[ C-Rank Mission: The Portal Guardian’s Challenge ]

”I meannnn yeahhh okayyy we can, but it’s stilll so” Rory shook his hands together, feigning strangling something. ”Y’know?” As she suggested it, Rory snapped his fingers toward Noelle, activating the [CORE] of his [Chaos Roller] class. A single four-sided die appeared over Noelle, and just like in the race earlier, it landed on a 2. He gave the die a look, and strangely enough it seemed to shutter in fear before rolling a final time, landing on a 3.

”Go-go gadget: Buff engine! Man, I really needa find more buffs. Hit me with some sunshine, would you, I could really use the feelgood…” As their ghost ship finally seemed to be getting close to an island, Rory stood and put his cooper back into his inventory. He did some stretches, before running over to grab the ship’s mast. As it turned out, even a ghost ship like this gave him an icky feeling. ”At least we’re close…”

When the ship finally LURCHED to a stop (much to Rory’s dismay), an eerie foghorn sounded, and a bridge appeared leading out to the floating island. As soon as it did, Rory ran up and reached a delicate hand out to dest it. Seeming stable, he bolted across the bridge, hugging the ground on the other side. ”FINALLLY! WE MADE IT NOELLE!”

Standing back up, he glanced around. The sky glittered pretty purples, and a fog sat at the edge of the island that prevented you from seeing too far in. They had been dropped off in a sort of valley, a flat area with tall rocky walls surrounding it. Bamboo sprouted from the ground around the walls, and an overgrown cobblestone path lead up towards a temple in the center of this clearing. ”Well, I guess that’s where we’re going. Wow, just look at it Noelle!” His eyes sparkled with amazement, but not at the fantastic area they were in. ”It looks like exactly the kinda place you’d find some cool treasure! I’m SO ready for this!”


Noelle

[ C-Rank Mission: The Portal Guardian’s Challenge ]

”Welll yeahhh, obviously; boats are weird. Hey look, a wrinkly old dude!” As they approached the lone building in this valley, Rory pointed out a figure that was sitting inside the temple. It was a single, open-door room, with seemingly nothing inside other than the man, the rug he was sitting on, and a stick of incense burning in front of him.

The man himself had skin so dry and wrinkly that he looked like beef jerky. He wore only a series of beaded necklaces and a pair of simple pants, and sat with his legs crossed and his hands in his lap. Rory couldn’t make out the man’s face until they got up to the brief stairs leading into the temple, but once he could, he gasped.

”Sk-skeleton?” The man wasn’t a skeleton, but a mummy; his eyes were two dark pits and his jaw hung open. Any hair he may have had in life was gone. Though the mummy sat unmoving, a voice called out.

“WELCOME TRAVELERS”

Rory immediately jumped. ”OH SHIT HE TALKS!” The mummy continued not to move, but Rory could’ve sworn he rolled his eyes at him.

“MY BODY MAY HAVE PERISHED, BUT MY SPIRIT LIVES ON.”

A pair of glowing blue flames suddenly ignited within the mummy’s eyes, though still, it didn’t move. ”O-oh, is that what’s happening? Um, sorry for your loss?” Rory got goosebumps on his neck, not from the spirit, but from the strange inclination that Noelle was staring daggers at him. ”AND BY THAT I MEAN- O Great One, why hath thou boat brung us here? Assuming that thou Great Spiritness is what made our boat come here, O Great One. Because it also kinda did its own thing without us–O Great One-having to do anything to it. Err, or something like that, O Great O-”

“ENOUGH! I GET IT YOU CAN STOP NOW!”

The mummy sighed. Even in death, Rory’s crass nature could affect him.

“I SHALL GIVE YOU A CHALLENGE-”

Rory couldn’t say for sure, but he felt like the blue fireballs this spirit had for eyes had narrowed to glare at him.

“I SHALL GIVE YOU TWO CHALLENGES. COMPLETE THEM, AND I SHALL GRANT YOU KNOWLEDGE OF THIS REALM.”

”What?! Oh, come on!”

”I CAN MAKE IT THREE.”

Sweat dripped from Rory’s face. ”Oop, okay okay, two it is!” He didn’t know what to expect when that astral boat had started taking Noelle and him somewhere, but it certainly wasn’t this. Just what exactly did this mummy want them to do? What kind of knowledge was it going to give them? As odd as a situation this was, he felt like he had to comply and find out.


Noelle

[ C-Rank Mission: The Portal Guardian’s Challenge ]

”NOW THEN, THE CHALLENGES…”

From outside the temple, behind where the mummy monk was, rocks in the plateau's wall cracked and shifted to form a short tunnel. Just beyond it was a garden. ”Huh, that’s neat”

”YES, IT IS “NEAT”. GO FORTH, YOUR FIRST CHALLENGE AWAITS.”

Rory shrugged, put his hands behind his head and started walking. ”Welp, that was easy! Let’s check it out.” The tunnel didn’t just lead into a new room, but an entire new valley. All around the two would be surrounded by ponds, bonsai trees, sand gardens, and countless varieties of flowers. Stars danced across the astral sky as a crescent moon hung above them.

”Huh, yeah it really IS neat!” Rory kicked some dirt. The place was neat, but didn’t really lend itself towards explaining what the challenge was. Glancing around, he noticed a simple shrine in the center of the garden. It was a plain box with on stilts with a tiled roof. As they got closer, he could see a couple of rock cairns had been stacked around it, and the remains of burnt incense on the ground.

”FOR YOUR FIRST CHALLENGE, YOU MUST… MAKE A BOUQUET. THESE FLOWERS ONLY BLOOM HERE, AND EACH REPRESENTS DIFFERENT FORMS OF PEACE AND KINDNESS. PRESENT YOUR BOUQUET TO THE SHRINE IN AN OFFERING OF SERENITY."

