The Annoying Boomerang

Rico ran to hide behind another tree as the Orthanak crashed into the one he was just behind. They had safely made it to the woods but they weren't out of danger. The monster had some serious defense and used this to just simply break the trees they hid behind by charging straight through it. He and Anastasia had split up and would alternate in drawing the monsters attention so the other could find a new tree. However this wouldn't last long since they could neither escape nor attack it without letting their teammate die.

"There has to be some solution!" Rico mumbled miserably. He tried to strategize a plan as the boar turned towards Anastasia and attacked her position. He looked around hoping to find a branch to use as a weapon but none were thick enough. He did happen to spot a boulder some distance away though and an idea struck his head. He needed more time though to formalize it into a plan though.

"Anastasia! Head in the direction of the boulder!"

He pointed towards the boulder and then threw a stone at the monster to draw its ire. It turned towards Rico sensing that an opponent had finally appeared between its two prey. It dug it heels into the dirt and turned to attack him, leaving Anastasia the chance to run towards the boulder. Rico hid behind another tree and jumped away as the Orthanak crashed through it. The tree top fell down but Rico was already away from the effective area. He went after Anastasia towards the boulder.

"Quick! Climb on top of it!" Rico shouted to her. He checked that he still had the aggro of the monster and then helped Anastasia climb on top of the boulder. The monster came barreling down on him and he moved a little bit to the side so that it would still follow him, but not hit the boulder. He then told Anastasia his plan.

"I'm going to lead it around the boulder and try to attack it. Heal me from there as I keep its attention."

Rico kited around the boulder and the beast followed. It was faster than him but it's ability to change direction was much worse. He managed to just barely stay ahead of it. After a minute of leading it around the rock, it paused and then roared in frustration. It turned towards Anastasia, hoping to get an easy kill from her. Anastasia gulped and she looked terrified as she was stuck on the boulder. Rico looked for something to through to attract it again but couldn't find anything nearby. He shivered, realizing the time had come to directly attack the Orthanak. It was in a state of indecision and left itself open for an offense. Rico breathed deeply, summoned his courage and ran back to the Orthanak. He didn't have any active skills so he just ran up to the monster and tried punching it in the eye.

Before he could swing his fist, the beast turned towards him noticing his intent. It lowered its head towards him and its tusks aimed at his crotch. He instinctively hopped up trying to avoid that sharp bone but this fell exactly into the Orthanak's plans. It swung its head upward and caught him on its tusk. Rico wasn't pierced (much to his relief) but now he straddled the tusk awkwardly. The monster's eyes gleamed and he shook his head way from the boulder, throwing Rico hard into the trunk of a tree. Rico felt a blinding flash of intense pain and he screamed horribly as he writhed on the ground from pain. His back felt like it was on fire and he couldn't see through the red haze if pain.

'This is way to hard-core! How am I suppose to defeat it when one hit nearly kills me?' Rico thought as he realized that this monster was beyond what he could manage. He then heard a crisp sound of a notification.

[You have taken damage for the first time!]

[ Health Bar now active: 1000 HP]

[Mana Bar now active: 100 MP]

[ -46 HP]

"Seriously, now I get an HP bar? This is ridiculous." Rico groaned to himself. He looked back to the boulder and saw that it was smashed apart. The Orthanak stood over a petrified Anastasia, a light green aura of healing around her. She was about to die (the healing wouldn't help her much) and there was nothing he could do. A burst of strong emotions filled Rico. Fear, hopelessness, and anger roiled around in him. And out of this sudden swelling of emotions a new force appeared that swept away the rest: defiance.

'I WILL NOT LET ANYONE BULLY ME LIKE THIS! I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT!' Rico raged inside. He would not let Anastasia die pointlessly even if she would respawn. She was the only person that he knew in this place and he wouldn't let his only companion be taken away from him! He forced his pain ridden body up and howled at the Orthanak before charging. It didn't matter if he couldn't defeat it right away; he would get up again and again until it was dead or ran away.

He tried punching the monster in the eye again. The Orthanak saw his ridiculous charge and snorted. This puny noob still had strength to try and take him! Absolutely ridiculous!. The Orthanak swung around and bashed at Rico with the side of his tusks. Rico crashed into the tree again. He laid there dazed for just a moment before getting up again and charging.

The Orthanak continued to pummel him back each time he charged. Finally after the 20th time Rico couldn't get up anymore. His HP had dropped more and more drastically each time he was hit and now he had less than 100. The Orthanak snorted and turned back to the smashed boulder. Its eyes widened as it saw that the other prey had disappeared. It swung back towards Rico and saw Anastasia behind him, her healing aura wrapping around his broken body.

