Hi guys,
This one is a little rushed. Sorry I didn't have enough time to double check this more.
I really wanted to get a Christmas Special out but this one has to come out first.
I don't think I'll make it in time since Christmas is tomorrow. I hope you don't mind a delayed Christmas special.
Alberta
"Wow, I love the fresh ocean air." Mikan exclaims.
"Didn't you get enough of the water when you were at Comodo?" Hotaru asks.
"Nope. It's different. Comodo was a beach setting. This is a port!" Mikan stated.
"It's just water. You're too easily excitable." Hotaru pointed out.
"I take pleasure in life's little offerings." Mikan replied.
Hotaru rolled her eyes.
"Hey guys, this sailor over here said he can take us to explore the Sunken Ship" Yuu announced his finding.
"Oh, you mean the haunted ship wreck off the coast of Alberta? I heard it's an awesome place to explore and gain experience." Ruka replied.
"Haunted?" Mikan repeated in a scared voice.
"Just monsters that are of the undead or demon property. I think there's a Ghostring on that ship too." Hotaru responded.
"Don't worry Mikan. It'll be sort of like the training we did in Payon caves. You've already faced zombies and skeletons before." Ruka reminded her.
Mikan shivered, "I guess that's true. I didn't like it but I eventually got use to it."
"Alright then, let's go!" Koko exclaimed as he and Kitsuneme ran towards the sailor.
"Remind me again why we brought those 2 along." Hotaru asked.
"They have skills that will be useful for us. Plus, the more the merrier." Mikan replied with a smile.
"Just be alert all the time and get your priorities straight. Big parties are hard to support." Hotaru said to her.
"Awwww, you do worry about me." Mikan exclaimed happily as she tried to hug Hotaru.
Hotaru side steps and Mikan ends up on the ground, "Tch, I just want to make sure we'll all be alive."
Ruka and Yuu sweat dropped watching the two of them.
"Come on, let's get going." Hotaru said as she walked off to the Sailor as well.
On the island beside the sunken ship
"Ok guys, do you have everything?" Yuu asked as everyone double checks their items.
"Yup, all accounted for." Koko replied.
"Ok then, off we go." Ruka said as he led the way towards the ship wreck that is just beside the shore of this small island.
Inside the ship wreck
Mikan shivers, "I don't like this place."
"Concentrate Mikan." Hotaru reminded her.
"Hai." She responded and started to cast buffs on everyone (buffs= supportive spells like blessing and agility up. There are more supportive spells later when she change classes)
Koko started playing on his Lute when Mikan started to cast her spells. He played a song called Magic strings and it increased her casting time. (A/N I love magic strings, we normally just call it strings. It shortens the cast time and decrease the delay after casting any skill for anyone that's in the effected area.)
Once she finished casting her spells on everyone, they started moving deeper in the ship. Koko kept on playing while walking allowing our magic casters to cast their spells quickly.
While they were walking, skeletons with pirate clothing charged at them with their swords drawn. Yuu casted firewall in-between the party and the monsters while Kitsuneme and Ruka shot at them. Hotaru kept an eye out for anything that may come at them from behind.
Once they got to a doorway further in the boat, they found it blocked by a big group of Hydras. Hotaru began casting Thunderstorm over the group of Hydras to take them out all together while the rest of the party defended themselves.
"This skill is really useful. I like having a shorter cast time." Hotaru commented.
"Thanks, we got a lot more songs that are helpful to the party as well. But right now we really don't need any others except for this one right now." Koko replied.
"Ouch," Mikan cried out as she fell onto the floor.
"Sigh, why are you so clumsy." Hotaru asks.
"I'm not that clumsy!!!" Mikan replied.
"You fell down all of a sudden for no reason at all." Hotaru stated.
Mikan looks at the ground around her. "That's strange. I swear something wrapped around my ankle and pulled so I fell. I thought a Hydra spawned behind us."
Hotaru surveys the area. "Nothing is behind you. Come on, get up, I want to explore the bottom area of the ship."
Mikan sighs and got up with the help of Ruka. Then they descended the ladder leading them into the bottom area.
Once they got to the bottom area and started to walk around once more, all of a sudden something white popped up behind Koko and hit him on the head.
