Chapter 17

Finally, two weeks had come to pass. The world had continued to spin, the sky remained above, and the earth remained below. Amy had gained more control over her power, and also learned many useful elemental spells. Although, the power of which made Liam, a mighty dragon, slightly worried. ‘Elemental magic, is about pronunciation and understanding. Literal translations have no benefit, you have to understand the words as if they were your first language’, he had lectured her, ‘It comes from the ancient magical text: Dollayrdaryn; the only remains of the time before the cataclysm. We cannot translate it nor do we have the entire text, but what we have, when uttered, can conjure a change in the world based upon your will and imagination. Those words are our magic, we express our will, and eventually with diligence, those words will be manifested into reality. In that way, the principle of magic is no different than everyday conversation’.

“Yo Amy!! you dreaming about finding a lover”, Shatira said as she walked up to Amy hanging off her shoulders, “Hmm, not bad, not bad. I’m sure you can find somebody, your scoliosis is kinda cute”, then Shatira’s hands began to move towards Amy’s chest, “I’m sure you got a decent size let me see”.

Amy responded without words but her body, an elbow to the face to be exact. Her eyebrows were twitching furiously.

“Owwww!! Pff Violent woman”, Shatira stomped off, with a smirk on her face.

"Shatira! I wouldn't be so violent if you acted more moderately!", Amy called after her as she followed a smirk likewise on her face.

"I can't help it, I'm not a nice girl like you. My personality is bad. You had a nice family. I have no family", Shatira responded nonchalantly.

Amy's expression softened upon hearing the her response, "Just try not to be an idiot, besides we're in a party together, so don't act like you're all alone".

Shatira was silently walking towards their rendevouz location, and that silence was proof that Amy's words had reached her.

Shatira wasn’t a bad person despite the first impression she gave off. To be direct, she was just a little rowdy and uncouth. Sure, she acted arrogant, aloof, but if she spoke to someone it meant she acknowledged them. In the two weeks they spent in conjured dungeons, Shatira briefly explained her circumstances, Amy had learned that she was from a rough area in the Bronx. Her Italian father was in the mob, while her Jewish mother was a mixed fairy, a pixie to be exact, ten generations relocated from The Tower of Pescali in the Alps. 'It was sure to be some wierd mob-fantasy genre crossover backstory', Amy thought using her accumulated knowledge of plotlines to make things more relatable.

The Earther’s that followed her around: she didn’t care about them, she didn’t relate with them, after all they did nothing for her and her brother. She had no real use for them, they congregrated around her, but she never tried to recruit anyone, isntead she just took 'convienences that was offered. Now she was no longer Draegun or Earther, so Amy felt she was more relatable, being in a similar standing.

Amy knew there was more to her story, and in time she could understand her more. 'But why does she have to be so confrontational and annoying', Amy thought to herself. It reminded her of the spats she used to have with her younger sister.

Today was a new day, and a new beginning for Amy, her party had formed at the west gate of the city Arbellorn at the break of day when the suns shine anew, covering everything once again like it was retracing its steps. It was finally time for them to depart, their destination: the double dungeon Kalybrila and the forest of Dduraduum.

As she walked with the still silent Shatira, down the stone paved avenue, she saw two large sturdy wooden gates. The walls which she had never seen up close, rose in the air as high as a football field was long. The suns showed their beaming faces towards the square around the gates. Masses of people were coming through one gate, and leaving the other. The air was clean, with winters chill still lingering, stubbornly clinging to the early spring breeze.

“Waaahhhh!!!”, Glyn cried aloud, as she approached, “We’re going on and adventure! It’s my first time traveling like this!”.

Glyn ran up to Liam as he emerged from the throngs of wayfarers, “I’m gonna miss you!!”.

As she jumped to embrace Liam, he stepped aside leaving Glyn’s face to come to an abrupt meeting with the ground. Liam coughed.

“Yo!! Amy”, Sean said sporting two large peculiar handguns strapped to his grey cargo pants.

‘That’s right this isn’t a stroll through a garden’, Amy thought chiding herself.

She looked down at her clothes which resembled Sean’s, Glyn had found her a holster for her wand. The dark brown leather blended well with her grey cargo pants, and plain grey long sleeve shirt. Of course, they looked like clothes purchased from an outdoor sports store, yet they were enchanted by the elven tailors who made them. After receiving them from Glyn she was told they had the defense of leather armor.

‘Am I really doing this’, Amy stopped and thought for a moment.

Three and a half weeks ago she was working with her younger sister in a nail salon; working on her studies, one more semester and she would be finished. Now she was ready to march off. Amy had to pinch herself to confirm it was real. All her doubts and inferiority surfaced again. ‘Could she do it?’, ‘Why was she here?’, She was just an average Vietnamese immigrant. Then amongst her reflections, images of the slaughter she had witnessed in her dream surfaced, the soft faces filled with ghastly terror, the blood. Amy looked around her, the faces of those around her filled with hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The scene had in truth traumatized her, her expression soured the atmosphere around her. She could feel anger rising up, perhaps it was an influence of the wand, or perhaps it was her frustration at her life until now and at herself, she did not know. She went out for a walk to clear her head that night, and she was brought here ready to inflict violence upon another being, for a people she was only beginning to understand. She did not want to see what she had seen before so she resolved herself.

