~3rd Person~
Lorne lifted up Josh, and Josh brushed himself off. The Hero party all ran up to Josh to see how he was doing, and Susan had the most concerned face. The heroes surrounded him, and Josh spoke.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. A bit sore, but I'm good." (Josh)
He spoke in a tone that said "I only got a few scratches" mostly because he was surrounded by a huge crowd, and he had Morgan walking towards his direction. In reality he was injured to a moderate extent. He had a broken rib and was struggling to put up with it.
The broken rib was from the second time he was hit in the same spot by Lorne. Once Morgan got close enough, he continued.
"We'll be going off to an inn, you should join us if you'll be part of our group from now on." (Josh)
"I agree. We should get to know each other better, and you should teach us some of those moves, Ben!" (Kyle)
"Agreed" (Jason)
The heroes conversed and ignored the huge crowd surrounding them.
"Alright, alright. I think we should go now. Susan, do you mind healing me and Ben for any scratches we might have gotten?" (Josh)
Susan's face lit up as she said "Sure". She casted a quick heal on both of them. Josh breathed out in relief, but Lorne was confused since he felt a burning sensation. It was very weak, but it was there.
The heroes got on their birds while Lorne and Morgan got on with them. Lorne sat behind Susan, and Morgan sat behind Josh. They didn't want to argue so they just went with it. Morgan was disgusted, but Lorne had it harder having to sit behind one of the bitchiest girls in his school. Morgan had no personal affiliation with Josh.
The crowd cheered at the heroes once more, and they departed to the highest class inn in the city. They left their birds at a nearby stable and walked into the inn. They got 3 rooms in total. 2 for the guys, and 1 for the girls. They all went to their rooms to unpack their things.
Connor and Kyle had one room, Josh, Jason, and Lorne had one, and the girls shared the other. Connor and Kyle both dropped off their things then went into the room with the other 3 men to talk.
"Wow Ben, you sure did work on Josh. You think you could teach us a few things?" (Jason)
Lorne simply smiled and replied.
"Well, it's just experience. I didn't do anything flashy during that fight. You all came here very recently so you aren't as strong as an SSS adventurer. I'd say that you guys could go for S and SS adventurers. For people who just arrived to go up in ranks that quickly is a miracle." (Lorne)
The heroes laughed a bit while scratching their heads embarrassed. In truth, Lorne really had no idea how strong an SSS adventurer was, but since they were the top he guessed that there could be no limit to their power.
An example would him being an SSS adventurer. He could destroy a kingdom easily by himself, but could the same be said for the other SSS rank adventurers?
Lorne didn't want to sit here and speak with them for the whole time they would be together, but he would have to put up with it to an extent. So, he asked them a question.
"You guys came out to this city, but what happened to the other heroes? Weren't there a bunch of you?" (Lorne)
"They stayed behind to train more. We've all been working really hard lately." (Connor)
Connor spoke, and then he was hit in his back by Jason. Connor could be said to be the dumb one of the group. They were all below average, but Connor was just idiotic. So, after letting that slip, Lorne urged on.
"Oh? Did something happen?" (Lorne)
"No, don't worry about it we ha-" (Josh)
"Well, he's going to be in our team, and the whole world is gonna know about it so shouldn't we tell him?" (Kyle)
Kyle cut Josh off, and Josh only stared at the ground while thinking. He was definitely thinking of whether or not to tell Lorne (Ben) of the threat they received from their past 'comrade'.
He glanced up to look at Lorne, and Lorne only held an interested gaze. Letting out a sigh, Josh spoke.
"Alright.. Well, we lost one of our comrades after he went mad. He was always suspicious, but when he didn't get a blessing from the Holy goddess Illia, he laughed like a madman. We were all scared and the King had him killed off by throwing him in the Atriarc Dungeon. You know what happened to it, right?" (Josh)
Lorne almost vomited blood at his explanation. Rage filled his very being, but he just took a few breaths in and out silently and shook his head yes, not risking his voice yelling from the pressure he was undergoing.
"Well, the cause of the destruction of the dungeon is linked to the guy. His name was Lucas, but he changed it to Lorne for some reason. He also got a powerful ally. She was a dragon-kin. They are said to be very strong, but this one was extremely so. She killed hundreds of holy soldiers. There was also a demon there, but there is debate on whether that demon was linked to the dragon, Luc- Lorne, or that demon was him." (Josh)
Lorne had calmed down to an extent at this point. He expected lies to come out of his mouth, so he was prepared for it to some extent.
"If he didn't get a blessing from Illia, then how could he have survived being thrown into the Atriarc Dungeon, much less have it destroyed and threat you all?" (Lorne)
"Well, that is.." (Josh)
"To be honest, we don't know." (?)
A voice came from behind, and everyone looked that way. There stood Susan with Morgan right next to her.
