Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (37 page)

"Thank you," said Smoke and gave him a small bow.
"I think I'll take you up on your offer on seeing your village below," he said and shook Solliciter's hand.
"Please, don't call our place a village," said an offended Solliciter. "Although, it is not official, but our population is twice that of most of the cities here in Wysteria. Not to mention that our army is even comparable to all of the cities combined."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that," apologized Smoke hurriedly. "The place just feels homey. Like everyone knows everybody else, that's why I called it a village."
Solliciter didn't reply and simply nodded. He resumed trimming his rose bush. He waved his hand at Smoke, dismissing him.
Smoke then exited the gates of the second wall alone. He headed for Acheteur and Vendeur's General Merchandise. He thought to buy some supplies for his next mission while waiting for the Avendre Mercenaries' arrival.
'Now, I need to stock up on my quest to complete Vigilantez,' thought Smoke to himself as he looked at the blinking locations of the Ifrit Vigilantez's Shrines.

A smiling Smoke was on a call. "...That's great, Sierra, I'm really happy for you. So, you're going to spend some more time there in Ardennes Forest while training your private army with your new Druid abilities?"
"Yeah, I don't know how long we will actually be staying. I'm guessing, a week or two?" replied Sierra with uncertainty.
"Two weeks should be fine. You'll probably arrive at the same time with our new Mercenaries from Mount Alouer."
"Okay, I'll see you back in Verbrannt. I wonder what Vigilantez would look like, but don't go posting a video like Amahan," she warned him. "That really pissed me off when I didn't see the Djinn's face."
"I won't be making a video about Vigilantez at all," he answered reassuringly. "Remember, I like to keep those private stuff for people I actually know."
"Good. Then, let's get to it," said Sierra affectionately. "Take care."
"Always," he replied with the same caring tone.
After Smoke ended his call with Sierra, he focused on finding his last shrine of Vigilantez. It had been a long time since it was only him and Igniz on a quest by themselves.
Without a doubt, he loved the company of his private army members, but he also longed for times like this.
While he was busy completing the Vigilantez Quest, Adder and Ledur had already started their ground work on Coatl's invasion.
The two of them led the other core members and had a third of the Vigilantez's army at their disposal. Together, they discreetly started making a base of operations near the Heraldic City.
Not to be outdone by his core members, Smoke intended to collect the remaining three essences of Vigilantez.
After two days of gliding from Mount Alouer, Smoke finally saw one of Wysteria's active volcanoes, Mount Gar. He landed safely away from it.
He then checked the specific coordinates of the shrine, and realized that it pointed him to a cave on the side of the volcano.
"Igniz, stay alert," he reminded his symbiote as the two of them walked towards the cave.
His dark ember sprite lit up his purple flames as if to signify that he was ready for anything.
Smoke often had to grab a hold on the side of the volcano due to the ground shaking without warning as varying tremors occurred.
As they entered the cave, dusts and pebbles kept falling down from the ceiling. Smoke and Igniz found themselves at the entrance of a long corridor, barely wide enough for him to squeeze into.
"Lead the way," Smoke ordered his symbiote as the tunnel steadily grew dimmer.
He was sweating profusely after ten minutes of walking sideways, he found himself turning right. He then saw an orange light at the end of the tunnel.
Once he exited the narrow corridor, he found that he was in one of Mount Gar's magma chambers. He wiped the sweat from his forehead as it felt extremely hot, but was surprised to see that he could tolerate the lava's heat.
'It must be because of my high Fire Resistance,' he surmised.
Looking around the fiery chamber, he found an inscription on one of the walls.
 

He searched around the magma chamber, and found no other entrance or writings. His dark ember sprite, no bigger than a ball, whizzed around at blinding speeds. Igniz was desperately signaling him to look across the lava.
There, he saw  another ledge. Upon further inspection, he found that there was one more crevice on the other side.
"Good work, Igniz," he said proudly. Smoke glided across the lake of lava while his dark ember sprite flew by his side.
Smoke found that the cave itself was as wide as the tunnel he had passed earlier. However, the opening was not as wide as the rest of it. He tried to use his Earth Manipulation to open the wall, but received an annoying notification window instead.
 

