Chương 38: Final Preparations

They handed the ferryman another 65 mana stones for the trip back to Stormhaven. The sun was setting by the time they walked down the pier, but there was one more item on their to-do list before they would leave the city with Alex and her mysterious friend who would hopefully be able to figure out what had happened to the uninhabited villages of the Rainwilds. Most apprentices had already left the smithy when they arrived.

Even Gregory himself was in the storage room, writing lists of supplies he had to reorder, but Maya was still standing at the anvil, hammering away.

"Ah, my beloved brother," she greeted Oliver with a grin that lit up her eyes.

"Perfect timing. I was just putting the finishing touches on your new sword." Oliver looked at the red-hot lump of metal on the anvil in confusion.

"That's supposed to be my new sword?" Maya rolled her eyes.

"No, silly, your new sword is on the rack over there." She put her hammer down and walked over to the rack to retrieve the sword. It was longer than the one Oliver was currently using. The blade was smooth, but with an interesting smoky texture. Several runes were etched into the metal, just above the hilt. Oliver leaned in to inspect the intricate sigils.

"Is this a magical sword? With enchantments?"

"Of course. Do you think I would let my brother walk around in the world, hunting monsters, with just any old metal stick?" With a proud look on her face, she pointed at the first rune.

"This one is simple. It enhances durability. It's active by default. Won't last forever, though. I'll have to re-do it in three or four years."

"Simple? I had no idea you could do something like this," Oliver said, impressed.

"Gregory helped me a little, but it's not that hard once you have the basics down. The second rune is cool. When you activate it, you increase your chance to shatter shields or weapons. Only works on physical objects though, not magical shields."

"Wow, sounds useful."

"The last one is the best. If you block mana-fueled attacks with the sword, it will store a bit of that energy and release it in a big burst once you activate the rune." Still grinning ear to ear, she handed him the sword.

"Here you go." In awe, Oliver took it from her, gently gripping the hilt.

"It's not made of glass, Olly. Come on, give it a swing." Tentatively, Oliver took a few steps back and swung the sword through the air. Then he tried an upward slash and an overhead strike.

"It's amazing, Maya. Really. The difference between this and that rusty old thing we found on the corpse is unbelievable." Maya squinted.

"Wait. Corpse? You stole your sword from a corpse?"

"It was a bit of an emergency," Evan explained. Oliver was still whirling around with his sword, going through the moves Alexandra had taught them.

"Just one more question. How do I activate those runes?" Maya hesitated for a moment, then shrugged.

"No idea. I'm just the crafter. I thought you knew how to use them." Oliver looked at Evan, but Evan didn't have much to say about it either.

"Alex mentioned something about learning how to channel mana into the sword, but I haven't figured it out either." Maya dramatically covered her eyes with a groan.

"My genius is wasted on you two." When they returned to their room at the boarding house, only Luca was there. He sat on his bed, polishing his new armor with an oily rag. The other bunk bed, Kai's bed, was empty, and the sheets had been removed. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Where is Kai?" Evan asked.

"Gone. Moved into his dorm at the Academy today. There's the big ceremony for the new students, with a ball and all."

"And… how are you feeling about it?" Evan asked gently. He imagined watching his cousin go to the Academy while he had to stay behind was difficult for Luca, but his new teammate just shrugged.

"I'm okay."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." He put the oily rag aside, and his armor disappeared into his inventory.

"To be honest, the whole Academy thing was more my parents' dream than mine. Now that I think about it, I probably got lucky. I'm more of an adventures-in-the-real-world kind of guy."

"Are you?" Evan asked, amused.

"Yeah, traveling the world, exploring cool places, fighting monsters, meeting girls. Lots of girls. I bet girls are super into monster hunters."

"I'm not sure how much of an adventure this mission will be," Evan said in a more serious tone.

"You didn't see those abandoned villages. Something weird is going on out there."

"Yeah, even Alexandra is worried," Oliver said.

