Book Two – Chapter One – Part One – Announcement

“There we go!” A pink tail swooshed and swished around as Momo stored her diary in her bag. Momo was a Singi – a cat person with cat ears and a cat tail – and her bag belonged to her grandpa. He gave Momo his bag, the diary, and his sword before leaving on her journey to follow in his footsteps.

“Momo!” A girl’s voice came from the door, followed by another knock.

“Coming!” Momo replied as she slipped her black sleeveless leather armor over her chainmail, another present from her grandpa. Her white undershirt, black leather pants, and black boots etched with a pink cat on the side was something she bought for herself. She tapped her side and hip.

Let’s see….. Two potions…grandpa's sword...bag…. Yep! I got everything.

Momo took one last look around her tiny room and smiled. Though it was supposed to be a temporary room to stay in, Momo had come to think of it as her home. It’s been a long month since she met Servi, who she considered to be her very best friend. Of course, she wouldn’t say it to her face because she thought it embarrassing. And there was always the chance that Servi wouldn’t feel the same about her.

Another knock came from the wooden door, and Momo took a deep breath before she opened it. A girl, about the age of twenty, stood on the other side. She had shoulder-length black hair that was a bit wavy, and her bright red eyes looked like an inferno. Brown leather armor that had a green cape covered her fair and beautiful chest. Brown reinforced leather pants with black boots protected her lower body and feet. Two pouches were fastened to her hip.

Unlike her Momo's armor, Servi’s armor wasn't sleeveless, and there was a reason for that. She was the tank of the two-man group. She was in charge of getting the enemy’s attention and taking the damage while her partner did most of the offensive work. But it wasn’t like she took attacks barehanded. No, she had an evil and ominous shield on her left hand. It was a heater shield, and it was bigger and heavier than other shields of the same type. And for regular people, the beefier shield would be somewhat useless.

Servi wasn’t exactly normal. She had a Goddess by the name of Itarr resting inside her. After waking up near a forest on April 30th, Servi wandered around a while before succumbing to injuries Servi had suffered after stealing food. When she died, she met a humanoid figure of red energy that called itself Itarr. By eating her essence, her body, Itarr was able to bless Servi, though not in the standard way. Her skills: True Immortality and Absorption were passed on to Servi. The first meant she was unable to die. It didn't matter how much damage she sustained; Servi couldn't venture off to the afterlife. It was the main reason she took on the tank role. The second skill allowed Servi to absorb the souls of her fallen enemies. By doing so, she took their strength and abilities for herself.

When the two skills combined together, it was child's play for Servi to wield such a heavy shield with minimum effort. Even if her arm began hurting, True Immortality would kick in and heal any damage or discomfort she sustained.

“Hello, there!” said the immortal girl to her unknowing friend, who knew absolutely nothing about Servi's circumstance. She thought many different times about telling Momo about her situation but couldn’t find the proper way. Even though she knew that the longer she waited, the more painful it would be.

“Sorry if I made you wait. I was writing in a journal my grandpa gave me.” The pink-haired Singi smiled bashfully as her fair skin took on a reddish hue.

“I didn’t have to wait. So, what shall we do first? The forum starts at 11, right?”

“11:30, but I’m hungry. How about we eat some breakfast before a bit of training?”

Servi smiled. “That sounds good to me. Let’s head on down.”

Momo closed and locked her door before she took her place beside her friend. Together, they descended the stairs to the kitchen and restaurant, and they took a seat at the closest available table.

The area was big and open, with tables and chairs filling out the empty space.  Oddly enough, it wasn't filled up. Around seventy percent of the tables were vacant, and as Servi glanced around the floor, she saw a particular Earth Elf, an Elf whose skin tone was similar to dirt, named Nimea.

Nimea was, as Servi would put it, a dickhead and a jackass. He tried to convince Momo to leave Servi and join him and two others when they first went to the training room. The Earth Elf even resorted to insults about Servi and her lack of proper equipment. Once he found out that Servi was the tank, he said she was too cheap to get a shield and too poor to take care of her equipment. And that pissed Momo off. In a moment of passion and anger, something she was not prone to, she told off Nimea and defended her friend. That one incident ended any and all ties between the two.

But now, when Servi thought back to it, she thought it was funny. She was broke at the time, only having a few hundred dupla to her name, but after the raid on the Governor’s Mansion, she found herself amongst the wealthiest people in the world. Thirty million dupla, hundreds and hundreds of expensive jewels and jewelry, and twenty complete sets of nadrium armor were at her disposal.

