Azure Chronicles: Maelstrom

The princess was watching funny cat videos on her RPG-like pop-up screen when she felt the limo come to a slow stop. The princess swiped the screen slightly downwards and looked over at the limo driver.

"Why'd we stop?" the princess asked as she peeked out the window and noticed the line of vehicles in front and behind the limo; she also noticed that the line ended directly where the bridge started and also the roadblocks that had words Hunter Bureau on them.

"It appears a gate at the bottom of the lake had a dungeon break and a group of hunters are currently dealing with it," the limo driver said as he turned the limo off, and the princess walked to the front of the limo. The princess watched the many hunters on the bridge combating the platoons of anthropomorphic fish monsters with armadillo-like plated armour on their backs. The princess disappointedly sighed and slumped back into the passenger seat while complaining.

"I could easily wipe out those C-ranked trash fish faces," the princess proclaimed as she crossed her arms and stroppily huffed.

"Princess, just because you could use your position as the princess to get away with fighting monsters without a hunter's license, I still wouldn't recommend it," the limo driver stated pleadingly. The princess once again sighed before she rested her arms and head on the window frame of the open passenger side car window. The princess boredly and mindlessly gazed off into the distance before beginning to quietly whistle.

The princess slowly gazed her vision across the horizon before she paused her whistling when she caught a glimpse of Zalroth in her peripheral vision; she fully turned her head towards Zalroth and watched him do leg stretches (like Sonic the hedgehog does) while Chronia was sleeping on his back, and Minia and Nola were playing rock-paper-scissors next to Zalroth.

The Princess was fairly certain that Zalroth-and-co were the same people she saw run past the limo. The princess activated some sort of ability/skill causing her entire vision to become various shades of pale cyan; she gazed at Chronia, Minia and Nola as they were also just various shades of pale cyan. The princess sighed but her bored expression shifted to an intrigued expression when she realised that Zalroth was glowing, to the point the princess had to slightly shield her eyes. The princess got a little excited and commented that for Zalroth to be glowing so bright then he must be at least S rank. A pale cyan status appeared in front of the princess' face and her expression became that of an unrivalled confused one.

[Zalroth] [LV: 1]

[HP: 0+] [KP: 0]

[P-ATK: N/A]

[M-ATK: N/A]

[P-DEF: N/A]

[M-DEF: N/A]

[SPD: N/A]

"Huh...?" the princess muttered as her vision reverted to normal and Zalroth's status menu disappeared. The limo driver asked the princess if something was wrong, as he dreaded the princess' answer. The princess discreetly pointed at Zalroth, so that the group didn't think she was weird for pointing at them, and stated she wanted to go talk to them. The limo driver mentally sighed in relief and was so thankful at the fact the princess didn't ask if she could fight the monsters that he unintentionally agreed without even thinking about it which even took the princess by surprise.

"Really... just like that?" the princess asked. The limo driver registered what he had just said; he thought that changing his answer would only make the princess even angrier and he figured that it wouldn't hurt to let her.

"I don't see why not...," the limo driver managed to say before he heard the princess jump out of the passenger window and walk over to Zalroth.

"Rock, paper, siscors!" Minia and Nola said in unison before they both got paper. The two groaned in unison while Nola half-heartedly complained about how they managed to draw fifty times in a row. Zalroth shook his head at Nola's words while thinking about the time he and Zalkutaro spent a month trapped in a constantly drawing game of rock-paper-scissors which only ended because Chronia joined and beat both of them in one turn.

"Hey you...," the princess said as she stood directly in front of Zalroth. The princess' words snapped Zalroth out of his rock-paper-scissors daydream and he look slightly downwards at the princess, as he moved from his leg-stretching position to sitting on the ground.

"What's up, ...?" Zalroth asked, with Zalroth's pause making the princess' eyes narrow slightly.

"Were you about to call me a kid?" the princess asked with a very serious tone.

"I was about to, but only a kid would get mad at something as stupid as miss-ageing them," Zalroth remarked before he felt the still sleeping Chronia press her body against Zalroth's head while angrily murmuring something in a language that the princess didn't recognise.

"Right... ­­only kids get mad at dumb stuff like that," the princess quietly said before it shrank into a murmur. The princess mentally called herself out for getting hung up on something so trivial.

"So what did you want to ask?" Zalroth asked which snapped the princess out of her self-bashing spree.

