Kaldareth's pov
We lost our scholar recently, he had suddenly become a lost and we had to put him down ourselves. That incident broke us, he was like family, but we are explorers, we must heal and move on.
The guildmaster contacted me a week ago about filling the vacant position in my party and that he might have someone that reaches the party's standard.
I complained that it was too soon to replace our old teammate and that we needed more time before going back abyss zones but I was told that a fellow first tier explorers party was almost annihilated in their recent exploration and we were needed immediately no excuse.
The day the scholar was supposed to show up, he never did, he came today and his sponsor was trying to cover for him unsurprisingly the old man wasn't having it and was about to squash that little fucker before he suddenly apologized in a bow which was unheard of, scholars never apologize nor bow. Never. Most of them are extremely arrogant and selfish, but our dead teammate was different he was kind and comedic.
His actions shocked everyone in the room as Shadeva whispered to my ear "that's new", she must have thought he was similar to our dead comrade.
We were told to introduce ourselves in which I went first. I said my name, my rank and my party's name in a fiercely cold expression trying to let the scholar know that his presence wasn't accepted. Morvain followed suit introducing himself nonchalantly as always. Shadeva followed after introducing herself in an outgoing tone, I don't blame her she's always been like that. Obsidra introduced herself and the name of her household before continuing to toy with her sword totally ignoring the situation. Nyxara introduced herself quick and sounded rude, "that's better" I thought to myself, he should be getting the signals.
I knew he got what we signalled after he tried giving a smile but fail. He looked like a mediocre practice dummy but with a fine face in that moment.
The guildmaster introduced himself last and began his real interview, where I hoped he would fail.
His trial was to name most of the abominations in the basement with their weaknesses and their territories. I knew he would fail after all even I myself haven't seen most of those abominations more or less knowing their weaknesses and territories.
He began walking around like he was actually going to do something before he suddenly paused "he must have realised that he was going to fail" I thought with a small smirk slowly creeping on my face. But he continued and later began naming the abominations and listing their weaknesses, "HOOOOWWWW!!!!" I yelled in my mind barely keeping my emotionless face.
I rubbed my beard with my left hand back fingers trying to gain composure, Shadeva looked at me knowing I only do this when I almost lose my cool, she sighed and focused on the guildmaster who was now speaking.
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Jin's pov
We were led back upstairs and was told to go to the preparation quarters immediately. The old man went his separate way and brother Chaoxiang followed him, they were going back to the office I presume.
The preparation quarters was just a locker room but there is a weird part. it wasn't divided by gender, it was just one long hall filled with magical looking lockers.
Instinctively avoiding the weird situation I went down the hall and picked a random locker. The formal attire for high tier explorers were black skin tight turtle neck with a long arm, a black trouser that was a bit baggy in the thigh area but almost skin tight from the knee down with a large black leather jacket with some black boots.
It took me a while to find my perfect size but i eventually did.
Now outside in the guild's massive compound which contained several other mediaeval builds by the way, like a weapon store, a restaurant, a stable and more, the place even got an Inn too. I won't lie I felt dumb for not coming here straight up now.
Standing with the crew, a long carriage waited for us as the old man and brother Chaoxiang stood at it's entrance.
"Jin here are your materials" the old man stretched out a cross bag, "thank you" I replied smiling my best as I took the bag, it contained four books, a writing material and an incomplete map.
The old man waited for me go through the bag before he spoke. "You have two jobs as a scholar, number one, you see that map?, you are meant to continue from where it stopped, drawing in the unchanted areas of abyss zones. Secondly, two of the books in that bag are plain, which is meant for you describe the area's properties and the usual stuff. The other two has some records of abominations, their weaknesses, their territories and even some ancient beasts if you are unlucky"
The old man spoke casually as he now focused on main party, "this isn't your first rodeo, so I don't need to give you any petty pep talk but good luck out there fellas" the old man said but this time his voice sounded worried but his face instead showed that he was confident in them.
We entered the carriage accordingly and when it was my turn brother Chaoxiang interrupted me and gave me a tight hug, which I instinctively reciprocated, "be careful out there brother" he said his voice filled with concern and barely above a whisper , "I will" I replied slowly releasing myself from his tight hug.
I entered the carriage and our journey to the abyss border began.
Kaldareth was sitting opposite Shadeva, Morvain was sitting beside him and opposite Obsidra, who was now scanning her katana, standing it on carriage floor and rotating it slowly. Nyxara was opposite me and beside Morvain.
