Four Avatars Part I

“Pervert!”

That girly voice made Blanche stunned as he stared at her dumbfounded. As for Tan, he had been knocked to the ground farther away from the slap.

“You…” Blanche stuttered. The girl immediately turned her gaze towards him.

“You want it too?” she asked as she clenched her fist.

With determination, Blanche excessively waved off the question. “Noooooo!” he drawled. The girl right in front stared at him for a while before lowering her fist.

“Is that a girl or a bodybuilder? She hit me so hard…Ouch…” He mourned as he stood up to his feet while rubbing at the area he had got slapped in the face. “No…but you’re not far-off judging from how flat your chest is…” he continued.

Her bright eyes were filled with anger, but as she got angrier, the man seemed to be more satisfied. “You moron!” She screamed and was about to rush to the guy. As another fight was about to begin, Blanche stepped in between the two.

“Hold on.” He stretched out his arms blocking the two fighters. “Stop right there, would you…?” Blanche said in a stern voice.

“I apologize for my friend,” Blanche said to the girl.

“You don’t have to. She’s the one who tries to deceive us in the first place!” Tan remarked. Hearing that, the girl clenched her fist tight.

“Enough already, I beg you! I’m getting a headache…” Disappointedly, Blanche looked at his friend. Tan turned away as he saw the gaze before saying.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t put my hand on a washing board.”

“You moron!” A squeaky scream rang out. Blanche turned to look at the one who screamed, and that made her calm down a bit. “Not a moron…” she lowered her voice.

The conflict between the three of them had not settled down yet, but before anything had gone too far, Tan raised a question, “Why do you want to join our party…?” The girl stood still as she looked at the duo.

“To join the tournament, you have to form a group of three…” she explained.

Tan narrowed his eyes and slightly opened his mouth as he looked at Blanche. “Is that true…?” He voiced his question.

Blanche shook his head. “I’m aware that there’s a tournament to win an Area Card, but I know nothing about the rules. I was going to find out more when I got here,” replied Blanche.

The girl reached inside her bag, pulled out a piece of paper, and handed it to the duo. “Read it,” she said irritably.

Tan stared at the girl and took the paper from her. “Tsk…Let me see,” he demanded. Tan soon widened his eyes and exclaimed, “Look! Blanche, we have to form a group of three for real!”

Blanche nodded and looked at the girl who held hands behind her back. “Why us?” He asked.

“Others came in groups. I saw only you guys came in pair,” replied the girl.

“Tan…” Blanche called his friend. “Can we let her join our party?”

Tan narrowed his eyes and looked at the girl again before replying unwillingly, “Fine…We don’t have enough people anyway. You tiny must be in high school, right?”

She stared at Tan with displeasure. “I’m a second-year college student!”

Tan and Blanche immediately turned their gaze to her. “Second-year? You’re older than me!” Tan exclaimed as Blanche started to smile.

“So, the same year as me,” he revealed.

“Nicki…” She introduced herself.

“I’m Blanche and that’s Tan…” He pointed at the troublemaker and then invited Nicki to the party; she accepted the invitation in an instant.

“Let’s go to my workshop,” said Nicki. Tan frowned at that.

“Your workshop?”

“Yeah, my workshop. I’ll have to check if your deck is good enough,” replied Nicki.

“Wait…! Why do you have a workshop? What’s your Job?” Tan questioned.

“Mechanic.”

“My pipe is broken.”

“Sure, I’ll take care of that…” She remained composed. “Foolish! Don’t joke around…” She said in a high-pitched voice. “I create mechanic cards.”

Disappointed, Tan signed. “I want one who can buff our stats,” he said as he gestured to her to lead the way to the workshop.

“My Class is Musician though,” she said sternly before leading her new friends to her workshop.

Blanche who was following behind informed Tan. “Musician Class is quite rare. I think people don’t let her join their part because they only know that she’s a Mechanic,” Blanche explained as he followed Nicki to her workshop.

Soon, the trio reached their destination, a small workshop located on the east side, Mechanic Cards Workshop ‘Nické.’

“Nické?” Blanche read the name of the workshop out loud. “Not Nicki?”

She smiled at Blanche as she wiped off chairs inside her workshop with a feather duster. “I prefer to be called Nicki,” she remarked.

Blanche nodded as Tan looked around the workshop. Soon, Blanche started to frown as he recalled he heard the name, Nické, from somewhere before. “Wait…Nické, that sounds familiar. You’re also a Mechanic. Could you probably be the Thousand Arms, Nické…?”

Hearing that, Nicki who was sitting inside the workshop raised her eyebrows. “You’ve heard of that too?” She inquired.

“Everyone knows about the one who owns the Titus Mine Area Card, Thousand Arms spell, and the Avatar, Lost Weapon,” Blanche commented.

“Well…I have that Area Card.”

Tan and Blanche who was sitting down in front of her stopped in their tracks. “What…?” Tan voiced before sitting down.

“Then why won’t anyone let you join a party? Everyone would want to have you if they knew that,” said Blanche.

Tan narrowed his eyes as he looked at his friend, “Have her…? You mean have fun with her and stuff?”

Blanche reeled back in alarm and immediately made himself understood. “No, I mean to have her join the party,” he quickly responded.

Nicki shook her head and said, “This pervert is born with a dirty mind and a foul mouth.” She then continued, “I’ve never used the name Nické. I always go by Nicki and my Mechanic Job.”

The guys nodded. Before they could say anything, Nicki reached out her hand. “Let me see your deck. In this tournament, players’ level does not matter, but cards and deck do,” she said in a serious tone of voice.

“Wait,” Tan interrupted. “How do we share our prizes?”

“I don’t care about that. I just want you guys to win,” she replied. Tan and Blanche could not understand why.

“Why is that?” Blanche questioned.

“I don’t care about cards or prizes. All I want is to prevent that jerk, Redas, from winning this tournament,” answered Nicki.

“Redas?” Tan repeated.

“The guy I hate, whatever it takes, just don’t let him win,” she said. “Let’s put that aside for now and hand your decks to me.”

Tan looked at Blanche. After discussing for a short while, the duo handed their decks for Nicki to check. The girl with short hair took a while in her checking process; irritation was clearly shown on her face, but as soon as she saw Shining Bird and Wicked Wolf, she spoke.

“How the hell do you manage to get these cards with this crappy deck?”

Tan stared at her defiantly, but Nicki seemed to care only about the cards within her hands; this time it was Blanche’s deck that was examined.

“Seems okay, you know how to put cards with the same race together, but…still a newbie,” Nicki criticized. She then stopped at the last card, the card which was in the 10 slots of the extra deck, Blanche’s Area Card, ‘Black Forest.’

“You! What’s your level?!” She asked as she looked at Blanche.

“20,” replied Blanche.

“You get this card when you’re at only level 20? That’s impossible,” said Nicki.

Blanche pointed at Tan before speaking, “It’s him who helped me. He’s level 28 now. He was at level 26 when he fought the boss.”