Genesis Sync

“How in the great tree did you become a Druid?” Alea asked as a holographic image of her floated above the girl's table in the restaurant. The appearance of the elf princess in the restaurant attracted even more attention, and while Shizu only smiled, James Marks wished Sarah and Mel hadn’t refused his offer to join them.

“A major set of coincidences, including help from a new friend and a trip to the underworld,” Mel said smugly.

“The underworld!” Adria repeated in shock before saying. “Tell me everything.

Mel nodded and once again explained her adventure with John, only for Alea to gasp and say, “Incredible.”

Sarah smiled before asking, “I’m sure you can guess why I so quickly contacted you from the restaurant we’re in.”

“My quest?” Alea replied, to which Sarah nodded while saying, “Exactly. Mel has the passive ability to communicate with animals; this means she can assist you on your quest and you don’t have to worry about that bastard buying her off.”

“As if he could even afford to,” Mel scoffed before shaking her head and saying. “I’d love to help you with this, Alea, but I have no way to reach Thamethalas. Once I hand in my quest to the village mayor, I’ll be sent to Waning City.”

“Damn,” Sarah cursed. “I didn’t think of that.”

“How didn’t you think of that?” Mel asked in an exasperated tone. “You’ve literally just completed the starter village for a second time.”

“Fuck, if I knew this would happen, I would have waited on my rebirth so that I could teleport you to Thamethalas; unfortunately, sorcerers don’t get teleportation or portal spells till higher levels,” Sarah said apologetically.

“It’s fine, you had no way to know this would happen,” Alea said reassuringly and was about to continue when Mel suddenly said in excitement. “That’s it, I just have to teleport to Thamethalas.”

Sarah frowned in response before asking, “What did I just say about not being able to learn teleport spells yet?”

“Not you,” Mel replied while waving at her, “John.”

“John?” Sarah asked in confusion, while Alea asked, “As in John Michaels from the racial punishment announcement?”

“Yeah,” Mel nodded. “Lord Ursa gave him a spell called Astral Recall and even granted him the teleport locations for a capital city on each continent. Thamethalas is one of them.”

“Seriously?” Sarah asked in disbelief before adding with a frown. “How wasn’t this part of the story?”

“Err,” Mel said while chuckling in an embarrassed way. “I got so excited about telling my part about becoming a druid that I forgot to mention the rewards John received.”

“Rewards? As in plural?” Alea asked.

“Yeah, he also received Ursa Minor’s Blessing.” Mel nodded.

“You're kidding?” Alea asked in shock. “Only a handful of druids have ever received Ursa Minor’s Blessing, and they interact with Lord Ursa almost daily.”

“What does it do?” Sarah asked with interest.

“It grants the spell Guidance as well as two passive skills in Unyielding Focus and Solitary Hope,” Alea answered as she went on to explain their individual functions.

“Well, Lord Ursa is a god,” Mel said proudly while puffing out her chest again, causing many of the men present to receive kicks under the table as they stared.

“You're sticking them out again,” Sarah stated while indicating their fellow patrons. “Seriously, I worry for your future boyfriend. I hope he can handle all the stares you're going to receive.”

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“He better, after all, I get tens of thousands of people staring at me whenever I perform,” Mel chuckled.

“I’d worry about your own love life before hers,” Alea teased, causing Sarah to pout.

****

“Servant of the underworld?” John repeated while frowning.

“Yup,” The old man chuckled. “The fact that you possess that badge and even received a quest from the seven kings means that you're a servant of the underworld, kid.”

[Title Received:]

[Servant of the Underworld: As a servant of the underworld, you gain immunity to poison, chill and fear effects; while darkness and death damage is 50% less effective, and light and life damage is 50% more effective.]

“Great, a weakness to light magic, thanks for that,” John said sarcastically after reading the notification.

“Don’t blame me; I’m not the one who transported you to the underworld,” The old man retorted, causing John to think, {No, you're just the one who essentially caused me to get the title. Well, I guess the reductions in darkness magic and the immunity to poison, chill and fear are worth the trade-off.}

“So what did you mean by helping each other out?” John asked.

“It’s pretty simple, really, “The old man began before asking. “I’m assuming that once you locate Elrinira, you’ll return to the underworld?”

“I believe so.” John nodded, causing the old man to say, “Then I want you to deliver a report there on my behalf.”

John frowned before asking, “Why can’t you deliver it yourself?”

“What part of the underworld being sealed off didn’t you understand?” The old man asked in annoyance. “Why else do you think I find it so incredible that you managed to go there and even return?”

“Ok, ok,” John conceded before asking, “So what's this report?”

The old man, however, shook his head before saying, “Sorry, kid, that’s classified. Perhaps you'll learn more about it if you become a Sheolarbiter, but for now all you have to do is deliver the report.”

“All right,” John nodded before asking, “What’s in it for me?”

“Two things,” The old man said with a scheming smile. “First off, I’ll give you some information on Elrinira.”

“So you do know something,” John said accusingly while glaring.

“Naturally,” The old man replied. “But nothing's free in this world, kid, and that rings doubly true for those related to the underworld.”

John continued to glare at the old man while asking, “And the other thing?”

“This one I think you'll like,” The old man said with a wink as he ignored the glare. “If you're looking for Elrinira, and even the other kings can’t locate her, then it probably means she's in a situation you can’t handle. Because of this, I’m willing to help you unlock your mantle's first skill.”

“It already has a skill,” John retorted, causing the old man to raise an eyebrow before he once again focused on the unknown mantle. “Heh, so it has; it must like you to reward a skill so early on.

Listen up, kid, I’m only going to explain this once. Your mantle contains a spirit or consciousness, and as such, these items have been coined the name Living Gear. Living gear grows with its owner and evolves as you complete the tasks set by them. This evolution doesn’t just include better stats but also gaining new skills and sometimes improving old ones.

As your mantle goes up in rank, it will gain new skills or abilities that you don't normally find on other armour, such as with your 'Veil ' skill. These skills and abilities are normally connected to the class of the owner, and they also seem to have an almost intuitive ability to know what you need most at the time of the rank-up.

Because of this, I believe that by forcing the awakening of your next skill early, it will give you something to help balance out whatever you're about to face.”

John frowned and looked at the old man doubtfully while saying, “It sounds like a lot of guesswork to me, old man.”

The old man shrugged before saying, “Because it is. At the end of the day, there is no way to know what skill a living gear will unlock upon upgrade, but then again, what do you have to lose?”

{He has a point; by accepting, I get the information I need and also a new skill. Even if I ultimately fail to find Elrinira, I’ll likely be taken back to the underworld from what it sounds like, and I can just hand over the information and complete the quest then. Still, forcing something to happen doesn’t normally come without drawbacks.}

“What's the drawback?” John asked, causing the old man to smile and say, “Ohh, we have a smart one. Again, I’m not certain what the side effects will be from forcing the skills' early creation, but at a guess it will probably be something like double the cooldown of the skill before it can be used again.”

[Quest Notification]

[Deliver the report. (Rare)]

[The old man at the clothing shop in Waning City has asked you to deliver a report to the underworld on his behalf.]

[Quest Goals:]

[Deliver the report to the underworld.]

[Quest Rewards upon acceptance:}

[Information on Elrinira, Queen of all succubi and one of the Kings of the Underworld.]

[Forceful awakening of Phanta’s (Unknown Mantle) next skill. (WARNING: Forceful awakening is ill-advised as it can lead to unexpected changes in the skill.]

[Quest Failure punishment:]

[None, I mean you're heading to the underworld regardless.]

[Do you accept?]

[Yes] [No]

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