I was at the guild again. I guess an adventurer would find themselves here on a daily basis. Unless they were taking a day off because of a thunderstorm.
“Lord Brandon, welcome. We have been expecting you.” Zayaan welcomed Brandon to the guild in a serious tone.
“Stop that already. You know you don’t need to kiss my ass anymore.” Brandon responded.
“I suppose so.” Zay said, much more casually. “Lex just wants me to keep up the presence fitting of a guild master.”
Lex? Oh yeah, the ex-master was Alexander.
“And I see you brought Brian with you as well.” Zay added.
“Yes, I came along as well. I hope you don’t mind.” I responded.
“It’s fine. I was expecting at least one guard with Brandon.” Zay said to me.
… oh yeah. We didn’t have a dedicated guard with us. Just the coachman. I thought it was normal for a small-town noble, but perhaps Brandon is just using me as a guard. Should I be angry at him for using me like this? Or just impressed that he actually has any trust in me at this point.
We moved to the backyard of the guild. They had built up a pile of lumber there. The area was a little tight for something that size to be lit on fire, but I suppose they have some water mages present to keep the fire under control. They wouldn’t just do it otherwise, right? This isn’t some idea by Zay that is being done for the first time, right?
I also noticed some people I didn’t know present in the backyard. Considering that Mario is with them, they might be the families of the deceased.
I stood off to the side as Brandon went over to the deceased, saying something akin to a prayer next to each of them.
For me, this was a moment I took to make a toploader for a spell I wanted to use.
5x Mustering of the Dark Scorpions, 4x Kagemusha of the Blue Flame, 3x Dark Energy, 3x Kumootoko, 3x Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow, 3x Two Thousand Needles, 2x Goblin of Greed, 2x Dark Scorpion Combination,
After Brandon had his moment to say what he was saying, the families had their final moment as well. Then the bodies were moved to the lumber pile and the pile was set on fire.
I decided this would be the optimal time for my spell, so I pulled it out of collection.
“Soul Release.” I said quietly. A barely noticeable blue glow surrounded the bodies in the fire, but as the fire was blazing around them, I doubt anyone noticed any difference.
Soul Release allows people to pass on in peace, making sure they would never rise again as undead. I think the fire would prevent it as well, but at least with this, they will hopefully make it to the afterlife or the circle of reincarnation fine.
“Brian, did you do something?” Lua had sneaked next to me from somewhere. I didn’t even see her at the guild earlier so I thought she would be out draining blood.
“No, not really.” I told her as I showed her the card I used.
She quickly read it before handing it back to me. “I suppose for you, this much is nothing.”
We stood there side-by-side watching the fire.
Rico. I may not have known you well, but I know you deserved better. I hope you can get everything you wanted to do in this life, in your next.
“So Brian, when will we leave the town?” Lua asked me as we were watching the fire. She was apparently on fire control. They would usually hold these funeral fires outside, but as Brandon was going to visit it, they held it in the guild’s backyard.
Brandon had already left, but I decided to stay at the guild for now, with the excuse ‘I’m an adventurer’. I said I’d return to the manor in the afternoon. Sorry Alice, but you need to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around you.
“Are you in a rush?”
“No, but I’d rather help the other dhampirs as soon as possible.” Lua said to me. “I have good self control so I could live like I did, but most can’t. I want them to be able to truly experience life.”
“I see. Well I still have at least one more thing I need to do before I can leave. Also, what about your team?”
“Well I told Alex and Zay I wanted to leave. And with Zay becoming the GM and Rico… well.” Lua tried to say it but couldn’t.
“I understand. You don’t need to say it. But what about Alex?” I asked.
“He said he would go to a bigger town and find a new party to join.” Lua told me.
“Then perhaps he can come with us some of the way.” I told Lua.
“That would be nice. What about the thing you have?” Lua asked.
“I just need to name Christina as the dungeon master of my dungeon.” I told her.
“Oh. I guess we never named one.” She commented.
“I also need to do some final preparations for the dungeon before it’s officially opened. I think we could leave after that.” I told Lua.
“I see. Do you have any places you want to visit? I’ll make a travel plan.” Lua told me.
“No, not really. I did promise to visit either the capital’s guild or the main guild office, so one of those two is a must. But other than that, nothing.” I told her.
“Well there is a dhampir sanctuary close by to both of those places so we would drop close by anyway.” Lua told me.
I guess they would be built close to major cities. But not too close.
“I should head back to the Watchman manor. If I’m here for the entire day, Alice will get angry with me.” I told Lua as I got up to leave.
“Sure. Make sure to drop by the guild again so we can improve the plan.” Lua told me as I left.
