Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 37

We took the long way home and cleared out a lot of monsters along the way. Charlie, Abby, Meghan, and Suzie’s levels all skyrocketed.

When we returned home, Sakura, Mimiko, and I all took turns training the group. Despite dragging them through the wilderness to fight monsters way above their level, I seemed to be the most generous of their three instructors.

Sakura’s way of training was very hands-on, and they’d experienced quite a bit of her attention as of late. Mimiko used standard cultivator training techniques for people of their level, which seemed to be a combination of ridiculous agility exercises and common household chores. We didn’t really need anyone sweeping the courtyard, let alone doing so in stilts while blindfolded. Despite my protests, Mimiko was insistent that this was important training.

During Mimiko’s shift teaching, I told Sakura that we had the all-clear to go in search of her father soon, and the two of us began making quiet preparations.

There was a lot to get together. New worlds often meant new currency, so we needed trade goods or raw gold. I thought the gold coins on Themyscira would suffice, but upon taking a closer look at them, they had all sorts of tramp metals mixed in. I wasn’t sure merchants on Onibushi would accept them.

So instead, I forged a few thousand custom coins using my magical alloys, including coins of oricalcum, mythril, and adamantium. The metals themselves seemed universally valuable, so coinage would hopefully be valuable too.

I planned to bring plenty of weapons and armor too. If my coins were no good, we could sell those for room and board during the search for the Miyamotto clan. But my real intention behind bringing them was to as gifts. A less generous person might call them bribes.

I didn’t really care what they were called, but I hoped they would get my foot in the door of places that would otherwise be impossible for outsiders to enter. The Oni were a warrior race, so they had to appreciate good weapons. These days I was pretty confident my weapons were at least decent, even by multiversal standards.

For my last day with us, I had my team fight the Soulrend Wraith in the monster farm. The solar panels fueled an elaborate series of enchantments that triggered the monster to spawn over and over again, all penned within an enchanted fence that kept the thing completely impotent to projectile magic.

Meghan was able to deal with it on her own, given some time to cast. Suzie got a little practice in dagger throwing. Abby and Charlie mostly watched, since neither of them had a ranged attack to fight the thing with.

“I can’t believe you can just generate infinite experience points like this. Isn’t this cheating or something?” Charlie scratched his head as he pointed to the one-sided battle between Meghan and the helpless wraith.

I chuckled. “Trust me, if the System thought this was cheating, it would let us know. Real cheating is a bit more impressive. Like bringing people back from the dead.”

“It’s no wonder you’re at such a high level if you figured something like this out, though,” Abby said.

“Well, don’t give the trick too much credit. D-Grade experience pearls don’t go far for me these days. I doubt even thirty or forty of those things would give me a single level. I suppose I could dump more energy into the system and try to generate C-Grade or even B-Grade monsters, but energy is exponential.”

I was also pretty sure summoning a B-Grade monster in this way would be extremely dangerous. My containment circle wouldn’t stand a chance against such a mighty foe. I’d also probably have to hold the charge for days or weeks waiting for the monster, and I couldn’t afford to stand guard over the experience farm for days at a time waiting for a monster to spawn. It was faster to just find one in the wilderness.

Eventually, I oversaw my entire team’s transition from D-Grade to C-Grade. Mimiko, Bridget, and I all gave them a round of applause as they reached the next grade one by one. Sakura was out at the moment speaking with her oni contacts in the Samhain Clan on Glacia.

“Congratulations, all of you. We’re having burritos and a cake. We’re just waiting for a special guest to arrive...” I said, glancing at my watch. Our guest was running late.

“Who’s the guest?” Charlie asked.

Thankfully, our guest arrived a moment later, so I didn’t need to spoil the surprise.

“Hey, Carter! You’ve got a fancy new front-door camera here. It even talks,” Frank said as he strolled into my mountaintop estate.

He looked around, nodding in appreciation and even letting out a little whistle when he saw what I’d done with the place. I puffed up a little in pride. I’d put a lot of sweat into fixing up my farmhouse and building those barns of mine. Granted, Frank was mostly looking at the castle and the giant wizard’s tower, both of which were the Governess’s work. But since I built Governess, I figured I deserved at least a bit of the credit.

