The group woke up and stretched to the mostly clean first floor. Gathering for breakfast Serena started cooking eggs and bacon. “Good morning, everyone.” Emilie bounced with a smile.
Jenora cheerily added “Good morning!”
Victor garbled out. “Good morning.” Yet they heard “God murder.”
Jenora put her hand up. “Just don’t talk Victor your curse is terrible.”
He quieted down. Brice cheerfully stretched. “Good morning! I didn’t think about this until this morning. What will we do when Victor’s better?”
“Necropolis,” Victor spoke up.
Jenora shook her head. “As much as I want to, Serena doesn’t want to fight undead. If we can avoid it, we should.”
Emilie spoke up. “Yeah, but we’d have to pay a lot of gold to get the information anywhere other than the Necropolis.”
“Ask her.” Victor tried to say only for them to hear. “Ash her.”
Brice asked. “Are we sure he’s alright? He’s speaking like a child.”
Swordie commented. “He’s fine, just incredibly foolish.”
“Hey!” Victor protested.
Swordie shot back. “Your recent good deeds have a cost, a cost fairly paid. I wasn’t referring to your most recent deeds. I was referring to far more foolish deeds.”
Victor hung his head as Serena came out with Eggs and bacon for everyone. “What are you all talking about?”
Brice happily answered. “Our next job!”
Victor turned to her and asked. “Necropolis?”
Emilie leaned forward. “I don’t know if you took bone breaker, but it’s terrific against skeletons. I think we should do it. It’s an effectively free artifact-hunting option which is great. It’s also way safer than most artifact-hunting quests. Several adventurers are hanging around there so as long as we don’t die instantly, we can always back out.”
Jenora nudged her. “Come on she just told us the other day she hates fighting undead.”
Serena shook her head. “I did take bone breaker. I thought about it and just not being able to fight a broad swatch of creatures probably doesn’t work. I’ll find a way to compensate for my weaknesses.” Victor smiled and looked at her giving a thumbs up with a full mouth.
Cawthorn looked at her and angrily glared. “No sausage.”
“It’s bacon. Try it.” She insisted.
Victor dangled a strip of bacon in front of him. Cawthorn viciously tore into it before swallowing it whole. He blinked and looked down. “BACON IS GREAT! WE NEED BOTH!”
Victor asked. “Which is better.”
Cawthorn looked into his eyes blinking twice. “SAUSAGE!”
Everyone but Serena laughed. “Well, then you cook.”
Cawthorn looked at Serena. “MY MAGE FUTURE WIFE MAKES THE BEST SAUSAGE!”
She chuckled. “I’ll make more Cawthorn just not for every meal.”
“TRAGEDY HAS BEFALLEN THE STARVING FAMILIAR! HE WASTES AWAY SEEKING SAUSAGE!” Cawthorn crowed.
“Is he always like that?” Brice asked.
“Only when he’s hungry,” Emilie smirked.
“Which is always.” Serena chuckled.
“What a colorful crew.” Brice sipped his drink.
Serena took a deep breath. “We can go to the necropolis. I have faith that any weakness I have will be covered by the four of you.”
“It’s alright! I can protect you in my barrier.” Brice cheerfully proclaimed. “That and my firebolt which is specialized to fireball are my only maxed-out abilities.”
“I don’t need protection. I just need you to destroy targets that are resistant to my attacks.” Serena looked at him.
“Oh. Alright, I can do that.” Brice noted.
Emilie playfully punched his shoulder. “If anyone needs a barrier it’ll be me. I’m a priest and I’m heavily invested in flow. My prowess is too low for my barriers to fully block the most powerful blows. I need a powerful mana regeneration artifact or flow-boosting artifact. Your ring wouldn’t even help since it only works for people who have very low flow. I bet you increase willpower too which improves your magic resistance.”
Brice nodded. “My teachers set me to accomplish a lot of achievements which specifically improve willpower and prowess. The hardest one was the isolation achievement. I got 50 willpower out of it!”
Victor looked at him astonished. “Wow!”