[+5 HP]

[+8HP]

Rico's HP bar jumped to 105 HP while the monster had found out that Anastasia was gone and soon to 115 when the Orthanak had turned back around and realized that she was healing him. It was just enough to take 3 more hits. Rico got back up and prepared to face the beast again.

"I will never back down!" He yelled at the beast. It growled at him and then raised its head and gave an explosive roar of hatred. Rico also let out a roar, his own anger at the monster fueling him. His determination hardened and finally something snapped.

[Will of a Super Soul: Hidden Requirement Met!]

[Skill separation complete!]

[You have learned a new skill: Soul Weapon]

[Willpower Bar now active: 100 WP]

Rico saw these messages and was stunned so much he froze and couldn't think.

'A new skill? Hidden Requirements? Holy cow I've probably unlocked the third effect! Haha beast, now I have a combat skill! Now I can finally hurt you!' Rico's mind flashed through the messages and he excitedly activated the new skill [Soul Weapon].

He prayed that it was an easy weapon to use, something that was OP and could easily defeat the monster in front of him. Upon activating the skill his hands curled against his will and a white aura of vaporous energy started to form into a handle, slowly hardening into a solid piece. A new notification suddenly popped up, but instead of the usual blue tinge, it had a light red one.

[Your WP is low, Formation of weapon failed]

[Creating lower class weapon]

[Weapon complete! Weapon Received:]

[100th Soul Weapon: 3-blade Boomerang]

[-60 WP]

The handle in Rico's hand lengthened and a sharp edge appeared on one side. Rico's hand position changed and now he held the blade between his thumb and pointer finger. The rest of the boomerang appeared and it was a white metal boomerang with three fin like blades. Rico was severely disappointed in the soul weapon. He had no idea how to throw a boomerang properly and so it was practically useless. On top of that, he had lost 60 WP!

Rico looked at the beast and it looked back at him. It had seen the creation of the boomerang and it was suddenly very cautious. It knew that something dangerous had appeared but it couldn't gauge whether it could tank the weapon or not. Rico on the other-hand wasted no time and started to throw the boomerang. His intent was to slice it across the top, hopefully severing its spine. Just as he pulled his arm back a voice said something.

"You're seriously just going to chuck me like that and expect to slice the spine? Hopeless. I'm taking over for this one." the voice said with exasperation. Rico's body was filled with a slight binding power, like he was in a stiff jacket, and his body turned and threw the boomerang 30 meters to the right. The force left his body and he stumbled, wondering what the hell happened.

The boomerang flew in a weird way, dodging trees by the smallest margins before curving sharply toward the Orthanak. The monster saw it coming and immediately tried stepping out of the path of the weapon. A small curse came from the boomerang and it flipped ninety degrees into a horizontal position, changing its trajectory to intercept the monsters head. The Orthanak panicked and tried to move again but the boomerang tilted slightly again before realigning with the monster again. The Orthanak had no chance to try again and tried to block the weapon with its front two legs across its face.

SLICE!

The forelegs fell to the ground as the boomerang sliced through them effortlessly. The weapon continued towards the monsters head but struck a tusk on its way. The tusk was deeply cleaved but the trajectory of the boomerang had changed along with a sudden decrease in speed! Instead of penetrating straight through the Orthanak, the boomerang cut half through the snout and out the side of the left cheek. The monster roared in pain as blood gushed from its wounds. It flailed around in agony before the shock finally brought it to its knees.

Rico ran towards the fallen boomerang and picked it up, prepared to throw it again. This time he turned slightly to the left to throw it, noticing what happened last time. His body tried to copy his previous movement but ultimately he wasn't as good as when the force had taken over. The boomerang flew through the air with less power than before but at least it wasn't wobbling which would have indicated complete failure.

"Nice try kid but you don't have it completely down yet." The voice said growing fainter as the boomerang flew away from Rico. It's speed suddenly boosted and it yet again curved towards the monster, slicing it across the neck and completely severing the spine. The boomerang fell to the ground, the blades coated in blood.

Rico walked over to the boomerang and picked it up studying it. Besides the blood on it, there was nothing different. So where had the voice come from?

"You can talk, right?" he asked the boomerang, feeling a bit stupid.

