We had spend most of the day scouting the town, Galahad had shown me around every last street and now I think I could safely say that I had seen every single building in the town.

Willowshire was a beautiful place, it was truly fascinating to see how the town had been built within the jungle, the two environments blending perfectly together.

We had successfully mapped out the guards locations throughout the town, I had contacted Sy who talked me through how to highlight them on my map, it took me a while to get used to the system, it felt kind of clunky at first but once I had done it a few times I slowly started to get the hang of it.

Sy had explained that there was a few different ways that I could place markers, one was location based. This type of marker was if I wanted to mark somewhere I wanted to head to, this was mainly to avoid getting lost and keeping on track. I had a limit for where I could mark, given that my map only exposed places I had actually been, all the areas outside of this were shrouded in a black mass which consumed pretty much ninety nine point nine percent of my map interface when I tried to zoom out on it.

The feature that Sy had shown me how to use was similar except I had been able to mark down multiple locations as a point of interest on the map, these would now show up as purple crosses on the map. Once Sy had explained this to me, myself and Galahad had doubled back on ourselves to make sure that we didn’t miss anything. That now meant that I had roughly two dozen points of interest layed out on the map.

I had asked Sy if it was possible to place markers on the guards themselves, this would of helped us track their locations so we knew where they were at all times. He had told me that this wasn’t possible for me, you needed to be in a hunter class that would give you access to a skill called tracker. Even then you would only be able to highlight one person to track on your map, unless you were higher than level fifty, this was when you would have access to a higher stacked version of this ability. Even then you could only track a maximum of ten people or animals. I had asked Raven if she had access to this skill, but she had shook her head.

That meant we would need to just make do with the markers that I was able to pace, that gave us a clear point of view around where the sentries were placed but it meant that when it came to patrols, all we could go off was what we could see. Luckily for us their movements around the time were predictable once we had taken the time to study them.

There were three patrols of two guards on a constant rotation around the outer perimeter of the town, they were evenly spread with another three to six groups of two guards patrolling the streets, depending on the time of day. This increased in the evenings which I assumed was to keep people in check when they were stumbling out of the taverns.

We were back at The Old Hag, you would not have thought there had been any trouble the day before with Geovana making sure the place looked good as new. The two broken tables had been replaced, one of the chairs had been bodged together but all in all it was ready for business. Geovana wanted to make sure the tavern was open today as he didn’t want to lose out on any more business. Her fees were due soon for the Godsfather and his goons would be round in a matter of days for collection.

He had allowed us both to stay in two of the guest rooms above the tavern so I was feeling pretty refreshed, I had managed to get a decent sleep and it was nice to sleep in a bed rather than a mattress made of leaves. Geovana had offered us the rooms for free but I insisted on paying our way.

I was now sat at one of the table eating some breakfast that Geovana had readied for us, a platter of bread, apples, grapes, a watermelon and a strange pink fruit with green spots that I didn’t have a clue what it was. I had decided to skip it and ate a slice of watermelon, a handful of grapes and a slice of freshly baked bread with a dollop of butter on their for good measure. Raven was to my right tucking into most of the watermelon, her table manners were to be desired as she ravaged the fruit, ploughing her face into it leaving a bright red-ish pink pulp smeared across her face. She was oblivious to it and although I was used to it, Galahad looked on in shock as he slowly made his way through the bright red apple he was holding, having finished some bread.

He had come down from his room already clad in his full suit of armour, minus his helmet meaning we had got our first proper look at him. His face was weary, his skin cracked and worn from what I assumed was a combination of drunken fighting and falling. He had a diagonal scar at the top right of his forehead and a smaller criss cross shaped one on his left cheek. His large greying mustache was curled at the end with a white residue on the tips with what I presumed was some kind of wax he had used to keep it that way. He had a rough stubble around the rest of his jawline, his hair was dark, thick and matted, large flashes of grey streaking down the side.

“You know some table manners would mot go a miss,” Galahad said dryly. “I know you are a Reaver but still, do they not teach you anything about decorum,”

I nearly spat the bread out I was eating when Raven raised an eyebrow, feigned sitting politely and then followed it up by sticking her middle finger up at him.

Galahad sighed and took another bite of his apple choosing not to retaliate. There was still an odour of stale ale that clung to him and I desperately wished that he would have a wash, but I didn’t know him well enough and I wasn’t brash enough to tell him this.

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Geovana was stood behind the bar, polishing glasses and wiping his tankards which he pas placing in neat rows behind the bar top. He was humming a happy tune to himself as he went about getting set up for the day. His long hair looked well groomed, his thick beard shaped to his face, the complete opposite of Galahad.

“You were saying that we need to improve our notoriety yesterday when we were scouting the guards.” I said as I finished a final slice of bread. “But you never actually explained what you meant.”

I had tried broaching the subject with him while Galahad was marching us around town but he had insisted that he would go through everything in the morning.

Galahad stared at me blankly, one of his eyes lowering as he concentrated.

