Emilie had long since forgotten to sell or destroy the book. A month passed in this routine with Cawthorn taunting Emilie every day before finally 31 days later she caught Cawthorn and cast “SILENCE!” She paused for a moment with a growing smile on her face. “I DID IT!” She kept running and let Cawthorn go. Emilie celebrated jubilantly as the others around her jogged in place. She leapt up on Jenora. “We’ve gotten so much better over this month.”

Victor pulled out Swordie and said “Status Sheet.”

Selected Title: Angelic Knight

Race Human: Victor Vance Vogal

Class, Specialization : Mage 9, Spellsword 3

Level : 12

Base Health : 190

Stamina : 47

Mana : 15

Vitality : 19

Speed : 53

Strength : 22

Prowess : 33

Endurance : 42

Rigor : 2

Willpower : 17

Flow : 67 (+70%)

Luck : -42

Resistance : 50% Resistance to mind control and manipulation.

Title: Angelic Knight

Skills: Speed Reading Rank 2, Academic Rank 2, Familiar Rank 2, Speechless Spellcasting Rank 2, Improved Buffs Rank 2, Rogue Skills Rank 2, Fighter Skills Rank 2

Hidden Skills: Memory Retention , Luzuzal’s Delusion Rank 5 , Luzuzal’s Devout Rank 2, Luzuzal’s Promise Rank 7,

Spells: Barrier shield Rank 2, Jolt Rank 2, Speed Boost Rank 2, Magic Writing Rank 1, Vitality Boost Rank 2, Rigor Boost Rank 2, Prowess Boost Rank 2

Current Exp to Level 13 1.0%

Victor pumped his fist and handed Swordie to Serena. “I appear to have reached the maximum strength and speed from those achievements over the past month. Endurance went up though.”

She handed it to Emilie who pulled up her “Status Sheet.”

She practically danced handing it off to Jenora. “I gained speed and endurance. My strength was already at the max for those achievements.”

Forala smiled. “Now the real training begins.”

“What?! That wasn’t it?” Emilie groaned.

“It was a baseline. I want to take all of you to a larger city and see if you can find an artifact.” Forala tapped her chin. “What cities are close to here?”

Jenora spoke up. “Cronlyn is a port city that leads to the Great Ocean Lydnir to the west. Wonora is a centralized trade city nearer the capitol city of Kival. Honestly between the two Cronlyn is safer. Great Ocean Lydnir separates the major continents by huge stretches of ocean, and Wonora is well known for being dangerous because despite not being the capitol it is the biggest city. It’s grown out of control due to its position at the center of this country and hundreds of roads.”

Forala smiled. “What a perfect dichotomy for your group. The safe route or the dangerous one which will it be?”

Victor didn’t need to think even for a moment. “To Wonora.”

Emilie protested. “Wait shouldn’t we discuss it first?”

Jenora agreed with Victor. “If we chose the easy path and he heads there He’ll be level 20 perhaps even level 25 before we even reach level 15.”

“Or he’ll be dead.” Emilie glared.

“In which case it wouldn’t matter.” Forala shrugged. “If you die you won’t be suffering.”

“If Jenora died it would matter to me!” Emilie protested.

Serena agreed. “I agree. If he dies it will hurt me immensely.”

“Then die defending him. Die with them. Don’t run… Don’t run like I did.” Forala looked down at her feet. “Even if it’s hopeless don’t run unless you can all run.”

The conversation quieted for a few moments before Victor asked a question. “Do guilds exist here? Clans? Something like that.”

Jenora perked up. “There are many guilds mostly smaller guilds less than 50 people in size. They are the safest way to find a group but usually require some significant commitment. Emilie wasn’t willing to commit to any of them.”

“Their requirements were insane! They take all the artifacts you find and sell them then take 25% of the proceeds. They take 25% of your quest rewards. The only things they offer are shelter, food, and leads on quests or artifacts. They offer NOTHING else. It’s such a rip off.” She groaned.

“That wasn’t all guilds Emilie just the one we looked at.” Jenora noted.

“They said it was standard! That every guild in the city would take that much! It wasn’t even worth looking if that is true, and the second guild I looked at took 20% of everything which is still outrageous!” Emilie folded her arms.

“Well they were the largest guilds. It makes sense they would have the most expensive dues.” Jenora noted.

“25% is way too much.” Serena agreed.

“I’m inclined to agree.” Victor nodded.

