Chapter 6
The Guilds Entry Exam
Fiona ran desperately through the burning town. The cobblestone road beneath her feet was covered in ash and debris from the burning buildings. The houses that she had passed numerous times were now ablaze and were slowly crumbling to pieces.
Tears flowed from Fiona's face as she ran. A giant shape stepped out from one of the alley ways and glared at Fiona. A creepy smile etched itself onto its lips as it raised one of its arms and unleashed a column of fire. Fiona quickly side stepped and ran down the alley way next to her. The creature let out a laugh of pleasure as it quickly dashed into the same alley way.
Fiona picked up the pace and kept running. Without warning a burning piece of timber fell from one of the houses and blocked her path. Fiona skidded to a stop and desperately looked for a way around the flaming wood. The figure was getting closer and closer.
"No where to run little fox…I was hoping we could continue this little game." The monster said before he let out a low chuckle.
"Please don't hurt me…I don't want to die…please…" Fiona whimpered as she backed up towards the piece of wood.
The figure laughed and raised his arm. A small ball of fire began to form and a smile formed along his face.
"You're a fire type you will survive this." The monster said as a giant column of fire erupted from his hand.
Fiona covered her face and prepared herself for the pain. A few moments passed and Fiona didn't feel anything. She slowly opened her eyes and was shocked to see who was standing in front of her.
Oak stood in front of her with his arms stretched out, and his body showed no signs of damage from the attack. He slowly turned his head and gave Fiona a confident smile before he returned his attention to the monster.
"You know I really hate it when people attack my friends. I really hate it when they threaten to kill them." Oak said as he got into a battle stance. " And I really hate it when I see the cry!"
The monster just laughed and lifted his arm ready to fire another column of fire.
Oak just smiled and closed his eyes. The leaf on his tail began to slowly glow with a strange yellow light. He toke in a deep breath and slowly opened his wail slowly raised itself above his head and positioned itself so the points of his leaves were pointed right at the monster.
"Solar…beam." Oak whispered.
The light from his leaf quickly disappeared and from the tip of his middle leaf a giant column of pure energy shot forward.
The monster let out a scream of terror and pain as the beam slammed into him and sent him flying across the burning village. The monster flew through multiple houses before he finally skidded to a stop just inches from a sea side cliff. Oaks tail slowly returned to normal and he turned around to face his friend.
"Are you alright, Fiona?" Oak asked as he extended his hand out to his friend.
"Oak how are you where did you come from?"
"I heard you call for help and I ran here as fast as I could
"Oak…"
"Hey Fiona I have something to tell you…"
"Yes…Oak?"
"Fiona it's time for you to WAKE UP!"
Fiona leapt up from her pile of hay and looked around the room in confusion. She was still in the hotel room and not in her burning village.
"Well it's good to see that you are awake." Brook said as he hovered in front of Fiona.
"What time is it and where is Oak?" Fiona asked before she let out a loud yawn.
"Oak went out for a walk and I would say that it's about nine a clock in the morning. Oh, and Fiona I have a question."
"What is it?"
"Before you woke up you kept mumbling Oaks name over and over again…Do you have a crush on him?"
"What?" Fiona said as her face began to glow red.
"I mean I was thinking that maybe you where dreaming Oak as a knight in shining armor coming to save you!" Brooks said dramatically, "A TRUE TALE OF TRUE LOVE!"
"BROOK I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON…"
"Why is everyone yelling?" Oak asked as he walked back into the room.
He looked at Brook and then at Fiona. Both of the pokemon remained silent for a few moments before Brook broke the silence with a joyful chuckle.
"Oh, it's nothing Oak. Now that your back we can grab something to eat and then we can make our way to the guild."
"Then what?" Oak asked?
"Then we see if you two are able to pass this guilds entrance exam with flying colors."
The trio quickly ate and then made their out and into the streets. The stalls were alive and pokemon walked around the shopping district enjoying the weather. The trio briskly made their way through the somewhat crowded streets towards the giant tree. Soon the number of houses and pokemon began to dwindle away and the giant tree loomed before them.
Oak looked up at the towering tree in amazement. It was incredible to see that a tree could actually grow that large and have enough room to support a fully functioning guild. Oak followed the trunk all the way down until his eyes fell upon a set of giant wooden doors that were carved right into the base of the tree. The same symbol that was on the academies door was present except it was centered in the middle of a large tree.
"Well we finally made it." Brooks said before he pulled out a small confetti popper and pulled the string,
"Brook I don't think this is the time to be celebrating. We still need to pass the entry exam before we are considered real members of the guild." Fiona said as the ball of confetti landed on her head.
