(Chapter 2 of 5 and all parts are Leonel’s narrative)
By: Okasamyn (GEEU IGN: Hydrorgyrum)
Part 7: Please Take Care of Our Problem Child, Lieutenant!
Let’s practice our script for this morning as I walk to my office in the Navy’s Viron HQ, “I can use some vacation… really. Please? Wait? What? OH! COME ON!!! I HAVE A SISTER WAITING FOR ME IN BAHIA! If you lay your filthy hand on her, I’ll shoot you with all the guns I have. Oh, my bad. Fine! You are GIVING ME 2 MONTHS OFF! Thank you.” I thought in my head.
Yeah right, if only it was that easy to get a vacation. I sigh for the nth time today. I saw my not so clean desk… Here it is AGAIN! They always, without fail, dumped this monster hunting task to me. That rose lady really likes to request for monster suppression every day. A new request… EVERYDAY! Can’t she just hire someone from Vespanola mainland to do her gardening?
And this Staff Officer Pharrel is at it again. Pilfering from Castilla supplies and putting the blame on poor little me. The things I do for this Island is enough to land me the medal for most enslaved officer in the Navy.
Oh! From my office window, I can see Adriana and her monster ladies entourage on their periodical assessment of Viron Island… Tee-hee… I AM DEAD, I can feel it. Behind her I can see the familiar faces of the pioneering family who helped me. However… erm… why do I feel some sort of storm brewing.
I was about to welcome Adriana into the HQ building when a HUGE BLACK THING SWUNG A DANGEROUS LOOKING CURSED BLADE TO, NONE OTHER THAN, THE ADMIRAL! Adriana managed to block the blade mere millimetres from her Admiral’s hat. His other sword was about to slice into Adriana’s unguarded abdomen but I blocked it with my rifle. That black thing was crazy enough to even mock her.
“Hmp, lady glasses still can’t win against me!” the thing in black armour said.
Adriana tried to calm herself and almost screamed to the pioneering family to control the brat. Oh, she’s is angry, very angry. They managed to calm Adriana with just a few words. As the pioneering family explained to all of us, they rescued this berserker thing in black with amnesia in Armonia and he tailed them for who knows how long since then. Apparently his name is Siegenite Rigel but everyone calls him either Siege, brat, rascal, or black berserker.
Adriana, in turn, demanded that the brat will not set foot inside HQ building and strictly stay at the front yard. Adriana invited the pioneering family to come with her in the meeting with all navy officers in Viron for some reason.
It’s about 15 minutes into the meeting, the pioneering family, Adriana, and Pharrel were now talking about some matters regarding the stolen Castilla supplies. The thing in black invaded the meeting room and came to me. He asked if I knew about powerful monsters and we had small talk about it. He became very excited… excited enough to almost kill people who tried to stop our conversation.
The next thing I knew, they all kicked the two of us out of the building and Adriana’s scary secretary gave me a mission paper dutifully signed by Adriana. She really must be desperate to have Siege go very far away from her.
It says, “Leonel, I know that you are not that wild anymore, you have become more mature since our academy days. So go and teach this BRAT, named Siegenite Rigel, SOME MANNERS or I’ll be the one shooting at you with my revolvers! From The Vespanola Navy Admiral, Adriana”
Oh no. NO. No. No. No. NO! As if I have a choice. I’ll be calling him Siege when I feel like it. He must have given Adriana a lot of headaches during their time together to make me, a Lieutenant none the less, baby sit this brat. I sighed surrendering to my fate. Siege was very happy that we were going monster hunting. Let’s just go finish this daily hunting trip, I’m already tired.
Siegenite and I headed off to my daily monster hunting request. I am slowly becoming more and more of a monster hunter instead of a Lieutenant. On the other hand… I was happy that THOSE PAPERS ARE NOT MINE ANY MORE! You can go ahead and delay them all you want and try to escape Adriana’s wrath, Mr. Staff Officer. Oh, I guess you failed to escape because Adriana is here and is very angry.
On the way to our target site, in Lucifer Castle Basement, we passed by Leona and Lynn in Crow Forest. The two black knights had a not so small clash of blades. It ended when a Gluttony and its mobs came. Seige went to the monster saying that Lynn was very weak.
