Author's Note: This chapter might be albeit boring, due to the numerous explanations of how things work in this chapter, and also the lack of good fighting scenes (dedicated to Dave, a classmate of mine.). But then, you won't expect a Lv10 n00b to start blasting Balrogs with a finger, do you? Another thing: The guilds are fictional.
Anyway, enjoy, if possible.
The boy walked through the streets of Kerning, sword held as firmly as a 12-year-old could, pushing through the crowds of people looking for teammates to combat the Slime King for its prizes. He walked up the stairs that met him and stopped at a door, half-open.
The Fusion Bar.
Entering, the boy looked around the place. It was eerily empty, void of life. Well, except for an ant, crawling around the cracked flooring.
Putting his fears behind him, the boy gripped his sword and strode towards, of all places, the washroom. Male restroom.
There, he opened a trapdoor, to find a ladder. "Just as Daddy said." The small boy whispered, his black eyes wide open.
He went down.
And he got the shock of his life.
"ARGH!! A bat! A giant bat!" he screamed.
In front of him, the 'bat' answered. "Who's that?"
The boy opened his eyes to find, not a bat, but a person in a black suit hanging upside down from the ceiling of the basement, an old boxing ring in front of him.
The Dark Lord.
There had been rumors about this mysterious person. Apparently a past Hermit, the Dark Lord's name was never recorded. He was one of the few who had the ability to transfer the powers of the Rogue to another, preferably without a job, and was the only one who used it for the general good.
That is, to give those, who were powerful enough, the stealth and speed of a Rouge, and in time to come, a Bandit or Assassin.
The boy answered timidly. "M…my name is…is... Kane, sir."
"Kane, eh?" The Dark Lord dropped, right side up, onto the boxing ring, in front of Kane.
"Y…yes…sir. I wish to become a Rogue." His speech forgotten, the boy with the name of Kane looked down at his feet. "Please." He added.
The Dark Lord looked at him. Sure, he was nervous, but he had the makings of a Rogue. And he's at an experience level of 10, too.
A method of measuring one's overall strength, an experience level is gained once you are recognized as significantly stronger, physically for Warriors, mentally for Magicians, and a combination of both for Archers and Rogues. A level of 10 meant that one was ready to be a Warrior, Archer, or Rogue. Magicians were faster, at an experience level of 8.
"Give me your hand." The famed ex-Hermit said, with a bored expression. Clearly, he had been through this many times.
Wondering at this strange request, Kane held out his hand. The Dark Lord grabbed it, and, chanting in a language Kane could not understand, winced.
Suddenly, the room was filled with a bright light, and Kane felt something go into him. He tumbled away from the ex-Hermit, and, surprisingly, managed to balance himself, before finally tumbling anyway.
"There." The Dark Lord said. "That's quite some of my power. I'm going to have to train loads if this continues…"
"Th…thanks, sir." Kane stammered, just as he tripped himself at the ladder. He managed to hold on to a rung and flipped himself back up. "Whoa, how did I just…"
"Oh yes, how forgetful of me." The Dark Lord said. "Here's your spellbook. Surprise. Even Rogues need mana-consuming techniques." He handed Kane a light, black book of only a few pages. "Even though your dexterity more than makes up for it. By Lith, that's the first time I've seen a boy doing stunts immediately after advancement…"
"Th…thank you, sir." Kane managed to say, not in a whisper this time round.
"No problem. Glad to see you finally found your tongue." The ex-Hermit smiled.
Kane smiled back, nervously, and climbed the ladder, back to the surface world.
The Dark Lord smiled. He'll grow up to be a fine Rogue one day. He thought to himself.
A cab Kane had hailed was now taking him to Henesys. The town of Bowmen was Kane's homeland, and he was most familiar with its grassy plains, the boars, and various- coloured snails crawling around.
Back home, Kane greeted his father, a warm "Hi, dad!"
Darren Anderson smiled, and hugged his son. "How was the Dark Lord?"
"Everything went fine!" Kane beamed. "He even gave me a book on Rogue techniques! I plan to read through everything by today!"
"That's good, my boy." Darren smiled. "Your mum would have liked this." He whispered, almost to himself, a regretful half-smile on his face.
Kane fell silent. Jenny Anderson was a renowned Bandit, adventurous and daring, a beautiful woman. She had met Darren during one of her travels to Henesys. Despite their clashing personalities, they loved each other, just as opposites attract. It was a pity she had to die giving birth to Kane.
Darren Anderson, a Hermit, was an excellent alchemist in his time, one who used mana to create new techniques based on the classical elements of fire, water/ice, earth/poison, lighting, wind, light, and darkness, for battle and for enhancing potions. Of course, the element of darkness has been forbidden, except for within the confines of the Dragon Knight's skillbook, as, powerful as it was, it had a few side effects. Insanity was one of them, which could be avoided by Dragon Knights due to their stamina and endurance.
Back to Kane. After a heavy dinner, featuring Kane's favourite escargot, the Rogue was memorizing lines out of his skillbook, hiding in his room, working hard to make sense of the technique. It wasn't working.
"How's the book, son?" Darren walked into his room, observing the skillbook.
"It's not going good…" Kane murmured.
Darren took a look at the technique. "I understand you want to be a Bandit, like your mum, do you, son?"
Kane whirled around to face his father. "Um…yes…"
"Well, Keen Eye is actually for usage of the claw. In any case, the problem lies in this: certain techniques, like your Keen Eye, require the knowledge of another technique."
