Chapter Text
The third exam hadn’t started off quite how she wanted, but even being on a team full of three people she didn’t like, Olivia was still having a good time. As a kid, she had often looked up at the many airships that flew through the air, but this was the first time she had gotten to be in one.
Sini Corp created airships, which were one of the many ways Arcane Knights would get around. Magic that could create portals or teleport was scarce, so Magitech ships were the next best thing. Only certain Knights were allowed to use them, though. Lower ranks like Squires would be stuck using brooms or other enchanted objects to fly.
Sune wasn’t a Knight who had a title yet, which meant she lacked the mana of Haru or Knight gear, but she was high enough on the pecking order that she had her own airship. After introducing herself as their guide, she had led them out of the arena and to a nearby airport where the ship in question was waiting in a hangar.
It had a name that disturbed Olivia a bit since it was called the Fall of Mercy. Fall wasn’t exactly a word you would want to be associated with something that was supposed to fly. The ship itself was a bright silver color and looked sort of like a box on wheels. Wings that could come undone were folded up, but the airship was shockingly small, being about the size of a van. Along the side of the metal was where the words ‘Fall of Mercy’ were written.
Sune had taken the wheel, and up front, Nori took the passenger seat, claiming it was where he belonged. That left her, Emma, and Ash to all cram into the backseat. She somehow got sandwiched between the two of them, stuck perfectly in the middle. To make matters worse, the backseat was extremely narrow, made only for a single person… Sune’s ship kind of sucked. It was also extremely messy in the backseat since Sune threw all her trash there, so tons of fast food bags and other junk filled the floorboard, while up front, everything was spotless.
“Why do I have to sit next to useless Olivia?” Ash bemoaned.
“You’re welcome to sit on the roof.” Emma’s voice was finally no longer flat and held a bit of annoyance to it since her face was pressed up against the window.
“Someone’s hand is where it shouldn’t be.” Olivia sighed. “...That meant move it, not squeeze harder!”
The airship eventually started up, gently rolling out of the hangar before lifting into the air. Sune remained entirely silent, and her head almost dipped a couple of times as if she were about to fall asleep, but that luckily didn’t happen.
“So!” Nori announced, placing his hands on his hips, clearly enjoying the legroom he had. “Where are we going exactly?”
“Are you the Face?” Sune asked, not bothering to look at the strange-eyed boy.
Nori’s smile faltered. “Well? No, but—”
“It’s the job of the Face to ask details,” Sune responded. “Kindly don’t step over the role of your Face unless they are unable to do their job.”
Olivia was tempted to make a biting remark about not being able to do her job since she was being shoved into the floorboard by Ash and Emma, but she held her tongue and instead cleared her throat. “I’m the Face, so I guess where are we going exactly?” She forced a smile on her face.
Sune’s eyes looked up at the mirror that hung above, and the woman stared back at Olivia. Finally, she spoke. “We’re going to a small settlement. It’s called Tulip Village.”
Olivia nodded her head and casually elbowed Ash in the crotch, causing him to gasp and double over. She used that as her chance to take more of the seat for herself, and now he was the one being shoved down. “You said the incident we were going to be handling was goblins, right?”
“That’s correct.” Sune hummed. “My guess is that a small dungeon has opened. Goblins are rather weak monsters, and the dungeons they own are typically low-level. The village has managed to fight all the goblins off without any issues, but until a Knight arrives and puts a stop to the dungeon, the goblins will keep coming since those bastards reproduce like rabbits. Typically, it is illegal for you guys to enter the dungeon since you aren’t Knights, but that restriction will be lifted since I’m here. I’m going to remain on the sidelines and watch your four. For this exam, you will need to learn as much as you can from the villagers and ask them the right questions. You’ll also need to discover the location of the dungeon on your own. Lastly, you’ll need to slay the boss of the dungeon. If I have to get involved at all, it’s an automatic failure.”
Olivia nodded her head and felt a slight lump appear in her throat. Dungeons often had minions that would come out and attack while the boss remained locked away. Rarely you’d have cases like the snake that was attacking Daisy, but that wasn’t common. If the minions were goblins, she had a good idea of what the boss would be.
“Are you okay?” Olivia jumped a bit when Emma spoke.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” Olivia forced a calming breath and steadied her heart. “Alright. Since we’re doing this, let’s do this right. We’ve already introduced ourselves, and we know each of our roles, but we should figure out what we all can and can’t do. As I said earlier, I’m a blood mage. I can cast three spells. My specialty is creating weapons, specifically daggers and a scythe, which I’m at least a little good with. I also have some healing magic and barrier spells if it comes to it. I can use all schools of magic.”