I explained to Leona the situation and the two ladies left laughing saying “See you around, brats.”
… My pride as a man is hurt and this berserker brat does not care and has no discipline what so ever. He continued to rampage and annihilate the monsters and I just quietly followed him. This guy is freaking over powered, it makes him so scary. Did I mention that his childish murderous smile is… SUPER SCARY!? I’ll just step back and watch some more.
Part 8: Lieutanant and Doom Slave’s First Field Trip Together!
We arrived at the entrance to the castle basement, waiting for us was the butler named Raven. He tries to woe girls, only to be met with disaster. He guided us up to a point and said that he will be leaving the two of us from this point on because he needs to clean the castle and prepare dinner for the two ladies.
Seige, asked for my permission to rampage. I let him rampage all he want but no damages to the basement itself. He nodded and went off like a little kid released in a playground. I, as a mature adult, followed him and just looked at the monster corpses lining the floor behind him.
Sometime later, Siegenite cut 3 Death Wraiths, 1 Elminor, and a dozen other boss monsters… solo. This child in an adult’s body is very scary. He took all of the monster drops and gave them to me. He said it was all shiny and nice but it’s not the thing he was looking for.
He told me he is looking for something very red or black and shiny. But it’s not one of those Devil’s Dream gem. It’s not a common gem he said. He also mentioned that it gives of a certain feeling of warmth and has a good feeling to it. Sorry to break this to you… all the gems, crystal, in fact the whole island is cursed. You won’t be able to find a warm and good gem here. Or so I thought.
We arrived into an untouched part of the basement only because he killed all hundred or so monsters in the way and destroyed several walls. He destroyed walls without my consent and he tried to be cute when he apologized to me. From the damaged walls… lo and behold! Montoro’s secret treasury is found! More like secret dungeon. Hmm, somehow this place is familiar… I seemed to have been here before. Deja vu?
Anyway, the huge space contained this insane amounts of treasure, specimen samples, bottles and boxes of unknown items, and paper. In the middle of it all is a small black crystal inside a glass case and it was emitting a strange warm aura. It was the size of an army mandated pocket watch, it’s that small… or big for a crystal.
Seige’s face lit up in a genuine smile and said that he has found what he is looking for. I gave him my congratulations. I asked what it was for and he just tilted his head and replied that he has no idea what to do and what it is. I sighed, I told him to get the small crystal. He broke the glass case without any care what so ever and placed the black crystal in one of my coat pockets.
“Take care of this for me!” He said with a huge happy and childish smile.
I accepted the task and we headed back to the port town finishing up todays monster hunting mission. It was already night when we met up with the pioneering family and noticed a very tired Pharrel in the back ground. Condolences Mr. Staff Officer, Adriana has killed you many times today.
Seige and the pioneering family entrusted to me the black crystal for the night. Morning came, I was still sleeping when Siegenite besieged my room and pulled me out to the hallway with Adriana slapping a piece of letter on my head and handing me a small pouch bag containing a special kind of blue naraka crystal.
She said, “This will be your mission details. GO AND DON’T REPORT BACK TO ME EMPTY HANDED!”
They all left me alone after that. Eh? Eh? What?
I did all my morning rituals. I read Adriana’s mission order and almost fainted in shock from the contents. Next, I looked at the black crystal and the blue crystal. The two crystals were of identical shape and quality, almost as if they were siblings.
I was the one who found this blue crystal a few months ago and I sent it to Adriana with the help of the pioneering family. Upon Adriana’s further investigation it is found to be just a special kind of naraka. Now it’s back to me. Somehow, I feel like I should not separate these two crystals. I placed them in separate pouches and they will come with me wherever I go.
Part 9: Leiutenant, the puppy likes you!
That afternoon, I was on a merchant ship leaving the island… I wonder who will replace me as monster hunter. Good luck to the whole Island. But I guess Adriana will be there for a long time, fixing this and that. I bet when I return Pharrel will be in a hospital for stress management and fatigue. Serves you right!
