"Congratulations, Alyssa Quayshua. You are now officially an alchemist. With this I present you your very own alchemist's clothes as well as a few booklets for you to study about potion making. Remember, never forget the rules and teachings of a true potion maker," droned a voice.
Alyssa looked up and curtsied to the teacher, murmuring, "Thank you, sensei. I will never forget your teachings." She took the brand new clothes and went to a changing room. I'm finally an alchemist! Yes! She exulted as she donned on her alchemist's clothes. She thought back on her grim determination during training and smiled. It was all worth it. She supposed she could have been the youngest alchemist there ever was in Rune Midgard to graduate. No one has ever completed their training in only eight years time; most of them took ten years or so to actually understand their training, let alone strengthening their skills and prowess.
She left the Alchemist Academy, an aura of confidence surrounding her. Now let's see, the first thing I would like to do is…visit Constance! Yeah, I must tell her about this. She's gonna be so proud! Alyssa thought as she headed towards the city's entrance. Then she stopped. "Hmm, Prontera's a bit too far from here. Perhaps I should just use the Kapra's travel portal instead," she mused as she spied a lovely maiden nearby. Kapra is an agency built in order to provide useful services for others such as storage service as well as travel portals. Although their headquarters are in Alberta, receptionists are placed in every city for public services. These receptionists consist of fair maidens dressed in brown, with an eggshell-white, lacy apron tied in front. Their headgears are simple, flowery bands that are worn proudly on their heads.
"Welcome to Kapra, my name is Sui Sui. How may I help you today, miss?" the receptionist asked politely. Alyssa smiled at her, replying, "I wish to head towards Prontera City, please."
"That would be 2,000 zennies, please."
Alyssa counted her zennies and handed it to her. The receptionist counted them and smiled, "Thank you for using Kapra's service. Have a nice day!" And with that, she waved her hand, teleporting the raven-haired alchemist to Prontera City.
Alyssa felt light-headed as she was being teleported. She arrived the city with a bump, right onto the ground. "Ouch, that was definitely not a good landing," she grumbled, rubbing her sore behind as she stood up. She looked around curiously. The place was peaceful. Too peaceful. What happened to the noisy, rowdy merchants that used to fill the streets of Prontera? And where were the hustle and bustle and the sideshow entertainments everywhere? From being the busiest city in Rune Midgard, Prontera is now like a dead city.
Still puzzled, Alyssa began to walk towards her home, hoping that her sister would quench her curiosity. As she was walking there, she noticed that the houses and streets were badly maintained. Window shingles hung lopsidedly and scraps to litter danced about in the wind on the streets. "What happened to this place?" she muttered, quickening her steps. She stopped at last in front of her own house, stunned at the state of the house. The once whitewashed walls were now stained with something black and red. The emerald-green door was cracked in many places, and the windowpanes were smashed, its shingles awry.
"Constance, Constance!" she cried, hammering on the worn-out door. She peered through the broken windows, and was horrified to see everything inside was in topsy-turvy. It looks like a fight had broken loose in the house. Alyssa took out her axe and broke the door, rampaging inside impatiently. She looked in horror at the mess. Quickly, she left her cart by the door and started checking in each room, calling out her sister's name. She discovered that each room was as messy as the next, and her room was the worst. Reality sank in eventually. Constance wasn't there. Alyssa sank onto a dilapidated bed in shock. "Constance, where are you, sis? What happened here?" she murmured, as a single tear rolled down on her cheeks. She stared blindly around and realized that she was in her sister's room.
Suddenly a piece of paper floated by, its flaps danced about as the wind blew through the cracks. "Hello, what's that?" she exclaimed in surprise as she raised her hand to catch the dancing paper. She scanned it quickly, her expression changing. "Oh, Constance, if only you'd tell me…" Alyssa whispered, hugging the piece of paper close. She stood up, wiping her tears and left the room. She went to her own room and lifted the wood planks of the floor carefully. Nestled cozily in the hole was a small package in silk cloths. She took it out and kept it safely in her pocket. "I promise I will avenge you, Constance. Yet I hope you're still alive, somewhere, somehow," she whispered fiercely.
