Chapter 8

"What," was the only thing Rain could get out. "Wait, seriously, what just happened? And.. he's gone." Rain could only sigh and resign to whatever just happened. She decided to look at the notification she got earlier.

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=New Quest Unlcoked=

Monster Herding?

-You survived a close call with a 'Ravenging Hog' and only survived because the town guard named 'John' arrived in time to kill the beast. However, you learned from snippets of information from him, that this might be a prelude to an event similar to what happened ten years ago.

Objective

- Find out the cause of why a monster was at the forest border

and/or

- Stop the cause before it becomes an even bigger problem

Rewards

1. 550 Draema

2. 250% Experience (Based on current Level)

Failure Conditions

1. A stampede or any form of similar destructive event

Notes

-Depending on which objective is accomplished, or if both are accomplished, the rewards can change. Currently, the lowest amount is being shown.

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"I guess it was another quest. Is this supposed to be like a main story quest? Now that I think about it, is there even a main storyline? Whatever, let's just finish this Miguel flower quest. Rain looked back at the corpse of the hog one last time before she made her way back to the town. There was a different pair of guards now at the front gate, but they must've recognized her or something because neither of them stopped her. She made her way back to the drunken duck, the sweet aroma of food still hung around, and the boisterous area was even more present. She stepped inside, and could that the place was much busier than it was this morning. She found an empty seat at the bar and waited for someone to come over to her. Again, it took but only a few minutes till someone came over. This time it was a woman, with long red hair. She also threw a towel over her shoulder and came up to Rain. 'Does everyone here have a towel they throw over their shoulder' Rain asked herself.

"What can I get ya," the woman asked.

"I met Miguel earlier, he sent me out to get something and I'm here now to give it to him.

"Oh," the woman paused for a second, with her face having a slight look of astonishment. "Miguel asked for help, that's new. I'll go get 'em." The woman turned and left as she went through some door. I could barely hear her voice yelling out Miguel's name over the noise in the tavern. It took only a few moments, and Miguel came out, walking rather quickly as it looked like he was hurrying to get over to her, while still looking professional and poise. Once he made it, he leaned on the bar and asked.

"Did you get them?" Rain pulled out the five flowers from her pocket and put them on the bar. Miguel's face lightened up the moment he saw them. "I can finally sleep," he said to himself, full of joy. "I'll get you that meal on me of course. Also," he dropped a coin on the bar, "for getting it so fast." Miguel then hurried off, and Rain couldn't help but let out a soft "I didn't even tell him what I wanted." Grabbing the coins, Rain put them in her pocket, before she put her chin on her hands. Sitting by herself, Rain had some time to think about things. She realized that she didn't have any experience in fighting. She didn't know how she was supposed to be able to fight things. She was going to need to find someone to help her with that, plus," Rain looked at her clothes which now had some grass stains, and a little bit of blood, "I need a new getup. Though, I'm not a huge fan of wearing heavy and restrictive armor. I like being free, and unrestrained, so maybe we'll have to see what sorts of things I can find." While Rain was lost in thought, Miguel came back with a hot plate of meat, and potatoes, as well as a pitcher of ale.

"Here ya go kiddo," Miguel beamed a smile on his exhausted face.

"Uh, thanks... Miguel."

"Of course kid, now have a good one, I'm due for some sleep," Miguel said as he made his way out of the tavern, with a slight skip in his step. Rain went to go eat, but stopped. She didn't have any utensils. She looked around at the other people with food and saw that they were all eating with their hands.

"Well, that's rather primitive. When in Rome though." Rain then grabbed a piece of the meat, and dropped it into her mouth. She tasted the sweet and rich texture of the meat. "I guess you can taste in this game," she thought to herself. She began to dig into the meat, still being careful to not get her hands that dirty. As she ate, she also drank the ale. It was a bit weird that her first time drinking was inside a video game, but oh well. After finishing her meal and her drink, Rain stood up and made her way to the door, she needed to find someone to train her. After all, she didn't want to always be running away from the monsters. As she neared the door she could hear some yelling outside, but she didn't think much of it. She opened the door wide, and immediately so, she heard a loud thunk and felt a mighty vibration through the door, as someone ran into the door and was stopped dead in their tracks.

Rain quickly went outside to see what just happened, and she saw some small and frail looking individual on the ground with a dazed look in his eyes. He was currently clutching onto a small sack in his hands. She saw two people in those weird armor with fur come around the corner of a building and sprint straight at the guy. Within a few moments, both of them had caught up to the man. She also realized that one of them was the guy earlier that had the black fur armor. It was Kalic, but what was he doing chasing after this guy, then it dawned on Rain. He was a purse snatcher.

"Well, funny to see you again Kalic," Rain said with a smile on her face. Kalic looked at her with an awkward look on his face.

"Um... It is funny to see you again. And thanks for stopping him. He's a 'powered' with an enhancement in his speed. It's always hard to catch up to him, and he's been doing this for some time, and he was going to get away again."

"That... was no problem at all. Just doing my job as a law-respecting citizen," Rain beamed, with her hands on her hips, but Kalic chuckled in response. "What's so funny?"

