Magic has been around since the dawn of mankind. It was thought to have been passed down by the elves, who went extinct around one thousand years ago, during the ruling time of Haru.
It was thanks to Haru, the first Knight, and creator of the Arcane Knight guilds, that humanity was able to use magic, and with it they were able to rapidly develop, creating vast magitech that was powered by mana.
With lightning magic, they made electricity. With earth magic, they created sturdy towers that could pierce the heavens and raised mighty walls. With water magic, they were able to create clean sources and get rid of the pollution the elves had left behind. With fire magic, they became master smiths, combining it with electricity to create grand inventions. Finally, with wind magic, humanity took to the skies and surpassed their limits.
Perhaps it was because they reached the top of the food chain and lost the ability to grow that caused the world to throw dungeons at them. To this day, nobody knows how dungeons truly worked or where they came from or why. Humanity did what it did best, though, when faced with these threats.
They adapted.
In the Kingdom of Estiria, there are a total of eight guilds that all Arcane Knights are part of. Any time a city, town, or village is in need of help, they send a request out, and it will be transferred to one of the eight guilds, and then, in turn, one of the guild members will accept the quest and be sent out on a mission to complete it, earning fame and fortune in their wake.
In other words, Arcane Knights literally get paid to go on quests. They get to explore all sorts of places and are allowed to go anywhere they want, whenever they want, seeing things no other person would ever hope to be able to.
"So," Davi spoke slowly, his face a few inches from Olivia's. "What exactly is the game plan?"
Olivia shifted herself, ignoring the way she was pressed into the other mage. "That's a good question. Also, watch where your hand is!"
"Sorry, but you gotta admit, this is kind of a tight place," Davi said bluntly and tried to separate his limbs from Olivia's, but he banged his head on the roof of the box they were in. "Ouch." His tone held little emotion other than annoyance. "Why are we in this thing?"
The two of them, after leaving Fri village, found themselves in quite an awkward position. A small wooden crate, one made to hold various large fruits, was now tasked with holding both of them. Olivia eased herself onto the heels of her feet and pushed up against the roof of the box, raising it up a bit. Her head poked out, and she scanned around, seeing the deck of the ship they were on was still littered with a few dozen people who walked back and forth. She ducked back down, quietly closing the lid, and tried to make some space between her and Davi.
"We left in such a hurry that I didn't get any of my supplies, and we had no choice but to stow away on the first ship that was leaving Lotus's docks," Olivia explained. "Also, you're apparently broke. Seriously, what kind of Arcane Knight are you?"
Davi sat down cross-legged. "I tend not to take any sort of payment after I visit a place. I should be a little more greedy and start charging people, I guess."
Olivia also sat cross-legged and pressed herself to the back of the box, rubbing her chin. "We sort of just jumped onto this boat without finding out where it was going and got lucky that it had an empty crate big enough for the both of us. That said, we really should figure out our next destination. Where were you going next, Mr. Davi?"
"Just Davi is fine; and I don't know." Davi made a face and tried to think back. "My brother and I got a bit separated, so I've been wandering around on my own."
"You mentioned you were looking for a dragon?"
"That's right," Davi said. He didn't have his armor on anymore and instead wore simple underclothes, looking like your everyday villager. "I follow rumors of where dungeons are and go after them, but I really haven't had any good luck finding one that has the Dragon in it." He rubbed his scar.
Olivia nodded her head. "That makes sense. There are all sorts of Arcane Knights. Some specialize in just doing dungeons, others in hunting mages; I guess you're the type that deals with magical beasts, like dragons?"
"You could say that." Davi shrugged. "I've only ever seen the Dragon once. That's why I went on an adventure in the first place. I need to find it again."
"Dragons were all wiped out long ago," Olivia explained. "Despite that, though, people still claim that they see dragons every now and then. One hasn't been recorded in over one hundred years, so who knows if any are still out there? Still, it would be an Arcane Knight like you if anyone could find them! Is your brother also an Arcane Knight?"
"I guess."
"You guess?" Olivia made a face. Davi was certainly odd, and the way he spoke was always quiet and dull, making it hard for her to tell what he was actually thinking. Still, she had no reason not to trust him. He saved her after all, along with her entire village. "Then the first order of business is for me to take the Arcane Knight entrance exam."