Nadrium was gathered from meteorites that fell to the ground from the heavens above. When crafted into weapons and armor, it left behind blue lines that glowed and pulsed.  Being both lightweight and durable, it was the perfect material for protective gear and offensive weaponry. It was surreal.  One piece of nadrium equipment sold for hundreds of thousands, and she had twenty complete sets of armor.  That didn't include the various nadrium weaponry she 'acquired' from the previous governor's stash.  Servi had all this wealth that was more than enough to feed a large city for decades, and she couldn't do a thing with it.

Of course, all that wealth didn’t come freely. Servi had to fight and kill and maim and burn hundreds of soldiers throughout the night of May 2nd and the morning of May 3rd. Literal rivers of blood were spilled for her to gain those riches, but they weren’t the main reason she did such horrible things. When she first acquired Itarr’s power, Servi said she wanted to fight and protect those who couldn’t do it themselves. Whether they were physically or mentally incapable didn’t matter. She desired to help.

And so, during her last nightly stroll through the city, she came upon two cousins: the Earth Elves Llamare and Liealia. Servi fought with them to destroy three slave markets and freed the slaves held inside. Servi did so with a smile on her face. Afterwhich, they mentioned they were looking for someone named Parrel. He was the supposed ringleader of this whole slavery operation. Servi found out a day before that that he lived in the giant mansion overlooking the city. She relayed that information, and they launched an attack on his home. They fought their way up and eventually killed Parrel.

Along the way, they encountered a butler named Albert Crysalerek. He wasn’t a bad man at heart, and the only reason he was loyal to Parrel was out of respect for his father, Emperor Virin Keywater. Albert was to be executed, and he was only saved by Virin's good graces. He became loyal to Virin, and eventually, he moved that loyalty to his son. Albert quickly realized that was a mistake. Parrel was someone who deserved a most painful death, but due to his pledge of allegiance, Albert couldn’t betray his master.

Even Llamare and Liealia wished they could've met Albert under different circumstances.

Servi swore to Itarr that she would complete the trial required to unlock Necromancy. She vowed to bring back Albert from the dead. She kept all of this secret from the two Earth Elves.

Servi was a girl who had not only had power over the dead. She could also control time, manipulate the elements, and alter reality with just a spoken word. Of course, she couldn't use such incredible power.  Not yet, anyways.  She was required to complete a trial, though she didn't know where it was or what it was about.

The Warden office consisted of five floors. The first floor belonged to the lobby. It was where people could sign up, take, and turn in quests in which they would get paid in both dupla, the currency, and Potential, the abstract source of power that allowed Warden members to learn skills via their ID.

Everybody, with no exceptions, was born with the ability to summon a stone tablet. It held their name, Warden Rank, if they’ve joined, their blessed God, and skills.  It was universally called an ID, and since everyone had one, it was engraved in daily life. Even taking and turning in a quest at Warden required the use of an ID.

“I’m thinking I might get the veggie omelette. What how about you?” Servi asked as she pulled out some dupla from her ring by using one of her pouches as a proxy. Since Servi wanted to keep her unique abilities hidden, she used a small pouch as a proxy to retrieve small items from her ring.

“I woke up pretty hungry, so I might get the pork and sausage breakfast stew with bread and—”

“And a glass of milk? Good choice.”

“Yep! If I can help it, I try to drink some milk every morning.”

There’s a stupid rumor going about that drinking milk makes your boobs bigger. It sounds foolish, but there’s always a chance. Momo thought. She loved milk and wanted a bigger chest, so it was a win-win situation for her.

The two friends chatted a bit after they paid the server, and a few minutes later, the scent of freshly cooked food invaded their noses.

The veggie omelette had steam coming off of it, proof it literally came off the stove. Onions, tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms filled it to the brim. The omelette itself had a gorgeous yellow shine, indicating that the eggs used were of high quality. A type of cheese sauce covered the top of the omelette, and Servi’s mouth was watering. To top it off, a tall glass of milk sat beside the wooden plate.

As an immortal being possessing the skill True Immortality, she never felt the pangs of hunger or thirst, nor did she need sleep.  Even after running all night, she never produced any sweat or smells. But it wasn’t like she didn’t want to eat. After all, she enjoyed eating tasty food and drinking delicious drinks.

Compared to the wooden plate of hot food, Momo had a wooden bowl of pork and sausage stew, complete with onions, carrots, peas, garlic, and tomatoes. A pinch of both sweet and regular paprika covered the top. Momo stared at her scrumptious bowl in front of her and picked up the wooden spoon.

“Hey, it might be a bit hot, so wa— Yep. Told you.”

In a fluid motion, Momo filled her spoon and put it in her mouth.  She only had a small second to enjoy the meaty flavors before she desperately reached for her milk. Taking a big gulp, she put the glass back down and smiled in relief. Unfortunately, milk only temporarily soothed a burning tongue, and the pain came back.