Without another word, she grabbed her cart and left her house, never looking back.
"Alright! Another perfect shot!" Earilith exulted as her arrow found its target. Squealing in pain, the farmiliar dropped dead onto the floor, the arrow embedded at its heart. Grinning, she picked up a broken tooth belonging to the dead bat and pocketed it. Hmm, I could sell it for something, she thought happily.
She suddenly heard a loud moan behind her. No, make that a weird, distorted groan. Plus, there was a horrible stench wafting towards her. The archer wrinkled her nose. "Phew!" she muttered, drawing up her bow. She saw that it was a zombie making all that noise. Focusing on the rotten, purplish undead, she aimed two silver arrows directly at its chest. "Bingo!" she exclaimed as the undead crashed clumsily onto the ground. This is definitely a good place for me to train, if I could just forget about that stinking smell, she thought amusedly.
"Hey, stop that! Help! Help!"
Distracted by the cried, Earilith shot blindly towards the wall. "Drat! Now what could that be?" she muttered angrily, dashing to the cries. She stopped in surprise. It was thief, being mugged by an…acolyte? "Oy, what's going on here?" she called out strongly, hurrying to the both of them. She could see that they were still fledglings, newly acquainted in their jobs. The two froze on their spots, the healer paled in fright.
Earilith placed her hands on her hips and looked questioningly from one terrified kid to the other. "Well? Cat got your tongue? What's the matter?" she queried sternly. The two teenagers looked at each other uneasily. Finally, the acolyte spoke up, "I'm so sorry, miss. Nothing's wrong, honest. We were just fooling around, Anexia and I." The thief nodded her head vigorously. The archer looked suspiciously from one kid to the other. "Hmm, if you say so… But next time, try to keep the panic out okay? You might cause havoc," she admonished, wagging her finger.
Sheepishly, Anexia nodded and glared at her friend. The acolyte paid no attention to her and instead, stared at something behind Earilith. Swallowing a few times, he asked tentatively, "Err, miss? There's something behind you…" He pointed at something behind her with shaking fingers. Startled, Earilith swung backwards only to receive the full blast of a rotting stench. "Ack! That stinks!" she exclaimed, her hands automatically preparing for an attack. But before she could do anything, she felt something connecting with her face, preferably her cheek. She cried out in pain as she fell backwards. She heard the acolyte move quickly from behind her, muttering something unintelligible.
Earilith felt something coursing through her veins, like energy flowing ceaselessly, caressing her into action. She smiled at the acolyte gratefully and grabbed her arbalest lying beside her. Aiming perfectly, she shot two silver arrows straight into the rotten corpse. Behind her, Anexia dashed forward and began attacking the zombie at breakneck speed. Howling in defeat, the zombie crashed onto the ground, bits of its rotten flesh flying everywhere.
"Eew," the thief wrinkled her nose in disgust as she avoided the carcass. Her friend laughed at her. "What do you expect, the zombie bursting into flowers?" he teased her. She stuck her tongue at him and turned around to face Earilith. She bowed and said, "Thank you, miss, for helping us just now. Astrexil is such a coward that it's hard to train by ourselves at times."
Astrexil protested, "Hey, stop picking on me!" The archer laughed and nodded her head, "Don't worry, you'll get the hang on it eventually." She suddenly got an inspiration. "Hey, how about I help you in your training? It's more fun that way anyway," she added, smiling at the two of them. Anexia and Astrexil beamed, their faces brightening. "That would be great!" the thief exclaimed happily.
Grinning, Earilith introduced herself, "Name's Earilith Sensedriell. Just call me Lith." Anexia smiled and said, "I'm Anexia Kristos and this is my brother, Astrexil Kristos. Nice to meet you, Lith." Her brother added his own greetings enthusiastically.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's train! Oh and by the way, I think the best way for an acolyte to train would be healing party members and killing undeads. So my guess would be that you supporting us, unless you're training to be a monk…?"
Astrexil laughed and said, "No problem. I'm training to be a priest anyway. I'm not fit to be a fighter, just a healer."
"Haha, okay then. Let's go kick some rotten zombies!"