An Ice-Cold Exploration [B-Rank Mission | Yuvon & Morrigan]

Job Info:

His breath escaped his golden mask with the lack of steam clouds that usually occurred in cold weathers. Although, the weather in Fiore was of little importance in this realm of his, so it was an unnecessary thought that he wasted a second or two to think through. Dummy. He had bigger issues at hand; for instance, his arsenal of fighting styles - albeit how broad and diverse it was, ranging from ranged gunfight to staff-casting to martial arts to rune-bombing - lacked real dual-wielding techniques that could help him utilize his staff-blade build. Two strange objects had manifested themselves from the deep, oblivious sea of ink in Apocrypha, and by luck, he had stumbled upon them in a rather normal day of reading through some joyful books of trivia. They floated to the paper-like shore like lost legends, and he had wielded them ever since. He even named them Stinkriid (Freedom Slayer) and Agmiin (Burning Eye), treating his weapons like kids of his. But even more interesting than their functions was their origins; how did they come up to be found at the ‘shore’ of Apocrypha’s inner sanctum? Were did they come from? Were they created by the inky sea that Yuvon himself held little knowledge of? Did this mean that this realm had more secrets in store for him than he assumed the first time he set foot in here?

But alas, a lot of questions to be answered another day. Now, he just needed some tome that could teach him how to dual-wield like an old pro. Akin to a blademaster, yes, but instead with two blades, he would have to find a good handful of combinations with a blade in his left hand and a staff in his right. Since his staff was mainly used for middle-range and long-range spell-casting, he didn’t find it necessary to use it as a bo staff or anything like that… but he wanted to know how to, anyway. He just wanted to know it all. And yet, this place just always reminded him of how much he lacked, for not many tomes satisfied his quotas. He found a few pages dedicated to some legendary figures who dual-wielded weapons, but no guidelines or events to compare. No categories. No order and no proper plan. It infuriated him so much that he exited the realm and sat foot in the guild hall of Silver Wolf with steam escaping his mask’s ear holes, clearly a reminder that the weather was different at Silver Wolf’s base.

“… E-Excuse me.”

He heard the voice coming from the entrance. It was faint due to the distance, but he went and opened up the gate to meet a courier. He could tell that by the type of hat that the gentleman wore. “I’ve been looking for you guys. Got something I’m supposed to deliver - your hands only, uh…” “Ah, thank you,” Yuvon thanked and accepted the letter. It was a request from a guy named Silern, and it was about a cave at the Silent Glaciers that just brought more trouble than anything else. Ghosts and floating fire orbs, huh? Guess the masked librarian had a quest now, in which he put the paper down in his pocket and entered the guild hall again, searching for a partner.

WC: 552
1x D-Rank Freeform WC reached, 52 words in excess

Haley was once again, before a flame. Luckily for everyone she is not experimenting. Instead of possibly making the guild lose another table, she is serving everyone soup for free. The cold has been getting to everyone so it was basically a free warm meal. She would gently turn the ladel around the pot and pour it into bowls ready to be served hot. There was a massive queue, and while the line was long, white lights helped bring bowls and spread it down the queue so soup can be served quickly and evenly.

Haley did not wake up expecting she would find herself shivering, the night was particularly cold and it certainly sent its chills throughout the many patrons. So the propose solution was to get something warm. However Haley was... Cunning. She had to take advantage of this situation to get herself a bit of extra reputation. Then it hits her. Grabbing her spare cauldron, she brings into the guild a bit of a scare when she pulled that thing out. Mostly because whenever it came into existence a big kaboom was sure to follow. However to the relief of many, food went into this hotpot of soup, mixing a variety of food items that eventually became a delicious soup for everyone to warm up to.

Then her eyes catch the golden glint of a mask. Her eyes fixate upon the individual, a man robed with a golden mask stood out from the crowd. It made her shiver, thinking what could be neath the mask. She heard tales about that thing. Mostly because he has a tendency to have tentacles. He was also a librarian so their only connection is perhaps the books. Letting the others get their freebie soup, she leaps and lands right in front of the masked man.

"What's up masktacio?" Haley smiled, her form shifting to something more kid like to match her more childish mannerism and speech. "You look lost even behind the lame mask. I got soup if you wanna have some. The day is cold I can even see your breath behind that fake face."

WC: 356

Well, the cold was stinging him, wasn’t it? Loose pants like these sure let the air caress his legs thoroughly, which lowered his skin temperature drastically. A shiver travelled down his spine as he rubbed his arms trying to stay a little warm. Then a guardian angel answered his prayer before he even made it, coming to the rescue with a sudden cauldron that was infamous for its explosive behavior.

That cauldron belonged to Haley. He, too, was relieved when he smelled food being poured down and turned into nice, warm soup for everybody. He couldn’t help but store this memory of the smell, so that he would never forget, for his brain tended to do that occasionally with even the simplest cases and scenarios. Oh boy, if Yuvon had headaches, they would tear his head in two…

… Now, ‘masktacio’ was a new word. “Greetings, miss Haley,” he greeted her while his mask’s right eye rose and widened a little as if a cartoonish face of his actually rose an eyebrow in suspicion, “Oh, I wouldn’t say lost, but perhaps more… indecisive- Oh, I’d love to have some soup.” Once achieving the bowl of delicious, hot soup, he would gladly grab it and… oh, uhh…

“… I-I’ll just-“ he muttered while turning around, lifting up his mask and sipping down the soup nervously. He made sure to quicken his meal, just in case if Haley was a bit too curious… nah, she seemed like the type that would much rather make fun of his mask instead of ruining the fun by pulling it off herself.

WC: 266
TWC: 552 + 266 = 818