Brice put up his hands. “Wait don’t try to do it. Trust me. You have to completely deny your senses in a magic-rich area, alone, in the dark, without speaking, and you can’t eat anything for 3 days. Within a few hours, you’ll start to hallucinate, and you cannot speak back to it or call out. By the 3rd day, you’ll be delusional and if you speak at all you’ll have to start over. I do not recommend doing this.”
Forala tilted her head. “Achievements provide that many stat points?”
“Well, some provide more.” Brice cheerfully commented.
Victor pulled out Swordie and instinctively he brought up a list of some large achievements.
Achievement Abyssal Conquest: Defeat a high-tier boss within the abyssal labyrinth. 6,000 Stat points
Achievement Legendary Foe: Defeat an opponent over level 100. 7,000 Stat points. Gain [Lose] 50 Luck.
Achievement I make the rules: Create a skill or spell that can be used by others. 11,000 Stat points.
Achievement Enlightenment: Learn an innate skill or spell after you are born. 6,000 Stat points.
Victor nearly spit out his drink and could feel it in his nose as he coughed. ‘You can reach higher than level 100? I guess that means that entities like Luzuzal and Gizixil also use the stat system. Creating spells and skills is interesting I figured they would be set in stone with no one able to change them. The last one is the most absurd. How? How do you gain an innate skill or spell?’ He snapped Swordie shut and put him away without showing anyone. ‘If I showed these to anyone Emilie might break down. Besides there’s nothing I can do about those achievements right now, at least most of them.’
Emilie chuckled. “I should try that achievement. It’ll be relaxing.”
Jenora shook her head ‘no’. “You’d last at most a few hours. I know I couldn’t do it.”
Victor tried to ask a question. “More exercise?”
“We could do that, but I think we should go on at least 1 artifact hunting quest since we have Brice with us now.” Serena nodded at him.
“Thanks. I’d love to get some money. I only have 30 or so gold on me.” Brice waffled.
Forala put her hand on his shoulder. “Unfortunately, when it comes to artifact hunting you aren’t going to make much money from them here. Any rare or higher artifacts you find on artifact-hunting missions get turned into the guild. You’ll get artifact points equal to your share of the artifact based on the tier of the artifact with a 50% increase to epic artifacts and a 100% increase to legendary artifacts. Then at the end of each month, we’ll auction off each artifact starting with its base point cost. You can keep cheaper items or masses of metal and sell them for some spending gold, but we generally expect that some adventures will be required to fund the groups and the guilds.”
“Oh.” Brice seemed deflated.
Emilie slapped his back. “Don’t worry the strategy is pretty simple. Artifacts make you more powerful. Artifacts that we gather will let us gain levels faster. A year from now we’ll be way more powerful than we would be if we just sought out gold. Trust me I want enough gold to build my own church to the Golden Goddess.”
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Cheerfully he perked up. “Oh! That sounds great! I don’t mind waiting a few years to be richer. It’s not that long.”
Irina seemed shocked. “A couple of years is forever! How can you say it’s not that long?”
Brice scratched his face. “Oh um, I mean. I guess it depends on how long you live.”
“Wait humans live about as long as catfolk. Are you a half-elf?” Irina asked.
Brice slightly startled answered. “Yes. I’m a half-elf.”
“I heard that those who live longer tend to be stronger but hate being adventurers. Is that true?” Irina tilted her head.
“Well, I can’t say if they are stronger. They do tend to avoid conflict.” Brice nodded.
Forala shrugged. “That’s cowardly. It’s one thing to retreat from an unwinnable fight. Not being willing to fight enemies you could win against that threaten you or your interests is just cowardly. I’m glad you don’t follow that path.” Forala patted his back.
Brice nodded. “I’m not someone who looks for a fight but I could never just let someone die who I could save even if it means a fight. Most elves would.”
“Wait didn’t he say he was a half-elf?” Irina asked.
Brice turned red. “I’m definitely a half-elf! I’ve just spent time with elves and know how they are. They value their own eternal lives more than the lives of anyone else.”
