"Have you ever wished upon a shooting star, just praying for your journey to go well and to meet a lot of new friends?"
Miimloo sat on a rock, watching the night sky that seemed to reach on for eternity. A quiver with Silver Arrows was hung on her shoulder, and a Gakkung Bow laid next beside her.

"I think that's a beautiful thougt", Shardin said. "It's rare for people to have reasonable dreams nowadays." He took up his lute and started playing "Assassin in the sunset" on it, but was quickly interupted by BlackWorufu. "Bah, I've already got the friends I need! What I'm looking for is that rare Angelic Cardigan I've heard so much about! The Super Novices would buy it at any price!" She smirked and hugged her Baphomet doll. "Not to mention THESE little pretties! Every kid is going to want one of my cute dolls, and I'll make their parents pay a fine prize for them!"
"That's a less beautiful thougt." Shardin said, putting down his lute. "You're a moneywhore, Blacky."
"Don't call me Blacky!!" BlackWorufu shouted and threw a red potion in Shardin's head. "How ironic" Leggy said, sheating her sword after some excercising. "Pwned by a healing item, you're the bomb sometimes, Worufu." BlackWorufu's face broke out in a grin. "So how long until we get to Prontera anyway?" Jack said. He, like Shardin, was a Bard, and thus carried a Violin on his back. He also wore a Poring hat which Worufu had given him as a birthday present. "This IS the Prontera fields, right?"
"My compass shows that Prontera should just be a few more kilometres north, so we should reach it early tomorrow." Jeanette said. She was a Gunslinger, and a six-shooter was placed in a holster on her right side. She also carried a Gatekeeper, a quite rare Shotgun on her back. She flipped a coin, and a glowing light started to circulate around her.
"It's that close, huh?" Jack said, closing his eyes. "In that case, I'm going to get some beauty sleep now."
"Sleep a thousand years, it won't make any difference, pretty boy!" Leggy said, winking to him. He gave her a short laugh and kissed her on the cheek. "See you tomorrow, love."
Shardin played a short, soothing song, and everyone soon slept sound under the night sky.

----

Takahata yawned deeply as he awoke in the Prontera Inn - The beds there had made him sleep like a rock. He got dressed and got downstairs for breakfast. Arusa and Fawgwah were already there, Arusa digging in on some boiled alligator while Faw ate apples and grapes, with a piece of loaf beside the plate.
"U shur ur not gonna try thish? It'sh g'wate!" Arusa said to her with his mouth filled with alligator. "N'd it booshtsh ur INT by tfhen pontsh!"
"Whatever you decide to spend your Zeny on is your business." Faw replied, giving him an irritated glare. "I'd prefer to get something a little more normal, and if you forgot already, I'm a Knight! Not a Champion. Speaking of Champions..." Her attention had changed to Takahata who sat down with some oranges and lemons. "Morning Taka."
"Morning Faw! Arusa!"

Arusa gobbled down the last of the alligator and looked at Takahata's plate. "Trying to make your C-vitamine level freak out?" He chuckled, pouring some Karvadainirol down his throat.
"Beats drinking liquids used for hazardous alchemy-experiments" Takahata said, laughing when Arusa spit the base out. He quickly opened a Yellow potion and drank it in one gulp. "Well, at least that restored my HP... warn me next time, okay?"
"Watch what you drink instead, you idiot." Faw said, giving him a fist on his head. "More importantly, we three are going to have to suffice today. We won't be having HIM on today."
Takahata looked around for a bit, and then realized all of them weren't there. "That's right... where's Shadow?"
Fawgwah sighed and handed him a note with Shadow's signature on it. "He said he'd be looking for something in Payon, but that's all. He's as secretive as ever."
Takahata red the note and then put it in his pocket. "He's probably looking for a Ninja Suit, he's been saying he needed one for his Shinobi Sash combo..."

"That guy is mysterious as hell!" Arusa said, shaking his head. "That's why I don't like Assassins, you never know where you have them!"
"We've been partying with him for months" Fawgwah said "but I agree, we really don't know that much about him. Whenever we talk it's small talk about farming and stuff, but he never answered a single question about himself. That's kind of interesting, actually." Fawgwah giggled.
"Oh, jeez..." Arusa said. "Whatever... hey, Taka, Turn around."
"What?"
Takahata looked behind him and got a shock from Rin, standing with her face two centimetres from his.
"...hungry..." she said with a blank expression. Takahata snapped out of his state of temporary paralyzis and gave her a Pet Feed. She gobbled it up in an instant, but yet in an elegant way.
"Are we leaving soon, Takahata-sama?" she said, still with that blank expression that proved that she actually was a ghost.
"Ah, yes... are you guys ready?"

