Domain

Volume 1 berserk interval chapter 9 – plans

Having explained everything to Gareth he sat back, an anxious look on his face.

Gareth: I thought something like this might happen. Let me explain what I've learnt.

Firstly he told us about the city we were in. Thervil is one of the hundreds of small neutral cities. These neutral cities are ruled over by the three strongest guilds. The Ragnarok, tranquillitas animi and fate's flow guilds. Each of these guilds having tens of Z rank and hundreds of S rank members. Other than the small there are large and great neutral cities. however, Each of these cities has a standard of strength for entry.

Moving on from that he explained the guilds. They are separated into ranks from ZZZ to G depending on their founders strength. Each rank increasing the bonuses given to the guild. The only ZZZ rank guilds being the previously mentioned strongest. There are 10 ZZ rank guilds, around 100 Z ranks and thousands in the S-SSS ranks. To create a guild has 3 requirements. The first is 3 or more founding members, the second Is a chosen leader and the last is a cost of 300 points. If you have these you can make a guild through the system.

Being in a guild has many benefits. For G rank guilds there are 4 main benefits. The ability to attempt missions in a team without disadvantages, the use of the guild shop and storage and the ability to buy exchanges for another guild member.

He then went on to the less pleasant news. The people we were attacked by were most likely hunters. This was the name given to those who attacked other people and sometimes killed others in order to steal. In thervil, there was only one hunter guild. The E rank capitalist mages guild. They work as a business guild during the day, but at night they send members out to steal from those they sold to in the day. They also have a reputation for holding grudges.

Solomon: we didn’t leave any witness's so they probably don’t know who we are. If we lay low for a while we should get away with it. That also means we can't sell these.

Reaching into my bag I pulled out the loot from our attackers. The 4 knives from the burly men. I could tell from before that each of these knives was worth around 30 points. The only problem was if someone recognised them we'd be chased down and killed.

Gareth: what should we do from here then?

Both Gareth and allice were looking towards me. Sitting there I could feel the weight of their lives.

Solomon: for now our objective is the same, find out anything we can about Domain. The more we know the better. During the day we will search around town and when we return we will exchange info and train. 3 days from now we will attempt a G rank mission. Gareth, being as your not G rank you can skip the mission and we will come with you to an unranked mission.

Gareth: no, I'll come with you guys. I already owe you a lot so the quicker I get stronger the better.

Solomon: okay then, thank you Gareth. That’s all for now. It's late today let's turn in for the night.

After saying goodnight Gareth left.

Being alone with Alice I became a lot less tense.

Solomon:(relieved sigh)

Alice: what's up?

Solomon: it's nothing I just didn’t think being the leader was so stressful, and if you add in all the crazy stuff from today. Its been a very long day. Well anyway, I should be going, I'll see you tomorrow.

Standing up I began walking to the door. I stopped as I felt a light tug on my arm. Looking back Alice was behind me holding onto my arm.

Alice: is.. Is it okay... If.. if you stay here.. Tonight.

As she spoke her voice got quieter and quieter.

Alice: it's just.. Earlier... when those guys...I was so scared.

At this point I could feel her start shaking.

Solomon: don’t worry, as long as I'm here no one's going to touch you.

Turning around I stepped forward bringing her into my embrace.

Alice: thank you.

Saying so she fell asleep.

Picking her up I walked her into the bedroom. Laying her onto the bed I was about to leave. Once again she had grabbed my arm, even in her sleep she held tightly onto me. Not wanting to disturb her sleep I laid down next to her. Within a few seconds my fatigue caught up to me, and I fell asleep.

Awaking from sleep I noticed a pleasant smell invading the room. The smell of bacon. Rising from the bed I walked out the room into the kitchen. Standing in front of the cooker frying bacon and egg's was Alice. Standing there with the faint illumination of the morning sun, she looked beautiful. As she had not seen me yet I stood still for a few seconds, admiring her.

Solomon: morning Alice.

With a start, Alice turned to face me, her face beet red.

Alice: agh morning Solomon, I.. I don't remember much.. about last night.. So I'm sorry if I did... something.

As she went on her face became more and more red until she turned back to face the cooker. Moving into the room I sat at the table.

Solomon: don’t worry, after you fell asleep I put you into your bed. In your sleep, you refused to let go of my arm. Not wanting to disturb you I slept next to you, I'm sorry if I've upset you.

Alice: NO! It's okay, I don’t.. Mind.. That much... anyway I made some breakfast, here you go.

Blushing even more than before she handed me a plate.

Solomon: thanks for the meal.

Alice: it’s the least I could do, you have saved my life twice now.

Saying so she grabbed her plate and sat next to me. Picking up a piece of bacon I took a bite. an explosion of flavour appeared in my mouth. Even for me, a fairly skilled cook, this was the best bacon I've ever had.

Alice: is it good?

