Chereads / Tales of Zeroth / Chapter 7 - The Growing Party

Chapter 7 - The Growing Party

After hearing Rapl and Sevi's suggestion, the party made their way outside the city walls, "So~ we're just doing some sparring?" Bok asked while he turned to Sevi, "You talked with some adventurers right?" 

"Yeah, they told me the usage of magic over time, builds magic proficiency and expands your mana pool," Sevi answered, giving a sheet of paper to Bok. When he read it, he saw that it was ways to train magic.

"It's like building muscle," Leena added, "But I heard from my uncle that learning magic also expands magic proficiency. Too bad we don't have a teacher or a magic book." While walking, Rapl was thinking of something.

Noticing this, Alex asked him, "You~ got something in your mind Rapl?" He snappily turned to Alex, as if he was awoken from a slumber.

"O-Oh, I was just wondering what having C3 on magic arts is?" When Rapl asked this question, Leena's eyes grew wide.

"You have a C3 on magic arts?" She asked, Rapl nodded, and Leena stared at Rapl with disbelief, "What kind of- You know people born with magic arts above B2 are less than one-percent?" 

The whole party's eyes widened, but Rapl still didn't know what it meant, "Yeah but what does it do?" 

Leena had to compose herself before she spoke, "Essentially, it determines your ability to learn and use magic arts, for example, the lowest grade, A1, can't really do anything substantial, but a little above that, A2, they can learn the basic magic arts, like making a slight glow." 

Rapl and Bok intently listened, even Sevi and Alex, Rico even looked like he was paying attention, and a thought came over Bok while he was listening, "Wow, Leena really knows a lot… psh what a nerd." 

Leena continued, "The scales go up in alphabetical and numerical order, A being the lowest, and J is the highest currently, ranging from one to five. Your level Rapl, C3, means you can learn intermediate arts, like body morph or illusions, but there are some arts you can't learn." 

Hearing this Sevi decided to also ask a question, for he also doesn't know too much about magic arts, "Is it like how you can't unlock certain elements?" 

Hearing what Sevi said, Leena decided to pat his head a bit, "Correct, but from what I remember, when one reaches the highest level of J, they can learn any magic art there is," Leena explained, leaving her party with both knowledge and awe.

"How do you know so much?" Alex asked, Leena's eyes stared in confusion at the young girl.

"Mostly everyone knows this fact." Leena saw her party mates tilt their heads in confusion, and then she realized that her party mates consisted of a sheltered dude, a guy with amnesia, and twins who hadn't been taught anything, "I just… read a lot of books." 

When the party came across a wide field, they found it was a good place to set up training, on the ground Rapl set down a blanket, and Leena put a basket of food on top of it, "Alright, so we all have our own things we need to train," Sevi exclaimed as he began to read the paper, "It says here that people with low mana pool should constantly use their mana until it runs out." 

"That's me," Rapl called out, ever since the mossgrum hunt and his examination, Rapl had realized how low his mana pool really was.

"I'll join Rapl in this as well," Alex and Leena added, although not bad, they also wanted to increase their mana pool, meanwhile Rico just followed whatever Rapl was going to do. Sevi and Bok were confident with theirs, so they just needed to increase their proficiency.

Bok walked near Sevi to see the paper as well, "So what do we do to get better at magic overall?" He asked, Sevi looked up at him, his face a bit hesitant. 

"Repeated use in combat," Sevi remarked as Bok also got nervous, "And it's only you and me." Bok and Sevi got ready, the swordsman wielding a blunt blade he got from the blacksmith, both their nerves were high.

They knew how powerful the other one was, Sevi then realized Leena, Rapl, Alex, and Rico were just watching.

"W-WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING!?" Sevi exploded in tense anger, "This is a training day not an observing day!" 

"We'll train when you guys are done," Leena exclaimed as a smile came over her face, "We just wanna see this fight." 

Bok scoffed, "An audience, really?" He murmured as he looked at Sevi, and Sevi looked back, "Alright, let's dance." Bok got into his stance, wind surrounding him.