"Right and all you two need to do is go through those doors and get your assignment. Now go and receive your quest for greatness!"
Oak and Fiona only looked at each other before they both nodded and walked up to the door. Oak gently placed his hands on the door, and Fiona gently pushed her head against the door. Together they pushed and the door began to slowly open. Once it had opened just enough for them to enter the duo wormed their way through the gap and into the base of the tree.
"Oak we made it!" Fiona yelled as they entered, "Hello guild we are here to join you!"
All the pokemon in the room just stood there in complete silence before they resumed doing what they were doing. The room itself was huge and round. Banners of multiple shapes sizes and colors decorated the walls. A large piece of wood had been carved out and was currently being used as a giant desk. A large group of clefairy stood behind the desk talking to the pokemon standing in front of them. Some of them were writing down information on small slips of paper.
"Hello hello welcome to the mission submission center. Would you like to submit a mission or an outlaw request?" A clefairy asked form the other side of the counter.
"Uh, no we were wondering if you could direct us to the place we need to take the entry exam for the guild." Fiona said as she and Oak waked up to the counter.
"Actually you two came to the right place. I can register you two for our entry exam right here." The clefairy said, "I just need to quickly tell you the rules and once you accept them I will go and get your exam."
"Alright we are ready!" Fiona said confidently.
"The first rule is that you have to successfully get from point A to point B without being defeated, second you must make sure that the package is unharmed as you are delivering it, third you are not allowed to open the package. Doing any of these things will result in you failing the entry exam. If this happens then you must wait a month before doing it again."
"A whole month, why is that a rule?" Oak asked.
"The exam changes every moth so waiting ensures that you are not getting the same exam again. Plus it also allows you two to grow. Now if there aren't any more questions please either agree or disagree with our terms."
Oak and Fiona looked at each other and nodded. They both looked up at the clefairy and smiled.
"We agree to the terms and we are ready to take on the challenge!" The duo said confidently in unison.
The clefairy smiled and lifted her hand. With a quick wave of her hand she blinked out of existence. A few moments later she re appeared with a small yellow box. The box had a red ribbon wrapped around it and the mark of the guild had been stamped onto a bronze coin that sat on top of the ribbon and the package.
"Your mission is simple, you two must deliver this important package to the sacred pool which is located just outside of the village. The one catch is that the entrance to the sacred pool lies just past a mystery dungeon. You two have to go through get e dungeon and successfully deliver the package." The clefairy said as she carefully handed Oak the package.
"Sounds easy enough." Oak said as he examined the box.
"Oh, and you two have until sunset to complete this mission. Good luck you two!" The clefairy called as she watched the duo walk towards the exit.
"So you two just need to deliver that box to a pool before sunset…sounds easy enough." Brook said as he floated beside the duo as they made their way towards the dungeon.
Oak and his friends had left the boundaries of the town and were now making their way towards the sacred pool. They followed the trail until they hit a cross roads. A faded wooden sign pointed in two directions they followed the signs directions and began walking down the path towards the sacred pool.
The dirt path began to grow smaller and the trees began to appear taller and older as the trio continued down the path. Finally the path seemed to disappear and the trees canopy casted large shadows across the open area. In front of them a small, wooden sign appeared and the words "Sacred Pool" had been etched into the wood. A small arrow pointed towards a large, dark tunnel that had been created by the trees.
Oak felt a sudden chill run down his spine as he looked into the tunnel of trees. He felt his body begin to shake. He didn't know why, but just looking at the entrance to the dungeon made him feel nervous. He looked towards Fiona and watched as Fiona confidently walked up the entrance of the dungeon.
"Well Oak I hope your ready…This will be our first real dungeon." Fiona said before she turned and found Oak shaking, "Come on Oak you're not scared are you?"
"Me scared…how can I be scared of a forest…besides we will Brook with us…right Brook?" Oak said hopefully as he turned towards the lampent.
"Oh, this is your exam…I can't take any part in this exam. Besides this dungeon is probably only four floors so you should be fine."
"But Brook…I can't fight!" Oak yelled.
"You can fight you just need to believe in yourself. Oh, and before I go I want to give you this." The lampent said as he unslung his bag off of his shoulder and handed it to Oak, "I put a few berries and an escape orb in here for you."
Oak gently toke the bag from Brook and slung it over his shoulder. He opened the top of the bag and gently placed the package into it.
"Now then I bid you two good luck and farewell. I will meet you back at the guild when you are finished." With that said Brook phased into the earth leaving the duo alone.
