67 Crystal
“Mana detected… absorbing.” a faint green aura appeared around the black cube sitting on Viladore’s desk.
It was afternoon at the moment so Viladore was sleeping in front of his desk after he dozed off, not woken up by the cube talking to him as it operated.
“Master? Mana detected…” the cube said in it’s hollow voice to Sullivan who was napping nearby, yet no response came from Sullivan other than a slight snore.
The cube began absorbing mana, it was initially smooth and flat on each of its surfaces, but slowly a small lump began to appear on one of its sides. The lump seemed to be semi-solid as it moved around; more of the black crystal was growing and forming as it absorbed the ambient mana.
“…Mana sense lost. Appendage growth 13% complete. Re-initializing mana detection routines…”
Twenty minutes later, Viladore was still asleep even after the black cube made progress on it’s growth.
In a short amount of time it had formed a small lump, which with enough time, would go on to form the first parts of its body.
– – –
“It was probably just a one-time kinda thing. I’m sure he’s not usually like that.” Trenly said to himself, still a little frustrated with Jay.
He was meeting Jay for a job which he needed to avoid a life of adventuring, so he made sure to hide his insecurities and keep a positive attitude as he entered the association.
Opening the door, he saw Jay giving him a light smile.
“Trenly?”
“Jay? Hey, how are you” he shook his hand.
“Good thanks. Sorry about not meeting you the other day… They wanted me to go on an important mission…” Jay scratched the back of his head, a regretful smile on his face. He decided not to mention the details of the mission as it still weighed on his mind.
“It’s all good. I ended up finding your shop anyway, heh” Trenly smiled “Though there wasn’t much I could do, I can’t just break into your shop and start working.” he shrugged.
“Heh, good. At least you know where it is… well, are you free at the moment? We could head down the hill and I can get you started at the shop… hmm.. Oh.. actually, I haven’t bought any meat in a while so there will be nothing to butcher…” Jay scratched his chin.
“Say, you’re good with a bow right? Would you want to try catching something? Maybe you could hunt something today and tomorrow we can butcher it? Since you hunt it I’ll let you keep the profits too? Does that sound good?”
Jay was asking a lot of questions all at once, but Trenly nodded positively through all of them before finally replying.
“Sure, that will be great. It’ll be good to see the process from start to finish.” he smiled.
Trently was quite happy with the deal as he had become an avid hunter; afterall he was raised as one by his father, and was one of the higher level bow users on the first mass-adventurer outing to the Carter’s Demise dungeon – clearly, he was talented.
“Awesome,” Jay smiled with a nod, “and don’t worry, once the shop’s up and running you won’t need to hunt anymore.”
“How about you come over tomorrow with some time? You’ll be ok hunting tonight or tomorrow morning right?”
Trenly smiled back with a head shake “Heh, don’t worry about the hunt, It’ll be over before night fall.”
“I like your confidence. Well, I’ll see you then.”
“See you tomorrow morning” With a nod, Trenly left the association, walking through the courtyard. Pulling out his bow, he plucked the drawstring a few times before waltzing off to hunt in the forest.
“He’s got a good attitude…” Jay thought to himself “he’s very focused on what’s in front of him. Perhaps that’s why he attained a ranged class in the first place.” he scratched his chin.
With a shrug, Jay left the association shortly after Trenly left. Exiting through the mana-stone gate, Trenly was already much further down the hill before Jay turned and went North again towards the dungeon.
Jay had unfinished business in this dungeon, he wasn’t able to make it to the black pyramids and he still had a mysterious porcelain locket with him.
“I’m going to find out what this locket does, surely it’s a hidden quest of some sort… I should test these boots out too, the ones Sullivan gave me. It’s supposed to be a reward after all.”
As Jay walked near the quarry again, he found a large flat cube rock to sit on. Taking off his shoes as he sat in the afternoon sunlight, he was feeling quite relaxed.
Bringing out the new boots from his inventory, he was a little hesitant. They appeared to be like any other black leather boots, going up just under his knee. Upon closer inspection, Jay found a slight circular indentation on the back of the heel and on each side of the ankles.
