The next day early in the morning and after having breakfast they were gathered at the front gate of the castle, where a twelve carriages were waiting for them, the horses in carrying them were very strange as well, the most important reason being that they had nor eyes nor ears and only a mouth with which they produced horse like noises.
"Everyone get on the carriages, today you will be having your first experience in killing monsters"
The one Speaking was the rat face Brigs, whom was held responsible for the provisions and them getting on their carriages.
The inside of the carriages was rather cozy and luxurious. From that they could see that the king held them in high regards.
Ten carriages were prepared for the Heroes and two for the adventurers, of course carriage meant for the adventurers was nothing like theirs but they couldn't have known that, after all the outside of all the carriages looked the same.
As they passed through the bussy avenue they could see a City full of life, it took half an hour for them to exit the city and each person they passed would bow towards their carriages as if the king himself was riding them.
Outside they could see wide green plains and a blue sky, it took the coach 2 full hours to reach their destination a small fortress in some god forseken place, even the ground was rocky and rough here.
"Wellcome to Isbela fortress, the first fort build on monster breeding grounds, also known as the first outpost of Nivava"
The one speaking was an old man, whom looked like a war veteran with the scar on his face.
"Thank you fort commander, but your help won't be needed, we will only be staying for a little time here and then return back to the capital, prepare a small escort group to seal a safe perimeter for a noble hunt"
The one speaking was the Coachman of the first Carriage, for some reason he was very arrogant, making the students rather surprised.
"Everyone can get off now, the hunt will begin in an hour so please use your time to eat something and rest as your equipment is being prepared"
The coachman said and everyone begun descending the carriages, filling the fort's courtyard like ants.
The fortress was rather small and made entirely of wood, it was like those forts seen in old western movies set to protect them from the indians, even the road they had taken was made of dirt and not stone or gravel.
"What monsters do you think they will make us kill?"
Nicko asked Christopher as they gathered together.
"Lil Slimes"
Christopher answered apatheticaly.
"I hope it's not goblins, you know the little green things"
Nicko said, seemingly not caring about Christopher's answer.
"Of course they will be goblins, goblins are the weakest monster in many games, after that we will probably be fighting orks or trolls"
Kris said rather enthousiastic about it.
"You do understand that in many games slimes are the weakest monster available to kill?"
Alexi said, making it seem as if was his own original idea and thus they went on talking about games.
Christopher didn't really care, he didn't like to talk without a valid enough reason to speak and even when he talked his voice was rather low tone and many a times was he said to speak louder or repeat what he had just said.
While the others were speaking about monsters he was revising the spells from the basic spellbook he was given,
not that he could use them of course.
"Now that everyone has rested, please each group take their own backpacks, we have prepared one for each of you"
At the Coachman's words, the groups once more gathered together dividing the four friend once again, of course it didn't really matter to them since they would at some point return to their own world where they will be able to talk as much as they like to.
"Christopher, can you carry my backpack for me?"
Alexxa suddenly asked him and of course he accepted, the next however thing made him feel somewhat stupid, as he was now carrying four bags on his back.
One being his own and three being Alexxa's and her friends, Well with Christopher's physique it wasn't really a large huddle, but it still felt a little bothersome.
Among the four groups, the four friends suddenly found themselves being the bag carriers of their respective groups.
Of course some people were too prideful or simply didn't feel right to leave their own burdens to others.
The adventurers were a group of eight people, six men and two women, they looked at the students with puzzlement and they could easily tell that they weren't nobles nor royalty.
The leader of the Adventurer was Mr.White an elderly healer, whom used his staff to walk around.
The others would listen to him unconditionaly since he was old and wise, he had lived through many perilous situation, but most importantly his rank in the adventurer guild was higher than theirs.
"Noble ones, if you are ready we should head towards the valley now, please leave everything to our humble hands"
The old man said while trying to bend his back to bow to them, the other adventurers followed his example.
The students were left speechless having an old man whom could have been their grandfather trying to bow to them, in truth they didn't even know how to answer.
"Please stop, your painful expression will ruin their mood for hunting"
The coachman said arrogantly, making the old man panic a little and immidetely dispelling the strange atmosphere.
