Chapter 202 - Random Attack
Their ride back home wasn't as cheerful as when the ride to the Palace. Whenever they talked about death, it would always leave a sour taste in their mouths, and the mood would plummet from then on.
"Actually, only Aquarius has the current title right now," Lance broke the seemingly unending silence. "Before, only one in about a century could complete the Campaign. Everyone was so happy that for the first time in all these times, two title holders are living in the same time. But the Wanderer came out of nowhere."
"That's sad," Elliot couldn't say anything else. "But what about these titles? Are there many more of them?"
"There are seven, actually," Lance explained. "These titles are made two centuries after the inception of the Adventurer system and when the Magic Circles became obsolete."
When the Adventurers raised Goldy tier, more and more have challenged themselves to become stronger. But even then, there were still some Adventurers who had huge gap over others.
To separare these Adventurers, and to let them gain a new sense of pride, the titles started to emerge. Separating the world into different domains, Skies, Seas, Grasslands, Forests, Firelands, and Iron Islands.
Each domain can only be finished with its corresponding affinities. A water user can only gain the title of God of the Seas, but never God of the Flamelands.
The Adventurers started to Campaign to gain the titles, but only few could actually achieve them. This started the foundation to create more titles. The titles would then on start to create the distinction of Goldy Adventurers from each other. The higher the quality of the title, the stronger that Adventurer is.
"Well, that's silly," Hope chuckled while he was flying. "I could sense that Guild Master Frederick is stronger than Aquarius, but he doesn't have a title."
"That dude has all the flame affiliated titles," Lance snorted, making Elliot whistle. "He frequented on solo campaigns back in his younger years, before he established the guild."
"But how do you gain these titles? Through the guild?" Connor asked. "God of the Flamelands seem to have a nice ring to it. I like it."
"No," Lance said without any hesitation. "Aquarius may not look like it, but– he's actually suffering. I can't spare you any more details except for that."
"Suffering?" Elliot whispered.
"Drop it," Lance whispered back. "You can go ask him when you get closer."
Elliot pouted but nodded, understanding his limits. Though they kept a lot of secrets from him, he wasn't going to force it out from them. He wasn't like that. He will just wait until he could ask the man about it.
If that time comes.
Elliot found himself thinking about his title. He had a Lord of Creation title and it seemed like it's one of those lower tiltes. It wasn't one of the God titles, so he figured out he must have gotten a basic one.
"We're almost there," Hope informed and slowly descended. They were riding over the clouds and didn't knew how much dark it got inside. It was raining heavily and it looked like a storm had just landed.
"Strong winds! Brace yourself!" Hope yelled and dove deeper into the ground. They got into the door, waiting for Hope to morph back before they opened it.
But what greeted them was a strong stench of death.
Elliot didn't waste any second more and got inside. His eyes widen and his lips parted, seeing that everything was in ruins. Some of the shelves were knocked out and a lot of gems were scattered on the floor, some shattered into fine sand.
"What in the hell happened here?" Elliot whispered.
"You're here!" They heard Alice yell from the other side of the room. "Damn it, come here!"
"W-What's wrong?" Elliot asked and immediately ran towards Alice. She was kneeling in front of Isabelle who had a huge hole on the side of her stomach. Kian was nowhere to be found.
"I-I'm losing her!" Alice yelled. She was casting a repair skill on Isabelle who had her eyes open, her eyes lifeless. Her lips were slightly parted and the blood that was oozing from it was slowly drying up. "I think it's been about half an hour since she was attacked. I just came because I felt something odd and–"
A wet slurge of water came inside the store. They turned to see what it was about and Aquarius appeared, forming himself from the water.
"Excuse me," Aquarius said to Alice and kneeled in her place. He placed a hand on Isabelle's forehead, feeling her. "Her soul is still inside her body. It's going to be alright."
Aquarius raised his free hand and waved it in the air. Another surge of water came from under the door and rose behind him. He flicked his hand that made the water form a vortex that was pointed at Isabelle's open wound.
"Rebirth of the Sea."
The water continued flowing, turning to blood that turned to tissue and finally formed flesh. He was healing her by reforming the missing parts from her body.
"I can only do so much," Aquarius said. "I can recreate her flesh and path up her wound but she still needs to heal on her own. I recommend–"
"Isabelle!" the bell rang and the door was slammed open, breaking the hinges as Kian ran to the woman. "Isabelle…"
"She's okay now," Aquarius said. "She needs ample of rest and a lot of, you have healing gems, right?"
"We have a lot," Kian said. "I will go get some right now."
"We'll come with you," Ed said and came with Hope.
As the three looked for the healing gems, Alice was repairing the broken shelves and putting the gems back in their place. She was using light magic and distributed particles in the air to mimic levitation and magnetism.
Meanwhile, Elliot carried Isabelle on her bed and waited for the others to return.
"Who could have done this?" Aquarius asked, his forehead scrunching as he saw how wounded the woman had gotten.
"It's not theft," Kian said from behind them. He walked towards Isabelle and placed the healing gems on her body. "I could still see the gems inside, even the most valuable ones."
"But what other intention could anyone have?" Lance narrowed his eyes.
"I know."
Their heads snapped to the corner where the voice came from. A girl who had a pigtail-styled hair leaped to the front of the bed. She wore a pink Lolita dress and had a small laced umbrella with her.
"My name is Litpink, and I needed to know which of you sent the aura."