Christopher's group easily reached the borders of the Munnero Country, it was somewhat tiring since there were very few villages in the area.
The surface of Munnero country was overun by bandits and exiles, since the dwarves prefered the underground.
The few villages they passed through were either the bases of some large bandit groups or forts built by exiles whom wanted to be independent, meaning there were no nobles in this land or laws.
The captives they had just rescued were also a pain in the ass, instead of returning to whatever village they were from they decided to follow after their caravan offering to become servants or slaves for a piece of bread.
Of course the adventurers grabbed the chance to gain some sex slaves or for Ocland's situation more people for his future gang.
There was only one place that could be called a surface City in Monnero, of course was their destination.
It was the Bandit king's "city of Jack" or also known as "Jackcity", yup he named it after his own name and non of his descendants changed it as all of them became bandit kings after his death.
The specialty of Jackcity was the bandit class which people could take up if they wanted to live in the city.
There were even rumors that Jack was a summoned hero groomed by the dwarves, whom decided to make his own independent country, but failed miserably because of his lack in management and politics, thus he did what he knew best, loot and kill.
Christopher didn't exactly care about the gazes from bandits at their caravan, they had already made plans on what to do anyway.
The caravan approached the Dwarven bank and unloaded the sacks of undead dust, corpses of beast and some loot from the local bandits whom had the stupid idea to try their luck.
Of course this was as far as the Adventurers were paid to go, further to the west were the Orkish lands, to the southwest the Ogre Greddar and to the south the Goblin Klan.
Christopher looked around the stores for some time, anyone whom tried to approach him found to their surprise that the ground bellow them turned into a pitfall and dirt begun falling from above as if trying to burry them underground alive.
Christopher could detect all the hostile people and thieves were in a way towards him hostile people.
"Master I think we should leave shortly, the caravan is getting restless, I've already sent one of the bodyguards to hire new adventurers whom are willing to travel to Greddar"
Tris said as she looked at Christopher whom was still carelessly browsing the goods in the black market.
"What is that tent?"
Christopher asked as he saw a circus tent not too far from them.
"That's a slave trader's or beast master's tent, since they don't like to show off their merchandise in public they prefer to set up large tents and wait for their costumers to come inside, mostly beast tamers"
She said as she looked with disdain in her eyes at the big tent.
"Is it dangerous to have a look?"
Christopher asked somewhat timidly, after all he didn't want to risk getting himself in danger just to see other races, after all there should be other races as well among the slaves, even better if it was a monster tamer's tent then he could see some rare beasts.
"Don't even think about it, this is Jackcity, they will simply try to abduct you the moment you enter without bodyguards"
She said as she pulled him away from the tent and towards the caravan.
"Why is there so much noice in our caravan?"
Christopher asked as he could detect hostile people near their caravan some even hiding inside their carriage.
"They must be the adventurers we hired"
Tris said without suspecting a thing.
"Will there be a problem if they all die inside this town?"
Christopher asked.
"Why the fuck would you want to..."
She at first wanted to reproach him, but then remembered that he had dozens of detection rings, one of which could even detect hostility towards him.
"Do your Worst!"
She said.
Christopher whom didn't really care about her opinion in the first place had already begun slaughtering them, beginning with the ones hiding inside the carriage and next with the ones on the street every single person whom was next to the caravan and had hostile thoughts towards him was mercilessly killed, without a hint of a wound as their hearts now littered the steet, even one of the coachmen and his lizard weren't spared, leaving alive only the people whom weren't hostile towards him.
"I will say it only once, if any of your dares to have hostile thoughts towards me or my woman, you will join the idiots whose bodies now decorate this street"
His voice tone was low, but in the now silent steet there was no one who hadn't heard him.
It was rather disappointing that one of the people hostile towards him was a coachman, but he had to make an example lest the others decided to act like the other one in the future.
Funny fact was that Christopher slept only once, and that was before entering this city, in their travel he had monopolized most of the kills, making his level explode out of proportions, after all we are talking about months of travels his level had no already exceeded level 100 by 3 levels, something that would have been impossible if he wasn't so meticulous in killing even the fleeing monsters and bandits, even more so he put all stat points into magicality, thus making his teleportation affect even the strongest of common mages, unless of course they are a dwarf or a high elf or some other magic resistant race.
"I knew that idiot Ocland would die miserably, I don't even understand why he didn't listen to my advice"
Bertha said as she looked at all the dead people out of her inn's window, she had no reason to go to Greddar thus she decided to remain in town for a while as a guest of the Adventurer's guild.
