Part One
"Hey buddy, remember me?" I heard as I tried to move but was frozen in place and all I could see was darkness.
"Oh you're that god guy, right?"
"That god guy, wow. I've really been reduced to just some god. I am the Great Spirit. Remember what I told you last time we met?"
"Oh yes Frostworth Dungeon, right? Sorry but a lot has come up so it's been put on the burner right now. Recovery has taken quite a while you know?"
"It's been 2 months since I told you to go there. You have failed to listen to my advice. I'm just trying to help you out. So, in order to continue helping you out I'll give you a piece of advice again. Do not go to Frostworth Dungeon. The time has passed. That's it."
Before I could respond to him, he disappeared.
"Don't go to Frostworth? This guy is so confusing. Who does he think he is telling me what to do?"
"Knock knock…"
"Come in."
It was Grande. During my two months of recovery she helped me out a lot. She went out on lower grade missions and put all of that money towards paying for my medical bills. Since I've been sending half of my money back home, I had close to nothing to cover my medical bills. She stuck around during my recovery talking to me everyday and making the whole process a lot more enjoyable.
"Now that ya both healthy we've got to form a group." She said excitedly.
Agatha walked into the room.
"Do you have any names in mind Luther?" Agatha asked.
"Hm…what about Breaking Point?" I asked as I looked at each of them.
"Breaking Point," They whispered to themselves as they thought about it.
"I kinda like it," said Grande.
"I guess that name is suitable," said Agatha.
And with that our name was now Breaking Point.
As we walked to Adventurer's Hall, we stopped in town square, where we saw nearly the whole city watching the broadcast.
"What's going on in the news?" I asked as we made our way towards the broadcast,
The broadcast was a timer. From listening to the people around us, I gathered that the royal family was going to make an announcement.
"The royal family." I said as I watched the timer reach one minute.
"10…9…8…7…" I heard as the crowd counted down.
"3…2…1…"
An old man with a grey beard and military clothing appeared on the screen.
"Greetings all citizens of Hygaria, from Gaeth, Louton, and Sodo. For those who may not know me, I am the Voice of the Royal Family, Dalton Frendel. I come to you all today to share some unfortunate news."
He took a minute to pause and take a deep breath.
"Earlier this week… King Iridius and Queen Diaris were assassinated."
"The King and Queen were assassinated?"
"The King and the Queen? No way both the King and Queen were assassinated." I heard amongst the murmur of the crowd.
"We have not been able to identify the attacker but we are committed to bringing them to justice and doing right by our beloved King and Queen."
"And they don't know who did it? That's our government in full effect." An old man said while people near him chuckled.
"As of now, Commander Reem will be acting as the interim King until we are able to discern who is the correct candidate to lead this country. Within the next day we will announce the four candidates."
A certain silence flooded the town square. As the broadcast concluded we walked to a local tavern to talk.
"So what exactly is gonna happen to this country?" I asked Agatha.
"Well first off, the country is in a very vulnerable state. Most likely the most vulnerable it has been in the last century. Tomorrow they'll announce a member from each of the four original families to be the potential heir to the throne."
"The original four families?" I asked.
"How do ya not know the original four families? They are the direct descendants of the Great Spirit and they founded this country." Grande interrupted with.
"The direct descendants of the Great Spirit?" I thought.
Agatha finished the explanation.
"Now that the King and Queen are dead, each family will nominate their own child to be the ruler of the country. This marks the beginning of the race for the throne. It can get very violent quickly."
"Will the country be okay?" Grande asked.
"...….." Agatha remained quiet as she held her glass and shifted her head downwards.
"I don't know." Agatha finally said.
We all sat in silence as we thought of what this could mean for the future of the country.
Part Two
The next day we met at town square alongside the huge crowd of citizens. As the counter reached zero this time, everyone remained silent.
"Hello citizens of this beautiful country. I, the Voice of the Royal Family, Dalton Frendel, have returned once again to announce the potential heirs to the throne."
He paused to take a deep breath.
"The first candidate is Louis Fragdel, age fourteen of the Fragdel family. The second candidate is Solaire Lucis, age fifteen of the Lucis family. The third candidate is Lucian Dulin, age sixteen of the Dulin family. The fourth and final candidate is Anabelle Hysteria, age thirteen, of the Hysteria family."
The crowd broke out into cheering.
"I love Lucian Dulin, he's the perfect candidate. Solaire is so beautiful I can't wait until she can lead this country." I heard amidst the outburst.
"The Dulin family, the Fragdel family, the Hysteria family, and the Lucis family, the race for the throne starts now!" And the crowd erupted into cheers.
