Gathering Information

Sorry for not updating the previous day, school and such is really taking it on me now that it started back up again. I will try and update my stories as much as I can, though I will most likely be updating this story the most if not only just this story as I have the most interest in writing this story. Hopefully school doesn't affect me too much.

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"Talking"

'Thinking'

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"Warrod, you take the one on the left!"

"Understood, Lux!"

Both Warrod and Lux were currently seen facing off against two rather large beasts that resembled that of large bear-like creatures, though with more humanoid bodies along with other features that separate them from normal bears. The fact that they were easily over ten feet tall and that they both had two sets of horns on their heads.

The group had decided to stop for some quick lunch before continuing on their way.

Both Warrod and Lux offered to go and hunt for something, and that was what lead them here to their current situation. They were quite surprised to see the appearance of these strange creatures, they certainly weren't normal. Though, they quickly got over their surprised as they had seen much crazier in their lives.

Aya, Willa, and Hyuto were back in the place they had stopped and we're currently preparing everything as they awaited the two. They could eat what they had in their bags, but they wanted to save that just in case. When they got to the city, they wouldn't be able to buy anything since they didn't have the currency of this world.

So, Hyuto suggested taking advantage of the fact that they were still in the wild and had suggested the whole idea to hunt for some creature he could try and cook.

Warrod had quickly charged in towards the beast as he then waved his wand, this caused a green glow to occur before two trees suddenly grew exceptionally before Warrod manipulated them to wrap around the creature. He could try to take it on head-on, but while he was certainly far stronger physically than normal humans, that wasn't his strong suit.

He didn't want to risk finding out how physically strong this creature might be. Even if it might end up being much weaker than he expects, he wasn't going to take the risk.

"Okay, let's go..." Lux muttered as he narrowed his eyes at the beast in front of him. He wasn't stupid. He knew that he couldn't take this thing on like this. He was stronger than the average human, but not by an incredible amount. So, Lux unsheathed the silver and blue sword on his waist. When he did, a blue glow came from the sword along with a few circuit-like lines appearing on the blade.

When this happened, the beast had to cover its eyes due to the light. Lux then began to chant something.

"Come to me, symbol of power worthy of the Crest of the Winged-Dragon. Let us soar with the blade! Wyvern!"

As soon as the chant was complete, the illuminating light intensified in the form of dragon-like wings behind Lux, this causing the beast to step back a few steps. When it finally began to fade, the beast widened its red eyes to see that Lux now donned a strange mechanical suit that was pure white and blue in colouration.

Lux was still visible within the suit, though he appeared to be controlling the suit as its arms moved in synchronisation with his own. There were two additions to the back of the suit as well that resembled wings in some way. Lux narrowed his eyes before a large silver sword generated in his right hand, to which he pointed it at the beast.

Lux then roared before charging in as the beast barely reacted in time, managing to swing its claw down towards Lux. Though, it didn't seem to compare to Lux's drag-ride's strength despite it being a Wyvern as Lux easily caught the claw with his drag-ride's free hand before swing his sword. This resulted in a deep cut to appear on its stomach.

The beast roared in pain as it stumbled backwards.

"Incredible, so that's Lux's power..." Warrod muttered in interest and amazement as he gazed towards where Lux was fighting the other beast. He had never seen something like the drag-ride that Lux was utilising, and considering the fact that the boy had another sword on his waist, it was possible that he had another suit as well. "Very interesting...!"

Warrod then turned back towards his own opponent before he manipulated the trees that were still restraining the beast to throw it into the air, to which Warrod quickly finished the beast off with a large root that he caused to shoot and grow out from the ground, one which was covered by sharp thorns. This finished the beast off quickly as it pierced through the creature.

The root then retracted back into the ground quickly as the body of the beast fell to the ground with a loud crash as a large hole was present on the stomach of it. Warrod then looked to see that Lux had also finished off the other beast, as he was now dragging it over while still donning his drag-ride.

"You okay, Warrod?"

"Yes, I'm doing just fine. It wasn't a challenge." Warrod assured as he could now get a better look that Lux had walked on over. The suit he was wearing was truly brilliant, a work of art if he said so himself. "You have quite the interesting power there, Lux. Being able to summon this strange robot from your blade."

"I suppose so." Lux laughed nervously. "You have an interesting power too. So, you can control plants?"

