Zectas Volume I: Enigmatic Village of Nanahuatl (21 page)

 

 

The shop's back yard was surrounded by a high fence. Nobody could see what is going on back here. The backyard had 5 hanging car tires and 10 car tires mounted on each side of the wall. Seth and Donny suddenly got a creepy feeling. Cacoy led them to one of the crate boxes in the backyard.

 

 

"Nash told me that you boys got into a fight and that you were ganged up. Is that right?"

 

 

"Well it was only Donny that was ganged up, but yeah we did get into a fight."

 

 

"Your brother also told me that you boys like the comic book hero Nightwing? Is this also correct?"

 

 

Seth and Donny both looked at each other and were confused. What did Nightwing have to do with them being there, but both of them nodded their heads.

 

 

"Then let me give you a short demonstration of what you boys are gonna be learning here."

 

 

Cacoy took out two eskrima sticks from one of the crate boxes. He then effortlessly started pounding on the tires mounted on the left wall and after hitting all of the tires, Cacoy made his way across the yard, making sure that each hanging tire was hit at least 4 times.

 

 

Cacoy was giving out an impression that he was fighting multiple attackers at the same time. Some of the hanging tires were hanged in a somewhat circular formation. He stepped into that circle and simultaneously hit two tires at the same time. After clearing the hanging tires, Cacoy then moved to the car tires mounted on the right wall. The whole exhibition was done in under 2 minutes.

 

 

After completely hitting all of the car tires in the backyard. Cacoy stopped and held the eskrima sticks tightly to his side. Seth and Donny were amazed at such an amazing martial art display. They couldn't believe that a man in his 50's could still be this agile.

 

 

As Seth and Donny stared blankly at Cacoy in amazement. A man stepped out from one the other doors in the backyard. Clapping energetically as he saw the end of Cacoy's martial arts demonstration. Seth and Donny both turned around to see who it was. Nash greeted his siblings with a smile.

 

 

"So you like your 'punishment'? Before anything else, I want you to remember that violence isn’t always the answer. But there are some situations that are out of our control, in those situations I want both of my brothers to be able to defend themselves. That’s why I’ve asked Grandmaster Cacoy for help."

 

 

"I'm sure Donny is excited to learn and I don't mind learning how to be able to strike that fast as well. But are we allowed to be carrying sticks everywhere? Wouldn't that make us look like we're looking for trouble?"

 

 

"Oh Eskrima isn't restricted to stick fighting. Nash come here and let's show your brothers what I've taught you before."

 

 

Nash stepped forward and faced Grandmaster Cacoy squarely. Both of them took on a fighting pose with their fists, that made it look like they were carrying sticks. In a split second both their fists turned into a blur and were attacking each other rapidly. One fist would attack while the other would block the incoming attack. They both started moving around the back yard.

 

 

The Eskrima Grandmaster was doing some narrations and explanations as they continued exchanging blows. Cacoy was leading Nash around like a puppy. After each exchange there is a brief moment where the two of them would stop. During this moment both Donny and Seth saw that Cacoy's attack would hit Nash but just stopped before actually hitting his face. While Nash's attacks were always parried.

 

 

In spite of seeing their brother being toyed with they couldn’t help but be impressed at Nash’s quick hand speed. They wondered how long he has been practicing Eskrima. The duo’s bare-handed demonstration ended with Nash being arm locked and then forced down on the floor.

 

 

“And this is how you pin down your enemy.”

 

 

Cacoy finished the bare-handed display of Eskrima and helped Nash on his feet. He gave Nash a pat on the back and told him that he was clearly not practicing, as most of his hits were not blocked.

 

 

“Yeah, I’m sorry I’ve neglected doing my daily practice. To be honest, I only practiced whenever you came around at the diner. Hehehe.”

 

 

“Ohh, I see… Well then I won’t let that happen to your brothers. Starting today I want you two, to come here after school. After a two months of training you will be sharp enough to take down Nash and show how him how important it is to practice.”

 

 

Both Seth and Donny nodded enthusiastically. They couldn’t wait to learn from Grandmaster Cacoy.

 

 

Nash didn’t like the sound of that but he was still happy at the idea that his two brothers will have the skills to fend for themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing that Smoke saw was an unconscious, amputated Adder. Darius was still applying some form of salve. Mixed with medicinal herbs and other stuff that Smoke didn’t know of. The salve was suppose to close off the open wound from Adder’s missing left arm.

 

 

“Oh, you’re back. He should regain consciousness in a couple of hours.”

 

 

“Thank you for healing him, Darius. This quest was suppose to be the start of my undefeatable legend. I was so eager to get the family token, that I got ahead of myself. I didn’t think of every possible scenario at all.”

 

 

Darius only stood there in silence as Smoke spoke the truth. He took out a paper and a quill. He then started writing down some stuff.

 

 

“Darius? What are you doing?”

 

 

“I’m listing down the known assets that the murlocks and the lamias have. From there we should be able to create numerous simulations and think of the best countermeasures.”

 

 

Smoke quickly went to Darius and took the quill away from his hand.

 

 

“Please stop that, Darius. This quest has made me realize a lot of things. It made me see that the only reason I was able to free Condortl Village was because of the strategies that three of you made. Sure I was the one executing them but thinking about it now. It felt like I was following a walk thru. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate the help but I want to be able to do things myself.”