Fawgwah fed Fluffy a carrot and smiled. "Let's go! I can't wait to kick some High Orc ass!"
"I'm more into the Orc Heroes!" Arusa said. He won't have a chance, I'll go Asura Strike on him the second I see him! Taka, you help too!"
The Asura strike was a one-hit kill that only Champions possessed, and since both Arusa and Takahata belonged to that class, they had mastered it as soon as they could.
"You sure we can't just fist him to death?" Takahata said. "I mean, we DO punch like thirty times per second, with an average damage of 250. I'm sure that will suffice, meaning we won't have to use up all our SP for one monster."
"You forget that Orc Heroes are ALWAYS accompanied by at least seven High Orcs." Fawgwah said. "Arusa is right for once, Asura Strike will kill it fast and then you'll be able to handle the rest of the mob without risking getting mauled."
They sat quite for a while, but then agreed on trying both strategies before making a permanent decision. They stood up and made their way to the main streetm which was located twenty metres from the inn. As always, it was full of people. They headed for the Warpra and teleported to the Orc Village.

----

"WE'RE HERE!" Miimloo and BlackWorufu yelled. "It's Prontera!"
They had arrived at a large gate, and the signpost said "Citadel of Prontera".
"GEEZ, FINALLY!" Shardin fell exhausted on his knees and drew heavy breaths. "I'm all out of energy! Where's the Inn??"
"Did the two kilometres of flatlands tire you out, wimp?" Jack said, grinning.
"You know, the reason you're tired is probably one of two options." Jeanette said, nibbling on a Romantic Flower in her mouth. "One: You got tired from singing and playing while walking, or two: You got tired from wasting all your SP killing all those poor, defenseless Porings and Lunatics with your Bard skills on the way here."
"Hey, I was fighting Creamy's too!" Shardin shouted.
"Oh, shut up all of you!" Leggy said. "I've gotten a message from MJ! She and Vixlater dragged Rich and Chevy to Aldebaran, and they just forced Chevy to wear a dancer's uniform! XD"
"Are you serious?? XDDDD" Shardin laughed. "Damn, tell them to take a screenshot of that!"
"Will do!" Leggy replied. She typed a message and sent it to MJ, but right as she did that another message popped up.
"This time it's from Envy" She said. "He, Zero, Leon and Ryman are in Glast Heim, and... oh, this is hilarious XD! Leon is weeping from all the ghosts and Zero is weeping since Ragnarok Online doesn't have any pizza hats! He's currently wearing a Banana hat as a last resort!"

"Hurry the hell up!!!" BlackWorufu yelled. She was tired of waiting, she wanted to get inside and open up her shop immediatly. "Come on, I'm losing customers every second!"
"You go on ahead!" Leggy replied back. "We'll catch up to you later!"
Worufu didn't reply, she ran straight inside, dragging a crying Miimloo through the air like a ragdoll.
"I gotta say, for a young girl like her she's really strong." Jack said and felt a sweat drop run on the back of his head.
"It's all the points she puts on her Strength stat." Shardin said. "She wants to be able to carry a lot of items, like the cart she's dragging around wasn't enough. It does help her handling of a hammer, though."
"True that." Jeanette sighed. "God knows how many times she saved our ass with that hammer. If only she could focus a bit more on fighting and less on collecting the loot..."
"Oh well, shall we go?"
The party nodded and went inside the city, looking for a quest or a good opportunity, whichever came first.