She sometimes gave me spiteful looks during the journey, but I paid no attention mainly because she seemed like a child, a sixteen years old girl or seventeen at best.
During the journey Shadeva often started small talks sometimes with kaldareth, Obsidra, Morvain and even me, asking me some common questions like where I lived before, how I knew brother Chaoxiang, if we were close, which I replied.
We were almost there after a seven hours ride and the carriage was now mostly silent, one was at sleep, one was struggling to stay wake, Nyxara still looking at me spitefully, "hmm sure as a lot energy" I complimented her in my mind.
Obsidra had fallen asleep on my shoulder and Shadeva was humming a song with the coachman and I got to say the song seems quite nice.
"We've arrived" the Coachman said suddenly taking an abrupt stop. Shadeva woke Morvain and kaldareth and then Obsidra, Morvain looked upset even through his assassin's mask, when he saw Obsidra had slept on my shoulder. I noticed his looks and understood what was going on, "I seeeee" I said to myself below even a whisper while slowly nodding my head with a very small side smirk on my face.
We came down from the carriage and the crew immediately took out their weapons they had staked in the carriage before.
Kaldareth took out his large dual sword, Shadeva brought out a whip sword, "urhhhhh I think it's called an urumi" I corrected myself in my mind. Morvain brought out his Katana same with Obsidra and Nyxara, a wrapped doll?. "Like who the fuck uses dolls as a weapon" I muttered to myself, my face occupied by confusion.
The border was truly magnificent. The border was like a magical wall with runings carvings on the floor that had a slight glow but a bit brighter than the one in the basement and in book town. It was as high as my eyes could see and was about 36 inches wide.
Passing through the border was something I already experienced in book town, but this felt stronger.
Now in the abyss Zone, I think. This place wasn't as misty as in book town or had totally dead trees but it's eerie wind made my skin crawl.
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We've been walking forever maybe 600 miles at least. My brain was exhausted but my body surprisingly isn't.
We encountered some lost but they were quickly taken care of by kaldareth who was walking in front, leading us like he knows where his going. The crew would often start conversations within themselves along the way and Shadeva would often try to chip me into their discussions which I wasn't interested it, the humming of the coachman was stuck in my head slowly making me hum the song as well.
There were places that show signs of battle, sword marks on the dark and tough earth, the faint stench of blood, broken weapons and some other shit.
After walk for some time we finally reached our official exploration start point. This place was dark, the bright moon's light was being absorbed for some unknown reason but instead of me going blind from the darkness I could see in the dark,"Inbuilt shadow ability" I concluded seeing as how others had no issue with moving forward.
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Letting Jin's knowledge take the lead, I started with the map, continuing from where it stopped, drawing in our path and some note worth things.
A sudden loud noise stopped us in our tracks, countless dark and faceless silhouette, lost, were just ahead of us, and immediately they sensed us, they came rushing in like mindless zombies.
"Fall into formation!!!" kaldareth yelled, his voice sounding like a knight about to wage war. Immediately the crew formed an arrow like formation with kaldareth as the tip and me at their backs.
The battle began and my sights were on Nyxara, I wanted to know how she used a doll to fight. She unwrapped the weird looking doll and channeled some energy which I recall to be karma into it and it could now mirror her movement.
Kaldareth cleaved a lost in half from it's chest, where it's core resided with minimum effort, he had a muscular build, so it's only fair he was strong. The rest weren't weak either, Shadeva was also cutting down multiple losts like using hot knife to cut butter, Morvain's attacks were swift and precise cutting them down like a ninja, Obsidra extended her sword's length with her trait, making it's length rival that of the Great ōdachi, using it to slice through the losts, cutting down multiple at once. Nyxara seemed like a brawler as she and our doll would punch losts so hard they would make holes in them.
Even though the crew were strong the losts were just as relentless.They came wave after wave and soon enough the crew became tired.
Too tired to keep up the formation. It broke and several lost were now speeding towards me, seeing this I brought out Dark Fang from my bag and waited for them to reach me.
The first one came running with it's two hands out to grab me but I gave It a sidelean, pulled it's right hand in closer and stabbed it multiple times in the chest, killing it.
The second reached me seconds after the first's death, it clawed at me furiously but I evaded with a few slidelean, caught it's right hand with my left, pulled it in closer and stabbed it in the throat.
Remembering it won't die on till you destroy it's core I instantaneously removed the dagger from its throat, spinned it for a better angle and stabbed it's chest, and then dragging it to it's core which made a quite a bloody mess.