Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 18: Quest Complete

As a mage, I was supposed to wield magic from the sidelines and use the right element to weaken monsters enough for the damage dealers to finish the job. However, I had never expected to rush into battle against the [Wild Bear] with Wind by my side. He raised his sword and swung it at the monster's chest. As he did that, I began chanting another spell while aiming my staff to it.

"Energy waving through the elements around me. Gather to me and create the force against my enemies! [Mana Blast]!" With one big swing, I fired another purple sphere of energy towards the bear, which hit it clean in the face. However, I wasn't done chanting yet. "I call the thunderous spirit of my aura. Let my small spirit dashed through my staff with this power! [Lightning Bolt]!" With another swing, I fired another bolt of lightning, which it hit the bear's left arm this time.

When I saw this, it roared loudly as it started swinging its arm towards me. I thought I was done for and braced myself. But when I opened my eyes, I noticed that it was unable to move its arm. I was surprised. I had never expected my [Thunder] spell to paralyze a monster's body parts. Regardless, I didn't have time to be entranced by this turn of events. I turned towards my brother and shouted, "Wind, I got 10 seconds before I can cast it again!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!"

As I back away from the [Wild Bear], I saw him pass by me and switched his sword for his bow. When he did, he aimed the arrow at the bear's head and fired it. It was a clean hit and as I watched, the monster roared in pain once more.

CRITICAL HIT!

"Alright, that should be enough. Kaz, you better have that spell ready!" Wind shouted at me. I raised my staff towards the [Wild Bear] again.

"This better work on his other arm!" I remarked as I started to repeat the spell. "I call the thunderous spirit of my aura. Let my small spirit dashed through my staff with this power! [Lightning Bolt]!"

Without any hesitation on my mind, I swung my staff and fired another bolt towards the bear's other arm. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to duplicate the same effect. But to my relief, the monster roared once more and became unable to raise its other arm as well. I realized it wouldn't able to attack us for a few seconds and checked its HP bar above its head.

[HP: 48/580]

48?! Whoa! I never expected we could damage that bear that much. Regardless, we knew what we had to do next.

"Wind, now's our chance!" I shouted. "Let's finish it off with a blow!"

"I think the phrase goes "Finish it off with a bang", but I know what you mean."

As Wind ran alongside me, I readied my staff and aimed it towards the bear. I didn't say anything else to him, knowing that despite our different skill sets, there was one skill we did share: magic. I didn't want to waste any time standing around so that bear could recover. The two of us began to chant.

"Spirit of Slyph, I call the gale to my growing aura and allow me to manipulate the air all around me!" As we said this together, the wind began to gather both on Wind's right hand and on my staff's gem into spheres of air just as I swung my staff back. "[Wind Sickle]!"

With one final swing of my staff and Wind's hand, both of us released sickle-shaped blades towards the bear. To be honest, I didn't aim correctly as I was supposed to blast its arm, so I was worried my attack might miss. But to my surprise, not only did my sickle blade strike its arm, but Wind's struck it in the neck. Because of the parental control options that he'd adjusted during our character creation, my whole vision became black and white for a few seconds as I saw its head fell on the ground.

[HP: 0/580]

Zero. That was the last thing I saw at the [Wild Bear's] HP bar as its body collapsed to the ground. Wind and I stared at the bear's corpse as it exploded in [Lapi] and several items such as meat and fur.

I was completely terrified for a moment. But my fear disappeared as realization has set into me. The [Wild Bear] had been defeated.

"W-We did it. We defeated it."

No. We're the ones who defeated the [Wild Bear]. Me and Wind. We defeated it together.

I couldn't hold it in. My frown turned into a big grin as I screamed in joy. While I was embarrassed that I shouted like a crazy kid at the supermarket, I was too excited to contain myself. We'd beaten the big bear and I couldn't be happier! Wind was also happy about it as I saw him collapsed on the ground and sighed in relief with a big smile on his face.

"Did you see what we did, Wind? We beat the [Wild Bear]! We beat our first [Quest]! Are we awesome or what?!" I shouted at Wind, still unable to contain my excitement over our first victory.

"Hey, don't forget about Arthur and Mari," Wind then said as he pointed at our friends, who approached us with weapons in hand. "We couldn't have done it without them."

Oh, right. He had a point. Arthur and Mari had also helped us with this achievement. Not to mention they were the ones who taught us about roles and the [Quest] system itself.

"That's true," Mari said. "But you two are the MVPs for this battle. To be honest, I thought Wind's idea to split off the group to avoid the bear's paralysis attack was a risky move. Besides, most parties I know require us to stay in the same area, so any team strategy wouldn't fall through. But to see you manage to avoid it completely and fight back like that was a surprising feat, even for a Hunter-type character like you."

While I was able to stop screaming with joy, I just couldn't contain my chuckles when I saw my brother's face turn red.

"Hey, don't forget about me and my heroic acts back there!" Arthur spoke up as he approached us. And despite being visibly injured, he was grinning as if nothing was wrong as he carried his sword on his back.

"That is true. If you hadn't distracted the bear, I wouldn't able to make my counterattack and save my brother at the same time. I could say the same with Mari's spells as well," Wind said to his best friend as he placed his hand on Arthur's right shoulder. "But the next time we do this, we should try to find some other people to be our tanks. I don't want to see you get beat up again."

At this, my chuckles turned back into a laugh as Mari joined in with us. Arthur frowned at Wind's comment, but it gave the rest of us a few smiles as we started to head back to the city.

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Current Quest: Subjugate a Wild Bear **

Status: Complete

Party Members:

[Wind]

[Kaz]

[Arthur]

[Mari]

Reward[s]: 1500 Lapi

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Wind's Masteries

[Archery] Level 7

[Woodcrafting] Level 1

[Swordsmanship] Level 7

[Cooking] Level 1

[Wind] Level 6

[Physical Enhancement] Level 1

[Hunting] Level 5

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Kazu's Masteries

[Arcana] Level 6

[Thunder] Level 7

[Wind] Level 6

[Alchemy] Level 7

[Magecrafting] Level 1

[Magical Affinity] Level 5

[Scribe] Level 1