Irregular - Chapter 8

Emmi POV

The three of them sat there shocked for a moment recovering from what just happened. “Wh-what IS she?” Davis stuttered as he stared at the girl being carried away in the distance, “Her arms were made out of cloth and strings! STRINGS! I’ve never even heard of a race like that! What kind of freak is she!” Talin nodded and bit his thumbnail, “The giant guy is odd, with his black eyes and his extremely pale skin, but you hear of a lot of weird people in stories, walking-talking animals, people with three eyes, or four arms, but people no longer made of flesh and blood? What kind of a monster did they pair us up with…

Emmi wiped her eyes, stepping towards the two. Grabbing Davis the closest to her by the collar. “Weren’t you idiots listening to her?!” She glared at the both of them, “She wasn’t born like this, this was done TO her.” She gave each of them a glare and started walking to the exit. “Gods, boys are so insensitive, if I ever hear the pair of you calling her a freak I will smack you from here to the third moon!”

Davis and Talin ran after her, Davis spoke up “You can’t honestly say that didn’t freak you out.” She almost glared a hole through his head when he used the word freak, “I mean it was strange to you too right? Her arm was made of STRING.” She heard Talin mumble “Makes you wonder what else is up with that giant, his muscles did seem to wriggle… when we mentioned his mother.” She glared at the both of them, “Well I for one am glad to be paired with people as unique as them, they are obviously legends in the making and I will make sure I’m a part of it, I’ll also take the lesson the giant taught me to heart!” She nodded seriously then started mumbling about new training schedules, and sword moves. “Lesson she said,” Davis scoffed, earning him another glare from Emmi. Not much later the three of them parted ways, heading to their respective beds.

—– Pov End ——

Three and Sumi were waiting outside the cave, next to a nervous Davis and Talin and an extremely determined looking Emmi. A few other groups stood outside the dungeon preparing their gear, checking weapons, and listening to the supervisor each team had been assigned. For their first dive, adventurers had volunteered to accompany them, each team had a higher level adventurer to watch over them making sure they came out of their first dive more experienced and most importantly, alive. That way the next generation of adventurers would have a proper chance of growing. Not all adventurers agreed with the way things were done, seeing even the younger generations as rivals that might one day take the jobs they themselves were gunning for. The friendlier adventurers rather enjoyed playing teacher for a day, a lot of the adventurers present were regulars that came back each year to help the kids with their dive. Only those above sixteen years of age were allowed to dive, most people vying to be adventurers did their first dive at the ripe age of sixteen, Three and Sumi were a year behind these younger adventurers, Emmi, Talin and Davis being eighteen years of age were two years behind.

They were waiting for their instructor, who was still in conversation with Cilestius. The adventurer that had been assigned to them was a bald dwarf, with a magnificent rust coloured beard that fell all the way down to his stomache. His head had some dwarven runes tattooed on the sides of his head with a line of them running from his forehead to the back of his head, the dwarf had an imposing scar, blinding one of his eyes, another scar adorned his neck, and claw-marks were visible on one side of his head. The dwarf nodded to Cilestius and headed to the group, Three noticed Emmi,Davis and Talin tensing. The dwarf walked up to them then spoke up with a rumbling low voice, “Which of ya be Sumi ‘n Three?”

Sumi spoke up meekly, “me and him.” She had lost a lot of her usual energy, a slow ripple of white passed over her skin, unnoticed by her but not by the dwarf.

“Be ya human?” The dwarf bluntly asked.

Emmi hissed and Three felt his own muscles tighten.

“I-I don’t know” Sumi softly mumbled.

“Pfa.” The dwarf spat to the side, “None here care if ya be human girlie, I ain’t human an’ I be feelin’ mighty fine about meself!” The dwarf said patting her on the shoulder, Three relaxed and Emmi’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Ya kno what we ‘venturers think be more important? Wether ya can smack a big arse monster upside tha head, can ya do that girlie?” The dwarf continued.

Sumi grinned, “I sure can mister boss dwarf sir!” Sumi told the dwarf.