While I was out at sea with the pioneering family and Seige, we were met with some pirates, but they were struck with Seige’s Tyrving. One of his skills, Imuditia, enable him to shoot black wind blades that can reach targets around 13 meters ahead and the pirates were terrified of it. They tucked their tails and the pirate ship quickly turned and speed out of his berserker range. Yes, this brat is scary.
After that, he came to me and ask that I praise him for a job well done, so I pat his head. I can hear the pioneering family talking about a troublesome person is good at taking care of a problem child. Sorry for being a troublesome person.
I felt like I’m taking care of a problematic little puppy for the entire sea voage. Seige was tailing me like a puppy, wants my attention like a puppy, and begs like a little puppy… He has mastered the little puppy heart melt techniques and is now using it to win over a man. Oi, who told you how to do that?! I’ll shoot them down and punish them for child abuse and harassment!
Part 10: Leiutenant, back to the Orpesia Continent: Keilce
I felt like it was all just yesterday I was still in Viron, now we set foot in Keilce, Bristia. The Governor-General even welcomed us and I felt a sharp death glare from the Blood Navy red eyed guard or officer. They still hate Vespanola, I can feel it. With the small talk, they all hurried us to the flying ship bound for Armonia. The Scientist were very reluctant to let us ride it but, gave up under the order of the Governor-General.
He is a very sly fox just like my dad. I wonder since when were they preparing all this, you can’t just pull out a flying ship like this in a few hours. Foxes… all of them! I found out that this sly fox, who is just a bit older than me, got wind of my information from Raven. I knew it, the bird was sending information about Viron to this fox. So some, if not all, of those letters to his family is actually letters to this fox!
Oh… Oh… Oh my. What sort of things did the pioneering family do to make even the highest seat in Keilce pay his deep respect to them? I asked them what happened here and they all told me that the pioneering family helped Bristia obtain independence. The main villain in the story was Mr. Baldy. That bald ugly pervert, Renould. Ahahaha, I now understand, just from the mention of the name.
In my academy days, after Adriana and Elisa graduated, the baldy became a substitute professor. We were always at odds for some unknown reason, unknown reason on my end. Mr. Baldy always tried to discipline me with the custom made shotgun he always carried. I barely graduated because I nearly killed him in a bloody practical exam in the forest. Don’t worry, none of it was my blood. I should have killed him then. He is one of those perverse and corrupt people in the army.
My stories in the academy attracted the attention of this little girl who was wearing the Blood Navy uniform and her red eyed guard. Her name is Cano Kielce, the little sister of the Governor-General. The older brother was glaring holes on my skull while I was telling the stories to the little sister and her guardian named JD.
If Ludin and Cano were to meet, I wonder if they could be friends. The first step to peace, is friendship between kids. Yup. Ludin and Cano will be good friends. I’ll take Ludin to Keilce in my next vacation.
Part 11: Leiutenant, back to the Orpesia Continent: Armonia
Half a day of flying, we reached Armonia. I was given a special permission to enter Armonia only because I got the pioneering family backing me up and I have a mission document. I have no idea that Armonia also hates Vespanola, it must be those people from Strata Vista. Who else is there?
The people from Keilce said their temporary good byes and started their vacation in Armonia, how I envy them. Seige pulled me and we rushed into the cathedral. It was a very big cathedral and inside I met the Deputy Commander of the Armonia Holy Knights, Sirius Rigel, and the current saint, Anis Ellen. It turns out that Siegenite is the little brother of the Knight Deputy Commander Sirius. Just what happened for these brothers to be the total opposite?
It turns out that… it’s a long story. At the end of the story, I showed them the black crystal in my possession. Anis told us that this is certainly a fragment of a special ore only found here in Armonia. A huge piece, rather the main crystal is in this place called El Adio.
I handed it to the care of the saint. She said her thanks as she placed the gem close to her heart and she felt something from the crystal and looked at me. Anis gave it back to me and said that I should keep it until we get to El Adio.
