Disclaimer: I don't own Date A Live or Hyperdimension Neptunia.
Training soon became a routine that followed for the days that came after. Learning how each one fought allowed for better synergy when something unexpected came about and it allowed IF to focus on her own side of the battle instead of making sure everyone else was alright. Compa was slowly getting used to her role as a healer and was beginning to experiment on how to properly place herself in a battle in which she could do the most good which further eased up command pressure.
Neptune had largely remained unchanged either to her own inability to stay in one position for too long once the battle had gone underway or her own overzealous combat style , but when it came to team combinations or providing necessary cover, she seemed to find herself in the most optimal position for IF or, should she be indisposed, Shidou to give commands that took advantage of her location in battle.
Noire had surprisingly continued to join their morning training and, by extension, their party.
Shidou had no real qualms about it. Much like himself, there may be a chance for their party's third amnesiac on regaining her memories by doing things that she was familiar with. Though that being said, in terms of sword play, it was clear that Noire had him beat and his numerous spars with the black-haired twin tailed girl could only attest to that fact.
That being the case, Shidou felt himself slowly improving with each spar. It felt like the time he was learning the bow from his old instructor, except that he didn't feel a subtle irritation towards the one teaching him.
The lack of subtle but rather confusing sort of animosity made the learning much more bearable… even if he ended up far too beaten up to do anything for the hour that followed.
While Shidou and Noire's capability as battle personnel were more or less equal, that was only taking the whole into account. When it came to pure sword skill, Noire was far stronger than Shidou and as the point of the spar was to improve his sword skill, it wouldn't do at all to use anything else.
"Hey Shin, why are we heading out to east Lastation again?"
"You forgot already? You were the one that volunteered for this in the first place…"
"Leave it with the small details~ As I understand it, we are the only ones that can do this, right?"
"So that was the only thing that got your notice…"
Although Shidou held a wry smile, it wasn't something that he felt was particularly bad.
"If you think like that Neptune, then doing work for the sake of someone's life doesn't motivate you to actually do work?"
Apart from Shidou and Neptune, there was one other person with them - it was the fellow amnesiac, Noire.
"Hey! Don't make it sound like I only care about getting attention!"
There was something hypocritical about that statement, but Shidou decided not to comment on it as he spotted something at the base of a tree.
To put it in perspective, the trio were currently out in the forest East North East of Lastation. It was a fair distance away from the main city seeing as the trees were relatively healthy here, which meant that the pollution of the main city hadn't reached this far.
"Hmm… is that?"
Ignoring the bickering pair for the moment, Shidou walked a bit faster to reach the base of the tree. Upon crouching down, he noted the mushrooms that grew from the roots of the tree.
"Neptune, Noire - I think I found it!"
The pair immediately stopped their bickering and walked over to the blue-haired boy and also crouched down to see what it was that caught his attention.
"Is this the florian mushroom?" Neptune remarked, as she picked up the mushroom from the root with a light tug. "I thought it would look more… flowery."
"It matches the description of the pharmacist at any rate." Noire commented.
"Let's pick up a few of these mushrooms and pick up similar ones around the area." Shidou decided. "This is the general area that the pharmacist said the mushrooms are native to, and if we're wrong, some of what we pick should be the right one."
The two girls nodded and they immediately split up to look for the mushroom.
It was roughly a few hours after the crack of dawn, and the trio were currently knee deep in a request that had been given to them by a pharmacist in the slums of Lastation. It hadn't been a formalized quest given the almost nonexistence of the guild in Lastation and the almost hostile relationship that adventurers had with the Basilicom, thus the request had been given to their notice when one of Chian's contacts had come running for help just before they had left for morning training.
A family had apparently contracted a rather rare ailment that could only be treated by a potion made from a mushroom at the eastern forests of Lastation - the exact recipe was unknown, so IF ended up taking a detour to the Basilicom to take advantage of the Communication Towers to contact an alchemist that she and Shidou knew in Leanbox. Shidou, Neptune and Noire volunteered to get the mushroom while Compa would remain behind to make sure that the ailment of the family did not grow worse.
"I think that should be enough…"
After half an hour of gathering, Shidou had filled two jars with mushrooms. He placed the ones that looked a bit suspect in the second jar, and those that matched the description closely were placed in the first jar. While he had experienced his fair share of item gathering for quests before, Shidou had always been a bit apprehensive when gathering items that were easy to mistake for another.