“Good,” The dwarf grinned, “Well then ya need to be speakin about yerselfs, tell me what weapons ya prefer usin n what skills n tactics ya already know, startin with u, pointy ears.”

He said pointing to Talin, Three honestly hadn’t really noticed that Talin was an elf, he had heard about the race from the others but the way they told it they were immensely beautiful, had silver, white or black hair, were thin and elegant, with their overall identifier being the pointy ears. Talin however did not resemble the elves he had heard about, firstly his hair was a dark red, and sure he was thin, but there was no real elegance about him. He had some properly defined musculature as-well which was rare among elves, stranger still was how tan the boy was despite his red hair, perhaps he was a half-elf. Also he was rather tall, not as tall as Three himself but surpassing six feet for sure.

Talin just nodded and stepped forward, “My specialty is my bow,” he unwrapped the bundle he was carrying to reveal a humongous war bow almost as tall as the boy himself. “I received this from my father as he did from his, I have vowed that it will be the only weapon I use, I plan to specialize as a ranger once I reach level fifteen.”

“Cilestius told me bout the lot of ya, said you was a special group with a lot a potential, but each of ya got a quirk n that be the reason ya didn’t find ya self a team earlier, so boy, what be ya quirk.” The dwarf said staring him down despite his short stature.

“I’m not yet strong enough to fully utilize my bow.” Talin grudgingly admitted, “I can only shoot about ten arrows per hour at the moment before I start lacking in power. It takes me about an hour to recover.”

“Pfa,” The dwarf spit again, “That be no issue, ya should stick to ya vows, just prioritize yer enemies, leave the normal critters to ya team and shoot da mages or the sumwhat more dangerous critters, next!”

Talin smiled slightly at the dwarf’s reaction and nodded. Davis was the next one to step forward, Davis had long black hair that he tied in a bun, with two locks of hair hanging down the front of his ears on both sides, he had some stubble growing on his chin his eyes were a dark brown almost dark enough to be called black, the boy was on the short side being around 5,8 , he had a squat stature, his skin was slightly tan, overall he had what Three could only call a rough appearance, noticeable were the twin axes sticking out from his back, they were short and the handle was made of a darker wood, with the metal being a dark gray with strange tribal markings.

“I’m a rogue and plan to choose an assassin progression class, I use these two battle axes which also happen to be my ‘quirk’, I refuse to part from my axes the same way Talin refuses to part from his bow.”

“Tha might be more of a issue for later lad, a lot of a rogues n assassins skills are centered roun’ piercin’ attacks.” The dwarf grunted

Davis’s face soured, Three signed to Sumi, [If he needs to pierce, yet wants to continue using axes, why not add a blade to the top or the back?] Sumi blinked at him then grinned.

“Oi mr boss dwarf sir, and Davis-bun.” “Davis-bun?” Davis muttered to himself, “Three said why not just add a blade to the top or back of the axe so you can go stabby stabby with the things?”

Davis’s jaw dropped as he stared at the girl, then to Three, then back to the girl. “I’m an idiot!” He shouted, “Why the frogbiscuitunderworldstickdwellers didn’t I think of that, You’re brilliant!” He said walking up to Three and patting the large man on the shoulder, “That will do, that will do, brilliant, simply brilliant!” Davis continued heaping on praises almost glowing with happiness, guess he must really be attached to those axes. Three was taken aback by character reversal, from stoic to bouncy, way too much like Sumi. Three frowned at the thought.

The dwarf nodded thoughtfully, “Ya that would work, will need to a bit of tinkerin on those axes once we get back then boyo. Alright next!”

The next to speak up was Emmi, she was tall for a girl at around six foot, only slightly shorter than Talin. Her shoulders were broad, but that did not detract from her femininity, she had her dark hair in a pony tail, bangs hanging on either side of her face. She had amber eyes that glinted in the sunlight, also a somewhat stern face, determined. Her skin was on the paler side, but nowhere near as pale as Three’s. “My name is Emmi Furvenhart, and my weapon of choice is the greatsword, My ‘quirk’ such as it is.” She scoffed at that part, furrowing her brows, “Is that I want to be the party leader.”

