Next chapter is up! By the way, for mesos, I'm comparing them to Japanese yen, so 1 meso = 1 yen.
Edit (10/6/2016): Edit's done, please check out the end note, it's (mildly) important.
Chapter 3:
"Why are we doing this again?" Ascion grumbled as he and Kaede walked towards their destination.
"Because Instructor's willing to pay us well and we've got nothing better to do." Kaede rolled her eyes, having repeated this to Ascion a couple of times now.
Right after school had let out, Ascion and Kaede had decided to head over to Kaede's house in the Village of Archers, Henesys, to hang out.
Or at least, that was the plan, before they were stopped by the Bowman Instructor, Athena Pierce, on their way home.
Just as they passed by the board of quests located near the Instructor's house, Athena herself had approached them to ask for a favour.
Apparently, the number of golems that reside in the stone ruins near the Henesys Training Grounds had been growing rapidly, so Athena had issued a quest to help thin down their numbers.
However, the large numbers of golems had scared off most of the rookie adventurers – adventures that have yet to graduate from middle school – while the ones who are a part of or had already graduated from Maple High School found the quest to be beneath them.
Killing 500 golems was a rather tedious task, after all.
Athena was just about to take down the quest and complete it herself when she had spotted Ascion and Kaede.
The woman had immediately confronted the duo, hoping that they would take on the job. None of the archers that were actually willing to listen to her were in Henesys at the moment, and the remaining archers were, in her words, "snot nosed brats who are too damn arrogant". With the exception of Kaede, of course, who was the only rookie that still respected her even after going pass level 30.
When Ascion had asked Athena what she thought of Kaede then, she just replied "Same as ever; a respectful girl who's really good with a bow but is also scarily good at wringing every last Meso out of me."
Ascion had slapped his hand over his mouth to hide his snickering. Kaede pouted.
Right before she somehow managed to guilt-trip, blackmail and threaten the Instructor to the point that Athena ended up doubling their pay. Ascion just laughed harder.
He wasn't laughing now, though.
"Five hundred Golems of any type. Five hundred." Ascion grumbled. "It's gonna be sundown by the time we're done."
Kaede sighed. "It's not like you have anything to do, nor is it going to affect you too much."
"But it is going to affect me badly." Ascion disagreed.
"Oh?" Kaede raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"
"Because my ears are going to bleed from hearing your countless complaints about not being able to take a bath."
Kaede casually kicked a pebble by her feet, causing it to shoot up. She caught it, and without hesitation, flicked the rock at Ascion's head with a practiced twist of her wrist.
The pebble connected with a thud. Music to her ears, although the same could not be said for her target.
"Ow!"
"Shut up, Ascion." Kaede huffed, but didn't deny the statement.
As the two friends continued their banter, they reached the Golem Ruins.
Before they entered, the two of them took a small break on the branches of a small tree. "It's 4pm." Kaede noted after checking her phone. "I would like to be home by seven, but I don't think we can make it."
"Probably not." Ascion agreed. "Your bath would just have to wait."
"Honestly, Ascion, I'm not that bad."
"I know. You're the worst."
Kaede slugged Ascion in the arm.
"The last time I complained, we had been camping and thus hadn't bathed for more than twenty four hours." Kaede reminded him. "I am not one of those girls that have to take a bath every few hours.
Ascion raised his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. Stop glaring at me like that, just joking."
The two friends stared at each other for a few more seconds, before they both burst out laughing. "Well, we've rested enough." Ascion grinned, sliding off the branch. "Let's get to hunting!"
Kaede backflipped off the branch, tucking her legs in to perform a somersault before landing cleanly on her feet.
"Showoff." Ascion muttered. Kaede stuck out her tongue at him as the two drew their weapons. While Kaede drew her bow from her makeshift "sheath" that consisted of two circlips superglued to her quiver, Ascion seemed to pull his staff out of thin air.
While this may seem amazing to a passing observer, pulling items out of "thin air" was actually nothing too hard to do. After graduating into a full-fledged adventurer, all adventurers will be taught how to create their own personal Dimensional Pocket, which functions as a bag of sorts. They're not exceptionally large, probably big enough for around two weapons and a few potions.
Nobody except for highly powerful Archmages have managed to make it any bigger.
Still, why would Ascion, a middle schooler, know of a spell that was taught to adventurers that have already graduated from high school? Simple.
He had a lot of time to read. It is his favorite hobby, after all.
"Well, then." Ascion tilted his head, feeling the satisfying crack in his neck. "Let's get to work."
The sun had completely set by the time the two were done. Mountains of rubble surrounded the two adventurers-in-training as they rested on the pile of stones. In a day or so, the golem remains – save a few pieces – would simply vanish back into the earth, as was normal for all monsters.
