Chapter Two: Mushrooms and Mano
Disclaimer: I don't own NEXON or Maplestory!
It was official.
Skye was lost.
She and Kino had spent at least 30 minutes wandering aimlessly through Kerning because she had no idea where in hell's name was the frigging jazz bar.
"Kerning looks scary Mistress!" Kino wailed. "I wanna go back home!"
"No Kino, it's going to be all right." Skye said in an assuring tone but that didn't stop the mushroom bursting into tears.
I've gotta find the jazz bar soon… She thought desperately and glanced around. I don't want to get drowned in mushroom tears!
But, it seemed like Lady Luck was not being too kind on her today and so, Skye was resigned to the fate of being drowned in mushroom tears.
[Back in Henseys…]
"A rainbow snail shell?" Ria stared at the child in disbelief. "You must be kidding me."
"No I'm serious!" Pia said, handing her a tattered and worn book to Ria. "I found this but I'm not quite sure what it says. Can you give this to Jay please?"
The brunette sighed, pocketing the book. "All right then." She said reluctantly. "I'll go find Jay."
[An hour or so later…]
"Hey where have you been?" Pia asked the brunette as she marched up to her.
"I've had to go all the way to Ellinia to speak to Wing the Fairy because Mrs Ming Ming said he might know something about Alloy who was the one who first found a rainbow shell then I had to find a load of snail shells, and then walk all the way back here!" Ria said breathlessly.
"Ah so what did ya find out?" The child asked excitedly, eyes sparkling.
"It turns out you have to fight a big snail called Mano near Lilith Harbour then once you defeat him, you'll get his snail shell which can apparently grants your wishes." She recited from memory.
"Then you know what you have to do."
"What?"
"Get me that snail shell!"
Ria smiled smugly. "What do I get in return then?"
Pia waved her hand dismissively and said, "I'll figure that out. Just get me that snail shell!"
"All right all right." The brunette grumbled under her breath as she turned on her heel and headed towards the exit of Henseys. "I'll get your stupid snail shell."
[Back in Kerning…]
Kino was still crying its beady eyes out and Skye, being the slightly socially awkward person she was, had no idea how to calm the little mushroom. Then it hit her.
"Kino, if you don't stop crying, I won't give you a treat." Immediately, the mushroom stopped sobbing (but he was sniffing every now and then).
Sighing, Skye picked it up and held it in her arms. "You worry too much."
"S-Sorry Sky-c-chan." It sniffed and buried its head into her arms. "I'm s-such a c-crybaby."
"Oh don't worry about it." Skye replied with a small smile as they continued to wander aimlessly through the back streets of Kerning. "You're still a kid Kino. Kids can cry."
When they had finally stumbled upon the jazz bar, Skye hurried inside and headed towards the toilet. She lifted the seat and inside, instead of a pool of water, was the ladder that led to the basement.
She scrambled down but, with her horrible luck, she managed to miss a rung and fall flat on her back. Skye was thankful for the fact she used to trip down the stairs daily so something like this didn't really hurt.
"My, my, you're a clumsy one aren't you?" A person clad in ninja-like clothes chuckled as he stood over the young girl. "I have a feeling you want to be a Thief am I right?"
"No, I'm here to be a leprechaun." Skye bit back, her sarcasm mode on. "You're the Dark Lord right?"
"Obviously." He answered, rolling his eyes (the only visible part of his face).
The Dark Lord watched the raven get to her feet and check on Kino who had fallen asleep in her arms. Skye silently thanked whoever was up there that Kino wasn't hurt during the fall.
"You're a bit on the weak side aren't you?" The Dark Lord commented while he gave the girl a once over. "Do you actually think you can survive being a Thief?"
"I can get stronger though!" Skye said determinedly. "I want to get stronger so I'm just as strong as Ria!" Skye had a feeling her friend was miles ahead of her in strength since she never was the one to waste time.
"Then prove it." The Dark Lord threw her a small knife and quickly disappeared. Skye was completely confused about what she was meant to do that is until now.
Octopuses suddenly appeared in the jazz bar and when their many eyes landed on the unsuspecting mapler, they surrounded her.
"Sky-chan, I'm scared!" Kino wailed. "What's happening?"
Kino just had to wake up right now! Skye inwardly cursed. I've got to protect him!
Sucking her misgivings and her stinking luck, she charged towards one of octopuses and began slashing wildly while dodging as it attempted to attack her. Once it was dead, she repeated the process on the other octopuses until they were all gone and only meso coins and octopus tentacles were scattered about on the floor.
"Hm. You're stronger than you look." The Dark Lord said and appeared before her once more.