“That be ya quirk?” The dwarf asked her frowning, “Yes that is my quirk” she answered.

“Why this be a quirk, nothin be wrong with a female leader, no matter, do the rest of you agree with her being the party leader?” He grumbled.

“Me and Talin already accepted her as our leader, she’s actually pretty damn good at it.” Davis said shrugging. Everyone stared at Sumi and Three, Three just shrugged, he didn’t want to do it, and he thought Sumi wasn’t well suited for the job so Emmi might as well do it.

“Fine with us Big Stick, you get to be the boss!” Sumi said grinning at her. Three could see Emmi mouthing big stick, furrowing her brows even further.

“Right then, wha about the two of yas?” The dwarf said pointing to them.

Three stepped forward first, he tapped his chest.”I big, body strong, I shield.”

The dwarf nodded with a smile, “Ya want to be a vanguard? Right at the front of the battle facing the wave of monsters and their bloodlust head-on?” Three nodded his consent, “Ha, ya be a good fit for that me thinks, I also be a vanguard, our role is dangerous but if we do it right yer party be all the stronger for it, what be ya weapon of choice?”

Three shrugged, “Never use weapon.”

“Ya haven’t used a weapon yet eh? Then how about I teach ye about me own weapon, I be usin this baby here called a Mual, it be a heavy weapon so only strong fellas like you n me wield it, to top it off I have this beauty of a dwarven shield to protect meself and me party, altho I be thinkin a tower shield would suit ye best.” The hammer the dwarf pulled out was a really heavy looking war-hammer with golden engraving on the steel head. The shield was a layered square block that was drawn into a point at the bottom, The dwarf explained that he could extend the point with what little mana he had to wedge it into the ground, giving him the extra sturdiness he needed to withstand even the heaviest of charges, he explained proudly that a calvary charge would smash themselves to pieces against a proper dwarven shieldwall.

Three eyed the weapons with interest and nodded to the dwarf, eager to have weapons of his own.

The dwarf smiled at his newly found student and told him they could get his equipment from the cart of spare weapons and armour that Cilestius had brought with him.

Then the dwarf looked at Sumi the last one to speak. Sumi still had her dark-blond messy hair in a ponytail with bangs, bright green eyes, her heart shaped face was almost always glowing with excitement, and her energetic smile could easily light up a room. Her skin was neither tan nor pale and was for all intents and purpose normal, disregarding the fact that she was made from string and cloth or that a color would ripple over her skin if she felt a particularly strong emotion. She was short, barely above a 5,4 , but her presence made up for her lack of size.

She stared at the dwarf, “Mr dwarf boss sir, you still haven’t told us your name!”

The dwarf blinked, Three blinked, The rest blinked. “Ya be right girlie! I be so into this teacher thing I forgot!” The dwarf let out a deep barreling laugh, “Well let me introduce meself, better late then never I always say! I be Grimli Bruntherfust, pleasure to be makin yas acquitance!”

“A pleasure!” Sumi said grinning, “I be Sumi, I be havin a body made of strings and cottons and cloths, I be havin a strong body, I have no beauty of a warhammer to call me own, mr dwarf boss Grimli sir.” The short girl said imitating the dwarfs accent with a huge smile. The dwarf wasn’t offended in the least and roared with laughter patting Sumi hard on her back. “I knew ya be a fun lil human girlie, Ya still be a bit to tall for dwarves or I’d be introducin ya to me son n the family,”

Sumi grinned down at him “I’d be honored to be introduced!”.

“Well the party be filled with physical abilities, how would ya like bein a mage, throwin fire n thunder around?” The dwarf said still grinning.

“Sounds like fun sir!” Sumi said saluting the dwarf.

Grimli laughed and nodded, “Well head on over to the mage then he be teachin ya a couple spells the quick way to get ya started, the rest of yas get prepared and get some suplies, me n giant over there will be gettin ‘im a weapon n shield and I be teachin him how ta use them, in three hours we be headin inside the dungeon!”

Each of them headed off to do the tasks assigned to them, Three had to admit he was somewhat excited about entering the depths.