Serena cut in. “By the way Irina thank you for helping us. How much money do you think you’ll need to make it back to Sepnul?”
“Let’s see it’s 6 to 8 weeks to get there from here. So I need at least 180 or more gold plus any bribes and security so at least 360 to 400 gold but I’d be a lot safer with 450 to 500 gold. At the rate I’m going now given daily costs I should be able to return in a year or two.” Irina answered cheerfully.
“That’s absurd!” Victor declared to them hearing. “That’s a bird.”
Serena patted his head. “Yes dear, Cawthorn is a bird.”
“MY MAGE SAID THAT’S ABSURD!” Cawthorn replied.
Serena doubled over laughing. “Oh, my Goddess. The bird is the translator now!”
Emilie joined in the laughter. “He’s the worst thing about being in this group but also the best!”
Jenora couldn’t restrain her chuckling. “Turnabouts are rather entertaining.” Brice just nodded along happy to be included but knowing nothing about the joke.
“We should take her back there once we have some money,” Victor said.
Cawthorn repeated this at maximum volume for “COMPLETE TRANSLATION!”
Forala looked directly at him. “I will not allow that.”
“What? Why?” Victor looked at her flabbergasted.
“I want my guild and my guild members to be strong. If she pays you appropriately you may do that. If you want to do that without your group you may do that. If your group desperately wishes to accompany you they may but we must get something out of it. Your selflessness is beautiful, kind, and endearing but if someone doesn’t keep you in check you’ll die from all the missed opportunities.” Forala gripped his shoulder and leaned over menacingly. “If I have to break your leg one day to stop you from doing that kind of thing I will.”
Serena cheerfully high-fived her “Thank you. I didn’t want to be the one to make him look out for himself.”
“Well, someone’s got to look out for our angelic knight. He’d end up level 100 broke with no gear or dead without anyone else to help him. I don’t want to see any of you die.” Forala shook her head.
Irina spoke up. “I promise not to ask him Forala. I’m sorry I wasn’t trying to take advantage of my liberator.”
Forala shrugged at her. “It’s fine he’s prone to exploitation. I can just tell.”
Serena restrained herself putting her hand over her mouth only for Swordie to add. “You absolutely cannot comprehend how correct you are.”
“If I don’t trust someone why would they trust me?” Victor asked as Cawthorn repeated it.
“People will trust you because of your title alone. It’s well earned.” Swordie protested.
“I meant I just wish people in this land generally assumed people were telling the truth because most people tell the truth.” Victor grimaced with Cawthorn joyfully repeating after him. “Thanks Cawthorn.”
Forala patted his back. “Don’t stop trusting people but when a guild member tells you someone is horrible just listen.”
Victor nodded feeling a little defeated. Serena grabbed his head with one arm. “Awe come here. It’s half of why I love you.” She kissed him. “You’re mostly good at it! You just have a few, extreme, mistakes.”
Emilie laughed and recounted. “Oh, Brice! Did anyone tell you in the last dungeon we went through this guy tried to save an undead!”
Victor waffled about as Brice’s jaw dropped. “He tried to save an undead. I thought the undead were forever beyond redemption according to The Golden Goddess, The Green Goddess, The Bearded God, and the Blue God. Every major religion doesn’t think that is possible right?”
Emilie chuckled. “Oh, you are right. The only religions I’m aware of employing them are the Kokoxol cult, the archdevil Vazgal, and the long-dead archfiend Conquest. Most undead are either created as slaves to necromancers or turn to avoid death.”
“Then why did he try?” Brice just furled his face confused. “I know he’s an angelic knight but Luke is famous for his fanatical devotion to killing undead.”
Serena smiled. “That’s just who he is.”
Brice pondered confused. “Well, I guess that’s fine.”
They finished the last of their food. Jenora stood up. “Now that we’re finished with breakfast we should get supplies to further furnish the guild hall. We need solid beds, lanterns, and dressers. It’ll be expensive to furnish everything but furnishing 9 or 10 rooms so we can take another party immediately if they want to join will be helpful to grow the guild.”