"Guess, we're going to have to do this the hard way," said Smoke to Igniz.
Equipped with the pickaxe which he got from Franz Briar, Nanahuatl's resident Farmer, Smoke started widening the entrance of the cave. His symbiote also helped out by melting the sides of the entrance, making the earth softer.
After thirty minutes of manual labor, the two of them entered the tunnel. Due to his minute size, Igniz easily flew in. Whereas, Smoke had to enter sideways once more.
About two hundred meters into the cave, they were abruptly met with a dead end.
"Igniz, can you look around if there's another opening? Check all directions. Upward, downward, any which way you can think of," ordered Smoke.
His symbiote searched every inch of the tunnel, but found nothing.
"Are you sure?" he asked, annoyed.
Igniz shook his entire body sideways. From his symbiote's apologetic eyes, Smoke could tell that he did his best.
"Forget about it, let's head back. Maybe there's another opening," he said in a calmer tone.
After the two of them went out of the second tunnel, they tried searching for another opening. Yet, no matter where they looked, they did not find one.
Standing in front of the inscription, Smoke noticed that the word "forward" was italicized in a discreet manner.
"Why didn't I think of this before?" he suddenly asked Igniz.
He then reached out, and pressed “forward” as hard as he could.
He felt the area around him shake as an opening on the wall began to take shape. Slowly, a door on the right side of the inscription appeared.
In frustration, Smoke strongly scratched his head. "Looks like it was literally telling us to push forward," he said to Igniz. "Come on. Let's go inside."
As soon as they entered the room, a flying orb of flames appeared in front of them.
SHUT
Smoke immediately turned around and found that the door instantly vanished. Only the flying orb of flames and Igniz were the source of light inside the sealed chamber.
"Welcome! You have entered the realm of our lord, Vigilantez," said the fiery orb. "We shall test your power over the flames."
The flying orb intensified its fire, and revealed a set of black rocks directly below it, arranged neatly in a square formation.
"Defeat our flame guardian within the given time limit, and you shall receive the essence of our lord, Vigilantez," said the orb, and it floated higher up revealing the size of the chamber as it illuminated it.
The chamber had a floor area of only fifty square meters.
'Not that big enough to maneuver around in,' realized Smoke as he took out his twin lightning rods. The black rods emitted a small amount of electricity around them, when he placed them together.
Suddenly, he caught movement from the corner of his eye. Smoke turned his gaze on the rocks below the orb, and found that they had formed into a black tiger with flowing lava for its stripes.
Igniz fired at the flaming monster, but caused no damage. However, it did reveal its name and life bar, Magma Tiger (600,000/600,000 HP).
A timer then appeared in Smoke's line of sight.
 

"Five minutes?" cried out Smoke in disbelief.
He had no doubt that he could defeat the magma tiger, but he was not sure that he could do it within the given time frame.
For the time being, this was a one on one fight, as Igniz could offer him no help. This lava monster was clearly immune to fire.
The magma tiger chuffed at him while pacing back and forth, sizing him up. Smoke felt that the monster would pounce at him at any given moment.
Due to the lull of the opening battle, he quickly threw his own rocks, but these were not only black, they also had silver among them. Not only that, they were also metallic. He also threw two electro stones and used one of his rings' active ability, Golem Creation.
The magma tiger was taken by surprised as two metallic golems suddenly surrounded it.
The created monsters were slow, but the stupefied lava monster was not able to react in time. Smoke's golems caught the tiger with their arms. One of them held onto the magma tiger's head while the other squeezed the monster's body tightly.
Smoke then leapt on top of the magma tiger and began attacking its spine. his twin rods made only 1,000 damage points on the fire beast. He struck swiftly, and was able to do sixteen strikes.
In response, the magma tiger moved around recklessly. Smoke thought that the lava monster could not move as his golems were extremely strong.
However, he was proven wrong. With one quick motion, the magma tiger pinned the golem holding its head against the wall. The lava from its stripes then overflowed and melted the golem's arms.
Smoke turned around, and found that the same thing was happening to the golem holding its body. Yet, this was not the most alarming thing. His life bar got reduced by 600 points, as the lava stripes on the magma tiger's back also damaged him.
Hurriedly, he leapt off the fire beast. Smoke brushed off the lava which stuck to his pants, revealing burn marks on them.
'That's a first,' observed Smoke. He then checked the monster's life bar, which displayed (584,000/600,000 HP).
He couldn't decide whether he should gamble using Lightning Strike or conserve his mana for his other abilities.
Before he could come to a conclusion, the magma tiger charged at him with its claws. He evaded the monster's initial attack, but couldn't dodge the lava that flew afterwards.
This time, he was damaged for 1,600 points. He checked the time and found that he only had three minutes left.
Distracted and bewildered, Smoke was not able to dodge the magma tiger's second charge. The lava beast pounced on him and caught him by its claws.
It opened its jaw wide and took a bite at his shoulder and left arm.
"Aaaahhh!" cried out Smoke in agony. He was damaged for 30,000 points. His life bar displayed 80%.
The magma tiger then let out its lava, and it trickled down on Smoke. Due to his Fire Resistance, the damage was minimal. Yet, a constant damage of 600 points continued on for ten seconds.
Struggling to break free, the pinned down Smoke threw the lightning rod on his right hand at the magma tiger's eye.
It hit the lava beast, and the monster backed away in pain. He was able to roll away while collecting the thrown weapon.
He brushed off the dried lava, and revealed a tattered armor. Fortunately, his cloak was undamaged by the magma tiger's attacks.
The flaming beast then charged at him again, but this time Smoke was able to dodge its claws and the lava that it threw.
However, the lava monster spun around and its fiery tail hit Smoke on the chest, knocking him hard against the wall.
The magma tiger then rushed towards him. He then used his Hyper Jump ability and retreated across the chamber.
"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath, as he didn't realize that its tail could also attack.
Desperate, he placed his twin rods together and used its Lightning Strike ability. His lightning attack hit the magma tiger squarely in the head, and the small chamber was engulfed in a blinding light.
When it became clear again, he saw that the lava monster's life bar was only reduced to 65%.
"Great!" he said sarcastically. He racked his brain for ideas. Now, he had less than 22% on his mana bar. He switched out to his white metallic staff, in hopes of finishing the magma tiger with one energized strike.
Yet, he noticed a flashing red window notification.
 