"There's an entrance exam?"
"You didn't know about that?" Olivia gave the boy an odd look. "Yeah, there's a test held every year in the capital city. All sorts of people are allowed to take the test, and if you pass, you get put into a guild and become an official Arcane Knight. The Knight's exam determines what guild you're in. They look into your academic records and see all the things you did and use that, plus their own test, to determine the best path for you. If you don't have good grades from the academy or never went to a magic school, you can still take the test, but it's a lot harder. The only people who can become a Knight without taking the test are the daughters of the King or prodigies. For you to not know about the tests is odd. Does that mean you're some sort of badass?"
"I've recently been working out; glad you noticed." Like always, his voice barely changed, making it hard to tell if he was making a joke.
"So, I'm not just going on an adventure with an Arcane Knight, but a really powerful one!" Olivia felt stars in her eyes, and she giggled. "Awesome!" Her look cleared up, and she eyed her new companion. "You use shadow magic, right?"
"Yeah. Row Shadow Vault." The box became even more cramped as Davi reached into the ground, his hand sinking beneath it as he pulled out his claymore, which awkwardly thumped against the roof of the box. The rest of it remained poking out of his shadow. "I can store things in my shadow. It's a bit tricky to use my magic in combat, though. I can only cast spells through my shadow, and their range only goes as far as my shadow does, so I'm limited in the spells I can use. I only know two spells, my vault and my armor, so I tend to store things away in my shadow and let them do the job for me since I have no offensive spells that I can use. This sword is my favorite."
Olivia ran her finger along the blade. It was nothing special. She had expected a Knight to wield an enchanted sword or something, but Davi's weapon was plain and rusted, being more like a club than a sword due to how blunt it had become.
"Your magic is still cool, though. Seeing you in combat made me figure out some stuff regarding my magic. Instead of throwing out spells that would fade after they were used, I turned my blood into a weapon. Normally, my spells fade after they're fired off, but by making a blade like a knife, I could make something that I could keep using in combat to save my blood for later spells. It seriously helped me out in the fight with the Salamander." She grinned slightly and met the boy's eyes. "What academy did you train at?"
"I'm self-taught. Growing up, I had a different magic type from my dad and my brother Sieg. I'm sure Sieg would have helped, but… Anyway, I never went to a school." Davi tossed his sword back into his shadow, and his vault shut off.
"Geez, you must be really good then, if they let you in without any sort of background." Olivia mused. "Then again, you did slay several monsters all on your own. You're pretty cool, mister. Since we're traveling together, can I get your number?"
"My number?" Davi tilted his head to the side.
"Yeah, you know your phone number." Olivia pulled her phone out of the pocket of her school uniform and flashed it to him. "You do have a phone, right?"
Davi seemed almost insulted by her remark. "Of course I do." He once again opened his vault and pulled his phone out. "See."
Olivia blinked. "What the hell is that thing?"
"It's my phone."
"That thing's a phone?!"
Her own phone was a basic smartphone. It wasn't anything fancy and was three models behind. It also lacked a case, being a plain black one, and the screen was badly cracked, but it was all she had. She was used to having the oldest phone in her village since hers used to belong to Bruno, but Davi's was somehow even older.
Davi's phone was awkwardly bulky and shaped like a brick. It had no screen, just the speakers and a number pad that ran along it. He had to manually tug on an antenna, pulling it out, and a horrible static sound buzzed from it.
"Where the hell did you even get something like that…"
"I found it in a dungeon." Davi looked down at his brick and then at hers. "Yours looks different than mine."
Olivia just sighed. Now that she thought about it, the headphones he had were hooked up to a cassette tape, which most people no longer used, and all of the guns and equipment he had were at least one hundred years old. Davi seemed like one of those guys who wasn't with the times.
Before she could say anything else, there was a ding, and Olivia glanced down at her phone. "What is it?" Davi asked when he noticed her look.
"More messages from Rosco and Bruno." She swiped the text away, not even bothering to read it. "I put them on mute since I know they'd just be begging me to come crawling back. I decided I wouldn't read or accept any calls from them until I became a Knight. I guess they're worried about me, though." She let out a faint sigh before giggling slightly. "The way you just picked me up and ran off with me, they likely think you kidnapped me."
