Arganthes: The Capital Of Dungeons

That happened last night, after jogging I went to bed, yet it took hours to fall asleep... maybe because I went earlier than normal?

Today too... I arose earlier than yesterday, deciding to take Yami with me this time. I leaned over looking at her sleeping face. She laid so peacefully I almost felt guilty waking her from grace.

Poking a little above her right check and gently caressing her ears. She awoke blushing from cheek to cheek.

"Master... it is early... can"t we stay in bed longer?

And... those are my precious ears... they are really sensitive. Nggghhh."

"You"re cute when you sleep Yami, makes me want to cuddle with you. I woke you up because I"m going to start training now and wanted to ask if you liked to join."

"Mooaah, you"re responsible for what happens to me, don"t forget that!"

Yami said teasingly.

"I"ll join, Yami wants to join master on the morning stroll! Let me get ready, I"ll see you outside."

"Don"t take to long, or I"ll leave you behind."

I said jokingly leaving the room.

The Guildhall had such a different feeling to it early morning, few workers were awake as not many adventurers ventured out during this time.

All across the building crystals illuminated the darkness attracting fireflies making the glow all the more magical. Few Adventurers came in exchanging their crystals to make ends meet.

At the entrance, the fresh air blew past me, when shortly after I heard Yami from a distance. My shadow expanded as she jumped out, ready to start the exercise.

Following the usual route past the field of the beginning, I just couldn"t forget what had happened a few days ago. Thinking what I did could have given some a grudge I asked Yami about this.

"Yami, if you don"t mind me asking, did you hate me for killing Garou?"

Yami looked up all surprised as she grabbed my arm.

"It was rather shocking what happened, but to be honest Yami feels she is better off with her new master than with Garou... to me, I have nothing but respect for you master, please let"s be partners for a long, long time."

Her tail began wagging up and down as she proudly pulled my arm.

"We"re done, finally breakfast!!"

Entering the Guildhall Michael stumbled on an a.s.sembly poster for the rumored expedition, as this piqued his curiosity, Michael couldn"t care less about breakfast right now.

"You go on ahead if you want, I"ll be preparing for this."

Michael grabbed the poster, walking straight for the help desk. There Amaris and a few colleagues were enjoying their coffee break. Slamming the poster on the desk in excitement barely able to contain his enthusiasm Michael called Amaris for aid on the matter.

Barely able to finish her coffee Amaris walked to the desk.

"Morning Michael, something piqued your interest? What you have here?"

Looking closer at the poster Amaris could see a small portion was cut out to sign in if interested.

"Wanting to go on your first expedition? Sounds like a good idea, I"ll approve of this, you could use some experience before entering the examination site. It seems they are recruiting for the fallen ruins expedition in the forest east-west from here. It also says they require multiple groups covering most fields."

The date for the expedition was there as well, two weeks from now. This would give me enough time to prepare.

I signed my name on the poster and proudly put it back on the bulletin board. Unaware of my growling stomach, I went to the dining hall to meet up with the others.

Chiara couldn"t be found, meaning she either already finished or wasn"t awake yet. Taking our time finishing breakfast we directly head towards the training quarters to meet up with Chiara afterward.

Knowing the main hall would be too crowded for our lessons I went straight towards the room we had our previous lesson, surely after entering there, Chiara was waiting for our arrival.

"Goodmorning to you both, I take it you have already prepared yourself for today? Come sit close to me, so our hands can stay connected."

We did as Chiara instructed sitting down, creating a small circle like yesterday, Yami jumped out of my shadow and joined mine and Chiara"s hands together.

"Let me inform you before we begin... we will be doing this for the remainder of the day having three different exercises, al to understand the importance, dangers, and benefits of the lesson today.

Know it will be similar to what we did yesterday, today we will venture further into our souls, exploring our being, finding our demons and learning to communicate with them. You see, as the Mages Ember undoubtedly explained to you during their visit, there are different ways of using magic, but for the sake of it, let me explain the different ways to you in more detail."

Yami her ears turned upwards as she focused on what Chiara was about to tell us. Excited her tail wagged the ground even squeezing my hand.

"Knowing the Mages Ember, they told you about three different ways of using magic. Being able to use magic from birth, either by being naturally gifted or by inheriting the magical abilities of their families, for example let"s say a family of natural fire magic-users had a child, they would surely be able to use this magic as well, yet if the person in question was also naturally gifted he or she could also even learn other magics, bond them to their being and pa.s.s them on to their offspring. This also tends to be one of the reasons why mages are mostly Royal by blood and elitist.

