Chapter 45: Joselina

The sound of chirping birds wakes Karl up. After waking up the first thing he sees is that he is in a shabby room with old furniture. He gets up tries to breath which is way more difficult than before.

"Oh! Big brother you woke up." Fen walks in with a bowl of water in hand. Karl smiles at Fen.

"How long was I out for?"

"The entire night."

'Another day wasted.' Karl sighs heavily.

"Are you hungry?" Fen asks.

"A little."

"Come downstairs. It's time for lunch for anyway." Fen grabs Karl's hand and drags him downstairs. While on the stairs sees Joselina on the counter writing something on the paper. She notices Karl.

"Are you okay now?"

Karl nods.

"Big sis! Come for lunch." Fen says it in an enthusiastic voice. Karl follows Fen and Joselina to the corridor into another room which a lot of kitchen food utensils laying around. There is table in the middle of the room with four chairs. Joselina and Karl take a seat while Fen goes to grab the plates.

"So? Am I the Vice-guildmaster of this guild?" Karl asks.

"Yes, according to my oath. You are the Vice-guildmaster of Sabre guild. But the question is it really worth it?" Joseline states calmly.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at this place. This place once was the strongest guild in U-block. But now it is reduced to such state."

Karl glances around which reminds him the state of this building.

"There is no point of becoming vice-guildmaster of such guild. Leave us alone. I will compensate you some money." Karl observes Joselina's pained expression. He turns back and sees Fen looking at him with watery eyes.

'Are you going to leave too?' This memory flashes in Karl's mind. He smiles.

"I will decide if I want to invest in this guild now. So tell me everything."

Joselina bits her lip and explains. "It happened after the war grew out of control, the federation asked support from very top-ranking guild. At that time my uncle Tarak was the guildmaster. He was a Supergiant ranked adventurer, one of the strongest in the entire block. He loved this city and it's people more than anything. At the request of federation he took Sabre guild's top adventurers to the red border with the intention of eradicating every blood sucker from this continent. He fought countless battles, suffered many losses and made many great sacrifices but in the end, it was all in vain as he disappeared. Around 3 years ago, we suddenly lost all contact with him. We requested the federation to commence an investigation and after the investigation they said he deserted the war."

Joseline tightens her grip and yells. "HE WOULD NEVER! HE! MY UNCLE WAS A HERO!"

Karl leans back. "Then, do you seek to find him?"

Joselina looks up and regains her posture. "I want to make Sabre guild the strongest guild on U-block again and lead an expedition to find my uncle. If not, I will atleast clear his name and bring back our lost honour."

'I smell opportunity.' Karl's gut feeling and his experience of 1000s of animes are telling him that he should help her.

"Food's here." Fen puts a heavy hotpot on the table.

"Wait, I help you." Karl gets up from his seat and helps Fen to put the plates and bowl. Now, they began eating. Fen opens the hotpot and pours a brown soup in Karl's bowl.

'What is this? It feels like instant ramen.'

Joseline drinks the entire bowl in one go. Hesitantly, Karl also tastes it. The soup tastes like hot water, it has no flavour, no texture and no smell.

"Then, here you go." Joselina takes out her ring from her left hand and puts it on the table. It is a silver ring with a sword pattern on top of it.

"It's not much but this is the only thing I can offer. I hope you can understand." Joselina bows her head a little.

"I don't want it."

"Huh? If that's the case I can arrange something exp-"

"You don't understand. I don't want the ring, make me the vice-guildmaster and I promise you that the Sabre guild will be back on the top." Joselina just stares at Karl for a second.

"Big sis! What are you waiting for?" Fen encourages her but she still hesitates.

"Don't make such face. It's for my benefit too. I need to take more dangerous quests and by becoming the vice-guildmaster I can take them."

"Why would you do such thing?" Karl takes a sip from his bowl.

"Of course, to become strong." Joselina facepalms herself.

"I don't know if you are brave or an idiot. But as long as you will fulfil your promise, I don't care."

Karl stands up and extends his hand. Joselina takes it.

"Welcome to the Sabre guild, vice-guildmaster." She officially acknowledges Karl.

"Yay! Will big brother live with us?" Fen asks in excitement.

Suddenly Karl's watch vibrates. 'It's Ian. Perfect timing.' Karl steps outside of the room.

"Hello."

"Where were you? I have been calling you since yesterday."