"And so much more!" said the voice. " For the low, low price of 20 WP I can sing, dance, give relationship advice, and even do a jig! This is a limited special time offer, so don't wait or else you'll regret it!"

Rico looked at the boomerang and rolled his eyes. "So what's your name Mr. Salesman. Or should I just call you the Boomerang of Critics."

" No need to be rude! without me you would never have been able to kill that monster. You can call me (hmm what's a good name?) Yo Mama." The boomerang laughed at him and Rico angrily threw him to the ground. "Hey! Don't hurt your savior it was only a joke."

Rico thought for a moment. Obviously the boomerang was sentient but was also summoned from the skill he used. But why was it sentient? He thought he had summoned a weapon but instead it was a toy that gave out crass comments. Anastasia walked over to him and her healing aura wrapped around him. The green aura gave off a slight smell of mint leaves.

"Rico, why didn't you tell me you had a weapon! And why didn't you use it earlier!" Anastasia said angrily, punching him lightly on the shoulder.

"I didn't have one. I just got the weapon in battle." Rico grumbled. He explained what had happened and pointed at the boomerang. Anastasia looked quite shocked by the fact that Rico's boomerang was sentient.

" You have the ability to summon Soul Weapons!? What are you, a hacker? Do you have secret connections? Do you even know what this means!" At this point she was punching him a lot harder than before. Rico backed away from his angry companion. He did not know what this meant as he had only just got the skill.

"Hehe, girl save your punches for something more worthwhile, this idiot doesn't even realize how lucky he is." The boomerang giggled. Anastasia glared at the boomerang on the ground but stopped trying to hit Rico. He had lost 12 HP from her attacks and he was feeling rather confused and angry.

"Can someone please tell me what the hell is the problem. As far as I'm concerned I just used my skill to summon a slightly useful, really obnoxious weapon. What's the big deal?"

The boomerang snorted, feeling bad that he had been called obnoxious. " You tell him girl and I'll just fill you in when you don't know something."

Anastasia calmed down and turned to Rico. " As you know everything is divided into tiers here, just like a video game. For weapons the tiers are about as weird as the monster tiers, and there is a hierarchy to them to." The three main categories for weapons are : Normal, Sacred and Soul. A weapon can never breach over to another category; normal will stay normal, sacred will stay sacred and so on." Anastasia licked her lips before trying to continue but Rico raised his hand to stop her.

"Let's get the quest reward first. You can tell me along the way to the town." Rico said. It was going to get dark and he didn't want to stay since monsters grew stronger in the darkness. Anastasia nodded and they headed over to the Orthanak's carcass. After checking around they found an amber colored ball that very faintly glowed. They also broke of a part of the tusk that was damaged to take back as proof.

"This appears to be a monster core. Very rare to see one in a fourth level monster." Rico said. He had learned about monster cores from the guide but had mostly skipped over it since they appeared in monsters level five and above. Rico went and picked up the boomerang with one hand and carried the tusk part in the other.

"Can you please continue your explanation." He said as they exited the forested part of the foothills.

"As I was saying, there are three categories of weapons. Within each category there are tiers. For Normal weapons it is White, Green, Blue, Purple, and Yellow and they are ranked from weakest to strongest in that order. These weapons usually only give damage points along with a few strength or dexterity stat points. The higher level ones might have some special powers but nothing compared to the other categories. The one massive benefit that these types of weapons have is that they can come in sets. These sets can be extremely beneficial when all the pieces are collected and sometimes you only need some of the pieces to see rewards."

At this point the boomerang piped up adding his own commentary. " Don't underestimate Normal weapons boy. While the majority of them suck, there are purple and yellow weapons and weapon sets that are better than a lot of weapons in the other categories. In general the other categories are much better, but the top tiers of Normal are no slouches themselves."

Anastasia nodded at this and turned to Rico to see if he had any questions. Seeing he was willing to let her go on, she continued. "The Sacred category is a lot different from the normal. Sacred weapons actually fall within a larger category called Sacred Relics. Sacred Relics actually are embodiments of legendary treasures from Terra like Merlin's Staff, The Holy Grail, or even Galileo's telescope. The Sacred Relics have a power ranking system based off their usefulness and history. The more useful or more profound the history, the higher tier. The tiers are tiers are Epic, Hero, Legendary, Demigod and Divine. The Sacred weapons in this collection usually give higher damage and stats than Normal weapons of the same grade level and also usually come with one or two bonus effects like lightning or fire."

Rico stopped her and asked about what she meant by 'grade level'.

