Chapter 23: The Price of Humanity
Part 3: Holy Attribute
.
.
.
(((Jaune Arc)))
I leave the run down church with a little bit of dread. To learn that there used to be a church that worshipped thr Grimm... The idea sounds so blasphemous that I dont understand how did it become a thing.
Still, at least now they dont worhsip Grimm itself, right? They are now worshipping a sanitized version of the deity.
Still, that Cinder girl... Why was she praying to the Grimm Goddess anyway? She seems like a good person but seeing her worshipping that gives me the creeps.
Note to self, let's not linger around that church after this.
"Hey Jaune!"
I looked up and seen Ruby riding an airbike. She descend to ground with ease, showing how much experience she had with the vehicle. She looks bruised and battered all over the place and her cloak is marred with dirt and grass stains.
"Wow Ruby? Did Soren beat you up or something?"
"er...", she scratch the back of her head. "Actually he did. He's giving me a bit of training, that's all. Anyway, hop on the back, Jaune! Boss tells me to fetch you coz he has something to give us!"
"Oh, okay!"
I hopped on the back of her airbike and she lift up to the air, quickly reaching the inn. She parked the airbike on the rooftop and I follow her to the room I'm sharing with Ren.
"You're here.", Soren glanced at us as he was tinkering with somekind of a gemstone. Then, he toos it to us, one for each of us. "So Jaune, what is a Skill Gem?"
"Err.. a Gem that contains a Skill?"
"Well that's one way to put it. Rose, give him a rundown over what Skill Gems are."
"Okay boss!", Ruby gives him a movk salute. "Now Jaune, Skill Gem is a category of Arcane Gems. Now, to explain it from the basic, Arcane Gems are gems which was carved with certain runic arrays, making what was originally regular gemstones into a spell container. Skill Gem for a start are gems that is etched with certain spells, for example Fireball or Gale Strike."
"Well, I know that much."
"Yes, Skill Gems are the most commonly sold as most people doesn't have the aptitude to weave spells on their own. Unlike Aura Arts where we sorta just figure it out through feelings, Magic requires you to know math and stuff for you to cast it yourself. It's very impractical for most people to use magic in combat, so that's where Arcane Gems comes in. Just slot in some gems and you can cast magic by just injecting it with Mana."
Then, Ruby raise the gem she received to my view.
"This is called an Attribute Gem. Now unlike Skill Gem, an Attribute Gem automatically drain your Dust as Mana. Through that, it grant your or your weapon a constant enchantment effect, giving it or you an Attribute. Since we are hunting down a necrophage, I am guessing that this gem is one that gives our weapon a Holy Atrribute."
"Holy Attribute?"
This time Soren interjects innthe explanation.
"Necrophages are vulnerable to Fire and Holy element. Now, silver weapons by itself is already a holy weapon but that alone won't be enough for the alghouls. So, I spent some money and get you two Holy Gems to be equipped on your weapons."
"Aww, thanks man!"
"Oh no, that aint for free. Each of those is 5000 Lien okay. So I will deduct the cost from your wages."
Ruby gagged as she heard the cost for such a small gemstones. 5000 Lien for this?! I didn't even asked for it!
"Hey, can't we just give it back to you after this whole quest is done?"
Soren looked at me as the stupidest person on the planet once again.
"Can you generate Holy element on your own?", he asked, rethorically.
"no..."
"So shut the fuck up.", then, Soren gathered his things and open the door to leave. Before doing so however, he left us some warnings.
"Now, I got some call from Ren that he spotted the alghouls now. Two of them in fact. Ren and I are going to hunt them down tonight. Now the thing is, something is fishy, so I want you two to stay on guard while we're gone. Chances are the alghouls are setting a diversion while their other pack members pick up food outside our range."
Ruby then asked him.
"Then, if one of them show up here, what should we do?"
"You leave it be."
I interjects. "But you said they eat good people! Now if they grab some lowlife out of the streets then maybe I can turn a blind eye, but I can't do that if they took a kid or anything."
"I know, thats why I broke my emergency fund and lost 10k for that Holy Attributes. Now look, you really better off not dealing with them as you are now. Chances are you will just make things worse. But if you really have to fight any, then don't bother to win. Just stall."
"Stall?", I asked him.
"Yep, that's right. Stall. We're not heroes. We are professionals. Well, rookie interns in case of you two chuckleheads. You don't need to win like this is somekind of a fairy tale where the knight comes to save the damsel in distress from the spooky monster. If you had to fight one, just shoot a flare up the sky and stall for as long as you can. That's it."
"Ok boss, I'll remember that!", Ruby give him a nod.