----

//SFX: SLASH//

Another skeleton archer fell to the ground, and Shadow continued. He had been searching for that Ninja suit for a long time now, but the drop rate was, as he had painfully experienced, ridiculously low; The chance of finding one was 0,01%. He took off his Munak Hat and took a deep breath. He wasn't going to stop, as a SinX he had an extreme amount of patience. He put the hat on again and took a look at his Jamadhar. It had a Skeleton Card inserted to the slot, and some cracks here and there. "I guess I'll have to take it for repair when I get back to Prontera..." he muttered. He continued walking, but suddenly something caught his eyes that got his attention off both Ninja suits and Katars. A Munak laid unconscious by the shallow water, and some newly grown Hydra's were slowly reaching for her with their tentacles, attempting to draw her closer so that they could digest her. Normally Shadow wouldn't care, Munak's were mobs after all. Aggressive ones at that, not passive like a peaceful Poring or Lunatic. He himself had been killing lots of them already, in search of his Ninja suit, but this one was different. Her hair was purple, and her face, despite being so dirty, was the cutest one he had ever seen. He acted instantly. He cut the tentacles, slayed the hydras with a Meteor Assault and carried the Munak out from their reach. He put her down against a ruin, and shook her gently. "Are you okay, my lady?"
She slowly opened her eyes, they were of a beautiful, turcose colour. She seemed a little disoriented at first, but when she realised it was an assassin sitting so close to her she shrieked and tried to get away, but she was so weak that she couldn't get very far. "Hey, don't push yourself!" Shadow said in a calm, yet serious voice. "Calm down, I mean you no harm. I promise."
The Munak was hesitating for a while, but finally decided to believe him. "There you go." Shadow said. "What happened to you?"
she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She tried hard, and finally managed to utter a few words, though very unsteadily.
"...so... hungry... I... I... haven't... eaten for... days..."
"Poor girl..." Shadow thougt. She looked so weak, he understood how he must've felt. His minds went back to his days as a Thief, doing the test as an Assassin. One of the tests had been to survive in the desert for a week, without any supplies. When he had finished it, he was so hungry that he spent a week in bed, barely moving a muscle. He took an apple from his inventory and gave it to her.
"Here" he said. "Eat it, it will help you regain your strenght."
She looked at him with eyes of gratefulness and happily started to eat the apple. She immediatly looked better, but was still too weak to move. "Thank... you...". she barely said those words before she fainted in his arms.
"Oh, man..." Shadow said, shaking his head. "I guess I won't be getting that suit today either."
He reached for his pocket, found a Butterfly Wing and teleported back to Prontera, with the Munak with him.

----

"Man, this place is crowded!"
Leggy looked around the center of the city, and there were people everywhere. Merchants were selling their goods on the sidewalks, among them BlackWOrufu. Shardin had gone with Miimloo to look for some new accessories and Jeanette had bluntly said that she "had business to take care about". Left were Leggy and Jack, and they were bored out of their skulls. Leggy had already looked in all the shops, she couldn't find anything interesting. Jack was just accompanying Leggy, and they decided to sit down on one of the benches beside the street. They sat there, Jack having his arm around Leggy's Shoulder and Leggy leaning her head against his. "This isn't so bad, though." she whispered.
Jack smiled and looked at her. "You're right."
"Still, I'm wondering where the Inn is? I could really use a shower right now... we've been travling here all the way from Einbroch, since Jeanette needed to buy some ammo, and before that we were in Alberta from Worufu's Merchant-quests... I'm so tired~".
"The Inn shouldn't be far from here" Jack said. "The guard said it's not even 50 metres from here, so... d'ya wanna look for it?"
"...let's just stay like this for a while longer, shall we?"
"...as you wish, dear."
They smiled and kissed eachother, holding eachothers hands. They had yet to get married, but since Prontera had a church they thougt they might as well do that since they were here. The problem was that they didn't have to money yet, so they were going to use the Warpras to get to Gonryun Dungeon, where they could make easy money out of Royal Jellies.
"Say, do you think Vix and Rich has the same thougts that we do?" Leggy said softly.
"I don't know about that." Jack replied. Rich seems more scared of Vixlater then in love with her, but with time... well, anything is possible,"
"I'm sure Vix will make him come to better thougts... one way or another."

They laughed, but suddenly their attention was caught by a bright flash in the middle of the street. A red-clothed assassin cross suddenly appeared in the middle of nowhere carrying a Munak, which seemed to be really exhausted. "Out of my way!" he shouted while making his way through the crowded street. "Don't you people understand? MOVE!"
He pushed some people out of their way to get past, but Leggy suddenly stood up. "Come on, Jack."
Jack nodded and they made their way to the assassin.
"Is there anything wrong?" Leggy asked him.
"It's none of your business" He replied. "Just get out of my way."
"Hey, you have no right to treat my girlfriend like that!" Jack said with anger in his tone. "Who do you think you are?"
"Whoever I am is of no importance to you. Look, I need to get this girl to the Inn before her condition gets even worse, which part of this are you not getting?"

