30 Chapter 6 9 : Preparations (1/2)
Chapter 6 (9): Preparations
”Okay, now that the hard parts are done with... I'll have to set your race to be hidden if you don't want it shown, which we do in some rare cases, though not as rare as this... Name is Verene... planned role in a party?” (GM)
”Whatever is needed. Vanguard, I guess. Ryuu's party has two rearguards, one vanguard, and one midguard, so we could use another” (Ver)
”What weapon would you be using?” (GM)
She shifted just her arms and hands into human-sized wyvern forelegs and claws, and smiled.
”I usually fight with only my body and no external weapons. I also can use magic while fighting in close range, so that works out just fine” (Ver)
”I guess that works... Well, the last thing is your age” (GM)
”Uh... first, I'd like you to guess how old I am, just for fun” (Ver)
”Based on your appearance, I'd say about fifteen, but the way you act makes me think more like ten... however, wyverns mature slowly, so maybe more like fifty, however, as Ryuu raised you, that means you are younger than her, probably several years younger than she is, so I'll go with my estimate of ten years old” (GM)
”I'm about eight or so-” (Ver)
”Well, I was close” (GM)
”Not at all. I'm eight weeks old, give or take a few days” (Ver)
”I think... we need to set your age to hidden as well as your race... and, you know what, let's just set it such that you can hide any information you wish to hide other than your name. By the way... can you hide your collar, or will you be covering that up all the time?” (GM)
Ver just made her collar vanish as she replied to the other parts of what he said, and then her card, with that feature, was made personally by the guildmaster, as the rest of us had ours made based off of our student ID cards.
”Well, here you all go. You are now officially B rank adventurers, however, I still would like you to take care of that earth dragon to show me your skill” (GM)
”Sorry, but we are still students, so we can't accept that quest without approval form the headmistress” (Ryuu)
”Oh, right... I forgot about that. Well, I'll be seeing you soon, I'll bet. You five are, honestly, probably going to become the talk of the town within a week, by bringing down an oni or something like that unscathed” (GM)
”We'll see, but... eh, who knows, honestly” (Ryuu)
”An oni wouldn't be as surprising to have show up near Ryuu as anyone else... anyone who knows her well knows the general idea of 'if Ryuu gets involved in something, expect the unexpected' or something” (Mae)
”Any bets... on when... we'll encounter... an ancient dragon?” (Elise)
”Two months” (Char)
”Three weeks” (Mae)
”I would love to eat some dragon steaks... so I hope it's next week or so” (Ver)
”Who knows, we might have another SS ranked magical beast join us instead of getting some steaks” (Ryuu)
The guildmaster looked flabbergasted, then he spoke in a tiny voice with his face resting on his palms.
”You girls... are treating an encounter... with an ancient dragon... like some kind of amusement... or a lucky find in the market... betting on when it'll happen... and so, I'm betting on 'hopefully never' so as to stay sane” (GM)
Everyone looked at me, then started laughing.
”I guess that we really have had our mindsets change after meeting Ryuu. Back when I first wanted to be an adventurer, I thought that I wouldn't be able to take down anything stronger than a pack of terror wolves for a long time, unless I had a party which was much stronger than me doing most of the work. Now, I've been trained by someone much stronger than me, and I've improved such that I could probably solo a lesser earth dragon. Any of us probably could, I think... It might also have something to do with sleeping with Ryuu, which means constantly being exposed to her full aura... and, over time, absorbing it. It seems to have all kinds of effects, like increasing our mana, speed, strength, reaction times, and more. Seriously, when I joined the school, my mana value was 132. Now, it's 544. Char's was, what, 1600? It's now almost 5000, right?” (Mae)