“Ouch, my tongue….” her cute face had an uncomfortable expression of pain as she blew on her bowl of food to cook it down. The two pointy cat ears folded down on themselves as her tail stopped moving. Servi couldn’t help but chuckle.

“If only I knew Remedium,” Servi said.

“I don’t really know how useful Remedium would be with such a tiny wound like a burnt tongue, but thank you.”

You do know it. The voice talking to Servi was Itarr, a Goddess who was banished and sealed away. She was also the one Servi found when she died. Even though Servi had to kill the Goddess by eating her essence, Itarr stuck around as a voice in Servi’s head that talked to her. The body was no more, but the mind remained.

Like Servi, the Goddess's memory was gone. The two decided to search for their memories together. After a day or so of being together, Servi discovered Itarr didn’t know that much about human emotions. When she described the sentiment of love to Itarr, Itarr thought love was doing anything to make the one she loved happy. That was her own interpretation of it. Ultimately, she decided she loved Servi. Helping and accomplishing Servi’s goals was what Itarr wanted to do the most. She wanted her memories, but to her, Servi was more important than that.

The conversation they had had was cute. In the end, Servi ultimately decided that she did carry feelings for the Goddess because of their similarities. It wasn't that usual, then, for the two of them to develop feelings for each other.

When asked by Itarr if she loved Momo, Servi said she didn’t know. Other than her, Momo was the only friend Servi had and quite possibly the person with the most common sense. She told Itarr that a few days wasn’t long enough to determine if she loved her, to which Itarr became worried about the love she felt for Servi. Realizing Servi made a mistake, the black-haired girl quickly explained it to Itarr. She said the love they shared was as real as they come. Considering their unique situation, it was clear they relied on each other. Servi was thankful that was enough to extinguish the worry in Itarr’s heart.

As her bowl cooled down enough, Servi smiled at her friend as she scooped spoon after spoon of the stew to her mouth. Her pink lips became brown.  After her pink tongue traced her lips, they returned to their original color.

Servi shook her head and was thankful Momo had her eyes on the hot bowl. She didn’t think she could come up with an excuse to give her, so she quickly shifted her attention to the now cooled omelette. Using her wooden fork, she tore off a piece and brought it to her mouth.

“Mmmm….” she unconsciously sounded out. The cheese sauce was still hot, and the mix of veggies combined to give her taste buds a flavor they wouldn't soon forget. Though it might’ve been awkward to most, the two friends enjoyed their breakfast in mostly silence. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have anything to talk about; the food was that good.

When the waiter came to take the plates away, Servi spoke to him. “Please, give my compliments to the chef. Today’s breakfast was delicious.”

“Me too. I never had stew as good as that,” Momo added on.

The waiter smiled, and he had scales where his skin should be. That was the telltale sign of a Koena: a scale person. Most Koena had scales that ranged from red to blue to black to white to pink to purple. They came in all sorts of colors, but the rarest one was green, which so happened to be the color of their waiter. He was like a walking emerald, and the light sparkled beautifully off his body.

“I’m so glad you two enjoyed it. I’ll be sure to convey your praise to the cooking staff.” He walked away with the two plates as the two girls downed the last bit of milk left in their glasses.

“Was it good?”

“Yep! Even my grandpa couldn’t make stew as good as that, and he was a good cook. What about your omelette? I might get that tomorrow morning.”

“The cheese sauce was really good. And the peppers were just spicy enough that it didn’t overpower the rest of the ingredients.”

“Oh man, I can’t wait until lunch!” Then it happened, the telltale sign of a happy Singi. Their tail. Since it was a part of their body, Singi had total control over it. But more often than not, it was like Momo's tail had a mind of its own.

“Why don’t we eat out for lunch? We still have a bit saved up, don’t we?” Servi asked as she watched Momo's tail.  It whacked the back of her chain. The thunking noise it produced was drowned out by the atmosphere.

“I still have a few hundred left. Ever since we discovered the cash building, I haven’t been hurting for money. So yeah, let’s try to find a nice spot.”

“Great. We still have some time before this thing starts, so how about we head on down to the training room?”

“Sounds good to me. You know, I’m even thinking I might get two bull’s-eyes in a row,” Momo stood up and pushed her chair in.

Servi did the same. “Really? Feeling confident?”

“Yep. I got a good feeling about today!” Momo replied as they walked across the suspiciously wooden floors that never had a speck of dirt. “I really think I’m getting the hang of it,” her pink tail swooshed so cutely, and Servi had to steel herself. She really, really, really, wanted to touch those furry pink ears and tail but couldn’t. She didn’t think they were close enough, and she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her friendship.

“Then let’s go.”