Then there is a way how everyone could use magic,

The Mages guild and Magic Research Tower in the capital work together with the Alchemist a.s.sociation to use the Crystal"s obtained by adventures and Drifters to infuse them with magic essence.

Allowing them to glow, become warmer or even summer the elements. This technology allowed our country to flourish and evolve above others.

Even if this allows every single person to use magic, it still is expansive, seeing as they all need to be manufactured. Giving the Royals in the Capital even more power. A drawback of these crystals is that they will break after a certain amount of uses.

Before I keep rambling on, I have to say one last thing about the artificial magic crystals, if naturally gifted users would use higher grate ones and allow the essence inside to bond they would even be able to use these abilities without the stones, which is why even the Dark Guilds target these crystals as they could get insane amounts of money with them.

Now here"s the thing, I"m sure The Mages Ember didn"t explain about all the natural gifted ways to use magic. As one of them is exclusively used for people who understand the flow of energy.

This also has a direct influence on today"s lesson so listen closely."

Our interest got piqued as she continued her explanation.

"During our Journey here on Arganthes or even during meditation, these natural gifted can hear voices around and inside of them. Voices to guide them, warn them or even instruct them...

These voices could represent your inner self, higher being or spirits in general. Naturally, as we have good and bad spirits even Demons could try and contact you this way. Shadows of the past and present or even evil ent.i.ties as a whole. There are even cases where we could leave our bodies behind to venture the spiritual dimension, known to be rare only ones with high enough developed spiritual souls can do this.

Doing this allows them to contact the spirits creating soul bonds, some kind of contract that allows the use of the powers of the spirit in question, we in spiritualism believe the power to use magic even come from these spirits themselves as they are a lifeform form a higher being.

But be warned, if a dark element or evil one wants too, they can take over your body when you use this Astral Projection, taking your body for themselves and leaving you in the Spiritual Dimension to venture for yourself."

Shivers went down my spine as Chiara told us about this. Realizing I had experienced this exact phenomenon before I was shocked... my eyes widened as I felt my body suddenly break out in a cold sweat. My hands like my body became sweaty and gave off the slightest vibration.

Chiara noticed the sudden change in my being stopping her explanation. She turned to me with worry in her eyes and asked;

"Are you okay Michael? Did this scare you?"

She noticed I was completely lost in thought as panic had taken over my body. The shivers grew intense as the sweat dripped from my face.

"Michael? Answer me, Michael!"

Chiara let go of both our hands, now completely turned to me, her hands connected with my head as she tried to catch my attention. As our eyes locked to one another, the sight was absolute blank... nothing...

Nothing but the sheer terror of what Michael realized at that moment.

Inside my head in the distance, dark... a voice lingered.

"This woman is wise... keep her close, make sure she becomes one of us... In due time, she might be needed..."

The moment the voice ebbed away slowly leaving me in a pale white state, instantly snapping me out of the trance, leaving me to collect my thoughts.

I slowly looked up towards Chiara as my eyes filled with life once again.

Relieved Chiara put her head against mine.

"I have never... experienced this with anyone before, please... never scare me like that again.

Shall we continue?"

She asked implying we should hold each other"s hands again. Hesitant at first, I held on to her and Yami her hand. I couldn"t fathom how she did it,

yet at the touch, we instantly found ourselves in a state of trance again.

"Having to find our most inner demons and confront them, can be challenging, to say the least, still to come out stronger and better, there is no other way.

As they are ultimately our Primal being they will confront us as well, telling us about our innermost desires, ambitions, and emotions. One too weak to confront them will find themselves consumed by madness, leaving but a sh.e.l.l of the man we once knew. Yes... fear can both be powerful yet gives one greater strength and courage when overcome.

One can even bond with these primal selves coming out as a reborn person, stronger than before."

As Chiara continued her spiritual lecture the state of being brought me back to the soul sea, this time as the void was filled with my soul flame a familiar face showed itself. Yami was there... waiting for me to approach the flame as the dim light cast a large shadow beneath her feet.

It appeared Chiara had brought her in as support for the journey we had to go on inside of my mind.

