Kenpai - 剣輩

Chapter 5: Impending Darkness

The guildhall was a huge building, compared to the ones in Mantamachi. 

I dragged the huge pile behind me as I entered the guild, attracting attention with the hiss of the friction and my bloodstained otherworldly costume.

"Welcome to the Manta Guild! How may I help you?" The receptionist welcomed. 

"I want to get these out of my hands," I pulled the black cloth to reveal a big lizard with an imp on top, both dead as dead can be.

"Is that... a Hellbender Chief?" The man's eyes lighted up when he saw the lizard. "How long has it been dead for?"

"Uh... almost a month, I believe?" I answered.

"What? Don't tell me you were the one to kill it,"

"I was. The head was cut off with this sword," I pointed at the Moye sword. "My clothes are still stained with its blood, as you can see."

"This guy single-handedly defeated a Hellbender Chief?" People murmured in the background.

"Well, regardless of that," The man looked back at me, still convinced that I just found it somewhere. "It still has both its core and its venom sac. Both sell for a very good price."

"How about the body?" I asked.

"The meat is inedible to humans, but they can be processed and exported to the Grand Ashen Forest for the beastfolk. As for the scales," He paused to think for a moment. "They can be made into scalemail, which would be highly demanded for its flexibility and resistance."

"What does the core do?"

"Cores from different monsters do different things. The Hellbender core strengthens fire spirits," Responded the receptionist. "And since it's a chief, it might be able to help a starter spirit advance in level."

"Spirits have levels too. When it grows, it becomes more powerful and lasts for longer," Moye told me in my mind. "When it ranks up, the ability gets enhanced."

"Well," I pointed at the imp. "What about that?"

"My, I didn't even notice. That's a- you killed a Cerberus Keeper?!" He jumped up.

"That's what it's called?" I said and immediately regretted doing so. Great, now people will believe me even less.

"Yeah. I didn't recognize the blood on you when you came in, but you definitely are the one who killed it," He responded.

"What will that sell for?"

"You sure you want to sell this? You can show this to the Paladins' Sodality guild and get a badge of honour-"

"I'll just keep these as a trophy," I said as I cut off its horns. "What about its body?"

"No one in my knowledge will dare eat this," The receptionist answered, flabbergasted at my response. "Its teeth are imbued with the Curse of Hell, though, so these can be made into weapons."

"Just give me a number. I'll sell everything apart from these horns and the lizard's scales and venom sac."

"Uh... let's see. We could auction these and it would probably go for a higher price, but as a base price, it would probably total around... forty-five gold."

"That should be more than enough. You can have them-" I started, but was cut off by a red-haired, bulky man.

"Sorry, but can you sell the core to me? I'll pay double price," said the man.

"How much is that?" I turned to the receptionist.

"It was fifteen gold, so thirty."

"Sure, I suppose," I said as I handed the man the core.

"Thank you so much. I really needed that," bowed the man after giving me a bag of gold.

"So the rest would be another thirty," I then turned back to the receptionist.

"Yes. Here you go," He handed me another bag. "Do you want me to find someone to forge you the scale mail?"

"No, it's alright," I shook my head.

"Oh, also," He said as he went back to his desk and pulled up a ticket. "You might be interested in participating in the upcoming Sakura Festival."

"A festival?" I held my chin. "Sorry, I don't think I'll have the time."

"If you win, there's a huge prize, I heard." He put the ticket in my hand.

"A prize?" I murmured as I examined the ticket. "Why not."

On the ticket printed the location and time of the festival. I had three days to prepare.

After getting a room at a nice-looking tavern, I took out my father and my brother's swords.

"Moye, when can I talk to them?" I asked the sword spirit.

"You can after you fuse them with your spirit once."

"And is there any way to get them a new body?"

"After having a high enough rank, weapon spirits can realize their body," replied Moye. "But that'll take a while."

"But I can speed that up by getting cores, right?"

"That would be the logic, yes."

I put my eyes on my father's sword. It was a heavy, earthen broadsword. Somehow, it seemed like the sword is less foreign to this world as opposed to my old world.

My brother's sword was a Manganese rapier, decorated with a thorny vine and a flower for the guard.

"It's about time I told you about your duty," Moye suddenly started.

"Right," I took a deep breath. "So, what about it?"

"As you probably don't know, this world has an impending Dark Period. This is caused as a mixture of the misbalance in the world due to the absence of a god, as well as the periodic invasion of creatures from the Crimson World."

"Hell, you mean?"

"No, the hell we've been to is still part of this world. The Crimson World is a separate realm, similar to the one you came from."

Moye gave a slight sigh, and continued.

"This world is very complex. There are mainly three sides: The Good, the Depraved, and the Beasts. The Good is made up of people opposite the Depraved. They aren't all good, though; people still have greed and degeneracy."

"The Depraved consists of people whose only creed is to kill, and the Beasts are simply animals who act mostly on instincts."

"Every century has a god who oversees the balance of the world, and, when the invasion comes, sacrifices themselves to seal off the passage through which the Crimson World would come."