As soon as he stood up from the tree he had gathered from to look for his companions, he noticed a movement at the edge of his sight.
"A monster…?"
Putting a hand towards the long sword strapped to his back, Shidou warily gauged his surroundings.
The trip to the forest had been relatively safe. There were very few monsters out and about; it was almost to the extent of being suspicious, but seeing as he had little knowledge of the quantity of monsters that are normally encountered here, Shidou had disregarded it as inconsequential. To a certain extent, this had lowered Shidou's guard somewhat and had him performing mistakes that would have him scolded by IF if she were here with him.
It didn't take long for Shidou to realize what had caused the noise - or more accurately, who.
"A child?"
Upon uttering those words, the form that was hiding behind a tree stiffened and with hardly any warning, turned tail and run.
The form was without a doubt a child - but what would a child be doing so far from civilization? Let alone in an area that's home to monsters?
"Wait!"
Despite holding a speed far above that of a normal civilian, the child seemed to be more familiar with the forest and had less trouble maintaining both his speed and balance as he dashed through the trees and bushes that littered the forest. Shidou on the other hand nearly tripped twice at the occasional rock that escaped his vision and after a moment of thought, used reinforcement to use the trees as platforms to jump from.
He had no idea about the local fauna in Lastation and given the nature of the request that they took, he didn't have enough time to research the monsters ahead of time or how frequently they appeared. Without Noire's knowledge of the geography, Shidou doubted he would have reached the right forest in the time that they did.
Just as Shidou was about to catch the boy that ran as if his life depended on it, a whistling sound through the air made Shidou react instinctively.
CLANG!
"A-arrows?"
Since his body had moved faster than his mind realized what had been coming at him, Shidou was momentarily stunned that a pair of arrows had shot at him.
Arrows implied that someone was shooting at him. That meant that there were people in the area.
...but why were they shooting at him?
CLANG! CLANG!
Shidou didn't have enough time to think too much about why arrows were shooting at him as more came not even five seconds after the last volley and in greater quantities.
Despite the greater amount of arrows shooting at him, it did not stop Shidou's rush to save the child and being experienced with using the bow himself (as well as being in the receiving end of it), he had little trouble in deflecting the arrows that came his way with his blade. Unlike IF's blistering speed or the white-haired woman's sword play, the speed of the arrows was child's play.
"A bit closer… now!"
Once he was directly above the running boy, Shidou leapt from the tree he had landed on intent on catching the boy to put some distance between him and the archers - but moments before he could, a flash of silver made him stop at his tracks.
SWISH!
Narrowly avoiding the sword set to bisect him, Shidou rolled to a halt as he found himself faced with a man wearing leather armor with what looked like a set of iron gauntlets and greaves.
"Begone from here, bandit! We of Resolute Sphere village will never allow you to abduct one of our own!"
"B-bandit?!"
Now that Shidou thought about it, he found it strange that despite the number of arrows sent his way, none of them even went close to the running boy. It wasn't much to go on, but given the turn of events and the swordsman in front of him, it was clear that he would look like a bad guy.
"Prepare yourself!"
The swordsman, wearing what appeared to be armor based on Dire Wolf hide and iron, dashed forward intent on bringing his blade down on him.
"W-wait, this is just a misunderstanding! Can we just stop and talk about this?"
Avoiding the blade with ease, Shidou desperately tried to get a dialogue going as the reality of what had happened hit him.
"Silence! We saw you pursue my younger brother and take harvest from our forest! We won't let you do as you please any longer!"
Their harvest? Did that mean that the mushrooms were theirs?
"Hold o - n, I ha - ve a very… good reason for that!" Shidou said in between dodges, not even bothering to parry the blade.
After several minutes of avoiding the swordsman's slashes, the man stabbed his sword onto the floor as he began panting. Despite the passable skill of the man in swordplay, Shidou was far too used to fighting those faster than the man and it ended up being too easy to see where an attack would come from.
In the end, while barely breaking a sweat on his part, Shidou waited out for the man to exhaust himself to get a conversation going. He had already noticed that there were archers perched all around him, but so long as he didn't distance himself too far from the swordsman, then it was clear they were hesitant on shooting in fear of firing at their ally.