Oak sighed and walked next to Fiona. The two of them looked at the entrance and toke a deep breath. Both of them raised one foot and toke one step into the dungeon.
Deep Woods F1
"Fiona where did the entrance go?" Oak asked as he tried to find the entrance.
"Once you enter a dungeon you're trapped in it until you find the exit. So we have to find our way out." Fiona said.
Oak nodded and the two of them began walking down one of the trails. The trees loomed above them and the path at times became uneven and rugged. They continued their pace and turned down another trail. At one point Oak could have sworn they had passed the same rock a couple of minutes ago.
"Uhg where lost!" Fiona groaned.
"Isn't this the same place we…"
"Yes Oak this is the same spot we started in! Gah why is this so hard! I knew we should have taken another right! Even though we already followed that path!"
"Have we gone down that path yet?" Oak said as he pointed to his right.
"No we just went straight and then we back tracked."
"Then let's try that path."
Fiona sighed and they quickly made their way over towards the path. They followed it for a couple of feet before it veered right. As soon as they turned the corner the duo found themselves looking into a small field with a pair of stairs centered right in the middle.
"Thank Arceus!" Fiona muttered as she walked over to the stairs, "This is our ticket to the next level Oak."
"But we're in a forest…why is there a set of stairs in the forest?"
"Well you see Oak dungeons are like a big delicious cake. Except this cake is dangerous and has enemies."
"This cake doesn't sound to delicious…"
"It's a metaphor Oak. A cake and a dungeon both have multiple layers. The stairs either take you up or down to the next layer."
"I guess that makes sense…"Oak said before his stomach growled, "and all this cake talk is making me hungry…"
Fiona let out a small laugh before they walked up the stairs, and together they ascended to the next floor.
Deep Woods F2
Oak quickly glanced around him and realized that the layout of the area had changed. Instead of thee paths there now was only two. Oak toke the lead and they headed down the path that lay in front of them. They walked a couple of feet before they entered a similar area except this one had three branching path ways leading forward, right, and left. In the middle of the room sat a small pile of berries.
"Uh, is it normal to find food just lying on the ground in dungeons?" Oak asked as he pointed towards the pile.
"Well yes, but never in one spot usually its spread out and hidden." Fiona said.
Just as Fiona had finished speaking a wild mankey jumped down from the tree branches and landed in front of the pile of food. The mankey let out a small growl and began beating the ground with his palms. He then glared at the duo with a feral glare.
"I think he though we were going to steal from him." Fiona said as she toke a few steps back from the angry monkey.
The mankey grunted and charged at Fiona. Fiona quickly dodged out of the way and the mankey quickly stopped, turned, and charged again this time at Oak. Oak side stepped but the mankey was still able to swipe his claws across the snivys side. Oak let out small hiss of pain before he grabbed onto his side. The mankey returned to his pile and again angrily slapped his hands onto the ground.
"I guess he isn't going to let us leave without paying the consequence for looking at his food." Oak muttered.
The mankey grunted and charged at them again. Fiona quickly dodged and quickly toke in a deep breath. As soon as the mankey turned to charge at her again Fiona unleashed a barrage a small orange pellets. The mankey held up his arms and blocked his face from the barrage. Fiona used this opportunity to charge at the mankey and slam into it. The mankey soared across the forest and landed with a thud somewhere deep within the foliage.
"Oak we need to get out of here quickly!" Fiona said as she quickly ran back towards Oak.
Oak only nodded and painfully began following Fiona. As Oak passed the pile of berries he did notice a familiar looking blue berry among the pile of colors. He remembered back at the academy the nurse had force fed him the berry and it had helped heal his wounds. He quickly snatched the berry and shoved it into his mouth. The pain from his cuts began to fade and Oak felt refreshed. With his new found energy he quickly ran after his friend.
The duo continued running down the path until the finally reached the stairs and scaled them to the next level.
Deep Woods F3
By now Oak knew the drill and the duo quickly began walking down the different paths. At one point during their trek Fiona collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion and asked Oak to hand her something to eat. Oak dug through Brook's bag and found a big, red apple nestled between a couple of orbs and berries. He pulled the apple out and gave it to Fiona who quickly devoured the apple.
"Man I wasn't so hungry earlier. I guess fighting the mankey really made me hungry." Fiona said as she finished the last of the apple, "Oak do you feel hungry at all?"
"Not really I was earlier, but I guess that berry I ate filled me up. Why do you ask?"