‘The pays pretty good’, Amy thought to herself. Her first paycheck from the guild, in Ddwy, converted was equal to the past three years of her income as a college student. She sent a good portion to her mother, who was shocked. Still, she agreed to the three-month ‘internship’, Ian told her to refer to it as. After receiving the money, and probably mostly due to Ian’s mysteriously effective persuasion, she agreed to let Amy go on this expedition as a ‘Research Internship’. Her mother was very proud of her, but all of that seemed distant to Amy now after the two weeks of training that felt like a year. Her body shivered, as she pushed those memories down, as though she was trying to repress her emotions from a nightmare.

“Very good, I see that we’re all here”, Liam said as he motioned for them to huddle looking around, “Since it is crowded here, we’ll keep it short so we don’t disturb traffic”.

Lorenn who was now walking with Satriana, and Osgur on the side with Veve.

“Huh, when did they get together?”, Minerva said as she grabbed Amy’s arm and looked her in the eye, “Hi big sis!”.

“Hmmmmm”, Radim hummed rather loudly, surprisingly not getting in lost in the noise of the crowded avenue.

Liam continued, “I have a present for all of you, in commemoration of your first time leaving the nest”.

All of the party was gathered and unlike on earth everyone including the masses shuffling by had their tablets out suspended in the air. Liam held eight virtual bags in his hand. He began to throw it to each of the party members.

Amy caught the nonexistant pouch thrown to her. As a notification crossed her across her vision like a text message, the other guild members exclaimed wildly.

[ You have received The Inventory App]

‘What an ordinary name’, She thought to herself. Amy remembered seeing it when she was looking for places to splurge her new found money on. The price was anyhting but ordinary, even with her massive first paycheck, it was out of her reach. Amy greatly desired it, she wanted to have an inventory item too like all the books she read. But the reality was it was a luxury item that only the top performers possessed. Radim even seemed shocked.

“This is too much guild master”, Amy said as she tried to give it back.

“Can’t have our guild lose face by underequipping our new team”, Liam had a chuckle and gave a halfhearted excuse, “Anyways I wanted to congratulate you all on making it this far. Remember to keep it tight out there, and to trust each other. I’d say something more grandiose, but the ceremony is about to begin. This first portion is known as the qualifying round. You have your guild ID’s; you will go to the marked villages and towns on the map along the way. There you will do missions for the guild. We have other parties partnered with the Alchemy Guild, sent to do more repair and logistics and infrastructure work. You all will focus on raid and monster subjugation missions. This first month long round you will act freely, you will receive points based on the accumulated amount of missions completed, and the difficulty thereof. Those with low scores will be thanked and sent back. Those with high scores, will receive assignments after the first month is finished. I’d like to explain more but its about to start now”.

As if on cue, a dragon’s roar sounded out as Liam’s voice dissipated, and the masses in the square in front of the gate vacated it as if it was empty to begin with.

“Toshiharu!!!!!!”, someone in the crowd shouted.

A ruckus erupted as a wing of six dragons lead by Toshiharu Shinsai, were seen approaching. A black dragon, a grey dragon, and four Ddyllewech dragons, one in particular was far bigger than the rest. That very same one which Glyn and Sean recognized right away.

“Big brother!!”, Glyn yelled as she waved her hand.

Amy saw Satriana had begun to cling onto Glyn, “Hey, hey, introduce me to your brother”.

Without a response or an expression, Glyn had mysteriously disappeared and reappeared in a spot three feet away as Satriana fell to the ground her load bearing support vanished.

The dragons flew in a tight formation with Toshiharu in the lead, they circled once before alighting on the stone square, seeming to bring a hurricane with them.

Amy’s hair danced wildly; she could smell the shampoo still fresh from Glyn’s showered hair.

As they landed William gazed right at them and lifted his snout with a snort and a smirk, that said, ‘make me proud’.

Toshiharu grunted, as he walked around the square, with a dignified dramatic gesture, as he looked over all the new recruits that had assembled from different guilds and different towers; his gaze stopped at Amy before he spoke, “Hmmm, I see we have some promising new talents this year”, and with a growl he uttered dramatically, “The time has come. Everyone go forth. Fight for your family, fight for your friends, fight for those brethren you have yet to meet. Fight for Ddyllewech, and fight for Draegoch!!!”.

Amy was caught up in the emotion of the moment, the loud deep voice overflowing with encouragement, enthusiasm, and charm agitated her spirit to the marrow of her bones; and she yelled out with the chorus of the enthused participants, “Wahhh!!!!”.

She was going out to live her fantasies, going out to a new world with new experiences, for a moment she forgot about the danger as she rushed forward to the flung open gates. Her nervousness, anxiety, and hesitiation were drowned out by the spirit in the throngs rushing forward. The spring raid of Dduraduum had begun.