"It's been a while since I've heard a 'powered' call themself a law respecting citizen." Kalic paused for a second as he thought of something. "Now look, I don't like owing people things, particularly when it involves my job, so what do you want as payment for your help." Rain thought about it for a second, then she realized she had a solution to her current dilemma.

"I want you to teach me how to fight."

"What," Kalic asked, his eyebrows rising.

"You heard me. I want you to teach me how to fight. Even though I'm a 'powered' I don't know how to use my power, what it's good for, or how to even fight. I don't want to keep having to run away from monsters if I come across them. I want to be able to fend for myself." Rain ranted off her reasons for wanting Kalic to teach her. In response, Kalic dropped his head and let out another sigh.

"Fine, if that's what you wish. Follow me." Kalic waved for Rain to follow him. The other guard that had come with Kalic had already grabbed the frail-looking man and was already giving out an arrest. Rain hurridly caught up with Kalic, and walked next to him.

"I realized that I never caught the town's name. What is this place called," Rain asked, looking up at Kalic. However, he didn't meet her eyes. He was constantly surveying the surrounding people.

"How do you not know this place's name," Kalic asked in wonder.

"Amnesic," Rain replied.

"Oh, right. We call this place Aeitha, but others just call it the town in the fields. The tall grass spans for quite a distance around, and we are the only civilization that inhabits it."

"Oh, that's pretty neat." The two of them walked a little bit further in silence, but Rain just couldn't stand it this time around. "All the guards have fur on their armor, whats the fur from, and what even is the armor you are wearing."

"The armors just leather, how can you not know th- oh, right, yea, amnesia. The fur is from an Apex E Rank monster. It's exceptionally warm, plus it provides a certain level of additional protection. Plus it adds some flair to the guards, which truly allows them to stand out. That way people know who to go to when they are in trouble."

"I'll take a guess that the fur you've got comes from some sort of alpha of that monster?"

"Yes, that is a rather good guess. But we are here now." In front of the two of them was a large building. The architecture of it was also different from every other building. While the rest were rather bland and normal, this building had unique touches of Asian architecture. Opening the large wooden doors to go inside, the first thing Rain noticed was the large open-top courtyard. Inside were already some twenty people using the courtyard, yet there was still space for others to use it as well. They were all dueling someone, some were wrestling, others boxing, while others were even using weapons like swords, and spears. What was odd, was that everyone was wearing almost the same thing. The same baggy white pants, and a tight black shirt.

"Are they allowed to use bladed weapons," Rain asked inquisitively.

"They're gonna have to at some point if they want to survive out in the wild." Kalic began to make his way to one of the doors on the side. We stopped at the door, then he looked me up and down as if he was trying to figure something out. "Stay here for a second," he then walked over to a different door and walked inside. A minute or so later he walked back out with the pants and shirt that everyone else is wearing. "We only have things made for men, and you are rather... small so I just grabbed the smallest stuff we have. Go in there and change, then come back out." Kalic then more or less shoved Rain into the door, and then shut it behind her.

"Well that was a bit rude, but whatever." The room she was in was a small basically bare room. It had a bench and a single shelf for people to put things on. Rain went and took off the garments she was wearing, which had now been slightly stained, and then put on the training clothes. Ironically, the shirt was rather small for her, clinging onto her skin tightly. Compared to her pants which were far too large for her. The bottom part hung well to her feet. She looked around for anything in the room and found a bucket that weirdly had 'Trash' written on it. Inside of it were two rather large bracers, but Rain believed she could use them to help her. They were large enough to fit over her feet and up to her ankles. There she was able to pull the leftover pant into the bracer before tightening it to her leg. A pretty ghetto fix, but she thought it looked good. It was basically a handmade taper with a leather bracer. She did it with both of her legs and then walked back out.

She saw Kilac waiting outside of the room, and he had already changed into the black shirt and white pants. He looked her up and down and raised his eyebrows at the sight of her bracers, but whether or not he cared, she didn't know. He just motioned for her to follow him into the courtyard. Before he stepped into the courtyard, he took off his boots and left them at the edge of the yard, then he stepped in. Rain decided it was probably best to follow suit, though her shoes were of much lower quality, and she didn't even know what type of shoes she had. Nonetheless, she took them off and walked barefoot into the courtyard.

While walking in the courtyard, Rain noticed that the yard was filled with this weird sand-like material. However, every time she pushed off it, it felt like the material hardened. Made it much easier to walk and move on, but still provided some soft comfort if you laid on it. She would've thought about it some more, but Kalic stopped and turned around.

"So what do you want to learn," Kalic asked.

"I'm not sure. I don't really know what I should learn, or what would be bested suited to me." Kalic made a simple 'mmm' sound as he looked Rain up and down. Rain shifted a little uncomfortable from his gaze. He nodded to himself before he walked over to a stand and took a small wooden stick off of it. Compared to the massive Kalic, it looked like a dagger, but when he threw it at Rain, it was much bigger. The wooden stick was a little over two feet long.

"That would probably be best for you right now," Kalic stated.

"What is it?"

"That... is a shortsword. For your size, it should be everything you need it to be. So now let's begin your training."