"You don't know?" (Lorne)
"We didn't get any other information than what you were told, and the threat that told us to train." (Susan)
Lorne was happy that this put them all into a state of panic, causing them all to train. It would be all the better to watch as their hopes die as their training was for naught. Thus, he put on a concerned face and spoke again.
"Hmm, well, I can help you guys fight him, but you all wouldn't be able to learn any of my skills." (Lorne)
All of the heroes' eyes perked up as they stared. Lorne knew what they were all about to say, so he said it for them.
"Why? Well, you see... I'm a mage." (Lorne)
At these words, everyone stopped functioning except for Morgan and Lorne. Josh had such a hard time in a melee fight against a mage. A mage. That must have meant that he scored one of the strongest supports for himself possible. It entirely explained why Lorne didn't have any weapons and chose to fight with his fists.
Josh then laughed a bit as he found it wondrous as to how everything was just being built around him and everyone was coming for him. He was gaining beautiful ladies, and amazing partners to do his bidding as he stood at the top.
He pushed aside those thoughts and a smile was plastered across his face.
"To think I struggled against a mage. I sure have a lot to learn." (Josh)
It was true that Lorne was a mage to some extent. It would be better to say a Magical Melee Fighter, but Mage was close enough. After all, he was able to create magic with his mind just by thinking of what he wanted. He didn't know why this occurred, but he knew it was because of Monalee. There was much for him to learn, and Lorne would find out everything soon enough, but for now he only had his thoughts for company.
"Well, why don't we go out and kill some monsters to work on our teamwork. Now that we have 7, we have a better formation. I can only assume that Morgan is a warrior if you're the mage?" (Josh)
Josh glanced to Lorne, in which he shook his head indicating a 'Yes'. After nodding his head, Josh continued.
"It is still mid-day so we have a decent amount of time. Let's hop on our birds and head off to the east side of the city." (Josh)
After that was said, they all got ready. Everyone hopped on the birds and rode off through the town. They received cheers and applause as they passed through, but they made it through the city relatively easy.
Once they were out of the city, they headed down the rode and continued until they entered a large forest. Josh had heard that this city had a large forest filled with high leveled monsters in it, so if he went in there he could level up. Even if he had two more people, their speed increased. It might outweigh the cons.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Once inside the forest, they traversed further and further until they heard the rustling of trees. Lorne had heard these creatures coming from a long time ago, but that was only thanks to his hearing.
"We're surrounded, get in a circular formation back to back!" (Josh)
Josh screamed out as he seemed to be a bit panicked by this situation. Being surrounded by an unknown predator was never a good thing. Lorne on the other hand was calm since he could perfectly see what they were. They were just little cute, rabies-infected baboons jumping on the branches. Who wouldn't want to hug them?
Taking this chance, Lorne thought about the gravity around him being multiplied. He wanted to expand his arsenal of spells and this was a good chance. A few seconds went by before everything Lorne deemed aggressive had more or less splattered across the ground.
New SkillGravitational Amplification: Depending on the amount of mp the user uses, the ground's gravity is multiplied to that extent. Range increases with amount of mp used as well. (10/10)
Everyone was boggled. This included Morgan as well since she did not know what Lorne had done. She knew the cause was Lorne, but she did not know what he did.
The reason everyone was confused was because more than half the party leveled-up (Lorne and Morgan excluded), and the sounds disappeared. They were also coupled with a scrunching and thud the instant they disappeared. While the hero's party stood there still cautious, Lorne began to walk away and called out.
"Let's go." (Lorne)
He didn't explain anything, but they followed him without a word. He didn't enjoy talking to them, much less giving away his skills to them. Why would he take his time to explain something to those scumbags who didn't even explain why they beat him every day?
Upon getting riled up, a very light black mist started to form near his chest and he punched himself in the chest to regain his composure. Susan in the back asked if everything was alright, but he just coughed once and said "I'm fine.".
Morgan knew something had occurred, but let it pass once she saw that Lorne was doing fine. She also took note that Josh was trying to approach her. She had already figured out why, and it disgusted her. She, however, had to put up with it since she knew that Lorne was going through much worse.
She kept getting closer to Lorne as Josh slowly approached, and Josh only thought "She's playing hard to get, huh?" since he was mostly still in the illusion that everything revolved around him.
Throughout the rest of that day, Josh continued to attempt to get closer to Morgan only to be stopped when a monster attacked, or sometimes when huge packs attacked. Lorne decided not to use [Gravitational Amplification] since he didn't want to give away his secrets too much.
They started to head back once they saw the sun setting, and they came across even more monsters on their way back. The most dangerous monster they encountered was a group of 4 Wyverns. It seemed like there were 3 females and 1 male since every time a female was killed the male got stronger for some reason.
Too bad this isn't a story about a Wyvern hero summoning and his little harem. AHEM... back on track.
By the time that they exited the forest the moon had already risen moderately high. If one were to guess by the moon's location, you might say it would be around 11pm. Maybe 12am.
