Ch. 009 - A Turning Point

The massive Golden Boar released a bellow of aggression, enraged at having to balance itself on 3 legs to compensate for the front right kneecap break. It took a deep defensive posture, then activated its own mana to swell and agitate within it’s personal space. Wildly fierce mana wafting around itself, it growled like it was focusing on a specially charged counter attack the instant I got too close.

‘I didn't know how strong it’s neck was to absorb all of these impacts and vertebrae abuse, so I decided to get crafty with a more forefront approach, but the timing on this has to be perfect or the set up will go wrong. He had become aware of the swipe radius of the oversized tusks glistening with his reflection. This thing is confident in its strength which means it might just go for it….’

Densu too, began to fluctuate and radiate dark purple mana from his wrist, with Holtz having a sparkle in his eye at the anticipation of the next strike about to happen to break this brief pause.

A small inspiration is felt in the back of Densus’ mind that said ‘....go’, and so a fully charged Densu made a rapid appearance low to the snout of the Golden Boar, which caused the boar to rage and torque its head violently, causing the tusk to shred into the ground!

This carved a pathway into the ground, creating a new movement area that enabled Densu to freely twist his body around and slap at the ground causing his body to deflect away to angle upwards thus dodging fully around the determined tusk, and so Densus feet closed into the range of the oversized boars eyebrows.

He wanted his hands to clamp into the sides of the snout like a piercing ring, but instead flared his arms back and out behind himself to stretch his body, and pinpoint the area of focus for striking with his legs, trying to ‘flying strike’ like the giant flying birds would at him ‘striking down from above’, and using the horizontal momentum and a focused driving point of explosive mana bursts, a massive flare up of dark purple and glistening mana erupted out of the feet of Densu.

Not just one stomp, but a series of now cat-like succession of slash kicks, stomps and manaburst front snap kicks all had been unleashed as a finishing combo, aimed directly between its eyes. Ripples of bone and mana bursts all shocked the inner cavities of this oversized skull with repeated violence, stunning the beast in place.

Like a dog cutting swathes of sand out from underneath itself at the beach, Golden boar fragments scattered about, leaving a crater of sorts between its eyelids, eventually knocking the purple mana-flames too, out from its eyes.

Upon the final strike, this caused the entire atmosphere to experience a glasslike shattering sound to occur, as the entire coloring of the atmosphere crackled itself apart. Every space that ‘shattered’ suddenly evaporated into sparkling manamotes, which all began coalescing together like a thickening mist.

Eventually the self moving mist began rippling and compressing and spiralling implosively, towards the carcass of the Golden Boar, which itself was ‘crumbling apart’ and reshaping the mana to fuse back into the massive dark spirit stone taking shape where the Golden Boar once lay.

This presence was like a gift of glorious lights that reminded me of the spiritual fires and light clouds of my dreams, then a familiar Divine presence inhabited the space surrounding Densu, and a harmony of similar voices like that ‘...Go’ from before, now all gently spoke to him, albeit in a layered and rapid succession.

“Well done” “This will help you” “Take this gift” “It grows stronger” “There will be more” “We’ve only just begun..” “...Nice” “Stay firm on your path!”, and just as so the echos refracted off the fusing lights and the divine presence itself collapsed upon the mana light to signify the end of the Stampede Raid and 3 corresponding artifacts transubstantiated before his eyes.

“The strongman has been bound….” Muttered from Densus lips, as he stepped forward to the glistening rainbow mana lights radiating off each of the items. A series of icons and information flooded into his awareness, as he touched each item.

First was an opalescent managlyph slate with a trace of divinity laced to it.

[Legendary ManaDefense Mote Assignment Glyph] ‘Pisoro’

(Personal Reward for Soloing a Stampede Raid. An Ancient Protection Glyph assigned by the Star Children upon their Chosen Hunters. Captures and accumulates the traumas and mana perturbations caused in and out of battle. Suffering exposure to all forms of impac, This Legendary Star Grade Mote has learned to dance with and repurpose the chaotic forces unleashed during the Ancient War Zones. Ever alert, the Defense mote is keen to utilize mana by capturing and refining the disturbances dealt to the bonded Hunter. All intentional and suddenly experienced ‘abuse of boundaries’ is an opportunity for the Defense mote to absorb and bring stability to the field space of the glyphs assigned host. Defense accumulation is subject to the damages imparted upon the host. Host can willingly dismiss or activate defenses upon command at no penalty. Defense Mote will stand active guard during the sleep of the Host, and awaken the Host upon the ‘Call to Arms’. Glyph succumbs to the will of the Star Children, whenever within the zone space of the properly authorized. A Growth type manamote, transcended from a prized warrior Wild Mote of the Ancient Veldt Wars. Never given a chance to bond since the last Great War, has now been assigned to Densu to protect him from the things ‘Not of the Wilds’. Ready to grow in power in tandem with his new Host Densu!)