Closing in I became hesitant knowing the darkness was close, it felt like eyes burned into my back when Yami snapped me out of it. She stayed silent as she supported me towards the flame.

It felt like the shadows crept closer ever so slightly step by step. Feeling the warmth of the flame eased my worries began slowly disappearing as it"s dark void-like essence filled the nothingness. Just when I wanted to touch the flames feeling like home, shadows arose from beneath the flame.

The shadows oozed together creating one ent.i.ty,

Different than before, now the ent.i.ty appeared more humanoid than ever. A perfect silhouette... something didn"t feel right... was this me? No... it couldn"t be...

The dark shadow stood there motionless, head tilted as its thick mucous-like body kept flowing to the ground. Its head had horns forming from the front where its forehead should have been. We stood there for what felt like an eternity when it formed a smile...

A smile from side to side, wider than I had ever seen, when suddenly it spoke in a dark and calm voice filling the nothingness of the void.

"We... finally... meet... getting... stronger... soon... we.... will... be... one..."

I sheer terror froze me in place.

Agony filled my vibe as it became clear, this ent.i.ty...

This creature was me, yet not entirely...

A million questions filled my head; Who are you? Stronger? What does it feed on? Where did it come from? Was it me I saw?

The creature uttered one last word as it"s being splattered to the ground and faded away into nothingness.

"Together..."

At that time I awoke from the trance state to see Chiara had finished meditating. Relieved I opened and closed my hands, feeling refreshed for some reason. Power was surging through my veins as a glimpse of darkness sparked a tiny bolt in my palm.

I quickly put away my hands and stood up.

Having a quick lunch break we all took a little breather. As we all got used to the way food was ordered we quickly took our place and enjoyed our meal. But today, things were different.

One of the men we had encountered in the public bath the other day was bothering another woman.

I rolled my eyes thinking back at what had happened in the bath. The woman had light brown skin was wearing clothes to accentuate her figure

.

A maroon sleeveless top and brown short jeans making it easier to move around in. A headband sharing the same color as her top covered her head as her short brown hair fell over it. She was well trained and probably had just come back from her training, seeing as she still had her gloves and boots on sharing the same color of her jeans, although a little lighter. A buckle belt loosely hangs around her waist covering part of her shorts.

Annoyed she looked away allowing her short brown hair to wave past her ears. Revealing her dark red ruby eyes.

Still, something looked different as I took a second look at her gloves and boots. Both had parted at her wrists and the top of the boots.

"weights."

The woman stood up annoyed by the man, who was bothering her. Glaring at him she answered.

"Can"t you leave me be? This place is to recover, replenish energy and collect one"s thoughts. I can"t do any of them because of you."

"Doll, you don"t need any of that... can"t we spar together after this? I would want to hit that."

The man said hitting her a.s.s.

Startled the woman jumped up and chalked a cute high pitched scream.

"Kya."

Just when she wanted to slap him for being inappropriate the man held on to her wrist stopping the impact.

Seeing as this was escalating and I wanted to take my time resting it was beneficial for me to break up the escalating situation. So I stood up...

Walking towards the table of the woman the man began straining her wrist.

"Let go of me, that hurts!!"

I grabbed the man"s wrists stopping him from straining hers.

"What do you want, kid? Can"t you see the Adventurers are busy here?"

"Well sir, I am certain I can see you are bothering my sparring partner."

The woman didn"t know me and got confused by all this. Whispering she asked;

"What are you doing? This isn"t on you..."

"Chiara the one in charge of me booked her already, so if you"re not okay with it you should discuss this with the Guildmaster himself."

I tightened my grip around his wrist making him let go of the woman. He pulled back his hand glaring at me.

"I"ll leave for now... but know you haven"t seen the last of me..."

The man held his wrist up, glaring at me as he left the cafeteria. The woman still standing threw her arm around me touching my sides with her b.o.o.bs.

This made me uncomfortable knowing we were in a public area, I could now clearly see why the man was targeting her as her body was well-formed and toned by all the training.

"Thanks for the help kid, although I could have handled it myself, then it would have escalated, so I appreciate it. The names Alexandra, but my friends call me Alex, don"t be shy... you can too, students of Chiara"s right? Oh, I envy her."

Alex laughed pushing me closer to her.

"D-don"t do this Alex!! We are in public s.p.a.ce!!"

