Chapter 2: The Archer's Path
Cinder trudged wearily along the leaf-covered forest path, while lugging his rucksack. He had to escape. The Board of Magicians would probably send someone to capture him soon. Luckily, there was no gate or guards to man the borders of Ellinia; the forest served as a natural barrier for invaders who did not know their way round. That was a small consolation to his current situation.
Henesys seemed like a good place to hide at. The archers there had no link with the mages, so they would probably not hand him over to his enemies, like Grendel.
The man was acting quite oddly lately, to say the least. Grendel had been a strict but kind tutor to the previous Fire Poison mages, like Darkon, the once-famous Archmage. He had never known of Grendel's dark and ruthless side. He was so callous; Kines once told him of the Circle of Magicians. Grendel had ordered for the Fire Poisons to be slaughtered like pigs. Darkon Firegaze was amongst those too.
Cinder sighed. Why did he just have to be a Fire Poison? He was doomed; he thought of turning himself over to Grendel, to save trouble. Death would release him from this cruel turn of events. But, a nagging feeling stopped him from doing so.
He could faintly make out the outline of the tiny village of Henesys now. He heard the cheerful chatter of young children and he rushed forward. Soon, he arrived at the gates of Henesys.
The guards opened the entrance, and motioned for him to step in. He looked around the town. There were mushroom-shaped houses and he could distinctly see the treehouse that belonged to the legendary Athena Pierce. It loomed over everything else like a guardian, and casted a shadow over the houses beside it. Its branches stretched out like welcoming arms, but at the same time, it seemed to guard the village, preventing any unwelcome visitors to spoil the mushroom-like village.
This was the first time he felt truly alive. The joyful ambience washed over him like a cool rush of air, and made him feel so exhilarated and so energetic. Perhaps a life as an archer, guarding the village of Henesys, might have suited him well too, but he knew he was born to the Fire Poison Wizard path. He ambled over to Athena's abode, and rapped lightly on the door.
"Come in, traveler," Athena's voice came through the door. Cinder walked into the quarters, and bowed low towards Athena.
"So, do you aspire to become an archer?" Athena questioned, until she saw his magician robes, "Oh, you are a magician. So, why have you come to seek me?"
"I have come to seek protection within your borders. I am a Fire Poison," Cinder said, and as he conjured a fireball which covered the length of his arm, Athena gasped. Clearly she knew of the exiled class.
"You know what has happened to my class. Grendel will soon dispatch someone to come searching for me. Please, I beseech of you, great bowmistress, help me," Cinder gazed at Athena, his eyes pleading silently with her. Athena was at first unwilling to, as the mages might come knocking on her door, but she finally relented.
"You can stay in my guest room. My door is always open for you," she said, and Cinder bowed once more, thanking her.
I I I
"So… have you killed the boy you told me of earlier?" Grendel asked the assassin.
"Yes, my lord, I poisoned the Steely I threw at him, and left him to waste away on his own," the assassin murmured.
"Fool! He could have gotten the antidote for your poison! He might have escaped!" Grendel bellowed furiously. The assassin cringed.
"Idiot!" Grendel roared. He stormed out of his dwelling, and went to the Iceguarde manor.
I I I
"So you say he snatched the antidote, gulped it down, and escaped while you were preparing to bury him?" Grendel questioned in a false light tone.
"Yes…" Kines replied.
"Wolfsbane sap is a fast-acting poison! How could he manage to grab the antidote!" Grendel growled fiercely. Kines was clearly lost for words.
"You helped him to escape, didn't you!" Grendel snarled.
"Fine, I did. But he was my son! I couldn't bear to watch him die," Kines said, eyes averting Grendel's gaze.
"I cast you out. You and your family shall not cross the threshold of my borders again. If you enter, you shall be executed," Grendel said, voice shaking, trying to contain his fury. At the same time, he sympathized with Kines, as he had lost his son before. So, he did not kill Kines there and then.
"Father! Look!" The young bubbly boy, around five years old, bounced up and down, pointing towards the weird sack he found. It was black in colour and securely tied up with a length of rope.
"Yes?" the boy's father was immersed in a book, 'The Laws of Magic', so he did not bother to look up at his son.
"I found a sack! I'm gonna open it now, Father!" The boy took a penknife and began sawing thoroughly through the rope.
His father looked up. He instantaneously recognized the sack. After all, in his youth, he had an encounter with one of them before…
"No!" The man leaped towards the boy and yelled. Too late. The last strand of thick rope was sawn off, and as the boy swiveled his head around with a questioning look on his face, a Jr. Balrog bounded out and swiped a hefty clawed hand at the young boy, and the boy fell onto the wooden floor, blood gushing out from the gash in his back. As the neighbours came in to see what was happening, Grendel sank to his knees, weeping over his son's dead body, and cried out in anguish.
"NO!!"
I I I
Cinder acquainted himself with the neighbours, and the shopkeepers. Everyone seemed to think he was a friendly orphan who was taken in by Athena. The next day, Athena walked over to him.
"You should start your training as a bowman, as you need a good disguise," Athena suggested. Therefore, he equipped himself with a War Bow, and a quiver of arrows. That afternoon, Athena personally trained him.
He fired arrow after arrow at the dummies Athena created. His first few fell only a mere metre or slightly more away. Gradually he improved, and now he could snipe a straw target from fifty or so metres away.
The bow felt quite balanced. Athena slowly guided him through the archer skills.
"Double Arrow! Arrow Blow!" Cinder yelled while casting the skills. It was almost second nature to him now, but casting magic still felt better than shooting arrows.
Once, he felt so bored that he tried to imbue the arrow with fire magic, and he watched in awe as he realized he had casted something like Inferno.
