Hi Guys,
I'm so sorry for being away for so long. I've just been so busy. Dragonboat season has started. I'm trying to study for GMAT. I need to apply for my etc etc _
Oh...planning my Japan trip as well. :P It's just so draining that I don't know what to write anymore.
Super busy at home and at work. Doesn't help when RO does some crazy leveling event either.
I also just noticed that I haven't been receiving any emails from FF for a while now. It's weird, even though I have alerts on stories etc...they just dont' email me anymore :( I hope you guys still get the email alerts. I'm afraid many people have forgotten about me since I've been missing in action.
I hope this chapter is ok. Lots of words and more explaining then action. I think 1 or 2 more chapters left. :)
Months has pasted since the Satan Morroc incident. The town is still in ruins but order has been restored. Many volunteers have gone to help rebuild the town. Meanwhile, the residents of Morroc are either staying in the refugee area or have left for another town.
Ruka and his mom continued to stay with Mikan and her grandfather even after she had gotten better. Ruka's mom didn't want to intrude and attempted to leave once she had gotten better but Ji-Chan had insisted that they would stay until their house was rebuilt.
The Gang had gotten closer ever since the Satan Morroc incident. It was rude awakening for them to see how still inexperience they were compared to the other adventurers. The gang is determined to get stronger. In order to get more experience, they've been travelling together to many new and different places. The more exposure they got to fighting the different type of monsters, the more knowledge they gain. They've learnt a lot about how to fight different types of monsters and how to fight together as a team. They all wish to get strong and transcend to their next classes just like Misaka and Tsubasa-senpai.
However, on this particular day, instead of going off on another adventure to battle more monsters, they were busy item hunting. They hit their supply stash quite heavily because of all the outings they've been going on lately. Since it cost too much to keep on buying more, they're trying to gather items to make the supplies that they are able to and only buy the ones they cannot make. So today, everyone is pitching in to help gather items for Anna and Nonoko to make supplies for the gang to use. Anna is able to make many different potions while Nonoko can make other supportive items such as potions to coat your equipment, bombs etc.
The gang split up into different groups to gather more items at a faster pace.
Hotaru went with Koko to the pyramid basement to hunt for immortal hearts that are taken from the mummified dogs called verit. The Verits roam the around along with the Minorous. Hotaru's Storm Gust spell can quickly dispose of both types of monsters so a team consisting of only Koko and Hotaru would be enough.
Ruka, Kitsu, Natsume and Aki went to Aldebaran's clock tower to hunt for starsands from bathories, while Yuu went alone to Payon dungeon to gather stems from the Mandragora plants. The rest of the girls went to the Hvergelmir's Fountain which is rumoured to be somehow connected to the roots of the yggdrasil tree. The girls are there gathering various herbs so Anna can make all sorts of potions from them.
While the girls were chatting away and plucking the leaves of the plants, Mikan noticed something shiny in the soil underneath the shining plant she was picking from. She brushed off the surface soil to get a better look at what the shiny item was. She found that it was some sort of shiny stone that was quite large so she started digging around the stone and unearthing more of it. Once she finished digging, she pulled the large golden shining mineral out of the ground.
"Hey guys, look what I found buried underneath the soil here!" Mikan exclaimed
The girls looked up from they spots and laid their eyes on the large shining rock that Mikan held up.
Anna was the first to respond, "Mikan! You found an emperium!"
"An emperium?" Mikan repeated looking at the rock questionably.
"Yes! Didn't they teach you anything in school?" Sumire scolded Mikan.
"An Emperium is needed to form a guild! You bring the Emperium to the guild registry in Prontera and they will use the mineral to create the badges for your guild." Nonoko explained.
"Oh! Does that mean we can form a guild now?" Mikan asked.
"Well, technically yes, we have the item so we have the ability to make a guild. But let's talk to the others to see what they think. We're always partying together anyways. I think we would eventually all join a guild later anyways when we're more experienced." Anna suggested thoughtfully.
"Why don't we as the others to see what they think?" Nonoko suggested.
"Do you think we have enough items to use to replenish our supplies?" Sumire asked.
"I think we have enough herbs for me to make a good amount of potions with. Let's call the others to see how they're doing." Anna responded after taking inventory of how much herbs they gathered.
"Hey guys, are you guys done gathering your items? We're done on our side so we're wondering if you guys are good to go as well." Mikan spoke into her communicator.
"I have quite a few stems and my bags are almost all full. I think I'll get a bit more to fill up the bags and then I'll be done." Yuu replied.