The chitchatty couple also looked out of their window wondering why the mage/boss had decided to kill all those people, one was even the coachman of his own carriage.
Of course he couldn't have known Ocland's plan to make the driver lead the carriage away so that they could later divide the loot from the monsters they had slain, in truth with Christopher's power they had made a rather large haul whom knew how much they would have made this time.
But Christopher saw their greed as hostility due to his ring, of course there were two people whom genuinely wanted to kill him in his own carriage, the two new bodyguards whom had no idea about his power, but their stupidity cost the lives of 59 "partly" innocent somewhat greedy people.
"I think we should buy some slaves, at least they won't try to backstab us"
Christopher said still thinking on going to the large Circus tent.
Tris although she had expected this outcome was somewhat shocked with how easily Christopher discarded human lives, all because of his blind faith in the hostility detecting ring.
--------------------------------------
Winoria, the country of birdmen or more like humanoid birds.
It was a rather strange country composed of cliffy cannyons and vast plains. The People of Winoria lived in nomadic tribes, they liked to gather in same species birdmen and travel between the few large Cities that existed, the Capital Winna was where most of the nobles lived.
In Winoria Nobles held the top position, they could act however they liked and no one would try offending a noble, even if they were a pathetic weakling, of course there were reasons for that, that I'll explain at another time.
The second most respected place of authority are warriors, of course I don't mean the class warrior, I mean individuals whom can fight and hunt by themselves.
Latly there are the commoners whom are the possession of the Royalty and have no real control over their own lives.
Of course the three girls that were invited to Winoria were meant to be nobility, if they of course decided to undergo full evolution, otherwise they could at most become warriors.
When they fist arrived they were told to evolve completely into birdwomen, if they wanted to have a good time in Winoria by the beautiful angel like figure whom brought them there.
Of course their main reason for joining Winoria was the ability of flight. None of the three however decided to evolve fully into avians, especialy after seeing one.
Birdmen look like humanoid birds with four legs instead of two, two being used as legs and two as arms, they however like runing on all four at times, making them look much like some wild monster, especialy due to their large bird heads.
In the evolution window there was one thing that they had to decide on, what type of bird they wanted their feathers to take from.
Areti decided on the Steelwing bird, Marilena on an Owl-like bird and Mary on the Firebird that looked like a red peacock.
Of course all three of them decided on Having Wings, the siren's voice and the Avian Spirit traits. Those three could be called "must have" abilities to be able to survive, as for the rest of the traits they depended on their own preferences.
Areti looked like an short petite Angel with terrifying steel wings behind her back, she could easily use them to defend herself as if having a natural shield all of the time and strangely she could still fly, of course her speed of flight would be slower than others, but her diving speed was faster.
They could also see three bladelike feathers protruding from her wings. looking realy dangerous, these were her noble feathers, which could be used as currency between birdmen.
Marilena looked rather funny, she of course had wings like those of an Owl, they had a rather large wing span and went from grey to white with black spots to decorate them.
She also hid a not so small bird tail behind her back, when the other girls asked her why she decided on a tail she explained that birds used their tails to control their flight better.
Of course her blue Owl eyes were of no importance in difference to the multiple alternation she had done to herself, even her chest was full of feathers, covering her not so rich bossom.
She had 15 noble feathers, they were pure black in color and grew all over her body, eight on her wings, four on her tail and three on her chest.
Of course Marilena was rather interested in the birdmen's ways of doing things, thus she decided to select the Avian pride trait, which would in turn change her own personality to make her better fit into the birdmen society.
Of course the first thing she felt was fear towards her two friends, since they were both higher level than herself at the moment, she nearly crapped herself and had a strange desire to run away or prostrate herself before them.
Mary seemed like a red winged angel, her beautiful crimson wings mounted on her and two long peacock feathers could be seen at the end of her wings.
Of course if she had a tail, then she might have had more, but she only had two such feathers, the freakish however thing was that her eyes had turned strange as the white of her eyes had become redish and the Iris pitch black, she too had selected the bird eyes, but her Avian pride gave her a strange desire to dominate over Marilena whom was weaker than herself.
The Noble whom came to take them was somewhat disappointed with their choice to not fully become birdmen, but he didn't care much on second thought quickly regaining his senses.
"Now lets go to See his highness"
He said and smiled while seeing two of the three simingly afraid of him, of course Areti whom hadn't selected the Avian pride didn't understand why they were so afraid.
