Domain

volume 1 berserk interval chapter 7 - moving forward

As the light from the scroll faded we appeared in an open square. Surrounding the square were several multi-storey building. Swaths of people crowded the square. My instincts told me most of these people were stronger than me. Turning to the others I saw they were both scared stiff by these people. I decided now was not the time to stall.

Solomon: now's not the time to freeze, follow me.

Turning away I scanned the edge of the square. One of the buildings had a sign marked hotel above its door. As I approached the building the sliding doors opened to reveal the front lobby. Having ornate pillars and paintings hung on the walls gave the impression of a five star hotel. Walking to the front desk we were greeted by a young woman in a black business dress.

Young woman: hello and welcome to the gold guilds Thervil city hotel, how may I help you today.

Solomon: how much for three rooms.

Young woman: one room costs one point for 5 days. That would total 3 points for five days each.

Solomon: I'll take it.

Ourous: 3 points deducted for hotel room.

Hearing the voice in my head momentarily startled me. The woman turned around grabbing 3 keys and handing them to me.

Young woman: these are the keys for room G107 8 and 9, enjoy your stay. After saying this the woman stepped backwards and disappeared. In her place appeared a small blue orb.

Solomon: well that’s kind of cool, anyway lets go.

Turning to the hallway marked G1-10 I made my way to our rooms. Entering the middle room we marvelled at the room. A large room with several sofas around a tv. A kitchen stocked with food and any cooking equipment you could think of. A bedroom with a king sized bed made of plush duck feathers and a bathroom with a corner bath and standalone shower. All of these rooms were immaculate without a single speck of dust.

Sitting on the couches we began discussing our situation

Solomon: I'm Solomon and this is Alice, what's your name army man.

Gareth: I'm Gareth, I'm grateful but why did you help me.

Solomon: were all new here so we could use all the help we can get. Would you be interested in teaming up for now.

Having said this I held out my hand.

Gareth: i'll team up with you but if we get caught in some shit I'm not gonna risk my life for you.

Making his terms clear he shook my hand.

Solomon: I wouldn’t have it any other way. With that out the way we need to make a plan. First of all we need to learn all we can about domain. Most importantly any information on guilds.

Gareth: I could go to around to a couple bars, see what info pops up.

Solomon: hmm, ok while you do that Alice and I will go to the shops in the area. Hopefully the offer of points will loosen a few lips.

Alice: why don’t I go search for info elsewhere while you do that, wouldn’t that be faster.

Solomon: it would be, however unlike Gareth and I you're not able to defend yourself.

Alice: huh, I've been through the same amount of missions as you two, how am I any different.

Standing up I reached my arm towards Alice. As she looked at me puzzled a small snake of flame appeared on my hand. Gareth beside her sprung to his feet sensing the danger. This snake constructed of all my qi was the size of my hand. Alice looked at me frozen with fear. As I retracted my qi I felt I had made my point

Solomon: that's why.

Alice: …. okay.

Accepting her weakness Alice lowered her head. I could see that she was clenching her hands tightly.

Solomon: don’t worry, you'll become stronger as we go. It takes a long time to get used to these environments, for a normal girl your doing well.

Trying to raise her spirits I patted her head while complementing her. From the side I could see Gareth staring at me astounded.

Gareth: how are you so strong? Are you even a newbie?

Solomon: what do you mean? Didn’t you get a G rank token from your test.

Gareth: G rank token? I barely got 130 points.

Learning this I remembered the words of Ourous before my test.

Ourous: Though you don’t understand the significance of these rewards let me tell you this mission is very lucrative.

Solomon: hahaha! I remember Ourous saying about this. I guess our test was a lot more rewarding than most, right Alice.

Alice: yeah, we were lucky I guess. Who's Ourous though?

Solomon: huh, its the floating orb of light in your origin plane.

At this point Ourous's angelic voice once again appeared in my head.

Ourous: I forgot to mention I only appear to you, for them there orb's have no names. For them the orbs work more like a computer.

Understanding this I explained further.

Solomon: I named the orb in my plane Ourous to make it simpler.

I didn’t think it would be smart to reveal such a delicate piece of info

Alice: oh okay, that’s a little weird. Though I guess that suits you.

Reeling from the backhanded comment I turned to Gareth

Solomon: if we take it that your around average for the rewards form the test we probably rival a veteran of 3 or 4 missions. Considering I got 505 points and two G rank rewards that puts us in an advantageous situation.

Gareth: what did you get with the tokens?

After a short moment of consideration I decided to trust Gareth. After explaining my exchanges I turned towards Alice.

Solomon: Alice what did you buy with your token.

Alice: oh, I got this.

