“All right, we’re going back after this meal. Good work, you all,” said Sir Henri Inolet after the party received the bowls of stew that was their breakfast that morning. He hadn’t commented on Alissa’s new class, and instead just gave the three [Heroes] a nod of approval. The old knight was a firm believer that while guidance was necessary in the early stages, once someone started to form their own path, they should make their own decisions.
“What about the harvesting team?” asked Ethan. The harvesting team had departed only a day later after them from the royal capital, and was likely still busy extracting valuables from the parts of the dungeon that the party had already cleared. “Would they be safe here? While we killed most of the… colonies I’m certain some of them still survived here and there. There was just too many for anyone but Joshua to completely account for all of them.”
“The survivors from your fights are too few and far between to be a threat even to the harvesting team,” explained Magus Drummond. “Sure, they re-merged with other survivors from time to time, but the resultant creature wouldn’t be any more dangerous than a wild dog or something like that. The harvesting team can handle that on their own.”
“What are they harvesting for in this place anyway? I know the main valuables are the artifacts, and Sir Inolet already gathered those,” asked Alissa with some curiosity. She had not recalled seeing any notable ores on the walls, and doubted that the carcass of the creatures in the dungeon would be of much use either.
“Right, it might not be obvious to those unfamiliar with the place. It’s the herbs,” said Magus Drummond as he inhaled from his pipe, exhaling the smoke in a neat ring before he continued. “Many of the plants that grow here are used in various sorts of potions and elixirs, nothing that’s particularly useful for fighting, but still pretty high in demand amongst the rich and powerful. It’s the reason this place is still cleaned up semi-regularly despite the difficulty, honestly.”
“What sort of potions?” Alissa asked once more. She knew that the practice of alchemy existed in this world, though there were no such convenient things as a potion that could heal injuries once drunk. The closest thing the world had to a healing potion was one that sped up the natural regeneration process by some bit, but those were more something that would make an injury take a week instead of two to heal.
“Various sorts,” said the Magus as he dumped out the dying embers from his pipe and refilled it with some more dried herbs and lit them on fire. “Several different kinds of panacea, also a lot of the main material needed for mana potions…” explained the old man as he continued, pausing slightly before he pointed towards an object in the vicinity of their campsite. “That’s the most valuable one, though.”
“What is that thing?” questioned Alissa as she took a closer look at the object the old magus pointed out. At a glance it looked like a small tree, but upon closer inspection she realized that it was some sort of mushroom with a stalk that was covered by bark-like growth. The upper canopy of the fungus was bulbous, which gave the thing a rather phallic shape in general.
“That’s a morningwood,” said the old magus nonchalantly even as all three [Heroes] spat out the stew in their mouths. Joshua even had to cough a couple times to dislodge a chunk of vegetable that went into his airway. “Very prized amongst the nobility, especially older ones. It’s the main ingredient for an elixir that… well… enhances a man’s performance in the bedroom, simply put.”
“Aptly named,” quipped Joshua with a shake of his head, while Ethan nearly choked once more as he fell into a fit of giggles. Alissa herself had to struggle not to laugh too loudly and prevent her bowl of stew from spilling. The name has got to be done intentionally by someone, which considering the presence of summoned [Heroes], might well be the case.
Magus Drummond clearly didn’t get the joke, though, as he looked at the three [Heroes] with some confusion.
“Anyway, we should get going soon. Old Utgarth would likely want to upgrade your gear before you went to the frontlines, so we’ll have some final training sessions while he works on them,” said Sir Inolet as he finished his bowl of stew. “Can’t have you all going to war with equipment intended for use by people a whole tier below you, after all.”
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The journey back to the capital was uneventful, and as soon as they returned the party dropped their weapons and armor to be repaired and upgraded as needed. The week that followed was mostly filled with learning things like tactics and strategy, as well as drills to work better as a team while fighting against other people.
Stolen story; please report.
In other words, training intended to prepare them for war.
While Master Utgarth was available to work on their armor, their weapons were a different case. The Kingdom lacked a fourth-tier blacksmith that specializes in weapons capable of making artifacts suitable for a [Hero]’s use, so instead, they would need to choose new weapons from the royal treasury, or if they happened to have another artifact weapon of the same type with desirable qualities and a higher tier, they could combine it with their current weapon, as that was within the capability of the Kingdom’s royal blacksmiths.
Ethan opted to get new weapons from the treasure, which elicited some jokes from Alissa when she saw his rather oversized new weapon. It looked pretty much like something that wouldn’t look out of place in a game. So would his new shield, for that matter, which looked to be so thick and heavy it was doubtful that a person could even lift it, much less wield it in battle.