"Go easy on me Bok," Sevi commented, a nervous smile coming over him. Just like lightning, Sevi dashed at Bok, his speed creating a cracking sound. Turning as he moved, Sevi was going to kick Bok, his feet flaming.

But then the familiar sound of steel clashed with fire, as Sevi saw Bok blocked his attack with one hand, the other hand, "Ripping Gust." He used to create a strong wind force. 

Sevi using his perception, dodged the attack, but in the middle of him dodging, Bok landed a hard swing on the chest, sending the kid face-first to the ground. Bok's blade began to swirl with wind as he was going to swing at Sevi again.

But then Sevi's legs ignited with fire, Bok didn't get to react as Sevi kicked his head, and the boy used his arms to rotate, kicking Bok multiple times. Using a high recoil spell on his hands, Sevi sent himself to the sky.

On the sky, Sevi began to chant some spells, "A HUNDRED FIREFLIES!!" He yelled out, sending multiple sparks of flame toward Bok. The swordsman focused mana on his blade as he sent out a wind slash at both the sparks, and also at Sevi, turning his defense into an offense.

The wind slash hit Sevi, but Bok's eyes widened as the figure of Sevi dissolved, immediately he charged wind on his blade, aiming at the ground, "Enveloping Gale!" A deadly wind force field surrounded Bok, which stopped Sevi who was about to attack him.

"Dammit, he knew that I was going to do a sneak attack," Sevi remarked inside his mind, noting down how Bok fights. Focusing his mana, Sevi's hands began to flame as he was going to cast a spell in the force field, "FLAM-" 

But before he could, the wind dissipated as Bok left his force field, charging at Sevi in the middle of him chanting the spell. The young boy was only inches away from Bok as the swordsman threw a horizontal swing.

Time traveled in slow-motion as Sevi saw the blade about to hit his face, but in a split second, he ducked under it, kneeling as he touched the ground, "FLAME PILLAR!!" He yelled, and from below Bok, a surge of fire enveloped him.

Trying to make distance, Sevi used float with a flame blast to propel himself away from Bok. But with a feat that shocked Sevi, Leena, Rapl, Alex, and Rico, Bok was already behind Sevi, his clothes burning but his blade surging with gusts of wind. 

Before Sevi could comprehend it, Bok swung his blade, hitting the boy's back cleanly, and sending him flying. But Bok didn't stop, swinging his blade two times in Sevi's direction, sending out waves of wind at the boy. 

Sevi dodged it both, but yet again Bok was near him, and with a full-powered kutha strike, Bok was going to finish the sparring match. But as he swung at Sevi, the boy made a move that perplexed Bok, Sevi was able to use his flexibility to precisely entangle Bok's arm with his legs, stopping Bok on his tracks.

Entangled, Bok tried to cast a spell, but Sevi released him, and while his mind was still transfixed on casting the spell, Sevi was already on Bok's side, his fist ignited with fire as Bok realized it, channeling to protect his side.

But Sevi, hit Bok hard, "FLASH!!" With a punch, Bok was sent tumbling, to break his momentum, Bok stabbed his blade on the ground, "How's that?" Sevi asked, a cheeky smile on his face. 

Bok chuckled, "You hit me with one good one and you start trailing off?" Bok jokingly asked, his blade spiraling with gusts of wind, "Let's see if you can still talk after." As a response at this display, Sevi's hands and feet started to burn.

"Let's see." The two clashed, sending a gust of force that moved the surrounding grass. Meanwhile, Rapl, Alex, Leena, and Rico were just watching, awe on the girls' faces as Rapl kinda felt like he was being lazy.

"I'm~ going to start training now," he told the two, leading to Leena to stand up and join him. The two made their way to a set of trees, readying themselves to use the trees as target practice. While getting ready, Leena noticed that Rapl didn't have his usual sword.

"Do you have a weapon?" She asked, "You can borrow my knife if you wanna?" 

Rapl declined, "From that mossgrum quest, I noticed that I feel better just punching things, so I'm going to learn how to battle with my fists only." When Rapl said this, Leena gave him a judging but worried look.

