Arsenal of Shadow

After some minutes of walking, Vektor meets once again his best friend, who greets him excitedly:

"Welcome back, Vektor!"

"Yo!"

"So, did you find the apprentice in the Ice Palace?"

"I did. It was a little tougher than I expected, but it all went well in the end. She must be home by now."

"Nice job! So, where's your next stop?"

"Now I just need to go to the Arsenal of Shadow to find Mitsuko, and then find the last apprentice."

"Do you know where to find them?"

"Not yet, but maybe Mitsuko does. She's also an apprentice after all."

"Need my help?"

"Not yet. When I find the last apprentice, I'll call you to find a way to gather all of the apprentices in one place. Until that time comes, I want you to stay here."

"If that's what you want."

"Well, I'll be going then. I can't keep Mitsuko waiting any longer, after all. See you later!"

After this conversation, Vektor walks back to the royal mini-airship and flies to the Arsenal of Shadow, where Mitsuko welcomes him:

"Ah, you're finally here."

"Sorry for taking so long, I was kinda busy..."

"No problem. Did it turned out alrighr in the castle?"

"As much as possible, but yes. I also found another apprentice."

"That's nice to hear. Well, feel free to enter."

Upon entering the arsenal, Vektor finds more weapons than he expected, enough to supply an entire army. With a certain astonishment on his face, he admires the arsenal until he is interrupted by Mitsuko:

"If you want something to eat or go to the bathroom, just tell me."

"Oh, thanks. I'll just go to the bathroom then. If I get hungry, I can just eat something from my backpack."

Vektor is guided to the bathroom of Mitsuko's house and finishes his business in a matter of seconds. After that, he is guided to the living room, where he confusedly asks:

"So... What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, when we were talking in the city, I realized that you didn't know much about the Etykirans who live on this island. So I thought I'd give you a very basic tutorial, so that you don't get all lost whenever you come here."

"That's really convenient. Even though I didn't get that much trouble to understand things to this point."

"Speaking of that, you didn't tell me what happened in the castle with the princess."

"Well, she told me to find the other apprentices first, and her father gave me a mini-airship that I'm using to get from place to place."

"And then you found one more apprentice... it's Yuko, am I right?"

"Yeah, do you know her?"

"She's been my best friend since we were little. I usually stop by Haidora Village every now and then to visit her."

"Okay, I didn't know that."

"But anyway, enough distancing away from the main topic, let's start your tutorial already."

"Alright, you may begin."

"As you may know, each family is connected to an element, which in turn serves as the basis for their abilities. You, for example, as a Drenn, have abilities over the element Fire."

"You mean, I should have..."

"What you apparently don't know is the fact that the element is only the basis of the abilities, which means that an Etykiran's power doesn't always involve emitting that element directly."

"What you're trying to say?"

"Me, for example. The base element for the Kageki family is the element Shadow. However, the power that this element gives me is that of teleportation. This is caused by my ability to manipulate shadows to distort the space around me. Do you get it now?"

"I think I get the idea of ​​how this works. Earlier, I saw Yuko creating an ice wall with her powers. Creating ice is her ability, right?"

"Well, not exactly. The Haidora's abilities are based on the element Water. She's able to manipulate the temperature of water molecules to a certain extent, which grants her the power to create and unmake ice."

"(So in the end it's the same.)"

"An interesting detail: I don't know if you've seen it, but there are magic crystals developed by the Kageki and Haidora families, so that non-Etykirans can enjoy the powers that Yuko and I naturally possess."

"Oh yeah, I remember seeing a whole bunch of those crystals before... Wait...

(...!)"

"Exactly. You know what I'm talking about. The Ice Crystal, and the..."

"Shadow Crystal..."

"That's right! I see you got the idea!"

"(So that's how the Shadow Crystals work... That's how Maken manages to escape... That was all in my face the entire time... Am I an idiot or what?!)"

"Moving on, the element Light is the basis for the Sorang family. Members of the royal family possess the power to divide their own bodies into light clones. Each clone is intangible, and only when the person returns to their normal form does their body regain tangibility."

"Ghosts?"

"If you think about it, it's something close to that."

"(If that's the case, my fight will be complicated...)

How about the last Etykiran apprentice? I didn't find him yet. The apprentice Nuuhar, no wait, Lunar, not that..."

"You must be talking about the apprentice Noogard."

"Yeah yeah, that one."

"To tell you the truth, I never met him even once..."

"Never?"

"I was told that the Noogard live in Wind Hills, but..."

"Wind Hills? Whenever I fly over the island, that place seems completely deserted."

"You're right. They say that this family lives isolated in one of the hills, but I personally have never seen who lives there."

"Now that's a problem... If not even you know the apprentice Noogard, how will I find him?"

"Just go to Wind Hills and explore the place on foot. If they live there it shouldn't be too hard to find their house in such an open place."

"Well, not like I have a choice... By the way, the element of the Noogard is Wind, right?"

"Yes. From what I know, their power is to manipulate the wind to move at very high speeds."

"Basically, super speed...

(Since before I came here, I've seen a lot of super fast people... Is that power actually as special as she's saying?)"

"It seems like you got the hang of everything... Okay, that was just the basics, but I don't take away your merit in understanding all this information so quickly."

"Meh, understanding things like this isn't that hard for me. Is there anything else you want to teach me?"

"Hey, I may have more experience as an Etykiran than you, but I'm still an apprentice. I don't know everything about this island either. All I know that can be useful I've already told you."

"I see, thanks anyway. Well, I guess it's time for me to get going. I have one last place on the island to explore."

"Alright, I'll walk you out."

After being guided out of the Arsenal of Shadow, Vektor returns to the royal mini-airship and begins flying towards Wind Hills. The time has finally come to meet the apprentice Noogard, the last of the 5 Etykiran apprentices.