Chapter 48 – Ruins Arc
"Remember that in our past life I was sealed in a mirror on that world?"
"Yes, what about it?" I ask confused and curious remembering a short dream of the last day of the ten thousand years the trapped girl lived there.
"Two of the ring leaders who sealed me by the order of the god of light, got reincarnated into this world. The hero and the sage, Sophie and Romeo," a cold tone chiller than my ice leaves her mouth while Aurora made a disgusted expression.
"What!? Did they notice you? Did you perhaps... kill them?" I make a shocked expression as every question could easily end up in a yes, and all of it would cause issues to us.
"No, luckily I acted fragile and delicate, unable to do any physical activity and magic. I have a completely different appearance than back then. Not to forget that dad along with the prince, cooperated with me in that sense without realizing it themselves."
"Ah, well in that case we can remain silent since they didn't get to find you out. Should we do something about them? Even though I don't know if there's anything we could do, since they should be with strong guards I guess? Perhaps even the royal guards, the fire one looked insanely powerful."
"I think in this life I'll use them initially to expand the lumen kingdom southward, and when I have a chance in the future... I'll deal with them. Since I don't know yet what to expect from the other races, if it was humans against humans then it would be relatively easier. However by conquering the world through making them work for me, could be the start of a very long punishment," an evil expression appeared on her face which I smiled kindly while patting her hair.
"If you need my help let me know, they might be fellow humans, however, I can't allow them to hurt my sister!" I shouted with a serious face not wanting anything to happen to Aurora.
"When the time comes, we'll figure something out, for now, we need to get a lot stronger. They both must have unique classes and elements, possibly some very special skills given by the goddess Aria."
"Yes, you're right, we could go to the ruins and get some more brainwash resistance from the skeletons for now."
"Sure, we can do that even though, I'll wait for your skills to surpass your resistance so that it can grow naturally before using mines. It should allow you to get a better sense and training at resisting those things in the future. I'm a weapon, so it should not bother me."
"Alright Aurora, that's fine too, since the resistance skill might get stuck somewhere, and then we can boost it up with some merge."
"Plus I heard from one of the summoned, a girl named Kana that the max level in her world was 100, however, in this world that could be different."
"If we can go higher than 100, doesn't that mean that skills can too?"
"Yes, that's what I'm suspicious of, so I'll save the future resistances for an emergency or a necessity, even though our own level may not be correlated with the skills level."
"True, that sounds like a good plan miss general of the Lumen kingdom," I say in a teasing tone and get poked in my forehead as a response. We then laugh at each other while heading towards the ruins.
"Too bad we always end up leaving the corpses behind, but they're big and the blood would make a hassle on these bags. If I had a magic one, I'd bring them so that mother could cook them."
"We'll have to buy one at some point, but for that, we need to get more money, I believe we have around 3000 Copper funds."
"Either that or we find an alternative or some item in these ruins."
"That would make things a lot easier Iris and cheaper, being poor is truly a hassle."
Upon reaching the ruins I look around us, and then we enter it.
※※※
A while earlier at the Astia village, a wagon with a green octagram symbol arrived near the church.
From within Goro, Yuno, Aiko, and Kaito came out.
"Welcome I'm priest Miley and we've been expecting you four, please come inside our church to rest from the long trip."
"I'm Kaito and mind if I go for a walk around here? I've been sitting for too long priest Miley, and slept too, so resting is not something I currently need."
"Just Miley is enough, and of course you can, I'll ask one of our priests to show you around," the man does a gesture to someone inside as the doors are open.
"Thanks, I appreciate it," he started stretching his body in a peculiar way unknown to those who live here, by extending the leg and reaching the feet with the tips of the fingers while saying," ugh, that sure was a long trip," the back does a bit of cracking sounds.
Goro replied, "I've never done one like this, it was a good experience," he smiled at Kaito happily with it.
"You got that right Goro," Kaito stated stretching towards the other leg.
"Too bad we had to endure the smell of your sweat during half of the trip fattie," Aiko said making Yuno laugh and the boy feel bad.
"Come on Aiko we just arrived, give it a rest, it is pretty hot, It's not like Goro is far because he wanted to be, and I wonder in what month or season we are, it truly feels like summer, around July perhaps."