"I will be going with you just to keep appearances, for this hunt you are registered as children of nobility so please act accordingly, as for those carrying the bags, just say they are lower nobility if they dare ask you"
The coachman said to the four group leaders, of course the ones carrying the bags were Christopher and his friends.
Of course asking about why Christopher was carrying the bags was easy to answer, because of Alexxa, even the adventurers could see that his eyes were most of the time glued on her face.
The journey out of the fortress was short, they simply walked for five minutes and they were already at a rocky valley, they could see colorful balls bouncing around happily.
"This is the Valley of the slimes, a level 1 habitat, where junior adventurers and rookie soldiers can come to hunt monsters, but for today this is our first stop, Lui please trap slimes that our noble masters want to kill"
White commanded to a member of their group, while waiting for the Students to chose which slimes they wanted to kill.
"Is there a reason why I cannot seem to understand Slime language?"
Mike asked out of confusion, he thought that monster language was something universal, thus why was it that he couldn't understand what the slimes were saying.
"Young master, you probably weren't told but low level monsters cannot speak, only high level monsters have the ability to speak or high rank monsters of any level, but talking to them is the same as, food talking or an ant trying to talking to human"
White said while trying to act as humbly as he could.
"What does he mean by hunt?"
Mina asked the coachman in order not to blow their cover, not really however understanding why the cover was needed in the first place.
"A noble hunt is simply a group of young nobles killing monsters for the experience points, the monsters will be trapped and defenseless, all you will need to do is hit it until it dies"
The coachman's words made both Mina and those hearing the explanation feel somewhat bad for the monsters and begun goshiping amongst themselves.
Clap! Clap!
"Everyone please focus, each select ten slimes for starter, or if you don't have any preferenses to colors I could command our escorts to gather one slime for each"
"I want the Pink one!"
The one speaking was Giota, the pretty brunette birdbrain from Mina's group.
Before she could even react however a small cute gelly looking slime with a beautiful pearl floating inside was brought towards her.
Even an idiot could tell that the creature was trembling from fear.
"All you need do is destroy its core"
The coachman said seeing that she was shivering and unwilling to kill the slime.
"Don't be merciful to them, these critters are the cause of much misfortune, slimes are the reason why this valley that used to be green is now a barren wasteland, the slimes' membrane dissolves anything that they touch even the dirt under our feet, in a few years this valley will become a lake if these slimes are not regularly killed, not to speak what they do to humans they think they can devour, In my life I have seen lost more comrades than the fingers on my hands to these accursed things"
White said and they could feel his anger through his words, it was probably the truth, but he had found the wrong person to try and encourage.
Giota was simply a complete coward, she wouldn't hurt even a fly and would simply freeze when faced with a monster even if they somehow raised her stats a hundred of times what they are now, it was simply her personality.
"Nobles"
Another adventurer said with disdaint, in truth the noble hunt happened exactly for this reason, there were hundereds of nobles whom have lived a life in a golden cage, thus their parents arange for them a noble hunt, without even telling the children what a noble hand is, thus it wouldn't be strange even if Mina had asked White the same question.
It was sudden but a wooden mace simply smashed the pink slime into mush.
"Don't be afraid, I will protect you"
Theo the huge bully said, while taking her into his hands.
Giota was both moved but at the same time disgusted by him, especialy since some of the mush had dirtied her clothes, but she stayed in his arms in order to stay safe.
"Now that we have made a start please begin bringing in random slimes, unless you want to stay here till nightfall"
The coachman commanded the adventurers, making them somewhat worried for some reason.
Of course not everyone had a problem with killing slimes, yup they looked sort of alive, but there was no blood or anything , it was more like popping up baloons than killing monsters.
Christopher did so mechanicaly each time they brought him a slime, not really caring about taking a life, truth was if he wasn't Christian he would have probably killed many of those bullies long ago or at least crippled them for life, in Christopher's mind Martial arts were from the start supposed to kill their victims, if it was not lethal it was probably useless to begin with, just imagine a person like that trying to live in today's society, suppressing his urges to kill those weaker than himself, a tiny venomous snake that could at any time bite a person to death.