We walked away to Adventure's Hall.
"For such a somber day yesterday they really managed to turn it around today." I said.
"They had no choice but to turn it around and announcing the candidates so soon was the only way to salvage this disaster." Agatha explained.
"Altaro's hungry," He said as he climbed onto my head.
"I think we should go to the shopping district. We've finally got a little money so we might as well treat ourselves for working so hard." I said as I grabbed Altaro off of my head and began petting him.
"I'm not very interested in that." Agatha said as she got up.
"You two are free to go together."
"I could use a few new clothes. Let's go!" Grande said excitedly.
So Grande and I went to the shopping district for the rest of the day.
First we walked into the clothing store.
"My old clothes are getting a bit small." I said as I walked down the aisles.
I pulled multiple clothes off the rack and walked into the changing room.
I walked out in a bunch of different clothes and Grande called them all ugly.
"Nope."
"Not it."
"Try again."
I finally walked out in a navy blue robe, white shirt, black pants, and black shoes.
"What do you think?" I said with a huge smile on my face.
"Ya look… good." Agatha said as she turned to hide her blush.
I also went and grabbed a black bag to carry Altaro.
She then took her turn trying on different outfits.
"Nope that's definitely not it."
"Try again."
"What are you even thinking?"
Finally she put on a black outfit with dark purple accents and a dark purple skirt.
"That looks good on you."
We both bought our new clothes and went to the artifact shop.
"So what are we looking for here and what even is an artifact?" I asked as we entered the store.
"Do ya know anything? Artifacts are items imbued with soulforge energy in order to produce a specific effect. An example would be a pair of rings which change color based on the damage the two wearers have taken. That would allow each person to see if the other was in danger."
"I understand that but what do you want from here?" I asked as Grande handed me bags to carry.
"I'm looking for an artifact which can store items inside of it." She said as she glanced from artifact to artifact.
"This one!" She exclaimed as she reached for a silver ring with a 40,000 Ula price tag.
"Oh there's no way I can afford this. I'll just have to wait until after our next mission." She said as she put the ring down.
"I'll buy it for you." I said as I picked up the ring and brought it to the store clerk.
"You can't possibly afford that." She said as she begged me to put it down.
"Actually I can just barely afford this. It'll just cost my entire savings." I said while I paid for the ring and handed it to her.
"This is my thank you for helping me through my two month recovery and paying for my medical bills."
"Thank ya so much, Lu!" She said as she hugged me.
"Lu? What kind of nickname is that?" I asked and started to laugh
She blushed and started punching me.
"Ya so annoying. I was trying to give ya a cute nickname."
After all of that shopping, we decided it was time to go eat.
We both ordered Erfish Soup with a side of bread and sat down waiting for our food.
"So, what made you want to become an adventurer?" I asked Grande.
She paused and avoided eye contact.
"I wanted…I wanted to get away from my family." She finally managed to say.
I thought about asking more but she continued without me having to press further.
"I come from a family that's a big name in the beast hunting field. They wanted me to be a part of the family business but seeing what really goes on made me want to leave. So I left to go see the world as an adventurer."
"I never knew this much about Grande. She never wanted to open up before this."
She lifted her head and tried to move on.
"So…what made you want to be an adventurer." Grande asked as she gathered herself together.
"Well, my family was dirt poor. We were barely making it by when a goblin tribe attacked my village. Agatha was there and eliminated all of them in the blink of an eye and when she saw I awakened my soulforge at such a young age she decided I would come with her. She trained me for a year I took and passed the Adventurer's Guild entrance exam. I've only been a hunter for a couple months now but now I've been able to provide for my Grandma."
"Wow ya have such a…noble reason for becoming an adventurer."
"Yea I guess."
I paused and looked at the doll on her back.
"What's with the doll and how can it fight and speak?" I asked while examining the doll.
"Well if ya listened to me the first time we met ya would know that I can summon a ghost to possess the doll. The doll is then completely under my control and listens to my every command. The special part of this is that the ghost which is summoned is different every time. The doll has a different ability and personality every time it's possessed."
"That's really cool! I wish I had an ability like that." I said while pouting my face.
"I mean my ability has nothing on the power of creation." She said as she tried to cheer me up.
Our food finally arrived at our table. We thanked the servers and began to eat.
The food was amazing. The Erfish was soft yet juicy and tasty. I gave some to Altaro and he enjoyed it.
We finished our meals and thanked the chefs. As we made our way back to the inn, it was night.
Grande made me hold all of her bags. As we walked towards the inn one thought hit my mind.