As Densu grasped hold of the glyph and ‘experienced’ the flutter of Pisoro erupt from within the glyph, he took out his personal mana tablet and held the new glyph to the tablets underside, remembering to see if it fit like what Baka’ru had done before marking him. There was a resonant and audible ‘click’ sound that reverberated with the bond of the glyph to the tablet.

Suddenly a hazy double vision blur from within the core of Densus’ Inner Mana Temple, the Spirit of Scree had been scraping away at the cruddy plaque build up on the inner walls, and from the collection area of the core, a rainbow burst and starry light began to scatter and fluctuate about until the Spirit of Pisoro emerged and took shape like a youthful warrior. Immediately upon condensing into form, a slight twitch like waking from a standing sleep kicked life into his form. Calm yet highly alert, it took a few moments for him to take in the conditions of his surroundings.

His initial attitude upon this agreement with the Priestess, was to help strengthen and protect this Host. ‘A Host chosen by the High Priestess herself… What was this place?!?! What is this simple boar doing here by itself…… aahhh…….. What a good boy….. And he– ‘oh Scree, is it? =)’ …. Yes…. Let me help you with that……..’

It was subtle, but the flow of the atmosphere did not match the condition of this inner space. The scrapings and condition of the material caked on the surface area needed to be further understood, so Picoso unleashed a magnificent burst of starry radiance and split his form into hundreds of holographic light copies of himself posted up at every gate and flow exchange of what has been cleared of this inner temple space, and a perimeter defense map has been established the deeper into Densu’s being that Pisoro’s light permeated throughout Densu’s being. Both Densu and Pisoro ‘clicked’ into understanding with each other in that moment, that they were working in tandem, and that there were ways for them both to help eachother grow stronger, that which they would both need to work together to figure out and learn more for the future. Densu felt like he had yet another set of eyes watching out over him in guardianship, and would soon learn more surprises from his new ‘friend’ as well.

Before they could get acquainted even further, Holtz had finally landed on the ground relatively close to Densu, Holding only a single memory orb in his hands, attempting to capture the identity of the items earned from the Stampede Raid. Rainbow, Star & Divinity laden items manifested for the newbie which shocked Holtz, and yet Densu had no proper clue to the value of this accomplishment, nor would he have the chance to think about it for the time being either, because just as suddenly as he landed, Holtz acted like the had to make up for lost time suddenly.

“Great Work Densu!! Surely I thought you’d be calling out for my help and yet, I never had the chance to properly step in and save the day! My boy, I believe you even held up your part of the bargai-TRAINing, by using only kicks the entire time….. In that last moment I thought you were even going to slip and it looked like you were about to grap onto the snout, but instead!!! *Imitation jumping bird kick flurry attacks in place kinda like Densu, but more flailing* and then all of that manaburst everywhere!!! Hahahahahaha….. I think I cried tears of joy up there waiting for ya hehehehehehehe…”

A swift eye to scan over the Stampede Raid Pet Crystal was a deeper shock to his senses to see and confirm a High Rainbow Grade Pet Crystal! There were few of the higher ranked Guards and some surviving old timers that visited the Holy Mountain Arena’s that could claim ownership of such beasts. Holtz himself only had a single ‘Prized’ Rainbow Grade pet in his possession that took untold time to raise into its current state. Losing repeatedly in the Colosseum certainly didn’t help, but what sickening luck is this kicking fool flaunting off to ‘trigger’ a ‘stampede’ and then ace the ‘solo clear’ and ‘earn High… Rain.. bow…’ Holtz audibly stuttered, and the memory orb captured the dumbfounded look on his face. Switching view to trace where Holtz was looking was the ‘common’ Raid clear Token. The Starry token, to be exact, was what broke his composure, because anything that is the furthest opposite of ‘common’ is the direction to consider the meaning of this existence. Phoenix Feathers and Unicorn Horns were vastly easier to find than a Star Token. The very meaning entailed that the Raid Conditions of a Star Grade combatant was present within the Zonespace. Only Densu, was in the Zone space.

