WHAT ARE YOU BRATS DOING HERE!!
A voice screamed through the whole tavern, it was an old man barging through the door.
"Fest, we gotta run, there's no time to explain." Daniel smirked, leaving Festor Linen behind.
Festor Linen was shocked and started running too, they escaped the tavern and hid in an alley next to it.
"What was that? Why did we have to run? Is that old man strong?"
Festor Linen asked hurriedly, his body breathing fast.
"Its a long story, I didn't own the tavern, I entered it nine days ago to find out that it was getting robbed. The owner was not present. I pretended to be the owner and beat the hell out of them. I was protecting the tavern from more robbers and just didn't let any customer in."
Daniel was truly an angel in disguise, his polite and fierce face never appeared as if he was lying.
"About the nickname you just got, its cool." Ben added to their conversation.
"Oh, you think so? I just came up with it right at the moment. Festor is too long of a name to pronounce in a hurry, I thought I'd shorten it up."
"You guys are truly chaotic, so what did I sign up for?" Festor Linen asked them both.
"It appears these two are no different than me, they are just wandering about doing some random things."
Daniel and Ben looked at each other and then replied to Festor Linen.
"You didn't sign up yet, don't you think we need to test your abilities first?"
Ben swung his hand forward and snapped his fingers producing a mild shockwave, pushing back Festor Linen about a meter, dealing a blow to his chest and immobilizing his body for half a second.
Festor Linen had recognized the threat of the attack and the potency of Ben's magic. Instinctively, all of his practice he had done flashed in his mind. A thought recurred to his mind.
Your body is free to achieve everything, be calm, be fierce, but in whatever you do, be yourself.
Festor Linen copied Ben's movement, swinging his arm with added body rotation and mana strengthening, releasing an invisible air slicing strike towards Ben.
Ben sensed it and brought out his arm in a stance that negated the strike, still receiving almost major damage to his arm.
"What is your Kensho rank? It doesn't seem like a newbie skill to me". Ben was once again surprised by Festor Linen's ability.
"I haven't acquired my rank yet, I just instinctively performed this action".
Festor Linen shrugged as he spoke, taking those words as a compliment.
"You pass, we will be ravaging the Moon Benick Residency which had been abandoned since the last three hundred years. Intel has it that the secret Benick Grimoire wasn't destroyed, its still hidden in the mansion. If we get our hands on it, we will be able to get the whereabouts to the legendary artifacts and weapons, along with some high ranking magic spells."
Daniel Krohen was confident in his words. It was as if he was declaring his victory.
"We will leave this town right now and head to the place. It is sudden but I have already prepared supplies for our journey. We have to find it at the earliest."
The next thing Festor Linen knew was, they were staring at a large mansion, which of course was filled with nothing but silence. He thought
"This place looks so vacant, even a fly would increase the disturbance in air. Is this really the correct place to look for an ancient grimoire?"
Everything was going so fast paced since last morning, Festor Linen had met up with Ben and Daniel, earned two gold coins, had his magical ability used for a real attack and now he was standing at the broken and rusted gate of a mansion which was covered in algae.
Daniel observed the gate for a few seconds before he cued to enter. The whole mansion was covered in dust, there were no signs of insects. Ben looked around the mansion from the center and walked to a certain spot, then instructed Daniel and Fest to stand at an equal distance from the center as well as at equal distance from Ben and in opposites of left and right each side to him, forming an equilateral triangle.
The three spots on the floor were magical seals. Ben brought out a piece of paper from his pocket and threw it towards Festor.
"Concentrate your mana into your feet and repeat these words along with me."
"Peace to us, mercy to unborn."
"Death to evil, resonance to art."
"To cause yet unknown, open your heart."
Festor Linen repeated along with Daniel and Ben, the words which seemed to have a deeper meaning behind them, as if repeating the history of the Benick family.
"It is dark, I can't see anything. What is that light?"
The world crumbled as the three of them entered an ethereal world. A world, pitch black, with no source of light except a half moon shining on its own.
A deep voice growled coming from every direction.
"You do not need to explain your identity or motive to me. I am a dead man disturbed by your presence. There lies a trial ahead for you three to overcome. It is my corpse, it has no weapons. If you manage to defeat it, you may have what you seek here. Don't die so soon."
It was back to the mansion, the pattern on the center spot lit up by illusory moonlight, summoning the body of Moon Benick in the flesh. The lights in the mansion glowing moonlit, natural light was completely absent, the environment felt surreal yet heartwarming.
Moon Benick, the summoned body was still young as ever, brimming with energy.
"I challenge you all to a battle of death, may you win, you receive the reward."
A sudden gust of wind blew from Moon, blowing away obstacles in their way. It became difficult for Festor Linen to even stand on his feet still.
Festor Linen drew his sword courageously to confront Moon in a fight. Moon kicked off the ground into the air making a dramatic pose as he casted his ability. Prismatic moonlit shards created from mana formed their presence into reality, speeding towards Ben, Daniel and Festor Linen.
Festor Linen blocked the palm sized shards with his sword, Ben flicked his fingers to form shockwaves which killed the momentum of the shards and Daniel simply dodged the shards.
Ben shot a shockwave on to the ground, making all the shards Daniel had dodged airborne, Daniel picked up a shard and shot it off into Moon's direction. It was definitely faster than Moon's initial shard speed, bound to hit.
*crack crack crack*
Moon caught the shard bare handed, bleeding from his palm. He smiled menacingly as he crushed it down.
"Its not just young blood that keeps you going, it it? You are not strong enough to hold me back yet you are trying so hard."
Ben focused his mana into his legs and his fist, reaching to Moon in an instant, crushing his face with his shockwave fist. Moon's body stopped responding for a few seconds due to the shockwave effect, but Festor Linen had seen a far worse ploy.
"No, that's not it, his face wasn't crushed. He has strong Kensho powers. It was a trap."
Festor Linen infused his sword with mana in that instant and sent it flying towards Moon which sliced up his arm and impaled his chest burning each part with white flames.
"A fine sword you got for a newbie."
Moon Benick spoke as he coughed up blood. A sudden gravitational effect threw Ben and Festor Linen away from Moon, it was a defensive attack to prevent either of them from attacking Moon in his immobilized and weak condition.
Daniel saw the opportunity to land a final strike and concentrated a mana sphere into his palm and blasted it off at Moon.
The generic moonlit environment faded away into a chaotic disturbance, an aftereffect scene of a fight. It was a peaceful mess filled with the silence of three resting men.
"Its so calm... I want to rest here for a few more hours... Oh but the grimoire..."
Festor linen couldn't get himself to stand up, not out of tiredness but due to the calm after the fight. There was no reason to be in a rush anymore.
"Ben! Ben! Wake up! We won!"
Daniel's voice reverbed through the whole mansion as he called out to Ben.
"Yeah we won but where is the grimoire?"
Ben replied resting beside a wall sitting with his legs stretched.
On a second look, Moon's corpse was gone, all remained there was a grimoire untouched...
"There it is."
Festor Linen pointed towards the grimoire in the dimly lit environment.
It was the first step towards his journey to finding the true Festor Linen and his memories.
"There sure is a lot to climb, but I'm climbing for whom? If my life is a creation of myself, then I'm fighting for whom? My past does not matter, who took it does not matter. The reason I should know it is that it is my right to know my past and whoever took it from me should suffer the consequences of stealing my rights."