"We got a bunch of hearts from the Verits. I refuse to do this job again. Killing the monster is one thing, removing the heart is just disgusting." Hotaru replied.
"We're not really done with starsands yet. We still have one more bag to fill up." Ruka replied.
"Ok, how about we meet up at my house in an hour. That'll give people enough time to finish off what they're doing before coming over!" Mikan suggested.
Everyone agreed to her suggestion and continued what they were doing.
Since Anna wanted to prepare some snacks for everyone, the girls left the forest right after the call.
After arriving back in town, Nonoko and Sumire went shopping for ingredients they needed for the food while Mikan helped Anna prep in the Kitsuchen.
Once Nonoko and Sumire got back with the ingredients, Anna and Mikan got started on making the tea time snacks while Nonoko and Sumire began sorting out all the herbs they have collected.
An hour later when the rest of the gang arrived, they were greeted by the sweet aroma of strawberries.
On the table waiting for them were individual sized strawberry shortcakes and a steaming pot of herbal tea.
The groups saw the girls sitting at the other end of the table.
They were finished sorting all the herbs by now and they were packing them away into air tight boxes to keep in the freshness.
"That smells good." Koko commented as he licked his lips and went over to grab a plate.
"Thanks," Anna repiled, "Mikan helped me make it."
"You sure it's not poisoned." Natsume teased as he reached for a plate himself.
"Fine then, don't eat it!" Mikan told him while trying to snatch away his plate.
Natsume moved his hand away so Mikan missed the plate. Mikan tried to grab it again and Natsume moved it away again.
The girls giggle at their childish behaviour while Hotaru just roll her eyes.
Ruka couldn't help but look at his friend green with envy because of his close proximity with Mikan.
Hotaru interrupts them, "Will you two stop flirting already?"
Natsume glared at Hotaru for interrupting them while Mikan turns beet red and denies that they were flirting.
"Anyways, why did you guys call us back so urgently?" Hotaru asked.
Mikan stops her flailing, "Oh right! We found an Emperium! I was picking the leaves off a shiny plant and I spotted something shiny in the ground. When I dug it out the other girls told me that I had found an Emperium." Mikan told her with a smile.
"So we decided to call the rest of you guys to let you know what we found! Since we have an Emperium now, that means we can form a guild!" Anna added in excitedly.
"So what do you guys think?" Nonoko asked.
Koko was the first to speak out being the out going person he is, "That sounds great! I think it's about time we joined a guild or made one."
"Yeah, we can start the guild with just us for now and grow it over time into a bigger guild." Kitsu suggested.
"I sort of prefer a guild where everyone is friends with each other," Yuu voiced.
"Well we can still all be friends even if it's a big guild." Kitsu tried to reason out.
"Who should be the guild leader?" Sumire asked, "I know Mikan found the Emperium, but I don't think she's capable of running a guild."
"Hey what do you mean by that!" Mikan protested.
"Well, how can I put this?" Sumire responded while trying to think of a nicer way to tell Mikan but Natsume beat her to it.
"Basically you're too stupid to run a guild." Natsume told her.
"You're so mean Natsume! Even if I'm stupid you don't have to say it like that. It's not like I do a bad job as a priestess. I always take care of you guys don't I?" Mikan cried and tried to hit Natsume.
"It's more then just being a priestess Mikan. When you're the guild leader, you're responsible for other people, not just their health but their livelihood as well. It's the guild leader's job to organize events, find jobs to raise money for the guild, find a place to stay if the guild chooses to stay together, keep account of supplies and just generally solve problems that arises in the guild. It gets even more complicated if the guild decides to participate in War of Emperium. Then it's up to the leader to lead the guild in the fight to win castles for the guild." Yuu explained to Mikan hoping to help her feel better.
"Oh, that's a lot of work. Don't you think that's too much for one person?" Mikan asked.
"Actually, in some guilds, you'll find co-leaders so the guild actually has 2 leaders. Or sometimes it's even more structured where you have multiple people in charge of different things and they report to the guild leader. So really the guild leader still holds the guild together, but he has lots of helpers to do the actual work." Yuu explained.
"So are we going to create a guild or should we just sell the mineral?" Mikan asks.
"Let's make a guild!" Koko shouted.
"Ok, then who should be the guild leader? And how many people should lead?" Mikan asks.
"I nominate Hotaru and Yuu, since they're the smartest of all of us." Anna suggested.
"Natsume would probably be good for leading combat situations. He was the one telling us what to do and giving us job assignments in battle before we went to Morroc to find Ruka that time." Koko reminded everyone.