Irina leaned forward somewhat confused. “So why does a guild even help? I don’t get it. If you have to spend the gold you earned to furnish a building you own aren’t you just giving away money?”
Forala clarified. “No, most guilds have benefits that people simply pay a fee of their quest rewards to fund.”
Emilie further explained. “Guilds also generally offer safety which is rare in this country and all other countries. The top officers and guild leader also tend to make good money managing the guild.”
Brice added. “There was a single guild betrayal around these parts a little more than a year ago. A member of the Reapers Guild killed others. The entire guild went on a hunt and chased him across the border. They killed him and brought his head back. Strong guilds cannot guarantee your safety but they can assure justice will be served if someone betrays you.”
Jenora clapped her hands. “Let’s go furniture shopping!”
Forala stood up. “Victor, Serena, Jenora you three will come with me and we will shop for furniture and bring it back here. Emilie, Irina, and Brice will clean here. We have today and 2 more days until Victor’s curse finishes and I want it presentable on at least 2 floors, 20 available rooms is the target.”
Cawthorn Crowed. “I REMAIN WITH MY MAGE!”
“That is fine Cawthorn.” She nodded and began walking with Jenora.
Emilie groaned. “I need the strength training.”
Forala glared. “You need the strength. Bed frames might break if dropped. This isn’t the time.”
Emilie crossed her arms. “Fine.”
Jenora leaned down and kissed her. “I’ll be back later dear.”
“Love you, see you later.” She hugged her back.
“Alright let’s go.” Forala snapped opening the front door. Jenora ran after. The three of them began walking toward the center square. “I’m going to set the pace until one of you can’t keep up. So move.” She picked up to a jog first then faster and faster until finally Jenora slowly started to fall behind. “You’re going to need to get to at least 100 speed Jenora.”
She panted running after them. “Yes ma’am.” Forala slowed down slightly but continued at a brisk pace toward the square with the fountain of the Green Goddess flowing beautifully.
The four reached the square and were immediately swamped by people running in. “Is it true you banished the ghost at 5 Star Road?”
“Well, it was a group effort.” Victor smiled at them. He hadn’t been out in days since he had been cleaning but it seems word got around. The crowd lit up with cheers and applause.
Serena asked. “Please we need to furnish our new guild hall could someone direct us to a furniture store or a carpenter?”
A diminutive halfling approached him. “Sir! Sir! My name is Paul Mallon my carpentry shop can make all of those for you and we’ll even deliver them!”
“Can we buy them today?” Serena asked looking down.
Victor asked Cawthorn who repeated it. “Do people in this land not have stores with stock ready to sell?”
She shook her head as the halfling panicked. “Sir! Me and my employees can have 5 of them ready by the end of the day!”
Forala shrugged. “How much are they?”
He shot back. “How nice would you like the bed frames to be?”
She asked. “What is the price for a quality one?”
“Well for a quality one 20 gold should be sufficient!” He shouted over the crowd.
“We’ll take 15 for now. I expect all 15 done in 3 days.” She peered down at the halfling a quarter of her size. He gulped and scampered off. “Now for mattresses.”
Victor sighed. ‘I bet they are just filled with feathers or something. There’s no way there are spring mattresses.’
Serena pondered for a moment. “We should leave the crowd behind. Could you take Jenora?”
Forala nodded as they both picked up one of them and leaped off toward Freedman’s Guild. As they landed the crash behind them shattered the statue of the Green Goddess into a thousand pieces. Screams erupted behind them as bloody bodies hit buildings painting them red. The broken bones and shattered limbs followed immediately with cries of pain. The four of them turned around to the head of a griffin rolling past them with the body scattered amongst the crowd they just leaped from. In the fountain standing in the water, Lightbringer Luke looked to the sky. “I’VE FINALLY FOUND YOU!” In his red coat with his massive black blade wreathed in red lightning, Zolvorn landed across the square from Luke.