"First of all you should know some basic ettique, when you see his highness do as I show you now"
The noble birdman before them made a piruette on one leg, while having one wing stretched upwards and the other covering his chest.
"Now try it a few times before we enter"
He said and oversaw them clumpsily trying to do the move.
Only Mary whom had done ballet before quickly caught on the move, the other two clumpsily tried to replicate the move a few times until the noble stopped them saying the their last attemp was passable.
Of couse following the noble to the palace was a hard thing since they for the first time were forced to fly.
The two whom had no tail to balance them had some difficulty but Marilena was like a fish in the water, flying around as she tried out different moves.
"The two of your should try to simply flap your wings, faster and faster, to go higher and then spread them to glide towards our destination"
The noble said as he guided them step by step on how to fly.
Of course the one whom had the hardest time was Areti, whom had wings of steel, she was so exhausted that the noble was forced to ask for help to fly her up the palace.
The Palace was A huge cave, a large Hole with dry wooden sticks all over the place, countless feathers and items hiden in the sticks.
The three of them with their human feet, even with their shoes on had a rather hard time trying to follow behind the noble Bellbird like birdman.
There were multiple birdmen sleeping in some smaller circular bird nests located all over the place.
"Now do the dance!"
The Noble said to them as he did the elegant piruette.
The three behind him did their best to follow, but with all the sticks around Areti with her heavy steel wings fell down scrapping her skin.
A wild laugher could be heard from a seeminly male Pigeon-man.
"Be at ease, Sebastian please heal the wounded little hero"
The large fat Pigeon man whom sat in a bird nest next to two visibly females said.
"A pity"
He said after the Bellbird sebastian healed Areti.
"If any of you had decided to evolve fully, I would have simply given you some territory to rule, but seeing as you did not, it can only mean that you have decided on facing the Demon king and returning to your own world, you know I used to be like you, when I was first summoned, I can't remember much from that time, well the Avian birdmen do live for a rather long time, I remember that we were seven heroes whom went on a quest to return to our own world, of coure now only me remains"
The Pigeon man said as he looked at them with his Yellow black bird eyes.
"Do you believe that all seven of use decided at the time to stay in this land of Winoria, of course the others decided on powerful birds, like the firebird, the steelwing and other formidable bird species, but in the end they simply died in the dungeon, I then with my Rock pigeon species went and worked my ass off to earn enough to go to Ecclesia and revive them, do you know what they did afterwards, they simply stayed in Ecclesia and lived there until they died of old age"
The Pigeon man said while smiling.
"Of course you are probably asking how comes I lived longer than them, well it's a great difference being a Royalty and a simple priest I have access to hundreds of methods, to prolong my life, while they could only work hard to earn some pathetic blessings"
He said with hatred in his voice, he was really angry with them for leaving him alone in Winoria, of course he wouldn't just leave Winoria like they did, he had struggled and rose in power.
"Now let me give you your titles, of course if you have some preferences I'm all ears"
He said as he looked at the three pretty angel like figures in front of him, if he was still the youth he was once, he would have probably been all over them, but now they were just a mundane affair of his long life, no better than the two birdwomen next sleeping under his wings.
"I want to be Phoenix"
Mary said as she found the courage to speak.
"Alright from today one your title will be the Dancing Phoenix, only don't use your title ability when in the city, since everything here is rather flamable, simply wait to reach the dungeon pillar, unless of course you have decided on staying in this world"
The Dove-man said while giving a somewhat creepy laugh and then started staring at the other two.
"I don't know, but something that could get rid of this sense of fear would be good"
Marilena said while trembling.
"Oh, well I do have something, but you will not like it, thus please reconsider, the fear will probably go away as you grow stronger"
He said, while looking at Areti whom was the only whom hadn't selected the Avian pride, he didn't know if that was bad or good, but he understood that she would have problems in her future interactions with the birdmen, since she lacked their most basic instincts.
It's widely known that a bird would abandon its nest if a dangerous predator approached it, it's a survival instinct, even if the nest was full of eggs or even had newborns, but that's how they survive, since most other races will wind it tricky to follow after them. You could tell that the Avian pride is a survival instinct that most wild beasts have, it's like how a person will act differently when seeing a cop on the street even if he hasn't done anything wrong, beacause they are afraid of him as much as they afraid of a robber.
"Now lets talk a little, why did you select the Nighowl?"
He first asked Marilena, since her problem wasn't so great to begin with.
