After returning from their quick visit to the Cloud Forest, Kaizen, Ravastine and Jayaa never stopped going out of the Royal City to evolve together as a team.
Visits to hunting grounds became normal, but obviously the princess was always wearing a cloak, and they used to frequent places that very few players went.
Gradually, they evolved in their coordination, learned combinations, and the leader of the trio, Kaizen, remembered the feeling of leadership. It had been many years since he had last felt it.
When he was not busy leveling up with his provisional companions, Kaizen was at his forge. As he took a break from his rampant exploration of the world and quests, he had enough time to forge whatever he wanted.
In a small amount of time, he crafted several different types of weapons, armor and arrows. Both for personal use and for the store he was setting up. It was crucial that his stock was full in order to meet a high demand from customers when he made the opening. He did not want to lose money because he had not prepared himself enough to the point of not having a good stock.
Also, Kaizen did not intend to buy items from other stores or places to resell in his store, because his business would soon be recognized for having unique items, or so he intended. He was prioritizing quality over quantity of items forged, and if not for that fact, he would have made over a hundred different weapons in a week.
'If I make items that no one has ever seen like it, I can charge whatever price I want for being in my store! Puahahahahat!' Kaizen thought, mischievously, as he hammered more gold into the anvil.
Psyker had not yet finished reading Wen Chiu's blacksmithing book, so he often needed to go to the Library of the Magi as well.
Librarian Alina always seemed very happy when she saw him and charged him to receive his promised gift. In response, Kaizen would always ask her to wait a little longer.
While Kaizen was reading this book or looking for diagrams in the library, Alina would accompany him and ask him about his powers as a Psyker, which gave him the opportunity to ask about her as well. Apparently, Alina believed that her destiny and the burden she would have until the end of her life days was to live in that library, caring for and preserving the knowledge there.
Since Kaizen was inside a game, at first she thought it was normal that Alina had to stay in the same place forever, as was customary for NPCs. However, sometimes she would look at the walls full of books and sigh. This reminded Kaizen that in Rise Online almost everything was changeable and rules could be broken.
The proof of this was that an entire region could be transformed just with the consequences of a side mission, like when Kaizen entered the Ironstones' Village and this released the hundreds or even thousands of Scorpion-spiders that were still in eggs. A few days later, when he returned to the Misty Woods, the place was infested with these monsters.
Anyway, this was not Kaizen's problem, at least not yet, so he was not interested in changing it.
Over the course of the days, Kaizen made armor not only for himself, but also for his companions. If they wanted to be protected against players like Taznaar, they needed the best items within their reach.
It was not easy to think of what would be good armor for a bard, not even for the princess, because she had the best at her disposal. That being the case, Kaizen decided to start making a sword for Ravastine. Although her sword was very good, he believed he could make a better one.
To be able to make such a sword, he wanted to use a diagram of a sword he had purchased, which would require some rare items.
Obviously, Kaizen would not spend a bronze coin out of his own pocket to make armor for free for someone else, so he proposed that Ravastine get the materials he would need and as a reward he would make the sword for her. The very next day, Petril had a wagon delivered with everything the Psyker requested.
As promised, Kaizen made the deadliest sword a swordswoman could have and now had plenty of materials to make anything she wanted for a few weeks.
*
During these days of preparation for the long-awaited confrontation, Klaus got little sleep. His days were immersed in Rise Online from morning until night.
What little time he had outside of the VRMMORPG was in the early morning, when he usually took his bath and ate.
Luckily or unluckily, Emma was off from her travels until early January. Consequently, the two of them saw a lot of each other during these more unusual times.
It was normal for Klaus to stop and chat with her for a while, as he felt he owed her a huge favor since he had moved in. After all, she was the owner of the apartment where he was living and she didn't kick him out even after finding out that he was Kaizen.
Klaus was sure that Emma would not kick him out even if he had failed to create a peaceful relationship with her before they both found out the truth. Why did he think that? From the way she acted and spoke. Emma seemed to be a rational woman. A rare kind of person. She didn't seem to act without thinking, didn't get nervous easily and didn't put her feelings ahead of her goals.
It was easy to figure this out when Klaus put himself in her shoes. If someone who stole a hunt from him appeared before him, before the person could smile, Klaus would beat that person to a pulp without a second thought, as Taznaar probably wanted to do to him as well.
Knowing this made Klaus start to respect Emma more and also the Bleeding Lily.
Little by little, the friendship between them blossomed during these early morning meetings and mismatches. This was the only time for both of them when there was no pressure. They just talked, often casually, and most of the time without even mentioning Rise Online. Emma would talk about her travel stories and life experience as a model, and Klaus would tell about his various odd jobs, which ranged from waiter in a Chinese restaurant to bricklayer on highway construction sites.
On one such night, Jayaa awoke to Emma and Klaus's laughter. He opened the door to his room quietly, and saw his sister and her best friend laughing together at a comedy program on television. His eyes narrowed with suspicion. However, since the two were far apart and on different couches, Jayaa concluded that nothing much was going on between them.
However, as the days of December passed, the winter became more severe, and the dawns colder, which forced Emma and Klaus closer together. When the first snowflake finally fell from the sky in New York, the day of the confrontation against Taznaar arrived.
Unlike America, the Royal City was a place where it rarely snowed. The harsh winter was a characteristic of the far north of Midgard.
The Arena was packed and it seemed that people from all sides of the Tretidian nation had gathered in the Royal City.
The announcement of a great fight of the mysterious masked man named Kaizen versus one of the greatest adventurers in the whole kingdom, Taznaar, spread to every corner, from the big cities to the smaller villages.
Some people said that Kaizen was doing this to prevent his great love, the crown princess of Tretidian, from marrying Taznaar, others said that Kaizen and Taznaar were old enemies, which was not wrong. But one fact was indisputable: everyone was eager to see this battle. For some the proof of this was that even the sun had appeared during the winter to watch this confrontation.
The heat of the euphoric and excited shouts of the thousands of people watching from the stands of the arena pulsed with every second, and when Kaizen entered the arena, an earthquake happened from so much excitement from the audience.
The Psyker was wearing huge dark blue armor that seemed to be made of dragon scales and carried nothing on his back. His face was covered by the Guardian's helmet, which was already practically a recognizable mark of his. However, Kaizen was not smiling.
Next to Kaizen appeared a young man who was waving with enormous happiness to everyone in the stands. Jayaa was wearing much lighter armor than Kaizen, because his strength attributes were not very high. This armor was lilac and filled with golden details, as requested by the bard, and on Jayaa's back was a round shield made of steel.
Finally, who appeared on the other side of the Psyker was Ravastine, who was wearing light black armor with ornate silver details, and on whose breastplate was a painted purple skull.
*
[Statistics Screen
Nickname: Kaizen | Class: Psych
Current Title: The descendant of the Ironstones; Talented; Master of Languages
Profession: Blacksmith Apprentice
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral | Fame: 490].
[Attributes
Level: 46
HP: 690 | Vitality: 71
Intelligence: 90 | Luck: 47
Attack: 92 | Agility: 83
Charisma: 39
Defense: 75 (+120)
Magic Resistance: 28 | MP: 355
PR: 120]
[Abilities:
<Telekinesis>
<Analyzing Eye>
<Sword Art>
<Deep Cut>
<Death Touch>
<Writer>
<Giant's Lungs>.]
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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