Seiko Sotomura - Paladin

Dirthaven city, once the very famous capital of the Boulderdane Kingdom, used to be a city where most people wanted to be. The city was welcome to almost an endless amount of traders, which earned it a lot of tourists and trade from roaming merchants and people looking to enjoy themselves.

All this was in the past though. Six years ago to be exact. Now it was simply a husk of its former glory. On the once bustling streets, all one would find were homeless beggars and drunkards. At night, the entire city turned into the biggest red light district in the kingdom, harlots of different sentient races would roam, looking for their targets. There were even rumours of succubi having suck the life forces of some men.

Children were being raised to become thieves and only the rich thrived in the upper echelons. The royal family had shut themselves away from the people, leaving them to rot. The adventurer's guild lost most of the mercenaries in one hit and the kingdom lost all its good relations with the Dhijan Hero Nation, causing it to crumble in the faces of other power nations such as the New Kyoto Empire and the Sundane Kingdom. It was truly in a pitiful state as compared to before.

And if you asked anybody why any of this happened, they would say only one thing.

It was all because they angered the Mad Witch of the West.

What that meant, most people who didn't live in the kingdom wouldn't understand.

Seiko looked around the city for a bit, then took a gulp from his water can. The trip had been a long one, and he hadn't managed to get any transport because he forgot all his money back in the place he termed home.

It wasn't as much as him forgetting, as it was a matter of the fact that he couldn't remember exactly what happened. He was certain he packed it, but was scared that some bandits may have robbed him while he slept. He didn't have his 1 Ban and 4 Ban with him, which meant they had most likely been taken away from him. His pride wouldn't allow for that to be the case, so he would assume that he left it.

The young man lifted the scroll in his hands and took a look at it. He had already memorized the contents of the scroll, but just to make sure he wouldn't miss anything he had to check again. That was just how meticulous he was. He hated to fail a task.

The scroll contained a drawing of a person. She was a beauty with large ghastly eyes that would surely kill any with a weak will. Her hair was short and wavy, with a tiny hair band of curious design on it. Her nose was tiny, same for her mouth and she possessed puffy cheeks and cute lips that fit her face.

In all honesty, he didn't see why they called her beautiful. If anything she was frightening in his eyes and he didn't want to have to deal with someone like that, but she was his target. She was also in search of him, so she should have possessed a drawing of him as well.

He put his hand to his chin as he drowned himself in his thoughts.

'Hmm, how do we meet though? They didn't tell us anything except that we should come to Dirthaven. And when I tried to inquire for more, the Clan Head said I should just go and that he wouldn't tell me more. This person too, I've never met with her before so I wouldn't know where she would most likely go. Whenever I asked about her, all they told me was that she was a skilled fighter who used weird magic and techniques and something else about her character… she was jumpy…? I can't remember.'

BOOM!

There was an explosion up ahead which shook the ground lightly. He looked towards where he could feel it from and put his hand to his back to take out his rifle out. He then checked it to see if it was loaded.

The people around who were startled just looked in the direction of the source of the sound, confused. They were nothing more than drunkards or mere beggars without homes to go to. The children were all startled and ran the other way, shouting.

Seiko began to approach the scene, checking his armory to make sure everything was alright. He checked the barrel to see if it was loaded. It was a shotgun, about 60 cm long, with a silver barrel and intricately designed golden kanji lined on the handle. He looked into the barrel to ensure the safety was on. He wasn't going to outright kill the people causing the commotion because he felt that it was his obligation to simply stop the dispute as safely as possible.

After confirming that the gun was safe for simply paralyzing his opponents, he put it back. His hood was still on to ensure no one would identify him, and just to be extra careful, his black half face mask covered up his mouth.

It was a bar and there seemed to be quite a few people around. A man was quivering on the ground as he stared at the smoking door, unable to run away. Someone else came flying out of the bar, landing on the guy on the ground. They didn't look like much, although they seemed better off than the people he had seen on the streets. They wore low grade armor, meaning they were simple mercenaries or adventurers.