"Are you ready to talk now?"
"Tch… you have me at your mercy, what is there to talk about?"
The man seemed to hold him in contempt and given that he viewed Shidou as a bandit that tried to abduct his brother, he supposed this was all but expected.
"First up, listen to me." Shidou said clearly with a sigh, but still making sure to keep his guard up in case something came up to ambush him. "My name is Shidou. I'm an adventurer undertaking a request from a pharmacist in Lastation to gather a specific kind of mushroom in this area for a treatment."
Introducing himself to the best of his ability, Shidou had long placed his sword into its strap and procured his adventurer's license to show to the swordsman.
"An adventurer?" The swordsman warily stood up and took the card from Shidou. "You said at the request of a pharmacist… not the Lastation Basilicom or Avenir?"
"No. You could say we have a bad relationship with either of those two." Shidou said wryly.
"What were you doing chasing my brother?" The man asked.
"I thought he was a lost child. Since there were a few monsters around, and that we were far from the main city, I figured I'd take the boy back to the city."
"...I see."
The swordsman seemed to have regained much of his composure in the last few seconds and seemed to send a look towards the boy who had hidden himself behind a tree.
"Erm… I'm sorry if my companions and I took mushrooms without permission." Shidou started. "We were pressed for time and were unaware that there was a village out here that managed the resources."
"Companions, you say? Are they adventurers like yourself?"
Despite no threat being wagered once more, but the glint in the eyes of the swordsman made Shidou realized he may have walked into something that could only lead to more trouble in the end.
Unsurprisingly, given the utter lack of adventurers in Lastation, the Basilicom's translandmass communications were relatively empty. The few that were present looked to be representatives of various business ventures trying to make deals or proposals to clients on other landmasses.
Worryingly enough, there were a few Avenir representatives, but decided to brush that aside in favor of the quest that she and her party had taken up earlier in the morning.
"Halt."
Before she could move towards one of the empty communication devices, a Lastation Guard barred her way.
"I would need to see some identification."
That made IF sigh internally. She supposed it was too much to ask that clarifying her purpose and identity in the front desk of the Basilicom that any other obstructions would be out of the way.
Again, however, it was ultimately unsurprising.
While the translandmass communications weren't filled enough to create a long queue (or a short one for that matter), the amount of processes that someone who wasn't part of a business venture tied to and acknowledged by Lastation's Basilicom had to go through was nothing but inefficient. Without any party member to slow her down, IF had dashed the whole way from the quest giver to the Basilicom and with her stamina as well as mana capacity, the distance that would normally take an hour or two to reach using transportation available in Lastation, IF had managed to cross that distance in less than half an hour - all that without breaking a sweat.
Yet despite the time it took to reach the Basilicom, two hours later and she hadn't stepped into one of the communication booths.
"Here are my papers." IF said, trying to suppress her grimace with a smile. "Signed by the front desk, the accountant and whatever that office was before this step."
...IF was clearly beginning to lose her patience.
"I said identifications - not papers."
"The identifications within the papers not enough for you?" IF replied testily before taking out her adventurer ID card to the guard.
The guard said nothing as he took the ID, before his mouth twisted to a sneer and he almost threw it back to IF.
"Tch. Don't take too long adventurer."
With those words, the guard returned to his post without looking back.
"What is it with Lastation's hatred of adventurers…?" IF muttered, turning around slowly before walking towards one of the empty booths.
There were certainly some group of people in each Landmass (with perhaps the exception of Planeptune) that were utterly hateful of adventurers and what they represented. Leanbox had been rather infamous for shoving adventurers away five years ago, but that had all changed when the Oracle then had been replaced with the current Oracle. In the present, it had one of the largest guild headquarters (when compared to the other four landmass) and was considered the unofficial base of adventurers being the most welcoming and processing the most new adventurers over the other landmasses.
It had also been one of the reasons that pushed IF from venturing outside of Planeptune.
Given IF's experiences, she found that Lastation's treatment of adventurers utterly bewildering. Granted, it wasn't fair that she was lumping up all of Lastation upon a select group of people's action, but those select few also tended to represent the powers with a greater pulling force than any other group of people she knew of in Lastation.