In general Christopher had nerves of steel and patience was his main virtue, he could wait for hours in one spot simply because he was set up and not really mind it later on.
Forgiveness is the foundation of Christianity and unless you find a way to awaken the beast inside him, he will simply stay silent and take on whatever you say about him.
In greece there's a saying.
"Fear the calm rivers"
These people whom seem calm on the outside and safe to bully and take advantage of, because if they snap then you will be sorry, in other worlds unpredictable.
"Master White, to which noble house do you think that young master is?"
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
An adventurer asked old man White out of interest, the man he asked about was Christopher as for the reason, it was because he killed slimes with his bare hands and feet as if they were cockroaches, his face being void as if he was thinking about something and his eyes sleepy. Dark brown clumpsily combed short hair and a pair of glasses that made his seem weak and a pushover.
"You should take care to not ask questions, the less you know the more you will live"
White said rather angrily and the Coachman nodded in agreement to his words, of course the old man nodded back in appreciation.
It took them a few hours and the reason being the people whom didn't want to kill even a single slime, but they were forced by their group members. In the end even Giota was forced to kill ten slimes.
"Today's quota has been met and we still have time to return"
The coachman said rather satisfied as he handed a small metalic object to White, whom seemed to be happy about it he even tried to kiss the coachman's hand, if he was younger he would have tried to kiss his boots no doubt about it.
The return trip found the students not as enthusiastic as they were before the hunt. Most of them will probably be seeing nightmares this night of how they massacred defenseless and harmless slimes.
The silent return trip made the four leaders' hearts heavy, they sat in the same carriage, but truth was that their minds were not there at the moment.
They were supposed to lead their group to slay a monster hundreds of not thousands of times stronger than the slimes they had defeated today.
In todays hunt they understood their own teams true worth.
In the first team only three people were of some worth in battle, them being the leader of the group Chris, the blacksmith Stelio and lastly Georgia, a rather sporty tomboish girl whom was average in height with short hair and lacked femininity.
The second group was even more miserable since their group only had two whom could handle killing monsters as if it was nothing, they were Theodor, stella's boyfriend from the same group and Alexander whom was the class' jester, you can understand why their leader Nick was so disatisfied with both his group and himself.
The third group was probably the strongest since five out of ten, the five boys of the group were doing a rather good job, but seeing as only half of the team was useful their leader was trying to come with some idea to boost their power, after all the group had six boys not five.
The fourth group were true to their name, only four out of ten were of some use and they were four out of the five boys in their group.
Of course what I mean useful is the rate at which they killed monsters, those that weren't useful had only killed ten slimes and refused to kill more than needed or simply being too slow to kill ten slimes, but thinking about it now, it made their minds gloomy.
After arriving back to the Castle, it was already dusk outside and the sun was close to disappearing in the horizon.
The students however weren't given time to rejoice, they were summoned to the gathering spot where the Archmage and their teacher waited for them, while having a rather hot debate.
"I will never allow my students to go missing while I return, how on earth will I explain this to their parents!"
Mr.Gold shouted at him.
"Don't be so dramatic, as if they would ever believe you in your own world if you said that you went to another world in the few minutes that the light flashed, do you even have the right to explain anything in the first place, unless of course you want to end in an asylum like you yourself said"
The Archmage's words were like slaping him with his own hand.
"Oh I see that the young heroes are here, your teacher Sage Gold and I have been having a dispute about race evolutions, you see there are spells that can change your physical appearnces and physique, for exaple you could become and elf gaining the innate ability of farsight, night vision and immunity to aging, another posibility is becoming an Orc, of course you don't have to become a full ork, just a quarter is enough to boost your strength and give you a raised healing factor"
The Archmage's words were enticing for some, but others found it not worth it since they wouldn't really gain much.
"You didn't however tell them them most important part, those that will undergo the evolution process will never be able to return home, in the historical texts that I found there were mentions of heroes whom were unable to return due to multiple reasons, one of which is the evolution curse"
Mr.Gold said making the students angry with the Archmage for hiding such an important fact.