Then, the flame orb descended and absorbed the fire from the magma tiger, extinguishing its lava. The fiery beast turned into a black volcanic statue. A second later, it crumbled to the ground.
"Your time is up!" said the flame orb bluntly. "You could have defeated the beast in less than a minute, if you were a worthy person of my lord's powers."
"Wait! What happens now?" asked a worried Smoke.
"The remaining shrines of Vigilantez will disappear from Zectas," explained the flying orb. "Fear not. For it will return to the plane of existence after a year has passed. You may, however, keep your one essence."
"No! I really need to get Vigilantez—" Smoke wasn't able to finish begging the flaming orb as he and Igniz were teleported outside Mount Gar.
He tried searching for the cave on the side of the volcano, where he had just entered, but found that it was no longer there.
"At least it isn't permanent," he said to his symbiote, as he tried to be optimistic.
Igniz orbited around him rapidly, as if trying to console him.
"Don't worry, Bud," said Smoke. "It's just like my Mima always tells me. When one door closes, you just have to find that open window and climb through."
 

* * * * * * 

After almost four days of gliding, Smoke arrived in Verbrannt. The village that they had resurrected had grown once more.
The forest of Anbau was now fully closed off by Verbrannt's new wall. The wandering Lioumerean tribes were now settled in. A good number of the trees were cut down, to make room for their houses and farms for their mouflon, a sheep-like creature with red to brown wool and the horns of a ram.
Sierra and her Druid Priests and Priestesses have not yet arrived as they were still training in Ardennes. Only Mamelon and Guro were taking command of the village.
Guro and the refugees from Tatlong, Lugar, and Pinagsama have used Ledur's dam well. They had even extended the irrigation canals into the area of the Lioumereans.
Verbrannt now had several layers of wall protecting it. It was reminiscent of the fortified places he had been to, like Coatl and Mount Alouer.
From above, he quickly spotted the busty blue armored beauty. Mamelon was making preparations near the Lioumerean's homes.
Smoke observed that she had all of her Elemental Knights and Shamans with her. All the members of her group were already mounted and ready to go.
'I wonder where they're going?' thought Smoke to himself, and dropped down near them.
SWISH
Louche and Earat, the only Halflings in Mamelon's group, were closely riding their mounts in between Smoke and their beloved leader.
"Hey, guys," said Smoke to the Halflings, and easily walked past them.
"Mamelon, how are you?" asked Smoke politely as he looked up to her, mounted on her bronze jackal.
"Oh, Smoke, you're back. It's good to see you," she replied with a smile. She quickly got off her mount and shook his hand. "Where's Ilad this time? Even though that Centzo mission was very important, he still wasn't there."
"He was helping me out with the Vigilantez Quest," explained Smoke. "Unfortunately, it didn't go very well."
"What? That same Quest again? How difficult could it be?" she asked, unconvinced. "I even saw Amahan obtain his own Djinn."
"It's really hard. In fact, we failed the quest and won't be able to take it for another year," said Smoke.
"One year? Wait, then that means Ilad should be free from any of your pending quests!" excitedly exclaimed Mamelon.
"Yes, about that—" Smoke paused as he concocted a place where his other persona was. "He is with Ledur and Adder as we speak. He is preparing for our invasion on Coatl."
"But I told him of how you fought bravely in Centzo. And he wants to offer you a gift. I asked him if I could give it to you, but he said that he would like to give it to you personally," he explained as he didn't have any precious equipment he could award her with on hand.