"The grade level can be seen as a comparison across categories as to level division. For example Green Normal weapons are compared to Hero level Sacred weapons. Of course Hero weapons are better than their Green counterparts, but because Normal weapons can combine into sets they may be more useful to have. Also, it is a whole lot easier to get Normal weapons over Sacred or Soul weapons. Normal weapons are offered in the majority of quests before Floor 30 and thus most people can find a set faster than they can get a Sacred Weapon."

They were still far from the town at this point as they could barely see the red roofs of the houses. There appeared to be some adventures off to the side killing a couple of snake like monsters in the grass. Rico barely looked at them and continued to listen to Anastasia's explanation.

"The final category is the Soul Weapons. They are by far the most powerful of weapons for two reasons. First, they have their own sentience as they are souls just like us. However their souls for some reason are inferior and can't be stored in a normal body. So they become weapons. Since they are souls, they can also level up an gain strength through exp and battle. Therefore a Soul Weapon can become stronger over time. The second reason why they are so good is that they can meld with their owner's soul. This synergy of two souls produces a ridiculous amount of energy and is extremely powerful." Anastasia explained.

The boomerang jumped into Anastasia's explanation and haughtily said, "To give you a good idea of what this means boy I'll tell you about the 76th Soul weapon: The yin-Yang Sword. After 50 years with its owner, they achieved melding. When they unleashed their attack, three Legendary weapons broke and a mountain was sundered in half after sweeping through 16 sacred and mutant monsters. The power of a melding increases the performance of a melding allows weapon and man to combine their souls and possibly become a Super Soul. This is why everyone covets us Soul Weapons, we are the best weapons in Dreamscape."

Rico was shocked and he suddenly realized that what he was holding was one of the best weapons in the game. And He could summon more at will! This was ridiculously OP and he felt elated at all this information. Then he remembered something when he got the boomerang.

"Why are you the 100th Weapon? When I tried to use my skill, it ssaid my WP was to low and therefor I had to summon you."

If the boomerang had a face then it would have blushed. "Soul Weapons are exceedingly rare as there are only 101 of us. When our combat partner dies we are summoned back to our location of 'birth' (so to speak) and our experience is reset unless we achieve a soul meld. The ranking of the Soul Weapons in the beginning of Dreamscape was what our base power levels were to start with. At the time I was the 85th Soul Weapon and I'll admit that I'm not that great. But as adventurers gained Soul Weapons and soul melds occurred, the ranking of a Soul weapon increased. Popular weapons like The Sword of Avarice quickly flew up the rankings as the quest to get him appears pretty often. As such, less known weapons don't go out much. I will admit that this is actually my second time out and the first time.. well I would just like to forget it."

Rico stared at the boomerang in some slight sympathy and some slight hate. Despite the fact that it was a Soul Weapon, the thing had a ridiculously low ranking and was difficult to use.

'Oh well it is partially my fault. If I had more WP then I could have gotten a better weapon. That reminds me...'

Rico pulled up his character sheet.

[Name: Rico Validez]

[Title: ]

[Type: Demigod Human (Max lvl)(Locked]

[Unique Ability: ??? (Max lvl)]

[HP: 560/1000 (5 hours till max)]

[MP: 100/100]

[WP: 40/100 (3 days till max)]

Stats

[Strength:15]

[Dexterity:7]

[Perception:7]

[Intelligence:16]

[Charisma:27 (neutral)]

Skill List (view)

Inventory(view)

Rico saw the timer on his WP and was disappointed. It apparently took a long time to recover WP even though he had very little of it.

'I wonder if the WP increases with my level'. Rico wasn't sure since the WP bar seamed to be a hidden power of the System. He also noticed that his stats had gone up. This was due to the passive skill that he originally had. Apparently the System rounded down when it came to percentages since he had been at 25 charisma back in the temple.

"So you see Rico, having an ability that can summon Soul Weapons is stupidly overpowered. I'm honestly quite envious." Anastasia was saying.

" Yeah well it seems great on the surface but it took the majority of my power to simply summon the second worst Soul Weapon" Rico replied.

"That's a bit harsh but you aren't wrong. I should also mention that you should keep me in the Inventory. While I'm not well known, there are plenty of people who can recognize the energy signature of a Soul Weapon and needless to say we are to weak to even run from them." The boomerang said. Rico agreed and he put the boomerang into his Inventory which resembled a blue box with about 100 slots. A miniature version of the boomerang appeared in the first slot.