"That's a simple way of explaining it. Yes." Warrod chuckled as he then grew vines from the ground before wrapping them around the two beasts before lifting them into the air. "It makes me interested to see what the others can do. We saw what Hyuto did before, but I doubt that's the extent of his power. For now, let us head on back."

"Right!"

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It hadn't been long since the group had arrived here in the city that Hyuto had lead them all to, and it wasn't long before they had quickly gotten to work. Hyuto had decided that gathering information was vital, so he had quickly asked a few civilians for the directions towards any possible library in the area. They were a great source of information after all.

Aya had come along with him as it would be better to have a helping hand when looking through the many books. Hyuto had decided to send the other three off to explore the city as they were more interested in it then the both of them, they were used to seeing such a modernised city compared to them.

Of course, he didn't just want them to explore. He had requested for them to keep an eye out for anything that would stand out of the norm.

At the present time, Hyuto could now be seen inside of the local library where he was seated at one of the vacant tables, and there was nobody else in the area he sat at, so that was a plus. He had a number of large books on the table beside him as he was reading through one of them, though technically only skimming through.

The books were rather dense, so it would take far too long to read. He would just pick out the noticeable important parts.

From what he has read, he had learnt that this world appeared to have a vastly different history compared to his own, and most likely the others as well. Not like that really surprised him as they were all from different existences. It didn't appear that this world really had anything of the supernature, at least on the surface.

He knew that while it seemed that there was nothing spectacular about this world and its people, he couldn't just conclude that immediately. There was the great possibility that a supernatural force is present in this world, but just that this world's public just were in the dark. After all, many thousands of years ago, his own world were in the dark about the gods and their blessings at one point.

They weren't born with the knowledge.

It was only when the gods descended down from the higher realm many years ago, that they conveyed the information to the ancient civilisation that came way before the modern time. The information that was given was just passed down all these thousands of years. It was vital information that was taught to kids when they were only four.

"Hunters...?" Hyuto muttered as he read over a certain section. This gained his interest as this seemed to be the most interesting part of the book. It was something about a group of people labelled as Hunters. He had first thought they were just people that hunted things like animals and such for food, basic hunters like that.

However, that didn't seem to be the case.

"I see, so these Hunters are basically different kinds of individuals that hunt in their own areas... quite the privilege it seems." Hyuto voiced with interest as he leaned back a bit. It was true, there seemed to be Hunters who specialised in their own fields, such as criminals, treasure, and even the likes of finding cures for infectious diseases. So many to count.

Some were just ridiculous.

The reason it seemed to be a great privilege was that he had read that becoming a Hunter was incredibly difficult, and that was due to the incredible exam that apparently had quite the high death rate. A normal person would be surprised, though he wasn't. Back in his own world, a similar thing existed.

In fact, he participated in it.

Basically, it was a test that was compulsory for him to complete if he wished to be ranked within the top fifty strongest individuals. The test is only for a single person, that being the fifty-first strongest, and if they complete it, then they will have the permission to challenge and make their way up the ladder. If they are defeated by the person one rank below, then those two will switch rankings.

In other words, you have to defeat the person one rank higher than you to progress up the ranking ladder. Even if someone in the top fifty was defeated by a person below that, then they will still hold their position and none of the rankings will change. You have to defeat someone that is above you by one rank to progress, and lose to a person one rank below you to decrease your rank.

"Hyuto, I-I found it!"

Hyuto turned his head upwards from the book as he saw Aya walking over while carrying a rather large book in her arms. She set it down in front of him before taking a seat next to him. The book was one that was obviously a book of geographics, having the picture of a planet on it and all. Hyuto picked the book up before opening it.

"Thank you, Aya. Let's see here..."

"Did you learn anything from the books that you read?" Aya wondered as she blinked in surprise at the large stacks of books that were already on the table. It was obvious they were the books that Hyuto was reading as they were set right beside him. Hyuto didn't look away from the geographics book, but answered her question.

"Yeah. For the most part, this world appears to be completely normal. Nothing known about the supernatural elements, if there even is any here in this world..." Hyuto answered as he flipped through the book quickly. "There are these people called Hunters. Though, I am uncertain if there is anything truly special about them or not."

"So, this world is normal...?"