"In our world of Artana, we have four seasons and each has 90 days, we're currently on day 30 of the sun season, we'll be teaching all of you about it soon."
"That's pretty simpler than our old world Miles, are there any sun season festivals and things like that around here or something, maybe events, ceremonies?"
"They're not too frequent as we're all peasants so funding is hard to proportionate, however, we do have a few that go through the year, the flowering season that has passed is when we do a special one, as it is a named one after the goddess Aria."
"Does that mean each season is named after a different god?" Goro asked curiously making Miles frown the eyebrows.
"We could say that is how it is, however, we humans only pursue the one religion that serves goddess Aria, as she's the one who created the race and also the sole superior being that helps us."
"The thing with the visions and the summoned people?" Yuno asked while gazing at the priest noticing a muscular tall man approaching.
"Yes, that's right."
"Hum, I see..." Yuno gazes at the new face devouring the body with the eyes.
"I'm here brother Miley."
A big bulky bald man appeared behind the priest with a shield on the back.
"Kaito, this is Edgar he's an adventurer that has some relation with the church and will show you around while keeping your safety."
"Nice meeting ya man," Kaito extended his hand, and Edgar handshakes it.
"Likewise Kaito, would the rest like to come along?"
"I'll rest a bit first," Yuno said as she was starting to feel rather hot.
"Same here," Aiko added chasing after Yuno to keep her company.
"I'd like to eat something if possible," Goro said with his stomach roaring which made Yuno and Aiko laugh.
Miley smiled at them and said," in that case please follow me inside."
"Let's go then Kaito," they move and walk for a while as Edgar explains where he can find the many different shops and then they stop at the fountain with a garden around.
As they rest a bit by the fountain Kaito notices a pretty girl going towards the west to what he can't help himself but question," Who's that blonde kid?" The boy points at the girl passing through a bit further away from them.
"Oh, that's Aurora I believe, she's an ascending rookie at the adventurers guild along with her twin sister Iris, who has green eyes instead of blue."
"Adventurers guild? Someone that young is?"
"Yes, the guild does have an age limit but from what I was told, her sister Iris is quite something for her age, which allowed them to register earlier than usual."
"That's interesting, I figured humans would all be weak but figures that some are born with some qualities."
Edgar laughed lightly then said, "yes, the adventurers and the ones that are part of the army are a tad stronger than the rest, especially the royal guards, each one is a monster."
"Since they fight with monsters and other things?"
"Exactly they get to level up and become stronger, we end up using the 5 status per level up along with a skill point every time."
"I started with 10 of those points, 1 skill point, and a skill is that normal?"
"Well you're a special case, that skill must be a blessing from the goddess Aria, but the rest sounds alright."
"I understand, also you guys have like healing herbs and potions and things like that around here?"
"The twin's parents work over there" the man points with the index finger," it's a potion shop, if you or your companions ever need the good stuff, I advise going there."
"Alright thank you, Edgar."
"As for equipment... perhaps the blacksmith, I buy things from them there, they're also really nice people."
"Can we go there? I'm curious as to what weapons this world has."
"Yes, of course, let's go there," a short while passes and they arrive inside it, where a man greets them," Welcome to the three hammers, how may we help?"
"A small man? A dwarf?" Kaito thought out loud feeling excited from finding one, who had been a famous reference in his past world.
"Ah, for you to know about dwarves, you're no ordinary man, I'm Verrier a dwarf from beyond the West ocean."
"My shipwrecked and I ended up in Lumen kingdom, eventually ended up coming here and have been living in this shop ever since."
'There wasn't any information regarding dwarves from what the church showed me, is there a kingdom with them somewhere to the West?' Kaito thought confused from the little he got to study.
"Either way Verrier, I'm new in this village and it seems like I'll be staying for a while, so I'd like to see what weapons you sell."
"Of course, come along, we have all types of weapons that are generally used by the army itself," he waved the arm and hand softly towards the different weapons while naming them, making it look like dancing.
"Knuckle’s, swords, rapiers, greatswords, spears, Axes, hammers, bows, crossbows, maces, hammers, daggers, wands, and staffs."
