Chapter 25
Before the chapter starts I forgot to put in the last chapter that like most of Sapphire's favourite clothes her pyjamas are similarly bagging and long, able to cover up everything with or without the bandages.
Anyway onto this chapter ;)
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Sapphire wakes up on the wet floor, her pyjama, dry? She looks around seeing a cracked sky that has been put back together poorly as there are visible holes that lead to an endless void. She is surrounded by a small village, one she remembers well, her childhood village in the frozen forest, only the floor is made up of an endless but at the same time, shallow water.
The village is empty, cracked and almost abandoned, with no life, no birds or bugs, no wind or sound except for her breathing and a large and ever-reaching forest that would have been beautiful if not for the forest being made up of broken trees and deadwood.
Sapphire walks through this cold village remembering, almost hearing children playing, giggling, and adults chatting or working nearby, until she stumbled upon the centre of the village still surrounded by the broken world, the centre houses small but still very viable life, a lovely soft but vibrant green grass, flowers wherever they can grow and a tree, still young but health and well looked after, it's just big enough to be out of the sapling or juvenile stage.
From sapphire view this small patch of life is doing it's best to spread, fix what's broken, as what cracks and holes that should be here or at the very least link up are gone, faded and filled in within the grass, a lot like a flame in the darkness, never giving up or going out no matter what.
An outline of Jack then surrounds the small patch for only a second, like he's protecting it, but also proving it with energy and strength, then the same thing happens but not as strongly with skannon.
"Sapphire, over here, I got something to show you." As the voice of a cheerful child can be heard around the corner.
Sapphire decides to follow the voice as it's most likely one of the children she once knew, when she goes round the corner, sapphire is suddenly inside her bedroom in her old house.
"Sapphire down here, down here, hurry or you'll miss it, quickly."
The sound of children chatting is heard downstairs with the sounds of adults laughing, in the mix she can ever so slightly hear her mum's laugh along with her dad and jacks.
As Sapphire observes her room briefly, the cracks covering the small bed, and the wardrobe, with basic walls and flooring but still the cracks remain throughout it, but it feels warm and cosy, like sitting by a nice fire at night.
She walks out her bedroom door and what greets her is the hallways of the mansion, with the child repeating what it said before "Quickly or you'll miss it."
Sapphire says in a slightly joyful tone" OK, ok I'm coming" and with a quickened pace goes to and down the stairs.
When she gets to the bottom of the stairs she comes across a small circle of children, blank children but still children and as a dream it makes sense, people in dreams can usually be a bit blank or fussy sometimes, so she walks towards them and join in by sitting down within the circle, only for it to go dead silent, the cosy feeling gone, the laughter that filled the place replaced with silence, and sapphire alone once more.
Sapphire doesn't move, her joyful side she once had gone, like it was never there, instead an emotionless face replaces it, warped and scarred and similar to the body with nothing covering it, nothing hiding the ugliness underneath the bandages and clothes she always wears.
" ♪ giiirrrrllll
A voice starts to slowly sing with distorted voice.
Keep you in the dark
You know they all pretend
Keep you in the dark
And so it all began
Speeds up
Send in your skeletons
Sing as their bones go marching in again
They need you buried deep
The secrets that you keep are ever-ready
Are you ready?
I'm finished making sense
Done pleading ignorance
That whole defense
Spinning infinity, boy
The wheel is spinning me
It's never-ending, never-ending
Same old story
What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?
What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?
You're the pretender
What if I say that I'll never surrender?
BANG!
A shadowy hand grabs Sapphire by the back of the head and slams her face first into the ground.
Sapphire jolts up from her bed, gasping for air and in a sweat.
She looks at her hands and opens and closes them.
"Ok, I'm up, now what should I do…"
Sapphire then gets out of bed and changes like normal.
Jack" Hey Saph." Jack gives a friendly wave from across the hallway.
"F*ck off."
Jack" ye… Morning to you too." Jack has the f*ck have I done face.
Sapphire walks out the front door, puts her 'bad' assassin's hood and mask on and heads towards the mercenary bar to get her rewards for completing her orc job she got.
"I want my reward for killing the orcs, got it around 3 days ago."
Mercenaries bar tender "Oh right that did get completed by aaaaaaaaaaa snowfall, correct?"
"Ye that's me." Sapphire shows her mercenary card/ ID for proof.
Mercenaries bar tender " cool, cool, you get it soon."
After a couple of minutes, sapphire is given her reward of 70 gold coins.