"Ouch," he exclaimed while rubbing his head, "What the hell?" he asked as he looked around.
Hotaru and Yuu quickly casted Sight and revealed a ghost that looked pretty much like a small pillow case floating next to Koko's head getting ready to whack him again.
Ruka tried to shoot at it but his arrow went straight through the ghost.
"Ah it's a Whisper, it's Ghost property," Kitsuneme commented, "you'll need elemental arrows to be able to hit them. Silver and fire enchanted arrows will deal the most damage." He noted as he passed Ruka a quiver of Silver arrows.
"Thanks," Ruka replied as he took 2 silver arrows out of the quiver and notched them into his bow.
He shot both out at once, hitting the Whisper twice in one shot while Mikan cast heals on Koko.
"Mikan, can you keep Ruwach up? It'll be easier than for me and Hotaru to keep Sight up and cast spells to kill the monsters." Yuu suggested.
Mikan nods and casts Ruwach to help unveil any monsters close to them.
They kept on going and explored the different rooms at the bottom of the ship.
However, the mobs eventually got too much to handle and they were quickly getting tired.
A Marionette was able to stab Ruka's arm with her candle holder that looks like a trident.
Ruka stumbled away from the Marionette while Kitsuneme repelled it away by shooting at it.
Mikan was taking a step towards Ruka to examine his wound but was pushed away and fell on the floor.
"Ruka-Sama!! You're hurt! Let me have a look." A dancer exclaimed while she jumped on Ruka and hugged him.
The rest of the group sweat drop at the scene. "Um, Sumire, you should let Mikan heal Ruka's wound." Koko said as he found his voice first.
"What good would she do? She's just a clumsy little girl, you can't depend on her. I can bandage his wound just fine. I learnt first aid." She bragged.
Mikan was hurt by her statement and Hotaru noticed the pain in her eyes. "No one is allowed to make her sad besides me" she mumbled to herself as she casted icewalls around the party to keep the monsters away from them.
"Get off me." Ruka said while struggling to get out of her hold.
Kitsuneme grabbed Sumire by her muffler and dragged her off Ruka so Mikan can help him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked her.
"I, eh, followed you here." Sumire responded.
"How did you know we were coming here with Ruka today." He continues to interrogate her.
"I overheard your conversation when you were planning the party today with Ruka, so I followed you guys." She admitted.
"What makes you think that Mikan is clumsy?" Hotaru questions her.
"How can someone who falls over so easily and is so clueless be dependable?" Sumire replied.
"You made her fall didn't you? She said she felt something wrap around her ankle and pulled. But there were no hydras around; you could have made her fall by using your whip. You are jealous of Mikan since she hangs out with Ruka so you followed us and tried to make a fool out of her." Hotaru accused.
Sumire looked down with nothing to say.
By this time, Mikan has finished healing Ruka and they were watching what's transpiring.
"I think you should go home now," Koko suggested trying to break the tension between Hotaru and Sumire.
"No, you're not the boss of me. I can do whatever I want." Sumire said as she stood up and walked away from the group.
"Thanks for healing me Mikan. Don't worry about what she said, you're a great support." Ruka said trying to comfort her.
Mikan felt better after Ruka's comment and she flashed him a bright smile. "Thanks Ruka."
Then they heard a really loud scream. "That must be Sumire." Koko exclaimed.
"She might be in trouble; we better go see if she's ok." Yuu suggested.
Hotaru was hesitant in helping her but after Mikan gave her a pleading look she sighed and went along with them to see what's wrong.
They found Sumire on the floor outside of the Captian's room. She was badly hurt. It seems like she got out just in time before it was too late.
Mikan quickly went to Sumire and started healing her with her spells. Once most of the wounds have closed up Sumire regain conciousness and asked, "Why are you helping me after how mean I was to you."
"Don't worry about it; I can't just leave you alone if you're hurt. It's in my nature to help people." Mikan replied with a smile.
Sumire felt ashamed at herself but accepted Mikan's help.
"So what happened?" Koko asked.