Ash let out a snort of air and shrugged his shoulders, trying to look cool despite the fact that he was sitting on garbage. “I’m a wind mage. My specialty is Conjuration and Alteration magic. I have plenty of barrier spells and attack spells, and I excel at dual casting.”
“Dual casting?” Nori glanced back at his three teammates, and his smile was back. “Aw, you’re still a baby.”
“What?” Ash gritted his teeth.
“I do quad casting.” Nori held up four fingers. “Being able to cast four spells at once is the best way to use magic in my opinion.” The boy’s smug look made Ash’s scowl grow. “I have glass magic! I’ll admit the power output of it isn’t the best, but by casting the same spells over one another, I can layer them together. If an arm or leg is sliced off, I can put it back on with my recovery magic, which I specialize in.”
If Nori was telling the truth, then Olivia was impressed. Healing magic was very rare and often costly. Most mages could heal scrapes and bruises. A few prodigies like Garon or Nori could fix lost limbs as long as the limb in question was able to be recovered, allowing it to be reattached. Fewer still could even close serious wounds such as massive holes or damaged organs. That tended to be the extent of Restorative magic, less then five mages throughout history could fully regrow limbs out of nothing or replace missing organs. When a person lost something like an arm or leg, it was most likely gone forever unless they knew a potent healer.
“So, that just leaves you?” Olivia glanced at Emma. “What can you do?”
Emma reached toward her belt and pulled out a pair of guns. They were both revolvers and were old and worn down, showing years of use. The cylinder had faded and been cracked a bit, and the triggers looked a little loose. Emma popped the cylinder open, showing that it was empty. After that, she twirled the guns on the tips of her fingers.
“Spatial magic.” Emma said softly. “I have spatial magic. It’s only good for attacking and harming.” Emma casually pocketed both of the guns and waved her hands. “Tadah.”
“My Haru, she really is just like Davi,” Olivia muttered. She then shook her head and got her mind back on target. “Okay, so we all know what we can do for the most part. I think it goes without saying, but I’m the weakest link here. That said, I have a pretty good idea what sort of creature we’re going to be fighting, and I know how to beat it, so if you guys trust me, I think we can do this.”
Nori let out a chuckle. “Naturally, you’ll have to earn your trust, but for now I’ll play the role of the puppet since you’re the Face.”
“I’ll do the same.” Emma nodded and reached out, patting Olivia on the head, much to the white-haired girl’s annoyance.
Olivia looked down at Ash, who had a large frown on his face. “Ash—”
“I’ll listen.” Ash spat out. “Let’s just get this stupid mission over with.”
Sune almost cracked a smile but managed to stop it at the last moment. “I’m glad you four are getting along now because we’re about to arrive.”
“We are?” Olivia glanced out the window and let out a whistle at what she saw. “Wow? Is that Tulip?”
Tulip village was way better looking than Fri village! It was bigger than a hamlet but still so small that calling it a village might be an exaggeration. It was built around a large lake in the middle of a forest. All the buildings circled the lake, and there was a large water wheel that was set up, which used a form of magic to rapidly lift the water up and splash it back down every few hours to water the grass and plants. A heavy windmill resided near the back, which was spinning, and the people down below all looked like farmers, walking around with tools, some modern and some old-fashioned. Kids were playing in an open field using water magic or water guns to splash each other, and a few more were out on the lake swimming around. It looked extremely peaceful and not at all like a place that was being attacked by dungeon monsters.
Several of the villagers all looked up as the airship began to land. It settled down slowly, and Sune let go of the wheel. “Alright. Here we are. Remember, from this point on, I’m an observer. Got that?” She glanced back at Olivia. “You’re in charge. What do we do?”
Olivia gulped but steeled her nerves. “Well, I think we should start by asking some questions.” She forced on her smile again. “Let’s figure out what’s going on.”
It was time for the mission to begin. She’d have to focus and clutch up. She just hoped Davi and his group were doing well, too.
***
The blue portal swirled into existence within the middle of a village. Jack Larison was the first to step through it, and he was followed by Davi and then Cain. It took Ruby and Ken a moment to get up the courage, but soon the two women also stepped through.
Ken couldn’t help but take a refreshing breath of air as soon as her feet touched grass. “This place is nice. It doesn’t smell of pollution, and I can feel the chi practically pulling its way into my body.”
“Welcome to Tulip Village,” Jack said, lazily pulling out another sucker. “Something, something, I’m on the sidelines; you guys figure it out.”