"In our country the owl is a national symbol of intellect and knowledge"
She said, without a thought as if she was forced to speak by some greater force.
"Then you will be the Wise Night-Owl"
He said and then turned to look at the Steelwinged Areti.
"I wanted to be strong and metal is stronger than flesh"
Areti said as she tried to explain her train of thought, of course she had also looked at the Visual it gave to her wings, but she wouldn't say that.
"What's your name?"
The pidgeon man asked her while sighing in disappointment.
"Areti and this is Marilena and Mary"
She said introducing the others as well.
"Well truth be told I don't want to help someone whom is so stupid as to not even select the Avian pride, which is one of the top survival skills here in winoria, in truth if you want I can send you right now to some other nearby Country, but you will still owe me a rather substatial debt due to taking the evolution, you probably weren't told, but the evolution ritual is so fucking expensinve that many countries are still internaly debating whether to stop using it, of course it's a good way to find whom would be willing to stay and whom not, since those that cling to their humanity like yourselves will most likely do anything in your power to return, am I right?"
His the black dots in his yellow eyes were silently inspecting them as he suddenly became silent.
The three girls weren't sure how to react, in truth all they wanted to do was support the true heroes, but now they were pushed into becoming heroines themselves.
Of course the most shocked one was Areti, since she was offered to leave the country, which in a way wasn't such a bad choice, since even the palace is a junkyard of wooden sticks, but the debt on her back would be substential problem, she feared that no country would accept her with a debt and since she wasn't really an idiot she understood that him driving her out of his own country would make other countries reluctant to take her in, after all in her knowledge all heroes were being carefully trained to fight the demon king.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Her best friend Marilena looked at her rather nervously, the fear that was there because of her difference in stats now was replaced with a few caused by the idea that her best friend would decide to leave her there.
"I will not leave"
Areti said determined as she looked at Marilena.
"Well it's a noble choice, in truth I was just testing you, to see if you would leave your friends behind, like those despicable fellows back in my time, if you had said so, I would have instantly killed you"
The Pigeon-man said making the atmosphere turn 10degrees colder.
"Well now there are two ways to fix your lack of common sense, one is my fucking your brains out, thus making you a royalty and the second is you getting naked right here and now"
He said coldly and apatheticaly as if it wasn't something strange to ask a girl to strip in front of a male.
"Do you want to die or stay alive?"
He asked once more, seeing that she was still reluctant, in truth if he had ordered Marilena or Mary, they would have already done so due to their Avian pride trait.
Areti was crying tears as she was taking off her clothes.
"Now which do you decide Royalty or Nobility"
She was asked by the now irritated pigeon-man.
"Nobility"
She said rather reluctantly while glaring at him with anger, after all she had no wish of being raped by the beast in front of her.
"Then you are now a naked noble, as long as you don't wear your clothes in Winoria you will be considered a noble"
He said as he shooed them away.
The noble Bellbird did another Piruette as he escorted them outside, Areti was stopped from wearing her clothes again and had to walk butt naked, she used her wings to cover her private parts as she was escoted down from the Cliff to another Cave, of course Areti couldn't understand the difference from before, but Mary could feel a strange oppression now comming out from Areti's body as if she was now stronger than herself or something.
"Well now lets go to get you to the power bestowal Temple"
The Noble bellbird said, but Areti was too embarassed to even open her wings.
"I will help you keep up"
Marilena said as she hugged Areti's naked waist and begun to slowly ascend, they were slow, but they still did better than Mary whom lacked a tail.
The Noble bird guided them to a strange rock pillar on the base of which they could see a small crevice seemingly being the entrance, there were also dozens of smaller holes that probably worked as windows.
"Lets head inside"
The noble bird said as he entered the dark crevice, there were no lights inside and only the two who had Bird eyes could perceive what was inside, Areti was simply being dragged by Marilena, feeling rather thankful to her. Of course she didn't know that her current actions were mostly motivated by Avian pride than her own will, even Mary had felt a strange need to help Areti, but since she was slower than Marilena she gave up on it.
"Ah, I see two noble ones have decided to pay a visit to our humble temple, what might your needs be?"
A female turkey-headed birdwoman asked, seemingly the priestess of the temple.
"The three of them are the new heroes whom have come for their Power bestowal"
The noble bird said with pride and arrogance.
"As the noble ones wish, there are 194 powers as to this moment awaiting for an inheritor, let's see steelwing there are two powers available, one of the warrior rank and one of the noble, will you be taking both?"
