Chapter 31 - The second dice face

“They really take their time.”

The crafter was more anxious than Roberion, it seemed.

They were waiting thirty minutes since the crafter called the seniors. Roberion’s time was short. He still needed to learn what he could about combat and meet the other visitor.

“We heard you, your pest.”

Before Roberion could make sense of where the voice had come from, a splash was heard as a ball of water hit the crafter’s head.

“Not saltwater again!”, the crafter shakes its head, trying to shake the water out. “I’m not a kid anymore, and neither I’m one of the meatheads you train, you crazy old couple! Talking about it, what are you two doing here? I called only the senior crafters.”

“Oh Raijin, stop hurting the kids. You could damage something. We are in the crafters quarters.”

“Fujin my dear, they aren’t kids anymore, but it seems they kept acting like one. Cursing us is one thing. Lowering their guard is the problem. We waste the few years we have training them, and this is the result, being cursed and show how useless is our work.”

“It’s not useless.”, Fujin looks at the crafter, “Hello Tara. we will be the trainers of the Shining Crown here”, the light green fiznault pointed its staff to Roberion. Raijin, the other light green fiznault, clicked in affirmation.

This exchange gave him answers he didn’t ask for. Like: they are really calling him Shining Crown; the crafters name is Tara; and that he really can’t tell who is male and who is female. They look the same.

About the incident, the saltwater bubble seemed to be a spell. He didn’t see how such a spell like that would be useful, though. He was really only interest in the fireball or something else, like creating bullets in the air.

“His name is Roberion. Where are the other seniors?”, Tara said.

“They aren’t needed. Upgrading a weapon to VIII tier is a piece of cake to us, that old bags would take at least 2 hours to do the whole process.”, Fujin said with pride.

“You two don’t have the right to call them old. You were already old when they were in their diapers. For gods sake, I doubt anyone here saw you guys any younger.” Tara said with indignation.

“Let’s stop this. We have to pay attention to Shining Crown here. Let’s finish upgrading his weapon and do the kid’s training”, Raijin said that getting near to Roberion, extending its hand. “Fujin, come here and throw the materials in the floor, lets finish this fast.”

“No no no no. Let’s go to —, Tara was too late.

“Finished sweet Fujin. Don’t worry Tara, I put some leaftleather on the floor.”

“Thank you dear, now, now, now let’s do, this shall we? Shining Crown put you die in the magic circuit here”, Fujin made a more complex magic circuit. It seemed this circuit was tridimensional, more complex compared to the one Tara made.

Without delay, Roberion accepted the weird nickname. What mattered the most was finishing his quest. Putting the die on the magic circuit, he felt a weird energetic sensation invade his hand.

Raijin made multiple smaller magic circuits in the materials thrown on the floor. Many of them seemed like ores, other seemed to be flasks with a moving transparent liquid. The circuits started to glow; the materials seemed to vaporize, lines seemed to be extracted from the material. Although colorful lines seemed to be extracted, only a transparent line seemed to be directed to the weapon’s magic circle.

The process was organic. It didn’t seem to follow the same rhythm as the fell worm and system’s way of harvesting. To call it harvesting would be wrong. The process was more similar to the fell worm, a true art of transferring the matter, like it was the natural way of doing it, not a forced process ignoring nature laws.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

They swiftly accomplished the material transference, wrapping up the process two minutes later. The die aspect seemed to get a distorted feeling, like it lost part of its essence, becoming apart from reality. Trying to activate the die was useless, it didn’t work, he even felt it could damage the process if he kept doing it. He needed to keep that in mind the next time he upgraded it.

“There we go. All finished, little Tara. Come on Shining Crown he have training to do”, Fujin started shoving Roberion off the place gently.

“I need a break”, just as Tara said that dozens of fiznaults entered the establishment, the undead invasion didn’t wait for Roberion's schedule.

Out in the road Roberion stares as the couple of light green fizznaults mount their wood rhinos, their size bigger than the common ones.