“Come on in, Frank! Bridget just finished cooking. We’re having a little get-together to celebrate this fine lad and these fine ladies reaching C-Grade. I hear your guild could use a few more of those?” I raised my eyebrows as the others all turned to the guildmaster of the city’s most famous Adventurer Guild with looks of awe and admiration.

“Yeah, we’re always trying to pick up a few more C-Grades. Especially those with good heads on their shoulders. A recommendation by someone respected by the guild wouldn’t hurt either.” Frank smiled, then rubbed his hands together.

His eyes glowed at the sight of Bridget’s burritos, which were head and shoulders above what I knew he’d been eating lately. They had a certain golden aura to them that made anyone looking at them certain that eating them would be a treat.

We indulged together, and the casual atmosphere allowed Charlie and the others to finally work up their courage and talk to Frank. For a little while at least, they saw him the way I did.

“Alright, alright. I hear Carter said your team was interested in joining the guild? Why don’t we take things outside so I can see what you’re made of?” Frank pointed to the door.

My team put up a decent fight as they used everything we’d taught them to fight Frank four on one. As an early B-Grade, Frank should have been able to toy with a group of fresh C-Grades like playing with toddlers, but my team had a few surprises that kept him on his toes. They even managed to make him break a sweat before he laid all four of them out in the dirt for good.

From there, all it took was a handshake, and they were part of the guild they’d always dreamed of.

"Congrats, you're in." Frank dusted himself off and picked up his plate of food off the steps to our castle and went right back to eating.

"T-that's it?" Charlie struggled to pull himself up off the ground. "I thought we'd get beaten up at least a few more times."

"Don't jinx us!" Abby nudged Charlie's side before turning back to Frank and me. "Thank you, guildmaster. And thank you for all you've done, Shardlord."

“I owe you two now. Once for the whole Crownhill County Prison thing, now for this. I’ll pay you back for both, eventually.” Suzie’s cheeks flushed in a rare display of embarrassment from her as she met my approving gaze.

“Uhm... you have a lovely home. If you’re ever back in town and want to grab lunch sometime, let me know.” Meghan’s eyes were on the ground, darting up briefly to catch my expression.

I smiled at her, though the challenging raised eyebrow she got from Sakura made her go pale again. The rest of her team edged away from Meghan.

“You might just be the bravest of the bunch. And I may have to take you all up on that offer. I’d love to hear all about your team’s adventures at some point.” I grinned at her and stroked her hair.

“You sure you don’t want to give up the whole Shardlord thing and go back to being our team’s leader?” Charlie asked. His words sounded like a joke, but his expression told me he was speaking from the heart.

I clapped Charlie on the shoulder. “Nah, I don’t think you guys need me anymore.”

With that, they departed. I felt a strange sense of fatherly pride watching the team I’d helped train from average to elite say their goodbyes and prepare to embark on the next stage of their adventures. Soon, I’d be doing the same.

***

Sakura returned a short while after my old team departed. She held a bundle of notes under each arm and wore a determined expression on her face. I knew with just a glance that it was time for us to leave.

“You don’t want to spend one more night at home?” I asked Sakura.

She shook her head. “It will be morning where we’re going on Onibushi. We should leave soon so we have the whole day to search. Some places have strict curfews.”

“Tight security,” I muttered. Though now that I was thinking things over, I figured a planet full of violence-prone Oni warriors would need tight security if it was to survive more than an afternoon.

“My luggage is by the teleportation array already. I’ll meet you there.” Sakura struggled to stuff the papers she was holding into a bag of holding as she spoke.

I helped her with her things, then went inside to see Bridget.

She had seen Sakura coming and rushed inside. She came out a moment later to kiss me on the cheek.

“Have a nice trip. I packed you and Sakura a few lunches,” Bridget said.

“Alright. I’ll try not to be too long. I don’t want to miss the baby, after all.” I returned Bridget’s kiss with one of my own.

“You have months to wait. Go on. If you put this trip off any longer, you might just end up missing the birth after all.” Bridget gave me a playful shove out the door. I turned to leave and saw her blowing a kiss after me.

Pretty soon, Sakura and I were on our way to Themyscira. This time, instead of going to Shadefall or Valkyrie’s Watch, we went straight to the capital. Despite being less of a major destination than Glacia, Themyscira had tighter ties to Onibushi than the wizarding world. I suppose aggressive warrior types needed to stick together in a dangerous multiverse.