With her slightly tilted head, she looked extremely cute. With the way my thoughts were going I began to blush.

Solomon: this is AMAZING! Where did you learn to cook this well?

Reaching down I grabbed another piece.

Alice: I'm glad you like it. I used to cook for my siblings every day, so I'm used to cooking.

We continued to small talk as we finished breakfast. Just as we finished a knock came through the door. Walking over I opened the door to Gareth.

Gareth: agh, morning leader. I didn’t think you would beat me here.

Solomon: Oh, actually I stay.

Alice: HE ONLY JUST GOT HERE! Anyway there's a plate of breakfast for you in the kitchen

Before I could finish Alice shouted over me.

Gareth: oh, thanks Alice

Alice: it's no problem, while you're eating I'm going to borrow our stupid leader here.

Alice then dragged me into the living room.

Alice: why were you going to tell Gareth you stayed here. He could easily misunderstand. It's not like were.. Dating or anything.

Turning away the familiar shade of red crept onto her face. I had a feeling I would be seeing this cute side of her a lot.

Solomon: I don’t think Gareth would think that if we explained, but if you don’t want to I won't tell him.

Alice: thanks Solomon.

Having finished with our conversation we both went back to the kitchen. Gareth had finished with his food and was sat at the table.

Gareth: so, what's the plan leader.

Sitting down I began to consider our options.

Solomon: Gareth, how safe is it for you to gather info at the moment.

Gareth: for me it's relatively high, being that I'm so weak none of the enhanced are interested in me. The only problem comes from the unranked. It's not uncommon for the unranked to steal, they group up and mug solo unranked contestants. When I was out yesterday I had to lose several such groups.

Considering this I knew what Gareth would be doing, looking towards Alice I wasn’t so sure.

Solomon: Alice, how many goblies do you have left?

Alice: from yesterday there are 8, plus the ten necro can summon today would make 18.

Solomon: okay, for now I've got a rough plan. Alice, as we've seen you attract a lot of attention. It seems that pretty girls are highly sought after here. Being as we have caught the eye of an e rank guild you shall stay here and train.

Alice: wait, what? Why keep me here. I may not be the best but I am a G rank contestant.

Gareth: I agree with leader, although that may be true what would happen if you met an F rank. In this place, even E ranks aren't uncommon.

Alice: but surely there is something I can do.

Solomon: for now the best thing to do is to increase your strength. It will take a while before I can match an ordinary G rank, so until then you are our strongest teammate.

Sitting back Alice accepted her part of the plan.

Solomon: as for me I too will stay and train, it would be dangerous to leave. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the capitalist mages guild has a method to identify us. Is anyone in disagreement.

Alice+Gareth: no.

Solomon: okay. Gareth, your part is the most dangerous. As this is the case I'm not ordering you to do this, feel free to refuse. I would like you to continue to gather information, most importantly things about guilds and also missions.

Gareth: I will accept. Though you make it sound so dangerous, most of the danger can be avoided by being careful.

Solomon: okay, thank you Gareth. I have this to help you protect yourself, though until you get enhancements you can't bring out its power.

Pulling out the Hellsing casull and its ammo I handed it to Gareth. After looking it over surprise filled Gareth's face.

Gareth: this gun, surely it's worth a lot of points. Why would you entrust such a valuable thing to me?

Solomon: it is worth around 100 points, something only G ranks should possess. With this you can protect yourself. It also doesn’t hold any energy. This means those stronger than you can't detect it. It’s the perfect weapon for you currently. Consider this an investment. Your part of my team, how could I allow you to go around unable to defend yourself. Tough I should warn you that gun is not easy to use.

Gareth: I can tell, if I hadn't used my points on stats it would be impossible. Thanks Solomon, I will be sure to repay you in the future.

Having been given his orders Gareth left. Moving back into the living room Alice and I began training. As Alice doesn’t have a training method she had to improvise. She was repeatedly summoning and Re-summoning necro. Leaving her to do her training I sat on the nearby sofa. Pulling out the scaled book I began inspecting it. The scales formed a perfect layer over the book. As I passed my hand over the scales they reached outwards towards it. As I placed my hands on the cover the scaled rushed outwards, enveloping my hand. From inside this scaled cocoon I could feel energy. As my own energy approached this new energy fought against it.

Confused as to what to do I started to thinks through what I knew. This book had reacted to me for a reason, following this I summarised it must be my enhancements. As I'm sure other qi users had seen this book it had to be my racial skill. Considering the book was made with scales it matched my salamander race. Now knowing why it reacted I thought about what to do. Thinking about it reached I soon reached a conclusion. Having realised what to do I Pulled an 8th of my energy out. I began pushed it through my tattoos into the book. After consuming about half my energy the scales loosened. Feeling this I fed it another quarter of my energy.

Having been fed enough the scales receded and the book opened, Spewing forth a fiery red light.