User blog:Thrycius/Zheiro and The Moonlight Sculptor: Chapter 5

'''Disclaimer: This is a crossover fanfic between Brave Fronter and The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. I don't own either of those; they belong to their respective owners, namely Gumi/Alim and Nam-Hi-Sung (남희성) respectively.'''

'''Disclaimer (extended): This crossover fanfic now also contains some elements from the Type-Moon universe, owned entirely by Kinoku Nasu. I don't own anything from there, either.'''

Is this your first time seeing this story? Go directly to chapter 1 here!

Within the fiery caverns two shadows hid among the flickering light, keeping out of sight as small groups of goblins walked by unaware of their presence.

Needless to say, those two shadows were our friends, Zheiro and Thrycius.

“I suppose you’ll want me to fight the monsters here too.” Zheiro asked in resignation as they watched a pack of goblins wander by.

Zheiro had already given up protesting against his companion, and was preparing to fight the oncoming goblins when Thrycius stopped him, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him back into the shadows where they hid.

“Don’t be silly, I’m not that cruel,” Thrycius said, smiling as he did. “You’ll die if you fight them as you are now. No, you’ll be doing something else this time.”

“Something else?” Zheiro asked, feeling greatly relieved that he wouldn’t have to fight, but also apprehensive about just what he was supposed to do now. That smile of his didn’t help, either. “Wait, if I’m not fighting than who is?”

“Are you blind? Tsk tsk, Zheiro,” Thrycius said, lifting a finger as he waved it back and forth. “As an artist you need to have good observation skills. There’s only two of us here; thus, if you’re not fighting then I’ll be the one fighting, obviously.”

“Eeeeeh? No no no, wait a moment! You? Fighting?” Zheiro shouted in shock. “What happened to not expecting just a storyteller like you to be good at fighting!?”

“If you’re trying to attract the monster’s attention, you’re doing quite well at it.” Thrycius said with a grin as he turned to face the pack of goblins that were now approaching them. “You might want to keep your voice down next time, eh? But since you’re the one who attracted their attention, I’m going to have you assist me in fighting them off.”

Zheiro groaned upon hearing his companion’s declaration. In the end, he would have to do more fighting anyway.

When would he be able to take a break?

Zheiro drew his sword and faced the oncoming goblins. Only the fact that his companion too had drawn his own sword gave him some comfort, even if it wasn’t much.

When the first goblin entered his range, he struck.

Stepping in to close the distance, he lunged, thrusting his sword at goblin before flicking it out in an arc.

A clean hit—yet the goblin shrugged the attack off like it was nothing.

“Wha—?” Zheiro exclaimed in surprised. But months of fighting slimes in the Adventurer’s Prairie didn’t leave him in surprise for long. Using the momentum from his outward swing, Zheiro took quick step to the side, narrowly dodging the goblin’s club which smashed into the ground where Zheiro was only moments before.

“These guys are quite tough,” Zheiro commented aloud, concentrating on the enemy before him.

It was because he was focusing so hard that the sudden disappearance of the goblin’s head left him stunned for a brief moment.

“If you think these guys are tough,” Thrycius nonchalantly said as he wiped the blood off his blade, “then you’ll never be able to get anywhere. Looks like you still need some training.”

Zheiro stared at his companion in bewilderment, before turning to see what happened to the rest of the goblins.

Behind Thrycius lay the fading corpses of the entire pack of goblins that had approached.

Zheiro stared in shock for a brief moment, before giving his one and only comment.

“What do you mean you’re no good at fighting? Get out of here, you liar.”

In response though, his companion only laughed.

“Ha ha ha! I never said I was good at fighting! I merely said you that you shouldn’t expect a storyteller to be good at fighting!”

Zheiro had no choice but to concede that point, but it felt like he had been swindled by his companion somehow. He was annoyed enough that he wanted to punch his companion at least once, but he held back, in fear of the contract that he had signed unknowingly.

“But seriously,” Thrycius continued on, not even bothering to remove the smirk from his face, “There’s a reason why I’m not having you fight them while we’re here.”

“Is there?” Zheiro asked. While he might be quite annoyed at this guy, he was also the only one he could also rely on by now—and he was quite curious as to why he wasn’t to fight this time.

“Would you like to know?” Thrycius said, his ever present smile widening further. Upon seeing that, Zheiro suddenly felt like it would be better not to know.

But before Zheiro could even politely deny it, his companion continued on.

“Then, my dear uneducated companion,” Thrycius said extravagantly, leading Zheiro off into the shadows, “Allow me to explain once again, another one of the wonders of this world!”

It turned out Zheiro’s worries were unfounded after all as he found himself immersed in yet another lengthy legend.

To make a very, very long story short—

Everything in the world was attuned to an element, whether they be humans, gods, or monsters.

Zheiro found out that day that he was of ‘earth’, an element weak to that of ‘fire’, and Thrycius was ‘water’, and element strong against that of ‘fire’.

All the monsters within the cave of flames they were in were also of ‘fire’, meaning Zheiro would normally have a hard time against them, whereas his companion would have the advantage.

The element that a person was attuned to didn’t actually have that much of an effect on the person or their personality though; in the end, the only trouble they really caused to anyone was compatibility issues with other beings.

However, to the storyteller, it didn’t really mean much after awhile.

“Well, if you get as good in combat as I expect you to become, such a thing wouldn’t really affect you too much anymore.” Thrycius said offhandedly. “It’s even possible to become friends to people whose elements are weak or strong against yours, so it’s not really all that important.”

