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3rd Pov
Ember successfully joined the Thunder Lance party, and they decided to go on a hunt. Boarding on a carriage, they departed for the middle northern zone of the forest. " Leader, are you sure our tents will be enough?", asked Ash. The duty of holding supplies was up to Ash, Jasmine and Aurielle. They had tents, salts, spices and other stuff.
" Don't worry, Ash you will share your tent with Tet", said Lance with a shrug and the Elf looked at her with grimace and then at Ember. " At least I am not sharing my tent with Jack", he muttered, getting a glare from the weretiger. They were going on a monster hunting for a minimum of three days, till then they will hunt, and camp in the forest.
" What about you opinion Tet?", Lance asked, despite him joining their party just half an hour ago, he got ready to go with them. For him it was an impromptu adventure. " I do have some experience staying outside, I can sleep on the trees", Ember replied, often during his solo hunt, he used to climb and sleep on a tree.
" I am already liking you", she replied hearing his answer. Two hours later their carriage arrived at their destination. " We are here, from here we will walk on foot", Lance said, and Ember nodded," Everyone get ready", she clapped, and they took their bags. " Let me hold a bag and help you", Ember said ready to help them when Lance stopped him.
" Listen Tet, me, you and Jack are frontal combatants. It is their role to supports us, so let them do their job and follow my lead!", her voice was serious, and he awkwardly looked at her and nodded. " Thanks Tet, but it's our job to hold supplies", said Jasmine with a slight smile. They knew Ember was just being polite and might be feeling awkward in a new party.
" Very well! We will act according to our usual tactic. Jack you will be in my front, Ash and Aurielle behind me, Jasmine you will be behind them, and Ember you will be beside Jasmine, and it will be your duty to protect her and Ash and Aurielle", she said in an authorative tone, and everyone nodded, not retorting.
He nodded and they entered the forest, as they walked Lance commanded," Everyone introduce yourself properly to Tet", and Jasmine was the first one to begin. " Tet my name is Jasmine, and I am a Level 2 adventurer, I hail from Aeshina forest. I possess healing and Ice magic", she introduced herself.
' I see, while her primary role is of a healer, she can use attack magic as well ', Ember thought, it wasn't that big of a surprise, in Danmachi the healers mostly possessed just a single or two healing magics at most. In Danmachi possessing even three different magics was very rare, so mages lacked versatility. However, their sheer power compensated for it.
" I am Aurielle a Level 2 adventurer, I am from a village named Edas located in Beol mountains. I am magician with a single target and wide area annihilation fire type magic spells", she said introducing herself. Then it came turn of the grey haired and brown eyed male Elf. " I am Ash a Level 2 adventurer, I am Archer of this group, scout, supported, I also possess wind magic ", he said.
" Ash's wind magic while not powerful is quite versatile, he can apply it on his arrows to pierce through stronger enemies", said Jasmine, and Ash blushed. " It's nothing much special, compared to your magic- What was it again?", he asked, and Ember replied," It was a fire-type magic, I also possess a healing magic, however it is a self-healing magic, so I can't use it on others."
" Jack your turn", said Lance and the Weretiger introduced himself," I am Jack Wills, I am a weretiger and I am a Tanker, I do not possess any magic", he said in a solemn tone while walking. Unlike others he included his surname in his introduction. Finally, Lance turned towards him and said," I am Lance, as I said I am from a Wishe forest, I am Level 2 and a proud Magic Swordswoman. I possess a single Thunder magic."
" On a side note, don't forget all of us except you belong to Athena familia", she added in the end. Ember nodded and said," Let me reintroduce myself, I am Tithonus, I am from Alf's Royal Forest, I am Level 2 and a Magic Swordsman", hearing his words Lance couldn't help but say," Have you ever seen Royalty, High-elves or especially prince Ember?", her voice contained a curiosity.
" I was lucky enough to see High-Elves, and I guess Prince Ember running away is still a hot topic after so many years huh?", Ember said, his words were ironic. Ash chuckled and said," Well it has cooled down, but you see our captain has a personal crush on Prince Ember", his words surprised Ember. " Ash, do you want to be beaten black and blue?", grumbled Lance as she turned away, slight blush adorning her face.
" Have you ever seen Prince Ember?", Ember couldn't help but ask with slight nervousness. " Unfortunately, I have just seen a simple portrait of him. However, it was him who inspired me to leave Wishe forest, after six months of his escape. I left Wishe forest and came to Altena to find him and create my own path just like him!", she said proudly.
" Yeah, yeah- our perfect captain has a crush on someone a decade younger than him, what a news ", teased Ash earning a glare from her. Ember meanwhile chuckled awkwardly, while Lance said," Many reprimand Prince Ember for his actions, but I support his actions wholeheartedly, only after I came to Altena and joined Athena familia did, I knew what I was missing in my life!", her voice full of appreciation for the prince.
' Ah great, another woman has crush on me ', Ember thought, it would have been better if he didn't know about this. Thankfully he always dyed his hair in black, so no one never associated him with prince, as black hair was sign of commoners and no way the Royal Prince, who can command Elves to his wishes will dye his magnificent green hair especially black!
