Dark Raven

Waking up Raphaela gets her and Thor ready for their outing. They both finish breakfast and head out, Raphaela hoped she would see Judeline again in her dreams but it never happened.

"Second street... second str- Ah! found it"

As they walked down the plaza they see a black and white budling with the word Dark Raven in the front.

"Looks like this is it, lets head in"

Going inside they go to the front desk where a shabby looking young man is on his phone. Not looking up he asks a question.

"Hello welcome to the Dark Raven guild how may I help you today?"

"Hey, I'm here to join today, an acquaintance of mine recommended me to come here"

The young man looked up and fixed himself a little.

"Oh, let me tell the boss you're here"

He picked up the office phone and dialed a number waiting for the person on the other end to pick up, when they did pick up he told his superior that they had some one who would like to join.

"Okay! so just go to the last room down the hall to your right and knock"

"Okay thank you"

As Raphaela walked away the young man looked at her and then noticed Thor walking along side her.

'How strange' he thought.

He never thought that anyone would want to come to a place that's called the Dark Raven but he was pleasantly surprised for the forth time.

As Raphaela knock on the door a loud "COME IN!" bellowed through. she opened the door and walked in, Thor right behind her.

"So your Raphaela Baptiste I suppose?"

Raphaela nods and takes a step forward.

"Well Ms. Baptiste I have one question for you, and that is why would you want to join this guild? my cousin said that you asked her for a recommendation and you willingly came here?"

She paused, looking for the right words she spoke.

"Yes the reason is pretty simple, it's because not many people know this place, along with the fact that if some one where to find it they would have some trouble"

Looking at the lady in front of her, the leader of this establishment Ms. Summers, stares blankly at Raphaela.

"No offence to you but this place took me ages to find, also I would like to ask if I'm the only one that's joining this guild or if there are others?"

There was a pause in the air before Ms. Summers answered.

"You seem to be a very bold Ms. Baptiste, a strong voice, confident and you even brought your pet in here. And not to mention your criminal record as well."

Raphaela started to think that maybe she was being a little too assertive with her new boss. In the past This is how she spoke with new employers, the best way to get a job was to be confident and assertive and that usually worked. However in this situation Ms. Summers may not like that, and with the fact that she's been to prison theirs no way she'll hire her.

"And that's EXACLY what we need in this guild! But don't cause me any trouble okay."

Our new boss jumps from her seat and aggressively shakes Raphaela's hand in excitement. Raphaela was a little bewildered at the sudden outburst.

"Alright Ms. Baptiste-"

"No just call me Raphaela from now on, we're working together now."

"Ah okay, then Raphaela go back to the lobby, that the boy you saw earlier will give you some papers to sign, as well as take you to check your job, title, and attributes"

"Yes ma'am, thank you"

She leaves the room and heads to the lobby as instructed. When arriving to the lobby Raphaela walks up to the desk.

"Hello?"

Looking at the young man she waits for him to give her his name.

"OH! um its Jason"

"Hello Jason the boss said I need to sign some papers?"

"Yes, come this way"

The young man took Raphaela to the back. They walked down three flights of stairs, reaching the bottom there was a door that lead a basement, but this wasn't an ordinary basement because if it was, it would have been flooded by now since were in Florida.

Inside the basement was a giant field, green grass and blue sky. In the middle of the field was a giant door, we walked to it and it opened reviling a room with three elevators.

"Whoa! this just keeps getting weirder huh?"

Trying to make some small talk Raphaela gave him a smile, but he felt a little uncomfortable with that smile. She notices this and quickly looks away trying to hide her embarrassment. They both got on the middle elevator and headed to the only floor it had. But instead of going up and down it went backwards.

Raphaela always had a hard time talking to people and with how rude and mean she was to others, she mainly focused on her work so she wouldn't have to deal with them.

In this life though, she wants to change that behavior and make a new reputation for herself.

"I was a little surprised when we I saw that big open field earlier, what was that?"

Looking at the middle aged looking lady next to him, Jason answered.

"Well the field that you saw wasn't really a field, it was um...it's kinda hard to explain hmm.."

Jason tried to think of the right word to explain it.

"well it's kinda like a hologram but instead of it being fake its real!"

"Huh?"

"W-well we can change the location to what ever we want and it's used for training."

"Hm ok."

Raphaela had a sense of what he was trying to explain but she still couldn't grasp it.

As the elevator stopped and opened it's doors, it reviled a big room with machinery all around it. They stepped out of the elevator and headed towards a familiar cube.

"Just hover your hand here please"

The boy gestures to the cube and pushes a button on the machine it was hovering on. When she puts hand on the cube her status window popped up.

"lets see~ hm"

[Raphaela Baptiste]

Job: Supporter

Title: Kindness supporter

{Strength: 30/100} {Intelligence: 38/100}

{Stamina: 56/100} {Skills: 1} MP: 500

While looking at her attributes he thought it wasn't anything special, but her job and title were a bit strange to him and her skill was weird too.

Jason has never seen anything like this before but he was new to the whole seeker thing anyway, for all he knew this was probably a normal occurrence. he garbed a tablet of the table and handed it to Raphaela

"Alright everything looks good, just sign her and well give you the company symbol"

"Symbol?"

"Yeah you know, like we stamp your hand with the symbol and it lets other people know who you're with and it also functions as communication device!"

Raphaela smiled at the boys excitement, it seems he really dose enjoys his work. As she finishes up with signing the papers he stamps her left hand and explains more about the different elevators and where they lead to.

The first elevator went to a one floor hotel like place, it was made for company employees to stay if they needed a home.

The second elevator leads to where they are now. It's the room that was made just for checking seekers statues and other things like a gate detector etc.

And the third and last elevator leads to the research lab, he doesn't know what goes on there only the boss and other certified people are allowed in.