The priestess asked in a dignified voice.
"Both!?"
Areti said rather somewhat unsure whether she was allowed to do that, but seeing the noble bird nod in satisfaction she probably was allowed to do so.
The priestess brought over two strange orbs of light and pleaded her to take her wings away from her chest, she then shoved the two light balls right into her chest, as if they weren't of some tangible material to begin with.
Unknown to her she had just gained three new skills, that were compatible with her steelwing traits.
Steel feather throw
Can throw a feather by moving your wing, the feather whirl in the air as it stabs at your target.
Steel wing cut
uses you noble wing to slash your oponent.
Sonic flight
A passive skill that raises your flying speed depending on the skill's level.
Of course all three were level 1, but she could just level them up in the future.
"How appropriate of a noble finished assimilating the memories so fast, I hope that we will be seeing the noble lady some more in the future, now for the two warrior ladies, a nighowl and a firebird, well we do have a single power fo warrior nighowls and three for firebirds warriors"
She said as she left and brought an orb for Marilena.
"I gained three skills, Marilena said happily"
But to her hapiness the priestess looked at her and said something to herself.
"What a waste"
This of course made Areti furius, while Marilena felt a strange disapointment in herself.
Of course she didn't know that each ball had 10 skills inside and gaining 5/10 was a rather common occurance among birdmen, of course nobles were special individuals.
Fearful glare
Causes your prey to feal fear.
Dark feather
Causes temporary blindness on the victim whom touches your noble feather.
Nigh Shadow flight
Become invisible when flying, active only at night, is passively activated.
"Now your warrior there are three powers, you can decided one of the three"
The priestess said making Mary rather disatisfied.
"Why could she select both of hers, while I can only select one?"
Mary asked in irritation.
"You're comparing yourself with a noble, you're just a weak warrior"
The priestess said, but to her words she suddenly felt a cold glare and fear overtook her, the glare was Marilena's but the fear she felt was by the noble, whom wasn't very satisfied with her, she had to know her place better than to discriminate against a noble one's friends.
Of course the birdbrain priestess didn't catch his drift, she couldn't understand what she had done wrongly.
Clap! Clap!
The noble Bellbird clapped with its wings as two priests came over to take her away, she was still asking and pleading as she was being taken away.
"Please excuse her rotten tongue, of course I heard what had happened, that girl is still young and has much to learn, let me first explain the three powers available, of course you might select more than two, but you should know that a single orb has already 10skills inside if you can learn even half of those you are already set for life"
A strange Tucan-faced birdman priest came over to accomodate them.
"This orb is of the Illusory firebird, it has mostly illusions and charms inside, this is the Fiery firebird, I wouldn't recomend it to anyone whom is not a full firebird, you are only a half,thus your will suffer even from the faintest of skills, lastly there is the pitiful phoenix skills, even if you learn these skills I wouldn't recomend using them"
The priest said explaining the skills inside the three orbs.
"I want the fiery and the Phoenix powers"
Mary said arrogantly.
The priest looked at the nobled whom nodded slightly with a smile, he simply liked seeing the priest's painful expression as he gave Mary the two orbs.
Mary with the Orbs filled all six of her remaining skill spots, but at the same time sparks of fire begun to ignite over her crimson wings.
Mary could feel a great pain as her wings begun to slowly burn, her feathers begun to melt as they were reduced into a black tar and her wings begun to crumble as the flames only grew stronger, the people around them could see Red skeletal wings engulfed in flames behind Mary's back, as fast as the wings were being burned to a crisp, new skin begun to emerge, prolonging her suffering.
It was impossible for Mary to keep her mind sane she begun to cry and twist around in pain, breathing fire from her mouth, that burned her lips, tongue and insides, this was the phoenix breath.
"Now the only thing we can do is wait and see if her regeneration can keep up with her degeneration, of course if she survives this she will become a real Phoenix anscending the lowly exsistence of a firebird"
The noble Bellbird said as he pulled Areti and Marilena away from the burning Mary.
Areti begun chanelling her healing light in an attempt to help her, but all she did was add more pain to the already burning Mary.
The fire had by now engulfed her hair, clothes and even begun to melt her skin together with the fabrics, giving even more suffering to her.
"Can't you heal her?"
Areti asked panicked.
"Well if your noble self desires so"
The priests whom were present begun casting their own healing spells, returning some traits of humanity to the already deforming humanoid body which was engulfed in flame.