“So you’re saying that whenever we’re facing ‘fire’ type monsters, you’ll take over the fighting for me?” Zheiro asked.

“No, no, of course not. This is only for now. Once you improve your combat skills enough I’ll have you fight fire based monsters too,” Thrycius said, as if Zheiro’s question had never occurred to him at all. “But more importantly, it’s time you learned a bit of magic.”

“Eh? Magic? Me? Why?”

Naturally, Zheiro was stupefied. He was an ordinary sculptor, after all. Did he even have the capability to learn and use magic?

“Zheiro, Zheiro.” Thrycius tsked, still smiling as he did so. “Try using your brain for a bit. How can cutting through the moonlight be anything but magic?”

Upon hearing that, Zheiro grew quiet. Thrycius was right, of course. Doing such an impossible thing, there really was no other way to explain it unless it was magic. But...

“But can I really use magic?” Zheiro protested. It wasn’t that Zheiro was against it, but for someone who lived a life far apart from that of magic, to suddenly be told that he was to use magic was simply something he couldn’t bring himself to believe.

“You can. I did choose you, after all.” Thrycius said confidently with a grin. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re not going to be learning anything too complicated, so don’t worry. In fact, it should actually be quite suited to your talents, so I don’t expect you to take too long mastering the first step.”

Zheiro paused, collecting all his thoughts together. What was he hesitating for?

Above all else, there was only one thing that he absolutely needed to achieve.

“If that’s the case,” Zheio said, “teach me.”

To make a short story even shorter—

Zheiro was to learn a type of magic called Projection.

It was basically gathering and manipulating prana (life force) into one’s hand and shape it into an object based on the caster’s imagination; literally the projection of an image using prana.

Certainly, it was perfect for an artist like Zheiro, whose ability to imagine things in great detail should be quite strong.

Thus, in terms of utility practicing this kind of magic was more of getting Zheiro used to gathering and manipulating prana than anything else.

At least, that was how Zheiro understood it.

“Or rather, do we even have time for you to be telling me all these stories?” Zheiro asked, interrupting Thrycius as he was telling him more about the magic.

The short story that Thrycius was using to tell Zheiro about Projection was actually supposed to be much longer, if it weren’t for Zheiro’s interruption.

“I don’t mind at all,” Thrycius said with a large grin. “After all, I have all the time in the world. You’re the one who decided to listen to all my stories instead, though.”

“That’s because I can’t go against you!” Zheiro retorted with a shout.

“Ha ha ha. If you say so,” Thrycius said, laughing. “Now, shall we? Follow close behind me and focus only on learning Projection while I clear out the way. Let’s see how quickly we can get out of the Cave of Flames.”

“Huh? The artist who made a sculpture of a bouquet? Yeah, he was here earlier, but then he got swindled by some storyteller. Last I saw him he was out being forced to fight on the Adventurer’s Prairie. I have to tell you though, that storyteller was good. I almost believed his story myself for a second, but then I came to my senses a day later.”

Sarui had finally made it to the Imperial Capital Randall in search of the famous sculptor Zheiro, but he had already disappeared by then.

Thus, she went around asking about him, and now here she was, standing on the Adventurer’s Prairie.

“Still, a storyteller so skilled that even the barkeep believed it while it was being told? This is getting even more exciting,” Sarui loudly said to herself. “There must be a lot of exceptional artists around here. I will surely challenge those two in a duel to see who’s the best artist of them all! Hahahaha!”

Perhaps it was a good thing that Sarui wasn’t too aware of her surroundings, because everyone was avoiding her as she spoke and laughed to herself.

There was a rather fine line between genius and madness, after all.

Then again, Sarui never did care about what others thought about her. For her, there weren’t very many people out there that were worth her time.

“Hahaha! No matter where you two go, I will definitely catch up and prove I’m the strongest! This is the path of any true artist! Out of my way, pitiful ones! Those without talent or appreciation for art will be graced by my compassionate ways, and learn what true art is!”

And thus, Sarui went charging through the Adventurer’s Prairie, where many monsters and adventurers alike willingly stayed out of the crazy woman’s path.

By the way, the unlucky(or perhaps fortunate) slimes that did get in her way ended up becoming nothing more but paint for her paintbrush.

Truly, the slimes have become one with art.

The punchline:

“Huh? What is this large shiny rock?” Sarui asked no one in particular, tossing it aside where it landed and rolled into a pit of lava. ”I have no use for this.”

And as Sarui went charging into the Cave of Flames without a second thought, many summoners cried that day over the crazy woman’s lack of appreciation for gems.

''A/N: Sorry for the late update. I don't really have many excuses; life was busy, I don't like writing chapters full of exposition, something still feels missing, my editor/proofreader was busy, the chapter didn't feel like it was good enough yet, I wanted to write another chapter first for a double update as an apology but never got around to it, I got abducted by space aliens, I was busy watching anime, I was dying in the bf wiki chat, I was flying through the floor-''

''Okay, now I'm just listing out nonsense. But seriously, most of that list was actually true. My editor/proofreader did go MIA for a while, and in the end I ended up uploading this anyway. Well, I don't think the quality would drop significantly anyway, but there are always times when I miss something in my writing.''

''Anyway, Sarui is fun to write. Hope the few readers I have left enjoyed it.

Please leave a comment even if you didn't like it; constructive critism is always helpful. Thanks!''

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