 

 

“I wasn’t implying that I would make the plan by myself you know. Just like what we did with the Condortl campaign, we will brainstorm our ideas into a perfect solution. You also gave out a lot of significant  scenarios in Condortl, don’t forget that.”

 

 

“No, It was still mostly you three that made that plan. I also got a lot of items and equipments. But this time I barely did any preparation. I didn’t take the time to carefully study the enemy. I was overconfident!”

 

 

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself. So how do you propose I help you? You can’t expect me to do nothing.”

 

 

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about what to do against those murlocks. We were lucky enough that the whirlpool led to an underground river that exited outside of the waterfalls.”

 

 

“Yeah, if you would have encountered any kind of monster, with an injured Adder on your back. It would have meant certain death for sure.”

 

 

“If it weren’t for the ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ I don’t think I could have evaded them easily.”

 

 

“So, do you want to share some of your ideas with me? Maybe I could throw in some in some trivial suggestions?”

 

 

“Let me come up with the strategy on my own, Darius… However, you could help me by answering my questions. Do you by any chance happen to know where I could get a lightning stone?”

 

 

“Ohhh, Lightning stones are the highest form of lightning enhancement. You could only get those from Lightning Dragons, or sometimes fossilized lightning dragon eggs.”

 

 

“You want me to hunt down a Lightning Dragon? I can’t even take down an army of murlocks and lamias. How do you expect me to go against a Lightning Dragon? I guess I have to come up with another way to drastically increase the damage of my arrows against water elemental monsters.”

 

 

“Smoke, I think the first thing you should learn, is the ability to listen. I never said that the only lightning enhancement was the lightning stone. Ahh… I think I know of a way that I can truly help you. Wait here,  I have to get a couple of things from my house.”

 

 

Darius went to his house to gather some helpful things. Smoke was wondering what he was up to.

 

 

After a few minutes, Darius returned and carefully set all of the books down on the table.

 

 

“Has anyone told you about the wondrous information that we can get from books?”

 

 

Of course Smoke knew that you could learn a lot of things from books. However, there was no mention of ‘books’ in any of the ZECTAS forums.

 

 

“From your reaction I guess no one has. Well, let me tell you that there are different kinds of books. There is a special book called ‘ability tomes’. When you touch them and you fulfill all of the tome’s requirements. There will be a prompt asking if you want to learn the ability of the tome. Once you answer yes, the tome will disappear. Then you will have acquired the ability of that tome. Ability tomes are extremely rare and expensive. Though I have one right here. Want to give it a try?”

 

 

Smoke got used to the fact that Darius had a lot of rare and unique items in his possessions. Darius picked up a thick book. The book cover had a faded color of red and had a ruby at the center. He gave the ability tome to Smoke.

 

 

+Received Ability Tome: ‘Summon Magma Dragon’

 

 

 

Smoke curiously inspected the ability tome.

 

 

 

“Wow those are some pretty high requirements. Are you telling me that you need to fulfill all of these requirements before you can gain the ability?”

 

 

“That’s right. This ability can also be learned by a Magma Arch Magus, through a special ability quest in the Fire Temple of Labestl.”

 

 

“So why haven’t you learned this ability yet? Oh, let me guess. You’re not a Magma Arch Magus are you? Whew, that’s quite a relief. I don’t want to be a Magma Arch Magus although the ability does seem useful.”

 

 

“No, I’m not a Magma Arch Magus, but the reason why I can’t learn that ability is because I have 100% Affinity with Water and that doesn’t go easily with Fire. In fact even Elementalists pick up an element to specialize in.”

 

 

“Ahh I see. So should I return this book to you then?”

 

 

“No keep it. I don’t have any use for that ability tome anyway. Maybe you can sell it, in one of the main cities. Anyway back to my point. If you would have fulfilled all of the requirements you would have gained the ability without the hassle of doing the quest in Fire Temple of Labestl.”

 

 

“Yes. I know ability tomes are amazing. I already knew that when you first described them.”

 

 

“Oh… Okay then, that brings me to the other kind of book. The ordinary kind or as I would like to call them, the knowledgeable kind. Here try this one.”

 

 

+Received Recipe Book of Medicinal Rabbit Stew

 

 

As soon as Smoke got a hold of the book. A progress bar appeared with a timer which indicated that it would finish in 5 seconds.

 

 

 

“I see. So you want me to gain knowledge through these books. This is indeed a great help and at the same time, I will be the one responsible for making the plans.”

 

 

“The information that you acquire from these books will be stored in your 'Acquired Knowledge' window. So here are some of the books from my personal library. Also, feel free to go to my house and get any book that you may like. But let me warn you. If you didn’t finish learning the knowledge of the book but then you released it. The progress bar will restart from the very beginning.”

 

 

Smoke read the titles of the books that Darius brought. Some of the titles were;

 

 

‘The History of Ancient Zectas’

 

‘Elemental Stone Enhancements’

 

‘Military Strategies of the Meridianus’

 

‘Secret Societies of Zectas’

 

‘The History of Chayotl Kingdom’

 

‘Private Armies - How to acquire and maintain them’

 

 

 There were a few more books on the table but these 6 were the ones that picked Smoke’s interest.

 

 

Smoke tried acquiring the knowledge of the book entitled ‘Elemental Stone Enhancements’. As he picked up the book a progress bar appeared and indicated that it would take 6 hours to finish the book.