I would still make it in time for lunch, but I told Brandon I would have lunch out in town today, so I dropped by Uncle Sam’s burrito stall and picked one up for my lunch.
That reminded me that I haven’t made a toploader for the Upstart Goblin I got yesterday, so I quickly made one.
4x Acrobat Monkey, 4x Guardian Elma, 3x Guardian Kay'est, 4x Thousand Needles, 2x Ojama Trio, 2x Arsenal Robber, 3x Dark Scorpion - Gorg the Strong, 2x Agido, Frozen Soul
With that, I had a money generator. I was thinking of using it straight away, but that might not be a good idea in the middle of a street.
“Brian!” Alice called angrily when I got back to the manor. “What took you so long?”
“Sorry. I just spent some time at the guild. That’s something an adventurer does.” I told her, trying to get her off my back.
“But we were supposed to train together.”
“Well, I’m here now, so we can do it now.” I told her.
We spent the beginning afternoon practicing the no-contact mana loop. Alice said she was figuring it out a little and she didn’t need to add as much mana to it as she had to last time. And here I am at the level where I couldn’t do it without Laura.
Well, I suppose Alice has been practicing for years and I’ve been doing it for a week. I can’t learn everything immediately. And I already have the cheat code called system support.
We kept the practice going until we had afternoon tea.
i swear alice is turning into quite the whiney little shit.
Agreed. I've grown tired of her already
@nro_8 Link to discord expired. Can you let me join? I am interested in your other works or just chatting with you when available.
Here you go.
https://discord.gg/KTwCCeBV
Be warned, there is some spoilery stuff there, so you want to avoid the spoiler, meme and art-stuff channels. It isn't anything that bad, but just so you know. (well, there are major spoilers as well, but nothing recent is that major. Just don't scroll too much back in the archives.
can better the plan
I think improve is more commonly used.
kind of something an adventurer’s do.
Doesn't flow right. "something an adventurer will do." or "us adventurer's do." Just not sure if adventurer's or adventurer's is correct.
... wow. That second sentence is a mess. Wonder what I was smoking when I wrote that? Well, I attempted to salvage it.
Meatbun Delivery~
Thank you for the chapter ( ●w●)
Eeeeeh? I thought you would repurpose "time seal" effect and seal the bodies so it doesnt go beyond the 24hour mark..
Yeah, I probably should have though of it at the time, but sometimes I just F up.
But I can also say, it wouldn't have worked. (Well it might have if Brian had enough copies of Time Seal, but I don't remember how many he had at that time. And he would still only have been able to save 1 more person.)
Time Seal (when activated normally) would keep the body it targeted from "aging" for 2 hours, so that would be 2 more hours per copy. But we didn't see them die, so the clock was already ticking and 1 copy might not have been enough.
For installing, installing cards will fail or break the thing it is installed into, if the thing it was installed into is not sturdy enough. This would make installing Time Seal into a dead person impossible as the dead body would just crumple under the power of the installed card, so Brian couldn't have done that either.
I'm not saying using Time Seal couldn't have worked. But I do have my excuses for why it didn't happen, even if the actual reason is I'm not all knowing and I don't remember all the cards Brian has.
@nro_8 oh you went with 2 hours on a single target. I guess making Zay or MC choose another one to revive will make it have more darker connotation on the characters and possibly make a rival/villain backstory..
Ps: yes MC has 1 time seal at the time, my original theory was mc could put the corpse in a magic bag then time seal the bag, maybe use something like a space/magic stabilizing box like he did with the magic flask
@GonZ555 The cards generally have a 2 hour limit when used normally, and as Time Seal only affects your opponent, it being single target just makes sense to me.
I do think Rico could have become a decent antagonist if he got super angry at Zay after he learned that Zay prioritized someone from a different team over him, but that's not going to happen at this point. But that would likely make Rico mad at Zay, not Brian.
But then again, Brian would likely take the side of Zay, so enemy of my friend is my enemy? That would also give us an antagonist with Card Summoner.
@nro_8 for the antagonist, it could still happen for the family of the dead after finding out that Brian could've revived their cherished person(i'm looking at rico's dad). Or if someone that already has a grudge like kevin tries to incite the family of the dead.
@GonZ555 Oh, Kevin will return. That's a promise. I love Kevin and his pride, but he just is weak so he needs some time to connect with powerful people so he can actually threaten Brian.
I don't think Mario would actually do anything to Brian or Zay even if he found out. Mario used to be an adventurer. He knows adventuring is dangerous and death is always a possibility. He quit being an adventurer to take better care of Rico after all. Not that being a town guard is completely safe, but it's safer.
@nro_8 i'm not rooting for mario being a villain/anti-hero, but depending how the story goes, it is still possible.