Arc | Chapter. 84: The Resolve of an Adventurer (Patreon)

Chapter. 84: The Resolve of an Adventurer

Faral was… excited. Not because she was a battle crazed maniac like some other powerful beings, but because this was something in her area of expertise. Back in the past, she was the guardian of a small race called the elves; her duties went far and wide, from protecting the territory to teaching the race how to fend for themselves in combat. Whether it was with magic or combat, it didn’t matter.

She had accrued hundreds of years of experience doing this, in fact; she was confident that amongst all the dragons present there was no one else that was better than her in this aspect. Of course, that notion and security didn’t necessarily make her excited, just confident. The part that made her excited was…

Doing this for Arc…

In a single moment she appeared next to the woman she was training, and warning her through her voice she kicked⁠— the kick connected and knocked the air out of the girl, sending her rolling through the ground.

Faral was aware that she was being brutal, but it was just part of the process. By overwhelming the opponent with non lethal blows they would first grow desperate, and then after they would eventually collect themselves and begin to predict⁠— guess. And down the line, they would become true battle hardened warriors, which was what she wanted.

She wanted to show Arc her worth, the lengths she was willing to go for her. Partly because Arc was a true dragon, and the strongest of all ⁠— declaring herself the Dragon Queen in front of everyone. That, in Faral’s eyes, was worthy of admiration. Then there was also the fact that Faral had agreed to serve Arc, and she was serious about keeping her word.

Though she did hope this arrangement would not last for too long…

A sigh left her as she punched the woman away; the parry had failed and she was sent back once more.

In the end, she couldn’t help but worry about her home…

Faral was controlling her strength to be higher than the woman’s but not unbeatable, and yet it seemed like the person she was training was completely helpless. But hopefully that wouldn’t last for too long.

Shaking her head, Faral focused on the situation at hand and continued the training session under the surprised gaze of everyone present.

She had so much more to show, and this was just the beginning.

* * * * *

A close death encounter.

That’s what it was. That’s what had happened. And that’s what he never expected. His body palpitated with throbbing pain as wounds still refused to heal, but at least his condition was stable. At least… Though, it seemed like he had made a mistake.

A sigh left him, his emotions too spent to even feel anger, his body was still in an incredible amount of pain, and his mind was numb.

His name was Jaye, and otherwise he was known as the Hero of Flames. A title that would send shocks of terror throughout the land, but now he was in this condition. A deplorable and painful one. And it all stemmed from trying to kill Arc’s companion, Ceylon. He had heard they were close, but he never imagined that Arc would be that close.

In fact, almost no heroes remained close to the natives. The difference in lifespan was just too great; there was also the fact that life experiences were completely different, but in spite of those factors, the Heroine of Frost chose to be close with one. And it was a type of closeness that Jaye knew about, and something he found hard to believe.

To think Arc would be willing to fight to the death over Ceylon…

Needless to say it was a huge miscalculation, but the fuck up had already happened. He had a lot of bottled emotions, but for now he just wanted to rest and lick his wounds. The anger from being humiliated passed. In the end, he had thought his SS Tier skill was infallible, but it seemed that that was far away from the truth.

That said, even though he wished to enact revenge upon Arc, the means weren’t there. At least not for now. Right now, he was going to focus on his goals and leave revenge off the table for some time. While he was humiliated, he wasn’t going to let those emotions fester. Jaye would rather continue on his goal towards ruling Draliz rather than doing anything else.

And so, closing his eyes, he focused on recovering.

As for whether his subjects or not would do something, he was unsure of that, and he definitely wouldn’t be taking responsibility for things.

* * * * *

Ceylon was… confused. She was lost on how an innocent trip to level her up, had ended up with the Dragon of Water being exposed, and well⁠— everything else. Now Faral, the Dragon of Wind herself was personally training Meika, a B Tier adventurer. If someone heard about such a thing they would think it’s crazy, and yet it was happening right here and now.

Ceylon felt lucky to have gotten levels so easily, and incredibly blessed to have gotten a class like the one she did. Though now that she had some time to think about things, she couldn’t help but worry about potential ramifications of her class being what it was.

It meant that anyone with [Appraisal] would be able to see it, and they would quickly surmise that… well Ceylon was friends with a hero. That could potentially be troublesome for Arc, or even troublesome for other people that would be involved in Ceylon’s life.

She turned to look at Arc, who was watching the fight curiously. Ceylon was aware that she had to bring it up, but perhaps it could wait until Faral finished the training session. Though…

Ceylon turned to watch Meika being thrown around.

She couldn’t help but wonder how many sessions would Meika even last, and at the same time Ceylon wondered if it could even be considered training given how brutal the battle was. Faral was… unrelenting, for lack of a better word. But still, no one seemed to comment on it, so Ceylon just focused on watching how things progressed.

◇ ◇ ◇

An hour quickly passed.

Meika was a sweating mess, her form completely gone, and yet her eyes seemed as sharp as ever. Ceylon watched with great interest, and a moment later Faral appeared behind ⁠— this time not warning her presence ⁠— and slashed down with a blade of green magic. And Meika⁠— deflected it.

Without even looking she used her sword to deviate the attack away from her. Ceylon blinked in surprise, though Arc just raised her brow in curiosity. Meanwhile Regis’karr and Malz had lost interest long ago. As for the Dragon of Water, there was nothing to be said about him; he had had the same expression the entire time.

However, even if Ceylon and Arc had been the only ones to react, Ceylon still found it impressive. Meika had been pushed around for the entirety of the hour up until this point⁠— in fact, Faral let her magical blade hit the ground as she smiled at Meika, who still seemed on guard.