From then on, it was about tomorrow’s mission. I got introduced to some high seats in Armonia including the little pope. Siege pulled me here and there and all accessible areas in and around the Cathedral. Then ate dinner while the puppy brat kept hounding me for stories about my academy days. And we headed to our cathedral guest rooms to rest from the long journey and long day in relative peace. Tomorrow we begin preparing for the battle ahead.
I wonder how and when did the special black crystal ore fragment got into Viron… look no further than Strata Vista! It should be them! It’s their dream to attain the lost power of the gods with whatever means necessary. Even stealing a rare magical stone is easy for them. Montoro was mainly doing his experiments on the island and when he died, I took all of his research papers that was left behind. Raven also handed me thick bundles of all the research papers he found.
Montoro’s research, what’s left of it in paper, are now under my care, rather illegally if I may add. Let’s just be quiet about that, only Raven and I know that those papers are in my possession. Not even this sly fox, Caisse Keilce, knows of the existence of those papers or maybe he does.
From those papers, I learned that they were experimenting on humans with some sort of magic ritual. They did all that to make a small pocket of twisted time-space to capture a god governing the world’s master mechanism. All their experiments in the island in turn made Viron’s time distort without any of us knowing it.
That night I had a very strange dream… in that dream I saw someone with the description of Executioner Anis and Saint Berthe. They were sitting on the floor back to back inside a small white marble surrounded by black. Their hands were entwined and both were sleeping peacefully. I think this is the assurance that they need. The assurance that the two precious “fake” entities were still somewhere inside a marble of twisted time in a distorted world.
I woke up in the middle of the night and stood looking out the window. I saw the stars twinkled and felt the cool winds howled. I spotted some movement near the cathedral, a few knights were going in and out of a small gate. I think it’s from Ap… Apa… Apos-pas-pos… A-PASTA-POTATO!!! Whatever they called it. I see some injured knights. Seems like Armonia have their own problematic basement like Luci’s basement. I continued to spy from the window for a few more minutes until sleep called me once again.
Part 12: Lieutenant’s Preparation for the Journey to the Abyss
Breakfast time! This thing they called Armonia Special breakfast was served as requested by Knight Deputy Commander Sirius and it is filled with pepper… Armonian’s like their pepper and they take it “Siriusly”. While on breakfast I told them about my dream last night. They all looked at me with shocked faces.
Of all of them who got strong connections to the alternate world, why am I the one to get that dream? Sirius asked me exactly that. I retorted, how am I supposed know. It just happened! Maybe that black crystal showed me…?
After we finished breakfast, Knight Deputy Commander Sirius got an official mission letter from the pope. The mission is to investigate and eradicate a new horde of Abysmal creatures with as little man power as possible. This time, Armonia is getting some helping hand from Keilce and Vespa… Viron’s Navy. No mention of Vespanola here, just Viron Island Navy… they do not want to have any direct connection to Vespanola, it seems. Hence, Armonia’s letter to Adriana who originated from Illisia.
Joining us in preparation was the people from Keilce who wanted to assist us in this particular mission. The fox, the red eyed person, little Cano, a scientist with a flying cube, and the fox’s secretary. Fox, do not lie to me! You were also preparing for this since you heard it, I don’t know how many, days ago!
The day ended with some battle plans before we went to dinner. In one day we were all prepared to head out. Before sleep called me I felt a strange presence from the blue and black crystals I kept close to me. It was as if they were warning us of impending danger. I understand, I’ll tell them all to be extra careful during the mission.
Morning came and all of us in the mission received the blessing of the Armonia Holy Light in a religious ceremony and they had us all drink a special type of holy water and take a few bottles of it. The pope also blessed our weapons and ammo, the items received some holiness and with that we were prepared for the mission.
They say that the Abyss will decay your mind and body if you don’t maintain the Holy Buff. I was surprised at the fact that Siegenite skipped this. Sirius told me that he’s an exception to the rule because he is a creature called an “Abyssal Knight”. His official title was Doom Slave… creepy things for a creepy person.
We did the last check and headed out. In our group we have Sirius, Siegenite, Saint Anis, Caisse Kielce, Cano Keilce, JD Archel, Marchetti, Olivia, the pioneering family, a few other elite knights under the direct order of Sirius, and me. A total of 24 people in this squad.