“Instructors Raijin and Fujin. They said they would lend me a wood rhino to travel to the training grounds. Do you know where I can find one?”

“What stupid name is wood rhinos, Shining Crown? They are called roothorns, be respectful of these beautiful beasts. Answering your question, here it is the one that will help you.” Without waiting a second, Raijin thrown a bangle faster than Roberion could see.

Using his reflexes, Roberion picks the black wooden bangle a centimeter before hitting his face.

“Nice catch Shining Crown”, Fujin claps its hand happily. They, contrary to the other fiznaults, seemed to use the devices regularly, having a breast pocket especially for it.

“Dammit, I would punish him with his first saltwater ball as punishment. It would be a fabulous memory.”

“What is this bangle for?”

“Wear it in your wrist, Shining Crown.”

Roberion inspect the bangle and put on his wrist. Wearing it, he feels a kind of sensation, like he has when using the space bag.

“Now take the roothorn out.”

Trying to imitate what he feels while using the space bag, but without using his hands, he activates the bangle. From nowhere a roothorn, smaller than the ones the civilians fiznaults used to travel, showed up. Aside from his smaller size, there was only one thing he had different from the others roothorns. This roothorn didn’t have a mane.

“Shining Crown meets Shining Crown”, Fujin said to the small roothorn happily.

Shining Crown looked with interest at Roberion. Inspecting him first from a distance, coming near little by little. When he got half a meter away from Roberion, he raised his head to inspect Roberion’s own. Looking at Roberion’s scalp, the roothorn gave a look of understanding. Now he found one that understood his misfortune.

“I’m on a time limit. So I won’t even try to understand all this.”, Roberion said flabbergasted. “How do I ride a roothorn?”

“Just mount on his back. The bangle will help you in the process”, Raijin said, as his roothorn already started walking forward.

Not wasting any time, Roberion tried to mount Shining Crown. To his surprise, it wasn’t a prank of the old fiznault. The understanding of how to ride the roothorn was given to him spontaneously.

The roothorns back didn’t have any type of saddle, but the feeling wasn’t like hard wood. It felt like he was sitting in a nice chair, comfortable, but also firm. Shining Crown started walking forward following the old fiznaults roothorns.

The walk wasn’t bad. Shining Crown walked with balance, betraying the size of the creature. If he had to travel in the roothorns back for long times, he would have no problem. ‘If I had some sort of long-range melee weapon or gun, I could ride the roothorn in a battle. I don’t know if they will lend the mount for the mission though.’

During the walk, the only uncomfortable thing was the stares the people were giving him. They seemed mesmerized by him and Shining Crown. These people have a really weird fixation with baldness, sadly I can’t summon Percival to help to get some of the attention, that is, if he will be the summoned face.

Reaching the training grounds after an hour and some minutes of travel, Roberion was already in one of the four places used for training. The place that looked like a mix of giant gymnasium and dojo, having a leatherleaf floor in half of it, the other half having soil and plants sparingly.

“Go now Shining Crown, summon you weapon”, as Fujin said that, Shining Crown that was inside the gym looked at Roberion expectantly. The null didn’t know why, but the couple let the roothorn spectate his training.

Not wasting any time, Roberion activates his dice, instead of Percival showing up a weird dark brown firework exploded. The format of the firework was of a face in anguish. A few seconds later, Roberion felt the weight and texture of wood in his hand. The weight was heavy, and he was forced to use the other hand to hold the massive object.

Finishing materializing, he finally takes a look at the weapon. The thing looked like a heavy wooden log with thorns in all its body, but his certainty that it was wood vanished, as eyes and mouths opened all over the log, their irises, mouths, and eyes format were varied. It seemed someone had taken various people’s heads and blended with a tree.

His dread and shock reached new heights as the mouths started to sing. It sounded like a religious choir from hell. Their voice was angelic, but the sight was grotesque.

Fortunately, the morbid spectacle wasn’t the only thing he had to deal with. An information invaded his brain. The weapon’s name, and it’s short and harrowing description. He knew both of them.

“Jubilant Choir”