Chapter Two : Onwards To A New Home - part 3
"Thank you very much! I do not know how I will ever repay you for your kindness!" Tears started to roll down Sora's face.
Her gratitude towards Rio was beyond anything she was able to repay at this point. Sora was performing a dogeza from her Japanese heritage as a way to show apology and gratitude at the same time. This was the first time she had ever felt so indebted to someone. To Sora, Rio was her life savior. Not only was she going to give her a place to stay, but she has also helped her in other ways as well. Rio cut up her own clothes in order to make Sora some makeshift shoes. She even gave her water to alleviate her thirst. The biggest thing that Rio had done for Sora was she gave her a feeling of safety. They have only known each other for a short while, but within this short of a time span, Rio has already done so much for her. Without Rio, Sora would have still been sitting at the top of the plateau with no idea of what to do. Sora could not help but cry when she came to this realization. All of her guilt and gratitude came pouring out of her at the same time.
Rio, seeing Sora prostrate herself in front of her did not know how to act. She was caught off guard by Sora's actions and became flustered. Rio frantically reached down trying to get Sora to raise her head. Rio felt really bad seeing Sora crying like this. When Sora looked up at Rio with tears in her eyes Rio could not help but to give Sora a hug. Rio did not know why but it really hurt her in her heart to see Sora cry. For Rio who was somewhat timid around other people, she had felt no hesitation with Sora.
Rio's thought process was broken when she felt Sora pushback from her. Sora sat up and rubbed her eyes. Sora felt a little ashamed since this was the second time Rio had comforted her while she cried. Not only was Rio cute but she was also Sora's type. Sora also felt a little embarrassed since Rio had seen her in such a sorry state as well. The gratitude that Sora felt for Rio will always be held within her heart.
"Thank you once again, Rio. I will repay your kindness someday." Sora said wiping away the last of her tears while giving Rio a bright smile.
"No, it's fine. You do not need to repay me. I am doing this because I want to." Rio smiled and stretched out her hand to Sora.
"But still, thank you."Sora said as she took Rio's hand and stood back up on her feet.
The two girls stood there for a moment while gazing into each other's eyes. Rio gripped Sora's hand and looked down at the ground attempting to hide her embarrassment. Rio's heart at this time was beating faster than normal and her cheeks felt hot. But with that rapid heartbeat also came a calming warming sensation. Rio did not dislike this feeling at all.
"Let's get going before it starts to get dark. Monsters roam the desert at night." Rio said as she pulled Sora along.
"What do you mean by monsters?" Sora asked as she trotted along with Rio.
"Monsters are like animals in a sense. Unlike animals though they have special abilities or traits." The two walked hand and hand as Rio started to explain what monsters were to Sora.
Monsters on Cora were different than animals. Monsters were able to use certain abilities that made use of the mana in the air. Unlike the humanoid residents of Cora who did not have such an ability. Monsters were very dangerous creatures. They all had some sort of intellect. Some were pack hunters and were skilled at ambush tactics. While others could use abilities to wipe out an entire city. Monsters usually made their homes in the ancient city ruins that the people of Cora could no longer live in.
The explorers guild had a ranking system in order to judge the strength of each type of monster. Starting at F for the weakest. All the way up to the SSS rank for the strongest. The explorer guild itself was a place for people to take on job request that were posted at the guild. There would be anything from standing orders, which were requests that were always ongoing, to things like kill request to clear out a certain number of monsters from a city ruin. Each completed job would reward the explorer with an amount Bril based on the difficulty the job. Bril was the currency that the people of Cora used. Now, an F rank explorer should be able to defeat an F rank monster with ease. With that in mind, job request difficulties were always marked with the danger level that they entailed. Guild ranks ranged from F,E,D,C,B,A,S,SS, and SSS. An F rank could not take an E rank request, an E rank could not take a D rank request, and so on. An E rank could, by all means, take an F rank request if they so choose to. When a new person signed up to the guild they are forced to take a guild test to see how strong they are and based on these results they would be given their starting rank. So normally you would not start off as an F rank unless you were really, really weak.
Monsters, unlike the very few animals that do roam the desert are strange in the way they interact with each other. Monsters seem to have a hierarchy type system. Meaning the stronger monster would lead a pack of other monsters even if they were not of the same species. This could be well seen in the city ruins by how hundreds or even thousands of different species could be found at any given time. And normally each city ruin had an A rank or higher monster that ruled over the rest. For monsters that just roamed the desert some of them would band up to create monster hoards.
These monster hoards could be so huge that they would have millions upon millions in a single hoard. Normally the leader of such hoards were SSS rank monsters. These monsters hoards roamed the desert looking for their next meal. Monster hoards were something that all Corians feared. Not only was it certain death if you ran into one out in the desert. But they were a threat to the last remaining cities of Cora. That was because the hoards would attack any city if they found one. Which would lead to many deaths or even total destruction of the city that they attacked.
