11

👍︎︎︎♒︎︎︎♋︎︎︎◻︎︎︎⧫︎︎︎♏︎︎︎❒︎︎︎ 📂︎📂︎🖳︎ ❄︎♏︎♋︎♍︎♒︎♏︎❒︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ 💧︎⧫︎◆︎♎︎♏︎■︎⧫︎

While The Puppeteer basked in the sun he could also feel the wind blow behind him. To him, it represented a time from back then. It felt like any spring day. He checked his holdus to check which way the teleportation circle was, but to no avail.

He sighed, "I could definitely use some help," he thought to himself.

"Mister!" a familiar voice cried. He turned towards it to see the little boy he had helped save the day before. "Mister, I want to talk."

"Hey kid," The Puppeteer responded, "are you feeling better? It must have been painful having your hair pulled out like that."

"I'm fine. I just wanted to talk to you for a bit. I hope you're not busy."

"I've got plenty of time. I was probably going to wander around a bit, find the teleportation circle, and then go back to Aubergine. But yeah I can talk."

"Can you not find the map?" the little boy questioned, "Here give me your holdus, I can help you find it."

The little boy grabbed the holdus out of The Puppeteer's hand and showed him exactly how to find and use the map.

"Thanks," The Puppeteer said, "I'm not used to being the one giving out technological advice. Anyway, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I want you to teach me how to be good at The Wells of Truth. I… uh overheard those enforcers that you were a summoned and I…"

"Might as well," The Puppeteer said with a smile, "You helped me out once so I'll help you out."

"Thank you!" the little boy exclaimed, "so mister, when will I start."

"I guess we can start today, but I have a few things I need to do before we can start. Wanna tag along?"

"I'd love to! I left my mom and dad to go on a journey and I think sticking with you will be the fastest way to do it.��

The Puppeteer looked at him with a puzzled look, "You look like you're 10 years old. How did you convince your parents to let you just go on an adventure?"

"I'm 13!" the little boy said, "and I told them that I'd be fine."

The Puppeteer sighed, "Well then, let's go to Aubergine and then I can teach you how to play the game."

"Yes sir!"

The two walked across Fondouras and reached the teleportation circle. It was a large 4.5 meter radius circle made with purple light with a scanner just beside it.

"This thing looks dangerous," The Puppeteer thought, "but I think I'll be fine."

"Hey, uh... kid?" The Puppeteer asked, "How exactly does this thing work?"

"You just hold your holdus up to that thing over there and then choose a place to be teleported and then it teleports you to that place."

"Seems simple enough," The Puppeteer said. He held up his holdus towards the scanner. After the holdus had been scanned, the scanner showed a list of places only one of which was highlighted, Aubergine. He selected his destination and the circle began to glow a bright green. He looked towards the boy who looked back at him and gave a little nod and he took a step forward. The boy followed suit.

* * * * * *

They arrived at the teleportation circle in Aubergine, a little stunned from their travel.

"Well, th-that was an experience, wasn't it mister?"

"S-sure was..." The Puppeteer paused, "Hey kid? I don't know your name yet. And since you're now my student I should probably know it."

"My name? Everyone from my hometown calls me Ben so I guess that's my name."

"Ben," The Puppeteer thought to himself, "that's at least a normal name."

"Alright Ben, First we go to the Guild Hall."

The two casually walked into the Guild Hall and immediately heard a loud argument going on.

"What! The reward clearly said 20 gold pieces. Are you trying to rob me?"

"Hey listen," The voice seemed familiar. "It says 2.0 gold pieces. I'm sorry about the miscommunication."

"Listen here punk, either you give me 20 gold pieces or I'm driving my hammer into your skull!"

The argument continued for around another 3 minutes and it didn't seem like it was going to end soon. The Puppeteer looked at Ben who looked back giving a shrug. He sighed and opened the doors to the Guild Hall. The loud creaking of the door caused everyone who wasn't currently occupied in the increasingly loud argument to look at the person who entered.

"You know what? I'm clearly not going to get the shit I worked my ass off for," The aggressor in the argument said, pulling out a giant hammer, "DIE!" He swung at the front desk causing it to shatter. The crowd let out a gasp as the rubble showed no sign of life.

"Wahahaha!" the man laughed, "that shows that no one—" the man collapsed onto the floor causing a loud thud. The man's teammates were visibly frightened and immediately carried the friend out the door.

The receptionist jumped onto the rubble and dusted himself off. "No one messes with you huh? Guess that goes the same with me."

"S-Sorben? What the hell did you do?" The Puppeteer exclaimed, "Did you kill him?"

"Oh summoned guy, I see you've found a new friend," Sorben said ignoring everything that was asked of him, "what brings you here today?"

"I wanted to speak with Thor."

"Thor's pretty busy, he's got 3 missions left and they're all pretty long. You probably want to check back in… I'd say 3 days."

"Ok thanks. Ben, let's go."

"Yes sir!"

They began to exit when Sorben called out, "That kid over there, his name is Ben is it?" they turned towards him. "You want to be an adventurer? All you have to do is register!"

Sorben seemed to know just about everything about everyone. He was able to easily sell the idea to Ben who asked The Puppeteer who told him to do what he wanted to do.

"All we need is your name," Sorben said with a salesman's smile.

"I go by Ben."

"Ben… Full name?"

"Benshevik Mastrioni."

The Puppeteer died a little bit inside. "Of course his name is some random combination of things, why would it have been a regular name like Ben short for Benjamin."

"All done," Sorben said, "Now may I interest you in a mission or even better a guild?"

"Sorry Sorben. We don't have time." He looked towards Ben, "Let's go."

"Yes sir!"

They walked out of the Guild Hall only to meet someone clad in pitch black armor. The Puppeteer could feel his heart stop right as he passed him. He turned to look at him only to receive a cold stare and the words "so you're him?" before he disappeared into the building. He turned to Ben who felt the same menacing aura before returning back to his normal self.

"What the hell was that guy?" The Puppeteer asked himself, "It was cold, yet I felt like my heart was on fire."

"Mister?" Ben asked, "Wh-who was th-that thing? He seemed scary."

"I don't know, but I never want to see him again."

They walked across town into the shopping district.

"I'm assuming you don't have a deck?" The Puppeteer asked Ben.

"No sir I don't."

"Well good thing we're stopping by then. You stay here while I get some supplies."

He walked into multiple stores coming out with a small bag in each until the final one in which he came out with a massive tent.

"Alright, I've got enough supplies to last us for a solid bit of time," he then handed Ben a small bag. "And this is for you, a starter deck which you're going to use until you can afford a better one or find better cards."

"Thank you sir! I'll treasure it forever."

"Good good. We'll start lesson one soon, but that's only once we reach the forest."

Chapter 11: Teacher and Student END