We ended up following the Deputy to a fenced in field, a few hundred yards across with most of the foliage cut short. There were dozens of small water-balloon type creatures, some were yellow, and others were blue. I couldn't help but shake my head, this was too cliche, our first enemies were slimes or balloon monsters. What was going to be our next targets, giant rats?
"These are basic Yellow and Blue Balloons, they generally pop when struck, even with just a fist. They don't have mouths or anything, so they attack by throwing their whole bodies at you, though they are rather light they shouldn't be able to hurt grown adults. This is where young children are brought to gain their first few levels." The Deputy said in a bored tone, clearly wanting to be anywhere else but here with us. "Each of you should be able to defeat them alone, though I recommend working as a team first until you at least reach level two." He waved his hand and suddenly a new message appeared in front of my face.
Archmage Diflasu would like to form a party with you.
Accept? / Decline?
I thought 'Accept' and the message disappeared, in the upper left corner of my sight names started to appear with their information appearing next to it.
Archmage Diflasu:
Level: 172
HP: 725/725
MP: 2275/2275
ST: 325/325
Spear Hero Yuan Ming:
Level: 0
HP: 25/25
MP: 25/25
ST: 25/25
Bow Hero Savannah Glover:
Level: 0
HP: 25/25
MP: 25/25
ST: 25/25
Sword Hero Alan ------:
Level: 0
HP: 25/25
MP: 25/25
ST: 25/25
Axe Hero Marcus Dennisson:
Level: 0
HP: 25/25
MP: 25/25
ST: 25/25
Dagger Hero Violet Flores:
Level: 0
HP: 25/25
MP: 25/25
ST: 25/25
Hammer Hero Rudolph Hicks:
Level: 0
HP: 25/25
MP: 25/25
ST: 25/25
Banner Lord Rhys Abbán Toutorix:
HP: 25/25
MP: 25/25
ST: 25/25
We were all in a party now, assuming it was like most video games we shoul split experience evenly, though not sure why the Archmage would want to be part of our party, wouldn't he just be drawing away experience from us?
"I'll be here monitoring your progress, do not use your free points until you've reached level five and we'll help you select the most suitable path for your ability and weapons. For now have at it with the Yellow Balloons, they are weaker than the blue ones."
We walked over towards the ballons which didn't have eyes but seemed to know when we got close enough and one launched itself at Alan, who swung his sword and sliced right through the creature. It died with a somewhat loud 'pop' as if a small inflated balloon was popped. Everyone seemed to cheer a bit but I couldn't help but look at the announcement oddly.
Yellow Balloon Defeated!
+0 Experience Points
"What the hell? Why you guys cheering? I got no XP." I complained aloud as I got a few weird looks from the others.
Savannah shook her head and gave me a weird look. "I got two points."
"So did I."
"Same."
The others seemed to chime in to let me know I was the odd man out. That was weird and actually rather annoying, since I wasn't gaining the proper amount of experience points which means I would be falling behind in levels, Quite quickly if things kept up the way we are going. Early levels in most games were easy to gain and I was sitting here getting zero. "Huh, okay... let me try to get one." I said walking forwards, honestly the staff of the Baner Fawr was too unwieldy to use as a weapon so I planted it with my left hand and prepared to punch one of the Balloons out of the air when it jumped at me.
After a few seconds a Yellow Balloon was launching itself at me, and I punched out, it was about the size of a basketball so it wasn't a hard target, it didn't even seem to go that fast. It reminded me of when you would slap a balloon back home, it was very fast at first but rapidly lost speed. Striking center with my fist the Yellow Balloon burst with a pop like the first one killed by Alan had but there was still the message appearing telling me I had gained zero experience points for defeating the Yellow Balloon.
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I couldn't contain my annoyance at this. "What the fuck?! I killed the damn thing and still received zero XP?" The others gave me a weird look while the Archmage seemed to have taken notice of my complaint but did not move from his position at the edge of the fenced in area. I shook my head and proceeded forwards to kill another of the Balloons, this was not going well and I had to figure out why.
Half an hour passed and everyone else had reached level two but I was still sitting at level zero with zero experience points. Why? What was different between them and myself. It made no sense that I couldn't gain levels while they could. Was there something wrong with the way I was trying to gain experience? It shouldn't matter, I was fighting enemies and even killing them with a single blow but I couldn't level up it didn't make sense. At one point I thought I was supposed to gain experience by doing support like actions so I activated my Commander's Mark, it gave a visible icon for myself, but it seems that others didn't seen any visible change when I marked out different Balloons, but that didn't make sense. We were in a party, they should be able to see my debuffs, right?
A couple hours seem to pass and the others had already reached level five from killing the Balloons, it seemed after reaching level four they began to only get one experience point from them, and after hitting level five it dropped to zero like I was getting. Diflasu called us all over, saying it was time to return for the day, the sun was beginning to set over the horizon, it seemed we had arrived in the afternoon. "We'll be returning directly to the King's castle where you'll be given a personal tutor and instruction on how to use your abilities that you have unlocked from gaining levels. We'll also begin to gather attendents for you, they will be able to join each of you on your journeys."
"Wait, what do you mean our journeys, are we not working together as a team, we were all summoned together at once." The woman with the dagger spoke up, I had to check her tag to see her name was Violet.
Diflasu shook his head at her questions. "No, those with the Hero title are unable to remain working together as they gain more levels, we are unsure of the cause but when more than one Hero is in a party they draw greater and greater threats until either the party is disband or they are dead. You will be given parties that will join you and assist you in your growth, until called we will recommend you not work too closely with one another. However once you are strong enough it would not be a worry."