Part 13: Lieutenant’s A-PASTA-POTATO Field Raid!!!
Welcome to Apastapotato, correction, Apostadero! I can already visualize the horrors that we will be encountering in the next few set of maps. Marchetti and Cano stayed here to help with the injured and examine the new strain of Abysmal Decay. Unlike the previous decay symptom where in you only go insane and die. This new decay includes black Armonium ore growing from untreated wounds.
Treatment is simple though, just pour some drops of pure Armonia holy water to the fresh open wound. This is all so new to me, if Elisa was here… she would have been in a frenzy right now mixing her scary potions of certain death of the tongue.
We also stopped here for a bit for some updates about the movements of the enemy. Seige was getting impatient and was annoying me like a small puppy who wants to be free of its leash. This puppy was dragging me here and there and all over the place.
Everywhere we go in Apastapotato… A-POS-TA-DE-RO, people stared at me like I’m some sort of monster. Maybe not towards me, but towards Siegenite. I can sense their fear from all directions. Please be kind to me… I am just a Lieutenant from Viron who is currently being pulled by a berserker puppy.
We returned to the main group and it seems Caisse and Sirius agreed on a few raid plans. Siege was the first one into the other side of the safe zone. Of course, he pulled me with him. This puppy… I really want to ask, WHY ME?!
Part 14: Skulls, Blades, Pistols, Books, and a Lieutenant
We passed the bridge of En Celar after we killed or purified a lot of ghouls/demon/fallen humans, they told me this area had the weakest of all enemies, a kind of appetizer. Well, this appetizer is still scary. I wonder how this is going to go, with appetizer already this powerful.
Now, we are in El Templo and still killing or sending the dead to the afterlife. In this area, we met white things that had a super slap. They were easily done in by Siegenite like they were mere… butter against red hot swords. So this is the bread and butter part of the menu… Good! This map is still do-able even on solo.
We met up with five more people just before the next area. Correction, they were six. Memento Mori High Priest Van, Memento Mori Priest Vincent, (Supposed to be Knights Commander) Laura, Memento Mori High Knight Patrick, Memento Mori Member Berthe, and the Undead Charles.
The floating skull with skeleton hands is noisy, like a beagle-puppy. He almost made JD and Olivia faint in shock seeing a talking skull… HOW IS THIS SKULL ABLE TO TALK?! Oh! So this Berth the real version of the Berthe who was sleeping in my dreams. Both versions are cute, but I pass, too young. This world needs more cute and gentle girls like Berthe! I am surrounded by “Monsters”! Adriana, Leona, Lynn, Elisa, Grandies, and Veronif… all monsters!
We got a little break before we go in the next area map. Anis and Berthe came to me and ask that I tell to Berthe my dream last night. The mute girl breathed a sigh of relief and mouthed a thank you, which I humbly accepted. Such angel, so adorable. Ludin and Berthe will be friends in no time.
Again, why me? Of all the people connected closer to the other world, why was it me that had that dream? Correction, the vision of a small white marble inside the abyss of black. I really have to work on my terminology. Ok. Let’s review my connection to all this… mess!
First: It’s Strata Vista’s Montoro’s fault. Some sort of twisted time started in Viron.
Second: I came into contact with Montoro for castle security duties against thieves lurking in the island. Some of my memories are a mess, I certainly cannot remember what I did during a lot of those guard work.
Third: I think, the fact that I got into that certain incident, made Montoro put that that magical shield. The incident was about me being lax one night and let some monster inside the castle to run wild. But I can’t remember what happened and all I knew of that incident was from a paper report.
Fourth: The fact that Siegenite and Anis let me carry that black crystal is a dead give-away of some sort.
Fifth: Then, there is that blue crystal which is like a sibling to the black crystal we found.
Oh, I am connected… somehow, one way or another… wait a moment. Did that freak Montoro did something to me? I need another brain for this. Fox over there, I need to talk to you. I spoke with the sly fox Caisse about my realizations. He said that it’s very highly possible and the pioneering family added that Montoro was conducting mind control experiments. This is creepy, to think that a freaking old man did some experiments on me.
