Faceless Phantom 20 Chapter 17 - Bonnie The Bunny

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A floating digital window appeared in front of short bunny girl. Her ears twitched and stood as she startled. Then her face showed that she was confused as to how to answer the question in front of her.

"Ummm… How do I answer? Yes?"

A ball of light appeared and slowly turned into small winged figure. Long wavy ginger hair and green eyes. Her body was wrapped by a green dress which seemed to be made from leaves. On her back, b.u.t.terfly wings were flapping continuously.

[Nixi the Guide]

"Ah! New Hero!"

Nixi's face brightened as she faced the bunny girl. She then bowed as both of her hands grabbed her skirt lightly.

"I'm Nixi. I will be your guide."

The short bunny girl copied her and answered.

"Uhh… I'm Bonnie, please take care of me."

"Yes! I'll explain about this world!"

As Nixi explained about the game, Bonnie went around her while observing with sparkling eyes. A moment later, she stopped and poked Nixi with her index finger.

"And you will find food in your- Ahh! New Hero, are you listening?"

"Yes. Please call me Bonnie."

Nixi then continued while Bonnie listening and nodded. After Nixi finished explaining things, she told Bonnie to follow her to training ground. However, Bonnie asked to walk her around the town instead. Nixi thought for a moment and accepted her request.

Nixi was talking as if she was a tour guide, until they arrived at the west town gate. Bonnie immediately rushed outside. Nixi panicked, she tried to convince Bonnie to go back and went to the training ground. But she didn't stop and went straight to Eldan Meadow. Nixi sighed and just followed Bonnie.

She was excited seeing so many monsters for the first time. They were wandering on the green field.

"Whoooaa…"

She ran toward the nearest Enraged Bunny and stopped. The Enraged Bunny glared at Bonnie, so did she. Then she charged forward while raising her staff. However, before she even swung her staff, the Enraged Bunny already leaped toward her. Seeing that, Nixi put her hands on her face.

Thud!

Their heads collided. Bonnie fell backwards as she closed her eyes. The Enraged Bunny's headb.u.t.t made her eyes spinning. She could even see floating stars in the clear blue sky. She was stunned.

[You have received 54 damage from Enraged Bunny]

[You have received 51 damage from Enraged Bunny]

[You have received 57 damage from Enraged Bunny]

While Bonnie kept being hit by the bunny, Nixi explained to her how to use her weapon. Bonnie stood and puffed her red cheeks.

"I know how to fight!"

She got up and swung her staff. The bunny evaded and did counter attack.

[You have received 53 damage from Enraged Bunny]

Vein popped on her head. She then chased the bunny while swinging blindly and screaming.

"Aaaaahhhhh!!! You're a dead meat! I'll eat you!"

After a few moments chasing around, she stopped and panting while glaring at the Enraged Bunny. However, the Enraged Bunny was smirking at her. Veins popped on her head. She was so mad she could imagine the bunny were burned, she could even feel the heat as if she was roasting the bunny's meat. And suddenly, a ball of fire was formed in front of her.

Fwoos.h.!.+

The ball of fire was shot. It was sent flying in an arch and landed on the Enraged Bunny. The Enraged Bunny was quickly covered in flame.

[You landed a critical hit!]

[You have inflicted 1574 damage to Enraged Bunny]

The Enraged Bunny was dead in an instant before it could even screech.

"Eeeh!? Wha…wa…wa?"

Witnessed what she just did, Bonnie was surprised and fl.u.s.tered. Even Nixi was amazed.

"Oooh!"

"Did you see that?" Bonnie said as a bright smile was formed on her face.

"Yes, Miss Bonnie! That was awesome!" Nixi replied with the same smile.

"I'm a Mahou Shoujou!" Bonnie said while posing like one of magical girl in some anime.

"Oh Cool!"

"Anyway… How did I do that?" She asked Nixi innocently.

"Eh!? You don't know!?"

Nixi was dumbfounded. What Bonnie just did was actually a fluke. Nonetheless, as time went by, Bonnie figured it out by herself. She learned the Fireball spell. Unfortunately, Beast had low mana pool. She could only cast about two fireb.a.l.l.s in short amount of time. Still, Bonnie was motivated to be a magical girl. So, she was patient to regenerate her mana. And then later she learned multiple spells while defeating monsters.

A day pa.s.sed and the sun already set. They went back to Eldan as Nixi explained her last explanation, then she disappeared into thin air. Bonnie felt lonely, but she was enjoying the game.

'This is fun!'