"I wasn't going to hide it, I was just about to say the downsides when you interupted me, first of all the thing about not being able to return is not true since if you had read the third epic, you will discover that in the end he did return, of course it took him five years to undo the curse of evolution, but the dispelling curse is now widely known, second if you undergo the Evolution curse you will have to be deported to the Country of the race you have decided to evolve into, of course the country will not threat you any worse than Nivava did, third thing is that there are fourteen entrances to the Dungeon Pillar world, one for each country and one that is considered a taboo existense"
The final disadvantage they didn't exactly understand it yet, but they would in the future anyway.
"Well I didn't exactly invite you all here to speak about the evolution curse anyways, so please sit down and eat something first while I will explain the reason"
The Archmage said, while looking with disdain at the teacher. After all being half learned is worse than knowing nothing at all.
"Tonight when you fall asleap you will experience your first level up experience, you will find yourself in a dark void where you will be able to see yourself and your stats and skills as well as alocate them, you cannot exit that place unless you have used all your skill and stat points as for the question our young friend asked the Instructor, if someone has no skill to level up, then the system will create one for you, of course it will be based on your class, many people's first skill is created while they are small todlers occupying one of their precious skill slots even now"
His words were like daggers flying at Christopher, whom however didn't give a shit about it, he had even forgotten that she had told him to stay after the training to talk and left with the others to his own room.
"But lets go to the main point, what should you use your skillpoint and stat points for, I will now impart you with ages of wisdom passed down from our ancestors, in general each of you will be given a sheet of paper with the stats you should use till you reach level 10,100 and 200, after that it's not really important whatever you choose since we don't have skills that require you to reach higher than level 200"
The archmage said while passing out some lettersized papers, that only had the three stats, eight skills and their levels and lastly a preferable evolution race.
Christopher took a look at his own and then he begun sensing that the archmage had some grudge against him.
Mage
Levels 10/100/200
Physique 2/10/10
Mentality 3/20/30
Magicality 4/70/160
Quick Chanting lvl 1/20/20
Memorization lvl 10/50/50
Magic Vocation level 1/14/15
Element magic level 1/10/100
Scroll making level 1/10/10
Magic requiem level 0/1/10
Chosen spell level 0/0/1
Chosen spell level 0/0/1
Evolution Race "Elf"
Of course he whom didn't have the memorization spell, it was as if he was telling him do whatever you like I don't care, in truth however Christopher wouldn't chose that balance to begin with, he had already decided on spliting his point in a 4/2/4 fashion between the three stats, as for skills he will simply advance his sneaking skill until he himself is unable to hear his own footsteps and then go for toughness.
In truth even in the real world he hated when he heard the sound of his own footsteps, it was simply irritating and it was not surprising that he had tried some ways to make his footsteps lighter, after all he liked silence and calmness, at least it was so until he fell in love and the calm waters of his life begun to flow in a disorderly fashion.
"Can't we select our own skills or at least give us some variety here, I know that you might have battle tested results but we are not from your world, if you try to give the same skills to those that can fight and those that cannot, what do you think will be the result, you think that they will fight just because you gave them the exact skills, what we need is skills that reflect their individual talents, for example Me and Alexxa can sing well, but I don't see any bard skills and my prother tells me that there are games where singing can be used to fight"
Mina said since she was one of those useless people, Nick also agreed, after all it was stupid to begin with to threat everyone as equals, some are more talented at fighting others however could become valuable support characters for the team.
"I'm against it as well, it's simply pointless threating everyone equaly, the fault lies with the groups themselves, my opinion is that we should have only one team to begin with and everyone else can just stay behind and wait in safety for our successful return or give us support in the form of some powers like the blacksmish, the healing water and other stuff that can be carried along by the group"
The one speaking was John the Ace of the soccer team and the leader of the strongest team.
The archmage had a headache at the moment, everything was going just as planned just moments ago and now the heavens turned upside down. If they implemented what they said and the king agreed, his own private plans would be ruined.