"Well Ms. Raphaela you can go to the training room or you can tapped the symbol and it can tell you where the nearest gate is."

"Ok then, I'd like to go to the training room first"

They both headed to the to that big field she saw earlier, when they arrived there he shows her how to use it.

"If you want to change the scenery just say so and it will do it for you based on the difficulty, it's also the same with the monsters you select as well. Alright I'll leave to you."

The young man finishes explaining more things and gets ready to leave, but not before Raphaela shouts a thank you towards him, He waves a hand and walks away.

Now it was time for Raphaela to finally learn more about her skill and raise her attributes. She keeps the scenery then chooses a monster, a red demon will be her opponent. The training room gives life to the creature, big, red, muscley, and angry were a few words to describe it.

It quickly lunges at her, it makes a fist and swing's it to her left side with such force that it lifts her of the ground and slams her to the ground.

[ Player's heart rate has been raised! system has been paused, would you like to continue?]

"Y-yes"

Raphaela gets back up using her knee to help, the system continues. The demon lunges forward ready to swing again, this time she leaps out of the way holding her left arm that's still in pain. the blow nearly missing her.

"ACTIVATE SKILL!"

[YOU HAVE ACTIVATED YOUR SKILL. WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO GIVE IT TO?]

"THE DEMON INFRONT OF ME!"

[YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO GIVE THE DEMON THE ABILITY TO SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE.]

"HA HA HA come here tiny creature you will be food for my lord"

"Not today I wont!"

The demon matched her pace. Raphaela kept running as well not wanting it to catch her.

"Do you really need me as food?"

"OH! how strange I can understand this tiny creature? how amusing."

"Yes you can now can you stop chasing me please, this was getting annoying."

"How funny, but I can not do so, my lord has a great appetite and is always hungry."

from then on the red demon ignored her words and kept chasing her. Any chance it got it would would swing and kick her repeatedly, when she was down and it was about to strike a finale blow the system would reset.

This happened a few more times before Raphaela called it a day, as she walks out the system heals her injuries.

With all that happened today she had completely forgotten about Thor, it was not until Jason at the front desk stopped her and started apologizing for also forgetting about them.

"I'm so sorry but I forgot to add your uh-dog creature thing as your Familiar!"

"Oh so you noticed that they weren't a regular dog"

"Yeah, it's one of my skills, I can see the true nature of the things around me. If our technology cant pick it up an abnormality then they call me to see it."

He grab a stamp from under his desk then went over to Thor and stamped them on the forehead.

"Now you wont have any problems if someone notices their true appearance."

"Wow! thank you so much human!"

".....U-um your welcome?"

"I'll come by again tomorrow to finish my training."

They left for home to rest and in the morning she cleans the apartment. In the evening till night go to the training room to beat the demon.

Over the next two month the cycle of of running and dodging attacks became the norm.

The monster was fast and its fist swung with great force, it would not be an easy task to take this demon down.

As well as fighting that beast, there was an option to switch the setting into a gym as well, she was notified of this by another seeker who often used this setting.

Jessica , who is one of the other members, took the time to help Raphaela with her training and how to better use the system, you can use weapons and also that the system can connect to their member stamp as well.

As the days passed it was finally time to beat him, the red demon. When raising your stats its relatively like building muscles, solving puzzles, and more.

The more you raise them the faster and easier it gets to do those task, and with two months of working out as well as constantly using her skill Raphaela was ready, lets see if it's enough.

The system once again brings life to demon and to the endless green field, looking at the abomination in front her she takes a deep breath and a stance.

"Oh! bold aren't you little creature, fighting me with your fist?"

She chuckled at his words. This isn't the first time he said this, while fighting him over the months when Raphaela would use her fist he would say that line each time.

It may seem strange but she felt as though they both had a bond even though the demon wouldn't remember their interactions however the time they shared was proof of her growth.

He Notices her expression, it frighten him a bit, That smile she had on her face seemed eerie and menacing so he made his decision to end this fight quickly.

Leaping into action, he gets ready to grab her but she swerves out of the way. Not wanting to be caught she starts running around him, the demon continues to try to grab her until he suddenly stands still.

Raphaela takes this moment to strike, but at that moment sharp pain flashes through the left side of her body as she is flung through the air. He was waiting for her. There is no time wince at the pain, Raphaela quickly gets up before the demon strikes again.

She runs away trying to collect herself, he chases after her matching her pace ready to grab her and he succeeds, he squeezes her body, attempting to suffocate her.

"ACTIVATE SKILL"

[ YOU HAVE ACTIVATED YOUR SKILL NOW YOU WILL RECEIVE YOUR OPPONENT'S SKILL]

[SKILL: MIND CLARITY]

As the skill activates she feels her head fill up with pressure, her mind suddenly clears and she stops struggling.

The demon was confused for a second and he loosens his grip. This was his mistake, Raphaela quickly puts her hands in between her chest and his arms breaking his hold.

Falling to the ground she gets back up but doesn't move, the demon takes this chance to grab her again, she disappears Infront of him and with one foul swoop she lands a clean punch with all her strength.

He hits the ground his head pounding and his body shattering.

[Player has defeated the a C-ranked red demon congratulations]

Raphaela heaved a heavy sigh.

"Two months and now its finally over"

She falls to the ground, the system heals her injures and she calls over Thor who was watching from afar.

"You did great Raphaela I'm proud of you!"

She smiles and pats their head.

"Thank you, lets go home for today"

For the past two month they only earned money by doing some task for the boss and others around the guild mostly so they could focus on training and avoided gates until they were ready.

Now that they defeated the red demon they can finally go and explore a gates.

With the day over they head home and sleep, anticipating the next day. As she sleeps she once again dreams of someone familiar.