59. An Opportunity
The beetle was a blue in color and quite immobile. It turned slowly, but its charge was what stunned Castus at first. The second that it locked eyes with Shi its body glowed a blueish hue and it rocketed at Shi without warning. Castus watched with engrossed concentration. He had never seen Shi fight when she was in the right mind.
Shi dodged to the right avoiding the charge and beetle slammed into the barrier. A ripple of white rings emanated from the impact point, but the barrier did not move. The beetle backed up and began turning around to look at Shi again. Shi took the opening to transform her hand into a blade and struck down on the carapace. The blade arm bounced off of the shell without damage. Shi dropped back two steps and changed the sword, adapting to the hardness of the shell.
The beetle glowed again and blew past Shi again. She narrowly dodged it and rushed at the beetles back once more, this time a hammer for an arm. Slamming down the hammer a clang could be heard. The beetles legs buckled some and its turn was halted. Noticing this Shi swung down again, striking the shell with a crack. The carapace split in places. The beetle, sensing the damage, jumped upwards and opened its shell up to produce wings.
It floated above Shi and stared down. The glow started to emanate again. Fulsin nudged Castus. "Wonder what Shi will do to deal with that huh." He continued to munch down on nuts, clearly enjoying the battle as if it were a show.
Castus didn't enjoy his lax nature about the fight. "Sir Fulsin, Shi could be in serious danger here. I don't think its fair to act so casual." Fulsin looked at Castus with wide eyes.
"I knew I forgot something." Fulsin waved his hand and a multilayered sigil appeared then disappeared. Followed by a transparent owl appearing. "This is Choceny. It is a manifestation of a portion of my conscious. Choceny has access to my mana and the ability to cast any magic I have mastered. That includes my family's powerful healing. Choceny also relays any information it observes and I get that in real time. I will always be watching your progress and I will heal up your injuries when you cannot fight anymore. So no need to worry anymore right?" Fulsin smiled and turned back to Shi's fight.
The beetle was now performing vertical charges, trying to literally squash Shi. So far it had been unsuccessful and Shi had been able to lash out for every failed attempt.
The beetle was now in bad shape. It's carapace was damaged all over and it moved much slower. In comparison Shi was doing well still. She huffed from moving around so much, but overall she was doing just fine.
The beetle smashed forward once more and Shi dodged backwards. The beetle embedded itself in the ground and Shi took an overhead slam down onto the center of it. The creature shook for a second then ultimately it stopped moving. It laid there dead.
Shi raised a hand up excited about her victory. The beetles corpse disintegrated into blue glowing dust that faded into nothing. Shi had her back turned and was waving at Castus, when Castus noticed that the ring from before glowed once more.
This time a bear like creature emerged. It's fur glistened with crystals and it's claws were a transparent gray. Shi heard the grunt of the bear and turned around. She summoned a blade this time and the bear attacked. Shi hoisted the blade upwards in defense of a claw slash, but buckled under the immense force.
Shi managed to hold though. Now on one knee and using her other arm to defend from the pressure of the claw. She kicked her leg out in an arc and a her foot turned into a blade as well. Using her transformation abilities, she was able to dish out damage from any appendage. The bear recoiled from the blow to its legs. It stumbled backwards and fell down to all fours to support its now injured leg.
The bear lurched forward with one claw and grey transparent crystals flew as Shi. She couldn't defend in time and took a number of cuts and wounds. She rushed forward, realizing that ranged combat was not suited to her. The bear continued a hobbled back peddle and whittled her down with fans of crystals over and over. It took two minutes before Shi collapsed onto the ground. The barrier still hadn't been dispelled though. Chocney's body expended a fine glowing mist and shortly after Shi was healed up to full. The fight would continue.
Castus pulled his eyes away from Shi. "Sir, how long will she have to fight before getting a break." Fulsin looked down at Castus and then back to Shi. "When she gives up. I will continue to heal you both and let you fight until you need that break."
Wails of pain from the bear were heard as Shi took a more monstrous approach this time. She developed hard scales on her skin that resisted the fans of crystal much easier and had managed to land a decisive blow on the belly of the bear. The bear felt its impending doom and raised up once more.
It slammed down on Shi and completely covered her. For a moment there was silence, but then the bear disappeared in a fine mist once again. It revealed a battered Shi, who slowly stood up.
Fulsin put his snack away and clapped his hands together. The barrier disappeared for now. "Very good. Shi, Castus can explain anything you have questions about. I will see you both for admissions next year." Fulsin exited to the stairs, which quickly sealed behind him with a resounding thump.
Shi looked to Castus. "Next year?" Castus nodded. "I have to catch you up on some stuff." He pulled her to the side and showed her Chocney and everything Fulsin had told him.
"Perfect. With this we can get much stronger. I already leveled up once from the fight with the bear." Shi looked excited. Blood covered much of her body and if Castus hadn't watched her get healed earlier he would have been seriously concerned.
"That is true. I definitely do need to get much stronger." Castus looked down at himself. While Shi was enthusiastic to get more powerful, Castus had hesitations about the grinder they were about to throw themselves into. Shi however did not give him much time to contemplate this and shoved him into the center and pulled the lever. "Your turn! Try to beat my record of two monsters!" Shi smiled at Castus, a large contrast to the usually calm and shy Shi. Castus wondered if that had to do with her being physically a monster or if that was just her personality.
In Afeerbah
The trio had been hard at work trying their best to earn money. The more they worked the more they realized that they need an alternative option to earn more, faster. That morning Cerone split off from the trio to look for opportunities while Alyssa and Rys would handle the work that morning.
They had discovered that they could do the work with Rys and at least one girl and if they could find someone to heal Rys, then only Rys would have to work. He was completely fine with it. He just wanted to live a more peaceful life, away from the looming terror of the church and bias against his origins. Cerone and Alyssa constantly tried to get away though. Cerone's crave for power had started to develop a revenge aspect. While she still wanted more power, she also would causes minor issues for the local church of Sol. Nothing but vandalized signs so far.
Alyssa on the other hand had begun to be more generous. Alyssa would do her best to help others when she had the time and even donated some of their tight funds to the refugees from the demise of the hero. Afeerbah had become substantially more populus as the days passed. This heavily hindered the trio's plans to get passage. They had also asked around near the port and currently passage was costing around 200 gold. Double what Palru had originally estimated.
The refugees also sucked up most of the opportunities that the group could participate in. Unlike nobility or armed forced most people did not have a predisposition for fighting and becoming powerful. They were contempt with what they had as long as they could eat and drink when they wanted too. This led to a shortage of jobs for lower leveled people and a surplus of much higher paying jobs for stronger people.
The overcrowding of the city though had started to spawn many problems. As jobs and resources started to become tighter, people started to form groups and violent assaults had grown all over the city. During all of this, the instigators started to discover that it was much more efficent to simple steal or take what they wanted and needed versus working. The development is exactly what led Cerone to get a chance at a new opportunity. When the switch to thievery and violence occurred a number of more unsavory opportunities arose.
One that would pay a handsome 50 gold from the city. The city needed a group or individual of relatively small stature to delve deep into the sewer systems of the city and eliminate some pests that had started to grow wildly with the increase in waste.
The chance to gain that much income in such a short time as well as the draw to get some easy levels drew their group and they got the job. After asking Palru for a few days off they now stood Infront of the entrance into the sewer system.