"Nice shot," Athena praised him as the straw mannequin slowly burned up. The greedy flames licked at the legs, then the body, then the arms and head.
Everyday, he trained on the mushrooms around Henesys. He used an 'inferno' on a green mushroom once, and he killed the monster in one shot.
A prodigy, the villagers called him. Some even went so far as to say that he was blessed by the god Amazon herself. After a few weeks of training, Athena decided that he was ready to become a Hunter.
"Go to the 2nd Job Trainer near the dungeon, and come back here. I assume that you are ready?" Athena said. Cinder nodded.
Draped in a full Dark Hunter's Armor and wielding the exact same scrolled Ryden Athena herself once used, he set out towards the Job Trainer, brimming with confidence. The Trainer then transported him to the map where he was supposed to slay the foul creatures that lived in there and bring back thirty of their hearts.
The darkness of the place swathed his enemies in a sinister, seemingly impenetrable cloak. He closed his eye for a few seconds, trying to adapt to the darkness. Then, opening his eyes, he saw Zombie Mushrooms and Evil Eyes moving about, unconcerned about the would-be-Hunter. However, when he stepped closer, the monsters crowded around him, forming an impregnable fortress. That is, an impregnable fortress to weaklings, unlike Cinder.
He felled Zombie Mushrooms and Evil Eyes one after another. Using his Inferno skill, and wielding the well-scrolled Ryden, he found it so east that it was almost effortless. He seemed invincible. It took only a twang of his bowstring to deliver death to his foes.
After presenting the 2nd Job Instructor the 30 Dark Marbles in a span of two minutes, with the Trainer being shocked and dumbfounded, he brought back the Proof of a Hero and Athena instantly granted him the status of a hunter. Meanwhile, he secretly trained his Fire Poison Wizard skills apart from the Hunter skills with a Wizard Staff that someone sold to him for thousands of mesos. It was illegal, yes, but who cares? He living was already breaking the law.
He tried fusing his fire and poison skills together with his hunter skills. He found out that Poison Brace and Arrow Bomb worked extremely well; it seemed to spread a plague. He used that skill against large numbers of monsters and when asked, he said that he used a mixture of poison and explosives in his Arrow Bomb. If someone knew about his skills…
I I I
Kines and his son were forced to sell off the mansion they had lived in for such a long time. Liam gazed fondly yet forlornly at his previous abode. Father and son were then escorted out of the forest by some guards and left in Henesys.
They rented a tiny house somewhere near the great treehouse of Athena. Thus, it was almost impossible for them to not notice Cinder. Liam rushed out of the house and yelled, "CINDER!"
Cinder turned his head around, clearly shocked by the unexpected appearance of his family. Liam told him everything that had happened.
"Wait a second… why are you wearing a Legolier?" Liam asked, eyes narrowing.
"I'm a Hunter and a Fire Poison Wizard," Cinder replied. To prove it, he used the Bomb Plague skill.
"Woah, neat!" Liam opened his eyes wide.
"So, advanced to Cleric?" Cinder asked.
"Yeah, Grendel advanced me before he outlawed us," Liam replied.
"Want to go grinding?" Cinder asked, grinning.
Liam nodded his head, and thus the two brothers went to Henesys hunting ground to train. Their lower-leveled counterparts frowned at them for ksing them. One even yelled at them, saying it was his turf.
Suddenly, one of the level 10-20s took out a black sack, and slit it open with a Zamadar. He then threw the bad onto Cinder and his brother. They fled, and the bag exploded into a mist, and a hulking Jr. Balrog stepped out. It glared at the duo with menacing eyes. If looks could kill, they would have been dead by now.
"Bomb Plague!" Cinder yelled, once again combining Poison Brace with Arrow Bomb. The bomb exploded on the Jr. Balrog's elbow, but it hardly felt anything, only swatting away the lodged arrow like how one would swat away an irritating fly.
Liam was faring slightly better. He aimed Holy Arrow after Holy Arrow at the giant beast. The Jr. Balrog roared, and swiped at Liam with its nails. One of them lacerated Liam's side, and he yelled in pain, while trying to Heal the large wound. However, although each short burst of Heal covered the wound with a momentary light, after that, the pain was still not alleviated, and the gaping wound was still there. Liam's blood gushed out from the wound, and suddenly, he sank into unconsciousness and landed on the ground with a dull thud.
"Damn you noob!" Cinder yelled wrathfully at the thief who summoned the Jr. Balrog. The rogue sneered at Cinder, then casted Showdown on the Jr. Balrog, and its defenses increased by nearly half. Cinder grimaced, then darted away nimbly when the Jr. Balrog charged into him.
Wait, Showdown? A Shadower skill? So he wasn't a newb…
Then the Jr. Balrog suddenly turned and reared his ugly head at the Hunter/ FP, disrupting his train of thoughts.
"Inferno! Inferno!" Cinder hollered desperately, firing arrow after arrow at the Jr. Balrog. The flaming arrows had no effect, apart from aggravating the Jr. Balrog even further.
Someone, help! Cinder thought frantically. Then, as the Jr. Balrog stood over him, he tried an apparently futile attempt.
"EXPLOSION!" Cinder bellowed, and the flames danced over the Jr. Balrog's fur, and soon it became nothing more than a charred corpse. However, the burst of flames finally exhausted the last of Cinder's energy reserves, and he only saw a worried face through his half-closed eyes before he entered the realm of unconsciousness.
Author's Note: Okay, I got the idea for a hybrid as I only have two second-job characters. I am n00b lol. They are a Hunter and FP of course. I quitted the hunter as it was lousy in Monster Carnival. I'm training a sindit now 'cos my Fire Poison Wizard is screwed.
I made a lousy attempt at being more descriptive, so don't blame me if it's still sucky. I tried!
Review P10x.