Chapter 3

Because their last adventure was so profitable, Juxapose and his party decide to take a week vacation from any adventures. They've mostly been relaxing at a nearby inn, but they do train with some nearby monsters for some mild exercise. But after a week of relaxation, they decide to get off their lazy hides, and get back to being adventurers.

The entire week they have been relaxing, they have heard of no adventures in Prontera. So they walk through the roads of Prontera thinking about their next adventure. As they travel through Prontera, Artisan asks, "Hey Juxapose, have you thought about what we are going to do next?"

Juxapose answers, "I was thinking about paying Geffen a visit. I've wanted to go there for a while, but I got sidetracked with Ryuker back in Alberta, and Bowen back in Payon."

Artisan then suggests, "Well. . . I was thinking about this for a few days now, maybe we should hire us a healer. Like an acolyte or something."

Juxapose laughs at his suggestion and says, "Come on. . . Where are we going to find an acolyte? There are not many in Rune-Midgard to begin with. And all the acoltes that currently exist are either in parties or guilds already. It's not like we'll find one sitting around somewhere."

"Well, what about that one?" asked Artisan. He then points at a female acolyte who was sitting down at a bench reading a bible near the Prontera church. Bowen's eyes glow with delight as he looks into her baby blue eyes, creamy white skin, and medium brunette hair tied back into a ponytail. She has long pointed ears which is evidence that she has elven blood. With a typical acolyte uniform, a biretta, and a small mace strapped to her waist, she is definitely an acolyte.

"WOW! She's so hot!" yelled Bowen. The acolyte's sheer beauty causes Bowen to involuntarily approach her with an amorous look on his face.

Ryuker slaps his forhead and says, "Oh jeez, not again."

"Again?" asked Artisan.

Bowen approaches the acolyte biting a witherless rose, and makes a gentleman like stance. With a changed tone, he gains her attention by saying, "Hello there."

The acolyte looks up at Bowen, and says, "Oh, hello."

Bowen then bows and says, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Bowen, and I must say. . . Although the rest of the world sees an acolyte, I see an angel who had descended from the heavens for the sole purpose to bless the world with her radiant beauty. Please, tell me. What is your name?"

The acolyte stares at Bowen with a blank expression and says, "Uhh. . . Chisa."

Bowen then takes Chisa's hand and kisses it. He then stands up and raises an arm to the sky while saying, "Ah, Chisa, what a heavenly name. So full of life, and energy. I am stunned by your innocent charm and -"

Before Bowen was done with his pick-up lines, Ryuker hits him over the head with a mace that he had in his cart and says, "What a ham. . ."

Artisan whispers, "Does he always do that?"

Juxapose whispers back, "This is why we are an all male party. He scares the girls away." Juxapose then approaches Chisa, who is left stunned after seeing Bowen getting hit right in front of her. He bows respectfully and says "I apologize miss Chisa for my teammates rude behavior. He's a bit of a flirt, but he's really harmless. It's best to just ignore him."

Chisa waves at Juxapose and responds, "It's fine. But will he be okay?"

Juxapose answers, "Oh, he's perfectly fine, this happens all the time. We were going to ask you to join our party, but after seeing all this, you probably thing we're all wierd. So we'll be on our way now. I apologize for bothering you once again."

As the rest of the team walks away dragging Bowen behind them, Chisa stands up and yells, "Wait a second!"

Juxapose looks back and asks "Yes? What can I do for you?"

Chisa bows at the team and requests, "I was thinking about joining a party anyway. If you want me to join you, I'll come along. . . If it's Okay?"

Juxapose smiles and says, "Of course! You're more than welcome to join us."

Bowen then wakes up and jumps for joy shouting, "HURRAAAAY!!! I bet it was by charm and skill in archery that convinced her to join. I'll enjoy the hunts from now on because -"

Ryuker whacks him again and says, "Just shut up already."

With their new party member, the team moves through Prontera, heading towards the west gate. As they walk, Chisa curiously asks, "By the way. . . Where are we going?"

Juxapose answers, "We are going to Geffen, the city of magic."

Ryuker scratches his head, and points behind him saying, "But. . . We passed the Warp Agent a few minutes ago."

Juxapose laughs and responds, "We are not using the warp agent today, we are walking."

Ryuker and Bowen whines, "Awww, but why?"

"Quit your complaining!" Yelled Juxapose. "There is no adventure in using the warp agent in every city. Besides, we've had a week off from training. Consider this a warm up for the next adventure."

Ryuker sighs and says, "But we have a new party member. It might be too much of a walk for her."

"Actually, I don't mind." said Chisa.

