26 Old Leifhein City

Ai and Amari climbed up an old rope ladder that was hanging from one of the ancient structures. The group decided to split up to cover more ground in search of artifacts and to quickly dispatch of the orc threat here since Kenji had reluctantly decided to split the reward for the quest after a little bit of 'persuasion' on Ai's part. The persuasion being Ai yelling at Kenji for 'stealing' the quest notice. Kenji wasn't about to let Ai get angry again, not with Amari glaring daggers at him the entire time and Hoat'l backing away.

Reaching near the top, Amari blurred away and Ai followed after a few seconds. After confirming that the coast was clear, they inspected the large corridor, it seemed like an ordinary house with stone furniture, of course with the exception that everything was absolutely gigantic. Ai felt like a character from one of those old children's books where the main character would be small in size, trying to steal something of value from the big bad giant.

Ai blurred up on top of what looked to be a table that was roughly four times her height, getting a better vantage point, she scoured the room for anything of interest. Spotting a large knife made of a sparkling metal, she blurred over to inspect it. The knife's blade was roughly half her entire body size with the handle coming up to her neck, it would fit snug in the hand of a giant.

Ai lifted the knife with much difficulty and stabbed it down onto the smooth stone countertop. Activating her analysis skill, she inspected the metal and smiled when she found out that it was made out of giants steel, not quite as rare as sky-steel, but it would certainly fetch a decent price at a blacksmith shop.

Thinking of gifting it to Hoat'l, she changed her mind and stored it in her inventory. 'Nah, I'll just set him up on a date with sis, that'll make him happy.' Now that she knew that samurai wanna-be was into her sister too, she wanted to root for the guy that made her happy too, after all, she wanted to see the finished product of the mana-engine blade and take it for a few test-runs. Permanently.

She blurred back up to the table as Amari appeared in front of her with a gigantic giants steel fireplace poker, a huge grin on her face. "Look what I got sis! It's one of those back scratchers for giants!" She looked so sure of herself as Ai facepalmed internally.

"G-great find, sis, I'm sure someone will love to have an oversized back scratcher for their collection." Ai decided not to tease her sister for now, after all, she did find a much more valuable item.

Ai placed her hand on the poker and sent it into her inventory as Amari's face puffed up. "Do you really wanna carry that big thing around the whole time? What if we find something even bigger that you might wanna grab?"

"Mn, fair point. But don't blame me if we stay broke 'cause the system goes kaput." Ai giggled at Amari's use of Hoat'l's phrase.

"Anyways, I can't see anything else of note here, I think previous expeditions 'cleaned house' so to speak. We should probably move on." Amari nodded in response and looked towards an opening in the wall and blurred away. Ai followed behind as they gazed out the opening to the next building, the bridge that connected the two structures had long collapsed, but the structure across the way looked slightly larger and more promising.

"Well, I don't really see a way across, why don't we go into the main hall inside the mountain? Maybe there we can find another way?" Ai suggested as she looked towards the large overarching entryway into the equally large hallway further into the mountain.

"Mn, yeah, but I think heading that way will lead to the guys since they took the long way. But..." Amari looked out the opening again, hoping to find some other way, but the only way to go was down the steep side of the mountain. "Looks like we don't really have a choice, eh?"

Ai nodded and blurred towards the archway, sneaking up, and behind cover, she could hear grumbling from around the corner. Activating her ability and sensing a few meters past the doorway, she could sense a small group of orcs sitting around a campfire, and something much larger sitting with them, a Troll.

Gesturing for Amari to keep quiet, she turned and whispered to her. "Troll, level 14." Amari nodded and quietly drew her sword. Trolls were large, fat, tough creatures that took a lot to take down, even by Amari's standards. Ai decided to play it safe and started conjuring a four-stacked [Magic Spear] since trolls were known to be weak against magic, and waited a few moments to regen her mana as the vibrant blue spear floated above her palm.

Counting down on her free hand, three, two, one! Ai rounded the corner to see one of the orcs standing up, facing them, his own magic circle forming. 'Ah shit, spellcaster.' Ai launched the spear at the troll, opening her clenched fist the moment it impaled its fatty chest, causing flesh and blood, as well as large chunks of yellow fat, to explode in a gruesome display.

The orc shaman launched a lightning blast at Ai, which was blocked as Amari blurred in front of her, taking the brunt of the spell. "Guah!" Amari collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood, while glaring daggers at the shaman. "Attack my sister, huh!? You gotta death wish!?" She shouted out as she struggled back onto her feet, her skin scorched in a lightning pattern across her body.

"Watch out, sis!" Ai shouted and Amari ducked as Ai shot out four missiles that split off at different angles as they soared through the air towards the shaman.

*CHING*

The four missiles shattered on impact as they hit a barrier sent out by the shaman at the last moment.

"Tch... at least I got that spell." Ai clicked her tongue and raised a similar barrier as lightning lashed out towards Ai again. Unfortunately, her barrier wasn't quite as strong as it shattered, some of the residual lightning striking her shoulder.

"Fuck that stings." Ai cried out but smirked as now she acquired yet another spell. Summoning the magic circle, she quickly formed the second layer, but once she reached the third, the spell backfired and exploded in front of her, sending her flying backward and Amari flying forward.

Amari rolled just as she hit the ground and stood up, drawing her sword, she planted it in the stone floor just as another lightning bolt struck the blade, most of the electricity flowed into the ground while Amari still took a good bit of damage. Amari smirked, however, as she was a lot closer now.

In a blur, Amari appeared behind the shaman and swung her sword.

*CHING*

The shield that the shaman conjured shattered as Amari's sword cut into the shaman's back, finally ending him. She blurred again as a flurry of blades came from every angle as the other orcs decided to go on the offensive.

*BOOM BOOM*

The ground shook as the Troll stood up, the top half of its torso was still missing, but the bloody mass started to bubble and grow as the Troll started to quickly regenerate.

"Tch, here we fuckin' go. Bring it on!" Amari swung her sword over her shoulder and stomped her feet, ready for the real fight to begin.