"Alright. Now just stay inside. Dont go around making trouble. You can go makeout or something."
"Boss!! We arent like that!"
)))))))))))))
To spend the time, Ruby and I play cards after we had dinner. She showed me how to use the Attribute Gem and I gotta say it is quite a.Dust guzzler.
Skill Gems works as a single action spell. You activate it once and it produce an immediate effect. Attribute Gems on the other hand is a continuous spell. Once activated, it will constantly take effect until I turn it off.
I replaced the Bunny Leap gem with Holy Attribute's, so now the Vorpal Blade has Holy Attribute, Gale Strike and Vorpal Strike as its list of spells. I have Slow Waltz as my Simple Sign and I can use a very basic Sword Aura. For movement technique, I have March Hare which gives me a strong kick to the ground to dash forward or leap up.
For Ruby, she has 3 magazines of Fire Bullets. Her Crescent Rose is installed with Haste, Return and Holy Attribute. For Aura technique, she can use Sword Aura though it cant be used with Crescent Rose with its current alloy. She did however can use the Aura technique, Lunarfang with it. For movement, she has Petal Burst.
I asked and she told me that she doesn't has a Simple Sign. Every bit of it was lost with her mother without being passed down to her. According to her, Simple Signs are passed down from mentor to apprentice, so you won't get it from a random shop or anywhere. She said that while Soren is avoiding from actually teaching me like a plague, the fact he did passed on to me Slow Waltz means I am indeed is recognized as an apprentice.
Gotta say, that does warm me up a bit.
"Then, Jaune, I'm taking the first rest now."
"Okay, sweet dreams, Ruby."
She just drowsily went to bed and almost immediately dozed off. We agreed to take watch while the other asleep throughout the night, just in case things does get stirred up. To pass the time, I read up some books on Anima's major regions to get to know of the land.
About an hour in, which is about 1 am, I heard faint explosions from the distance.
I opened the window and saw flikcers of light off the horizon. It looks like Soren and Ren had found the alghouls and had started to battle it. I listened to the distant batle for 10 minutes but it turns out that Soren is not finishing it quickly as usual.
Shit, if that guy is having trouble then that means this situation is pretty bad...
Then, I saw several buildings suddenly caught on fire. The blaze quickly spreads, and I realized that the the blaze is spreading in a circle, lighting up the outermost buildings!
"Ruby, get up!"
"wha-??", she groggily arose from but sound of screamings quickly wake her up. "Wha-whats going on, Jaune?!"
"Someone or something is burning down the town! We need to stop it!"
I leaped out the window from the second floor. With Aura, this much height is nothing to jumped down to. Chaos spreads as more buildings are burned and the townsfolk escaped their premise. However, the found themselves to be surrounded with flames, caging them in a ring of fire. And slowly the fire spread in, herding us to the center.
What is going on?!
.
.
.
(((Narrator)))
"Is this wise, Uta?"
Cinder Fall asked Utaz the leader of the pack over his decision to burn down Shion to the ground.
When she reported to him over her encounter with the curious young man with a silver armbadge, Uta face turns sour and he asked her in details over his appearance. For some reason, he was relieved to hear that while the eyes were blue, the young man she encountered was blonde.
"What you met during evening is a Drifter, Cinder. This is why I resort to this extreme measure."
"Why would you?", she frowns. "It took me a lot of effort to gather children into the church to serve us as livestocks. Why do you resort to burning it all down just because I met this Drifter person? Surely they aren't that different than regular Hunters?"
"Oh Cinder...", Uta looks at her with pity. "How innocent. There's so much you need to learn. Now, I do not have time to tell you the details but a simple summary. Life is an interconnectiong web of prey and predator and the Drifters stand on top of it. I can only pray that our family members that serves as decoy are facing some of the lesser clans instead of an ancient blood. We are close to the Branwen Mountain afterall."
Uta then take the reins of the horse which will pull the carriage full of unconscious children.
"Now Cinder, I need you to go into the blaze and stir even more fear and panic in there. If fortune side with us, perhaps a Grimm will be called into Shion, which will serve to occupy the Drifters to allow our escape. For now, I will be taking our food to our hideout."
"I see. Then, see you later, Uta."
"You too Cinder."
Uta drove off with the children, leaving behind Cinder to stir up chaos in Shion.
"What a waste.", Cinder looks over the flaming town, sad to see a vibrant town being reduced to cinder. She walks into blaze and transform to her ghoulish form as she began to terrorize the survivors to raise up the fear and panic.
Just what is the Drifters that made Uta spooked so much? She will have to ask him by the morning later.