‘He’s not very helpful, is he?’ Davi kept the remark to himself, and he looked around. The village wasn’t anything too extraordinary, especially compared to the one he grew up in, but it was a fairly nice-looking fishing place from what he could tell. The lake was vast and reflected the sunlight, and dozens of fish were swimming through it. The villagers had all stopped and were staring at them, which annoyed him a bit, but he ignored their looks.
Ruby also looked around, a frown present on her face. Despite being rich, she loved to hang out in the outdoors and visit villages and other peaceful places so she could help them out through the use of her Bells or magic. She had seen a lot of places, but something about Tulip was weird. It looked almost story-perfect in how it flowed, and the people weren’t put off too much, even though they were apparently being attacked by goblins.
Before she could think about it more, a surge of mana grew next to her. “Row Shadow Vault.” Davi held his hand out, and from his shadow, a fishing rod blasted out, which he caught.
“What are you doing?” Ruby asked, confused, as Davi walked toward the lake.
“I think he’s fishing?” Ken cocked her head to the side and watched as Davi reached the water and pulled his arm back, throwing the line out.
“Why?” Ruby demanded.
“Maybe he likes it?” Ken shrugged.
Cain rubbed his chin and hummed. “Row Moonlit Thread.” Silver and blue light ignited in his hand, forming into a long glowing rope that had a hook-like blade on the end of it, and he casually stood next to Davi and began to spin his rope before tossing it out into the water. Both men casually fist-bumped and then began to fish.
“What the hell are they doing?” Ruby asked.
“Maybe it’s a guy thing—” Ken was cut off when she saw Jack was also now next to Davi and had created a long blue fishing rod out of mana, which he was now using. “Yeah, it’s a guy thing.”
Ruby looked like she was about to lose it, but thankfully, at that moment, one of the villagers worked up the courage to approach. It was an older man in his early thirties who had messy brown hair and a bushy beard. He was carrying a fishing rod and had also been about to go out to the lake before they all showed up. “Excuse me.” The man spoke in a thick bumpkin accent. “Y'all folks wouldn’t happen to be the Knights, would ya?” He looked Ruby up and down, who was actually in armor, unlike the rest of them.
Ruby flipped her hair back and gave a grin. “That we are. We were told your village was being attacked? We’re here to help. Do you mind answering a few questions?”
“Whoa, really, you guys got here fast!” The man said, shocked. “We sent that request in a bit ago, but the issue wasn’t that important since we’ve been able to fight the threat off on our own, so we figured none of y'all would be showing up for a bit. Thanks for coming out this way.” The man held his hand out, and when Ruby didn’t take it, Ken reached out and shook it. “The name's Frank. Ask any question, and I’ll do my best to answer it.”
Ruby placed her hands on her hips. “When exactly did the attacks start, and what’s been attacking your village? I was told it’s a goblin threat, but they come in a few varieties.”
Frank nodded and made a motion to follow him. He led the two women over to the lake, and then, much to Ruby’s frustration, he began to fish alongside Jack, Davi, and Cain. “Aye, it’s been goblins that have been attacking us.” The man spoke in a hushed tone now, trying not to scare the fish away.
“I still don’t know what a goblin is,” Ken muttered.
“The attacks themselves started maybe less than a week ago,” Frank explained. “Northeast from here, the goblins have been showing up every night. They’re not too much of an issue, though. They’re all quite weak, and our village guards have been able to fight them off without any issue. Even someone like me can fight them off easily enough.”
Ruby nodded her head. “What color were the goblins?”
“Green.”
“Did they use any weapons or have armor on?”
“Well, they had clubs and I guess spears, but we had guns and more guns, so we blasted the fuckers to bits. Didn’t even need to pop out any spells on them.”
Ruby let out a hum. “I know what kind of goblins they are then.”
“Seriously, what the hell is a goblin?” Ken asked again but went on to be ignored.
“The fact that they were green and using basic tools tells me all I need to know.” Ruby bragged and flipped her hair. “This is a threat we can definitely handle. Goblins come in a few variants, but the most basic kind are the green ones. These ones are quite dumb and wear thrown-together pelts and have barely figured out how to use stone tools. The fact that they’re the ones attacking this place also means I know what the boss is. It’ll be a greater green goblin.”
“Are you sure?” Davi asked.
“Of course I am.” Ruby nodded her head in confidence. “Great goblins are like the regular goblins, but bigger and even dumber. One has taken charge of its horde, and it’ll be the boss of the dungeon.”