"Maybe, maybe not. While it seems that there is nothing on the surface, there might be something laying in the dark. We won't truly know if they have something like magic until we end up encountering it." Hyuto explained. Aya nodded her head in understanding as she heard this, it made sense. "Ah, here it is."

"Eh, what is it...?" Aya leaned over slightly to look to see that Hyuto stopped on a specific page of the book, one that was displaying the image of what appeared to be a tower of sorts, along with a small map image next to it with a bunch of words explaining things. "What is this?"

"Exactly what we've been looking for. This right here is Heaven's Arena."

Aya widened her eyes before looking at the page carefully, so the tower within the book was the place they needed to go. From the design of it, it appeared quite unique as the building itself was unlike other skyscrapers she had seen before. It was kind of blocky and jagged, the design of it was truly interesting.

"It seems that I was right. When I first heard it was called Heaven's Arena from the quest, I assumed that it might have to do with combat. Looks like I was right." Hyuto stated as he traced his hand along the words as he read through. "This place is pretty much a place for people to fight one another as well as make a profit from doing so."

"So, it's just a fighting arena?" Aya blinked. Hyuto nodded his head at this. She seemed to become nervous at this though as she clenched both her fists as they were rested on her knees. "B-But, if we're supposed to get to the two-hundredth floor. How am I supposed to get there...? I don't know how to fight! I'm not strong either..."

"Don't worry, I already planned ahead for this." Hyuto smiled as he gestured at his bag. Aya blinked in confusion at this. "As I said, I had already assumed that this quest might involve combat. So, I made sure to bring some stuff to train you. I doubt they'll let one of us join you in a fight in this place, so you'll need to get strong."

"I-I see..."

"Don't worry. I won't go hard on you, we'll take it slow and train while we get there. It'll definitely help you get much stronger, definitely far stronger than any normal human."

"I-I understand...!" Aya nodded her head. She was nervous, but she wanted to help the others. She didn't want to become a burden! She knew that the others were all strong in their own right, and she was the odd one out. So, if he could help her get stronger, then she'll accept it. It was highly likely they might get other quests that require them to fight, so she wants to be prepared just in case.

"Good. We'll begin as soon as possible. We'll meet up with the others first before we begin, and we'll tell them about what we've learned so far. Hopefully, they might have some information as well for us. If not, then whatever. We have most of what we need to know right now. Oh, and also..."

"Mm?"

"There's something we need to address about you..."

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Warrod, Lux and Willa were now seen walking through the city admiring the view of the greatly modernised society, especially Warrod. Warrod was used to seeing more medieval era cities that didn't really have too many buildings composed entirely of metal, the majority of buildings he's seen were made of wood, brick or stone.

However, the buildings that he was seeing around the place were reaching high into the sky and were quite grand. Not only just the city, but also the people as he had noticed the clothes they wore were similar to Hyuto and Aya's clothes in nature. The clothing was incredibly made as he could see that they were all masterfully made.

Even Lux's rather fancy clothing wasn't as good quality as these people's casual-looking clothing.

Aside from that, the group had explored around the city and had gone through places such as shopping areas and also just residential places and such. So far, nothing had really stood out to them at all. The people just appeared to be going through their every day lives doing whatever it was they were doing.

None of them showed any signs of supernatural abilities or anything. No magic. No inhumane strength. Nothing.

"Warrod, can you please calm down...?" Lux requested with an embarrassed look on his face as he nervously shifted around. Warrod was currently zooming around the place gawking at everything around him, gaining quite a number of confused looks from the civilians. Lux was flushed under all the stares they were getting.

Willa was standing next to the older looking male with her usual tired-looking face as she just stared at the tree-like wizard running around in awe. She was also a reason that they were getting major stares, along with Lux. Lux was quite the attractive young man, so a number of females turned to look at him.

Willa, despite appearing to be the age of fourteen, had quite the curvaceous body along with quite the attractive face as well. She had drawn the eyes of countless males as they were walking, even those that appeared much older than she was. She didn't even seem to notice the stares and was walking with both Lux and Warrod as if nothing was happening.

It seemed that she was completely oblivious to how attractive she actually was...

Lux sighed heavily as they were supposed to be meeting back up with both Hyuto and Aya soon, so he wanted to explore as much as they could right now before the time arrived.

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