He pushed Jack out of the way and hurried to the Inn, but Leggy called out to him. "Hey, we need to get to the Inn too! Can you show us the way?"
The assassin didn't stop. "Just follow me, but don't bother me!"
Said and done, they got to the Inn, and both Leggy and Jack stood dumbfounded at how they could've missed the Inn when it was so close to the main street. The assassin disappeared up the stairs, but Leggy and Jack went to the reception to get a room. While Jack fixed that, Leggy sent messages to the rest of the party telling them where it was. Soon everyone had gotten there and booked their rooms, and they all agreed to rest there for the day and do some serious farming the next day.
"See you tomorrow!" Miimloo said while entering hers and Worufu's room. Jeanette went into hers and Shardin waved at Leggy and Jack before doing the same. Leggy sat down one of the beds in their room and stretched.
"I'm going to go and take a shower and then get some rest. Do you want to explore the town after that?"
"Sure thing" Jack replied. I'm going to grab some food and then I'll be resting too. See you later."
Jack kissed her on the cheek before going down to the first floor again, and Leggy decided to clean her weapons first. Her blade was dirty from all the dry blood from the countless monsters they had been forced to fight on their way here. She yawned just thinking about it and looked out the window.
"Oh well. What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger! XD"

----

Her face was calm, but exhausted. She had regained consciousness, and after drinking a little water and eating some more she was able to talk in a proper way again.
"Why did you save me?" She said. "Assassins are not supposed to feel sympathy, right? I thougt you were cold-hearted killers?"
Shadow sat on a chair next to the bed she was laying in.
"Who says I'm not?" he replied. "Just because I'm saving one life, does it mean I can't be cold-hearted?"
She lowered her head and looked at her hands, tightly grabbing the sheets on the blanket.
"...You just seemed... different... I guess I was wrong..."
"No, not at all, really."
She looked at him again, surprised.
"Normally, I probably would've ignored something like this... but there is something special I sense about you... I just don't know what it is."
"What do you mean?"
He sighed. "I don't know. I'm going to let time tell."
She smiled, and blushed a little.
"I'm okay with that..."

The door opened, and Takahata and Arusa stormed in. "Hey, Shadow!" Takahata shouted. "Look what I found while in the east Prontera Fields!"
He opened his inventory and took out an Angel wing headaccessory.
"Isn't it great? With this, I can increase my Crit level! ^^ FAWK... yeah?"
He looked at the Munak laying in Shadow's bed. She blushed even more and tried to hide behind the blanket.
"Who's... that?"
"It's a Munak. Can't you tell?"
"Yeah, but... what's she doing in your bed?"
Arusa smirked and closed his eyes.
"I see... so while WE were out fighting monsters, Shadow had a little..."
He was interupted by Faw bashing the flat side of her sword in his head, causing him to crouch and weep.
"Ouch! What was that good for~?"
"Don't say inappropriate things." She replied. "Next time it's the SHARP side!"
"Where did you find her?" Takahata asked.
"In Payon Dungeon, level 3. She was unconscious and starving, so I decided to help her."
"That's a laugh" Arusa said, but quickly got quiet when Faw raised her Sword.
"I see... are you going to make her your pet?"
Shadow sighed. "If she wants to stay with us, then I'll let her. However, if she doesn't, I'm not going to force her."
He leaned his head on his hand and looked on the floor. "She's not a normal Munak... she doesn't have that feeling to her..."
"That's true..." Fawgwah said. "Doesn't Munaks usually have brown hair and eyes? This one has purple hair and turcose eyes, it's not like anyone I've ever seen."

She sat down next to the bed and looked at her. "Hi there. My name is Fawgwah, but you can call me Faw. Do you have a name?"
The Munak blushed, and started to stutter.
"S... S... Ser... Serin...a..."
"Serina?" Takahata said. She nodded, and looked at Shadow. Shadow looked back and understood.
"She still needs to recuperate, so can you please not bother her until she's feeling better?" he said. They all nodded and exited the room, leaving Shadow and Serina alone.
"So..." Shadow started. "Well... those were my party members. The girl called Fawgwah has a Lunatic named Fluffy, and the idiot is named Arusa. The more normal guy was Takahata, and he has a Sohee called Rin. Do you like them?"
Serina's eyes shone up when she heard about the Sohee.
"Waaaah~ I've been wanting to befriend one of those for some time! I'd love to meet her later!"
"Sure thing" Shadow replied. "Also... about that... would you like to come with us on our adventures?"
Serina smiled at him, and happily said:
"Yes, master!"

----

End of part one.