A Tamer’s Adventure

Random Tavern

It was nearing the end of the first week. Inside a bustling tavern sitting in a booth were three individuals. Martyn, next to him was Cory, the aburn-haired knight, and across from him was Axel, a young man with straight brown hair and dark brown eyes.

Right now, Cory chuckled, recalling Axel’s earlier troubles.

“Food poisoning isn’t funny,” Axel muttered.

Martyn raised a brow with a chuckle. “I mean, it is when you gained the poison resistance skill.”

Cory’ wheezed and tried his best to hold it in, Martyn too, and all this only made Axel flush further in embarrassment.

“Screw you guys,” Axel frowned, “and thank you for saving them.” He said to Martyn.

“Don’t mention it; a free meal and nice drink is more than enough.” Martyn muffled a burp, pushing his plate forward. “I could use another drink though,” he said.

Axel smiled at that, calling a waitress over, and the trio got a refill of their drinks.

“Kinda bummed winter came on time this year,” Martyn said, stirring his drink in hand.

“How come?” Cory asked.

“I had plans to visit my home with the girls,” Martyn wistfully sighed, “but the trip there will be too long in the winter.”

“Really? You’ve got that blink spell, right? Can’t you just get from one point to the other? I know it’s not real teleportation, but you move pretty fast.” Cory said.

“What about a mount?” Axel added.

Martyn hummed in thought before shaking his head at Cory’s suggestion. He went on to explain how the blink spell would demand more mana with more people.

"Besides, I could suffer from mana sickness if I drink a mana potion every time I need to stop,” Martyn said.

“But the mount idea doesn’t sound too bad.” Martyn nodded at Axel.

Cory sighed, “But man being a space mage must be nice.” He leaned back in his seat with a smile.

Martyn chuckled with a shrug. “It’s not all it cuts out to be; I’m a living mana supply for the kingdom, the protection is nice though and got me out of some trouble, but space magic is tough.”

“At least you’ve got magic; I’m stuck here with the basic shit everyone else knows,” Cory slumped forward.

“It’s not that bad,” Axel chimed in, patting Cory’s shoulder.

“Bah, don’t give me that.” Cory pushed himself away. “You have a special affinity, and you choose to be a hunter! Life’s not fair.”

Martyn looked at Axel, who nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, sound magic; it makes me a great scout and hunter.” He said.

“Nice,” Martyn nodded, impressed.

“Thanks, and you should stop and get over it. You're making a scene.” Axel rolled his eyes at his friend.

“Oh my god,” Martyn said, drawing both attentions. “I just realised you have the same name as the knight commander.”

“Nope, not doing this again, my name starts with a C, not a K, and we are not related; my parents just named me after him when I was born; turns out he disobeyed orders and saved my home town from a goblin horde that went unnoticed with his troops as a captain.”

“Huh, that’s nice.” Martyn smiled.

Cory nodded, and the three spent their time together talking about all sorts of things. As time flowed, Martyn wondered how Amber and Jade were doing.

 

Bathhouse

A blissful sigh left Jade’s lips. The hobgoblin girl had nothing but a small towel to cover her privates as she relaxed in the warm water of the spa.

“This is great,” Amber said from her side, her tail swishing back and forth in the water.

A giggle came from Liz, who sat across from them. “I like to come here after every mission or dungeon dive; it’s a nice place to relax.”

“Mn, I can tell why.” Amber nodded.

“It’d be great if we could come here with Martyn sometime,” Jade said.

At that, Liz spoke with a flushed face, “There are other inns in the city that have that option.” She stuttered, trying not to imagine Jade’s implications.

‘Would that work for a birthday gift?’ Jade pondered before thanking Liz.

“No problem,” Liz smiled. ‘Both of you must be doing it with Martyn regularly.’ She thought as her eyes darted down to both Amber and Jade’s chests, then down to her washboard flat surface, “Not fair.”

“Huh?” Jade glanced quizzically before seeing the dark-haired girl patting herself. “Hah, jealous?”

“Yes, I’m twenty, and I’m still like this,” Liz muttered.

“I thought a healer of the church would have to abstain from impure thoughts,” Amber said, glancing down at her chest size as a thought crossed her mind.

‘I hope it doesn’t grow with every evolution; otherwise, it’ll become a problem in battle.’

“Not really; we just have to stay pure and abstain from sex, drugs, and other things,” Liz said. “Forget that; let’s focus on the important things here.”

“Alright fine,” Jade huffed, rolling her eyes.

She lifted one arm and her other, making sure the small towel held onto her. She used one hand to measure the distance from her elbow to her wrist.

“Now for me as a goblin, it’s easy; I can stretch to fit slightly bigger sizes, though I have a limit and Martyn loves to push that, and I think Amber had to get used to it, but I’d say Martyn’s about this long, maybe a little shorter, but what’s amazing is how thick.”

Liz squealed, raising her voice, “What!? No!” She sank into the water, closing her ears.

“Really?” Amber said flatly.

“What she said is what’s important,” Jade chuckled. “Are all healers so innocent?”

“She is with the church of light.”

