**

-South of the gate of the capital-

Makani could see the gate of Hau from a far. The huge frozen gate covered in frost with icicles hanging in various areas stood twelve feet high. Besides each side of the gate, two towers stood with soldiers inside standing a vigilant watch.

As the soldiers scanned the nearby area from inside the tower for suspecting activities, suddenly a harsh cold wind began to blow fiercely and the ground began to tremble causing the large icicles stuck from the gate to break.

*KRARKKK!*

The large icicles landed on the frozen hard ground and shattered everywhere. Like a shrapnel the broken pieces of the icicle flung everywhere injuring many. The soldiers that stood watch inside the tower began yelling to alert the city.

"Holos pack! Close the gates!"

*AWWWWOOOOOOOOO!*

The howling of the pack of holos echoed through out the surroundings of the capital. The city gate began to slowly close down and the people who are trying to enter the city began to panic as they attempt to push them selves inside the city.

The ones injured from being hit by projectiles that came from the large icicles that dropped, were ignored. Instead of helping the injured, some of the people fled inside the city fearing for their own lives. Few tried to help, but those few ended up being trapped outside with the injured ones.

Makani who was still meters away from the gate could hear the guards yelling along with the howling of the holos behind him right after. The screams of panicked people could be heard as it echoed from where Makani stood.

Makani couldn't see anything at all due to the unrelenting gust of snow that surrounded him. Then as fast as the gust of snow appeared, loud snarling sounds could be heard near where Makani was standing.

Sensing that he was in danger, Makani did what he can only do in his situation. With quick thinking, he used his [Earth Manipulation ability] and burrowed deep into the ground to hide. But before Makani could go underground, he felt something sharp cutting his flesh which caused him to feel an excruciating pain.

*GAAAAAAAHHH!*

Makani fell on his knees as he screamed in anguishing pain. The ground beneath Makani lowered and swallowed him and Pohaku.

Moments later Makani fainted and everything went black.

The moment Makani passed out, the ground above and around him began to crumble. Pohaku instantly stood and protected its master from being crushed by the surrounding earth. Once the ground stopped moving, Pohaku grabbed Makani's body and carried him out of the ground.

Once they were both out of the ground, the onion golen laid its master on the ground then as frantically scanned its master, its eyes began to look worried. Blood was flowing out of Makani and Pohaku didn't know what to do.

All Pohaku could do is remember that Makani desired to go inside the city and they both traveled very far just to do that. Seeing that they were near their destination, Pohaku lifted its master then began walking towards the city.

But then after moving a few meters towards the capital, loud howling and the sound of creatures running around them could be heard as the ground vibrated.

*AWWWOOOOOOOO!*

Pohaku gently laid his master's body down on the frozen ground and position itself as if its getting ready to fight.

In Pohaku's mind, its highest priority is to protect Makani no matter what. The Holos surrounding Pohaku and Makani revealed them selves from the violent gust of snow. Their canine like snout emerged as well as their sharp long fangs. Pohaku's eyes changed and sparks of electricity began to surge around its body as it tightened its fighting position.

*AWWWOOOOOOOO!*

The large wolf like Holos howled in unison and charged Pohaku.

**

-Settlement of Wapine-

Moa instantly stood up when the old man suggested that they need to hire adventurers.

"Old man I volunteer to search for these adventurers!"

Iola stood up right after Moa declared that he'll volunteer to look for these adventurers.

"Hhmm! I don't trust your decision making. Such decision will determine the survival of our home!"

The old man grabbed his wooden cane and pointed at Iola.

"And that's why you're going with him!"

"But old man who will help take care of the harvest?!" Iola complained.

The old man's brow furrowed and gave Iola an intense look.

"We've enough hands here to take care of the harvest. Kalo will also go with you to make sure you two will make a wise choice of picking the right adventurers!"

A middle aged man stood up next to the old man. Kola who's been quiet the whole time the arguments has been going have just been observing and listening. Though he himself have been struggling with everyone else, he keeps his opinion to himself to prevent the argument from escalating. But now that the old man has given some authority to him, he'll have no choice but to interfere and make sure the right decision are made.