"Is this a date? I mean we spent the whole day together, shopped, and even got dinner together."
I must've had some change in behavior because Grande noticed and asked if I was okay.
"Yep, doing just fine!"
We arrived at the inn and I dropped off Grande's bags in her room. She thanked me and I went back to my room.
I went straight to my bed and laid down.
"That was a fun day with Grande," I thought.
Altaro jumped up onto the bed and laid on top of me.
I closed my eyes and fell asleep
Part Three
Boom!
I woke up to an explosion which I could see outside my window. A trail of smoke rose up from Adventurer's Hall.
Agatha and Grande barged into my room and urged me to suit up and investigate the explosion with them.
As we approached Adventurer's Hall another explosion went off in the shopping district.
"You two go investigate and try to track down the cause of the explosions. I'll stay here and try to gather any evidence." Agatha said as Grande and I went towards the shopping district.
"There's someone over there." Grande pointed towards the rooftops.
"Hold onto me."
I created a beam of stone to raise us to the rooftops. Grande held onto me and Altaro popped his head out of my bag.
"Lu, Altaro doesn't like this." Altaro told me telepathically.
"Stop there! Walk towards us with your hands or else we will attack you." We shouted in unison as we approached.
The person was wearing a mask with a symbol I didn't recognize on it.
"Oh well hello there. It seems the two of you got to me quickly." She said while turning to face us.
She raised her hands and began walking towards us.
"Oops." She said as she pointed her index finger at us and a little orb shot towards us. We moved out of the way easily and looked behind us to see the orb explode on the rooftop behind us.
"So this is the culprit." I thought while creating a scythe in my hand and gauntlets for Grande.
The masked woman emitted an explosion on her feet to propel herself in the air and sent another one towards us.
We easily dodged it and it destroyed the rooftop.
"So her soulforge ability is to create explosions." I said as I sent a rock drill towards her.
"A human bomb." Grande said.
She used an explosion to dodge the rock drill.
Grande called out, "Boo, possess the doll," and the doll jumped off her back.
The doll yawned and asked, "Whatcha want me to do?"
"Attack that masked lady," Grande ordered.
The doll reached out its hands and shadow arms extended from the back of the doll. The masked lady dodged each arm while Grande and I got close.
Grande then sent another ghost to grab the masked lady. The ghost grabbed her and slammed her into the roof of a building.
As we approached the masked woman, she tried to wiggle out of the grip of the shadow hands and Grande's ghost.
"What's your goal with this?" I asked as I created handcuffs on the masked woman.
"This country is shifting, the times are changing, and we are going to lead the revolution."
"We?" I thought of what that could mean.
"Stopping me won't change a thing. I am just one cog in an entire movement. There's a new age on the horizon." She said before closing her eyes.
Agatha finally caught up to us.
"So this is the bomber." Agatha said as Snowe made an ice spike and aimed it at the masked lady.
Agatha interrogated her, asking, "What movement are you a part of?"
"We are the New Order." She said while taking deep breaths.
Her body began to glow.
"Remove her from the wall, now!" Agatha called and Grande and I released our restraints.
Her glowing body fell to the ground.
"She's…gonna explode," I thought as I created a box around her.
Grande must've picked up on what was going on because she called her ghost to launch the box into the air.
As the box was being launched into the air Agatha called out, "Aqua Sphere," and created a ball of water around the box.
"Snowe!" She shouted as Snowe froze the water surrounding the box.
"That's not enough," we all shouted simultaneously.
Altaro woke up from his nap on my shoulder and jumped onto my head.
He yawned, then called out, "Kyuuuu!"
He jumped up, reaching his tails towards the box and enveloping it in his tails.
When he removed his tails, the box was gone.
"Altaro…you saved the whole city." I yelled as I hugged him.
When we hugged I was given a view into Altaro's dimension where the explosion went off.
Citizens that were watching from inside their homes began coming outside.
"You saved us," they said as they pointed to the three of us.
"Please let us thank you," they begged us.
"It's fine. This is part of our job, to protect the weak." Agatha said while we jumped down from the roof.
"At least tell us your names," pleaded one young boy.
"Breaking Point. That is our name," Agatha said as we walked away.
"Thank you Breaking Point!" We heard as we went back to the inn to rest.
"There's a new age on the horizon?" I thought of what the woman had said as I fell asleep.
The next day Grande busted my door open and threw a newspaper at my face.
"Ouch!" I shouted as I rubbed my eyes and took a look at the newspaper.
"Breaking Point saves the day in Heredome City," we read in unison.
"We're heroes, this is amazing." Grande said.