Mercenaries bar tender "So from our informants we got told that you took care of the orc problem and found out what caused it, a spacial anomaly right."
"Ye, you gonna keep talking or can I go."
Mercenaries bar tender "Oh sorry, just wanted to hear from the source you know?"
Sapphire doesn't respond and just walks off, and while she heads towards the door to exit another mercenary grabs her by the shoulder.
Mercenary" You know you shouldn't been rude to the barkeep, thats like one of the only rules here and you must know the consequences for breaking that rule." As he cracks one of his knuckles by flexing that finger."
Sapphire without turning around, grabs his wrist that's near her shoulder with her right hand, grips it, and throws him over her shoulder.
The mercenary not expecting this tries to correct himself in the air only to be slammed into the wooden floor boards, sending splinters everywhere, and causing cheers from other mercenaries watching, some changing "Fight, Fight, Fight, World star!"
With the mercenary on the floor sapphire without letting go walks up the the stunned mercenary, snaps his arm, and then punches him over and over again.
Under Sapphire's breath if you listen carefully you can hear her saying "Pop, pop, pop, pop." Every time she hit him.
Eventually, the cheering stops as they watch and realise she isn't stopping and what she says under her breath can now be heard by everyone.
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Her fist keeps on hitting, covered in blood and the mercenary face mangled, unable to tell if he's unconscious or not.
"Hey snowfall stop, that's enough" Someone behind her grabs her hand before the mercenary is hit another time.
Brave Unknown mercenary "He didn't deserve that ok, you can stop."
"Mmm." This is all Sapphire responds with as she slowly gets up and walks out.
After Sapphire walks out
Brave mercenary " F*ck that hurt, even when I reinforced my hand." as he shakes it repeatedly.
Unknown mercenary 2 "That was quite brutal, didn't think it was true but someone with the name Snowfall shouldn't be that violent, right?"
Unknown Mercenary 3" Wait what's true, what do you know about snowfall?"
Unknown mercenary 2 " Well I so happen to be from Grassmer, where she first showed up, and the rumours about a snowfall where that she mainly did extermination missions, on people, and was excessively violent with the people she got her hands on, and when she did monster extermination she always kept to her self."
Unknown Mercenary 3 " Well shouldn't they changed her name because she's so violent?"
Unknown mercenary 2" like what, bloody snow, oh, how about violent fox or even the bloody fist."
Unknown mercenary 3 "Why are you asking me for I don't know."
Sapphire walks back home and takes her hood and mask off before entering the house.
maid" Morning Sapphire how are you, hopefully, you got your reward."
"Mmm oh ye morning, and ye I got it, know where jack is?"
Maid" Ye he is in the training area at the moment."
"Cool see ya later."
Sapphire then walks towards the training area.
As Sapphire arrives at the training area within the house she is greatest by Jack's training and a pair of black wings and tail nearby.
Nyxondra "Oh it's sapphire, morning."
"Mmm, oh morning."
Jack" Oh you in a better mood now?"
"Ye, … sorry, woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I'm better now."
Jack "No worries, and thanks for apologising, so are we doing that group hangout we planned yesterday or na?
Nyxondra" Oh where doing it, sapphire isn't getting away from me that easily."
"What?"
Nyxondra "Whaaaaaat, I want to see what you're like that's all, always wanting to meet new people, especially people who like to fight." a grin snakes its way onto Nyxondra's face.
Jack "Cool, let me finish this set and then we can go."
Buzz
Buzz
Buzz
Buzz
Click
Dad" Hello, sapphire, hope your morning is going well, just finished looking through some information I was collecting and was thinking about you."
"… it's going fine apparently I'm being dragged to a group hang it with Jack and his dragon friend."
Dad" Oh Nyxondra, ye that might be good for you to talk to more people… just don't destroy anything ye l, she… has a tendency to destroy things by accident.
"No worry Dad, I'll do my best, and good luck with your information-gathering."
Dad" Talk to you later sapphire, say hi to Jack and Nyx for me please."
"Will do."
"Dad says hi to you two."
Jack "Cool."
Nyxondra " I like your dad, he's strong."
Jack" You're not fighting my dad!"
Nyxondra "Why not, I wanna!"
After a couple of hours
Nyxondra" I'm bored, can we go to a dungeon and fight sh*t?"
Jack " I thought this would happen, fffffffffffine."
Nyxondra "Yay."
Jack heads to the adventuring guild with Sapphire and Nyxondra in tow and can acquire a dungeon that can challenge them somewhat, maybe not Nyxondra as well but him and Sapphire most likely anyway.