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“HAH! Right again.” Emilie’s fists shot into the air with a smile on her face. “Victor is learning to side with the smartest member of the stars!”

Cawthorn crowed. “HE ALWAYS SIDES WITH ME!”

“Damn my mana ran out.” She groaned.

Serena raised an eyebrow. “The stars? Is that what we are calling ourselves now?”

“Well it’s short for the Stars of Verdan unless you have better shorthand.” Emilie noted.

“No notes, the stars is good shorthand.” Victor gave a thumbs up.

“THE STARS WILL SHINE ALL OVER VERDAN!” Cawthorn proclaimed.

“I need enough mana regeneration to sustain silence forever. “ Emilie sighed.

“I’ve been meaning to ask can’t you use that to silence a mage or cleric?” Victor asked.

“If I can get close to them, that’s why I took it in the first place. The issue was prior to now I was way too slow. It’s still mana intensive and you can’t use it on people who have a higher tier than the skill. It works on enemies one tier up because priest increases my effective level for skills by 10, but it doesn’t work on those further ahead than that.” She shrugged.

Serena cut in. “Does this mean we are set to go to Wonora?”

“Unless there are any objections.” Victor waited for a few moments.

“TO WONORA! TO FAME AND FORTUNE!” Cawthorn proclaimed.

Emilie smiled and pointed at Victor. “As long as we aren’t forced to join a guild this sounds great to me!”

Serena shrugged. “I’ll acclimate to it. Let’s go.”

Jenora nodded. “For a man as strange as you I have more faith in your leadership and Foralas training than any group we’ve been in so far.”

Forala noted. “On that note I had considered something we could do.”

“Oh do tell.” Victor turned to her.

“I do not know what Peria requires for a guild to be formed but given your goals wealth doesn’t seem to be a prudent pursuit. Instead I think forming a guild where the goal is to find artifacts and give them to members of the guild more in line with your goals.” Forala noted.

“We can check on the requirements but if we did that how would we fund the guild? A guild hall, information, etcetera we have to fund it somehow and if you don’t do that no one will join.” Jenora noted.

Victor raised a finger. “What if we made it clear our guild wasn’t about getting rich. First do a quest, then artifact hunting mission. The gold from the quest goes to the guild at 50% but the artifact hunting information the members decide how to split it if they sell it at all.”

“Well yeah but how do you split an artifact?” Emilie asked. “It’s not like if a powerful sword comes up and you find it a priest could use it.”

“That’s a good point.” Victor started to think not sure how to solve the issue.

“What about a contractual deposit?” Serena asked. “We let people join with a 1000 gold deposit. If they stay for at least twice the number of missions their party joined with so they all are guaranteed an artifact they get their deposit back.”

“Nah that would be a bad idea we’d never get new talent.” Victor tilted his head still thinking. “The minimum quest idea is good but how do we enforce it without financial penalties?”

“I mean you have to punish people who fail somehow right? If the group isn’t close friends something like that won’t work without some incentive system.” Jenora noted.

“While that is important the reason I asked is because I am not able to travel with you. If I do I effectively inhibit your growth and my own. Instead I should take the position of guild master.” Forala noted. “It lets me live in the city and stay around you without preventing your growth. Who knows I might find someone worthy of being claimed there.”

Victor put up one finger. “I think if you want to find someone in a human settlement you may have to look somewhat older.”

“I can use my skill to make myself larger.” She placed her hand on her chest. “Gigantify.” She stood at Victor’s height growing all of her assets. “This high? Or perhaps this high?” She stood now with Victor’s head at her shoulder as all of them looked up.

“Giant princess is scary.” Cawthorn shrunk back behind Victor.

Both Emilie and Jenora at the same time noted. “Wow.” The turned red and turned to each other laughing.

Serena shifted nervously. “Well yeah but how long does the skill last?”

“My stamina regeneration out paces it’s consumption. The smaller form is my default since this consumes stamina. There is a similar magic version of this skill but it’s so much worse because it’s a duration spell and not a sustained skill, you also can’t use it on the caster only someone else.” She noted.

Victor nodded. “I think it looks great. We should get going today.”

“Won’t we be traveling at night then? It’s already past midday.” Serena noted.

“How many days is it to Wonora?” Victor asked.

“It is 6 days to Wonora.” Jenora spoke up.

“Well then we may as well get walking. We should keep moving and not get complacent. We spent this month effectively relaxing and as Forala said now the real training begins. We can fight longer, faster, and stronger than we could before and we weren’t in any danger, but we didn’t level up. We gained no combat experience and we didn’t gain any gold.” Victor noted.

