Chapter 11 – Monster Manual : Opening
“
This note goes to GHOU FE LING, one of the Deluxe empire’s wall guardian. You are informed that you will have to temporarily go into a forest hunt after seven dawn, and then proceed the capture the four main predator of the empire’s border.
Your presence is required in the Palace tomorrow. This information is very urgent and must not be ignored.
EMPRESS. KIARA MIHOU LING
„
Ghou growled at the note instantly flinging it to an unknown direction “Stressing us around all in the name of royalty, as if she remembers when last she got Mana exhausted.”
Ghou laid back on the sofa, already tired of how stressful the day had been. Since sleeping was the only thing he could do, he curled himself to the size of the chair before petting himself to sleep.
****
The next day arrived early with Ghou already dressed up in his uniform and ready to head into the Palace.
The previous day was a whole headache for Ghou but he had already began to miss the activities as he spent half of his life sleeping or guarding the empire’s wall. But the previous day was entirely different and more fun. So he actually had the interest to embark into journeys to avoid the boredom of the day.
“Ahh. Such a new day.” Ghou muttered, standing in front of his bedroom mirror while swinging his large sword effortlessly beside his waist. After some minutes, he immediately walked out of the bedroom into the parlor that look so unpleasant due to the damaged chair and feather clothes
“Right about time to change these furniture.” He muttered with a simple stare at the room before running out of the house, vastly making his way to the Palace.
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“Ahh, welcome Ghou, always earlier than the other.” Ghou was pleased to hearing the warm welcoming from Kiara who sat majestically on a throne which was completely adorned with the touch of raw gold and diamonds
“Thank you.” Ghou answered with a bow before standing upright “This is actually my first time in the Palace’s throne room.”
Ghou stared around in agape to the ceiling which pointed high into the roof with hanging chandeliers and adornment. Moreover, there were various armor stand that embodied fine complete set of body armor and purple chairs that were arranged vertical in a single section to both edges of the room, probably the visitors seat
“Well, it’s actually nothing to admire. Oh, and most of all, I’ll want you to have this.” Kiara vastly stood up from her seat pointing an old looking book towards him
“Oh.” Ghou stammered in sight of the book which seemed very old and fragile “What… what’s this.”
“A book, I found it in the Palace treasury and it has your name on it.”
Hearing the last words of Kiara, Ghou ran to her, snatching the book from her grasp
“Wow, I know this sign.” Ghou pointed to a small logo which was drawn underneath his engraved name. It was a dragon head symbol which was a representation of the only ability his father, Fe Chan Ji, possessed which was the flame dragon
“Well, so go ahead and open…” A sudden interruption was bestowed into the room with the entrance Cheng and Silas
“Morning, her royal empress.” Cheng greeted with a bow, alongside with Silas who kept his mouth shut.
Meanwhile Ghou boiled from underneath why the two had arrived at this given time. Succumbing to his current situation, he dropped all curiosity about the book and dropped it on one of the empty seat.
“So, you’re all welcome.” Kiara greeted the three men who directed themselves to a seat “So, I guess we’ll just have to wait for Ying.”
Kiara’s low heel shoes tapped on the tiled floor as she vividly looked impatient
“Or you know, lets start anyways.” Kiara heaved a sigh as she threw glances at Ghou and the others
“As, you’d seen in the letter I sent, seven days time is going to be a big day.” Saying her words, Ying instantly bumped into the hall with a blank face
“Good morning, your majesty.” She greeted with a brief bow before moving to an empty seat
“As I was saying, uhm, the four of you will be going for a forest hunt in a a mission to capture four main villain of the empire’s border.” Kiara kept on explain a whole lots of words for some couples of minutes before she finally came to a conclusion
“..Our main worry is the Aboleth, Pirate, The trogen, and animated mage.” Kiara explained pulling a lever from the wall that went ahead to pull down three neat banners which had the perfect illustrations of the beasts, all except the pirate
“Where is the Pirate’s illustration.” Cheng asked sarcastically with his gaze still fixated on the banners
“Uhm, well the Pirate had been known for not having a true form and would just walking in the skin of other creatures. But I’d like you all to know that the Pirate do not only change it skin but also copy the skills and ability of the copied creature. But thankfully, you guys could easily recognize it in response to it unusual bright colored skin.”
