Since the money used all over the world was pretty much the same, adventurer guild being the main reason for said development, it was easy for Rex to buy whatever supplies he needed to stock up on before their departure, done at the same time as they traveled from one elder to another to attain the information needed about the swallows. The guild had their own branches in every nation, every large and medium city of said countries, all connected through a special sort of artifact, storing the information from all issued adventurer cards in a central data bank that could be accessed from any of their branch guild buildings, resulting in one large, interconnected web of information transfer. It was precisely why high ranking adventurers could travel between countries without much restrictions. On the contrary, nations would often encourage such adventurers to visit their lands since even a single A ranker could result in a surge of rare materials in the local markets, all a result of them delving the deeper parts of dungeons and as a result returning and selling whatever they attain in said delves. And such surges meant more tax money, as well as other benefits, resulting in the current system.
Rex and Danica did visit the adventurers guild in the city as well, only quickly glancing over whatever quests were available. Not that they would take on any, their plan having been already finalized. They did have a reason for visiting though, well, maybee two actual reasons. As the duo reached the counter, a middle aged wolfking lady turned her attention to them, smiling amiably and lightly bowing to them.
"Greetings sir. Allow me to express my thanks as a denizen of this city for what you did yesterday." she bowed, and with that out of the way, he continued as usual. "How may we help you today?"
"Two things, actually. First, I was wondering if I could upgrade my adventurer's rank. If possible, I would like to do that. And the second, independently of the first is that I would like to create a formal party." Rex explained as he placed his adventurers ID on the counter. Carefully taking the ID, the attendant placed it on the reader, looked at the stats and sighed.
"It is indeed woefully out of date. At the very least regarding your actual rank. Allow me to summon the branch guild master and we will have it sorted. And while I cannot promise we can guarantee peak A rank evaluation, it should be closer to the appropriate rank that you should be at."
"No problem, we can wait." Rex replied calmly, gesturing for Danica to follow him as they walked aside to relax in some of the empty chairs as the attendant rushed to the guild master. They did not have to wait for long as just a few minutes later, the attendant returned, asking Rex to follow her, guiding the duo upstairs towards the guild masters office. They were received warmly, the guild master, an elderly man in surprisingly good and muscular form, expressing his own thanks for what Rex had done in the arena. With that done though, he got straight to the heart of the matter, explaining how they indeed did not have the authority to assign anything above initial A rank. Not that Rex cared all that much. Besides the rights to brag, there was little use for the upper A ranked adventurers evaluation. Only in the central continent would there be dangerous enough quests issued to the guild where upper of peak A ranked adventurers only would be asked for. Nor would Rex consider such jobs to begin with, for behind each and every one of them, a powerful and arrogant noble family stood, always looking to expand their holding or power. Rex liked to be his own man. Doing a job for someone was fine. He could decide the pace and manner in which he completed said job after all. The aforementioned one though? They would mostly be raids aimed at particularly dangerous and lucrative dungeons, said to contain treasures beyond one's imagining, though with dangers of equal level as well. Obviously, since Rex had not witnessed said things himself, he could only listen to old stories about such things, spread among countless adventurers, dreaming of bright and heroic future.
With the first task resolved, Rex's adventurer rank quickly upgraded to A minus, the same as Danicas, they proceeded to resolve his second need as well. Forming of a party. There was another form to fill out, stating the name of the party, the overall goals and some other information, like recruitment requirements, if said party was willing to list itself as an open one, allowing new members to join, should they show interest and reach a certain threshold, and a few others, like affiliation to job class or some other info.
As decided beforehand together with Danica, Rex named his party 'Endless Journey'. That was their goal after all. To experience what this world had to offer by exploring it and enjoying whatever adventures and events they encounter. He left requirements empty, stating it was a closed party, and the goal was simple- exploring the world and dungeon diving. And while the goal could be left unnamed, since Rex had no plans on accepting anyone who he, Danica and whoever else would join their party down the line did not all accept, the attendant advised against it, suggesting they should write down some sort of general goal they might have. There were nations with rather strict border controls, who would have access to the records of adventurer guild, and a stated general goal could sometimes serve as the deciding factor in gaining entry in said nations. She did not that due to the power both Rex and Danica possessed, such a case might not actually happen, but the possibility, as small as it was, did exist.
A few minutes more later, Rex, and consequently Danica's, adventurer ID's now shared a party affiliation. The two founders of Endless Journey were marked as just that, a small extra letters 'FM', standing for founding member, encapsulated right after the actual name of the party. And with their reasons for being in the adventurer guild finished, they departed. And while they were suggested to take a quest or two, Rex politely refused, noting they had a rather important quest of their own to resolve first, making it quite inconvenient to split their focus. He did add that they will consider it once they return though, earning a smile and another polite bow from the attendant as they left.