Holtz was even more glad he stopped recording the other memory orb as Holtz confirmed the kill while still floating, and ended the sequence for that orb before making his move any closer. The need to contain this information has reached dramatically more intense meanings for himself and the actions of the very Star Children themselves. ‘Burk. I have to bring him to Captain Burk!’

Trying to cough as if to mask up the shock and regain his evaporated sense of amusement to the whole situation up till this point, his urgency to keep Densu busy screamed loudly as his mind raced to sort through the protocols of power he had just been given access to because of this ‘special cases’ situation. His life was at risk and he suddenly knew why. He might as well keep the rhythm going and see what kind of mess he could weave up with Arady and Rudra, given their new ‘plaything’ to ‘entertain’ and ‘raise up’.... The glisten of the Dark Purple Cursed Mana finally spoke up and added a taint to the streak of terrifyingly amazing thoughts. The truth and fate of Baka’ru stood before his very eyes, and the natural amusement deeply returned in ascending waves of magnitude getting funnier and funnier, the more he would later think about this unfolding truth. ‘He must not know yet…… No… He MUST NOT KNOW!!!’ oh…. Thank the Goddesses for your bloody little dragon hide, you conniving little whelp….’

Holtz just remembered what Arady said about the contract saying they’d be getting paid half of what Densu makes, to ‘help keep their mouths shut’, by ‘doing him this favor’ of ‘aiding in the fast tracking growth of a ‘new’ ‘rainbow grade’ ‘breaker’. ‘You’ll be sharing half of all of his earnings’ as compensation and additionally be granted ‘property rights’ & ‘additional resources’ in the need of them to have mutual access to the growth and development of this ‘Special Cases Team’. Densu wasn’t just a lucky star….. Densu was now HIS very own personal lucky star!!!

Densu was feeling an eerie bond like warmth creeping towards him from a borderline starry eyes drool face Holtz, that expressed many complicated emotions before settling on this spaced out look and eerie laughter. Pisoro was also on high alert with serious sus-face looking down on this eerie aura slowly dancing around without touching the perimeter defense line. He could tell when his old host manastones were being coveted by hungry auras…. This feeling was literally no different from that, despite the host being fabled Hunter….. What has gone on in this world since the last War?!!?....

Densu was keen to keep looking around himself as if remembering the previous spatial awareness training and stay on guard while being out in the wilds. The spread of awareness away from this awkward moment was the catalyst Holtz needed to shift back into gear himself, and attempt to put a muzzle on this newborn monster, before he coughs ink up everywhere and ruins the long untapped and pristine fields on this side of Indossian Field Gates.

‘Truth be told, I almost let this kid almost mark me! Not today ‘little brother’. As for the rest of this part of the field.’

Densu began to reach for the Token and the Pet Crystal, and Holtz in a panic suddenly reacted by reaching out to grab Densu’s wrist to stop him. The panic scaled larger, when he literally ‘couldn’t’ stop Densu, but felt like a tsunami wave passed gently beneath him when he felt Densu slow to a stop before reaching them. “wai-Wwiwwwhaaaaaiiitt up a second there little brother!” ‘~~~whoa, no wonder why Damina and Baka’ru panicked when the metal shackles broke~~~’’

They both noticed the slightly strange but familiar expression of ‘little brother’ echo in the atmosphere for them both in their own unique but vastly different ways, and they both stopped and kind of nodded to each other in acknowledgement. Holtz belatedly realized and let go of Densu’s wrist’

“Ahem…. Before you claim those, we will end up needing to certify these with Arady first and foremost! Remember how I said ‘no pets’, well this one uuhhh needs special training that isn’t suitable for releasing out in the wilds before you build greater affinity for it, So I’ll hold on to this for you in the meantime!

And this a Raid Token, signifying the seal of victory over defeating a Zone Boss! They are symbolic manifestations of the gifts of the Goddesses bestowed on us for achieving combat merits. The Red Administration is tasked by the Goddesses Faction through the Kingdom of Indossus, to trade in and receive direct compensations and titles from the Star Children themselves! Arady is going to be your personal Assessor in this matter, and will be the one to attend to cashing in your earnings, so in the meantime, I’ll just take care of bringing this right to her too!”

