NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 8: Training (Part 1)
HUUMMMMMMMMM
“Woah…” Sharon expressed as she leaned on the trunk of a nearby tree, a bloodied corpse of a monster behind her, while also bleeding herself from a wound on her right arm and a slight cut on her forehead that was slowly being repaired by the spell casted on her by Amelia.
Her eyes were aimed towards the five gigantic magic circles in the sky a good distance away, the third ring reaching where she was leaning and the remaining two stretching farther away, giving off a steady and pleasant hum as it hovered above, she felt the shockwave from the blast and luckily survived it thanks to using the monster’s body as a shield and relying on the spell that Amelia had casted on her, her body was and still is shaking from surviving such a powerful force that the spell is still active even after everything had calmed down.
“To think that such power existed…perhaps I can learn it too” Sharon mumbled to herself as she felt all of her wounds and initial shakiness fade away,
“Alright. Let’s go to her” pumped herself up as she began sprinting towards the center of where the explosion came from. Passing by overturned trees and vegetation
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
“Holy…by the gods…this is unreal”
When Sharon arrived, she saw a surreal sight before her, a large part of the woods from where she was standing had been torched to pitch black, and large tree trunks that were once a strong oak color had been reduced to light gray pieces of firewood, the ground as well had been changed from a luscious and healthy green to an ashen black that left nothing alive. And to top it all off, there were hundreds of large monster bodies that were all charred to the point of no recognizable difference from the large gray tree trunks. And standing in the middle of all of this was Amelia, without as much of a scratch on her person and standing still, reading a book, slightly concerned by the surroundings she no doubt caused.
“What in the world Amelia is this?!” Sharon asked as she ran towards her friend
“Oh! Sharon! Your here!” answered Amelia, a genuinely shocked expression on her face
“Of course I’m here you idiot! Did you think that blast killed me?!” a confused expression forming on Sharon’s face
“Uhhh…maybe…” Amelia hesitantly replied as she looked away
WHACK!
“OWW! Hey what was that for?!” Amelia asked as she rubbed her head
“Seriously. How in the world are you this strong yet not the brightest” Sharon answered as she held her twitching forehead and looked away from Amelia.
“Well…I did do poorly in my written tests…and unless it was the classes related to being an adventurer, I really wasn’t that academically smart” Amelia said with a slight frown
“*Sigh* I know that. I tutored you remember? Before Miss Ophelia came onto campus during our 4th year” Sharon added as she crossed her arms.
“I do…but anyways let's get back to the present” Amelia said as she tried to redirect the topic out of their past
“Right” Sharon nodded as she too wanted to cut to the questions she had in her mind about the current situation.
“Well. if your curious about the spell I just used, it’s a Holy Magic spell that Ophelia left me. I can conjure up to twenty of those large circles and I can direct which one goes off. I only let off the first ring and it seems it can do this much damage.” Amelia gestured to the scorched landscape around them, leaving a confused Sharon to turn into a shocked and slightly scared Sharon.
“One circle…did all of this?!”
“Yes. With each ring progressively being more destructive. Although it is kinda taxing. And it’s kinda scary if you think about it.”
“No shit!”
At this point, Sharon’s mind began running wild, her thoughts ranging from ‘How in the world is this a spell?!’ to ‘If I ever make Amelia or Ophelia my enemy…there’s no coming out of that alive, Amelia is a given since she can basically make me disappear with that <Unbind> spell’ the many applications of such a spell and it’s consequences both in the political and military realm also ran through her mind but quickly died out when she realized that her best friend standing in front of her really didn’t care about listening to those types of noble oriented things, if four years with Amelia had taught her anything, she really didn’t care about what was going on in the realm of the aristocracy that didn’t concern even Ophelia.
Meanwhile, Amelia walked past her friend still deep in thought, looking at the hundreds of corpses strewn about. The monsters that attacked her in this place all belonged to a hivemind by the pattern of their attacks, it would have been annoying to take them down one by one, giving her the perfect excuse to use the spell. As she took in the devastation she brought down, a small smile was on her face.
‘To think a spell such as this existed…Ophelia truly is above and beyond…’ she thought as she picked up an ashen twig from the ground, looking at it briefly before throwing it aside.
She turned to her friend who was still in deep thought and tapped on her shoulder
“Hmm? What is it Amelia?”
“Well, now that you're here. Can I have the orb back?”
“Oh…ok” Sharon answered as she removed the orb from her front pouch, handing it over to Amelia who received it with a smile
“Thank you” Amelia replied as she held the orb in her palm, pouring a bit of magic that made the red orb glow magnificently,
The orb then deconstructed into smaller bits and disappeared into the air, Sharon had a confused expression while Amelia’s was a simple smile with a visible joy in her eye.