And then, with everything sorted, mounting two, horse sized wolves, they departed the city, its tall, black wall slowly shrinking as their distance grew and grew. They had quite the distance to cover, as such, with Rex's newfound fame they had acquired rather strong and tough wolves, allowing them to ride for almost an entire day, only stopping once before the nightfall, to feed and to water their mounts. At night, the mounts and the couple could rest, Snek serving as their nights watch. And in such a manner, a couple days went by, without any notable incidents. THe two wolves they rode were enough of a detriment to dissuade most lesser predators and monsters like goblins from even approaching them, let alone actually ambushing.
On the third day though, they encountered something unexpected. As they rode, Rex noticed something in the distance and he quickly steered his wolf towards the commotion. Danicas mount following him along closely. As they approached, they saw a small group of wolfkin, three men and seven women, struggling to fend off a group of Borks, two to two and a half meter tall, fat looking humanoid monsters that originated from pigs. They sure as hell looked the part. Pig heads, big, lardy bodies covered in primitive and badly crafted metallic armour. The wolfkin men were struggling. The tree men did their very best to keep the pigs away from the women, who were clearly not at all accustomed to combat, their somewhat frilly dresses and fair skin serving as obvious clues.
The moment Danica noticed it all, she spurred her own mount, damn near flying towards the desperate wolfkin group, moments later flying through the air as she had leapt off of her mount, sending the Borks closest to the girls flying, all while her mount had already jumped on another Bork and was bussy tearing its throat out. Rex arrived just moments later, jumping off of his own mount, his blood chains coming to life moments later, winding and whirling, creating a complex arena, separating the wolfkin group from the borks, while assisting Danica as he controlled the battlefield. There were more and more Borks arriving ever moment, coming from the forest further ahead. And yet, no matter how many came, Danica dealt with them all, a couple of Borks at a time, courtesy of Rex's control and woven corridors. Not that the Borks did not try to swarm Danica, trying their damn best to cut through the chain that made up the ever growing walls, though failing miserably. As the duo fought, each in their own way, with Danica slaughtering Bork after Bork, her fists covered in battle gauntlets, spikes extended on her knuckles, expretly puncturing the Bork throats as she danced among them, Rex's chains not only limiting the number of Borks she had to deal with at a time, but also actively interfering with their actual movements, tripping them, causing their weapons to get stuck and so on and so forth. Rex realised that if he were to have a party, he had to adapt his fighting style to accommodate. HE could perform any role but the healer in a party, but why not lean in his blood magic and serve as the control that was needed? They could go without actual tanks, so long as Rex kept up, ensuring his skill set grew and was optimal for the task he had decided to fulfill.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
And, as Danica rampaged, killing Bork after Bork and Rex controlled the entire encounter, killing Borks as well, having modified one of his chains to serve as a dangerous saw wire, dismembering orcs as they came, the group of wolfkin, walled off from the rest of the action, were all on their buts, jaws hanging, and stared at the absolute monster slaughter that happened before their eyes. Rex had quite the few chains at his disposal at this point, though not quite to the point where he could construct entire, fully formed walls for an entire labyrinth, as such, the walls he had formed, were more of a fence, with large enough eyes in the net that everything he and Danica did was visible to their spectators. Were Borks not pure melee infantry, having absolutely no skill whatsoever with ranged weaponry, Rex might have to worry about peoples safety, but as it stood now, he could continue as he had so far.
It took another ten minutes of Borks dying in droves that the monsters realized the futility of their approach, and they ran away, all that were still capable of doing so, screaming and oinking. The smarter ones had done so long ago, yet such individuals were rare among this particular monster type.
"Phew!" exclaimed Danica, her gaze overlooking the result of their efforts. Large piles of dead Borks were scattered all around, their wolves, soaked in Bork blood, were now having their fill, tearing out chunks of flesh where it was not covered in their primitive armour and happily devouring it. Borks were quite tasty, just like proper pork, so it was no wonder that after such hard work, the two predators were more than willing to stuff their stomachs with the prey they had hunted.
As Rex withdrew his chains, absorbing blood in copious amounts, expanding and strengthening his arsenal, one of the tree wolfkin males got out of his awe and stupor, damn near jumping in front of them and planting his face in the ground, prostrating himself before the pair of adventurers.
"Please, honorable warriors, save our village. The horde attacked it, we barely escaped, not able to reach the walls in time. It might still be not too late."
"Lead the way then. DONT DAWDLE!" Danica exclaimed, hoping they could help. The wolfkin jumped up to his feet, dashing towards the village with Danica right in his tracks.
"Snek, watch over the rest of them and feel free to feast at the same time." Rex said loud enough that the remaining wolfkin heard him, moments later a large, blood red snake was in front of them, happily devouring the fallen Borks. With that covered, Rex turned and dashed after the two. catching up but a few moments later.