"You sure?" She questioned, "You know there is a danger to it right? Like in that mossgrum quest, if you had a blade you would've broken it instead of your hands."

"But if you master it you'll not have to rely on weapons right? I'll just need to know how to use it," Rapl replied. Leena, respecting Rapl's decision, shrugged. Staring at a tree, Rapl wanted to not only expand his mana pool, but also he wanted to learn how to protect his hands while doing maximum damage.

Getting tips from Bok and Sevi, Rapl understood that putting all of one's mana into coat would damage the coated area. So instead one should use both coat and channel at the same time, it may lower the overall damage, but it will make sure the weapon or body part doesn't break.

Rapl focused his mana on his fist, putting seventy percent of it on coating while the thirty percent was on channeling. Rapl charged up a punch, and when he threw it, he saw a dent that formed on the tree, and his hands were unharmed. Leena shot Rapl an impressed smile, "Did Bok teach you?" She asked.

Rapl smiled at her, "Yeah," he replied, but then he looked at the dent he made, "I was wondering, if Sevi's attacks look so much more powerful, why can Bok still keep up with him even though his destructive ability is lower?" Rapl asked while Leena charged her bow, aiming at a small branch.

"To explain it in simple terms, yutro looks more impressive, due to mana particles taking up a larger space, but in terms of damage they are pretty similar, it's just that kutha focuses mana in a smaller area than a bigger one. It looks less impressive." Leena fired her bow, hitting the small branch, and splitting it into small pieces, "But converted into yutro terms, Bok's wind swings are as strong as Sevi's forest moving attacks." 

Rapl nodded as if he already knew this fact, but he just needed to clarify it, and when it was, he stared in awe at his dent, "Kutha attacks look less impressive huh?" He asked himself, "So how powerful was that forest clearing swing from Sisphyus?" Rapl's hands began to shake as he relived that moment, and thought of how powerful Prince Ender would've had to produce swings like that using his mana centuries later.

Leena and Rapl repeatedly used their mana on the trees, and Alex decided to join them after a bit, the battle of Bok and Sevi finished with both of them on the ground, tired. 

After recovering and eating food, Bok took Rico out to wander around trying to find a cool thing for Rico to eat, meanwhile, Sevi was observing Leena, Rapl, and Alex, learning off them but also teaching them in things he knows.

Day in and day out, the party trained, after expanding their mana pool, Rapl, Leena, and Alex would join Bok and Sevi in sparring matches. Blades would clash with ice along with fists with arrows.

The party would do quests in the tavern to increase their adventurer grade. Word spread around as the tale of the party trailblazing through quests became more popular in Dartine, and after two weeks, it was time for the city-wide basilisk hunt.

Early in the morning, over ten parties met up, their numbers going up to fifty. Although tense, they had an air of shared comradere, while waiting for more parties to show up, a mage girl was looking around, a warrior from her party noticed this.

"Are you still looking out for those guys Sheril?" He asked, the mage was the person who saved Rapl, Sheril.

"Yeah, their swordsman assured me they would come a few days ago," she replied, leading to the warrior to shrug.

"They did a pretty challenging quest yesterday, they hunted a swamp lurker so I think it'll be better for them to rest a bi-" Before the warrior could finish what he was going to say, from the city walls, he saw five figures coming closer, "No way it's them." 

Sheril turned to see them, and there she saw Rapl, wearing a scarf with light armor, on his hands were gloves of metal, and his eyes looked determined. His party wasn't so different as well, they had been using their quest money to get better equipment.

Even Rico wasn't the same salamander as before, he grew two times his regular size, a hard shell on his back, his tail tough with scales from a swamp lurker, though he had the same face, his teeth were now pretty sharp.

"There you are," Sheril called out, a proud smile on her face, "Well, are you all ready?" She asked, the party nodded.

"As ready as ever," Rapl replied, a tense but confident smile on his face.

The parties boarded carriages to carry them to their quest, to hunt a basilisk that had destroyed a local village and sleeping in it.