"Well, after I left you guys, I decided to wander around for a bit and I went into this room. The monsters in this room were a lot stronger then all the others I've seen in here. There was a lot of monsters too for that one room. It was pretty packed. But there seemed to be some monsters that followed another one around. I think it might be the one in charge here." Sumire replied with a shiver.
"Hum, I'm interested in seeing what's behind this door now. Why hasn't it come through the door to attack you?" Hotaru questioned.
"I don't know. I barely managed to get through the door and shut it before I collapsed."
"Are you sure we should check out what's inside?" Kitsuneme asked, "Will we be able to handle it?"
"Don't worry, we'll stick close to the door so we can run if anything happens." Hotaru replied.
"We should make sure we're ready first before going in. Is everyone fully rested?" Yuu asked.
Everyone nods except for Mikan. "Give me a couple of minutes to regain my spiritual energy. I can feel that it's pretty low so I won't be able to cast many spells."
Then Sumire piped up, "I can help with that! I know this dance called Gypsy's Kiss that increases the amount of spiritual energy you have and decrease the usage of spiritual energy when casting. It's similar to how bard's performances work; you have to be within a certain range for the skill to work. Please let me join you guys and help out."
Hotaru was thinking about this when Koko spoke up for her, "It'll be useful if we can use her skill. Since we only have 1 healer and Mikan is still an acolyte, her spiritual energy capacity still isn't very big and this skill can help so she can cast more spells than usual. It's actually beneficial to all of us since all our skills uses that energy. The more we can save the more skills we can use."
"Fine, just make sure you behave." Hotaru said to her.
Sumire nodded and got up off the floor. Sumire started her dance while Koko started to play his song again. Mikan started casting support spells on everyone.
Once Mikan was done, Ruka ready his bow and took aim at the door and Kitsuneme opened it.
They slowly started to walk in the small hallway that leads to the big open room behind the door.
A monster that looked like the hydras from the previous floor started attacking them. Except the difference is, this one can move and it hurts a lot more. "Pneuma" Mikan casted as green smoke screens that went up around them. This green layer of smoke protects them from the projectile attack from the Penomena that was trying to hit them.
Hotaru started casting Storm Gust in the area around the Penomena and Yuu casted Heaven's Drive. Once Hotaru finished casting, a blizzard came down to damage and freeze everything in the target area. Multiple spikes from the ground went up and pierced the frozen and unfrozen monsters in the area as Yuu finished casting. They area spells were very effective in eliminating the group of monsters that were coming at them.
"Try to hit the monsters that do freeze as the storm stops damaging them when they're frozen." Hotaru commanded Ruka and Kitsuneme, "The undead and demon monsters don't freeze so they'll continue to take damage from the storm."
Ruka and Kitsuneme nodded and attacked the frozen monsters to unfreeze them in the storm so they will take further damage.
Once the hallway and the part of the room right behind the hallway was cleared, they decided to walk further down the hallway to have a better look at the room.
When they were at the edge of the hallway they noticed a group of monsters in the corner.
The big floating monsters that are cloaked in black showing their skeleton faces are Wraiths. The mouth in its stomach area actually opens and bites its target.
They seem to be floating around something as if to protect it.
The mob of monsters started to float towards the group. The ones in front parted and revealed a different looking monster that was in the middle. It was a human figure, dressed in a pirate suit with a captain's hat. One of his legs was missing and replaced with a peg and he has a black bird sitting on his shoulder.
"This doesn't look good guys," Koko commented.
"Back up," Hotaru commanded as she started to cast Storm Gust again.
The storm went off and the monsters barely slowed down.
The group tried various attacks to take down the group of monsters but nothing seems to work.
When the Wraith died, the pirate monster is able to revive them once again. It seems like an endless battle.
The group kept on backing up until they were almost at the door again.
"Acid Terror" A voice cried out as a bottle of acid was launched at the mob. "Summon Flora." A second voice called out as different flower type plants spawned around the mob and acted as a distraction.
"Hurry cast Ice Wall in between them and us and get out of this room." The first voice said.
Hotaru wasted no time and casted several Ice Walls in between them and the group ran out of the room.
"That was close." Ruka said.
"Yeah," Koko nodded in agreement.