Bonnie began to search for a shop to sell the j.a.ptems she got from the hunt. She thought she would buy new equipment or spell books with the money.

A few minutes walking from the west gate, Bonnie found a shop.

"Heiden's Shop?"

After reading the shop's name, she opened the door and went in.

Ring Ring Ring

At the bell's ring, Heiden turned his head and saw his new customer in front of the door. But before Heiden even said his shop's motto, the short bunny girl ran and shouting.

"Angel!"

There was a woman with a single white wing standing inside the shop. Seeing a winged figure for the first time, Bonnie shouted in delight. She ran towards the figure and went around her. The winged woman was confused by her action. Then suddenly, someone appeared beside them. It was an Aphu.

"Wear your mantle properly. We're leaving."

"Y-yes…"

The Aphu walked toward the front door and the winged woman followed him while wearing her mantle so her wing was unseen. Bonnie tried to follow them, but then someone stopped her.

"Hey little, Miss. Don't sneak into people's business, alright? It could be dangerous, you know."

Said Heiden as he half squatting to match Bonnie's height.

"Ehh umm… It's not that I want to follow them or anything… I'm just curious…"

Bonnie looked away and folded her arms on her chest.

"Hahaha… alright alright… Then I a.s.sume you're here for buying something, aren't you? I'm the shop owner, Heiden."

Heiden stood from his half squatting and went to the counter.

"No. I'm here to sell…"

"That's fine too. So let me see what you wanna sell."

Bonnie took out all the j.a.ptems from her waist bag. And Heiden named them one by one.

"Enraged Bunny meat and pelts. Slime cores. Meadow Fox pelts, claws and fangs. Oho… This is quite a lot."

"Umm…so how much are they?"

"Let's see…" Heiden was thinking for a while and then continued. "It's 1 gold and 53 silver. Here you go."

"Wow… a Gold!"

Even though Bonnie had already seen gold in real life, but gold coin was a new thing for her. It was like almost everything in this game amazed her.

"Haha… Is it the first time you see gold coin?"

"Unh…"

"So do you want anything else?"

"I want equipment."

"You can look around."

Bonnie turned around and saw dozens of equipment placed neatly on the shelfs.

"Bring what you wanna buy here."

'Oh this is exciting!'

She smiled and began to wander the shop and pick some equipment she could buy.

After she had done shopping equipment, Bonnie decided to search for a job quest. She, however, did part-time job quests instead.

Because of that, she was wearing different kind of clothes to fit the part time jobs. Maid, nurse, librarian, smith, etc.

She thought job quest was that kind of quest, but whenever she check her status, her job was still 'None'. Still, she thought that it was fun experiences. Moreover, she cleared the quests above average so she got some of the clothes as reward, which made her mood brighter.

She cleared multiple part-time jobs without realizing it, until she got a chain quest from one of the part-time job quest. And she needed to go outside of Eldan.

When she was walking on a road that led southeast forest, she found a wooden house near the forest. It was as the Book and Herbal Shop's owner, Lucy, said. There lived her grandfather named Mel'Jarrad. And Bonnie was requested to make a delivery to him.

The old man Mel'Jarrad was sitting on a wooden chair on the porch, enjoying the weather while reading a book. He then realized someone was coming, so he stood and waiting for his visitor.

"Excuse me, are you Mister Mel'Jarrad?"

"You meet the right person. Do you need something, little miss?"

Bonnie got near him, she stretched her hands to give a basket she got from Lucy to him.

"Oh is this for me?" Said the old man Mel'Jarrad as he received the basket.

"Unh…"

He opened the basket after seeing Bonnie nodded.

"Ah it's from my granddaughter, eh? This is what I really need. Heheheh…"

Mel'Jarrad put the basket on the table and sat on his chair.

"Please take a seat."

As Bonnie sat down on another wooden chair, the old man began to open his mouth again.

"So I a.s.sume you're the one who helped my granddaughter's shop these days."

"Unh…"

"Isn't it a hard duty?"

"Umm… Everyone seems not interested in books and herbal drugs, but thankfully it went well somehow."

"Hahaha… It is indeed hard to make young generations these days to read books and consume herbal products. To make some interested like that, I really appreciate your hard work, little miss."

"No worries! Besides I can read books about magic for free in my spare time. And the herbal tea is really good too! Heheh…" Bonnie smiled cheerfully.

"Hahaha… That's good then… You must love reading about magic very much, little miss. Are you by any chance a scholar of magic?"

"Umm… No, I'm not a student. I already work at a phone company…"

"Phone company?"