' Point to be noted, never let them know that I am the freaking royal prince that she has a crush on ', Ember thought solemnly. As they walked deeper into the forest, they encountered weak monsters like group of Kobolds, goblins, and Orcs which were dispatched by Ash, and Jasmine.
...
Meanwhile in the Royal Place of Altena,
" Thank you all of you attending the meeting despite your busy schedules", said a beautiful woman wearing a standard Olympian attire. She had striking white hair and golden eyes. Her eyes seemed to contain boundless wisdom, and her dress contained her boundless assets. Despite wearing a slightly revealing cloth, and having a figure that could bewitch anyone, no male present dared to have bad thoughts about her.
For she was their leader, their Familia Goddess, the King of Altena, the Goddess of Wisdom herself. Athena. " I have called you because of a special reason- We have received a request from Zeus and Hera familia", she quickly got on the point. " What it might be goddess?", asked a person, and she crossed her legs and replied," Merina please... show the design", the women quickly revealed a huge diagram.
" This... Is magnificent", Gandalf said as he looked at the design," It is the epitome of Science and Magic, a floating ship. That's what their familias wants us to build in the future", she said and then said," Unfortunately not enough material exists in Lower world, just to get stage where we could produce a ship of such scale would take hundreds of years."
" That much time?!", Gandalf exclaimed almost getting a heart attack," So what we will be building isn't this, we will build up experience! I want to start us building magic ships that could transverse through seas using magic as energy! If what I envision is true, it would shorten our time greatly to produce such a ship!", she said with slight excitement in her voice.
" Is that so? When we can build a ship like this Goddess?", Gandalf asked in excitement and Athena ruthlessly replied," In a century or so-", her words directly silence him. " No! I can't believe this!", Gandal screamed in pain. Merina grinned and said," Don't worry, I will put flowers on your grave when it is built."
Hearing her words Gandalf gritted his teeth and said," Damn Elf!", Merina chuckled. Athena sighed,' Lower world is so backward ', she didn't like it. It took her decades just to teach them Athena's three laws of motions. ' These idiots couldn't even understand laws of magnetism and electricity. If they were any smarter it would have taken just a decade or so to build a ship of this caliber ', she thought.
She had personally observed it, as long as principles of magic were included in scientific language, they were able to learn it easily, however as soon as the very concept of magic was left out, it became hebrew for them. To say, she led a country housing smartest people in the world, however they were like ape men compared to her wisdom, she wasn't joking, back in Heavens she used to build spaceships in collaboration with likes of Hephaestus which could freaking wrap through space!
" Goddess why do I think you are insulting us in your mind?", suddenly Merina said with a very cute smile, " I am not", Athena looked away with slight panic. " Is that so?", Merina didn't buy it. She knew her goddess often compared them to monkeys and called them ape men, which of course didn't sit well for a beautiful Elf like her!
Seeing their Goddess' embarrassing situation, others couldn't help but laugh. There were very few times that their so-called perfect Goddess did a mistake, and it was mostly in presence of Merina. " What about your idea in this Arcesius? Do you think you can craft a Magic Ship within a decade?", Athena said in a slight challenging tone.
" Goddess! Now that you have said it! I shall take it as a challenge!", said Arcesius, full of excitement. Gandalf, Merina, Arcesius, Autolycus, and Amphithea were the five people in kingdom of Altena possessing both mystery and mage development abilities. " Oh, I remember you recently sold a Magic Grimoire to an Elf Gandalf", Athena suddenly said garnering everyone's attention.
" Things never escape you, do they? Haha, goddess yes, I have gathered details about the buyer. His name is Tithonus Ber, and he belongs to Aurora familia located in the locality of Argon Town. He belongs to Alf's forest, as for deeper information, I don't know", he replied earnestly. Athena nodded and said," It is not always some can buy something as pricey as a Magic Grimoire, so we must always be aware of our potential buyers and their information."
" Still the sur name Bers rings a bell, doesn't it?", Athena said, as she said," Ember, the prince that escaped from Alf's forest and had been missing for over seven years ", everyone couldn't help but recall him. " Still no news about him? I think he is already dead", said Gandalf earning glares from the Elves, Merina, and Amphithea.
" I mean- it is as if he simply vanished, no trace nothing! You can't help but doubt right?", said Gandalf in defensive tone. " Gandalf, better be careful, we have plenty of Elf supremacist here", said Athena in a teasing tone. " Still, I do wonder where he escaped to, I had investigated his escape plan, and it was nothing short of wisdom. It was quite a good plan, that Larfal had quite the trouble", she praised him.
" Anyway, let's leave the umpteenth talk of missing prince behind and get back on topic", said Merina earning a pout from Athena as their focus shifted back to the topic of magic ships. They didn't knew that the person named as Tithonus was the missing prince, that once shook the entire world with his escape.
To be continued...
(A/N: By mistake I uploaded it in volume 1, I am re-uploading it in correct volume now)