“That is enough for today,” she said self-satisfied.

Her words made Meika blink in surprise, some life coming back to her eyes. “Oh… it’s finally over…?”

“Yeah it is, you did well.” Faral smiled.

“Ah, I’m glad…”

And at that moment, Meika fell on her back. Immediately fainting much to Ceylon’s shock. Faral nodded as if it was expected, and Arc simply turned to the Dragon of Water.

“Carry her on your back⁠— piggy back ride like a human, please don’t do something stupid,” Arc said with a sigh.

The Dragon of Water nodded in response and stepped forward to carry Meika, meanwhile Arc turned to Faral who was still standing over Meika.

“Thank you, I hope you will continue training her.”

Faral nodded in response. “I will for some time.”

“Alright, let’s return to town.”

With Arc’s orders everyone began to leave, but not after Arc made sure to take some parts of the Crownbearer Wyvern and made the Dragon of Water store them. Ceylon didn’t see what she took, but it didn’t matter as she had something else in mind.

As always, she tagged next to Arc as they left, and she used this chance to bring up what she wanted to talk about. Though, admittedly she felt a bit weird about things.

The forest was deadly quiet, some of the trees were gone, and not too long ago Arc had been quite angry with the Dragon of Water. So perhaps it wasn’t the best time, but Ceylon was certain it needed to be addressed before they returned to town. Taking a deep breath, she spoke:

“Hey Arc, remember my class?”

Arc paused for a moment. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, its name has the word hero in it, so won’t it be troublesome for you, or me, or anyone close to us?” Ceylon asked somewhat nervously.

“Right, if people with [Appraisal] see it, yeah.” Arc nodded before turning to Regis’karr who was behind. “Do you happen to have another Necklace of Obfuscation?”

“I don’t have any.” Regis’karr shook his head. “Sorry.”

Then, Arc turned to the Dragon of Water who also shook his head. Arc became pensive for a moment before nodding and turning to Ceylon reaching for her neck.

“I’ll just give you mine⁠—”

“That’s also a bad idea,” Ceylon said. “In fact, it’s best if you keep yours.”

“Right…” A small sigh left Arc. “If anything comes from the name of your class, please use the crystals I have given you, this time I had to use my SS Tier skill before completely entering, but I promise you I will be faster next time.”

Ceylon suddenly felt awkward but ultimately just nodded, accepting Arc’s sincerity. In the end, all she could do was just hope that everything would be fine.

With that resolved, they headed back to Draliz to complete the request.

* * * * *

Meika didn’t remember anything. She just remembered pain, and how she had felt something at the back of her head. Then the world cleared and everything went dark. However, her mind remained conscious enough to think, even if barely. And all she could think about was question things.

Had she made a mistake?

She had asked Faral to train her, and while Meika didn’t remember most of the training she knew it had been suffering. Her mind felt fatigued, but at the same time asking to cancel would be disrespectful.

In the end, she didn’t know what to do.

For a moment she felt relaxed, but then an existential panic ensued. She had been so hyper fixated on trying to include the amazing people she met into her life, that she didn’t think about what would be the outcome of it. And now, she realized that she wasn’t ready for such a commitment.

It had been so stupi⁠—

And she jolted as cold water filled with ice cubes was dumped over her. Meika stood upright, her heart beating as she watched all of the people present. These were the people she had entangled herself with, almost forcefully even.

“Alright, Regis’karr you should use some of your fire powers to dry her,” Arc said nonchalantly.

“Have I just been reduced to a transportation vehicle and a towel replacement?” The red-haired boy sighed, shaking his head before turning to Meika. “There.”

With a flick of his finger, Meika felt a dry heat around her. It was pleasant and relaxing, and a gust of wind seemed to be hitting her which helped with everything. She… didn’t really understand what was happening, however, the situation at hand made her have a single realization.

She had chosen this.

And therefore she had to follow through with it, for better or for worse. But based on the friendly atmosphere Meika felt that things were for the better. She smiled and stood up, still somewhat wet.

“Let’s just go turn in the request.”

They all nodded, and soon they set off.

Meika felt grateful for her own decision.

It had been the right thing.

Soon enough they reached the guild, heading to the counter to finish the request. Meika followed standard procedure until finally, she was asked something she didn’t expect.

“Can I see the proof of subjugation?”

“Oh…” She blinked in surprise.

She had forgotten…

“Is this fine?” Arc asked, producing what seemed to be a white tooth. “Took it from its mouth.”

The receptionist looked at it with some surprise but ultimately shook her head. “Unfortunately it’s not possible to identify the species just from that.”

“Right…” Arc turned to the Water Paladin. “Can you take out the other parts?”

The man stepped forward and from his chest, he took out a gigantic claw⁠— Meika’s eyes grew wide as she saw the black claw of the beast be laid on the table. The receptionist blinked in shock as the guild members gasped.

“That is enough, but it will take a few days to verify it’s the right⁠—”

“Take the head.” Arc sighed.

The Water Paladin nodded and placed his hand on the table, and a moment later a gigantic head appeared⁠— quills and ink were spilled, documents were shifted by the gigantic head of the Crownbearer Wyvern.

At that moment the guild fell silent. Even Meika just stared with shock as Arc nodded in satisfaction.

“That should be enough to finish the request now, right?” she asked coldly.

“Right… that…” The receptionist swallowed. “We will send a team to make sure the place has been cleared, but the request can be considered as completed… Given it’s a Crownbearer Wyvern the payout shall be doubled…”

Then, another ruckus broke out in the guild hall.

Seeing this, Meika couldn’t help but reconsider if she truly should be grateful for the decision she had made…