“Do you mean that our only means of identifying this creature is by its bright colored skin.”
“I’d just said that.” Kiara shuttered with a nervous smile “But either ways, I discovered that some of the Palace workers are illusionist, so I hired them to set up an imaginary forest where there will be different illusions of these four beasts.”
“And you expect us to fight those illusions.” Ying baldly interrupted with a forced smile
“Yea… Yeah, to at least master how challenging the hunt could be.”
“Then why are we capturing these monsters instead of just killing them.” Cheng scoffed as he paid close attention to the words of Kiara “You know, they could be really hard to capture especially when we’ll have three large cages and one medium sized one with us.”
Cheng added referring to the size of the beasts, especially the Aboleth whose length was over eighteen meters. He sat back to his chair, waiting for the reply of Kiara whose expression was vividly nervous
“The stage of capturing the creature could be very complicated as you just mentioned due to their monstrous sizes. So, I made a plan for the four of you to be given a sword called ‘The Quinn’. It’s actually a soul stealer type of sword which is currently under construction by my Royal Mage….”
“Wait, do you mean mages still exists.” Ghou’s voice was coated with shock as he tried composing his unorganized self.
A mage had been a rear category of humans to find for over forty years since they had the capability to control all the different forms of ability and even more which was popularly referred to as ‘Magic’.
“Yeah, he is the mastermind of the forest illusion, especially the Quinn sword.” Kiara smiled as she continued to shower praises at the man
“Okay, bravo to the royal mage, but when are we starting the routine.” Ying rudely interrupted Kiara who heaved a sigh of relief while roaming round the throne
“You could start now.”
Chapter 12 : Monster Manual : Aboleth“You could start now.” Kiara repeated her words with a bright smile that compelled the others to rise on their feet “We definitely can’t say no, so it’s is yes.” Cheng blundered with a sharp smile. Silas on the other hand turned to Cheng with a death glare as it wasn’t in his interest to join the hunt, but he was a sheep bent to oblige to all their words since he was too embarrassed of his voice to muster a word. After all, if things were to get out of hands, he had the simplest solution by abandoning the project “Okay, good. I think we’ll start with the Aboleth today and continue with the others tomorrow. And please note that your ability is no stranger to the illusion, so it’ll cause harm to the children meanwhile the creatures can’t hurt you.” Kiara briefly explained already making her way to the wide opened door of the room. ----“So it all going to begin here.” Kiara invited the group into a huge dark hall which held different small
Chapter 13 – Monster Manual : Trogen“Ghou, time for you to demonstrate what you’ve got.” Ghou stood alone in the room as he patiently waited for the transformation of the room“I’m waiting,” Ghou shouted out to the room as the transformation seemed to be taking longer than the others. After waiting for what seemed to be five minutes, the room glitched into the sunny forest before it immediately transformed into a dark room.“I think they are Mana exhausted, you know, it isn’t easy creating these realistic illusions.” Kiara interrupted the fading silence of the room as she watched the room glitch continuously. “Anyways, I think this will be all for now, tomorrow will be another day.”“I didn’t even fight the monster.” Ghou said with a frown still staring at the pillar-filled room“Well, it is not my fault. The others are already gone.”“What about the book, the one from my… deceased parents.” Ghou reminded Kiara who ran out of the hall, into the throne room where she picked the
Chapter 14 – Maybe A Drop Of Blood After some hours, the teams were finally done crazing with the Trogen that was a Challenge for Ying, and lot more easier for Silas who blood-bent the creature until death. The huge door of hall finally closed as the illusionists who were mana exhausted came with a conclusion to put a stop to the daily training with the illusions.“Wait…. But why, don’t I pay you enough.” Kiara cursed at the four men who stared quietly to the ground, without a response to her words “Don’t keep me quite.”“We’re sorry empress Mihou, but we are going to slump dead to the ground one day if we are to continue with the illusion.” One of the men bravely answered, staring face to face at Kiara whose face revealed pure anger “And…. And, we’re always mana exhausted after a single fight with one of them.” The man pointed out to Ghou and the other three who stood vogue behind Kiara with a blank face “Yet, we go beyond our limits, just for them.”“Well… But