Reaching a small hilltop, nearly six hundred meters away from the battlefield, the wolfkin, heaving heavily, lifted his finger in one direction, smoke rising in the distance.
"Ehhh-heeee." he wheezed "There. Ehhhh- heeeee. I cant. Ehhhhhh- heeeee." he struggled, though that was all that needed to be said, Danica and Rex shooting forward, towards the pillar of smoke, a few kilometers away. For them, the remaining distance was nothing to write home about, so they reached it in but a few minutes, sprinting with speeds far beyond human limits, only to come upon whatever was left of a ruined, half burned down village.
Fresh stains of blood could be seen near everywhere, the people had been fighting to the very end. Their wall, built from wooden poles, had been obviously broken through in several places, which were bereft of any poles by now, the rest of the wall slowly burning away. Among the stains of blood, some lone fingers could be seen, either cut off with the primitive and crude weapons or chewed off, not quite fitting in the Borks mouth.
Danica grimaced at the sight, cursing, sadness in her face apparent, alongside anger and rage. Such things happened. The more wild the location someone decided to settle, the larger the chance of a monster horde, migrating and passing by, to decide to feast on said settlers.
"Fucking Monsters!" Danica cursed as Rex pulled her closer, trying to calm her down.
"We cant be there to save everyone. If you need to think of something, think of the ones we saved, not the ones who we were not even aware of. It will eat you from inside." he whispered as he hugged her, using mana pulses in a large radius to sense any lingering Borks, or anything else for that matter that could be in need of quick culling. As his pulses ended, he could determine no hostiles within a range of a kilometer, though just as he was done scanning the area, he was pinged by Snek, their soul connection doing its job. "Snek says we have company, though I dont know the nature of them. Lets head back." Rex spoke, guiding Danica back towards the survivors. They could do nothing for the ones lost, but they could help out the ones still alive.
As they returned, they came upon a rather interesting sight. The group of the wolfkin they rescued, wrapped around by Snek, like chickens in a fence, as the bloody snake stared and hissed towards a new group of wolfkin, some fifty in total, all clad in leather and, or metal armour, some of them on horses or wolves. Their own wolves were still devouring Borks, finding the standoff not something that they should care about, so long as they are left alone.
The new group wolfkin were extremely veary, the large bloody snake entrapping some of their kin keeping them on the edge. The fact that the two new arrivals, even if one of them was another of their kin, who seemed entirely nonplussed with the presence of the monster, even as they could not even determine its might, did not bode well at all.
"State your identities!" half barked one of the men, sitting on a white horse, his armor more decorated than others "You are trespassing on our land!" he added, on of his hands on the blades hilt at his hip.
Rex glanced around, looking at the corpses upon corpses of Borks all around them, as he replied "Am I the only one who sees the state of this place? It would be smarter if you used some of that brain that's supposed to be in your head. You come upon a veritable field of slaughter, notice a group of mostly unbloodied wolfkin, in what I would classify as a living, breathing gigantic snake formed fence, in the middle of said field of slaughter. And when what seems to be people of the same affiliation as the snake appear, you have the audacity to take a confrontational tone? If I did not know better, I would assume you are seeking death. So, I will be generous. Try again." his tone was calm and collected, though the eyes were sharp and aware, making the commander pause, take in the surroundings once more, before he actually used his brain.
"M-my apologies. A horde of Borks had been noticed recently. We were dispatched to lure them a way and distract them. What happened here, and what of the village close by?" his tone now was polite, so Rex saw no issues with replying, even as Snek shrunk down in size and disappeared in Danica's sleeve, off to have a solid nap, his stomach filled with plenty of Bork meat and blood while Danica waited for Rex to speak.
"We were passing by when I noticed them" Rex pointed towards the wolfkin group "trying their utmost best to fend off Bork attack, with more and more emerging from the forest. We interfered, the result you can see before you. The rest fled in panic. The village is gone, up in flames. Was like that by the time we arrived just a short while ago. Not a single inhabitant, or body in sight." Rex turned his head towards the rescued group once again "My condolences." he said, returning his gaze towards the group. "And then we met you. Thats it. Since this is your land, I expect you to take care of your people." Rex shared a glance with Danica, his intention clear. Though saddened, she nodded, understanding his intention. "Since the situation is resolved, we will be off." Rex spoke, whistling to their wolfs, mounting moments later and leaving the place behind, though not before using his chains to de-flesh quite a few Borks, storing that meat for later use, either dinner or feeding their mounts. And while the commander would have liked to stop them, the battlefield itself was a clear warning not to try. Rex usage of blood chains as he picked the meat off of the bones of the monsters, sending chills down the spines of the fifty something large group, just ensured the commanders smart decision making.