"Maybe I should go ask some of my acquaintances about Lastation…" IF muttered to herself as she dialed the number of her contact.
Temporarily putting aside her current misgivings about Lastation's state, IF decided to focus on her current task - to ask a contact of hers on how to brew a specific medicine based on the description of a local pharmacist.
Ring…. Ring… Click!
"Hello, this is Gust the Alchemist speaking."
The voice of a young girl entered IF's ears from the phone and the previously blank TV screen in front of her showed a visual of a young girl with shoulder length brown hair, wearing a blue one piece dress with large white gloves and a white cap with bunny ear like flops. On the front of her dress was a pouch holding potion bottle and herbs.
"Long time no see, Gust. I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"
"Oh, IF. Gust is not busy - not more than usual anyway. Gust haven't seen you lately… you must be in another landmass? Judging by the number… Gust believes you're in Lastation right now?"
"Got it in one. You're familiar with Lastation's local number then?"
"Yes. Gust started business there before moving on to other landmasses wherever business is better."
That at least explained why IF would sometimes encounter Gust in Lowee or in Leanbox.
"Gust hasn't returned to Lastation in over a year now due to bad business."
"Yeah, I can see why that's the case. I don't think Shidou and I will be returning here anytime soon after our business is done here."
"Lastation is not a bad place… but management has become poorer as time has gone on. It's not profitable for any adventurer even if there are a lot of requests to go around."
"I've noticed."
There was a high demand for adventurer type work, but not many were capable of hiring adventurers to undertake tasks that were above the prices that Avenir could give and the prices of Avenir were already low to begin with. Avenir had also taken up much of the low level hunting and gathering requests that might benefit novice adventurers, and with how large the business giant was and their pull with the Lastation Basilicom, they were able to do far more than any normal business ventures within and outside of Lastation.
In a sense, any of the quests that they would be undertaking from here on in, would be more of a charity work. Given the informal nature of the quest they undertook however, IF supposed it was one way to hasten getting connections for finding the ever elusive key fragments.
"Anyway, I was hoping you can give me a recipe that uses this mushroom." IF said, typing the description of the mushroom and sending it over. "The pharmacist didn't know the name of the drug, but it's supposed to fix an illness that slowly but painfully reduces the mobility of the one under it."
"Hmm… Gust thinks it sounds more like a poison than an illness." The alchemist replied as she closed her eyes in consternation. "Do you remember the antidote you asked from Gust when you were deep in a cavern in Leanbox a few months ago?"
It was not something that IF liked to recall, given how risky the quest had gotten. Poisons were one of the many hazards of adventuring, and while there are certainly potions that can heal it, the type of potions that healed a greater variety of poisons tended to be on the expensive side and were thus a hazard for adventurers just starting out. IF and Shidou had garnered some experience with antidote crafting when the party they had joined met up with a particularly venomous moth after hunting the monster that they had been requested to eliminate.
"Yes, I remember. I still have some in stock."
"Use that first before applying this potion recipe. Gust would like to make it herself, but Gust thinks you and Shidou have enough experience to make something as simple as this."
A message was quickly received from the monitor and IF downloaded it to her phone without pause. Skimming through the recipe, IF supposed it wasn't that complex although calling it simple would have been a bit too much…
As expected of a child-prodigy alchemist.
"Thanks. Usual consultation fee, I assume?" IF asked, bringing up an app on her phone called 'PayNep'. Given its resemblance to the nickname of a certain party member, IF wondered if there was an alternative out there with a different naming scheme…
"You can reduce it by 10%." Gust replied.
"10%? That's awfully magnanimous of you." IF said raising her eyebrow to the alchemist.
"Business right now is profitable if a bit too much." Gust replied cryptically, making IF wonder where Gust was at the moment. "Plus, you're a regular and Lastation is Gust's home town. If you're doing requests there, Gust will help."
"Thanks, Gust."
Adventurers were often defined by their nature to venture to places that most civilians wouldn't dream of going to due to the danger that such an action often represented.
Going beyond the city walls, the protection that the Basilicom and, by extension, the CPU, becomes limited as the CPU was a singular being that cannot be in multiple places at any given time. Seeing as outside of the city walls are monsters of varying strength and ferocity, it was only natural that going out of the city without protection from the guards or the CPU was an event that no sane civilian would indulge themselves in.