Reaching into her pocket she retrieved a small card, holding it before me I was confused.

Solomon: isn't this just a normal yu-gi-oh card ?

Alice: I brought an energy exchange called card master, here I wrote down its details.

Saying this she handed me a piece of paper.

G rank card master

G rank energy enhancement

240 point cost

An ability based around the numerous card games in fiction. Gives the contestant the ability to summon creatures through their cards. Unlocks rift energy. Unlike most energies it has no effect upon the user. It allows them to bring out the creatures in cards. While in use a creature will produce a constant drain on its master, during fights this drain will increase. Due to being unusable without cards one G rank card will be supplied with enhancement. May acquire another G rank card for 300 points. Any card not purchased through system will require double the energy to use. Specialized in the creation of subordinates.

Having read the details I had a few questions.

Solomon: this was a good choice for you, how's the energy cost.

Alice: to summon a card costs a tenth of my energy. The energy drain while out of battle roughly halves my regeneration, this means it will take 12 hours to fully restore my energy from empty. If I'm fighting I lose a tenth of my energy every 5 minutes. this means I can last a maximum of 50 minutes.

Solomon: okay summon your card, its best to be fully charged if we have to fight rather than losing a tenth of your energy strait out the gate.

Following my instructions she grabbed the card and held it in front of her. Dark green tendrils of energy emerged from her eyes as they began to emit an emerald light. As the energy reached the card and fused with it she crushed it.

Alice: come forth, chaos necromancer.

The light from the card congealed before her into a tall and skinny man. He had red skin along with pointed teeth and ears. Combining with his colourful tartan clothes, blue shoulder plates and tattered cape he fit the ideal description of vampire.

Kneeling before Alice he spoke

Necro: greetings master, how may necro be of service.

He spoke with a slight Transylvanian accent, completing his image

Alice: for know ill be keeping you out in case your needed. these are my teammates, treat there word as my own.

In front of her subject Alice held the air of a leader. Her words were law to the vampire before her.

Looking towards Gareth and I necro bowed

Necro: greetings masters teammates.

Solomon: nice to meet you, I'm Solomon and he's Gareth. So, what can you do?

After a nod from Alice necro held out his hand. Ten dark violet portals appeared around him, spiralling in circles. When necro lowered his hand the portals smashed into pieces before reforming into small goblin like creatures. Each creature stood at around four foot. They wore mangled leather armour over rotted flesh. Some even had entirely fleshless limbs. In their hands each creature held a spear made of bone.

Necro: these are my goblies. They have a combat power equal to an average man but their speed is greater.

After explaining so he had one of the goblies display its strength. As he said it was about average compared to a human. Moving on it displayed its speed. Zipping around the room it bounced off of walls propelling itself to new speeds. When it had reached its limit I could only make out its blur. I'm sure for my teammates they couldn’t even slightly keep up. Having displayed its abilities the goblie returned to its brethren

Solomon: wow... I feel defeated. Even with two enhancements I can barely keep up. So necro, what are the limitations.

Necro: I can only summon ten a day and they are solely dependent on me. If I fall so do they. It is also important to note that in open areas they can't reach such great speeds

Gareth: what kind of bullshit is that, if I had these in my test I could have easily made 1000 points!

Solomon: I know what you mean. I thought my enhancements were top class but compared to this... I'm nothing but a circus act.

As both Gareth and I began to curse our misfortune Alice sat down ignoring us.

A short while (and a lot of complaining) later we went to our separate rooms. Deciding to meet up in the front lobby in half an hour we separated. Alice took the central room while Gareth and I were relegated to the side rooms.

Taking this opportunity I took a quick shower before getting myself some food. Along with my race change had come a new diet. Being as I was now a carnivore I couldn’t eat anything other than meat. Looking in the fridge I found a plate with several raw steaks on it. As I walked to the cooker a thought occurred to me. I didn’t have to cook food anymore, well salamanders didn’t at least. Picking up a raw steak I held it before my face. It smelt … good, surprisingly so. Having lost most of my hesitation I bit into the raw meat. The juicy deliciousness of dead cow filled my mouth. I had no idea anything could taste so good. In a fevered rush I devoured the entire plate of steaks.

Having taken care of my needs I got dressed with some clothes I had found in the bedroom. Donning a simple t-shirt and jeans I checked myself out in the mirror. After getting my enhancements I had grown. My feature were sharper and my skin was darker making me look handsome, mixed with my new height of 6,5 I could be best described as tall, dark and handsome.

Finished inspecting myself I made my way to the lobby. As I walked the many new experiences of this world swarmed my mind. After thinking everything through I did the one thing I could, moved forward.