"Oh... I was wondering if you could show me your status menu; of course, I'll show you mine for fairness," the princess explained. Zalroth was a little surprised at how soon someone asked him to show them his status menu but didn't see a reason not to. Zalroth brought up his status menu and the princess was slightly surprised to see that Zalroth's status menu was so weird.

"Yeah it's not much to look at at the moment; the system said there were a few technical issues," Zalroth remarked, which piqued the princess' interest. The princess asked Zalroth what he meant by technical issues, and Zalroth said it had something to do with him having no kaiser energy.

"Oh, thought it would have been more complicated than that," the princess said as she opened her own status menu and showed it to Zalroth; Zalroth tried to say she didn't need to show him her one but her insistence eventually broke through his resolve.

[Alice Mellkropht]

[LV: 167][Rank: A]

[Class: Natural Calamity]

[HP:30,000] [KP: 80,000]

[P-ATK:170]

[M-ATK:40,250]

[P-DEF:20,090]

[M-DEF:20,100]

[SPD:5,040]

"So, that's what a normal one looks like," Zalroth remarked jokingly, which made Alice break a quick smile before she swiftly forced her face back to an emotionless one. Zalroth asked Alice if she had any other questions; although she didn't really have any further questions, she just thought of something random because she wanted to keep the conversation between her and Zalroth going.

"How are you so strong even though you're only level one?" Alice asked. Zalroth nonchalantly shrugged and said it was because he was already strong before he got the system.

"That makes sense; although that is pretty rare," Alice remarked.

"How rare?" Nola asked as she and Minia started to climb up each of Zalroth's arms.

"So rare that there are only three well four if we count Zalroth; but the only person I know the identity of is my dad," Alice explained. Zalroth couldn't help but smugly grin at the revelation.

"I might just have to meet this dad of yours and challenge him to a fight," Zalroth remarked. Alice disappointedly sighed before stating that even if her dad wasn't busy twenty-four-seven, he isn't legally allowed to fight anyone below the SSS rank. Despite expecting Zalroth to be disheartened to hear about her dad's unavailability, Zalroth's grin became even wider and took Alice by surprise.

"Then I'll just have to become an SS...S ranked hunter then won't I," Zalroth stated boldly as he rose to his feet. Alice rubbed her head in astonishment at Zalroth's boundless optimism.

"I don't know whether you say that from a lack of knowledge or because you generally believe you can do it just like that," Alice remarked. Upon hearing Alice's remark, Zalroth confidently chuckled to himself.

"Trust me It's definitely beca-" Zalroth managed to say before being interrupted by Minia who said it was both. Zalroth's head slumped slightly forwards and he defeatedly thanked Minia for her input, which made Minia happily giggle.

Alice was preparing herself to ask another question but was interrupted by her limo driver calling out to her. Alice glanced behind herself and noticed that the hunters were starting to move the roadblocks. Alice started to become a little jittery and started to tip-toe on the spot as she pondered whether to ask her question.

"So, are you planning on coming to Dragon Star Academy with me- I a mean," Alice blurted out before going red in the face when it didn't come out right. Alice, PGly, cursed herself out for saying something so stupid.

"Dragon Star Academy; is that the place where people become hunters?" Zalroth asked with a slight hint of seriousness. Alice halted her self cursing and jumped at the chance to save her self-image.

"Yeah..., given how you seem kind of... well not in the know-how about stuff; I thought I would help and let you guys accompany me there," Alice explained. Zalroth considered it and with the pleas from his daughters came to a decision.

"Sure but there's something I need to check out first, so would you be ok with just taking these three?" Zalroth asked. Alic nodded her head and quickly rushed over to her limo driver to explain to him that his limo was getting more passengers.

After everyone was in the limo, the girls waved goodbye to Zalroth as the limo rolled off. Zalroth exhaled and clicked his neck.

"That was certainly unexpected but I wouldn't be surprised if this world equivalent of Existence was involved... wait would that be Mael?". Zalroth continued to ponder his question before ultimately concluding it didn't matter. He exhaustedly sighed as he glanced over at Freedom City.

"Now... I wonder what that dark energy I sensed earlier was," Zalroth remarked as he channelled chakra through his body and activated his Light Amp at fifty per cent before he broke through the sound barrier and sprinted across the lake in a split second.