The outside is an unknown for a vast majority of the people and simply walking into it was an adventure in of itself.
It was due to this 'common sense' that those who partake in requests from either the people or the local government are called 'adventurers'. These are the people who have made it their occupation to venture outside of the safety of the city walls to see the world with their own eyes and to return with its bounty.
With the inherent danger of the outside however, a certain level of combat capability is required for any and all adventurers and if not combat capability, the ability to judge when one should run away.
Combat capability varied greatly from one adventurer to another, and classifications to the type of adventurer a person is and what quests they are qualified to handle is often judged through experience and whatever the guild, an organization that existed in some form in all landmasses, had placed onto an adventurer's card.
"It says here that you are a B Rank Combat Class adventurer." The swordsman that had confronted Shidou had said upon returning Shidou's guild card.
"What of it?"
With G being the lowest ranking and SSS being the highest, Shidou was considered a mid-tier adventurer at the cusp of attaining a high tier status. His designation as a Combat Class adventurer also meant that he was qualified in performing Solo Combat type quests that doesn't go any higher than B rank.
"Oohh! You're a B Rank?! That's no fair Shin! When did you level grind to get higher than my E Rank status?"
"I've been B Rank since the moment I met you, Neptune." Shidou replied dryly to the preteen girl sitting right beside him.
"Well, at least I'm higher ranking than Nowa…"
"T-that's just a technicality! I don't have a guild card!"
"Which means I'm still higher ranking than you!"
The pair had joined up with Shidou ten minutes after the hostilities had ended in Shidou's end and, upon a quick explanation, the trio had agreed to listen to the young man's request within the village that they hailed from. The time consumed was of little issue as traveling from their current location to Lastation's main city was relatively trivial should they really need to rush. Unlike their travel from the city to the forest where the mushrooms existed, the path was known and did not require a keen eye on the surroundings.
"Erm… settle down you two, it's bad form in front of a potential client and Neptune, the only reason you got that rank in the first place is because IF probably recommended you to the guild."
Although Shidou was trying to act professionally, he was admittedly out of his depth regarding the current negotiations. It was rare for Shidou to be the one doing direct negotiations as IF was the one that often talked with the client while Shidou remained in the background and his inexperience was showing in his demeanor.
Nevertheless, the pair quieted down with Neptune showing a smug expression while Noire glared at the purple haired preteen.
"Hmm… while I have doubts about your rank," The swordsman spoke, causing Shidou to flinch mentally at the assessment not for its truth but due to the perception that he didn't look like one that matched it. "Your fight with me certainly showed you are stronger."
"You fought with him?" Noire remarked raising an eyebrow at the blue-haired boy before giving a distrustful stare at the swordsman which somehow made the man look away.
"I guess you could call it that…"
Shidou didn't really consider it a fight seeing as he didn't feel any danger during the 'confrontation' despite being attacked with murderous intent but it seemed that the man held his sword skills rather highly and given that the others within the room seemed to defer to the young man that was holding the conversation with them, the others must also feel the same.
For Noire's part she gave a look over at Shidou's state and seeing as he didn't look disheveled or showing any signs of fatigue or injury as well as his generally evasive means of answering meant that he was trying to downplay something. One look at the other party immediately told Noire what she needed to know.
"So he's weak." Noire said bluntly.
"G-guh!"
Noire's words sent invisible arrows that pierced the pride the swordsman had…
"Is that so Shin? Then again, I don't really get that testosterone filled image when I look at him despite the way he dressed like some insanely good hunter from a nondescript village that is surrounded by monsters of legend."
"You two…" Rubbing his hand by his forehead, Shidou tried to suppress the headache that was growing. It was one thing from Neptune, but for Noire to be so blunt threw Shidou out of a loop. "Please don't mind their words, but if you are seeking our help, I would first like to know what it is that you need help with."
Trying to extend an olive branch at the visibly affected swordsman's pride by changing the subject, it took a moment before the swordsman finally sat straight and coughed into his hand to begin negotiations once again. At that time, Shidou whispered to his companions to keep comments to themselves.
It wasn't like they were in any danger, but it would leave a bad taste in his mouth if he had unwittingly angered a whole village for something as minor as this.