In truth Mary had gained six abilities two of the fire bird and four from the pitiful phoenix.
The firebird's skills were rather weak and could at most be called common skills.
Fire dive
Puts your feathers on fire as you dive from above.
Fire feather
Put a noble feather on fire.
The Pitiful Phoenix's skills however were domineering, even the full firebird birdmen will turn away from this skill inheritance, this bestowal of power.
She learned 4 skills out of the ten, of course the Phoenix regeneration was probably the best of the four.
Phoenix breath is what made her burn her insides as she tried to breathe out fire with a human's organs, most suicidal.
Phoenix Glory was a rather stupid passive skill, It only raises your charm and looks, not like it will really help how you look when your whole body is on fire.
Lastly is the Initiator of this tragedy, Phoenix Pain, it gives a passive self immolation to all her feathers, of course the fire will spread to her whole body in time.
'Please let me die'
Mary wanted to say but there was no wind passing through her lungs as it was all used to fuel the flame.
If not for the healing and curing from the priests she would have long died from suffocation, she didn't even understand why she still hadn't passed out.
Time passed and more and more priests begun to tire and change places with others.
Areti was simply incredible, he didn't stop even for a second to shine her healing light onto Mary, forgetting even her own nudity and gaining lots of respect from the priests of the temple.
Of course as time passed Mary's regeneration ability rose, unfortunately so di the Phoenix pain as well, the Phoenixes' skills were simply tyranical, of course there was a good thing hidden in all this suffering , her regeneration rose twice as fast as her pain, meanining that while at this moment her regeneration was level 5, her pain was only level 3 and the differense would only increase, unless of course she would go amok again and breathe some fire.
Mary of course was in a rather delicate situation, her mind was blank as if she was drugged, being only able to see light, her bird eyes could see nothing but flames, her sense of pain had long been dulled, she even felt that she could feel nothing at the moment, dying would have been a happy thought as she couldn't even move her own limbs, she couldn't even feel them.
The others could see a sorry black coal in the form of a human inside the infernal flames, they didn't know if she was dead of alive, but they didn't care, all they waited for was for Areti to stop, the moment she gave them the command to stop, they would happily scatter the pitiful arrogant firebird's ashes to the twenty six winds.
Areti however didn't seem to care about what they thought, her heart was pure and her thoughts naive, she did her best to prolong her friend's suffering, in a pitiful attempt to save her, in those hours that passed her healing heart skill(evolution of faith skill), had reached level 5.
You have to understand that there are multiple ways to level up skills and using them for hours was one of the ways to level them up.
Without them knowing night fell outside, it was already eight o'clock and the priests were getting restless.
The fire burned and Mary was as still as a corpse, they thought long ago that they had lost her, but seeing as her regeneration was still going on, they could do nothing but curse their own lack of ability and Areti's determination.
The noble Bellbird had long left and summoned some more healers to go to the temple and help out, but he didn't return he simply went home to sleep.
Hours passed and there was no change in Mary's situation, only the flames at some point became prettier for some unknown reason.
Areti didn't stop healing even after all those hours of course that was her cheat power, normal priests and healers would have long been exhausted, but her cheatpower helped her to cast a rather weak healing light.
Of course around the morning the situation suddenly changed as Mary's Phoenix regeneration skill evolved, becoming the "Rapid Phoenix regeneration", of course it doesn't sound something great, but in combination with all the healing her body begun to steadily reforming, the burning skin and materials begun ejecting from her flesh as it reformed from the inside out.
Of course there was a greater problem with her regeneration's level up, meaning that now pain and regeneration begun rising in 1:1 ratio, meaning that without the healers she was doomed.
Marilena was felt useless since her class of "scout" and skills were useless in front of Mary's suffering and Areti's struggles to save her, all she could do was serve the priests by carrying food and drinks so that they didn't need to do so themselves, going up and down the strange pillar with food and water.
Of course if you think why not simply wrench Mary in water, that's plainly stupid, the flames that engulfed her weren't common flame, they were phoenix fire, a magic flace of incredible heat, even at its first evolution it was enough to melt flesh and bone.
Marilena as she went up and down stumbled on her steps and fell down the rocky downward passage and hit her head onto a stone, letting blood drip onto the strange stone tablet in front of her.
Areti at some point in the morning evolved her healing heart skill into the Healer's determination, which greatly raised her healing light's effectiveness, of course it was still powerless against the Phoenix flames, that grew in strength with each passing hour.
