Chapter 6: Vorpal Blade
.
.
.
"Coco Adel? You mean that Adel?"
"Yes, that's me."
Coco Adel introduce herself to Soren, who was rearranging the tables in the diner to fit the piano he had robbed from Flynt Coal. Didn't we have a vampire problem right now? Why is he fixing up the table right now?
"Is Adel a big deal name or something?", I asked the two of them.
"If you majored in vampire hunting? Sure.", Soren answered me.
"The Adel family has been involved in the vampire hunting business for five generations. I had recently finished my training back home, and now I am on a journey to begin my career. I had heard that there is a vampire problem in this town while I was stopping by to see if the rumor that the young lord of Coldforge family lives here was true. So here I am, asking your permission to join the hunt."
"Heeeee…"
Soren seems to mull over about it, and then he made a decision.
"Alright, I'll let you handle it. But you're going to bring this guy along.", Soren pointed at me.
Coco look over me, inspecting my… powerlevel I supposed.
"A low-end Rank 2. Are you sure you want me to bring along this boy? He doesn't seem to be trained for a long time."
"Yep. He barely started working on basic swordmanship."
"And you want me to bring him along when he is just starting to learn?"
"Education is best when it is done under trial of blood."
"Young lord, I know Coldforges begin their education early, but he is not you. Most people are not born with innate talent to hunt."
Yea. It's only been a month and my training consist of being almost naked in the snow to train my Aura upkeep and practicing swinging my sword at the evening. Very basic stuff.
"Eh, it'll be fine. Besides, I'm not asking you to have him fight a vampire. He can deal with the thralls that will be guarding the vampire."
"I see. I assume you already know where the vampire is. It must had been newly turned. It's not very powerful, is it?"
Soren just shrugs. Well, if the vampire is not very strong then it shouldn't be able to control many thralls and empower them much. It should be manageable by me.
"Would you make my job easier and tell me where is the lair of this beast?"
"No freebie."
"Well, a girl can try."
"Wait by the chapel due west from here. I will prep up Jaune."
Coco gives us a flashing smile and turn to exit the diner. Soren gestured for me to follow him upstairs. There, we enter a room which is full of assortments of weapons. Soren took a case under a table and open it.
In the case, there is a shortsword with a red crossguard in the shape of four pointed star. In the middle of the crossguard, three Skillgems are embedded into its slots. An array of runes is carved along the flat of the silver blade. The grip is wrapped in leather, dyed in the color of dark blue. The pommel for some reason is a circle with the image of a rabbit's head carved to it.
When Soren grips the sword, the runes on the sword light up in dull bluish color.
"This is the Vorpal Blade. For the time being, I'll let you borrow my old sword. I don't use it anymore ever since I learned how to perform [Sword Aura, so until you forged your own weapons and learned to imbue aura into weapons, this will be yours to use, unless you decide to buy something else."
"Soren, I can't take this! Isn't this an heirloom?"
Soren just raised an eyebrow.
"Actually no. It was Velvet's."
This was Velvet's?
"Anyway, she passed it to me when we moved here some years ago. I used it for awhile since it was a pretty good silver sword and boy so many monsters are allergic to silver. I have no use for it anymore, so might as well give it to you."
"Soren, I don't know what to say…"
"Don't think too much about it. There's many things you can cheapskate with, Jaune, but never cheapskate while preparing your weapons. I suggest you just melt down your previous gears because it's better off to be melted down into wok and cutleries instead. Using that shit will kill you."
He tapped on the Skillgems on Vorpal Blade.
"You can replace those Skillgems if you have the money, but here is the spells imbued into those three. [Vorpal Strike, [Bunny Leap] and [Gale Strike]. Vorpal Strike power up your strike with the sword. It takes a lot of Mana so be careful. Bunny Leap lets you jump 10 meters into the air, so use it wisely. You can also use it as a strong dash skill. Gale Strike release a strong wind spell with a swing of the sword. You're a beginner, so yell out the name of the spells. You're not proficient enough to activate the Skillgems with just Mana control. Now give me your left hand."
I held out my left hand. He touched my ring finger with his own, and injected Mana through contact.
I yelp in pain as I feel that something was carved into my finger bones.
"That's how Simple Signs is passed on. I carved the runic letter for Air, Mud and Circle into the three bones of your ring finger. You can now cast [Slow Waltz]. Just charged up Mana into your left hand and copy the handsign that I did back at the case site. Though you should test it out. You had just got it, so your mastery for it should be low."
It's only been a month, but I got a good sword and a Simple Sign already. How many people would have killed to get the boon I had received?
I don't feel worthy for it.
"Soren, thanks. Thanks a lot!"
Soren looks unamused.
"Don't be. I don't have time to teach you to train like normal people. I wasn't even trained normally to begin with so I have no idea what to teach you normally anyway. I give you the tools you need because the only real way I can teach you is to throw you to the wolves and let you figure out what to do or die trying. You won't be so grateful after this."
))))))))))
"Oh hey, Jaune!"
Sun greet me in as I entered my room to get my leather armor.
"Cool sword.", he commented.
The arrangement was that Neptune and Sun will be staying in the chapel for awhile before we start make them a hut at the junkyard, where they will work on Rust Bucket. I don't see Neptune anywhere, he's probably trying to flirt at The Club or something. For a homeless person he sure has an uncanny amount of self-confidence when it comes to skirtchasing. Too bad for him that he doesn't seem to have any sort of charm whatsoever.
"Yea Sun, I just got it from Soren."
"Oh cool! Can I get one too?"
"You'll have to ask him."
Sun stood up from the bed before I stopped him. "You should ask him tomorrow! It's late, Sun! Don't bother him."
"Right! Gotcha!", he lied back to his bed, continuing to sleep. I think.
I put on my armor and got out. It's about 9pm now. Man, I was tired from… stuff and now has to go join in a vampire hunt. This is going to be a long night.
"Now, Jaune. I want you to follow my lead without question, okay. Leave the hunt to me. Do not engage into any combat unless I said so."
I nodded. We then began to patrol the streets.
My heart throbs with wary, excitement and dread. This is my second hunt and it's involves a vampire this time. I keep my grip to Vorpal Blade to calm down my nerves.
Hopefully, we don't encounter any vampire tonight. Because I am so not ready for this!