“Probably some manacraft” Jay thought, tracing his finger over them. “It feels like they are deeper than they look. Hmm..” he finally analysed the boots.
<[Askveti]>
[3 Armour]
[Asklin]
– Ak ask ved io sep arat
– 3 metres. 10 second cooldown.
<[Description]>
– Veti gorm fif ask tac lo Kreege Frode.
Jay furrowed his brows, puzzled as he read the description.
“What the? What language is that… He really gave me some weird boots from some other race? Isn’t my analysis skill supposed to translate…?” he frowned slightly.
For a moment, Jay hesitated to put the boots on, but after considering that it wouldn’t really benefit Sullivan to have him killed, he gave them a try anyway.
“Hmm.. Whatever skill this comes with has a 10 second cooldown, so it can’t be that strong.. Though I wonder what the 3 metres refers to.”
After sliding them on, he sighed in relief “Well, I’m not dead yet so that’s a good start.. Guess I’ll try this new skill…”
He took the boots off before sliding them on again, making sure he could actually remove them.
“Hmm, he said something about not doing it near walls so I guess I should move away from these rocks.”
Jay stepped away from the stone block he was sitting on, finding a small flat area near the quarry that gave him at least 5 metres at every side.
“Ok, here it goes…Asklin!”
*Pshhht*… “Oh shit”
Immediately Jay felt like he had been lassoed as his feet were pulled out from under him. The boots made his feet shoot forward as if they were tied to running horses, he was almost completely upside down before his head hit the ground and before he knew it, he found himself lying in a small cloud of dust.
“Dammit, what even are these boots? Is this a prank?”
He looked at the boots. They seemed to be fine and ready to go again.
Jay sighed “Hmm. I guess I can give it another go.” he shook his head “I bet Sullivan is laughing his ass off right now..”
This time, Jay prepared himself, knowing what the boots would do as he leaned forward.
“Ok… Askin.”
*Pshhht* “Oh, oh!”
This time he went flying forward for a moment, but the boots still had too much force and he ended up landing on his ass, sliding in the dirt.
“You bastards.” he cursed at his shoes before he got up, rubbing the dirt off his trousers and coat.
“Seems like I really have to commit…”
After waiting 10 more seconds, Jay prepared to give the boots another go.
“This time, I won’t just lean forward, but I’ll crouch and start falling forward. Right before I hit the ground, I’ll activate them…”
With his ever-so-detailed plan thought out, he tried it without much hesitation.
*Pshhht* “MMH!”
Jay went flying forward 3 metres, suddenly going from almost falling over, he shot forward. The boots caused him to finish standing up right. He did take a few steps forward as he wasn’t used to the feeling, but was fine after a slight wobble in his steps.
“Ok I see… damn, these are crazy…” he began to shake his head with a smile.
“10 seconds huh… Pretty decent cooldown I guess..” he wondered about how well this would work in a fight. “I guess It could still save me some time during a fight.”
Jay didn’t mind too much about the 10 second limitation; 10 Seconds wasn’t long in a fight, not a real one anyway, most fights lasted as much as 15 minutes, and this would be longer when fighting higher level monsters with larger health pools.
It was always people who never got into fights who thought that one second would be like an eternity; this wasn’t true in real life, and this much was clear to Jay after his various battles.
Generally, if a fight was over in less than 10 seconds it was because one person had used up all his energy trying to overwhelm his opponent like a mad idiot; the same person who was now easy pickings for a more experienced fighter who only used their stamina for necessary actions.
One would simply have to wait till the other guy tired himself out.
Of course, there were exceptions to this. With a strong class, a fight could be over quite quickly – though for Jay, he didn’t even have to lift a finger.
Jay practised the movement skill a few more times before he began moving down the hill. After a few more minutes and a few more bruises, he was able to use the skill without wobbling afterwards, finding the perfect time to activate it while falling forward. He even found that if he did a pushup and activated them, he would land on his feet.
“This is great, can’t wait to test it against the Helvetian soldiers. Maybe they’ll just surrender this time…” a mischievous smile appeared on Jay’s face.
**For anyone wondering, Yes, I did start creating another language**