I couldn"t handle it anymore, I had to getaway. Trying to find ways to escape her seemingly iron grip I began freaking out. When she suddenly loosed her grip. Letting go of me. Escaping to my table as quickly as I could.

"Finally able to breathe..."

It took a little while to calm down breathing in and out. Finally calmed down she closed in on both Chiara and me.

"Chiara, is it true this young one is one of your students? He was talking about wanting to spar too, let me return the favor and examine them at the end of the week, with b.a.l.l.s like that he is bound to present a challenge, mouthing off an adventurer before he even is one, haha. The kid has unrivaled courage. I like that."

Alex said licking her lips and hitting my shoulder.

"If you want you can join us right now, maybe you could give a small demonstration of projecting energy? We just finished a session of meditation, truth be told the projection of energy is still two lessons away, but I have a feeling he will pick this up just as quick as the did with the rest of my lessons.

His understanding is worlds apart from the other students here, he might even surpa.s.s me when he obtains his official Adventurers Status.

Say, Michael, I haven"t seen Yami for a while, is she with you?"

I smiled, trying to act all cool brushing my hand through my hair.

"Yes, she"s my partner, come to think of it... we have never been separated ever since we met. Want me to call her?"

I closed my eyes, calling out to Yami inside my head.

At that moment my shadow expanded allowing her to jump through.

"You called master?"

"Yes, Yami meet Alex. It looks like she will be showing us the concept of energy projection. Alex, meet Yami.

She is my trusted partner."

Alex marveled in excitement and cuteness, unable to contain herself she jumped on Yami hugging her tightly and looking at her from top to bottom.

"Aaaahhh, you are so adorable, girl! Michael is such a lucky guy to have you, but tell me... you aren"t human are you?"

Alex said with a twinkle in her eyes.

Yami got all shy and jumped behind me, trying to keep away from Alex her groping urges.

"Master... help Yami... Yami doesn"t know what to do!"

Her ears lay flat on her head as she grabbed my arm tightly, I could feel her tremble, even shiver a little. I gently petted her head a.s.suring her it was okay.

"Alex, you are correct, I met her in the fields of beginning. She was part of a huge pack of dire wolves. But after defeating their leader she became attached to me, becoming their leader they calmed down, she, in particular, wanted to stay by my side, which is why I gave her a name, little did I know this made her evolve allowing her to take human form.

Making her the commander of the pack, I wonder... what happened to the rest?"

Alex stood up straight with hands behind her back.

Now interested why such a special beast would be following me a twinkle in her eyes directed her attention straight to me. Chiara stood up stopping her friend, as she made way to the practice room.

Yami hid in my shadow hoping Alex wouldn"t chase her. Instead, Alex clung to me as her interest skyrocketed seeing how interested Yami was in me.

That, and I got her out of trouble just a while ago.

Alex grinned, getting a glance at my face.

"I see you must be someone special, having such a cute companion... Do you have an interest in any other girls?"

She asked teasing and poking me around.

I looked at her for a bit, turning red I quickly averted my eyes. Coughing trying to hide my obvious interest.

*cough* *cough*

"Yami is my partner and yes I have to say that you look daring as well... but I have to focus on the things ahead if I want to make it in this world.

Getting stronger is a must, I have to find ways to defend myself if I don"t want a repeat of last time."

I said turning away while gently stretching my head being embarra.s.sed by my weakness."

Alex laughed and slapped my shoulder, wiping her nose she struck a pose wanting to rea.s.sure me of something. She balled her fist and pulled it next to her head.

"You"ll be alright silly, having my friend as your teachers proofs it, Chiara is one of the tops of her cla.s.s, if she can"t teach you the ways, then no one can. On the other hand, she asked me to help you out for the upcoming lessons, this could be interesting... Should we head for the room then?"

Alex nonchalantly turned around, putting her hands behind her head as she went in the same direction as Chiara did before her.

"Knowing her she might be using the smaller room right?"

Alex stopped in front of a small beaten up, wooden door. Opening the door in one go it appeared she knew her friend well. Light shine through revealing an even smaller room than before, still... there she was.

Our teacher was already prepared for the lesson, awaiting our arrival as she took a sip of her tea.

Thoroughly enjoying the moment she let a sigh of eternal bliss escape her lips. Putting away the cup she showed us where to sit down.

Taking our places she called Alex to her.

"To make sure you will understand tomorrow"s lesson and are well enough prepared, Alex here will give a little demonstration of how the principle of flowing energy works in its entirety. Giving you a better understanding of the core concept while giving a physical example."