Sakura took the lead. She’d spent the last few months researching and planning this trip to find her father. She navigated us through three sets of teleportation arrays, once from the capital of Themyscira directly to Onibushi, and then again to a particular province of Onibushi.

Between the two teleport trips, I noticed the number of non-Oni sharply decline. Like on Themyscira, the capital city had been something of a metropolitan hub with people from thousands of worlds all making their way through it.

This second teleportation took us to a much older portion of the world. The building we were in shifted from stone to wood and lacquer. Sliding screens replaced the doors, and the cobblestone street wound around a zen garden guarded by a statue of a strange creature with black wings and a huge red nose.

Here and there along the cobblestones, I spotted the blackened stain of blood. Once I realized what to look for, I realized the walls of every building were exceptionally thick except where they gave way to thin sheets of paper dividers.

It was like the people here knew anything made of typical construction was going to be destroyed in a fight eventually, so everything was either paper-thin and easily replaced or so durable it would be next to impossible to destroy, with little in between.

We passed through customs and entered a city dotted with tiled roofs and pagoda-style towers. They were similar to the cultivator flying pagodas I’d seen, though these seemed a bit stockier and traded elegance for functionality.

“You should find all our paperwork in order,” Sakura said, sliding across two sheets of paper. Each of them bore an image of either me or her.

The oni teller took one look at the paper, shrugged, and nodded. He had a tired and bored look about him, but there was a flicker of interest in his eyes as he looked us over, me especially.

“Looks good. Pay the fee and skip the line. Otherwise, you can wait with everyone else.” The teller waved for us to depart.

Sakura held her ground. “What fee? All our paperwork is in order. I paid to have it all done in advance.”

“The fee to skip the line. We do things differently in Miyamoto Prefecture. The capital’s paperwork wasn’t updated. Now, do you want to wait in line or do you want to leave? If you choose to wait, you may be here a few days.” The teller wore a sly grin on his face, and I knew what was happening before Sakura came to the same realization. We were being shaken down for a bribe.

I could see the indignant heat rising in Sakura’s cheeks. She looked moments away from starting to fight. Based on the bloodstains on the ground behind us, this wasn’t the first time such a thing happened.

From the broadening grin the teller was wearing, he wasn’t afraid of a fight either. Though he would be if Sakura and I took off our cloaks and revealed our real levels. The two of us were wearing the same items I made to disguise our trip through New Kyoto.

Rather than let a fight break out and draw attention to us before we’d even started our investigation, I tossed out three of my homemade mythril coins.

“Sorry, we don’t have any of the local currency. I hope you’ll accept this.” The glimmering silvery-blue coins struck the table with a dull thud.

The teller picked one up and held it to the light.

“Are these--“

“Mythril. Pretty pure mythril too, at least compared to what I usually see on the market.” I shrugged.

The teller swept the three coins away, looked around nervously, then nodded to the door.

“Go on, get out of here.”

Sakura and I left a moment later.

Sakura leaned close to me and whispered. “I get the distinct impression you overpaid.”

I chuckled. “Me too. But I’m glad to see our money’s still good here.”

Sakura and I walked around a bit, asking questions and figuring out our next step. Eventually, we met up with someone who was somewhere between an information broker and a tour guide, and they led us around the city. The information cost me more of my coins. This time an oricalcum one.

“Where would we go to exchange for local currency? Or how about selling weapons and armor?” I asked.

The tour guide pointed out several possible locations for each.

“And what if I want to meet with a member of the Miyamoto family? I have someone I need to contact,” Sakura said.

“Ha! You’re dreaming, miss. The Miyamoto family doesn’t talk to nobodies.”

Sakura and I shared a look.

“I guess we’ll have to become somebodies then.” I shrugged.

Our tour guide departed and left us to our own devices. Sakura and I decided we’d make faster progress splitting up, and I split my bags of holding with her. She took the weapons and armor to sell. While she didn’t look like a local, she at least looked like she was local to this world, so she’d get a better deal than I would. Meanwhile, I'd try to trade in our foreign coins.