"So what dungeon are we going to?"
Jack" A secret, you'll find out when we go through Saph." A cheeky smile on his face.
"For f*ck sake really."
All three enter the dungeon
"You know it would have been nice if you told me we were going to a dungeon before you know going to a dungeon!"
Nyxondra" Why it won't be anything stronger than a low to mid-C-rank dungeon to challenge Jack here and maybe you, from what I heard you aren't too much stronger than Jack, so with me here you won't need to worry."
"… whatever."
When they finally 'load' into the dungeon through the portals from the guild they appear within a mineshaft, will sturdy pullers supporting the rock and earth above them.
The smell is a mix of dust, Earth and a slight rotten eggy smell that can be picked up further down by sapphire.
The walls are filled with rough but man-made holes most likely they used to be filled with ores and useful minerals.
Jack" Ay we got lucky a mine shaft, maybe we can get even luckier and get ore golems or something as they have a higher chance of dropping rare ores, thankfully I always carry a pick axe just in case."
"Right… Jack do you have a spare sword I can try out?"
Jack "Ye, why though I thought swords were too generic and boring for you?"
"Well, ye they are, but I want to try one out as I feel like I should get used to using more weapons."
Jack "Guess that's fair, here you go."
Jack then tossed a sheathed sword towards Sapphire from his storage bracelet.
Nyxondra "Really, all you need are your fist and a bit of magic and you can take on the world, no need for those fancy sticks."
As the three wander this mineshaft jack. Can be seen taking small ores from the wall and floor with a pickaxe humming diggy diggy hole.
Nyxondra and Sapphire are doing their own thing while keeping a lookout, well sapphire is Nyxondra can be seen bored out of their mind not being able to punch things.
Sapphire can be seen practising swinging the sword with one hand pretty recklessly and without a form, almost like a bat with an edge but slowly getting the cutting aspect down slowly.
Guiiuu
Fujairah
Gigi I
Gigiigh
Monsters moving and cries can be heard by Sapphire as she points them out to Nyxondra.
" hey Nyxondra I can see you pretty board Want to show me how you fight these monsters?"
Nyxondra" Hoho, I see you want to witness this mighty dragon fight, I will oblige and show you how to truly fight."
As Nyxondra and Sapphire walk toward the monsters making noise, after like 40 seconds they come across a group of dark dwarfs.
Nyxondra "Dark dwarfs are a monster version of the normal dwarf race that speaks a totally different language to normal dwarfs and are usually found in mine dungeons, they are usually not the strongest as they are underground their bones are more brittle than normal dwarfs and would normally come up to the surface, but like the dwarfs, they are quick technology-based and usually have high magic Sh*t."
"Oh, thanks for the debrief on the monsters, guess you're smarter then you look."
Nyxondra "Well,I'm going to ignore that comment for now and go onto the show."
As Nyxondra jumps toward them with a green mucus-like substance coating her arms, falcon punching (acid variant)one of the dark dwarfs in the face.
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Mini story
Sapphire" so what else can I add to my base system?
{well many things. Somethings I would recommend would be a blacksmith area, a lab, a crafting area, research stations, the slayer's training area, a dry dock and an armoury to store all your armour and gear in, oh and I guess a resource produces.}
Sapphire "Oh that's a bit isn't it."
{well there are plenty more things if you want me to talk about them, like a DNA splitter and moulder, a bloodline extractor.}
Sapphire" OK, ok enough, what else can I do here?"
{umm I guess when you set up the portal you can eventually go to places, hey if you're lucky, you could unlock a place to travel to from the token gacha that you totally have and did not just unlock.}
Sapphire " Rrrrriiight, so how do I use this 'token gacha'?"
{well thankfully the first one is free, so all you need to do is say spin gacha and it should pop up.}
Sapphire "Spin gacha?"
{Ding ding ding }
{ you have gotten }
{a halo top, a buster sword(replica), a random world token, a piece of candy, brick with note.}
{to use a world token all you do is break it and you will be summoned to the world that it says.}
Sapphire" Oh, a piece of candy."
As sapphire puts the candy in her mouth.
Sapphire summons the token, it looks like a golden coin but a bit larger with a picture of a planet on it.
She breaks it and a green portal appears in front of her which she steps through.
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Hello everyone, I hope you lot are doing well and enjoy this chapter, have a good day/night and I will see you all next chapter.
Oh and remember motivation is from power stone apparently.