There were five goblins in total. At the bottom of this list were regular green goblins. Above them were greater goblins, which were more or less alphas in the pack. Above those goblins were ogres. Ogres were big, strong, and dumb. They were serious powerhouses and slightly smarter than a normal goblin, but still dumb. Usually, a dungeon would have a greater goblin as the boss, especially if it was a low-grade one, but every now and then, a dungeon would appear that had an ogre as a boss.
The reason Ruby was confident that the boss of the nearby dungeon was a greater goblin and not an ogre was that greater goblins led packs of goblins, while ogres led packs of greater goblins. The village had been able to fight the monsters off, which meant they had to be regular goblins, as a greater goblin would be bulletproof and would require a powerful mage or Arcane Knight to handle. Since it was regular goblins that were attacking the village, that meant they weren’t greater goblins, and if they weren’t greater goblins, then the boss couldn’t be an ogre.
There were two more ranks above an orge as well, but both those ranks were so powerful that only Arcane Knights could deal with them. The first was a hobgoblin. Hobgoblins were special because they were mages who had been stuck in a goblin dungeon for so long that they became Magical Mutants and fully twisted and transformed into a hobgoblin.
Hobgoblins were extremely powerful, since they always had a body similar to a greater goblin but also knew how to boost it further with mana, and they kept their magic type, meaning they were able to surpass the strength of an ogre easily. The humanity in them was gone, but they often kept their knowledge. A hobgoblin would usually take over a dungeon and turn the goblins and ogres within it into a robust workforce. Hobgoblins would teach them how to use better tools and to blacksmith, which always made their dungeons very dangerous, as the goblins within would go from using pelts and sticks to using shields and swords. In rare cases, they could even reach low firearm levels and learn how to imbue bullets with mana.
Hobgoblin dungeons could only be dealt with by Arcane Knights, and a hobgoblin and his army could threaten an entire city if they weren’t dealt with quickly enough. The goblins attacking Tulip, though, were still using sticks, which meant they couldn’t belong to a hobgoblin.
The last rank of goblin was the rarest and strongest. The blue oni was created the same way a hobgoblin was. A mage would get trapped in a goblin dungeon and then eventually mutate and twist. If they were a normal mage, they would become a hobgoblin, but if that mage was of a power level equal to or even greater than your typical Arcane Knight, they would become something far greater.
A blue oni was even bigger than a normal oni. Like the hobgoblin, they kept their mana and ability to use it, so their new Godlike body could be pushed even further beyond. They were also smart like a hobgoblin, and some even had the power to create brand-new dungeons out of thin air.
The goblin king had been a powerful blue oni, who ultimately met his end when the warrior Haru faced him in combat and she reduced him to less than atoms. Since then, a blue oni has only appeared a few more times throughout history. They’re almost always dealt with as soon as possible due to the power they wield.
“Seriously, what the hell is a goblin?” Ken asked again, still not in the loop.
Ruby once more ignored the girl and looked out toward the woods. “Okay, so we know they’re just regular goblins, and they’re likely being led by a simple greater goblin. I’m pretty sure any one of us could handle this threat alone, but we’re going to keep our guard up. Does anyone have a sensing-based spell that could help us locate the dungeon?”
Cain twisted his arm and pulled a fist out of the water. He tossed it next to Davi’s pile. Davi had somehow caught over ten fish already, while he finally caught his first one. Jack and Frank still hadn’t even gotten any. “I have a sensing spell. Need me to use it?”
“Yeah.” Ruby nodded. “Try to find weird mana signatures. See if you can find the dungeon.”
Cain nodded, and his thread spell faded. He dropped to one knee and held both his arms out. “Row Moonlit Pulse.” There was a bright flash of silver that erupted from him, blasting past everyone and spreading through and molding over everything it touched. His light created a feedback loop in his mind, showing him everything it felt, and in no time at all, he scanned the entire forest, seeing everything that was within. “Alright. I found it.” Cain stood back up. “I can’t look inside of it though since dungeons mess with my mana. I can lead us there, though.”
Ruby gave another nod and this time had a large grin on her face. “Alright. Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go kill us some goblins.”
The water exploded suddenly as a giant fish came blasting out on the end of Davi’s hook. Davi yanked his pole and reeled the fish in. As soon as it got close to him, he casually sucker punched the fish, killing it instantly.
The thing was easily over four feet in length and was very wide. It looked like some sort of catfish, and blood leaked from its face as Davi gripped it by the tail. “Finally.” He said. “This will do nicely.”
“What is it?” Ken and Ruby both asked.
Davi flipped the fish over and ran his mana through it, causing it to straighten up and grow rigid. His fingers curled tighter around the body, and he raised it to the sky. “Fish sword.”
“What?”
“This is my new weapon.”