Bowen raises his arm in the air and says, "We'll, that settles that. Anything Chisa wants to do, I want to do as -"

Ryuker whacks him on the head once again, and says, "Moron. Can't you behave for at least 5 minutes?"

With that, the team leaves Prontera to head to Geffen. However, things are not as easy as they hoped for on their way there. They had a set route to go, but as they travel together, they get lost in the forest. Juxapose then asks Bowen, "Bowen, are you sure we are heading in the right direction?"

Bowen takes a look at his map and says, "According to the map, we are. But how strange. . . This place doesn't look like Froggie swamp. Maybe we took a wrong turn at Rocker plains."

Ryuker snatches the map and says, "The map is upside-down! Give me that! . . . Great! I have no clue where we are."

Artisan then points at a nearby monster and says, "Hey guys. Is that thing supposed to be here?"

The whole team stares at the goblin floating around in a flying machine. Ryuker says, "I have no idea what that is."

Juxapose gasps and yells, "That's a goblin steamrider!"

"Did you say goblin?" asked Ryuker. He then checks the map once again. "We are in Goblin Village! Bowen! You Idiot!"

Bowen laughs nervously and says, "Look at the bright side. We are technically in Geffen territory."

"That's not the point!" yelled Juxapose.

Chisa trembles nervously and asks, "Are we in trouble?"

"No, but we need to get out of here. Goblins are not very strong, but they have a large number of warriors." answered Juxapose.

They turn around and try to leave unnoticed. But as soon as they turn around, they see about 15 goblins blocking their path. The goblins are small tribes folk wearing clothing made out of grass, armor made out of wood, and weapons made out of stone. Their skin is gray, and they all wear huge masks that cover their entire face. One of the goblins says, "Humans and elves are not allowed in our village!"

"Woah there. We are just lost, if you just let us pass, we'll get out of here as soon as possible." said Juxapose.

The goblins jump around and they all chant, "No chance! Prepare to die!"

Since they cannot talk their way out of it, the team drew their weapons. They are outnumbered, so the team needs to use their best skills in order to survive.

Juxapose starts off the battle with his Envenom skill. Artisan follows up with a Bash skill, and defeats the first goblin. Ryuker then casts Mammonite on the next goblin, spending some of his hard earned money. Trying to look cool for Chisa, Bowen draws his bow back and uses his Double Strafe skill to defeat another goblin. The team of goblins feel that they cannot win the battle, so they retreat. They take their wounded, and leave the scene. However during the fight, Juxapose got injured.

Chisa checks on Juxapose's wound and asks, "Are you okay?"

Juxapose covers his injury and says, "It's just a flesh wound. If you could heal me, It'll get better."

Chisa then looks away and says sheepishly, "Ahh. . . Well, umm. . . Heal. . . That is. . . I'm sorry!"

"Is something wrong?" asked Artisan.

Chisa then fidgets with her fingers and admits, "Well, I don't know how to use magic yet."

"Seriously?" asked Ryuker.

Chisa bows at the rest of the team and says, "Well, I've only graduated from the Prontera church 10 minutes before we met. So I haven't had a chance to learn any healing magic yet. I'm sorry, I should have mentioned it earlier. If you want to expel me from the party, I'll understand."

Ryuker gives Juxapose a potion to heal his wound. Juxapose then approaches Chisa with a serious look on his face, Chisa was a bit worried. But Juxapose just patted Chisa on the head and says, "Don't worry so much about it. We were all novices at one point in time. Learning how to use our skills takes time, and lots of practice."

"You are not going to expel me?" asked Chisa.

Juxapose looks at the rest of the party and asks, "What do you say team? Keep her in the party?" Team rest of the team agrees to keep her. Juxapose then says, "See, we all are friends in this party. I'm sure that you'll learn how to heal very soon."

Chisa becomes emotional and tears up. She then says, "Okay. . . Thanks everyone!"

Bowen then changes the tone of his voice again and says, "Well, It was my idea to have an acolyte in the party anyways. Maybe you could show your appreciation by going on a date with -"

Ryuker whacks him on the head again and says, "Liar! This is not the time for that! Juxapose, shall we retreat?"

Juxapose thinks for a moment and says, "No, we're so deep that it'll take us longer to get out the way we came in. We'll have to push on ahead."

The team then moves along in the party. Even though they are going deeper and deeper into the Goblin Village, they are not getting attacked. Bowen and Ryuker feel that they overpowered the goblins, so they are allowing them to leave. But Juxapose doesn't feel that the goblins will allow them to leave that easily. He keeps looking around, and listens carefully for any abnormal actions. After about 20 minutes of walking, the party is able to see the exit of the village.