"Well mystery dungeons do cause you to use more stamina as you journey through them. It's a strange phenomenon, and no can really explain it. So it is important that we eat whenever we can."
Oak just nodded and they continued their trek. They walked around the floor until they finally reached the stairs ad scaled them to the next floor.
Deep Woods F4
Once they had reached the next layer they quickly picked one of the three paths and began walking down it. As they walked Oak couldn't shake the feeling that they were being followed. Every now and then he would look behind him to see if anyone was behind him, but found nothing.
They continued walking until they finally reached an area where the trees began to thin and Oak could see small rays of sunlight.
"We did it Oak!" Fiona exclaimed as they got closer and closer to the exit of the dungeon, "Our first dungeon and we made it."
"Yeah I guess we really did…I can't wait to tell Brook about this place, and…"
Before Oak could finish a mankey jumped down from the branches of the trees and glared at the duo angrily. He slapped the ground in furry and pointed at Oak with a shaky finger.
"Oak…where did you get that berry you said you ate earlier?" Fiona whispered as she and Oak began to slowly back away from the angry monkey.
"I toke one from the pile…"
"You what!"
"It was only one berry how was I supposed to know he was going to notice one missing!"
"What you thought he wasn't going to check to make sure we didn't steal anything!"
"I needed it more than he did! It was probably just going to sit there and rot!"
"Still it's not a good idea to take food from wild pokemon."
The mankey began making loud, angry grunts and from all around them they could hear the sounds of whoops and hollers. The trees came to life as more and more mankeys began to appear all around them. Soon the duo found themselves completely surrounded by a whole pack of angry mankeys.
Every one of them began slapping the branches in anger, and some of them even pointed at Oak with shaky fingers. From deep within the forest a loud and low growl erupted. The mankeys began whooping and hollering with excitement as a larger and even more pissed off looking mankey walked out from the brush. The large mankey raised his balled up fist into the air and screamed "PPPRRRIIIMMAAPPE!"
The mankeys got even louder and began chanting and slapping their tree branches in excitement. The primape turned his attention to the duo and puffed up his chest. He let out another loud battle cry before he charged at the duo. Oak and Fiona quickly dove out of the way before the primape could slam into them.
Fiona quickly turned towards the large ape and let lose a barrage of small orange pellets. The primape seemed to chuckle at the attempt and charged again. Fiona jumped out of the way and unleashed a cloud of black smoke. The primeape let put another loud cry of anger and began to run around in furry. Using this opportunity to attack Oak charged at the primape and slammed his head right into the ape's side.
The primape collapsed onto the ground, but he quickly got back to his feet. The ape pulled one of his fist back and unleashed a barrage of punches at Oak. Oak didn't have enough time to react and was hit by the barrage of fist. The attack sent the snivy soaring across the clearing before he landed with a thud onto a pile of leaves.
"Dammit!" Oak muttered as he slowly got back to his feet.
His entire body was in pain and his left eye felt swollen. He slowly began running back towards the fight only to witness Fiona getting a fist slammed right into her side. The fenekin soared and landed just a couple of inches away from the exit.
"FIONA!" Oak screamed as he waited for his friend to respond, "FIONA PLEASE TELL ME YOUR ALRIGHT!"
Fiona remained motionless and silent.
Something inside Oak snapped and a sudden rush of power quickly toke hole. A purple aura began to surround him and his eyes changed and toke on a purplish hew. His vines extended out of his collar and thrones quickly grew from them.
The primape snarled and charged at Oak. Oak raised his hand and his thorn covered vines shot forward and wrapped themselves around the enraged ape. With one swift flick of his hand his vines lifted the ape into the air and then slammed him into the ground. Again Oak commanded his vines to again slam the ape into the ground, and again. The ape had lost all of his will to fight and now looked at Oak with a look of mercy.
A crooked smile etched itself into Oaks face and he let out a small maniacal laugh. He was about to slam the ape onto the ground again, but a familiar voice stopped him.
"OAK PLEASE STOP…!" Fiona cried as she painfully tried to get to her feet, "This isn't you and whatever is happening to you needs to stop…please Oak if you can hear me please stop your scaring me…"
The thrones sank back into his vines and the purple energy vanished. His vines unraveled themselves and returned to his collar. The released primape let out a war cry and charged at Oak. At that instant Oak re summoned his vines and used them to push him up into the air. Once the primape was under him he willed his vines to wrap around the ape. Using the force from his push he slung the big ape over his head and slammed him into the ground.
