'Are we there yet?' Was all that rang in Vallena's mind. She was dying to ask the dreaded question travelers ripped their hair out when hearing it for the thousandth time, and she really, really didn't want to do that to anyone.
"We're almost there, don't worry." Mia smiled, patting her gently on the back. Mia was the knight, she told me her name while they started heading out towards the Monk's sanctuary.
"Are you psychic or something?" Vallena asked, frowning and quickening her pace to match that of the older woman's legs. She had let her peco peco rest at the inn.
"You could say that," She smiled, winking at me playfully, "my mother was a sage." She said, showing her a unique rune necklace. It was a round stone, with runes that looked like lines and weird squiggly shapes. Sometimes, it glowed lightly from the lines, but usually it didn't do anything.
"Oh, I see where you got that necklace from." She said, smiling up at her and tightening her hand around the mace. Mandragora were frequent around this area, and they always hit her from afar before she could whack it on the mandibles.
For the most part, she let Mia deal with them. Mia carried a claymore, and also carried a lightweight halberd on her back to hurl at enemies. She was very quick with the spear, but she seemed to go even faster carrying a sword.
Trudging through the heavy dirt, her feet aching through her soft cotton shoes, Vallena felt a snag on the end of her dress. She stopped, looking peculiarly at the ground to see what had caught her. As she looked at her feet, whispy green vein-like vines wrapped around her leg. She stared at them as they neatly and utterly wrapped around her calf, slowly squeezing until it felt painful. Then, just as it tugged her off her feet, she let out a high pitched and blood curdling scream that made Mia whip her head around.
As she saw Vallena's current predicament, Mia turned fully around with lightning speed, and had the limb severed and halberd quivering out of the Mandragora's 'temple', or weak spot, before she could blink. Amazing how powerful she was, the angel must be tired silly dealing with powering her up.
"Are you alright?" Mia asked for the hundredth time, grabbing her thin wrist and hauling her up like a piece of paper. She smiled at Vallena, and quickly sheathed her sword and grabbed the halberd from the Mandragora, the spear letting loose with a crunch.
"I'm fine, thank you." Vallena said, smiling at her. 'She really is amazing,' she thought, grinning to herself, 'she's so nice…'
"We're here." She said, indicating the old ruins with a wave of her hand. Her first thought was this was a mistake, that this could not have been the monastery, but, she saw one of the tutors that were involved in a random quest to find him, or two others. Waving to them, he called,
"Are you here to start your monk training?"
"Yes sir, she wants to try and become one of the order." Mia said as we came up to him, and he moved aside and let them pass by.
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"Keep trying, Vallena!" Came the voice of her tutor, Arrk. He was at least twenty five, and he was quite experienced despite his young age.
"I can't!" She cried, on her hands and knees, sweat gently trickling down her body.
For the last four hours, since five in the morning, she had been rigorously training on an old, dead tree outside the sanctuary. Apparently, they had no 'novice' tutors left. She doubted that was the case, that this was the training all monks receive to harden their hands.
"If you were born to do it, you will." He said, smiling at her. He patted her shoulder gently, then lifted her up.
Mia had left the day before, saying she had some guild matters to attend to, and headed off to Geffen, where their castle was located.
"Alright, if you can do it, so can I." She said, frowning at him and placing her hands on her hips.
Sighing, he picked out a fresh tree, and put his hand to it, and whacked it like you would a five year old. But…it completely shred in half.
"See? It's possible. Just put all your energy into your hand." He said, explaining how to concentrate it.
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"Very good, Vallena!" Arrk said, grinning at her and glancing lightly at all the broken elunium blocks around them.
In roughly two years, she had advanced from rotting wood, to normal wood, to phracon, to emverteracon, oridecon, and now elunium, a feat that took at least eight years.
"Hmm…" The head monk said, eyeing her loosely, before nodding approvingly. "Very good, Vallena, I hereby graduate you." He said, smiling at her.
Bowing low, Vallena quickly left the small room, the excitement nearly causing her to pass out, as Arrk slowly followed her to the armory. When they reached the door, Arrk unlocked it for her and selected two female monk uniforms, and two knuckle dusters to wear.
"Congratulations, Vallena. Here, wash in the lake, then put these on and meet with Mia." He said, smiling at her with pride.
"Yes, sensei." She said, bowing to him and jogging towards the lake behind the sanctuary. Life had been good for her now, she and Mia were definitely close, and Arrk was a great friend as well. Finally reaching the lake, she quickly stripped, cast Ruwach just to be safe, and started swimming, enjoying the feel of the cool water. She had developed into quite the woman, and she was happy about that, too.
Suddenly, a warning went off in her head. Immediately, she sank into the water more so only her head was above it, then scanned the bank for any intruders. Suddenly, she spotted a movement. Gazing closer, she saw it was quite a large creature with yellow feathers and a big beak. Narrowing an eye in confusion, she felt something tug her leg before she was pulled down, into the murky depths of the lake.
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Oh no! What's happening? A few of you Ragnarok Online die-hard gamers should know already. And think, this lake is at least 100 feet deep, so something either has to have a LONG tentacle, is really strong to pull her down, or…find out next chapter!