"Yeah but he's so anti-social, he probably won't make a good guild leader." Mikan replied while sticking out her tongue at Natsume.
"Tch, who said I want to be a guild leader anyways." Natsume grunted.
"Why don't we do this? Hotaru and Yuu can be co-leaders and take care of the guild for day to day purposes. Since Natsume seems to have lots of combat experience, he can lead us in terms of fighting, whether it's fighting while exploring new places or in War of Emperium if we decide to participate." Nonoko suggested thoughtfully.
"That's a great idea." Sumire piped in.
"All in favour say Aye." Kitsu announced.
Everyone replied with Aye except for the people being nominated.
Yuu was blushing really hard, "Well, if everyone thinks I can do it, I'll give it a try."
"What about you Natsume?" Ruka asked.
"Hn."
"I will handle all the money." Hotaru claimed with money signs in her eyes.
"YAY, then we're all set!" Mikan exclaims, "Let's go do it now!"
With that said, Mikan casted Agility up on everyone so they can all walk to the guild registry faster.
Once they were at the registry office, the receptionist handed them a form to fill in.
They took the form and looked it over.
"Hum, guild name. What should we be called?" Yuu wondered out loud.
"Soul Society!" Koko exclaimed excitedly.
Sumire smacked him in the head, "You've been reading too much manga."
"Endless Legacy?" Kitsu suggested.
"It's already taken." Anna pointed to the official guild list on the wall.
"Lunae." Hotaru simply stated.
"Hum…I like it." Mikan seconded.
"Of course you would since Hotaru suggested it." Natsume snidely remarked.
But before they could break out into one of their silly little arguments, Ruka chimed in. "I like it as well."
"Has a nice ring to it," Yuu added.
"All in favour say Aye." Said Kitsu.
All said Aye except for Natsume.
"So be it," Hotaru said as she wrote it down on the form.
"It only has space for one guild leader name." She stated as she continue to fill out the rest of the form.
"Then what are we suppose to do if we want to have 2 leaders?" Mikan asked.
The receptionist over heard them and explained, "We just need one person to be the official leader of the guild for information purposes. All announcements and communication will be done through our office with the leader listed. Also, they will be the ones that can access the guild treasure room in the War of Emperium castles."
Money signs appeared in Hotaru's eyes when she heard treasure room. "I'll be putting my name down."
The rest of the group sweat dropped and nodded in fear of getting hit by her spells if they disagreed.
After filling in the rest of the form, Hotaru handed it in along with the Emperium.
The lady took in the form and registered them into the database.
She gave the Emperium to another worker who melted the mineral immediately and poured it into ready made moulds.
Another worker casted a cold bolt spell to cool down the badges. Once they were cool, the badges were given to Hotaru. She handed the badges out to everyone in the group and kept the extra ones in her bag for future recruits.
The receptionist gave them their private number on the communicator which is meant for guild chat. It is entered into the third line in each person's communicator so they can talk with all guild members at anytime they want. It's basically like the party line but for guilds.
Once they were done, they thanked the lady and left the office.
"Hey lets get one of those castles from the War Games for our headquarters!" Koko suggested.
"Yeah that would be so cool." Kitsu chimed in.
"There's still lots of work to be done before we will be able to win a castle." Yuu pointed out.
"We'll need to do more recruiting, for starters." Hotaru added.
"We'll also need to train harder and get more experience. Not just fighting against monsters but we will have to train how to fight against other people." Natsume added.
"Well why don't we work on recruiting first?" Anna suggested.
"Yeah, I'm sure we all know people who might want to join a guild." Nonoko agreed.
"ooooo, I'll call up Tsubasa and Misaki senpai right away to see if they would like to join us." Mikan exclaimed and excused herself to talk to her senpais.
"Yuu and I should go and get more fighting experience though. We're probably the closest to transcending right now out of all of us right now since we've been fast tracking ever since we started Mage School. It'll be better if a majority of us can transcended before we start participating in the games." Hotaru pointed out.
"A high Wizard and a scholar will be critical in the war games." Natsume agreed.
"So if our plan is to participate in the games, then why don't we do this? We'll split our time between training and recruiting for now. We can reach out to our friends and put up bulletin postings to recruit, until we have enough people. We'll also continue to organize lots of parties to fight against monsters to get more experience so we can transcend. We can start sparing against each other in the fighting arenas when we have all the key people we need." Yuu suggested.
Koko patted him on the back, "and this is why we voted you to be one of the guild leaders. Ay ay, guild leader, lets do this!"
I hope I haven't lost my touch
I'll try to post next update as soon as I can...but really...I should be studying right now.
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