I sighed, “Do you actually remember?”

“Of course I do old chap,” he said.

“And why would you want to increase the rating,” Geovana asked, looking up from the bar. “Have you got a death wish?”

“Absolutely not, “Galahad said, “I want my belongings back, this way, we can get access to the guard tower by getting ourselves arrested. Once inside we will fashion a good old fashioned breakout and then break into the armoury, escape and disappear with our weapons in towe.”

“That’s all well and good,” I said, “But why would we increase our rating? Wouldn’t it be easier to just pick a fight with a guard and then get arrested. And besides that, we need to get to the Godsfather remember, that’s how I am going to help Raven.”

“Yes boy, well if you let me finish I will bloody well tell you.” Galahad shook his head and tutted, “Goodness me, you offer to help and every bugger is ready to jump down your throat and interrogate you every chance that they get. Leaning forward Galahad rested his elbows on the table and leant forward, interlocking his fingers like he was some kind of evil genius. “We not only want to raise our notoriety rating, we want to capture the attention of the Godsfather, only then is he going to show himself. That is when you will be able to confront him and get all the answers that you see fit. After you have defeated him in battle of course and bring his evil reign to a gripping end.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Geovana laughed, “I think you are all crazy to do this. Galahad is right about the notoriety rating but there is one thing that he has forgotten to tell you.”

Galahad looked confused as he shook his head at Geovana.

“What he has failed to mention is that your rating will increase with the guards from level one to level four, depending on your behaviour. Level three is where the guards will really start to pay attention to you, level four and you are looking at one heck of a beating before you will get thrown in a cell. It doesn’t stop there though.” Geovana said, “At level four you will start to build a town wide reputation, meaning every guard in Willowshire will be actively looking for you and a bounty will likely be put on your head. If you get a higher rating than that, then things can start to get messy really fast.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean that when you surpass level four your reputation will start to reach further out than Willowshire. Level five will see the neighbouring towns and villages will start to know about you and that will mean a likely confrontation or arrest as soon as you step foot into their boundaries. From that it goes to level seven which is a regional rating, meaning every town, village and city in this region will be on high alert for you. At this rating it will make it nearly impossible for you to enter anywhere freely, when you end up with a level seven rating you tend to need to move in the shadows,” He nodded at Raven, “She will be fine in that situation,” He looked back at me, “You however stand out like a sore thumb in the strange clothes that you choose to wear. Basically if you end up with a level seven rating you are going to get spotted when you enter anywhere and its likely that they will just up trying to kill you before asking any questions, that’s easier than trying to arrest you for them.”

Raven laughed, but no noise left her throat, instead she grabbed her throat and grimaced as if she was in pain, a slight panic creeping into her eyes. She fell into a pained silent coughing fit, clasping her throat.

“Here have this,” I said, sliding over her glass of water, she took a gulp which seemed to help her calm her cough.

“Any higher than a seven and,” Geovana shook his head, “Well we won’t go there because lets face it I cannot see any of you being able to take things that far. You would have to be out there killing innocents for that kind of thing. At that point hunters will start tracking you trying to claim the high bounty that will have been placed on your head and lets face it, you would not last two seconds against those guys,”

“Ok so we are going to go out there ands start causing trouble, but we have to slowly raise it so not only guards notice but the Godfather does too.” I said, trying to wrap my head around everything that the two of them had just explained.

“That’s the spirit old boy,”

“What level do you think we should be aiming for?” I asked.

“I’d think level three should be enough but depending on the situation, you may need to take it to level four.” Geovana said.

Raven’s seemed to have her pained cough under control and sat finishing the glass of water that I had passed her.

“Are you going to remember all of this?” I asked Galahad.

He looked at. Me blankly, like I was the village idiot and I had said something completely goofy.

“Why wouldn’t I remember?” he said, his face told me he wasn’t impressed with me asking him but truth be told, as much as he seemed eager to help with the Godsfather, I would be lying to myself if I didn’t think he was a liability. “Geovana, may you pour me a tankard of your finest.”

“Erm, isn’t it a bit early?” I said, it was literally first thing in the morning, personally I couldn’t think of anything worse.

“I am not serving yet,” Geovana said, “The bar is closed until mid morning, you know this Galahad.”

“Well you can’t blame a knight of the realm for trying,” He rolled his eyes, scoffing at Geovana, “The gods know that once upon a time, we were lauded when we graced towns and villages with our presence. Waited on hand and foot, our every wish taken care of, after all we put our lives at stake every time we go into battle.” “Except you have not left Willowshire’s boundaries for nearly two years Galahad!”

Galahad gave Geovana a puppy eyed look, which may of worked if he didn’t have the look of a middle aged drunkard wearing rusting armour. “I may not make it back from our epic quest to vanquish the most vile of monsters that has plagues this town for two long.” He said, “The least you could do is grant me this final request.”

With a sigh, Geovana raised a tankard and started pouring Galahad an ale.