“It seems you were able to face off against an S-Class monster, I’m very happy you won in the end” Amelia said with a bigger smile on her face
“Yeah, thanks to the enhancement spell you placed on me” Sharon replied with a wry smile of her own.
“Well, the spell just boosts you up, it takes skill and tactical thinking regardless, that enhancement spell would have been all for naught if you didn’t know how to utilize it” Amelia added as she pat Sharon’s back.
“Hmm. I see your point”
“Look, now that you have a taste of what type of strength these things have. Me and you are going to go hunting for more. So get ready to spend a month of this grueling training!” Amelia declared as she grasped the opposite shoulder of her best friend and waved her hand in an arcing motion.
“Wait….what?” Sharon replied with a confused and concerned tone
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
A Month Later
SWISH SWISH SWISH
SWIING
SLASH
BOOM
SIZZLE
{GRAAAAAAAAA}
“RAAAAAGH!”
SLASH
{GRAAAAaaaa……}
THUD
“Hah…hah…hah…”
A battle came to a close in the forest-covered mountains in the northern part of the empire, in a clearing next to a cave, the body of a monster dropped dead, its skin was scorched, and black blood oozed out of a huge gash on its side. The many tendrils on the back were charred and cut away. Across from the blackened corpse was Sharon, her heavy plate armor was damaged, with several plates being chipped or just completely torn off. The numerous wounds on her body that were no longer protected were bleeding but had begun regenerating thanks to a green aura that encompassed her, she was sweating all over while trying to catch her breath. She lowered her halberd and collapsed onto the ground and looked over at the person behind her, she saw Amelia standing still and composed. Her armor had no visible damage but looked worn, she was holding the hilts of her still-sheathed daggers and she was looking up at the sky.
"So, Amelia, how did I do?" Sharon asked, with a tired tone, her body shaking as the thrill of battle ended.
"You did great Sharon, that was a higher-tier S-Class monster so I was unsure if you could kill it. I mean we have been going into the more dangerous dungeons so you can see my doubts" Amelia answered with a smile as she looked at her.
Sharon stared at Amelia as she heard the words,
'Yeah, I guess you would be considering I am trying to up my rank and skill, you bloody SS rank' she thought to herself before she let out a laugh that caught Amelia off guard.
"I am thankful you're helping me, Amelia, truly"
Amelia smiled and nodded
"No problem, Sharon, I also need to train before I can reunite with her. Plus, you're my friend so of course, I would help you"
"What do you plan to do about the guys trying to court you?"
Amelia looked down and Sharon saw a dark expression take form
"I plan to make them pay, but not yet. Not when my only escape route could be jeopardized"
Sharon nodded her head then stood back up and dusted herself off. Amelia then walked past her and stood at the mouth of the cave; she concentrated a flame spell on the tip of her index finger before shooting it into the dark cave.
"Looks like the entrance is clear, let's head inside Sharon"
Sharon nodded as she followed behind Amelia
Amelia once again channeled a bright flame into her index fingertip and used it as a torch while they walked deeper into the dungeon, they soon found themselves in a bigger chamber as they went deeper into the cave. When they looked up, they could see natural sunlight entering the cave and shining light over everything, and from where they were now, they seemed to be on the topmost part of the chamber with them being on a cliff that overlooked the entire thing.
Sharon took a step forward and looked down, it was a long drop, and they would probably get hurt by the fall if they did not land properly, she then saw that there was a massive monster in the center of the chamber. It was twice the size of the monster at the entrance of the cave and this one seemed to be soundly sleeping even though they made a lot of noise earlier. Sharon was about to jump down but Amelia grabbed her shoulder and Sharon turned to her,
"Something wrong Amelia?" Sharon asked as she saw Amelia looking past her and eying the large monster sleeping,
"Let me handle this one Sharon, although it is on the lower level of SS-Class, these things are still dangerous for you to face unless you are and S-Rank. Plus I am afraid you may get hurt" Amelia responded in a hushed tone,
Sharon nodded before she watched as Amelia leaped down and drew her to daggers from their sheath. She saw them before when they met the first time, these daggers had unique carvings on the blade and the hilt, and those carvings were beautiful. She then put up a barrier around herself from other monsters as she sat on the cliff and observed Amelia.
As Amelia was about to land on the ground, she activated several spells and incantations that boosted her physical ability, activated her regeneration, and ensured that she would neither be seen nor heard by the monster until she attacked.
'It's quite a massive monster, I am unsure how to deal with this one'
She thought to herself as she walked towards the sleeping monster, drawing her ornamented daggers and charging a flame spell into one of them.