He rushed a lot of the information all at Densu to dissuade him from clasping onto either of these items with his sticky finger vice grips first before he could, and thought he knew he had no right to cash either of these in, at least no one else would think to steal such items from a high grade guard such as himself. And besides….

“And besides, you have another special portion of the assignment to accomplish, because you’re on the ‘fast track’ program. All of these items that you marked still technically need to be acquired, and last I checked, you reeeaaaallllyyy made a mess of the place.” *Pan view to a 1km wide purple blotch oozing and bubbling about as spirit crystals, carcasses, and silence swept every sound clear from earshot. Cue lonely wind*

So therefore we’ll use this excuse to train in the art of ‘stealth’. Your first goal is to fill up these bags. Start with the stuff on the surface. The second step is to acquire all the buried treasure~ ~Using ONLY your hands!~”

“Only… my hands? But… if I’m digging… in… the ground…”

“YeeEESS!! You understand the challenge! .>.... Remember: ‘its stealth training’... If you were to go around digging and leaving holes everywhere in the open, it’d be like leaving a trail of blood to follow for all the predators seeking to claim an easy poach away from a silly and unsuspecting target. So by digging smaller and targeted holes, you can technically mask your trail by leaving fewer and more scattered surface openings, and be more discreet and free to move about in the ground by yourself, by crawling on your belly and focusing just on your arms, like the Pill Bugs do! You did great emulating the Bird Cat kick thing earlier, This is just another step of the training!.... .>........ =D…..

Densu blinked processing the context needed to make sense of the ‘procedures’, and just took a deep breath of surrender and rolled forward with his new lot in life now jumping his thoughts to ‘map out’ a ‘secret path’ that made sense underneath him, as he took the bags from Holtz, confirmed the temporary surrender of the other Raid Awards, and started leaping in large but controlled strides around to gather all of the salvageable carcass parts and the loads of Spirit Crystals littered across the purple mana and trample holes etched into the surrounding surface area.

Holtz was relatively surprised at how little he had to speak in order to convince Densu into doing the work. This surprise translated later into grand relief upon realizing how ineffective he would truly be at ‘strong arming’ Densu into acquiescing to ‘disagreeable situations’, and thus started to calculate a different approach to how to speak with Densu and how to approach and handle the bigger picture, now that such a force was ‘doing work for them’ so suddenly and without a dramatic turbulence in the Kingdom…. As of now…. so far….

He could mitigate the tension by the others of any questions like ‘what were the rewards’ by only mentioning the luck of the solo raid within the untapped honey fields, maxing out the luck to achieve the High Rainbow grade pet reward, and joking down the corresponding token rewards by sharing the secret that half the breakers rewards didn’t even count towards his final earnings…. He’s just a breaker…… it’ll be funny to them……… They don’t even know……

Those last three thoughts struck a dark tone in his heart though. The wave of complicated and amused emotions connected to this ‘easy job’ was currently etching new meanings into his role in the Kingdom, after all of the other changes and developments taking place to the Kindgom had tried to bury him into obscurity. Everyone had become so engrossed in their suffering from never truly recovering from the Last Great War, and many of the greater truths and developments had been lost to the ravages of battle and ancient cities being occupied by the creatures of the wilds. Densu might even be able to push raids deeper into the Veldt with the proper training….. Which is currently his job?!?!! ‘Burk…. I need to get in touch with Burk!!!’

Captain Burk was one of the few transcendents he knew of personally that had once been in training as Hunter and survived the Great Flash, returning to us from the war, and achieving transcendence from High Rainbow to Star Grade! I have to talk to Arady and figure out a way to reach out to Burk somehow without alerting the other guards.

At this junction of thought, ‘extravagant expenditure’ just became an inside joke for himself, and could easily reimburse himself with just a fraction of the earnings his new ‘little brother’ would be bringing home to the ‘family’. He reached into his personal satchel and pulled out a teleport manastone for himself, entrusting his future to the ‘gift from the Goddesses, that got placed in his hands’.

‘First thing is first. Get these appraised by Arady, and write that letter to send to Burk with evidence…. Look into whatever Damina is trying to do, by getting Master Curtio involved in this… Curtio NEEDS to see this personal memory crystal immediately… Send the other to Baka’ru….. Bring little bro and the goods back to base so Arady can tally THAT up for us…. Meet back up with and get further instruction from Rudra after aaaallll of that…..Oh no….. No no no no no….. How the hell did I forget about Blanchard?!?!?!’