Even if they were low class mercenaries, flying them out so easily was bothersome. This person was probably some guy who wanted to assert his dominance as the strongest in the city, or so Seiko thought.

However the person found the wrong time to do that, seeing as Seiko was in town. If there was one thing he hated the most, it was noise and discord, so he would end this quickly and disappear to go search for his target.

He proceeded through the door and a body came flying at him. He easily ducked and avoided the body, but when he looked up he saw about five mercenaries surrounding somebody – his target.

He didn't want to get tangled up in their mess, so to break it up, he shot one round into the roof, producing a powerful boom that caught the attentions of everyone present in the room. All the mercenaries turned their heads to see him, but that was their worst mistake.

There was a purple shimmer that sent all of them blasting away in different directions with their bodies smoking, and a lone figure stood cockily. With a proud, arrogant and excited voice, the figure shouted.

"Come on! That can't possibly be all of you! You call yourselves this city's best yet you can't even put up a good fight? Pathetic! Bring on the heavy hitters."

Her voice was wild, almost threatening. Seiko pointed his shotgun - 6-Ban - at her then put his hand on the trigger.

The lone figure looked up at him then dropped her hands. Her hood fell down and Seiko was taken aback. She had wild dark purple hair with a unique hair band fixed in it. Her olive oil skin strangely complemented her large cerulean blue eyes. Those eyes that looked at him as one would look at someone familiar.

"Hey you, have I seen you somewhere before?"

She asked, but he was too busy observing her to listen to her. He sometimes did that, a lot of the time. She had a tiny frame, almost like a 14 year old's and carried a curved blade at her back. She wore a short dress with black knee length boots and had a similar pair of arm-length fingerless gloves lined with a golden lace.

She looked genuinely confused and tilted her head, observing him – The bangs of her hair falling to the side. Still, she wouldn't have been able to see anything due to his disguise. At least that was how it was supposed to be.

"Seiko Sotomura? Where have I heard that name before?"

He was surprised when she mentioned his name and was even more with the question after that – Although he didn't show it. She put her finger to her lip, thinking about the name seriously, and the teen decided to drop his hood and mask respectively to aid her in her search for the answer.

"Ah!"

She yelled then pointed at him with vigor.

"You're the Paladin I was supposed to meet!"

Everyone turned to look at him, and he could hear murmuring amongst the crowd. He let out a depressed sigh.

***

[Racial Level Climax Achieved]

[Evolution will now begin]

[Error! Species Golden Demonic Chick not found in System Database]

[Searching for solution…]

[Solution not found… Prompting System Master #####]

[… Problem solution: New Evolution Tree must be inserted into database]

DING!

[System Master has provided new Evolution Tree]

DING!

[Error! New Evolution Tree functions are unstable. Insertion might affect current system functions]

[Will System Master ##### still insert it?]

Ø [YES]/[NO]

DING!

[Shutting Down system to insert new Evolution Tree… 3… 2… 1…]

(Powers down)

BEEP! BEEP!

[System Booting Up… 3… 2… 1…]

[System successfully booted up]

[Notification: System is currently unstable due to presence of new Evolution Tree. System is prone to random crashes.]

[System Master ##### commented: I will handle it]

[System Analysis shall continuously be performed and system shall constantly update]

DING!

[Evolution process shall resume…]

[Golden Demonic Chick evolves into Golden Demonic Hen]

[All general stats have increased]

[The target will acquire the skill [Mana Perception]]

[The target will acquire the skill [Magic Perception]]

[The target will acquire the skill [Dark Vision]]

[The target will acquire the skill [Flight]]

[All skills have been inserted]

[The King of Hell Ozvaloth will be notified of target's existence]

[… System Master ##### has blocked any form of notification to the King of Hell Ozvaloth]

[All processes complete]

[Evolution… complete]

***

Day 10

[You have evolved into a [Golden Demonic Hen]]

[Your base stats have increased]

[You have acquired the skill [Mana Perception]]

[You have acquired the skill [Magic Perception]]

[You have acquired the skill [Dark Vision]]

[You have acquired the skill [Flight]]