‘Let’s test this out’ she thought as she then aimed the charged dagger's point towards the monster before casting in her mind
'Incinerate'
The tip of the dagger sparked with a red glow, then suddenly a long, bright blue, horizontal pillar of flame blasted toward the sleeping monster. The monster made no sign of movement as the pillar approached, then it was suddenly engulfed in a large fire that scorched its body, parts of the monster were blackened out and Amelia could see that parts of it were burnt to a crisp.
‘Huh that did it’ she thought as she starred at the charred remains of the monster, feeling underwhelmed at the entire thing
‘Let’s just see what this was anyway. <Appraisal>’ she continued to think as she activated her appraisal skill
Name: Hydravine
Status: ALIVE
Power Class: SS-Class Monster. [Fauna Based]
STR: 10000
DEF: 90000
MP: 10000
DEX: 10000
SPD: 10000
Skills:
Harden [Hardens the body of the user for a limited time. Can only be broken by a high-power attack]
Camouflage [Able to blend into surroundings for a time]
Vine Lunge [Launches Spiked and Poison barb Vines towards target]
Regeneration [Able to regenerate from minor to moderate damage]
Unpleasant Screech [Let’s out a high-pitched Screech that can stun targets]
Magic:
Elemental Magic: Poison Mist [able to disperse poison particles in a mist with a range of 50 meters out]
Tags:
‘The Green Hydra’ [Defeating this monster will grant a bonus]
‘Huh. pretty tanky thing isn’t it. Wait…’ Amelia thought to herself as she looked at the stats of the monster and began walking towards it, but as she read through it, she went back to the top of the info and the words “Status: ALIVE” caused her to jump back near the wall and immediately cast several more defensive spells on herself. One of which was <Poison Resistance XVIII>
'It's still alive!'
She thought to herself as she saw the monster slowly get up, it shook from side to side, throwing off some of the charred pieces of itself and showering the area in ash. with the sight unnerving her. Then, several, large, spiked vines burst out of its back and began to stand up straight, followed by it unfurling a large flap of skin where the face should be and revealing a large gaping maw lined with many rows of teeth. Amelia gritted her teeth as she got ready to fight,
{HREEEEEEEEEE!} The monster let out an ear-peircing shriek that caused Sharon to cover her ears but had no apparent effect on Amelia,
It then followed up the shriek by unleashing a tidal wave of purple mist from the numerous pores spread throughout its body that weren’t charred and were finished being repaired by the ‘Regeneration’ ability it had.
Amelia cursed under her breath as she ducked and dodged from the fast vines that tried to stab her with their thorns or wrap around her. She moved around the area trying her best to not get Sharon who was still on the cliff entrance, involved in the fight since she may die. She then saw one of the vines dig into the ground which forced Amelia to immediately roll to the right, she looked at where she stood and saw the vine burst forth from the ground, spitting out rocks in all directions.
'That's it. No more running'
Amelia gritted her teeth as she charged forward towards the monster, she charged up both of her daggers with holy magic and they gave off a golden glow as she ran towards the monster that had given its full attention towards the charging maiden.
The monster roared as all of the vines darted towards her at frightening speed, but as they were about to reach Amelia,
SLASH SLASH SLASH
she let loose several fast slashes and all of them fell to the ground without warning, the vines were severed, and green blood began flowing out from the rest that remained connected to the monster,
{HREE?}
THUD THUD
Amelia smiled as the monster began to back up, but she did not waste any time as she saw that the ones that remained connected had began trying to reform. She lunged forward towards the gaping maw of the monster, the monster tried to swipe her away with one of its claws but to no avail as she took a step back to dodge them before hopping forward. Amelia then drove her two daggers into the middle rows of teeth and casted in her mind
'Heavenly Thunder!'
Suddenly, golden energy surged all through the monster as it roared in pain and tried to move but found itself unable to, the crackling golden energy blowing off the remaining crusted areas of the thing and shattering many internal organs and ensuring that the regeneration ability could no longer be of use. Amelia smirked as she then casted again in her mind
'Incinerate!'
Then a large blast of blue flame fired from the two daggers lodged into the monster, they pierced through the flesh and Amelia saw the flame pillars punch through the entire body and were coming out the other end, the flames incinerating the roots of the vines on the back of the monster causing them to combust in a blue fiery blaze.
‘Yeah that’s better! Time to finish this!’
She smiled as she pulled the daggers out then proceeded to run around the monster and unleashing hundreds of slashings and cutting attacks all across the body. The monster moved and roared in pain as Amelia's daggers dug deep into its charred skin, tearing away huge chunks of flesh with every deep cut and slash, spewing out a lot of black oozy blood.
Amelia then jumped onto the top of the gaping maw and thrust both of her daggers deep down into the monster, she twisted them and pressed them harder as the monster began to erratically move around, casting another round of <Heavenly Thunder> to finish the job.