Artisan points at the exit and says, "Look, it's the way out!. Come on! Lets go!"

Juxapose grabs Artisan from the back of his armor stopping him from running ahead, and says, "Artisan, wait! Something is not right! This is too easy. . ."

Suddenly in an instant, 10 of the strongest goblins of all classes rushes out out of the bushes, and surround the team. They all prepare to fight, but from the north side of the circle, the goblin leader walks into the circle of goblins. Unlike the rest of the goblins, the Goblin Leader is much taller. Even taller than everyone in the party. He is also wearing metal armor and carries a one handed spear and a shield. He wears a crown on his head, and a cape made for a king.

The leader points their spear at the team and yells, "How dare you! We have a peace treaty between monsters and human kind."

Juxapose steps forward and says, "Hold on a second! I am Juxapose, the leader of this party. We just got a little lost, and we were just leaving."

"That is no excuse to attack our people!" yelled the Goblin leader.

Juxapose responds, "What are you talking about! You attacked us first!"

The Goblin Leader jumps up and down furiously and says, "Enough of your lies! Goblin troop, ATTACK!"

The team cannot avoid battle, so they prepare themselves for a good fight. Ryuker casts Crazy Uproar to raise his streangth, and Bowen casts Improve Concentration to increase his accuracy and damage. Chisa stays in the back of the team, and everyone else gets in formation to protect her. Even theough they are outnumbered two to one, the battle doesn't take long before it is over. The goblins lose the fight with the four warriors, and the one acolyte hidden in the back.

Goblin Leader nods and says, "Not bad, now it's my turn!" It starts the battle by casting Maximize Power on itself.

Juxapose tries to attack him, but his flee rate is not good enough to dodge the leader's attacks. Bowen tries his double strafe attack, but the Goblin Leader blocks the arrows with it's shield. Ryuker keep hitting it with his Mammonite attack, but it doesn't do much. Artisan then charges in for an attack, but the goblin leader blocked him with the shield.

The Goblin Leader and Artisan are in a dead lock between sword and shield. Artisan tries to push the Goblin neader back and make him open for a good attack, but it's to heavy to move alone. It then casts Shield Charge on him, which pushes Artisan back really hard, and hits a nearby tree.

Chisa runs to Artisan's aid while the rest of the team is fighting a losing battle with the Goblin Leader. "Artisan! Are you okay?" she calls out to him.

Artisan tries to get up, but he sprained his leg and arm on the impact against the tree. "I'm hurt pretty bad. Looks like I can't help the rest of the team. . ."

Chisa panics. She doesn't know what to do, but she needs to help the rest of the party. Ryuker is busy fughting, so he cannot pass out healing potions out to the rest of the party. Out of desperation, she claps her hands together and says, "Don't worry! Uhh. . . I hope this works. . . Heal!"

A faint light surrounds Artisan. Soon enough, all of his pain has vanished along with the light. Chisa's attempt at her first spell was a complete success! She then jumps up and down yelling, "I did it. . . I did it!!"

Artisan wants to celebrate with her, but he knows that they are in the middle of battle. He the commands, "I'll help the rest of the team! Chisa! Please support!"

"OK!" yells Chisa cheerfully. As Artisan charges into battle, Chisa continuously casts Heal on the rest of the party members

Artisan charges back into the fight, and surprises the Goblin Leader with a Bash attack. The attack sends the Goblin Leader's shield flying through the air leaving it open to any attack. Juxapose then casts Envenom, and poisons the Goblin Leader. Bowen casts Arrow Shower which pins his robe to the ground lowering his evasion. Ryuker finishes with a Mammonite against his gut. Soon the Goblin Leader falls on it's knees.

Juxapose then takes his dagger, and points it at the goblin leader's throat while saying, "Listen, we don't want to kill you, so just retreat, and let us pass."

The Goblin Leader is furious, but it has no other choice but to admit defeat. "Damn you all, I wont forget this insult!" It then uses Teleport, and escapes with his life. And so, the team wins another battle, thanks to Chisa and her great timing.

Juxapose smiles at Chisa and says, "I knew that you would learn how to use magic soon."

Chisa makes a victory sign with her hand and says, "He he, aren't you guys glad you didn't expel me after all?"

Bowen changes his tone once again and says, "Of course we are glad, and I don't know about the rest of them, but I am the happiest that you are still -"

Ryuker whacks him again and says, "That's enough from you for one day."

Juxapose nods and points towards the exit yelling, "Ryuker, Bowen, Artisan, Chisa! Now, off to Geffen, the city of Magic!"

Everyone jumps up cheerfully and says "Okay!"