Isekai: The Eight Soul Fragments

Arlesk had gathered his party to the research room and prepared some items in his arsenal. He looked around and took the time to check his book if he's going to be able to use various kinds of abilities. Remuel asked him regarding his preparations to which he nodded without hesitation. However, just in case he opened out a large scroll and looked over the contents of various things that are visible. He found a large circle and which contained various symbols. Each one resembled a zodiac sign. Some of them are colored black but the others started to glow bit by bit, while there are ones that are completely shining bright. Inside the circle of zodiacs was ten symbols orbiting one symbol. These symbols are the planetarium, all those symbols are glowing brightly which means that they're active. Arlesk sighed due to the certain dark symbols of the zodiac. "What's with these long cooldowns...?" Remuel scratched his head and laughed lightly. "My bad, since we haven't finished the minor tweaks when we had Jaquinn deliver it to you. The one week cooldown is really inconvenient so Harold and I will make some tweaks so that you're at least able to use these abilities again." Remuel beckoned Arlesk to hand him the scroll and his necklace. The scroll doesn't actually do anything but monitor the cooldowns of Arlesk's necklace which provides the power of the [Stellar Planetaria N Zodiac]. Remuel then went towards Harold in the research room so that they can perform some tweaks in it. The rest of Arlesk's party were doing preparations. He went towards Hecate and Amber and asked regarding their preparations. "You two good? We're going to be hunting a supreme tier monster you know?" Arlesk had already explained to the others regarding what kind of enemies they're about to face. But both girls didn't feel that different from their usual behavior. "I think we'll be okay, Harold had given us a few bottles of liquid mana and remedy potions. We'll be able to provide support much better than before." Amber smiled brightly as she placed one of the remedy potions into the dimensional bag. It's able to store items more conventionally in an infinite space. After some time, the group had finished their preparations and Remuel had returned Arlesk's necklace and scroll. "With this, you're going to be able to freely use [Stellar Planetaria N Zodiac] without much cooldowns. It will be around half an hour after dispelling it, you will be able use it again. Regarding the final ability this thing holds, as expected we can't tweak it for some reason. The cooldown and compensation is really there and we can't do anything about it." Remuel sighed in resignation. "Well, we can't help it, we somewhat call it the final ability for a reason after all. There's gotta be some compensation or the item would break." Arlesk wore the necklace and hid the scroll in the interdimensional storage. He then prepared for the rest of the things he needed and gathered all his members once again. All seven of them stood in front of Harold who is preparing a long distance gate. Before long, a portal was opened and a scenery of mountains could be seen through it. Arlesk entered first which was then followed by Jaquinn and his girlfriend. Afterwards, everyone entered the portal and now ended up in the mountains.

"Quite a nice scenery..." They ended up on a mountain towards the northwest of the kingdom. All of them felt a bit lighter as there was an influence of mana coursing through their bodies. "Atmospheric mana? Then we're somewhat close." The portal began shrinking and closed off. The others started looking around the area and grouped up together. "Jaquinn, Collin, we're going on search mode, spread into three teams. Contact each other when you found something. Arlesk brought out a large blue flag, he then stuck it to the ground deeply to ensure that it won't be toppled off easily. At that point, he then instructed two pairs to investigate a direction. Jaquinn is grouped with his girlfriend while Collin is grouped with his girlfriend. The other girls which are Hecate and Amber accompanied Arlesk. They then went towards one direction after making symbols near the flag on where the others went. Arlesk unsheathed his sword and brought out his colt commander to his right hand. He then walks around while giving light chatter towards the two. "By the way, I haven't asked this yet but where are you both from?" Arlesk gave them a question which was answered first by Hecate. "I'm from the country towards the far west of this continent. The Enigmatic Kingdom of Helvetum, it's a country with many mysteries and a lot of trouble since the magic concentration there is actually dense. There are lots of mutations that happen there, just like the far north but it's much more organized. So subjugations of mutated species actually happen a lot more frequently over there." Arlesk let out a small voice [Heeeh...?] while Amber began her introductions. "I came from the country just south of the Quisterion Kingdom, it's somewhat more of a knight kingdom since most people behave there for the peace and order. The Knight Kingdom of Paladia, though due to the recent occurrences, they might be preparing to combat the countries around them. Luckily, Quisterion holds a non-aggression pact with that country so my home town which is at the north of that will be very safe." Arlesk then remembered something important when it comes to the other countries. "Do you know anything about the heroes in your countries?" Both girls then tried to recollect their memories of them meeting the heroes. The first one to anwer this time was Amber. "If I remember correctly, the hero in Paladia definitely holds some power. If I have to say something, he has powers that strengthen him once he gets more and more injured. There's also the power that shields all of his allies and the civilians that are around him by a kilometer radius. And if you attack the ones that are shielded, it will strengthen him further. His name is, if I remember correctly, Pantheon Eroe. He's called the [Hero of Chivalry], don't think of fighting him if he's with his party." Amber clearly reminded Arlesk to not try something stupid like fighting him with his party like how Draxus fought Ulysses and his party. Hecate then answered on who is the hero on her country. "The hero in Helvetum holds powers that are really chaotic. He can inflict ailments like crazy and amplify them to his opponents. He usually brings the full potential of that power to many groups and he's also able to concentrate it towards one person in the case of a duel. Most of his abilities involve really dangerous skills that can be deadly to his opponents, and could protect his allies." Arlesk after hearing the abilities suddenly remembered Remuel who is going to be a perfect match against him. "His name is Sameal Qahramon, his title was [Hero of Chaos and Enigma]. What about you Arlesk?" After getting all the info while traversing through the mountainous area, Arlesk began talking about his side. "I'm a person from a different world, as you may have heard from our discussions. That world is already peaceful to a relative level. The technology there is high and magic was pretty much neglected. So the second we were transfered here, I began learning about magic and now I can pretty much handle the great prowess I have. I still fall behind Serkyrio though." Hecate and Amber asked Arlesk questions regarding his former lifestyle. "I'm actually famous for my skills in various events. In fact, I won various kinds of tournaments and contests which are from my old schools. And then I ended up with Serkyrio's group where we learn to become proper people of society. Under him are me, Remuel, which you have met, and Draxus whom you met some time ago when he delivered the weapon." After Arlesk's explanation, they asked more regarding the skill levels of the others. "Well, let's take Draxus as a base. Remuel, Draxus, and I are pretty much equal. And by Draxus's abilities, he won against the hero's party of this country in a battle, that's what Remuel said. But when I asked for details, Draxus seemed to have pushed his limits." Just as Arlesk intended to continue explaining, a ringtone had reached his phone. "Collin?" Collin's voice came out from the phone as Arlesk put in on loudspeaker. "We found a white-eyed blue dragon, it's oozing out quite a bit of mana from itself. It seems to be the arcane dragon that Remuel mentioned. But this seems to have white hair on some parts of the body, it's possible that this might be an elder one. So can you guys head in our direction now?" Arlesk looked at the two girls and nodded. "Aight, heading there." He then put his phone to his pocket and told Hecate and Amber what had happened. "Collin found the arcane dragon, let's go."