"I, however, would like to offer you five-thousand Mercenaries to serve under you," began Smoke. "They're scheduled to arrive about a week from today."
"What am I supposed to do with five thousand Mercenaries?" asked Mamelon.
"Well, for starters, you can take on quests offered to them from the Avendre Headquarters," began Smoke. "They'll get paid, and of course you'll get a share of the payment as well."
"That sounds interesting," she said intrigued. "Thanks, Smoke, I appreciate it."
"But there's a catch," quickly added Smoke.
"Man, I thought you weren't one of those guys," groaned Mamelon. "You want a share of the profits?"
"No! Of course not," Smoke strongly denied her assumption. "The thing is, the Mercenaries still have very low levels. So, you need to raise their levels yourself."
"Just how low is this low you're talking about?" she asked dubiously.
"About level 30?" guessed Smoke.
"That doesn't sound too bad," she replied. "I think my men and I can work with that. I'm really looking forward to taking on Avendre related quests."
"Yeah, me too," said Smoke. "So, where were you headed to?"
"Oh, we were originally about to go on another village rescue, but since the Brandals have been defeated, there are no more threats to the villagers," explained Mamelon. "Courant and Virer suggested that we go aardwolf hunting."
"That's a really great idea," Smoke said to the Electro Knight and the Flame Knight next to her.
"Yeah, with the increase of our Arcus we need more aardwolves to pull their war chariots," said Courant.
"But, honestly, we're just in it for the money," explained Virer. "Cheri has been very demanding a lot lately. She wants to double the size of the house that we're suppose to live in, and she's been asking me to triple her bridewealth."
"I see," replied Smoke, without understanding what the Flame Knight was talking about. "But gaining money is always a good thing. I'm just realizing that lately," he added as he remembered his intention of paying off all the debts of the incoming Avendre Mercenaries.
"Aime is just the same, she's been nagging on about getting a farm in her bridewealth as well," said Courant.
"Hm. I think you should talk to Thyrsus about all of this. I think he can help you out with most of the things that you need," suggested Smoke. He then moved closer to Mamelon and whispered to her. "Who are Cheri and Aime?"
"They're Zectian sisters, who Virer and Courant are trying to marry. Apparently, they'll only marry them if they can match their bridewealth," explained Mamelon. "If you ask me, I think the two of them just bit off more than they can chew."
"Are you serious about that?" asked Virer eagerly.
"Smoke, you're sure you can help us out?" added Courant with the same gusto.
"I don't see why not, but let's keep this between ourselves," said Smoke in a hushed voice. "I'm not sure I can extend the same courtesy to all of the Elemental Knights."
"Yeah, yeah. Of course, just as long as you've got the two of us covered," said Virer excitedly, and slapped Courant's chest.
"Mamelon, we better go," said Courant, and pointed to the crowd of Elemental Knights and Shamans walking towards them.
"Alright, I won't keep you any longer," said Smoke to Mamelon and her core members.
"See you around, Smoke," said Mamelon. "We'll be back with a big haul of aardwolves. I think we'll arrive before the Mercenaries get here."
"Just plan on your training methods for them. After all, five-thousand Zectians is quite a lot," reminded Smoke.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. We'll train them hard," assured Mamelon. "And we'll make sure that none of them will die."
Smoke smiled and stepped away from Mamelon and her mounted regiment. "Great! That's what I want to hear," he said to her while he thought up of his own training methods.