"My class is spearman, so a spear would be nice."
"Choose one Kaito I'll put it on the church tab," Edgar said quickly as the funds for the summoned weren't small.
"I don't know what's good or bad though," Kaito replied confused while lacking knowledge.
"In our shop, we have worst on the left towards best on the right."
Kaito grabs the worst checking its weight all the way to the most expensive one.
'The expensive ones are heavier, as I am now this is far too heavy for me to do anything with it.'
"I'd like the lightest one for now, in the future when I get stronger I'll return."
"A wise choice, you'll go far mister Kaito," Verried replied with a smile and surprised for the choice, and even more for the justification given from someone who didn't look particularly an expert with weapons.
At the church, Goro had finishing eating, and then started remembering all the good food he ate in the past world where they were stolen from.
'Everything was so much better than this world meal, it's truly a shame that I didn't give it importance back then, personal data.'
Status:
Level: 1 | Experience 0/100
Rare Class: Master Chef | Rank 1 | Experience 0/1000
Race: Human | Name: Goro | 18 Years old
Health: 195/195 | Mana: 10/30
Status Points: 10
Strength: 0 | Stamina: 20 | Agility: 0 | Dexterity: 0 | Intelligence: 0 | Wisdom: 2
Titles: Summoned, Overweight, Mana, Mana Exhaust, Health.
Skill Points: 1
Skills: Personal Data.
Blessed Skill: Divine Cooking level 1.
'This was the blessing I received from the goddess, perhaps I can make something from my past world with it. I don't think we'll be facing monsters anytime soon and don't feel like my class is suitable for combat. So I could at least support my classmates in the future through cooking. I also seem to have gained three new titles since the last time I checked it, and my health seems to have dropped slightly while my mana increased. I'm still annoyed as there's an overweight title, but it gives me 2 stamina, so that's not the worst thing ever. I figured it out by comparing statuses with Kaito. Luckily we're the same age and he only had 18 stamina, we humans get 1 stamina per year of life so it matched. He even said he might try to get overweighted just to get the bonus while laughing, that guy is a good friend. Exhausting mana seems to increase mana and decrease health. I should probably spend points between stamina and wisdom to avoid that from happening again. The priest back at the first church said humans usually distribute them as evenly as possible since everything is useful to have. He said that intelligence would allow us to understand the world better, so that sounds like something I should get as well. If I'm to use a cooking skill I'll probably need to focus on dexterity. The teacher told me it allows us to be better with our hands, but perhaps it'll also influence the results of the things I make. Let me check the divine cooking skill before I spend my points just in case.'
Goro feels himself growing weaker as he gets mana exhausted a few times even losing some health.
Divine Cooking:
Fish
Chicken
The young man gets up and walks to the kitchen of the church and finds a fish then he selects it from the little screen from the skill. Ending up losing more health allowing the mana exhaustion to reach its max effect.
In front of him, the fish receives the mana and after some moments, it turns into a random fish meal then stares at it while watering from the mouth and digs in. Tears start to fall through the cheeks while feeling homesick from the meal created.
'At the very least, I'll be able to cook better things than the meals they give us, it's far from the real thing, but it's something. In fact, from now on, I'll cook everything for everyone in this church, as a repayment for taking us in. Hopefully the girls will appreciate it and become friendlier. Let's see the personal data again.'
Status:
Level: 1 | Experience 0/100
Rare Class: Master Chef | Rank 1 | Experience 0/1000
Race: Human | Name: Goro | 18 Years old
Health: 80/280 | Mana: 0/100
Status Points: 10
Strength: 0 | Stamina: 31 | Agility: 0(+5) | Dexterity: 1 | Intelligence: 0 | Wisdom: 10
Titles: Summoned, Overweight, Mana, Mana Exhaust, Health, Cooked Fish.
Skill Points: 1
Skills: Personal Data.
Blessed Skill: Divine Cooking level 2.
Temporary Buff: Fish Meal +5 Agility.
'It seems like abusing of my mana paid off but at the same time it could've killed me, I need to be more careful.'
'The food gives me some temporary buffs it seems, that's pretty cool. It'll surely help my classmates in the future,' Goro smiles happily as he heads to one of the rooms to rest.