The sense of urgency cranked up even more notches out of his control, and he also activated his strongest sentinel pets and his Rainbow Grade Wyvern and had them stretch out a perimeter sweep and aerial watch to ‘keep guard’ over Densu and the earnings. Half of those earnings where technically his, and right now he didn’t give any extra regard to mismanaged oversight in his current situation. Normally there’d be no need to leave post, but a Massive Manaburst with traces of breaker curse on THIS side of the gates, followed by a Stampede Raid Zone shattering, and then the sudden exposure of my Special guard establishing a perimeter watch in the open, surrounding the ‘breaker in question’ could be seen as warrant enough for my temporary absence of person to fetch leadership response.

Holtz knew it would all hold up to the other guards. But he suddenly felt bad for Densu, because all of these were ticks on a tally being counted against the lad as far as Blanchard would be concerned. Baka’ru might be relentless and foul, but Blanchard had a penchant for being a literal royal asshole. Almost nothing was off limits in the Kingdom to Blanchard, as a member of the royal lineages. Only Baka’ru, Burk, and the Star Children had enough sway over Blanchard to redirect his attention elsewhere. He was already half exposed to Blanchards watchers, he already knew, so he took the gamble by audibly declaring to Densu that he would ‘go get another set of bags for Densu to fill up because it looks like these two won't be enough’, and ‘how lucky Densu was to have such a curious misfortune to have ‘too many goods to carry back at once’.

Densu had no thoughts of ‘escaping’ to begin with. It wasn’t a situation to run away from. He had already been ‘marked with a curse, and at the moment, at least he had a personal shop attendant to speak to, and ‘steady work’ to look forward to while he ‘paid off his debts’. He was already technically ‘more free’ than he had been for the last couple of years being stuck underground. The fresh air, scenic environment, and otherworldly sensations that all seemed more real than the memories he had of his previous iteration, and his new buddies Scree and Pisoro had his back…. Once these first few days of training were under his belt and he had more affinity with his newest member settled in. He felt relatively ‘safe’ for the first time in a long time, and cheerily went about his monotonous gathering efforts for securing the surface goods. Holtz went to ‘get more bags’, as a new manastone sparkled briefly in Holtz’s hand and he suddenly disappeared in front of Densu. A real life teleport…. This must have been how he showed up in this world too. Amazing…..

Densu’s imagination flared up intensely as he plotted and mapped out mental coordinants and pathways for himself. Leaned forward and make worm like flop down to his belly, and took a deep breath loosening his neck and shoulders, crossing his ankles for extra measure, and began a ground penetrating spear like thrust into the soil, and using his new body’s sheer force of strength, to carve his other hand along the first hands groove print, and forcibly ‘pry’ open a hole for himself by compressing the earth and stones out of his way, and smoothing out around himself what was turning out to be a rather organized and smooth tunnel and crawlspace for himself and a pill bug to follow behind him if needed for safety on a later note. It took a tunnel or two before he realized that he’d need to make the spacing a little girthier if he was to be stuffing and dragging the large and long loot bags behind him in these tunnels as well. If he ran out of bag space, he would make a pocket space and set aside small collections here and there to take note of and reclaim at a later time. It was amazing to him that there was no sense of darkness even under the ground as deep as he was, due to the nature of manamotes comprising EVERYTHING, and his ability of second sight to experience the glistening of all the mana densities around him in full depth perception.

Densu also used all of this surface and underground collection time to continue carving out and clearing out loads more of the cursed plaque and mana tubes of his inner temple space with the extra vigilant aid of Pisoro. There was a tremendous effort that Pisoro made in decontaminating the curse from the environment of his ‘new home’. His skills had not been needed to enforce quite yet, so he was able to dedicate a tremendous effort towards the initial cleaning and clearing effort. Pisoro’s instinctual attention to guard each inner gateway with a set of copy images of himself had to have important meaning in situational readiness, and was inspiring to Densu, in training his future pets to make similar procedural walks during the ‘stealth training’ sessions, so he can be more discreet with his mana whistling and sensing/marking abilities, and have them do sentry duty to keep an eye on things, like Holtz had his pets working above ground.