{HREEEEEEEEEEE!!!}
The crackling energy once again sending out a surge of pain that rocked the monster as it tried to move but failing to do so before it went limp. The poison mist that was released by it also dissipated into nothingness
THUD!
'Hah...finally it's over'
She thought to herself as she pulled out her daggers and sheathed them in their holders. And she sat down on the cold stone floor.
Suddenly a notification popped up for her
“Congratulations you have defeated ‘The Green Hydra’ you have been rewarded the ‘Hydra’s Halberd’ as a reward.”
Amelia was surprised at the reward and saw a few glowing particles manifest near the corpse. Walking over to them, she saw a jade-green double-headed halberd resting on the ground. Both heads of the halberd had a jagged triangular blade with a trident replacing the spear tip. The staff of the halberd was carved and decorated intricately, with designated portions more sunken than others for hand grips, it also had a round ring that was placed in the center. The main standout of the weapon was the three small hydra heads that coiled up near the end of the trident and around top and bottom of the jagged blade. Each of the heads had a pair of glowing red eyes that gave off an eerie vibe.
Amelia bent down to pick it up and used <Appraisal>
Name: Hydra’s Halberd
Weapon: Halberd
Special effect: Double-Headed halberd, able to split off into two full-length halberd’s if the user disconnects the center locking piece
‘Huh. I’ll give this to Sharon’ she thought as she stowed the halberd away
{!}
Amelia then suddenly turned around and saw Sharon jump down and rush next to her, she had a concerned look on her face as she checked Amelia all over for any wounds.
"Are you ok Amelia?! The monster was giving you a tough time from what I was watching"
"Yeah, I'm ok. I did not expect it to be that thought, thankfully the spells from the book Ophelia gave to you have been very helpful"
"What was in that book anyway?"
"It's a sort of preparation guide, Ophelia put a lot of spells and techniques I can use to not only become a better adventurer but also sharpen my sense and raise my magical abilities" Amelia stood up as she took it out from her item box and turned to face Sharon
"Can you also teach me some of the contents in that book then?" Sharon asked with puppy dog eyes
"Sure, I can. I still need to teach you as much as I can before you move to the Kingdom of June to become the crown princess after all" Amelia answered with a smile that made her best friend’s eyes sparkle.
Sharon smiled at the answer and then sighed as she began to walk towards the monster's corpse, she took out a dagger from her utility belt and began harvesting materials from the monster. She then took out a green crystal the size of a dinner plate from the gaping maw of the corpse,
"This magical crystal is different from the ones we saw during our time in academy" she said as she turned back to Amelia and handed it over
Amelia nodded as she took the crystal into her hand and then applied basic appraisal magic, she had a happy look on her face as the appraisal magic told her that the crystal belonged to an SS-Class monster.
“Well, this SS-Class was called “Green Hydra” meaning this one was one of the more powerful Hydravines we can find here in the mountains” She said as she handed back the crystal to Sharon.
"Well, it was said in class that a few monsters in this world were of SSS class or SS class, but regardless it was kind of amazing that we ran into a SS class"
Sharon said as she put away the crystal into her item box.
Amelia then turned to Sharon then offered out her hand, Sharon took it before Amelia jumped high and pulled her along. Both of them then reached the cliff entrance they came from and began to walk back out of the cave.
"Why don't we head back to the guild headquarters? We can exchange this crystal for a high price considering the class of monster" Sharon said as they exited the cave, she raised the crystal up into the sky and saw the light bounce off and dance around the crystal, giving off a clear light green color.
"That's not a bad idea, let's go then"
Soon they both arrived in the town of Shander at the base of a mountain, it was a lively town with many people running around the streets. As Amelia and Sharon were walking towards the town entrance, they saw several adventure groups head out. All of them had high-quality equipment and were chatting with one another, Sharon overheard one of them say as they passed by
"Are you sure that the monster was an SS-Class?!"
"Yeah, the person who requested the mission was someone who came from the capital!"
"Woah! To think that they would know an SS-Class was out here means that they must have run into it before!"
As the group passed them, Sharon turned to Amelia and saw that she had a dark and angered expression on her face,
"What's wrong Amelia?" she then took her aside before they reached the gate, looking down she saw her best friend clenching her fists
"One of them is here in the town" Amelia answered through her gritted teeth
"How are you so sure?"
"They placed tracking holy magic on me"
"Oh yeah. Those scum!" Sharon added as she clenched her fists and a fire burned in her eyes
"The book taught me how to sense tracking magic and other types of magic that could be detrimental to my escape later on" Amelia said as she took a deep breath
"Why don't we head to the guild and see who came this time?" Sharon asked as she gestured towards the gate
Amelia nodded and both went into the town.