"Yeah, but still, it’s like she’s never seen a dick in her life.”

“For all we know that could be true,” Amber shrugged, moving her tail to Liz and signalling her to come out.

The water moved as the healer gasped for air. “Are you done?”

“Yeah, just messing with you, my bad,” Jade smiled.

Liz shook her head. “I’ll do everything to forget.”

The trio spent their time away in the spa talking about all sorts of things, from their times in the dungeon to recent news and any plans.

 

Assasins hideout

“There’s nothing else around, besides the body, the letter, and documents on the sword assassin.” The knight captain said to Commander Kory.

As of now, they stood in the ruins of the assassin’s outpost; upon arriving, the building exploded, and the beasts that were circling the area had come at their troops, inciting a battle between the two forces.

I took them an entire night to kill all the beasts, none perished, the commander saw to it, but many were injured and are in recovery.

“Hm, then let’s take the corpses and whatever else we can, and the golem core.” Commander Kory pointed beyond the burnt building.

Further ahead was a destroyed field littered with thick sword slashes that dug deeply into the ground. At the centre of all of it was a destroyed steel golem. While the knights fought the beasts, the commander faced the golem that emerged out of the burning outpost.

It was a fight of grand proportions, one that quite literally shook the earth; one he came out victorious.

“We’ll need to make a separate report as well.” The knight captain said, looking at the destroyed golem.

Commander Kory only nodded, his mind going elsewhere. ‘Another of the capital’s B-grade golem has shown up; even if it was used as a distraction, it means they have connections and more to spare, whoever’s stolen the schematics is getting better. Uh, I can already feel the paperwork.’ He mulled over everything in his head.

After having scouted the area and gathered all corpses, the knight squadron marched back to the city in the winter; it brought some excitement among the knights, all chatting about their plans for the holidays. They were a week away from the city, four days if they chose to run, but everyone opted to keep a steady pace.

“Commander, there’s a call for you. It’s from the city.” The Knight captain said handing over a crystal ball.

 

Space Mage Tower

“Hello?” Martyn called out, walking into the building. It was well into the evening, and after hanging out with Axel and Cory, he detoured here before heading back to the inn.

“Donald, are you in here?” He called for the Dryad but got no response. Walking to the front desk, he saw a note left on the table and read it aloud.

“To whoever reads this, I’m away on important business; feel free to take books you need; just mark them down in the registry; and don’t try to steal anything; everything has a tracker.”

Martyn shrugged, “Works for me.” He moved over to the library and scoured the collection of books. Using spatial awareness, he quickly found what he had been looking for.

“Ah, there it is.” He pulled the book back and read the title. It was an introduction to casting gravity spells, a branch of space magic. The basic entry book only touched the surface.

‘There should also be a mechanic book here for Jade.’ He thought of searching further. Soon enough, he found the book focussing on mixing space magic with magic engineering. Thinking Jade would be interested and that he’d need it for his plans. He signed them out and left the building.

The cold air brushed past him, and with a deep inhale, he sighed. He froze seeing many citizens looking up at the sky and muttering.

His tail and ears flickered as he tilted his head. He looked up but saw nothing, so he walked a bit further, hearing some bystanders mutter about the chances of what they were witnessing.

Stopping, he looked at the skies; the world stopped only for a second. A chuckle left him. “What are the chances?” He couldn’t help himself.

What he saw—what everybody saw—high in the sky, descending below a bed of clouds, a floating island. Martyn laughed at the odds.

“Crazy right? This makes it the third time I’ve seen one.” A bystander spoke to him.

Martyn nodded. “First time for me, and yeah, it’s crazy,” he said with a chuckle.

The reason for the gravity magic books, and the mechanical one for Jade, was he had pondered where they would live after becoming C-rank adventurers, as they only had to clear the 9th floor and enter the 10th to be eligible.

But Martyn didn’t want to be tied down to one place or have multiple homes, that would be a hassle. He promised Amber to explore the world, and the idea crossed his mind, he was sure Jade would also be thrilled to explore.

He did some simple research in the library and found his idea possible. So when thinking of where and how he’d take the girls with him, the idea that came to mind now floated in the sky above.

“Wait if it’s this close then." His adventurer badge flashed in a white light, and a voice came out of the badge.

“All adventurers, please return to the guild hall at your earliest convenience.”

“And there it is; well, I gotta go,” Martyn said to the man, who nodded, wishing him good luck.

Quickly checking the bond between Jade and Amber he felt their surface emotions, Jade came through as nervous while Amber was a bit thrilled.

‘Although we can’t buy floating islands as it’s too expensive, there are rules that allow me to make my own, including ones for space mages, which is nice.’ Martyn thought arriving at the guild hall.

 

Guild Hall

With spatial awareness, he could see everyone. As he entered the building, it was easy to find Amber and Jade through the sea of people. They sat in a booth with Cory, Axel, and Liz.

“You guys got here fast,” Martyn said.

“I came here to get something and heard the news, so I grabbed us a booth. I had to fend off two adventuring parties,” Cory said with a smile.