"Sky-chan," Kino hopped towards her and placed another bitter white potion at her feet, "are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Skye answered with a grateful smile, picking up the potion. "I've had worse things." She turned to the ninja-clad man. "So do I pass?"
"Welcome to the world of thieves Skye." The Dark Lord congratulated her.
[Back to Ria…]
The young mage had been killing snails as she waited for Mano to appear but nothing. There was nothing! And so, that's how Ria ended up making mass snail genocide, taking her anger out on the innocent snails that were unfortunate enough to cross paths with this angry mage (while levelling up on the way).
And all of a sudden, she felt a cool breeze, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. There was a loud roar and Ria knew instantly that when she turned around, she would face the ancient snail named Mano. Thankfully, Ria had brushed up on her monsters on the Maplestory Wiki last night and with her calculations, she would probably kick the snail's butt (if snails had any) at level 15.
"6,250 HP…" She mumbled under her breath as she stared the snail down. Ria clutched her wand tightly. "Bring it on snail butt!"
Mano roared in anger. All of a sudden, snails appeared around the damn thing and began to attack her left right and centre! She could feel her mana points depleting as she sent energy bolt after energy bolt.
"Gah!" She yelled as she sent one last energy bolt and with a pained cry, the Grandfather Snail collapsed onto the ground.
Ria blinked and blinked and blinked and- well, you get the picture. She picked up the rainbow shell and stuffed it into her bag with a relieved sigh. "I hate snails…" She mumbled and headed back to Henseys, wondering what Pia's reward would be.
After several minutes of limping since she had forgotten to bring any potions with her (or she completely forgot about the beginner potions Grendel the Really Old gave her), Ria had finally arrived at Henseys once more.
"Pia!" She screamed, ignoring the strange looks she was receiving. "Where the hell are you?"
"You screamed?" The weird child appeared before her.
Ria wasted no time in shoving the accursed rainbow shell that nearly got her killed, in her hands before sticking out her own. "Payment. Now. Potions preferably." She snapped her fingers impatiently.
"Geez, here." Pia poked her in the forehead. All Ria could feel was tingles throughout her body before relief flooded through her systems.
"What did you just give me?"
"Experience points." Pia stated simply. "You've just levelled up right now. By the way, if you needed potions, I thought a beginner like you would have some red and blue potions in your bag. Grendel the Really Old should've given you some."
"What?" Ria's roar echoed throughout the town, heck even the continent.
[Back to Skye…]
"Power B. Fore is a frigging tyrant!" Skye groaned as she slumped herself against the walls of an alleyway. "Using me to exact his stupid revenge. It was his fault for losing the thing in the first place!"
"But at least you're much stronger!" Kino said cheerfully. "Mister B. Fore's teaching methods might be a bit absurd but it's pretty effective!"
"Hm, I'll agree with you there." Skye agreed.
"Anyways, to celebrate your new strength, let's go find another outfit!" Kino squeaked.
At Kino's insistence, Skye had reluctantly got herself a new outfit which consisted of red qi pao pants and a matching shirt, red ninja sandals and a pair of her lucky goggles that she never took off hung on her neck. Her brand spanking new triangular zamadar hung on her waist.
"I feel like a-"
"Ninja!" Kino squeaked hopefully, its beady black eyes glittering.
"Sure." Skye answered flatly. She didn't want to anger the little mushroom because it was a mushroom and it could go all Mushmom on her. She didn't want to fight the cute thing.
"Now let's go explore!" Kino cheered and hopped on her head once more.
An hour or so later, the two were lost yet again. All they knew from Skye's rubbish map reading, they were somewhere near Henseys. Who knew?
"Sky-chan! Why didn't we take a cab?" Kino wailed. "We're lost! We're going to die! Waahhhh!"
The teen tried desperately to calm the wailing mushroom who was literally crying a river. But as she did that, she didn't notice the freakishly large blue mushroom sneak up behind her with its blue mushroom friends in tow. Its beady eyes stared at her mischievously. Although, it didn't expect to be tackled to the ground by one of its own; the little orange mushroom named Kino.
"Go away you meanie!" Kino wailed again.
"Oh my Cygnus! It's a bloody Blue Mushmom!" Skye squeaked in fear. She shook her head, letting all of her fear disappear as she brandished her zamadar. "Bring it on Mushroom face!"
"Yeah!" Kino cried in determination. "Let's kick its mushroom cap Sky-chan!"
I had to edit this -_- If you're wondering why I changed Skye's classes is because I had no idea how to fit the Dual Blade storyline into this one. Please read and review!