Which was good, or else clean up would have been real troublesome.
"It's been a while since we had to fight that much, and for so long." Ascion commented lightly, his breathing heavy.
"Did you keep track of how many we killed?" Kaede asked. "I think that we're done, but an exact number would be nice."
"537."
Kaede stared at Ascion flatly.
Ascion caught her gaze. "What?"
"You know, I've never actually figured out how you've managed to keep track of the numbers while fighting at the same time."
Ascion smirked, spreading his hands out in front of him. "Magic." He said mysteriously.
Kaede rolled her eyes. "And you ask me why I prank you." She muttered.
"Jokes aside, it's because I'm good at multitasking." Ascion answered.
"But still, in the middle of a fight that lasted more than three hours?"
Ascion shrugged. "Meh, I'm just that good."
Kaede sighed. "Well, whatever. By the way, are you alright, Ascion? You're looking slightly pale. Your stamina was never very good, and you were tossing out quite a few spells earlier. Your mana should have hit rock bottom by now, shouldn't it."
Ascion blinked rapidly. "Yeah… my exhaustion's starting to settle in… The sky's not supposed to be green, right?"
Kaede blanched. "I think you should lie down, Ascion."
"Yeah, I think so too." Ascion agreed, his voice starting to slur as if he was drunk, before he promptly fell forward in a dead faint.
"Whoa there!" Kaede lunged off her makeshift bench of golem pieces, managing to catch Ascion before he fell flat on his face.
The archer promptly started blushing up a storm when she realized that Ascion had buried his face in her chest.
Careful not to jostle the unconscious boy in her arms, Kaede quickly checked on Ascion's vitals. He still had a pulse and was still breathing, so he probably fainted from exhaustion. Sighing, Kaede thought about her current situation.
Since Ascion was asleep, it would be hard for her to get both of them back to town. Although she was faster and stronger than the average girl, it was still impossible for Kaede to fend off the monsters on her way back to Henesys while carrying an unconscious boy on her back.
"Well, guess there's nothing I can do about it." She muttered to herself as she slung Ascion's arm over her shoulder. "We'll have to camp out for tonight."
Slowly, Kaede started moving, looking for a relatively safe location that they could settle down in. She found her way back to the tree that they were resting on before their long battle, and deemed the location to be safe.
Kaede lowered Ascion to a sitting position at the base of the tree before digging into her backpack. Apparently, the bag held more than just her school supplies, for she pulled out a large blanket and four metal rods. Just as Kaede was about to pull out a tent, she paused, sniffing the air and squinting at the clouds.
"Hmm, don't think it's going to rain tonight." She decided, shoving the tent back into her rather small backpack. It looked rather ridiculous, a tent being shoved into a bag about three times smaller than it was, but then again, this wasn't the standard magic bag sold in stores.
Ascion had taken the standard bag and layered so many enchantments on it that a bed can easily be shoved inside.
He had to test the new enchantments he learned on something, after all.
The archer covered Ascion with a blanket before she went about setting up the four metal rods around them. The rods buzzed to life, creating a small barrier that surrounded the duo.
These barrier rods were standard camping equipment, used to provide campers with protection from wild monsters. The stronger the barrier, the more expensive it was. Though it can easily be replaced by setting up night watches, it was still a rather convenient tool to have, especially since it came with an in-built alarm.
After making sure that the barrier was solid, Kaede took off her bow and quiver, laying them next to her bag. She then took out her phone, sending a message to her parents explaining what she was doing and why she could not make it back home.
With that task out of the way, Kaede proceeded to pull out some homemade pork jerky for dinner. As she ate, Kaede tried to look over her homework, but with how tired she was, it wasn't much of a surprise that she didn't get far before she shoved the worksheets back into her bag.
Screw it. She decided. I'll do it tomorrow.
Kaede made sure her bow and quiver were placed within reach before she slipped under the large blanket next to Ascion. Ignoring how her heart was beating faster than usual and the slight warmth around her cheeks, Kaede snuggled closer to him. Closing her eyes, she could feel the slow rise and fall of his chest.
Within moments, Kaede was asleep.
Well, that's it for the chapter!
Edit (10/6/2016): This stuff is copy and paste from the old chapter 6, so if you've read this story before the edit, then feel free to ignore this and move on.
I know that typically in MS fanfics, adventurers get a bag linked to another dimension or something like that to explain the crazy amount of things they can stuff into it and how it can be lugged around easily. I replaced that with a self-created dimension to store things in, partly because I think it's cool, and to explain why your inventory (used to? I haven't created a new character in quite some time, so I don't know) expands with every Job Advancement. I also don't see a bag anywhere on my Maple character no matter how hard I look, so I settled with this idea.
All right, with that out of the way, see you next chapter! Please review!