Martyn fist-bumped him and flickered in a flash of light sitting between Jade and Amber, kissing both on the cheek.

“So how are you feeling?” He asked Amber who flushed.

“Am I that obvious?” She said the ends of her tail were lacking back and forth.

‘Very.’ Everyone at the table nodded.

She huffed before speaking excitedly, “Isn’t it amazing? A floating island! Did you know they never existed before the war between dragons and titans? It’s said a Titan, with dual space and earth affinity, created them in a failed attack, putting in so much magic that they now rotate around the planet like satellites.” She with glee.

“Easy now,” Martyn patted her shoulder. ‘If she keeps talking like that, I’m going to want her to wear a teacher uniform next time.’ Martyn smiled.

“Then how come they’re still floating and going up and down?” Martyn asked curiously.

“We don’t know; none of the books mentioned why in the library it’s all just theory. The most popular is the Titan used a form of transmutation as well, so it just stays there and gets dragged by the change in mana pressures,” Amber replied.

“Cool,” Axel said.

“Nerd,” Jade muttered.

“You’re a nerd too, Tinkerer,” Martyn grinned.

Jade pouted, leaning into him hard, "Yeah, but I’m a cool nerd; I make bombs and explosions.”

“Sure thing,” Martyn mindlessly nodded, wrapping his tail around her beneath the table.

‘While I’m happy, this could also be trouble.’ Martyn looked through the sea of people, and the floor above surprised him. He locked eyes with Joseph, who smiled, waving at him. Martyn waved back.

“Attention please,” The buzz quieted down, and soon everyone’s eyes darted towards the reception. Standing on the desk was a male elf with short green hair and an equally matching beard. “As most of you have seen and are aware, a floating island has dipped into the range of our city.”

“With contributions from the city guard forces, the weather mage towers, and a local space mage, the island has been identified as a C-, potentially B-ranked threat from its mana signatures. Like most islands, its spatial mana disrupts any form of teleportation, so our local space mage cannot scout it ahead for us.”

“We can’t assess the monsters residing on it with our long-distance appraisals for the same reason, so it’s unknown what we will encounter. None of the trackers planted on previous islands have shown on this one, which means it’s an unclassified and undiscovered island.”

The guild leader paused with a smirk, and the adventurers erupted in cheers. Cory was the only one in the group who joined; Martyn smirked, and the others simply waited.

“Yes, free loot!” An adventurer shouted, making a second wave of cheers.

The guild leader’s smile faded as he quieted the roused crowd.

“Although I haven’t said we will be the guild to explore the island, we are. We have the most experience being the oldest guild. So remember to be professional. This will be different from the one five years ago, however. A majority of findings will sadly head to the city lord.”

“The fuck!?”

“This is bullshit!”

“For all we know, it’s an island full of fucking demons! And he gets everything!?” Another voiced his complaint.

“I’m well aware of how it sounds, and as much as I want to make things easier, my next words won’t.” He said with a calm tone, silencing all adventurers.

“He wants to anchor the island to the city with the aid of the appointed space mage. Along with the other two guilds in the city, we are to protect the island from what we’ve detected to be a monster tide coming towards the city, most likely attracted to the island’s mana. You will be compensated for this.”

With a snap of his fingers, papers shot forth from behind the guild leader, and a sheet flew into two-thirds of every adventurer around. None came to Martyn and the others.

“As the difficulty of the island has been measured, only respective adventurers or above are allowed on top; the rest of you will be down fighting against the monster tide when it arrives.” The guild leader said, looking across the crowd.

“Damn it all,” Cory frowned.

“It’s not all bad,” Liz said, and Axel nodded.

“…” Martyn hummed in thought.

“You're thinking about reaching C rank before the mission begins, aren’t you?” Amber knowingly asked.

“Yeah,” Martyn nodded.

“The only question is how long?” Jade said.

“From reading, the island will pass over the city in two days; the closest monster tide is predicted to hit us in three days.” The guild leader answered the crowd, who also had similar questions.

‘Is it worth it?’ Martyn thought, weighing the pros and cons.

Yes, they could dive into the dungeon, clear the 9th floor, and level up. But that would destroy their potential; right now the better option for a greater future was to stick to their plan; he hated it, Amber wanted to go but they couldn’t. If it had been later and not sooner.

“I don’t think we should.” Amber said to Martyn, “Better to focus on ourselves than what will only be one of many adventures.” She smiled.

Had he shown his frustration on his face? Did she feel it through the link? Martyn frowned upset at himself.

“Yeah, that’s probably the right thing to do,” Jade said, brushing Martyn’s tail.

“Yep, I agree,” Cory said nodding.

“That’s a lie,” Axel muttered.

“Shut up,” Cory said.

Martyn took a breath-holding snikering at them as the briefing continued. He paused a moment, an idea coming to mind. He pulled out his scroll from the inventory and, feeding his mana into the paper, sent a message to Donald.

The briefing continued for two more hours, explaining everyone’s roles, how the islands were going to be anchored, and when and where everyone was supposed to go. It was voluntary, but the vast majority were willing to work; they were adventurers after all.

 

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