"As you wish elder, I will make sure that the right decisions are made for the prosperity of the settlement."

The old man nodded.

"Make sure these two don't do anything foolish. I know they mean well but as you have observed, they let their emotions control their actions."

Kola bowed at the old man.

"I will do my best."

The next day the three began their journey to the capital in order to search and hire several adventurers to save their settlement from the bandits that will soon endanger their lives.

**

-Outside The Gate of The City of Hau-

After five days later, Tristan and Harry arrived at the gate of the capital and both noticed that the frozen ground are dyed with a distinct red. The air around the red dyed ground smelled a lot like rusted iron.

Tristan noticed the large paw prints around.

'What kind of Holos could have made these tracks.' Tristan thought to himself as he continued to enter the city of Hau.

Harry noticed that Tristan was in deep in thoughts about what they just saw near the entrance of the city and looked at him.

"Don't worry about it, this is the capital and the royal soldiers are here to protect everyone."

Harry reminded Tristan about the royal soldiers which are warriors that work for the kingdom. These warriors have trained all their lives to become part of the well known title as 'The Royal Soldier'. At times retired adventurers of either fighting class or support class join their ranks so that they can help defend the kingdom.

Being a Royal Soldier doesn't pay much but its a steady income and a much safer occupation than being an adventurer. The usual work of a Royal Soldier is to keep watch and making sure that the capital is safe. They never go after Holos because to them that would be like stealing the job from adventurers.

Tristan who snapped out of his brief trance after being reminded by Harry grinned.

"You're right lets go to the Adventurer's Guild so we can register for that tournament."

Inside the Adventurer's Guild many were trying to register for the tournament.

New fresh and upcoming adventurers of either Fighter class or Support were in line excited to register for the tournament. Among the new adventurers are seasoned adventurers, veterans who have been in the business for years casually registered. Many of them were chattering out loud.

"Oh boy! 500,000 gold coins! Imagine what I can do with that!"

"That's if you pass the registration process first!" commented another new adventurer.

After hours of waiting in line,Tristan and Harry stepped up in front of the counter so that they could register. As they stepped up a beautiful elf greeted them.

"Hello adventurers! My name is Misty and I am here to explain the process of the tournament registration. First may I see your adventurer's cards please?"

Tristan and Harry took out their adventurer's card and the red headed elf's face changed and looked disappointed.

"I'm sorry but to join the tournament you must be at least a Grade F adventurer to participate."

Grade F is the next upgrade to Grade G which is the grade of all adventurers when they begin.

Tristan and Harry's eyes widened in shock. Tristan became annoyed and started to complain.

"What?! After all the distance that we've gone through just to register now we find out that we can't?!" Tristan exclaimed at the blue eyed red headed elf.

"I'm sorry but its the rules. You still have three weeks to register and it seems you're both about to upgrade. Maybe you can use the remaining time to do some quest so that you can upgrade and join the tournament. Other than that I really can't help you."

"But. . .!"

Before Tristan could continue Harry stopped him.

"Thank you for the information ma'am, can you show us the board where we can find the bounties?"

"Sure its in the third floor of the building, the stairs are far left from here."

"Thank you."

Harry bowed down and grabbed Tristan who was starting to become annoyed. Once they were in the corner, Harry pushed Tristan to the side.

"Are you using your brain? Don't forget that your actions reflects that of the clan. If you had continued your stupid little outburst there many of the rivaling clans who has it against us will enjoy that."

Tristan didn't say a thing back to Harry because he knew that what he said was right. He should have controlled himself. After taking a long deep breath Tristan looked at Harry.

"You're right I'm sorry. I should have controlled my self. Now lets go to the third floor and do some bounties so that we can upgrade."

The difficulty of upgrading depends on the class of adventurers. Fighter classes tend to upgrade slower due to them being the strongest of all class. Support class is in the middle while the Merchant class adventurers has a special way of upgrading.