With Ethan’s strength – his stat distribution focused on Strength the most, after all – he could make use of them quite well, though they were still a bit too heavy for him to wield for longer periods comfortably. That was the norm, apparently, to choose equipment that was a bit too heavy while in the early levels of the tier so it would be just right and usable even in the later levels.
Alissa herself chose the other route. By coincidence, both the spear and the shield from the final boss of the dungeon they went to were not only of the right quality, but also had desirable effects for her. The shield had an effect that would disperse force that struck it while also amplifying force when it was used to strike others. It was just right for Alissa, who often used her shield offensively as well.
The spear on the other hand had an effect that greatly improved its penetrative powers, which was one reason it went through Ethan’s armor so easily during the fight. While Alissa had an active skill that had an even better effect of the same sort, the active skill was far more limited, whereas having such an effect on her weapon would allow her to have the effect all the time, even if lesser in quality.
Since the artifacts weren’t particularly high in tier, the Kingdom didn’t even think twice to give it to the blacksmiths as material to upgrade Alissa’s weapons. Within the week she received her new spear and shield. Both of them were notably heavier than before, a little too heavy like Ethan’s new equipment, but just about right for longer term use.
Which was something strange given that the spear and shield remained the same size, but then again, it was not like combining two separate items to upgrade one of them was a logical thing anyway. The spear and shield did take on some of the hue of the artifacts used to upgrade them, which gave them a bit of an off-green shine.
It took a bit longer before Master Utgarth was finished with their armor. Ethan’s new suit of brigandine looked no different from his old one at a glance, but when Alissa tried to lift it, she noticed just how heavy it was. Even so, Ethan still put it on and moved around without noticeable difficulty. Part of it was likely due to his superior strength, while another reason would be the enchantments and effects of the armor itself.
After all, Alissa’s old armor also enhanced her physical prowess, which more than made up for its added burden on her body, and that was before considering the defensive properties.
When Alissa received her upgraded armor, she noticed that there had been some changes. The jacket of thick fabric had been replaced by shirt and trousers that looked and felt like leather to the touch, but were far, far more resilient. Apparently it was high quality monster leather, the sort that was usually used only sparingly as part of an armor, yet Master Utgarth had made a set entirely made out of it for her.
Instead of the chainmail shirt she used to wear, she was given an odd object. At first glance it appeared to be a long sheet of gold-bordered fabric, one that was smooth and pleasant like silk to the touch. When Alissa draped it across her body as she was told, however, the sheet wrapped around her torso, all the way to her upper arms and thighs, almost like a short bodysuit.
The fabric turned out to be an artifact from the treasury. It was defensive in nature, and while it wasn’t the toughest, still served as a good and lightweight layer of protection. More importantly, however, it also had the ability to bind several separate pieces of equipment to its wearer, which meant that those items would be brought along to wherever Alissa [Respawn]ed.
It was certainly nice knowing that she would no longer [Respawn] as naked as the day she was born.
As for her own suit of plate armor, it covered less than before. After some discussions with Sir Inolet and Master Utgarth, Alissa had asked the old Royal Armorer to have her armor mostly focus on places which would have affected her ability to fight. After all, a gut wound was certainly painful, but it wouldn’t stop her from taking her enemy down with her, and with [Respawn] around, that was actually a very viable tactic to use.
As such, her armor mostly focused on protecting her upper torso and limbs, sacrificing some coverage for less weight, which made it notably lighter than Ethan’s suit. It was still a bit on the heavy end for Alissa, but she knew that it was because the armor was intended to be usable until she reached the fourth tier, at the very least.
After Ethan and Alissa received their new equipment, the next week of training they had was mostly focused on getting them acclimatized to the new equipment. It wouldn’t do to fight in something they were not yet used to wearing, after all, so Sir Inolet made certain that his students were used to the new, heavier equipment before they would go to the front lines.
Another week of tactics lessons as well as practice in fighting as a unit followed, before the old knight grudgingly said that they were good to go. While the locals looked excited and were raring to go to the war front, Alissa and Ethan naturally had more trepidations about the matter. The only time they fought with the demons was that one ambush back in the south.
The idea of actually heading to war, to fight against other people, was something that still weighed heavily on them, and it was not something they could brush off so easily, even if they were determined to return home no matter what it took. It was with such a somber mood that the [Heroes] traveled towards the frontlines of the war between the humans and the demons.
It was no longer something they could turn away from.