Of course Mary at the moment had begun to look more and more like a human, well if you exclude the fact that she had no skin as to speak of, but all her muscles and nerves had begun regenerating causing her even more intense pain, of course she was already in a plant like state for a long time, and had no energy to even move her fingers.
During Midday the fat Pigeon-man arrived at the temple just a few moment after the Phoenix Pain skill evolved, turning into the even more devestating Phoenix suffering.
The beautiful flames begun to once more turn Mary into charcoal.
The moment he appeared he gave off a strange aura, the next moment all healing spells doubled in effect, giving a glimpse of hope to the almost desperate situation.
"Whom is the idiot that brought out the Pitiful Phoenixes' inheritance, the next thing I'll hear is that some idiot gave that highowl the Cursed Nightbird's inheritance"
The Pigeonman said while laughting but they could still feel a sense of irritation from his voice.
In truth there were multiple taboo existences throughout Winoria's history, two rather famous ones were the Pitiful Phoenix and the Cured Nightbird.
Pitiful Phoenix was the title of a firebird warrior whom found the Phoenixes inheritance and like an idiot tried to absorb it.
Cursed Nightbird was the title of a Nighowl warrior, that found the Night bird's inheritance, the problem however was that the specific nightbird was a fucking jinx, even before it died it took countless lives due to its bad luck and unfortunately everyone whom tried to inherit Cursed Nightbird's powers inevidably inherited the curse as one of their powers.
"By the way where is the third one?"
The Ruler said seeing as the numbers weren't right.
"Your highness we found her, she fell off the corridor, you know the slippery one that you told us to fix two years ago"
A priest said as he carried the passed out Marilena to the main room of the commotion, of course the priest hadn't seen the inheritance tablet that was broken as she fell, having two words drenched in blood "Cursed Nightbird".
"Well as long as there is no strange complications in three days this lucky hero might ascend into a phoenix"
The Pigeon man said before suddenly slipping at the rocky ground and falling face down onto the rock floor and instantly passing out.
"Your highness!"
All the priests at once stoped their healing and begun to focus on their ruler.
Letting the unfortunate Mary burn in the infernal phoenix flames, of course that didn't end there, the moment her pain intensified she begun breathing flames with all her might, burning two priests that tried to ignore her and go to his majesty their ruler, the bird Monarch.
Of course Areti's healing light didn't discriminate any thing in the range of her healing light was healed, slowly but still healed.
As phoenix breaths begun gushing out of Mary's mouth the priests had no choice but continue to heal Mary as the few whom were resting went to heal the Monarch and their unfortunate collegues.
At some point in time their Monach woke up, as if from a bad dream.
"You go check immediately the Nightbird's inheritance, if it's missing report at once"
The Monarch said with a bad premonition.
"I can't find the Nightbird's inheritance, someone has stolen it"
The turkey-headed priestess shouted as she entered the room and immediately slipped and fell.
The Pigeon-headed monarch begun examining all the priests and people in the room until he saw Marilena, by some incredible twist of fate she ended inheriting the Cursed Nighbird's skill and it had already risen to level 2, "Ominous sign" a skill that can bring disaster upon the world, it gives great luck to the carrier of the curse but misfortune to all those around him/her, of course at its current level all it did was cause others misfortune, giving no benefits at all.
"Fuck I really didn't want to use it, but it seems that it can't be done otherwise"
The monarch vomited a potion he had been holding inside his stomach, carefuly walked towards Marilena slapped her twice until he was sure she was awake and told her seriously.
"Drink this, I will then knock you out, when you are out mutate the Ominus sign do your understand!"
He said as he shoved the liguid in her mouth, making her almost drown.
He then fingerflicked her and she was out.
Marilena did as she had told her, although this time it wasn't because of the pride skill, but because she read what the skill did.
Ominous Sign
Makes people around you less fortunate.
She used the mutation option that appeared and Puff a new skill took its place.
Leech Luck
will drain the luck out of any person you target, raising your own luck.
Fortunately it was an active skill of course if she had waited for Ominous fortune to level up and then drunk the mutation potion what she would have gotten would have been some Godly skill instead of this rather good but still weak skill.
Of course The Monarch's plan didn't end there, the moment he examined and saw the ominous sign disappearing, he vomited out three potions in succession and first threw one at Mary.
The strange liquid inside begun to turn into gas and the Phoenix flames begun to extinguish, but he didn't loiter, next he quickly appeared next to her, poured another potion in her mouth and then the last one.