Alex took place in the middle of the circle created from magic stone essence, opening her arms we both looked closely at what she might do.

As our vision was locked on Alex, small pebbles on the ground began moving, the air around us began drawing in steadily towards the center. Creating temperature drops as the pebbles began to float, even the energy around her became visible to the naked eye.

It was now visible in what direction the air current moved, being sucked towards the center even Alex began glowing faintly.

She opens her eyes raising her hand and at that moment the flow of energy stopped. The air around her arm crept towards her hand forming a barrier around it.

Then when everything felt connected she slammed down her open palm to the ground allowing the air from her arm to escape the room.

She opens her eyes and looked at Chiara.

"Well Michael, I hope you enjoyed the little show, tomorrow we will be learning how to gather energy from the environment and store it in oneself.

Please make sure you meditate once more before heading straight to bed."

I bowed down and took my leave, preparing straight for the evening stroll I decided it was best to eat after finishing the route. Once back it seemed the men from before were up to no good, leaving a suspicious bag close to the female entrance of the bathing house. Hiding behind the bushes close to the entrance they grinned and laughed in excitement.

Wondering about the contents of the bag, knowing how these guys were, it worried me... closing in I was shocked when a snake crept out of the bag.

A white one at that... shards of crystalic purple covered it"s body as a faint pink glow surrounded the bottom connecting its skin.

It"s teeth, nowhere to be found. Yet it"s eyes, big and round. Bright as day, resembled the faint glow from below.

It slipped its way through a crack of the door, slippery and slimy it went away, in search of prey.

I rushed inside without a different thought in mind.

I had to stop the snake before it was too late.

Closing in on the precious beast it slipped away beneath my feet.

Unable to grab the lizard I was caught off guard, slipping on the wet floor I felt like a r.e.t.a.r.d.

I slipped and slide down the path, straight to the bath.

With a huge impact, I splashed. crashing into the water, making all women baffled. Screaming and running, deserting the bathing.

Trampling the serpent along the way.

Soft... big... and firm. Someone caught me during my fall. A fair maiden smiled looking down on me as curiosity sparked between our eyes.

"My aren"t we eager to take a bath? I think you went inside the wrong one dear."

A feeling slowly crept in as I lay there comfortably on the lap of the maiden. The realization of her not getting angry struck me, making me panic trying to sit upright. All while trying to apologize. Not knowing where to look as her chest was extremely distracting.

"Aaahhh, I-I"m sorry miss... that wasn"t on purpose...

I tripped trying to catch a snake, you see... a few of the men let loose the animal hoping to spark a reaction with the girls."

The woman looked at me with longing eyes, she moved her hands to my chest and gently threw water over caressing softly as her hands brushed past me.

"Don"t worry about it dear, it is not very often things get stirred up in here, having someone to keep me company other than women is refreshing in its own right, please stay for a while, looking at how the girls left the area it will take a while before others will enter."

Closing in her strands of golden hair covered my face. Her hand brushed past clearing my view, to slow to realize what was happening she closed her dark green eyes connecting her lips to mine.

It was over before I knew it, still... what had happened? I opened my eyes to find that the woman had left, left alone inside the women"s bath I was baffled... unable to grasp what had happened my fingers touched my lips.

"D-did we kiss?"

I asked in an empty room, trying to grasp the situation. This was different than before, something mutual were exchanged, even though the deed had happened before, this, in particular, broke through the door. One intense taken by the moment, the other innocent and pure.

Not being influenced by primal urges, refreshing and mesmerizing this all was. Who was that woman Michael wondered as he went on his evening stroll?

The moon, lighting up the sky, as I tried to ignore urges that I needed to defy. Once back in my room, there it was the same perfume. Perfume only worn by those of royal could drown themselves in their bottles.

Why was it, that I was rhyming? Poetry made it feel kind of exciting.

Stopping with this last thought, I knew what I sought.

This last thought made me think, think back of the home.

Not even starting my struggle, I was longing for the coziness of what one would call home. Knowing what I did it for I vowed. Vowing to get stronger, to survive and eventually get back in one piece.

With this thought, I fell, arising in dreams of a certain mademoiselle. Eyes bright as fire, she fulfilled my heart"s desires. Hair shining like no other, could she have been the earth"s mother?