Inverse System

The ferry landed on the port of Aj'ess, everyone disembarking from the ship onto the wooden dock. Clyde pointed in a direction, which was where the city was and began leading the way, the group following his lead as they walked through the vast, lush green field, the wind blowing through the grass, forming waves in the blades of green. The weather was slightly cloudy, but the blue sky was clearly visible.

It was an incredibly freeing feeling walking through the path, the calm atmosphere and the soft breeze enchanting their senses as they walked through the eastern island.

They eventually arrived at the city, which was filled with Japanese-style buildings, small, litter-free streets in between all of the buildings.

"We should head over to the town center. Since this request was issued by the city, we should be able to get some information about it through the receptionist," Clyde suggested, pointing to a tall, wide temple-looking building in the back of the city.

They made their way there and entered the town center, the walls lined with white paper walls, and rich wood floors and ceiling, with fancy glowing chandeliers dangling down. They were made out of a glowing mineral, but not glow stones, which were incredibly rare and powerful.

They talked to the receptionist, who gave them information about the goblin lord's sightings. She gave them a map of the island, with 3 different red markings on different points of the island.

(Click here to see visual)

They thanked the receptionist and took the paper, walking outside of the town hall to further analyze the paper.

"Wow, these different sighting points are pretty far away from each other. And this was all in the past 2 days?" Quint remarked, looking over Clyde's shoulder to see the map.

"Either the bastards fast, or there's multiple, which would be a pretty big problem. We should nip this at the bud as fast as possible," Rein brainstormed. "Let's split into 3 groups and investigate each point. I'll go with Reggie. Clyde and Quint, you 2 can go together. Chloe and Xenia, you 2 go together," he assigned, pointing at each of them to group them up.

"If you see the goblin lord, don't fight it. We don't know how strong it is and I'd rather not take any unnecessary risks. Just inform us on your Ranger tablets and emit a signal which we can follow," Rein ordered.

"Is there any reason why you want to come with me?" Reggie posed, Rein smirking at him.

"So we can chat along the way," he answered.

"Sorry man, I'm not really in the mood to—"

Rein suddenly put his arm around Reggie's neck and dragged him away, waving at the other 4 he left behind.

"Well, see you guys later! Stay safe!" He said as he and Reggie left the city and headed for their point on the map.

As they got out of sight from the other 2, Rein let go of Reggie and began walking normally, his smile disappearing from his face.

"Tell me what's wrong," Rein said sternly, putting his hands into his pockets as he walked.

"..." Reggie stayed silent.

"Talk already. I'm not gonna pity you because you're sulking and shit. I know you wouldn't tell Quint no matter how much he asked you," Rein commanded, his voice raising with slight anger.

"..." Once again, Reggie said nothing at Rein's words, ignoring them as if he had said nothing.

"Let me guess, a girl dumped you, you failed the mission, someone kicked your balls…" Rein listed a few things, Reggie giving no reaction to anything he said.

"Not it huh? Well then… Does it have something to do with goblins?" Rein smiled as he said that, Reggie's body twitching as he heard Rein, looking up at him with a gaze of unbelievability.

"How did you…" Reggie uttered, his eyes widened.

"I didn't, but now I do. I noticed you seemed a little keener on doing the mission when I mentioned the goblin lord. And I can probably guess some things that happened while you were doing that mission with Sho and Clyde," Rein stated, making Reggie look down in despair.

"..." Reggie stayed silent again, the cold wind rustling his brown hair as they stopped in the middle of the grassy field.

"Tell me what's on your mind. You can trust me," Rein consoled, putting his hand on Reggie's shoulder.

"I don't know what to do man… This might be the same goblin lord as before…" Reggie shivered, induced by his agitation and by the cold wind that blew.

"The same one? Reggie, what do you mean?" Rein calmly asked.

"That day, Clyde, Prince Sho, and I all took an S class mission to an Econican mining village called Ardulum. They're known for their glow stone mining, and the Echo companies main source of power is mined from there.

The mining of glow stones has been known to cause natural disasters, and Ardulum was no exception. However, the civilians who still live there have grown used to the small earthquakes that occur from time to time, and they don't mind it.

The mission, however, outlined that a dragon, one of the rarest creatures on the continent, appeared out of nowhere above the city, then disappeared somewhere into the nearby mountains. That was what we were called to do. To slay the dragon.

We arrived at the village and greeted some of the villagers. We got acquainted with one of the village mythical experts, a young lady in her late teens. She was our guide and lead us to the dragon's cave.

However, when we arrived, it wasn't only a dragon we found, but also a tribe of goblins, who had somehow tamed the dragon and taken control of it. We 3 were able to kill the hordes of goblins that attacked us and directly confronted the goblin lord, who was the one controlling the dragon.

But he was much stronger than we expected. With his combined power and that of the dragons, we were brought to our knees. He took the woman we were with and flew off on the dragon, but not before attacking the village, using the dragon to burn it to the ground…"