Chapter 15 – The Grasping Thread(Readers should please use their imagination for the postures which are going to be mentioned below since they will be easy to understand. Your imaginations is not limited and please grammar mistakes are not absent in this book)“Whoa, this must be fancy.” Ghou jaggedly scrolled through the book until he eventually landed on the required page. The book gave Ghou a stun as it revealed pictures of what the ability was going to be, when in effect.“So, first step will be to…” Ghou interrupted his statement with a frown, seeing that meditation was the first step to cross through, followed by a variety of different postures which were drawn on the book, and finally the thirteen sub-headings which taught in detail on how to make the ability effective. Ghou, being an impatient individual skipped the beginning process, going straight to the point of the book.“Okay.” Ghou who already stood on the ground glanced at the first step wh
Chapter 16 – Military SchoolNow all he could do was to sit on the sofa and wait until he felt sleepy, or rather force himself asleep. The morning approached early with Ghou already set up to go into the training center. The book was going to stay at home since it was very risky to be handling such type of book in the streets in risk to theft. Opening the book to the Fire Wall page, he began to mumble some words as he tried to memorize the instructions. After some seconds, he closed the book and ran to the door which he opened in a hurry, finally switching his location to the outside of the house. Twining the local bronze key to the door, it made a low bang which signified it was locked before leaving for the training ground. Ghou finally reached the training center, where he hurried to the Fire section that was already present of few other elemental that practiced their various skill individually.“Hahh, Fire Wall, here I come.” He muttered walking into th
Chapter 17 – Border Of Beasts And Monsters The day of the forest hunt came with Ghou already dressed up in his uniform and the Fire-equipped gauntlet fixed neatly into his left palm. There was also a scabbard that was tied on his waist that tightly coated the silver-rapier.With a sigh he walked out of the room, into the parlor where Xia sat responsibly on a sofa while reading a small book.“I’ll be leaving now.” A words from Ghou startled Xia who jumped from the chair with a face filled with nervousness“But… But why can’t I go with you.” She stammered, already expecting the worse reply. Xia had just arrived a day before as Pengfei made his way into the Featherstone Kingdom to fulfill his ambition of being in the military. Ghou now stared at Xia with concern as he tried in desperation to find another phrase that still meant ‘No’ instead of him just saying it straightforward “Emm… I’m not sure Xia, but don’t worry, you’ll find thirty silver coins in my room, just on the bed
Chapter 18 – The Lying Pirate“Ahh, phew.” Ying exclaimed as sweat dripped from all parts of her body. But just then she stared around the surrounding in search of Ghou who had suddenly disappeared from the area“Guys, where is Ghou.”*** Ghou whose eyes suddenly flung open met a cloud of darkness, followed by a source of glittery light.“Ahh. Where am I.” Ghou who still laid down on the seemingly wet ground muttered as he stood up, trying to place his memory that seemed blur.“Ghou Fe Ling, am I right.” A loud voice pushed him into reality as his eyes fell into a tall red dragon. With a shriek of fear, Ghou once again fell to the ground, already shivering in sight of the monster that slowly advanced towards him. He immediately began to muttered words of denial as he disagreed with his eyes on what it had saw. No! The existence of dragons in this world was too impossible as they were ancient or rather, legendary creatures that would never fall into t
Chapter 19 – Sleeping Mia Ling The sunset easily came by and Cheng alongside the others arrived at the castle that was now flooding with guards as it was the suspicious time of the hour. Kiara immediately ran to the guards who stood in front of the entrance as soon as she was informed about it.“Why the sudden return.” She asked vividly stunned as they were all looking untouched, apart from few injuries.“For a whole lots of reasons.” Ying was the first to step out of the crew as she exposed the girl’s body to Kiara who looked utterly speechless“And Ghou is missing.” Cheng added into Ying’s words relaxing his palm unto his thighs as he was already getting exhausted. “Oh… Ghou is actually in the guest room, but this...”“Wait… What?, so we were abandoned.” Ying shouted, interrupting Kiara’s words like she’d lost a nut, her eyes revealed true anger as her urge to walk to wherever he was and land a slap on his cheeks continuously rose “We thought he was lost in the