"Before deciding, I want to state a different solution, how about you change Groups and decide later, after all maybe you will discover that without supporting members it will be harder instead of easier, so how about we implement that after the next hunt which will be in three days time"
The archmage said, making the leaders of the group agree for now and the Archmage sigh in relief.
Of course that action didn't go completely unoticed, their teacher Mr.Gold was already suspecting that something wasn't right with the archmage, but he couldn't say what exactly he was plotting.
Of course after the meeting, the students didn't disband, they went to their own gathering spots for another more private meeting.
"Tomorrow a new group will be formed which will be called the Elite team, I will now ask which of you will apply for the group and which will stay in this group, which by the way might get disbanded in the future"
Mina said, but they could feel a sense of unwillingness to disband the group and let the others do all the work, in the first place she knew that she had no chance to enter the elite group after today's hunt, but she would hate herself if she stayed in safety and left the other do all the dirty work, it was simply how she was.
"I will go to the Elite group"
"Me too"
"I want to quit the group altogether"
In the end only five people remained behind, them being Mina, Alexxa, Anna, Dina and Christopher. It was a strange group but mostly because Alexxa and her friends stayed to support Mina and Christopher stayed because of Alexxa, if she left like Giota, then he would probably also have left, in truth he had no interest whatsoever in undertaking a quest to kill a monster or person, it was too bothersome and time consuming, he prefered to simply try and learn more things about Alexxa, whom was the only interest in his life.
"Are you not going to the elite group?"
Mina asked Christopher somewhat surprised, after all he would be a great addition to the elite group, even her brother would go and try entering the elite group with the intent of protecting her from harm, in her mind at the moment she felt as if what she had just done had undermined the elite team's effort, but even a blind could see that Christopher had eyes only for Alexxa.
"And if I stayed in the Castle?"
Alexxa asked while giving a mocking smile.
"Then I will stay as well"
Christopher answered sincerely causing Mina to get a serious headache, understanding that she was undermining nothing, the guy was simply too egoistic to understand what common good meant.
"You do know that if we don't return you won't see your loved ones again, we might even never return if we don't all do our best!"
Mina said, meaning that he should go for the elite team, but there was no response from Christopher as if she didn't even exist.
"Then what If I asked you to join the elite team?"
Alexxa said with a smile.
"Then I will probably join them, if they will want me after all they already have their own gangs and at most I will be charged with carrying bags or simply left outside of the group to fend for myself"
His words gave a stab to the naive girls whom thought that the elite team would look at a persons strength for selecting members but they had forgotten that they were people and friendship went first, thus before giving advantages to strangers the elite team would most probably be composed of friends or people whom went along well, Christopher was not amongst those people to begin with, first of all he was antisocial and secondly he was even disliked by some.
He might even become a buggage carrier if he enters the elite team, thus making it sort of pointlessly wasting his strength.
"Then we will make our own elite team, but you are still carrying our bags"
Alexxa said, giving a rather crude but not impossible idea.
In the darkness of the night Christopher found himself in a dark space, he could see himself right in front of himself as if he was in front of a mirror.
The window with his stats appeared once more.
Name Christopher
Class Heroic Mage
Race Human
Title None
Level 2
Physique 9
Mentality 5.8
Magicality 17.6
Cheat Power Blinking Soul
Cheat Lvlup1 teleport small object
Skill 1 Sneak lvl 1
Skill 2 Toughness lvl 1
Skill 3 None
Skill 4 None
Skill 5 None
Skill 6 None
Skill 7 None
Skill 8 None
Stat Points 1
Skill Points 1
Blinking Soul
The ability to teleport around in a blink of an eye.
Level 1 Power
Small object teleportation, select an object in your mind and set a position for it to teleport, Can also be a place you cannot see.
Success rate 17.6%
250cm^3 max Object properties.
As he thought Magicality and the skill were interlinked after all, it was strange how he had seen others using their skills without problem that day, if their magicality was as low as his then their skills should also have a low success rate, but how comes they could use it easily, could it be that only his skill needed a certain number of stats to be successful all of the time, well should be like that, after all he hadn't talked with others about their skills yet.
After deciding on Physique and sneak he was expelled from the dream and fell asleep, others also experienced the same sensation.