Forala clapped her new much larger hands together. “We go!”

The group began to travel to the road and started to walk along the dirt road with several carts around them going both directions. As they slowly proceeded away from the town the herd of wagons and carts thinned. The group continued talking and joking jovially as they traveled. Daylight waned over the treetops rustling in the wind. Soon the town faded into the horizon behind them and darkness fell. “Should we make camp?” Emilie asked.

“It is about time to camp.” Forala quickly collected firewood by snapping branch after branch. The group walked to the side of the road near a dirt patch as Forala lit the fire. “I will take first watch. Who will take second?”

Serena raised her hand. “I will. The magic users need their rest. It is hard to sleep out here anyway.”

Emilie nodded. “She gets it!”

“Why shouldn’t magic users keep watch?” Victor asked.

Serena explained. “Mana Fatigue. If a magic user gets less than 6 hours of sleep they suffer from mana fatigue reducing their mana regeneration. You only need 4 hours of sleep to avoid getting ordinary fatigue which inhibits your stamina regeneration.”

“I’ll cook.” Jenora pulled out pan.

“One moment.” Forala leapt into the darkness grabbing a pair of rabbits and snapping their necks. “This should be sufficient for a stew.”

“That was really fast.” Victor noted.

“I’ve hunted my entire life. Excluding each of you, and Cawthorn I see 8 other possible sources of meat for the stew.” She explained.

“I had one other question. Your black dress, it changed size with you. What is it?” Victor noticed.

“Shapeshifter Silk. If you change shape it changes with you and if you switch out of humanoid form it melts into your skin.” Forala explained. “My father left it to me.”

Jenora started cooking stew while Victor followed up. “You’ve said a lot about him but I don’t even know his name.”

“His name was Devon Ruiz, brother of Adam Ruiz. He left the royal court of Hoxal after an assassination attempt by his brother Adam Ruiz who then seized the throne. That was 30 years ago in 9994 A.H. my dad didn’t live much longer after he met my mother because he had been struck by a fatal disease and our clutch didn’t have the magic or medicine to fix it. I barely knew him but he left a lot of things behind for me books, this shapeshifting silk, and a few other odds and ends much of which I lost over the years.” She smiled fondly reminiscing about what she had lost. “My mother talked about him all the time.”

“I hope one day you get justice and that dragon and king get what they deserve.” Victor put his hand on her back.

“There’s no reason to seek vengeance. It won’t get me back anything I’ve lost.” She paused as a smile stretched across her face. “I would enjoy it if the opportunity presented itself though. What about each of you where are your parents?”

“Mine are dead, but Swordie is more of a father to me than my own dad ever was.” Victor smiled.

Swordie answered with overwhelming pride. “Parenting this young knight has been the greatest undertaking in my existence. He is pure.” Victor smiled at Swordie holding him in his hands. He pulled Swordie close and the book glowed faintly. “Sorry, I was overcome with emotion.”

Serena went next. “My parents are dead. They died shortly after my village was raided and I was made into a slave.”

Emilie shook her head. “My story is too long but the short version is my parents sent me to a nunnery then on the day of the pilgrimage I returned to them only to find a vampire who had killed my father and turned my mother.”

Cawthorn crowed up. “MY PARENTS ARE ALIVE AND WELL AT THE ROYAL ROOKERY IN EXCELCIA!”

Victor turned to him. “Your parents are alive?”

“CAW CAW HAH MY PARENTS ARE THE GREATEST PARENTS IN THE STARS OF VERDAN! THEY ARE STILL ALIVE!” Cawthorn boasted.

“What about you?” Forala turned to Jenora.

Emilie let out a little laugh. “Good luck. She won’t even tell me and I’ve seen her naked. She’ll tell me one day but you’re not getting it out of her.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Jenora shook her head with an open inviting stance. “It’s not worth talking about and it’s a profoundly shitty memory.”

“I could beat it out of you.” Forala noted.

“No you couldn’t. If you killed me I still wouldn’t speak that story even on my deathbed.” Jenora noted.

Forala shrugged. “It was not a threat. Apologies. I respect your conviction.”

Jenora raised her water skin. “To mutual respect.”

The others raised their drinks for a toast. “To respect.”

Forala smiled. “Get some sleep all of you. I will wake you Serena when it is your turn to watch.”