battle with only her blade." The man walked to where Bok was, and he pointed at the blade, "This was her's, and it might be too expensive, but the only payment I will accept is that you will fulfill her promise, become a great hero, and wield this blade as you become one." 

Rapl didn't know what to say, but Bok, unsheathed the blade, staring at it, "It's beautiful, a blade crafted out of care and the hope of one's return," he stated, "A fine weapon for someone who's going to be a great hero." Bok sheathed his blade, staring into the eyes of the Blacksmith, "Someone like myself." The Blacksmith's eyes began to water up, trying to wipe it off, he smiled.

"I like your attitude kid." Rapl and Bok waved their goodbyes at the Blacksmith as he waved back, although, inside the man's mind, he thought of something, "That kid, he's a bit…" 

"Don't you want to be the husband of a GREAT HERO LIKE ME!!!"

The Blacksmith chuckled, "Never mind, he'll never reach your insanity dear." While walking, Rapl stared at Bok, a slight disbelief on his face.

"Promises aren't meant to be broken, you know?" He remarked, Bok, not turning to Rapl, instead just smiling.

"I'm not planning to break mine," he answered. Rapl was a bit shocked, he sighed and after, began to laugh, putting a hand on Bok's shoulder.

"Then I'll make sure you don't." When the two got back to their party, Alex and Leena were stunned when Rapl and Bok told them they didn't need to pay, meanwhile, Sevi showed Rapl a quest.

"What do you think?" The young man asked, Rapl stood still, his arms crossed as he thought of it.

"Mossgrum? Are you sure?" Rapl questioned. Mossgrums, a type of carnivorous animal that uses the hard shell behind its back to disguise itself as a rock, giving potential prey a false sense of security, for it to strike. Animals like Mossgrums are typically not hunted, but if an attack on someone is reported, that aggressive Mossgrum is hunted, though they are not easy to hunt, Mossgrums can grow to the height of three human men and weigh as much as an entire house. 

"Why? Do you think we can't beat it?" Sevi asked, his tone a bit teasing, Rapl instantly nodded, leaving Sevi kinda offended, "...How proficient are you in magic?" 

"I… really don't know how to use magic effectively," Rapl shared, resulting in Sevi to reel back.

"And you're supposed to be our leader…" The party agreed to teach Rapl the basics of magic, due to the fact they also only knew the basics. Outside the city walls, Sevi sat Rapl down as he began to explain, "Magic is the concentration of mana particles in one's body to perform an action, there are two types of magic in the world, kutha, and yutro. In simple terms with these two, kutha is the gathering of mana in one single area and dispelling it, meanwhile, yutro is using mana to create spells." 

To help her brother, Alex decided to chime in, "Swordsman like you and Bok should rely on kutha in battle, swords or other things are pretty good in gathering mana and sending it out," when Alex said this, she turned to Bok, "Do you wanna show us some flashy flashy moves Bok?" She asked.

Bok stared at Alex for a while, everyone wondered why this was, but Bok would tell them as he scratched his head, "Uh yeah… I really forgot how to use kutha." Alex almost blurted out laughing while Leena and Sevi face-palmed.

But Rapl remembered the first time he and Bok met, "Bok, didn't you make a wind slash at the boar we were fighting?" After Rapl pointed this out, Bok also realized that he did do that.

Leena, hearing about this, decided to also speak, "Yeah that was kutha, although another form of kutha, one that makes a projectile." Everyone, including Sevi and Alex turned to Leena.

"There's more forms? I thought there was only coat and channel," Sevi questioned, his eyes sparking with the information of more information, 

"Yeah," Leena turned to Rapl and Bok as she began to tell them, "Kutha currently has four forms." While talking, Leena pulled out a dagger as she walked near a tree, she swung at it, breaking the dagger while doing minimal damage, "First are the two close range forms, coat, gathering mana to strengthen one's attack." Leena brought out a new knife and began to focus on her blade, and with a swing, sliced a decently large wound on the tree, larger than the knife itself, "next, channel, gathering mana to increase the defense of something." Leena then took a big breath as she banged her head on the tree, yet an action that would've led to blood only gave her a red spot." 

"Those are the only ones me and Sevi know of," Alex added.

"Because those are the most basic and most used ones, the next two are projectile kutha attacks. First is rend, a wave of mana that is sent out to cut." Leena stepped back, she swung her knife, and everyone saw a projectile in the shape of a slice being sent out and cutting the tree, "I think this is the thing Bok did to that boar Rapl," Leena stated.

"Yeah it was like that but wind," Rapl replied.

"Yeah, one can use their element on their kutha attacks to increase it's power, anyway, the last one is called pulse, basically the same thing with rend, but instead of a cut, it's more blunt." With her fist this time, Leena sent a projectile that left a dent in the tree, "So yeah, that's kutha," Leena nonchalantly remarked.

"I see," said Sevi, his eyes sparkling, "Very interesting," he blurted out, leading everyone to look at him with a weird look.

"So if that's kutha, what's yutro?" Rapl asked Alex. 

"Well, it's in two categories, first is elemental spells, you know, the icy icy, fire fire, the blasting thing," As Alex talked, Rapl, Bok, and Leena all wondered what Alex was trying to convey; feeling embarrassed, Sevi decided to help her sister out a bit. 

"Elemental spells are sending mana into an area away or near you to damage foes, and the second category is magic arts, they support the caster in multiple ways, for example." In the middle of Sevi saying this, he tapped Rapl on the shoulder, appearing behind him, but Sevi was still in front of Rapl, "Illusion." Suddenly, the Sevi in front of Rapl disappeared as the Sevi behind Rapl began to levitate, "Floating." And when he was in the air, with his eyes closed, he dodged a bird that was going to hit him, "Perception, there are multiple different others but those are the ones I use the most." 

Rapl, mesmerized at the new things he was taught, for the next hour, Leena and Sevi taught Rapl and Bok how to fight with magic. While Bok realized he was doing kutha the entire time, Rapl was trying to cast a spell, "Do you know your element?" Alex asked, Rapl shrugged, "Aren't you… older than me?" 

While going through all the spells, the party realized something. While trying to cast all the basic spells, Rapl managed to do spark, the most basic fire spell, and water shot, the most basic water spell, "You already have two elements?" Sevi asked, sounding a bit perplexed.

"Is that… bad?" Rapl questioned. 

"Quite the opposite actually," Leena began, "When someone is born they typically have only one element, and might have a chance to awaken another the older they get, also, people typically get the elements of their parents when they are born, but it is not guaranteed, for example, my father has water as his element, I have lightning, but because of that, I have a higher chance to learn water. But you told us you don't know magic at all, that means you were born with two elements, something only prodigies are born with?" Leena disclosed, Rapl looked at his hands with awe.

"I… see." In his mind, Rapl recalled that his parents both had the element of wind, so he thought that he could try to learn wind. But after Rapl and Bok learned a bit, Rapl began to get more confident; when noon came, and the party had their lunch, Rapl decided to challenge his team, "Sevi," he called, the red-haired kid turned to Rapl, bread in his mouth, "Let's hunt a mossgrum," he announced, a confident smile on his face.

As a response, the party shared an equally confident grin, Sevi scoffed, "Got your confidence huh?" When they finished their lunch, Rapl took the request to the tavern keepers, and they left the tavern on a mission, to slay a mossgrum.