Seeing Mel'Jarrad's confused face, Bonnie realized that she was still in a game. She panicked.

"Ah! No, I mean… I don't have a job. I'm not a scholar of magic either." She made a wry laugh to cover her mistake.

"I see… I thought since you read books about magic, you might interested in one."

Hearing the old man said that, her eyes immediately sparkled.

"Of course I'm interested in magic! I wanna be a Magical Gi- Ah! Eh… A Magician! Yes, I wanna be a Magician."

"A Magician, huh?" The tip of Mel'Jarrad's lip went up after hearing her response. "So that's what you wanna be."

"Unh…"

"You have great determination I see. It's been a long time since I saw someone like you… Hueheheh… Well, I shall give you a reward for helping my granddaughter. But, I need to know how strong your will is, little miss."

Bonnie tilted her head as if she was trying to catch what the old man mean.

"There is an Abandoned Tower at the east. It is one day walk. If you could get my Grimoire in that tower. I think I'll teach you how to be a Magician. It's a test, of course. Do you accept the challenge, little miss?"

A window suddenly appeared in front of Bonnie.

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Mel'Jarrad's Test

Quest: Find Mel'Jarrad's Grimoire inside an Abandoned Tower. It is one day walk to the east of Mel'Jarrad's house.

If you succeed, Mel'Jarrad will personally teach you to become a Magician.

Accept?

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"YES!"

Bonnie answered without one bit of hesitation.

・・・

Burdy was lying on the ground. Vallas was standing unscathed. Thus the tournament ended with Vallas victory. Vallas was still keeping his winning streak. He was still the most powerful man in Heallance.

The audience was uncontrollably loud when Vallas left the arena.

"OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"VALLAS! VALLAS! VALLAS! VALLAS! VALLAS!"

Vallas was walking through a dark hallway to the waiting room. Inside the waiting room, coliseum owner was standing. He was guarded by two men behind him. Vallas stopped in front of him and looked at him with sharp eyes.

"Good job, champion." The owner smiled at him. "You've done well."

"Keep your promise…"

"Oh that…" The owner pouched his lips for a moment, then he continued. "I'm terribly sorry but you have to fight again because you've won the tournament. You're the champion. And people love you after all."

Vallas furrowed his eyebrows. The tip of his lips went down.

"So that's how it's gonna be, huh…"

"No no no… You can't do that. You know the consequence, right?"

"You LIED. And you BETRAYED me."

The ground around Vallas slowly shook as he said that. The owner rolled his eyes and turned his back on him.

"DON'T YOU DARE-"

Vallas immediately fell and the ground calmed down. Vallas tried to get up but his movement was sluggish and he fell again.

"Put him back to his cell."

Two guards who were standing behind the owner began to drag Vallas. They put Vallas back to his cell in Coliseum Underground.

Evening after roll call. Someone voice could be heard behind his wall, it was a man.

"He do not want to let you go, right?"

Vallas kept silent. However, the man behind the wall continued.

"We are all nothing but slaves. We are here not to fight for honor and fame but to die. Even if we survive and win, sooner or later we will face merciless opponent and be killed in the arena. I know because this very arena took one of our kin's life. We've been here long enough to remember." Sigh vaguely heard behind the wall. After a moment of silence he continued. "We plan to escape. It would be great if you join us."

Vallas still kept silent. He was thinking about anything else.

'Isn't this Cell C? That means he's in Cell B, huh?'

It seemed the man was in different area. Though he didn't know the exact place since he never explored the coliseum. Nonetheless, he was thinking about what he said too. It seemed the arena owner never kept his promise. Thus, the man behind the wall offered a breakout.

"Is it possible? We still have the thing on our feet, you know."

"Do not you worry, we have a method to remove this treacherous thing."

The thing they mentioned was a tracker and weakening device. Fortunately, the man said that he could remove it.

"So are you in or not, champion?"

The man asked him again, but Vallas didn't answer. Hearing Vallas wasn't saying a word, the man continued.

"If you accept, the plan will be started next week. The sooner you answer the better. We have to prepare and ready." The man was coughing and after it calmed down, he continued. "However, Even if you refuse our offer, the breakout will still go as planned. No matter how long it take. We are already decided. Please think about it wisely."

The man was waiting Vallas to answer, but it seemed the talk was over. As the man tried to sleep, a voice could be heard behind his wall.

"What should I do?"

The man was smiling to the answer he wanted to hear.

"That's great. We shall meet soon at midnight. Keep your eyes open, champion."