As a whole, the previous fiasco had vexed Shichiro slightly and he didn't really want to continue on with his little job. Luckily, he had successfully completed it before he lost interest. Now all he had to do was look for that person that promised him a reward. He had hoped he hadn't been duped into doing work for free or he'd be severely pissed. Looking around the town to see if there was any other threats, he had found there was actually a few more skeletons that were around. Shichiro thought he'd have to clean the rest of them up too but there were other mages, both affiliates and non-affiliates, of official guilds helping out.  Some were there on duty to help out while others, were mercenaries for hire like Shichiro himself. Well, at least he didn't have to put in anymore work than he had too since he was hired only to clear out some skeletons. Shichiro was about to leave when suddenly, he was called out to by a familiar voice. Well, it was somewhat familiar since he's heard it but it was calmer this time around. It was the person he had ran into outside of town before Shichiro entered. He approached him, holding out a lump some of jewels and these strange pops that Shichiro has seemed to be fond of gathering recently. Shichiro nodded and took his reward without saying a word. Clearly, the situation was getting hectic and he could spend his reward at the moment with things running amok. 

He would like to help but after traveling the world and all, his view on his life had altered slightly. He didn't mind doing what's right or what was wrong as long as he was getting some kind of compensation for doing so. His family had always been poor to begin with and the only reason he even trained to be a mage was to overcome him and his family's poverty and adversity. Well, that was that. Turning to walk away, Shichiro was once again stopped by the person he had been rewarded by. He turned to face him to see what more he could possibly want, though SHichiro already knew the answer. Before the man could ask for help once more, Shichiro had already began asking, “How much are you willing to pay me for my services?” The man was a it joyous that he didn’t have to go through all that trouble and told Shichiro that his lord would be happy to cover any expenses he would have down the line. This piqued Shichiro’s interest as he decided to hear all about the details from this guy. Going someplace secluded, Shichiro sat own on an old, carved stone that used to be part of the wall to listen to the man’s story. The man also took a seat on a nearby carved stone to begin telling his story. Firstly, he decided to introduce himself as one of the lord’s spokespersons of Oak named Servas.

WC: 503

Now began his story, as he stated before, he was a spokesperson for one of the biggest lords in the town of Oak called Lord Servas Phantasm. SHichiro chuckled at the name and the man seems to have started showing irritation. Shichiro apologized and let the man continue with his story. The man had explained that recently, the village had been attacked by a powerful Lich that remained dormant in a nearby dungeon for centuries. It was recently awoken due to strange circumstances concerning the time of year. He was in charge of hiring local and passing mages with the cleanup of the roaming skeletons but there were far too many for a small group of mages to handle so he decided he would flee the town to get outside help. As cowardly as his actions were, shichiro decided he couldn’t fault the man for abandoning the town briefly to find help even though he would technically be deserting his lord. The man then said he was tasked to gather a group of elite mages and have them accompany him in order to find the whereabouts of the lich before the total annihilation of the town of Oak had fallen upon them. He was also tasked with to pinpoint the exact location of where the lich’s current whereabouts would be. Nodding, Shichiro was taking in the man’s story with great interest. A lich, eh? He’d never encounter a creature like this before so his knowledge on the subject was fairly limited. Lastly, the man added that there was a hunch the Lich could be located at the Majura Gallery. 

He’s heard there were sightings of skeletons pouring out of the abandoned section of the gallery and it would have been a good place to start since the lich can’t be too far away from his creations unless he loses control of them. Finally, a useful bit of information that could help in stopping this mayhem and complete this job a bit sooner. After taking in all the knowledge of the situation, Shichiro decided he would head to Majura gallery alone in order to see what he could dig up and told the spokesperson to wait someplace nearby for his return as he didn’t really need him slowing Shichiro down. The man agreed to this plan without hesitation since he had no way of defending himself. Getting up, he figured he was about to do a lot more than he actually intended too but hopefully, it would have at least been worth it. He figured he do some stretches before he got to work. Twisting his waist from right to left and then to the right again, Shichiro decided he would use this opportunity to limber up some more of his body rather than from just the shoulder rotations he did on his way here. To properly loosen up, he continued to pivot from right to left a few more times just to be certain. After that, he brought his left forearm towards the bicep of his right arm, curling his right over his left, giving it a few tugs while twisting his upper body slightly to the right in order to stretch. 

W.C: 532
T.W.C: 1035

He repeated this process with his other arm, placing his right forearm onto his left bicep, curling around it with his left arm and giving it a few tugs with while twisting to the left. Continuing his routine stretching, he placed his left hand onto his temple, leaning his upper body to the right to stretch the left side of his upper body, bobbing at the sides a little to loosen the muscles surrounding his rib cage. He repeated this process for the right side of his body, placing his right hand onto his temple and leaning his upper body to the left to loosen his muscles on the other side of his rib cage, bobbing to the side. Once he was done with that exercise, he leaned his upper body forward in an attempt to touch his toes, straightening out his back and making it as limber as he could. He straightened his body up before leaning backwards as far as he could, bobbing as best as he could but not too much since he didn't want to leave any discomfort when trying to align his spine. Now it was time for the lower half of his body, Taking one giant step forward with his right leg, Shichiro bends his left knee towards the ground, without it making contact with the ground, whilst outstretching his right leg into an arch, performing a lunge. He then straightened up his body up before taking another giant step forward with his left leg, bending his right knee towards the ground, without it making contact with the ground, whilst outstretching his left leg into an arch, performing another lunge. Shichiro repeated this process two more times for each leg until he was good and ready. 