"It just seemed like something I should do in the moment." Davi handed his large phone over to her, letting her play with it and putting the number engraved onto it in her own phone.
"Well, here goes nothing." Olivia handed the phone back, and she dialed the number in and then hit call.
The good news was that it worked. Davi's phone accepted her call. The bad news was that it was loud. Very, very loud. A piercing ring blasted out of the block at max volume, and it bounced around the enclosed box they rested in, making Olivia let out a loud yelp. Davi didn't react too much and dropped his phone back into his shadow, which hungrily swallowed it and caused the noise to end, but it was too late.
They had been caught.
The roof of the crate they were in was suddenly lifted off, and both Davi and Olivia looked up, sheepishly staring into the eyes of an irate crew member.
And that was how they found themselves in the middle of the boat with several crew members glaring down at them. Most of the crew wore very generic-looking sailor outfits, but the one who had found them was a boy around Davi's age with curly brown hair. He didn't look like the kind of person who belonged on a boat, wearing long white robes and clutching a wooden staff, which he used as a walking stick. One of his hands was on his hip, and the other gripped the staff, smacking Davi over the head a few times with it.
"Do you two have any idea how much trouble you're in?" The boy huffed out. "This isn't a ship made for transporting people. This is a cargo ship; we deliver goods, like food or medical aid, to villages in need! Why, in Haru's name, would you ever try to stow away on this boat of all places?"
Davi shot Olivia an annoyed look. "Yeah, why did you pick this one?" He asked, all the while his head kept getting smacked by the other boy's staff.
"I didn't know!" Olivia waved her hands. "We were just on the docks and needed a ship! I didn't give it much thought."
"Well, nice going." Davi sighed.
The stranger kept his grip tight on his staff, and he suddenly pointed it at the two of them. "Row Flower Rope!" He spoke softly, and the tip of the staff glowed. Davi raised his arms, going on guard, but it was too late to react. Vines, covered in bright pink flowers, shot out of the tip of the staff and wrapped their way around him and Olivia, tying them both up in grassy rope.
"Hey! What gives!" Olivia tried to flex and break the rope, but despite being made out of vines, it wouldn't snap.
"Don't bother." The other boy said in a flat tone. "My flower rope might be a low-level spell, but it's been pumped full of my mana. Normal people can't break out of it."
"We aren't normal people, though!" Olivia announced.
The boy's eyes suddenly narrowed. "Don't tell me you're trying to claim that you're Knights."
"Is that an issue?" Davi asked, also narrowing his eyes. "You're a mage also, aren't you? You some sort of Arcane Knight?"
The boy let out a low chuckle and shook his head. "Sorry to break it to you, but no. I'm not an Arcane Knight."
"But you have magic?" Davi raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that all that matters?"
"No."
"Oh. Hmm." Davi made another face. "Then what are you?"
"I just work for this boat." The boy said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I don't have what it takes to be an Arcane Knight. Not everyone who has magic has the will or desire to be an Arcane Knight; in fact, most people won't even try to become Knights. I'm not some rich, noble kid who can pick up my entire life and go wherever I want. That's why I found a living on this boat. I work more or less as its protector. It can be expensive to hire an Arcane Knight; they are the best of the best, after all, so a lot of times, places will instead cheap out and hire a combat mage full-time, and that's where I come in."
Davi yawned, already bored. "You did tie us up, so aren't we like your prisoners now?" He asked casually. "Got any cool torture or something planned for us?"
"Why are you asking to get tortured?" Olivia yelled and did her best to kick her new traveling companion.
"I don't know; I've never been tortured before. You should try everything at least once, right?" Davi asked in a way that made it impossible to tell if he was joking or not.
"No!" Olivia looked back at the flower mage with wide eyes. "Please don't torture us!"
The other boy let out a sheepish laugh. "No one's getting tortured." His eyes turned to follow the other crew members, who were going about their duties, checking on various boxes and making sure everything was tied down.
"What are you going to do with us then?" Olivia questioned.
"That'll be up for the captain to decide." The boy said. "Most likely, we'll keep you here and then hand you over to the port office once we arrive at the next dock. It's about two or three days away."
"That long!" She said, stunned.
"Did you two seriously just hop on board without knowing anything about our ship or where we're going?"