I asked Siegenite why he was attached to me. He said that, although it’s very faint, he can sense a certain kind of presence in me. It was familiar for him in this word he is so unfamiliar with. So there is definitely a connection between that twisted time in Viron and the twisted time here in Armonia.
It’s been a long standing belief that Montoro was the cause of all this time distortions. Yup, he’s better dead than alive. Who knows what else he could have done if he lived. Let’s just put this in the back of our minds, for now, and continue the exploration mission.
Part 15: Books and Bracelets are Fearsome as Declared by the Lieutenant
One step in El Soltado and it became a salty battle. A few bosses and their horde gathered to welcome us. This is one salty and thick cream of mushroom soup before the main course. On to battle positions, the melee fighters formed a sort of meat wall so that us range can shoot all we want. Behind us were, the magicians casting their magic.
The warlock of the pioneering family, Berthe, and Van each unleashed their massive area skills and cleared the enemy horde to a safe level. These 3 magicians, are scary. Van walked up to the enemy lines and unleashed another area magic this time… it was HUGE. Van is creepy, emotional, and got scary magic spells. Berthe is cute and gentle with a noisy Charles. Both of them are frightening.
The magic users unleashed huge area spell after spell. With all those area spells the number of enemies dwindled in so little time. So now we have some resources to face the boss monsters. Dangerous people, just dangerous.
Meanwhile, Siegenite, was already in the middle of the map in berserker mode. Severed monster arm here, cut head there, little pieces of abysmal monster everywhere. The berserker puppy is on the loose!
A couple of hours later, one-third of our ammo is spent and we have a problem. The black knight is still in a fit of blind rampage and looking for a fight. With the last of the abyss monsters chopped, he turned his insane eyes to us. Erm, he’s coming here with a murderous smile on his face.
“Let me play more.” With that Siegenite rushed to our position with the intent of cutting us.
Sirius managed to thwart the initial attack with his shield and said, “Come to your senses already, our enemies are all gone!”
They tried to talk some sense to the berserker puppy and none of it was successful.
Part 16: Lieutenant’s Leadership is Level 13, With a Smile It Becomes Level 14
Our melee friends were becoming weaker and weaker by the second from Siege’s attacks. It just occurred to me that I have to do a certain thing to get the puppy to calm down. Yes, I have a plan. No one can stop me and I won’t let anyone stop me! I ran up to the black knight with speeds that can’t easily be caught.
I placed my hand on his head and I said with a kind and gentle smile, “Keep your head cool and your heart warm.” My own magic and magic words, my motto in life. Nice right?
Like some sort of magic he calmed down, regained his senses, and looked at me with a shocked expression. He then looked around at the carnage he did and asked if he did something wrong. Vincent uttered that he nearly killed us all. Siegenite tilted his head in confusion but apologized anyway.
Laura walked to me and press the dangerous end of her revolver to my forehead and said, “Was that a magic for seducing people into submission?”
I answered that I have this natural ability to snap people back to their senses. Like a spell to rid people off their confusion, unwanted sleepiness, and more. A useful spell in battle, I say so myself. And, please don’t misunderstand, that smile was just a smile, nothing more.
I suddenly heard Siege’s loud voice saying, “… He’s got this smile and it made me warm in my chest and made butterflies flutter in my tummy! So bright and shiny everywhere and… and… I made me want to hug people!”
Oh. My. Gosh. Was it really…?
Caisse walked to me with that dangerous looking Large Caliber IBR, “You can even seduce a man with that smile. You are just too dense to notice anything.” And he pat my shoulder as if saying good luck in hell or have a safe trip to hell or best regard when I’m in hell.
Erm… I am so sorry. Did they really saw that smile? Wait… Was I capable of seducing people with just a smile? So then, if that is so… Ah! Maybe that was why Mr. Baldy and so many men, in my academy days, wanted to kill me… because I kept the attention of the girls to me even if only Elisa and Adriana dare to come near and use me as their test subject. REALLY?! Was my academy life really like that?! I thought the girls feared me so I stayed away from them… Shoot, I missed many opportunities to get a girlfriend!
The Syndicate Series by Okasamyn 