"What does Keen Eye need, then?"
Darren smiled. "Find out for yourself, son."
The next day, Kane was out on the fields of Henesys, training his combat skills as a Rogue against snails, Stumps, the like. A four-legged Stump was lumbering towards him, ready to strike. The one-eyed mutant tree stump jumped at the son of Darren, certain of its accuracy, looking forward to the kill.
But Kane was faster.
With a swift movement of his right hand, holding the makeshift dagger of a fruit knife, Kane stabbed forward, and a millisecond later, the blade was embedded in the Stump's bark. Kane extracted the blade, with a call of, "Any more?"
The call was answered immediately.
Three Stumps, flanked by a Red Snail and a Blue Snail, ran, fast as they could, towards Kane. It was apparent they had no sense of strategy.
Ah well. Perfect time to test my technique. Kane thought to himself. The Rogue sidestepped as the horde ran through where he had once been, before turning back and slashing out, shouting, "Double Stab!"
The effect was immediate. Red lines appeared where the dagger had once been, before the same dagger was found stabbing below the previous wound. But then, the attack was not without a price, for Kane felt a sort of exhaustion after striking. He knew, from reading the black skillbook yesterday, that it was the effects of using mana to increase one's speed for a short duration of time to create faster strikes. After awhile of using the technique, one will be extremely exhausted and not be able to use mana-consuming techniques, simply because there isn't any mana left. Of course, mana replenishes over time, and mana can be drunk in liquid form, what people call a mana potion.
The other mutated fauna and flora were disposed of in a similar fashion, and soon Kane grew weary of this endless slaughter. Hoarding up the shells and twigs on the floor, what was left of the massacre, Kane walked towards the Henesys market. He had heard that the shopkeepers were willing to pay for raw materials from the creatures…
Through all this combat training, Kane had met a friend, a crossbow-wielding Archer by the name of David. He was an easy-going teenager, which was probably why he wanted to be a Sniper, staying in a spot and just aiming, with his sharp eye.
He was older than Kane by two years. They seemed to be of similar intelligence and physical ability, even though David was a year ahead of his other schoolmates at the Henesys Academy of Archery.
Everyone in the neighborhood of Henesys agreed that Kane and David were the best team, together, that they had ever seen. Kane attracted the monsters to him, dodging them with his agility, while David sniped away at them. At the age of 14, David had yet to miss, not once.
As Kane and David trained themselves, one could see that they were improving. Kane was at an experience level of 15, in a few days, and David, 20, from the 18 when he had met Kane.
Kane and David were, probably, what you could call the best of friends. They had vowed never to leave each other, to be each other's friend forever. Countless have made the same vow, but few can keep that vow. Little did they know that they were one of the few.
Through his countless visits to the Elinian Library, Kane had discovered much about the endless list of guilds. Nowadays, guilds were more competitive, whether in terms of war, where the guild of Abyss were the top, with the best of the four Jobs, or propaganda, where the MapleSociety were excellent at recruiting members, although not always good, or even average, members, in terms of both strength and wisdom.
Another two guilds Kane was most interested in reading up was the BeraCross and Necrons. BeraCross was a guild where they recruited people to fight against lawbreakers, with or without the consent of the Four Wise Men, people who govern the land of Bera. What counts under 'lawbreakers' for BeraCross are necromancers (people who use the element of darkness.), and those who murder civilians. Necrons is the only guild they are against that do not 'break laws', yet there is an endless war between the two of them.
Kane has always wanted to join BeraCross, being a strong upholder of justice. David, of course, had agreed to follow him, so close was their bond.
Two years later
The two people walked down the streets of Henesys Town. They glanced at the door number of each mushroom house, moving ever forward, seemingly looking for a prey.
They stopped at a house, identical to the others.
Except for the door number.
73.
The cloaked strangers, instead of knocking on the door, just rammed through the custom-made adamatium door.
Darren Anderson looked up from the thick book of Ice techniques he was reading from, papers made from doing an Earth transmutation on the air around him scribbled with notes.
"What the…"
The strangers rushed forward at an unnatural speed, one choking Darren with a gloved hand, while the other chanted, "Neptune's Wrath!"
A sudden wave of water crashed unto Darren, freezing as it went over him.
"Fire Transmutation!"
Darren fought back, causing air particles trapped at his hand, a millisecond before they were frozen, to be set alight, melting the ice. He then said, simply, "Wind Transmutation."
A sudden gale came in from out of the now-open windows, causing the strangers to have to fight against being blown away. Darren did not waste a moment. He slipped on his claw and aimed it at the one who had formerly strangled him.
"Drain!"
A Steely, glowing a dark purple, hit that stranger right between the eyes.
It had no effect.
"What the…?"
That same stranger replied with, "Rectify."
The Steely popped out, and the wound on the bridge of his nose healed, immediately, save for a purple glow.
That's…that's a Darkness technique…
That stranger continued.
"Vulcan's Wrath."
Lava flowed unto Darren's house, but could not get through the Mitril-reinforced walls, hardening outside the house.
But he wasn't done.
"Alright. Time for the basics. Explosion."
The area around that person suddenly heated up, before the air itself exploded, burning the surprised Darren, while the other stranger was protected by a layer of ice.
Darren was still conscious. "I…what power…"
"We have been sent to kill you. Of course, it was harder than I thought. Finally a worthy opponent. But nevertheless. Duty calls. See you in Hell."
The stranger who had control over Ice raised a wand…