So this was how they were going to get us, 'oh you can't work together because it is dangerous, let us put our people and spies in your group so when the time comes they can stab you in the back'. That's how I read his explanation at least. Not that it mattered, I could be put in a box by a craftsmen in two or three punches so my opinion wouldn't carry any weight here.
Turning away Diflasu began summoning another one of his portals. We passed through in front of him once again and were in a large hall, armed and armored men guarding the exits in either direction. "Please remain here for the time being, I must meet with the King. Your attendents will arrive shortly to escort each of you to your temporary quarters." With a swish of his robes Diflasu walked through one of the exits and the door seemed to slam behind him. His name suddenly disappeared from the Party indicator, guess he left the party on his own.
Not even five seconds later Alan was next to me with his arm wrapped around my shoulders in a chummy action. "I can't believe you are still level zero, are you retarded or something?" His question angered me but I knew I wouldn't be his match with the difference in our levels, even if he hadn't used his points to increase his stats he must have gained other things to make him stronger. "You're useless, you know that? Dead weight, it would be best if you just disappeared... you know?" As he finished his statement he poked me in the stomach with his sword, not enough to cause damage, but enough that I knew it was a threat.
This was insane, I hadn't known him a day and this piece of shit wanted to kill me because I couldn't level up. That was not my fault. I don't know how this system works. I tried to think about what could be causing the issue but I couldn't figure out anything. I had tried fighting alone and killing the monsters but that hadn't worked. I tried to buff my allies and debuff the Balloons but that still netted me a grand total of zero. The only thing I hadn't tried was leaving the party since Diflasu wouldn't let me, saying that he needed to be able to monitor our growth.
I shook my head and pushed his arm off of myself, stepping forwards ignoring the sword tip that seemed ready to cut into me. The blade seemed to move away, Alan probably surprised I didn't react the way he wanted me to, probably expected me to cower and beg for my life. Not in this lifetime buddy. I stood there and opened my status menu, looking at everything but not understanding what any of it meant. Over time the others were led off one by one by people coming to claim them. Generally it was small groups, mostly young men and women, probably because they were low enough level to match up with our growth.
I didn't notice it at first but after half an hour I was standing alone and the last group had taken the spear guy away but no one had arrived for me. The guards were standing at their doors rather awkwardly, those I looked at seemed to look away after a few seconds. What was going on, did they know something I didn't? When I went to approach them a door suddenly swung open. I turned in its direction expecting to finally see my 'team' but was surprised to see that it was the King and Diflasu, at least I assumed it was Diflasu since his robes hid his face and they all looked quite similar to one another.
"What's going on?" I asked simply, wanting to get this out of the way. Why was I still here after everyone else had been released or taken to get food or whatever was going on at this point.
The King gave a smile, which I assume was meant to be reassuring but made me certain that bad news was coming. "My deputy has informed me that you are unable to gain experience points, even in combat when you are fighting alone."
I flinched, so far nothing he had said was wrong nor something I could argue about. "That's correct."
"I see, I am sorry young master Rhys but we cannot waste resources on one such as yourself." The King shook his head as if sad that he was delivering this news himself. As if somehow this was effecting him personally. "I will provide you with funds to start a new life, but we cannot waste any further time or man power with you, please understand that we are at war and every bit not dedicated to the battle is a waste."
"So, what I'm just supposed to sit around somewhere and wait for the others to win your war for you before you can send me home? You aren't even going to help me figure out why I can't gain experience?"
"No." The word was simple and final. "You are useless trash at this point, I have no time nor patience to help a useless class that cannot even gain experience. We will provide you with two gold coins and some silver, after that you are on your own."
I couldn't help but let out a laugh at the madness of it all. I hadn't even been here a day and I was being thrown away like a used napkin. They summoned me, brought me here against my will, and now that I showed I would have some difficulties with this new life they gave up on helping me. "That's rich, you wanted us to help you just a few hours ago but now that I have some trouble leveling it is 'goodbye, get fucked'? You are making a mistake."
"Is that a threat?" Diflasu asked stepping forwards, I could feel a chill coming from him.
"No, it is a statement, I don't know why I can't gain experience but it must be due to something strange with my class. If I can gain power I should be able to turn things around better than any 'hero'."
"Enough, give him his coins and get rid of this trash." The King stated simply before turning and leaving the room, clearly done dealing with me.
Diflasu gave a sniff and pulled out a small pouch, opening a new portal I suddenly felt a hand push me through it and the pouch was thrown on the ground just in behind me. The portal closed as soon as I turned around to see who had pushed me through it. Day one wasn't even over but here I was, abandoned, in an unknown world, with no way to grow stronger.
Name: Rhys Abbán Toutorix Race: Human Class: Chwedlonol Arglwydd y Faner (Legendary Banner Lord) Sub-Class: None Level: 0 Experience: 0/10 Bloodline: Unknown Health: 25/25 Mana: 25/25 Stamina: 25/25 Hunger: Inactive Strength: 5 Dexterity: 5 Constitution: 5 Wisdom: 5 Intelligence: 5 Charisma: 30 Luck: 50
Currency:
Platinum: 0 Gold: 2 Silver: 77 Copper: 90
Skills: Language Comprehension (All), Haggling (Level 1), NCO's Intuition Feats: Burden of Leadership Abilities: Commanding Aura, Dreadful Aura, Commander's Mark Items: Ocsid Leather Coat, Linen Tunic, Linen Hose, Ocsid Leather Boots, Linen Cape, Baner Fawr* (Great Banner), Cooking Utensils, Mess Kit (bowl, knife, spoon)