Since the merchant class are known for having the least ability to fight, their way of upgrading is through the money that they earn.

For a merchant class Grade G to upgrade to Grade F they have to have gained 1,000 gold coins. To upgrade from Grade F to Grade E they have to earn 10,000 gold coins. To upgrade from Grade E to Grade D they have to earn 50,000 gold coins. To upgrade from Grade D to Grade C they have to earn 100,000 gold coins. To upgrade from Grade C to Grade B they have to earn 500,000 gold coins. To upgrade from Grade B to Grade A they have to earn 1,000,000 gold coins.

To become a SS grade for merchant class adventurers certain requirements must be met but no merchant class adventurer has ever reached that grade in history. The highest grade that's been seen in history is that of Grade A but the adventurer that reached that grade only became that certain grade in a brief moment due the adventurer's age.

Nicolas the merchant class adventurer became a Grade A adventurer on his death bed after many years of establishing Pea town. Every adventurer has heard of the legendary merchant adventurer who used all his resources to build the town north of the boarder of the Kingdom of Akau.

**

-Somewhere In a Cave-

Inside a cave covered in moss Makani laid on the moss covered ground and besides him is Pohaku with a worried look. The cave is illuminated by various different moss that hung all over the cave walls. Makani's eyes opened and the first thing he saw is Pohaku's worried looking expression. He then attempted to get up but as he got up Makani felt a stinging sensation on his back. Pohaku instantly came to Makani's aid and helped Makani to get his upper body up from the moss covered ground. As Makani looked up to Pohaku, he was shocked at what he saw.

"What happened?!"

Pohaku's left arm was missing and both his horns broke from the battle against the wolf like holos while Makani was knocked out. Since Pohaku has no way of communicating Makani will never know what has happened. Then suddenly an old woman dressed in long dark green ragged dress wearing a blind fold came walking in the moss covered cave.

"Ahh! You're awake! Kekeke."

The old woman woman laughed when she noticed that Makani had woken up.

"Your summon is barely holding on. You should thank it for bringing you all the way up in my cave. Kekeke."

Makani was shocked that the blind old woman knew that Pohaku was his summoned creature. Curious about it, he asked the old lady.

"Old woman how did you know that Pohaku is my summoned?"

The old woman turned her head and laughed.

"Kekekeke! I can smell the magik off of it!"

Makani's brows furrowed from confusion.

'How can a blind old lady smell magik' Makani thought to himself. The old lady continued to laugh after sniffing the area.

"Kekekeke! You should say goodbye to you summoned he's about to go back to his world!"

Then suddenly after the old lady mentioned about Pohaku, the onion golem stood at attention in front of Makani and saluted. After saluting, Pohaku began to glow then its body turned to dust. The large yellow gemstone that hung around Makani's neck cracked and also turned into dust. But as it turned into dust a small purple spherical stone dropped out of it.

*SNIFF SNIFF*

The old woman's nose switch and began sniffing. Makani grabbed the purple spherical stone and observed it.

'A Mana!' Makani thought to himself.

Makani quickly ingested the purple marble when he noticed that the old day is sniffing closer to him and a voice began telling him about the ability he had just gained and its details.

[Psychic Communication ability obtained]

[Psychic Communication ability] This ability allows Makani to form a psionic communication line with another being, essentially rendering them capable of having comprehensible conversations with others using their minds. The user is able to open up channels of communications with others who may be incapable of physical speech or communicate if unable to physically speak.

"The strong magik that was there! It disappeared!"

The old woman began to frantically point at Makani.

"The magik!"

Makani was starting to feel uneasy around to old woman so he decided to stand up and endured the pain he was in. As he stood he took out some fruits that he stored from his DS ring and offered it to to old lady.

"Old lady would you like something to eat?"

The old lady crossed her arms and turned her head.

"Hmm! The goddess of moss doesn't eat food of the mortals!"

Makani was chewing the piece that he bit off from the fruit that had take out of his DS ring but when the old lady claimed that she's a goddess, he almost choked on the piece of fruit that's in his mouth.

**