Making his way towards the abandoned Majura gallery, Shichiro placed his hands in his pockets as he would normally do. He figured he’d have to fight something tedious once more but that was the life of a wandering mercenary like himself. Still, he sort of wished he had a travelling companion or two to help him with his travels and stuff. It’s sort of too much for one guy to just be going around taking all sorts of requests and beating up hordes of opponents by himself. Well, no point in wondering about that now. Shortly after arriving at the Majura Gallery, Shichiro had immediately heard a commotion in a certain part. He wondered what it was about and even wondered if he could make a quick buck out of it by beating up whatever it was making that noise.  He began to roam the gallery in search of more information he could use or deliver back to the spokesman. He likely figured most of it would be superstition and baseless rumors but it was still better than not knowing a damn thing. He hoped he didn't look strange enough to at least set foot in an abandoned building. Only reason he was even considering this was because he heard this was the best place to investigate and gain information and he happened to be in front of it. Only thing was it was up to him to figure out fiction and reality. When he approached the entrance, A scrawny mage had blocked his way, shaking his head. Shichiro frowned, not understanding why this man was barring him from going in. 

W.C: 563
T.W.C: 1582

He didn't appreciate being kept from where he needed to go but he wasn't gonna make a fuss about it and fight this man either. It would hurt his reputation and he didn't really want anything hindering him from earning a lot more money. But, there was a perfectly good body in front of him to ask. He decided this would be a good start. "What’s the big idea? I’m trying to get in and investigate this gallery so i can stop whatever the hell is going on. What’s your deal pal?" Shichiro had said a bit testy. The man had begun to explain that he shouldn’t go alone since he was with another group of mages and they went in ahead of him before he even arrived. He told Shichiro that it was dangerous and that he should turn back now while he still had the chance. Shichiro chuckled and decided he would ignore the mage’s warning anyways and continue onward. As soon as he stepped inside, he could hear the sounds of battle. Mostly mages throwing their spells, loud stomping and the rumbling of the building itself. Well, what a nice party Shichiro had gotten himself into. Removing his hands from his pockets, he continued further into the gallery to see exactly what was going on. Upon entering the main hall where art used to be displayed in, Shichiro saw a party of fives mages battle two behemoths. There was another one but it seems to have been dispatched already. Well, Shichiro may as well give them a hand. He observed the room to see what else might have taken place that he had missed. 

As he stated before, there was a skeleton behemoth that was already lying on the ground dead. It seems there were more mages that came along but they had lost a few in the battle. Shichiro could see three corpses of mages that were slain in battle. The last thing he noticed was the building was already old and rotting but the structure had significantly weakened from the battle that was happening. He didn’t know exactly how long the battle had been going but what he did know was if it kept up, the structure wouldn’t last long. He figured he’d have to take one of them out quickly and let the other mages deal with the last one since they already successfully defeated one. It seemed nobody noticed him yet so while the remaining five mages held them off, Shichiro prepared to catch one of the behemoths off guard and try to dispatch it quickly. 

W.C: 433
T.W.C: 2015

When an opening arose, Shichiro dashed towards one of the behemoths that had taken considerable damage and punched it’s skull with all of his might. Making a clean hit, Shichiro managed to send the Behemoth flying towards the walls of the gallery. Not good, he had already noted that the overall structure of the building wasn’t very sturdy with the how long it’s been unkempt along side the raging battle that was happening for who knows how long. The behemoth crashed into the wall, flying through and breaking it before it’s skull shattered and it stopped moving altogether. With no time to check it’s condition, Shichiro yelled at the other mages, the building was collapsing before running through the freshly made hole he had created with the behemoth’s frame. Shortly after Shichiro, the mages started to run out behind him but only three of the five made it out. The last behemoth also didn’t make it out and was crushed by the falling debris. Well, that was easier than he thought. It was a shame that all of the mages didn’t survive. Checking to see the condition of the behemoth he sent flying, it had deduced it had stop functioning upon impact with Shichiro's fist and there was no need for him to take it apart like he did with the previous skeletons. Shichiro then turned and left the area in order to go back to where the spokesman was hiding. He informed the spokesman that there were large skeletal behemoths inside that were rampaging, how a group of mages tried to defeat them but lost half of their troop in doing so and how he personally took out the remaining two. Shichiro embellished a little bit on his story but nonetheless, it was true, give or take. The man nodded before handing Shichiro his second payment of jewels and some pops before asking Shichiro to do one last favor.

[Exit.]

W.C: 320
T.W.C: 2335