Master Of None

No one bothered them as when Laurence had noticed the party, he saw them deep in conversation. Many of the tamer’s had heard of the tournament and pushed for entrance. Those that had gained entrance returned to tell the tale. Not often did an outsider even place in a tournament, let alone one that had been thrown together so fast. The gossip about the party even having members on the King’s balcony skyrocketed. Many citizens knew that they were adventurers from the Crystal kingdom and even had acquired a title at an incredibly young age. Overnight they had become the most talked about sensation.

Walker had checked his system learning the three skills from his last round in the Colosseum’s arena. 

’Knife throwing- 1 mana cost

Uses a small knife as a projectile. Can cause a stunned and bleeding effect. The more surprised the user is the longer they are stunned.

Chop- 2 mana cost

Used only with an ax this skill allows the user to cut through some of the toughest trees. Often used for clearing land bones can also be cleaved by this skill.

Quick stab- 1 mana cost per stab

More reliant on the users stamina, the users thrust out with spear or similar bladed weapon as fast as possible. The more this attack lands the higher the damage will rise.’

They party all woke up early so they could put their sightseeing in to action. They geared up keeping everything as close to them as possible, they wanted to be sure that if anything happened they could react within an instant. Wanting to try some of the local foods they didn’t eat breakfast which seemed to make Midnight slightly agitated, however after some promising words of new treats Walker managed to lighten her mood. Not many were out and about in the large open space training this early in the morning. Many tamers that trained at night had already finished and many that trained in the morning had yet to wake.

Onyx was enjoying the sunrise while on his favorite spot, Walker’s shoulders, Walker swore onyx had gotten heavier again and decided he would start measuring him every so often. Walker was a bit jealous that Onyx could survive just by absorbing light mana and converting it in to energy for his body. Although he wasn’t sure if he could ever make a switch to eating that since lastly all he could think about was his mother’s apple pie. 

The group spotted a familiar face training nearer to the gate they were about to leave from. ”Good morning Elise and Stella! One of the first to rise, you must be really excited to train lately.” Elise and Stella paused, sweat already glossy on their bodies.

”Walker! Exactly who we needed, we need another flame doll this time to make it smaller than Stella so we can have a harder time hitting it.” Her excitement rammed in to Walker, he had no choice but to say yes. It was obvious by the large pile of straw nearby that she would hound him until he did it anyways. 

Walker started the fire gradually shaping a smaller flame doll in the shape of Stella, everyone watched, still fairly amazed by the process of the skill. After a few moments the small flame doll harpy took to the air awaiting Walker’s order. ”So what do you need it to do? Once I give it an order it will keep at it, we will be out all day so you will have to destroy it if you decide to stop before we get back.” 

Elise was not deterred by this at all, instead she grabbed Walker’s hands shaking them in glee. ” You’re awesome, just have it dodge and try to attack us. We will battle until we can’t then destroy it!” After issuing this order to the flame doll it immediately targeted Stella who was still on the ground. This caused Stella to jump in to the air to dodge. Before the party was caught up they headed away, Elise waving at them yelling about bringing her back steamed cream buns. 

The tamers at the fence were reluctant to let the party out of the gate without any of their higher ups there to approve it, however without any reason not to they lowered the fence. On their way not free of any escort the party realized many of the early morning workers were stopping to stare at them. Some even gave them waves of greeting which was very surprising. ”So has anyone else noticed that we are the center of attention? Did we make that big an impression yesterday? There weren’t even that many people?” Gil was all together too puzzled by this treatment. The next man that gave him a wave he stopped. ” Ah yes good morning to you as well, if i could bother you for a moment. Can you tell us why everyone seems to be greeting us?” The man was much more surprised by this question that the party was getting all the attention.

”Well who wouldn’t want to greet the heroes in the morning?!” the man laughed and headed on his way. Naturally they were all a bit struck by this, even in their home kingdom they hadn’t received such gestures. Small parts of them were beginning to like this demi-human kingdom a bit more than their home. Shaking the thoughts from their heads they decided it was not work stressing about and continued towards the smell of cooking food. First on the to do list was breakfast!

Walker planned on using his adventure plaque to pay for the meals directly from the guild bank account. This was one huge advantage of being in another city with an adventurers guild. They were some of the first to make it to the market area, the large road only occupied by those on their way to work or transporting goods. Many food stalls were just putting up shop, some set up small sitting areas wanting to entice customers to sit and enjoy various foods. The nearest was serving a variety of chilled fruits that were freshly sliced, Gil had jumped for those wanting to taste the fruits so he could find out the names for his mother. He was reveling in the dream of being able to eat his favorites every day. The colorful variety he had in a paper wrapping was very eye-catching, ”These green ones are kiwi, the orange is called a mango, this other yellow one is a banana, we’ve had it shipped in to our kingdom a lot. Oh this one is…” Gill was eventually tuned out by everyone as they were too hungry to listen to him go on and on about food. 

Onyx had left Walker’s shoulders and hitched a ride on Midnight’s back. The two moved from stall to stall, smelling the air looking for something good. Midnight naturally stopped at a larger stall that had a significant amount of smoke around it. There was a man constantly fanning flames underneath a massive metal oven. The smoke billowed out of a stack in the oven, even as strong as it was the smell of the smoke and slices were pleasant. Seeing the man jump slightly Walker knew that Onyx had just spoken to him. 

The man grabbed some thick gloves and pulled a while smoked horned rabbit from the oven. The plume of smoke released added a whole other level of eye burning. Midnight was not fazed by this at all and watched as the food was wrapped in papers for her. Walker started to rush to catch up so he could pay since Midnight wouldn’t know. However he was stunned to see her turn and present her adventurers plaque which the man gratefully accepted as payment. She then grabbed hold of her meal and turned around, ”Since when do you know how to pay!” Walker was thrown for a loop over Midnight’s mastery of payment. 

”Brother, we watched everyone many times pay and learned ourselves. No need to worry we were able to get a discount since we were so polite.” Not only did Onyx and Midnight act polite enough to get a discount but they both understood how to use gold. He almost wanted to fell down on his butt he was so amazed. They were just too good. 

Walker followed their lead deciding to get a wrapped sandwich of some of the smoked horned rabbit and fresh sliced vegetables. The man was more than happy to help him as well while praising the adorable snake and dragon siblings. This put Walker even further in to a dazed state but he quickly recovered when the food was placed in his hands. His hunger had reached its peak, time to eat!

Everyone ate way too much food as they walked, so much so that the swore they may burst. With their breakfast taken care of Walker decided their best course of action was to kill some time stopping by the adventurers guild here in the city to check it out. The other merchants would not be setting up shop for some time as many would not come early to buy their wares.

Heading toward the location of the guild, they found it easily. They had passed it just yesterday and even without that they could hear the familiar hustle and bustle over quests as back home had. From the street that could see that there were many demi-humans pushing even to get in the door. It would seem the quest rush in the city was much higher than back home. Walker wondered why this may be and figured asking when they got close wouldn’t hurt. With the Ordist kingdom adventurers guild building in front of them they took their first steps toward the door.