The first potion was an antimagic concotion, rather effective against mages, the second was a healing elixir that would help her survive for a few second since healing was impossible with the antimagic gas around her and the last was skill erasing altelixir he got from the Dwarves.
Of course it didn't take much brainpower for Mary in her status room to erase the Phoenix Suffering skill, leaving her with one skill less than eight, but a rather good feeling as she fell asleep.
As she wa sleeping the people around her could see organs, muscles, skin regenerating at a visible speed, even her wings begun to regrow from the bones that were still attached to her back.
This was the Phoenix rapid regeneration, which was rather tyranical to begin with since it could basicaly balance the pain from the flames, of course if she had even a hint of fire resistance the pain would have been much more mild.
The Monarch turned to Areti and said to her with some annoyance.
"You now owe me, 20million DP, that's 120,000 warrior feather or 12,000 noble feathers, or if you can get 1,200 Royal feathers that's even better"
He said as he left the room in a rather gloomy mood as he had lost some rather great treasures that he had spend som much to buy.
You must understand that while Christopher and Kurlidandr sold their Altelixirs for only 1million a piece, the export from the dwarves sold the same potion for 10millions, thus gaining 9times the profit.
Of course with Kurlidandr's sudden madness the remaining altelixirs had become something unique that would never again appear, thus the debt he told them to pay was rather generous in a way.
Before sending the three of them to the dungeon pillar, the three were given one pet each, their pet was the same bird as the one they chose.
The steelwing was a rather large bird, the size of a hawk that liked to spent most of its time sitting on Arety's steel wings.
The Nighowl was big and could easily be used to carry someone, of course it disliked doing so and for some reason disliked Marilena as well.
Lastly the Firebird was identical to the size of peacock, it was red and it liked to sing in crazed tunes that could irritate even the most patient of men.
Of course the one whom benefited most from the disaster was Mary, after her regeneration ended, the effects of Phoenix glory were evident, not only her wings gave a shining luster but even her human body begun to resemble a well proportioned human model's.
Of course she wouldn't dare to use the phoenix breath, but if she was forced, she wouldn't care much about the consequences and the pain.
Evrything that had happened she had simply written it off as if it never happened, psychologists call it selective amnesia, people simply chose to forget some painful memories of the past.
The second person whom gained greatly just due to sheer luck was Marilena, since she gained three aditional skills due to the accident that had taken place.
The one whom profited the less was of course Areti, whom although had leveled up her healer's determination, she had gained nothing more well other than 177levels maybe, since she was a healer and had been healing non stop for half a day, which is at least 12 hours of healing.
of course experience doesn't work like that it goes with the ammount she healed, you can only imagine what ammount of xp she had accumulated, of course that was only possible because of her cheat power, otherwise she would have been long spent or fainted due to exhaution, there was a reason why those powers were called cheat powers.
Of course with all those skill points she evolved many skills and even maxed out her healing support skill, now it was called Holy aura of Healing saint, it gave health regeneration to anyone close to her ally or foe alike and made her healing spells a hundred times more effective.
She also evolved her Sonic flight skill, turning it into the Air raider skill, it allowed her to fly adeptly in the air even with her cumbersome wings as it evolved more into a flight support sort of skill than a speed adding skill as it used to be, now it more to her manouverability and ability to fly than her speed, which to begin with was useless to her whom hadn't bird eyes.
Her remaining three skills she didn't pay much attention into, she simply turned the feather throw into feather salvo and the wing cut into the wing spin.
The three of themselves and a small army now escorted the three of them down onto the Dungeon Pillar, their enemies are supposed to be harpies and wild birds, something that made them somewhat question the validity of the information.
Harpies were half women half birds, they had the upper body of a woman, well only a head and breasts, the rest were that of a bird's, of course they were carnivorous and liked to hypnotize their victims with their songs and killing them in their dazed state.
When they entered the dungeon pillar and went to the first floor of eternal night, they understood why only birdmen would be able to fight in this part of the dungeon pillar.
A gigantic hasm divided the two cliffs, the pillar stood tall and around there was no bridge to walk, they had to fly to the other side, but the guards of Winoria's outpost warned them to stay there at the fortress and hunt until they were strong enough to go further, they also said that the lower they go the 14dungeon pillar all combine, into one, meaning that at the 9th floor they will randevu with all their classmates, making the three girls whom were now like one tight fist excited.
Looking forward to the day they will meet the others and travel together to the 100th floor.