They finally arrived at the entrance of the town and headed to the Quest House. Along the way they received dome strange looks and Rico heard one brief exchange from someone in the crowd.

"Weren't they the people who took that level 2 quest?"

"Yeah, everyone thought they would die and take up with a guild."

Rico didn't know what to think of this so he filed in his mind what he heard for later on. They entered the Quest House and walked up to the counter. There was a large group of people at the counter and they waited patiently. However, Rico overheard the request of what appeared to be the lead man and his interest was piqued.

"What do you mean the Orthanak quest was taken? We have three new members to our guild here, how are we suppose to level them up on Beginner and Level one quests?!"

The man behind the counter blankly stared at the angry man. "Sorry sir, there is nothing I can do for you. You know the rules, the Quest House can't rescind a quest from its relievers unless if they ask it or if they give it to someone else." The man behind the counter leaned closer to the leader who in turn did the same. " However, I can give you their descriptions, for a price..."

The leader grunted and flash of silver jumped between the two men. The man behind the counter smiled and prepared to speak. At this point he swept his eyes across the room to check for eavesdropping. His eyes fell upon Rico and his face squirmed as he realized that the person they were talking about was in the room.

His eyes traveled to the tusk in Rico's hand and his face paled. He turned back to the man in front of him. "I'm sorry sir, I just realized that I can't tell you the persons identity."

"Why not?!" said the leader. The goatee in his burly face quivering from his anger over the lack of information the bribe had gotten him.

" Because it seems that they have already completed the quest" and the eyes of the man turned back to Rico.

Rico in turn smiled at him and walked forward slamming the tusk down upon the counter.

" I didn't realize that others were looking for this quest. Oh well, first come first serve." Rico said strongly. The leader looked at Rico and then back at the tusk, his manner completely changing when he realized who Rico was. His eyes shot back to Rico and Anastasia taking in their completely white clothing that was covered in grass and dirt stains. His eyes widened in suprise.

"Impossible! Are you two the only people who completed this quest?" He exclaimed. Anastasia nodded proudly. " No way! Who is backing you. There is no way just to people who aren't even level 1 can beat a level 2 quest. Real me what guild you are from!" The leader said again. The group behind him also seemed shock.

It wasn't just them. The entire hall got quiet upon hearing the outburst. sixty pairs of eyes turned toward them. Rico gulped and replied

"We are the only ones in our group. We aren't associated with a guild currently. However some of the big ones appear to be interested in us. Especially the Holy Knights." Rico was of course making up the whole guild part. However he made an educated guess that there was probably a large guild called the Holy Knights. There always was in RPG games and he believed there would be no exceptions here.

The man's face paled and he said," The Holy Knights! I wouldn't call them large though." The man wore a humble expression after this. "Excuse my rudness. Please tell Commander Shi Lin that I mean no disrespect and that I acknowledge your claim to the quest. Men let's go!"

He promptly turned to the door and hurried out. After a brief hesitation and backward glances, the rest of his group followed. Rico turned back to the man behind the counter. This man wore a surprised and slightly pale face after seeing Rico and Anastasia in their white clothes along with tusk. Rico pulled out the monster core and quest paper also placed them on the table.

"The quest forgot to mention that this was a level five monster. I think that makes thus a level three quest and I expect due compensation!" Rico said forcefully carrying a forced angry face. It was a a level four monster but since monster cores in level four creatures were extremely rare, they were mostly ignored as a possibility.

The man stared in shock. "A level five monster! It must have upgrade extremely recently. I will prepare your rewards right away sir!" The man hurried over to a register and placed the paper in it where it lit up.

[+500 exp]

Rico went and checked his Character List but nothing had seemed to change. For Anastasia it seemed that things were different. She gasped after pulling up her own status and looked really excited.

"Did you go up a level?" Rico asked. He was confused as to why he hadn't seen any changes to his status.

" I'm now at level 6! I don't know where to apply my points though." Anastasia said excitedly.

[+100 exp]

Rico was surprised that he had received more exp and he wasn't sure what was the reason for it. The man who had taken their quest sheet returned to them.

"I've given you bonus exp and money as compensation for defeating a higher level monster than what was advertised." The man said. He handed over a baseball sized bag of coins to Rico and then casually walked away, disappearing behind a door behind him. Just as Rico was about to turn around and leave, another notification appeared.

[Demigod body requirements met. Unlock?]

[Y/N]

Rico stared at this new message in shock. Is this where his exp had gone. Then he remembered something. The Demigod body was maxed out. He licked his lips and pressed yes.