"Lucky we heard a commotion in the room and decided to check it out. We thought it was an experience party that wanted to take on Drake." A girl with blue hair answered.
"Drake?" Mikan asked.
"Oh, Drake was the captain of this pirate ship before it crashed into the rocks close to the island due to a storm and killed everyone on the ship." The second girl with pink hair answered.
"A captain always goes down with his ship." Koko commented.
"Well this one never left his ship." Kitsuneme said dryly.
"Thanks for helping us back there by distracting the monsters." Mikan thanked them gratefully.
"By the way, I'm Mikan. And this is my best friend Hotaru and our friends Ruka, Yuu, Koko, Kitsuneme and Sumire." Mikan said as she introduced everyone.
"Hi I'm Nonoko and this is my homunculus Jello. It's a vanilmirth (vanil for short) type of homunculus." The girl with the straight blue hair replied and pointed to a cylinder looking glob that does resemble Jello in a way.
"I'm Anna and this is my homunculus Lily. It's a Lif type of homunculus" The girl with pink hair replied as her homunculus floated beside her and hugged her arm. Lily had more of a human form, her hair is made up of long green leaves and she has a white dress on that goes all the way down to her ankles. Almost reminds them of an elf that is fused with nature.
"We're alchemists." They said in sync.
"Are you guys twins?" Someone asked.
"Nope, we're not related but we've been best friends since we were in diapers." Nonoko replied.
"Aw, that's like me and Hotaru." Mikan said as she tried to hug Hotaru but fell because she dodged her hug like always.
"Once again, thanks for helping us out." Yuu said to the two alchemists.
"It's no big deal. We come here a lot to train ever since we were merchants." Nonoko replied.
"Yeah, we live in Alberta so this is the closest dungeon type of place for us to train at. So we're very familiar with this place." Anna added.
"So you guys always train with each other?" Koko asked.
"Yup!" Nonoko replied.
"We can physically fight and we have different chemical skills that aid in our fighting." Anna explained.
"On top of that, our homunculus fights along with us!" Nonoko added.
"My vanil has good physical attacks but is also able to cast offensive magic attacks. Although what type of bolt it casts is up to it so it could cast the wrong element from time to time."
"Any my Lif is is a great healer who can also do physical attacks, so it works well."
"You use chemicals such as the acid and the flowers you use back there?" Yuu asked with much interest.
"Yup, that and more. We have chemicals that can be used offensively and some can be used defensively. We also know what to do with potions so they heal more then when you normally drink them." Nonoko replied.
"Isn't it expensive to buy all those chemicals?" Hotaru asked.
"Well, we hunt for most of the materials to make them ourselves. What we can't hunt we buy." Anna replied.
"Wow, you make your own chemicals?" Mikan said with awe.
"Yup, that's what alchemist specializes in." Nonoko replies with a smile.
"I specialize in making potions. Normal potions and slim ones that are more potent and lighter to carry so you can carry more of them." Anna explained.
"And I specialize in making all the other chemicals we use. All the acids, bombs, chemical coats and summoning bottles are made by me." Nonoko added.
"Hey guys, lets get out of here before we continue talking." Koko suggested.
"Sure." Mikan replied and open up a warp portal to warp everyone back to town.
Somewhere far away
"Wake up you stupid brat." A cold voice commanded as he kicked the body on the floor.
The setting was very grim. The dungeon they're in was wet, cold and very dimly lit up.
You can make out a black figure laying on the ground.
"You have a new mission and you better not mess up like last time. Setting off an alarm. Tch, how amature of you. I expected a lot more from the great black cat." The voice continued.
"Now get up and get going. You wouldn't want anything to happen to that darling sister of yours now would you." He said as he dropped down a file to the figure on the floor and left the room.
The figure on the ground opened his eyes and looked at the file lying in front of him. "Aoi", he whispered as he got into a sitting position and grabbed the file.
Thanks so much for the reviews for ch 18 :):
HyuugaYingLang, suke367sahome, oObroken-wingsOo
I hope this one is ok.
YAY new chars :)
Alchemist fits their chars fairly well.
Yes, everyone is in their second class except for Mikan
Don't worry :) Soon she will get there too