"Sorry, I was busy."

"Anyways, listen to this. Koraet has been spotted in the Hanak region which is just 3 kilometres away from the city and from it's behaviour it seems that the beast is moving start towards the city."

Karl gets sudden goosebumps as yesterday's memories flashes in his head. "About that, yesterday I went to-" Karl tells Ian about his trip to the Laykoen forest and his experience with the Sabre guild.

"Hmm. If I was you, I would have taken the ring." Ian expresses his thoughts.

"Why?"

"The Sabre guild has gained a negative reputation among the adventurers as it's previous guildmaster deserted the war."

"That's fake allegation."

"Not in the eye of the general public. Adventurers are boycotting the guild. You need to change the entire image of the guild just to attract new adventurers which is practically impossible."

"I will do whatever it takes. Any suggestions?"

Ian chuckles. "I knew you would say that. Actually, I do have an idea. Listen-"

Karl listens to Ian's plan to gain public's favour. "Damn, this might work."

"I hope so."

"When are you going to do it?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"Sounds good. I meet at the city gates."

"Sure." Karl hangs up.

He turns back and sees Fen eavesdropping. Karl picks up Fen and walks inside. Joselina is sitting on the chair staring at her bowl mindlessly.

"Jose! I have a plan."

This startles her. "Huh? What?"

"But first, can you fight?"

15 minutes later they are in a small training area which is just behind the guild building. Joselina is wearing some light armour which only covers her chest to shoulder area as for the remaining area it is cover with some heavy cloth. For some odd reason Joselina has kept her right thigh exposed, Karl points it out.

"It's necessary to do that." She answers.

As for weapon she has a huge battle axe on her back, it clearly looks too heavy. Karl takes a few steps back.

"Come with everything you got."

Joselina takes a breath and runs towards Karl. Once close enough she grabs her battle axe and swings at Karl. 'Fast!' Karl uses levitating steps and moves aside. The battle axe covers a large amount of area, the ground shakes a bit. Not taking breath, she swings continuously at Karl. Her attacks are fast and strong. But it's not fast enough to hit Karl.

After few minutes, Joselina stops as her stamina is over.

"Is that all you got?" Karl taunts.

"At this rate you would never as strong as your uncle. I don't want such weak guildmaster by my side."

"YOU!" Joselina snaps and swings once more. But something is different this time. Karl sense huge amount of mana from the battle axe. As expected, the attack missed Karl and the axe hit the ground making a small hole. Karl who is standing few meters away from Joselina quickly uses levitating steps as a surge of mana comes from the ground below. A series spikes pierces through the ground.

Joselina picks up her axe and dashes at Karl. A barrage of attacks come at Karl. He spams his cheat like ability and dodges all of them.

Suddenly in midst of attacks Joselina throws her axe and Karl jumps away missing the axe by a centimetre. Just as Karl is about to regain his posture, a brown coloured magic circle glows at Joselina's exposed thigh. She performs a diagonal kick with her right leg. A spike surges from the ground just besides Karl.

'Muay thai?'

The spike hit Karl in the shoulder but it wasn't fatal. Seeing her attack hit, Joselina smiles. She performs a straight foot jab. Another spike emerges from the ground just in front of Karl. It hits him in the chest which pushes him couple of steps back.

'Her kicks are directing the spikes!'

Joselina performs a jumping kick and a spike emerges on the right side of Karl it flies straight to his head. But this time Karl doesn't move or tries to dodge. He looks at Joselina's eyes and smiles.

'Your fighting style is great. But unfortunately, your opponent is me who learned this in highschool.'

Karl covers his head with mana and the spike phases through his head. Joselina opens her wide in shock. But Karl doesn't stop and runs towards her. Joselina quickly regains her composure and performs switch kick.

'Left.' Karl moves to the left and dodges the attack. She performs a low kick. 'Bottom.' Karl jumps. Diagonal kick. 'Front.' Karl slides below the spike. High round kick. 'Right.' Karl leans in and jumps forward. Diag- Unfortunately, Karl reached Joselina. He catches her leg mid air and punches her but stops midway.

"Nice try." He releases her leg and Joselina falls on the ground panting heavily.

"Y-You are strong."

"Thanks."

Fen who is watching from the side comes running with two cups of water. Karl takes it.

"So, what's your plan ?" Joselina asks as she drinks water.

"We are hunting an ancient beast."