Olivia and Davi shared an awkward look. "Well, I saw that it had some empty boxes." Olivia trailed off.
The boat in question wasn't huge, having only a few rooms on board, and most of it was loaded with dozens of heavy-looking cargo. It was an old-fashioned vessel, still using steam, and most of its weapons were gone in order to make room for more cargo.
"What's your name anyway?" Davi decided to just go with the flow and crossed his legs, no longer fighting the restraints that were around him.
"Me? Oh, I'm Olis."
"Olis? What a weird name."
"Your name is Davi; that's pretty weird," Olivia said flatly.
"Fuck you." Davi nodded. "Well, Olis. Why don't you go ahead and undo this spell and let me and Olivia go?"
It was Olis's turn to make a face, the boy raising an eyebrow. "And I'd do that because?"
"Because."
"Because?"
"Because you can either have me as an ally or an enemy," Davi said, and for once his tone sounded almost stern. "You don't want me as an enemy."
"It's true!" Olivia nodded her head rapidly. "He has magic like you! He's got this cool claymore, and he's an actual Arcane Knight from one of the guilds!"
Olis's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly fixed his gaze on Davi. "You're an Arcane Knight? I find that kind of hard to believe."
"How come?" Davi's blank look was back. "I got magic, and I'm always going on an adventure and fighting magical beasts. That's what an Arcane Knight is, right?" His argument might have made more sense if not for the fact he decided to get up and dangle half his body over the side of the boat, only using his legs to hang onto the railing, for reasons neither Olivia nor Olis could figure out.
"Of course not!" Olis said sternly. "I'm not buying your story at all. I can tell you're a mage. All mages leak a bit of mana, and yours is… Well, I have a hard time believing someone like you could be a Knight. If you are an Arcane Knight, then you should have a symbol of your guild," Olis said sternly. "There are eight guilds in total in the Estiria kingdom, and all Arcane Knights are required to be part of them. What pocket do you keep your symbol in? I'll search you, and if I find it, I'll take your claim seriously." Olis stared down at Davi, who remained silent.
Olivia looked to the 'Knight'. "Davi? Go on. Tell him where your symbol is at."
"He doesn't have one." Olis stepped back and pointed his staff at Davi. "He might have told you he was one, but he's lying. He isn't an Arcane Knight. I bet he's a Magical Mutant."
Olivia gasped at the final part of Olis's insult. Calling someone a Magical Mutant was a big deal. Magical Mutants were mages who lost part of their humanity and transformed into something inhuman after being exposed to dark magic. They were everything a Knight wasn't. "He is not!" She yelled out. Davi didn't seem to mind the insult; then again, he barely seemed to react to anything, so she was livid on his behalf. "I saw him in action! Davi is an Arcane Knight! He's not a Magical Mutant! He's a Knight!"
Olis sneered. "I'm done talking." The boy lifted his staff and pointed it down at Davi. "I'm going to shut you up!"
"Too late." Davi sighed. "It's here."
Before Olis could cast his spell, something happened. The entire boat shook as if it had hit something, but all around them was open sea. Suddenly, there was a shift. One moment it was the blue of the ocean, and then in the next, they saw green. The sky above had changed into a nasty green color, as did the water, which now bubbled and popped. The air also switched, having a bitter taste to it, and Olis felt his mana surge up and go out of control as a force grappled with his energy.
All of the sailors let out yells, and everyone stared out at the now green sea the boat was sailing through. Davi remained over the side of the railing, his legs holding him up as he peered down, and he frowned softly.
"What's going on?" Olivia asked, her voice cracking.
"What does it look like?" Davi looked into the green water. "A dungeon. This boat just sailed directly into an open dungeon. Brace yourselves."
Something came down from above. It was water. A large wave of it smashed down onto Olis's head, causing him to yelp. Olivia let out a yell of her own as she was also splashed, and she glared at Davi, who was somehow missed entirely, since he was hanging off the edge at just the right spot to miss the water. She didn't have a chance to say anything to him about it, though, as something caught her eye.
Several things, actually. They came out of the water, rising up and taking flight. There were so many of them that as they all emerged, it caused more and more splashes, sending water raining down and causing the crew to panic.
In no time at all, the boat was surrounded by dozens of magical beasts, which all leapt out of the water.