That, and the probable hit his and, by extension, IF's reputation will receive.
"To put it simply - we need your help in killing a monster."
"A monster sweet! I'm getting tired of these fetch quests! Sign me u-"
"Hold it." Shidou interrupted, his tone cutting into Neptune's cheer rather suddenly. "You said 'a monster'. Singular. What monster are we talking about here?"
Even if all of the people around him were barely competent as fighters, if they have lived here all their life, it would be strange that they wouldn't be able to handle a few monsters around the area. Barring viral monsters, the local fauna shouldn't be much trouble for a party of novice adventurers.
If the monster was a viral monster, the next question would be how long it had been active as that would decide how intelligent it would be and how dangerous an unprepared assault would end.
"It's… a behemoth." The swordsman admitted. "One, nearly four times larger than a normal behemoth."
"F-four times as large?!" Noire exclaimed in shock. "A behemoth is already as big as a small house, but to be four times as large… why hadn't the Basilicom been notified of this?"
"We have." An archer by the walls of the room commented with a derisive snort. "Countless times. The first time, they sent out a bunch of Lastation Guards. They ran with their tails between their legs and called it a tactical retreat."
"We lost four villagers that day." The swordsman muttered glumly. "We tried again of course, but after the first time, they've always replied that they don't have anyone that could possibly handle the problem. When we sent one of our messengers to look at Lastation's main city for adventurers… there's a distinct lack of them compared to five years ago."
"Five years ago…" At that, Noire seemed to look down on her lap as she bit her lip.
Unsure of what to make of Noire's reaction, Shidou faced the swordsman in front of him.
"How long has this been going on?"
"For over a year now and it's only getting stronger."
This was what Shidou had feared.
Despite being an adventurer for over a year, he and IF had the misfortune of participating in quests that shot up in difficulty from the original projection. The time that they had fought the mysterious lady and the sandworm at Planeptune could be considered 'normal' when it comes to things from growing bad to worse.
It hadn't been the worst event all things considered, and seeing as being with Neptune almost guarantees that they will meet the woman again, then Shidou was certain that it will continue to grow bad from there.
If this potential quest was any indication, Shidou was almost certain of the classification of the behemoth that the swordsman had described.
"We'll take it!"
Sadly, before Shidou could voice out his own thoughts and doubts, a certain purple-haired preteen loudly declared her own thoughts about it.
"Neptune!"
"Why are you hesitating Shin? These people need our help, so what else can we do but help them?"
They were simple words that told of the straightforward meaning behind her own declaration. It was not inherently wrong, and not something that Shidou could refute.
"As much as I regret to say it… I'm with Neptune in this one."
To add to Shidou's own quandary, Noire added her own agreement.
"My - I mean, Lastation's people are in danger. If the Basilicom will not act and refuse to say anything about it to the CPU, then it's only natural that we take up the helm for their misconduct."
Despite lacking memories, Noire had a nationalistic sense of pride for the landmass that she originated from. It was almost natural that this would be her answer. Not only that, she had, perhaps unwittingly, spoke of one of the major tenets that formed the guild of adventurers - to act where the divinities would falter.
Even if Shidou had his misgivings and that the exact details of the request hasn't been ironed out yet, there was nothing he could do but accept the request.
Looking at the other people around the room, a certain look crossed their face that made any notion of disregarding the request escape him. Shidou briefly wondered why that was the case...
Author's Notes:
Ah, ha, ha… yeah, sorry for the late update. Life hasn't exactly been forgiving to me in the past few months as it was filled with quite a bit of work as well as overtime. Thankfully, it has mostly settled down but another set of problems have come up. It should settle down by the end of October, but until then, I'll be a bit distracted trying to deal with it.
At any rate, one of the other reasons why this chapter took too long was that I decided to rewrite the next set of events from scratch. This chapter and the ones that follow, are not originally part of my plan but decided to write it in any way to explain certain key things about adventurers and the sort of job they do. I guess I've been reading a lot of novels with adventurer guilds lately...
Given that these set of chapters are rather new, I might end up revising it at some point should I notice something odd or I wish to add something for future chapters. As for the next chapter... hopefully next month? Not a promise though, but at least one more chapter will be released before the end of the year, if not, at January.