A human walking the streets of this prefecture seemed unusual, and a few people stared at me as I made my way through town. I ended up shifting my disguise around a little to appear in the mid-C-Grade instead of the mid-B-Grade just to put a stop to any trouble before it happened. That seemed to be around the top level of most of the nearby Oni, though not so high that it would put me under extra scrutiny.

Eventually, I wound up at the local moneylender’s building. The exterior had broad stone colonnades, which clashed a little with the local decor. It had more of a Roman look than the feudal Japanese design that the rest of the city resembled.

Upon stepping inside, I realized none of the employees were Oni, which explained the unusual decor. The local bankers must have been a branch of a larger company from another world. I was addressed in several languages as I walked in and picked one at random to transact in. The bank tellers shuffled around until someone fluent in whatever language I was speaking came forward to speak with me.

“I’m told you can turn this into local currency.” I let twenty-five coins, each of gold, mythril, oricalcum, and adamantium, clank against the table.

The teller’s eyes lit up. “We can for a modest fee. Though I don’t recognize the mint these coins were forged on. What world is this... Crownhill?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “A distant but growing land. Perhaps you’ll hear more about it in the future.”

My coins had to be tested to ensure they weren’t counterfeits, and I lost some value because they weren’t a known and trusted mint, but I ended up walking out of the money lender’s shop with a bag of local gold that weighed maybe three or four times what I did.

Using those funds, I went around town looking for whatever else I could dig up. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything like a public library. I ended up speaking to one of the local guards, who pointed me in the direction of another guard who’d previously served the Miyamoto Clan.

I talked to that guard, but unfortunately, his information was years old and he wouldn’t recognize Sakura’s father’s name. He did, however, know generally how the Miyamoto Clan territories operated.

In a lot of ways, this province was a lot like the Samhain territory on Themyscira. It was the ancestral lands on the homeworld, though the Miyamoto Clan’s actual productive assets were located elsewhere.

Thankfully, the Miyamoto Clan was a bit more centralized than the Samhain Clan. I hadn’t even met most of the Samhain Clan’s ancestors, but the Miyamoto Clan gathered the bulk of their members on the ancestral territory every so often, barring those serving as mercenaries far from home.

“The usual time should be coming up. If you’re looking for a distant branch member of the Miyamoto Clan, you can probably find them in one of the castles around here sometime in the next month. Though which castle they’re staying in or where they’re going depends.” The guardsman shrugged.

“Thank you. Do you know anyone who would know more? Perhaps someone currently working for the Miyamoto Clan?” I asked.

The guard pointed in the distance. “If you want news, gossip, or a good fight, head to the fighting pits. Everyone who isn’t a coin counter will be headed there by this time tonight.”

I thanked the guard again for his help, though this was the third time I’d been ushered toward the fighting pits that day. The Oni seemed to value two trades above all. Everyone was either a warrior or a merchant, though those two weren’t mutually exclusive. Most of their trade goods were imports from other worlds.

Overall, they seemed to place a greater emphasis on martial prowess than mercantile prowess, but beyond those two, they only practiced the bare necessities of other crafts. The only smith I found in the settlement we were in focused only on sharpening and repairing weapons, not forging them.

That seemed odd to me, given the size of this settlement, and it meant this province was completely dependent on their mercenaries bringing back wealth and weapons from abroad. No wonder the Oni had been so keen to take control of a large workforce of humans back in New Kyoto.

Since I kept getting pointed in the direction of the fighting pits, I made my way there. I figured I’d sit around in the stands and make casual conversation. I hoped to pick up a few more tricks for the day, then I’d get room and board for the night squared away. The plan was to remain lowkey until we had a solid lead. We would reveal our actual levels only if we absolutely had to.

Or at least, that was the plan we’d agreed upon. Apparently, plans had changed.

“Sakura! Sakura! Sakura!” the crowd cheered.

I looked into the central and largest fighting pit, and there in the middle of it all was Sakura waving her club around her head.

“Who’s next? Who dares to challenge me, Sakura Miyamoto?!” Sakura yelled at the crowd, much to their uproarious approval.

<Note>

As promised, Onibushi mini-arc. Not sure how long this one will go on for, but I do want to give it the space it deserves, since people have wanted to see Sakura's father since book 1.