"This will be dangerous, and you better take it seriously, Luca." Luca just shrugged, not very impressed by their stark warning.

"I'm taking it seriously, but I can still have some fun along the way. Hey, Olly, how are the girls in the Rainwilds? Are they all as pretty as your sister or—" Oliver flung a pillow across the room, hitting Luca straight in the face.

"Okay, okay, your sister is off-limits, but I could still use some pickup advice. You know the local culture better than I do. Do the girls there like it when you—" Another pillow hit him, this time coming from Evan. They got up early and stored the last of their gear into their inventories before heading out. Evan talked to the landlady, informing her that they would be gone for a couple of days, maybe even weeks, but that they'd like to keep the room.

He paid next month's rent in advance, then followed his friends outside. Luca and Oliver were waiting in front of the boarding house. Both were wearing their armor, and Oliver was practicing strikes and slashes against the bushes next to the boarding house entry with his new shimmering sword. After a short stop at a marketplace to grab some breakfast and buy provisions for the journey, they walked to the hotel Alexandra was staying at. When they got there, Alex was already waiting outside.

Next to her stood a man Evan hadn't seen before. He was in his early thirties at best, tall and lanky, with short, light brown hair and light skin. His clothes were all muted greens and light browns, with some light leather armor on top. Both of them looked surprisingly agitated, considering they hadn't even started their journey yet. Alex was pacing up and down the street in front of the hotel entrance, while the man kept talking at her with a concerned look on his face.

"Ah, boys, it's good that you're here," Alex greeted them when she spotted them. She stopped her pacing, but Evan could tell she was tense.

"Change of plans. You'll have to do this without me."

"What?" Evan and Oliver asked in unison. Luca's shoulders slumped.

"Aw, man. Too bad."

"The Guild called me away. Some high-profile expedition to some ruins in the southern sea," Alex explained.

"But can't you just say no?"

"Unfortunately not. At your rank, those expeditions are voluntary, but once you get to the higher ranks, politics and favors come into play. Everyone is expected to chip in when the guild comes calling. Sorry, guys."

"But we're just three low-rankers," Oliver said, looking completely discouraged.

"You said yourself messing with the situation is too dangerous for us."

"You're not alone. Jasper will be with you." The brown-haired man standing next to her nodded at them.

"Hello, I'm Jasper Lorryk." Luca narrowed his eyes, clearly not very enthusiastic about exchanging the beautiful red-maned Alexandra for this skinny guy.

"Jasper is rank 8. You should show people who outrank you by this much a bit of respect, young man," Alex said sternly.

"Even the shoddiest rank 8 could squash you like a bug."

"I'm not the squashing kind of guy, though," Jasper said with an apologetic smile.

"My area of expertise is tracking and investigating. My skill set is ill-suited for fighting."

"He will accompany you, but without a trained fighter present, we need to adjust the approach," Alex said.

"You'll go back to the Rainwilds and try to find out what is happening to those villagers and who's responsible, but stay out of trouble. Do not engage the culprit in a fight, understood?" Oliver shook his head. His face looked grim.

"I'm not going to just walk away. When I find out who did this, I'm going to do something about it."

"I'm not asking you to just walk away. Once you find out what is going on, you'll contact me. I will either come myself, if the expedition is over by then, or I'll send someone else. I need a bit more time to recruit some friends for our cause, but I'm not giving up. I'm sending you as the vanguard, I just don't want you to rush into a fight that could get you killed."

"I thought we were going there to get some experience," Luca complained.

"How are we going to do this without getting into any fights?" The moment the words left his mouth, Evan heard a soft chime informing him of a new quest. The looks on his friends' faces told him the rest of his team had also received it. He accessed his menus and looked at his quest log. [Quest: Mysterious Disappearances] [Entire village populations have vanished in the Rainwilds region. Investigate the disappearances.] [Reward: Experience (unknown), mana stones (800), Achievement (unknown)]"Happy now?"

Oliver asked Luca. Luca smiled.

"Yep, very happy. Let's go investigate."