The primape went limp and his eyes slowly rolled back into his head. The mankeys looked at Oak with looks of pure fear and they quickly retreated back into the forest. Once they had all vanished Oak painfully walked over to Fiona and gently picked her up. With his energy fading quickly Oak dashed though the opening and out into the area that lay beyond the dungeon.
Outside of the dungeon Oak found himself standing in a large open field filled with strange stone pillars. The ground beneath Oak was made out of large slabs of stone. He kept walking until he finally reached a large, clear pool of water. His legs final gave out and Oak collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. Fiona tumbled from his arms and rolled towards the edge of the pool. Oaks eyes began to slowly close and the last thing he saw before he passed out was a small shape looming above Fiona.
Oaks eyes snapped open and he found himself looking up at the late afternoon sun. The pain he felt earlier had vanished and he slowly sat up.
"Well it's good to see you're awake." A kind, old voice said from behind Oak.
Oak turned and found a strange looking, brown fish looking at him. The fish was a light brown and had a few big splotches of dark brown on his body. His eyes were closed and kind smile was etched across his face.
"I take it you are taking the guild exam. I must say from all that commotion I heard earlier I am surprised to see that were not kicked out of the dungeon." The fish said, "Now tell me young one what happened back there?"
Oak quickly told the fish what had happened and the fish just laughed.
"So you met big baby Jojo. He is tough and he is strong, but one punch will send him running."
"Yeah he hit me like a heard of tauros, but…how am I alright?" Oak asked
"Well your friend woke up and slipped an Oran berry into your mouth before you passed out. Then she passed out not to long after you did. You've been asleep for about three hours." The fish said, "Oh, where are my manners I haven't introduced myself I am Poseidon the elder of the scared pool. When pokemon are troubled or have questions they come to me. I was once even the guild master a long time ago before the tree became the headquarters."
"My name is Oak, and if you don't mind me asking how old are you?"
"Well it would be rude for a relikenth like me not to tell you my age I am exactly two thousand and thirty two."
"That's amazing, and you've been alive since the tree was a sapling!?"
"No the tree has been here longer than I have. The guild moved in about one hundred years ago. Now enough chit chat I believe you have a package for me?"
"Oh yes we do!" Oak said as he quickly dug through the bag to find the box.
His heart stopped once he found it. The box had been flattened and the ribbon had been torn. Oak slowly toke the box out from the bag and placed it in front of Poseidon. The relikenth looked down at it then back at Oak and then back at the box.
"Well open it" Poseidon said
"But it's destroyed that means we failed…" Oak said as he slumped onto the ground.
"You didn't fail. I would say you passed the exam."
"Whys that?"
"I watched you carry your team mate all the way here. Even after you collapsed you kept trying to make sure she was alright. In my eyes that is the true essence of a true leader. You should be proud that you two made it out not alone, but together. Time and time again I have watched as teams of three or four pokemon take on our exam. They tell me about how they used someone as a shield so they could make it. After they tell me that I fail them. It disgust me to hera such rubbish. A true leader would never leave his teammates to die. As I saw you did today. I watched you carry her all the way here even though you were wounded you still pushed yourself to succeed. Not only did you succeed, but you both passed."
A small smile stretched across Oaks face after he heard him say that.
"So Oak as the elder I say you passed an you have every right to open that box."
Oak nodded and opened the lid. Inside Oak found a small, round, metal, badge that had a pair of wings attached to the side of it. He slowly lifted the badge out of the box and held it high.
"That badge is the symbol of the explorer organization you and your partner have completed the entry exam." Poseidon said before he dove into the pool and quickly resurfaced with a small stone in his mouth, "This stone goes in the middle of the badge. This is proof that you have meet me and have successfully survived the dungeon. Congratulations Oak and…. Still passed out fox!"
Oak toke the small stone from Poseidon and placed it into the badge. The stone quickly began to change from a dull gray into a vibrant pink. The badges gray metal face began to change until it became two colors. The top half of the badge was a deep viridian and the bottom half was a fiery red.
"Fiona we did it!" Oak yelled as he held the badge up to Fiona.
Fiona slowly opened her eyes and yawned. Once she saw the badge her eyes grew in size and she jumped into the air excitedly.
"Oak we did it! We are officially a member of the guild!" Fiona yelled before she remembered she was injured.
"Thank you for everything Posie…" Oak said before he realized that the fish had dived back into his pool.
"Well Oak I don't know who gave you the badge, but who cares WE DID IT! Now let's head back to town and tell them we finished!"
Oak nodded and the duo raised their hands/paws into the air.
"GET READY WORLD BECAUSE HERE…WE…COME!" Oak shouted as he raised the badge higher into the air.