The group sighed in relief and they headed back. They tied up their birds and went to their rooms. Everyone slept. Well, almost everyone.
Morgan and Lorne had stayed up and sat outside on a bench overlooking the empty streets and the clear sky. Lorne still marveled at how beautiful the sky was, that it wasn't covered in a cloud of smoke that blotted everything out. Back on Earth, you couldn't see anything in the cities. The light from everything blocked out the starlight, and sometimes there was smog.
However, this was just bliss. Morgan and Lorne both sat and just stared up at the sky. Lorne held his chest where the mist kept coming from, as he thought about what was to be in store for him.
Little did he know that his journey was just beginning. He would go on to be something feared across space-time, but for now he was simply a very powerful being by this world's standards.
As he gazed up at the sky, looking at the dust of the galaxy he was transported in, the blueish hue that painted those gases and the bright stars that painted the sky in pictures, he heard steps coming from upstairs.
His attention was half turned to the noise being made upstairs. Having amazing hearing truly worked wonders as it could paint out pictures with just sounds.
What he heard saw was someone get up from their bed. The person was someone in his room. He looked around, and then walked out of the room. He seemed to have not seen that Lorne was missing since his covers were messed up.
The man walked out of the room, and quietly went to the door of the girls' room. Only Susan was in there since Morgan was out here so he wasn't worried. If anything, he was interested.
He watched as the man casted some sort of magic and went from his crouched position to a slightly standing posture. He could not 'see' the magic since it had no material body, however he saw as the man walked downstairs. There was only a single worker that was awake at this point.
It was mainly just a lookout job to make sure nothing goes wrong in the night. The man walked down the stairs, and once he got close enough Lorne got up and whispered in Morgan's ears.
"Stay here.. One of the heroes is coming." (Lorne)
After saying that, he casted [Hide Presence] and jumped to the top of the building. Nobody would be able to feel him there, and there would be a lot of difficulty seeing him, but with Lorne's enhanced vision and hearing he would be able to perfectly hear the conversation that would begin.
The person waved to the waiter and the waiter bowed, which was slightly expected. The man then walked out, and it was revealed that it was Josh.
Lorne's suspicions were then confirmed. Josh had waited for everyone to sleep to check things out. He wanted alone time with Morgan, and would most likely have made some sort of noise to draw her attention outside if she were sleeping. How he was planning to get her attention, and only hers, he really had no clue. 'Maybe a type of magic?' he thought.
Josh then walked outside and stood next to the bench Morgan was sitting on.
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~Lorne~
"Beautiful night, huh?" (Josh)
I continued to watch. He was definitely trying to pick her up, but I wanted to see it all unfold. Maybe it would end in a hilarious manner. I would love a good laugh, but I also would rather not be seen at the top of a building watching all this unfold by said douchebag.
"Mmm" (Morgan)
Morgan simply replied. She obviously had no interest in him. Not only was it the fact that he was a human and she was a beast-kin, but also the fact that she already had me.
"In my world, we rarely got to see the stars. I've seen pictures, but never the real thing. Albeit that this is a different world or maybe even universe altogether, so the sky is a bit different from the pictures I've seen." (Josh)
Josh spoke as he slowly walked towards Morgan and sat down. I saw Morgan want to leave, but I sent her a glare that put her into submission as she gazed up at me. Josh had no clue she was looking at me, and merely thought she was looking at the sky.
"How about you? One such as yourself must adore the beauties in life." (Josh)
"I do, but they are much different than what you may consider beautiful." (Morgan)
I chuckled a bit to myself as I clearly understood her intentions. She was obviously talking about the slaughtering of humanity. However, Josh did not know this and simply passed it as being hard to get once again.
"The king had given me a lot of things. He's helped me a lot, and when I reach level 40 he plans to give me something that will boost my level, or so I've heard. I could easily give you what you might want.
Mr Smoothtalker inched his way towards Morgan as he was setting up his trap. First he would lull them with beauties, then open the trap and tell them of all the goods he could give them. Once they fell for it, that was their demise. They would forever become a toy to him.
Josh was very close to Morgan as she was looking directly at him. He was going to go for a kiss to seal the deal, and both Morgan and I knew it. However, before he could do it she stood up.
"I don't need riches or the like. I like strong men who care for me. Not lull me with petty promises of material objects." (Morgan)
FUCKING BOOM. The cannon exploded on his discombobulated skull. He sat there like a jackass just staring at her, not believing what he was doing, and she glared at him with cold eyes. She then walked away and went back to her room, closing the door and went to sleep.
The dumb fuck just sat there not believing that he was just outright rejected, and I had to teleport away to not be heard laughing like a lunatic.
Maybe this whole 'Staying with the Heroes' thing to get them all clumped together wouldn't be so bad after all.
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Sorry for the no update, but I got sick. Also, don't expect one tomorrow because of Memorial Day. I'll try and work on it a bit for a release on Tuesday, and you all should get one by then.