…”Oookay, not what I was expecting. Uhhh, know much about flowers?” Rory glanced at Noelle, mostly with a look of confusion on his face. The further they got into the mission, the weirder it was getting. He got a notification that his Healing pulses had activated a new effect, causing him to roll a D20. It landed on a four, meaning no success… but Rory smiled as he activated his [Loaded Dice] to change it to a natural 20. It allowed him to double a buff, so he increased the effectiveness of his PWR buff from Noelle.

Noelle

[ C-Rank Mission: The Portal Guardian’s Challenge ]

”Okkay, yeah this is a weird one. I guess we just pick flowers then?” Rory scratched his head as he followed along, taking the flowers up as Noelle picked them. He didn’t really know the first thing about flower arrangements or how to make bouquets, so he really was just bundling the flowers Noelle handed him.

He recognized a few of the flowers, kind of. There was Hyacinth, though it had a more ethereal look to most he had seen before. The purple color of it seemed to almost move and dance along its petals. Was this what the monk had meant when he said these flowers only bloom here? Shrugging, he tucked it into the little bouquet. Another flower they collected made him chuckle. ”Oh I get it, Cosmos. Y’know, ‘cuz- well…” Rory pointed his finger towards the starry sky. ”I guess they’re being cute with that one.” The cosmos were white, and had a swirly pattern that sort of reminded him of drawings he had seen of galaxies in his past.

As they made their way around the garden, collecting flowers here and there, Rory noticed a tall tree with a man-made hive hanging from it. It was a willow, with many colorful flowers underneath. While he didn’t know much about flowers, he loved bees, and couldn’t help but get up on his tip-toes to peer inside. There were… none. ”Huh, that’s weird. Where’s all the bees?” Glancing around the garden, he realized there didn’t seem to be any sort of bugs on the plants, or birds in the air, or fish in the ponds. It made sense, but was kinda sad, considering how elegant the place was. Following after Noelle, Rory turned and took out the [Bee Bomb], tossing it up into the willow tree. It made a faint pop that rustled the leaves, and shortly after he could see the bees beginning to trickle down and explore the flowers.

Once they had gathered enough flowers to have a pretty big bouquet in his hand, Rory tied it off and headed for the center. ”Here we go, one offering of serenity!” He placed it inside the little box, and took a deep breath. He thought this was a silly little challenge at first, but it was actually a really nice experience. He felt very calm as he shut the door to the shrine, and turned back toward the monk’s simple temple. ”Let’s find out what’s next”

Noelle

SPOILER: Click to show

{STATS ETC}PARTY SYNERGIES:

-----STATS-----
LEVEL: 25

PWR: 13 (E) +2 Rank > (C)
DEF: 21 (D) -2 Rank > (F)
SPD: 11 (E)
MAG: 86 (A)
VIT: 11 (E)
WIL: 51 (B) -10% > (C)
LUK: 0

-----ITEMS-----
Cocoon Coat (3)
False Joker
The Ferryman’s Coin (1)
Bee Bomb (1)
The Novel of Self-Discovery
Petite Cooper

-----CLASS-----
Loaded Dice (1)

-----BUFF/DEBUFF-----
[CHAOS ROLLER CORE]
Noelle: +10% WIL (Active: 4 Post) (B Heal)
—Rory -10% WIL

[Sunny Day]
Rory: +2 Rank PWR, -2 Rank DEF
—Noelle: -1 Rank PWR, +1 Rank DEF (Active: 3 Post)

[ C-Rank Mission: The Portal Guardian’s Challenge ]

The mummy remained the same when the duo returned, but somehow sensed their arrival. Before either had the chance to speak, it had beaten them to it.

”YOUR FINAL CHALLENGE, “THE PATH OF TRANQUILITY”, AWAITS… AT THE TOP OF THESE STAIRS”

”Oh- really? Onto the next one, I guess. But where..?” Glancing around, Rory finally saw the staircase when they went back out to the front side of the temple. Just like a tunnel had appeared in the sheer rock walls, so too had a set of stairs from the front. The staircase protruded from the wall itself, white steps that stuck out one at a time from the bottom up. It was a long way to the top, but not an impossible distance. ”Aha! Though, couldn’t you just tell us while we’re here? I mean-”

”GO.”

”To the stairs I go!” Rory made his way to the staircase, where they would find the stairs to be made of solid marble. The man was concerned with how sturdy the steps would be, but after testing one with his foot, he deemed it stable enough. This wasn’t a challenge in itself, it seemed. ”Welp, up we go! Missions aren’t usually as weird as this one, I wonder if most of them here are gonna be like that?”

This was Rory’s first time in this zone, but it wasn’t like he had been avoiding it (though with the ghost ships, maybe he should’ve!); the zone itself had only recently appeared, so a lot of information about it and what was inside was still a mystery. Being part of SIGMA, he was expecting to spend a lot of time here in the future… Maybe it was a good thing the ship had taken them here first. It was kind of like a tutorial in that sense; this mission set the stage on what to expect from the zone–or rather, not to keep expectations.

Before he knew it, they had reached the top. ”Alright, challenge number two- wait what?” As they crossed the final stairs and came out onto even land, the two would find…. Basically nothing. There was a single sign post at the top, though it didn’t seem to be directed towards anything. Approaching the sign, the man read it aloud. ”The Path to Tranquility comes from Within” Right as finished reading, he got a notification.

[Mission Complete]

”O-oh. Well… huh. That was interesting.” The man laughed to himself. ”Well, I think we can definitely say this one was unexpected, but if nothing else, I think I have a better idea about this place now.” Rory smiled as he say his mission rewards, a key fragment, and… a skill? ”That mummy’s an interesting character, but I think this will come in real handy!”



Noelle