By the time Christopher and the others reached the surface and were blinded by the firt rays of the sun they had already broken up into a full out confrontation.
Tris would point out all of his deficiencies and everything she didn't like about him, he of course begun to shout back her own shortages and then they both begun to argue like a cat and dog, after all no human is perfect. Perfection is but a feeble understanding of what cannot become better, meaning impossible to begin with.
Their fight went on as they left the dungeon pillar Outpost for who knows where.
As they sat in the same carriage during their travel there was no word to be heard, but occasional munching by Tanna as she grabbed something to eat.
Christopher didn't know why but he felt a little weird. A part of him thought that the gils were his, a strange spirit of possesiveness, that although he knew that they were just free npcs, whom can leave him at any time, he felt sort of sad about the thought of losing them.
Christopher desired only one thing however, something that no people could give him, absolute freedom, to do what he likes without restrictions, responsibilities and regrets.
Of course his dream was impossible since he was only human, not feeling regrets over bad or embarassing action, not restricting oneself with rules and laws, not being responsible for one's actions and towards his own companions and loved ones was impossible.
Passing through the first village they once more reunited with Riff and Raff, whom had come with a small private army of dwarves, dressed in luxurious armors and holding seemingly expensive weapons.
"Here is where we part ways"
Tris said as she walked out of the carriage and Tanna and Rosetti for some reason followed behind her as they joined Riff and Raff.
"Whatever, see you later"
Christopher said wanting to close the door to resume their travel, but the coachman opened the door in a somewhat embarassing for Christopher moment.
"Master mage we have agreed to take you till this village, I'm going to return to the Outpost now, unless you wanna go back, you should..."
Christopher with a hint of embarassment and irritation went out of the carriage, he wanted to kill himself at the moment, for showing such a shameful scene to Tris and the others, but he decided against returning to the Outpost.
"Then I'll be seeing you later"
Christopher said as he wanted to leave, but the dwarves surrounded him making it look rather strange, they weren't hostile, but they were blocking his path.
"Christopher, when I said we are parting ways, I meant forever, please remove the rings and surrender to the guards, they will take you to mine for a few ores, it won't take more than 20 years to pay off your debts"
Tris said, but there was no smile on her face, her voice serious and he could even detect a strange hostility from her towards him, it wasn't strong enough to make her an enemy, but she was disposed against him.
"Whatever, but before the dwarves take me away, I would like to ask why?"
Christopher wanted to know why they were taking him away, but Tris' answer was outside his expectations.
"You are asking why I betrayed you, well truth is that I had planned to dope you long ago, as for the reason I was getting bored of your indifference towards me, If you kneel before me kiss my feet I might consider keeping you as a sex slave"
Tris said as she looked into his eyes.
"Hahaha!"
Christopher to her surprise begun to laugh as he took off the rings on his fingers one by one throwing them onto the rocky ground.
The dwarves perceived it as a sign of surrender but Tris knew that he would most probably do something stupid again.
"I kneel to none but god himself"
Christopher said, he then crounched and disappeared right in front of their eyes.
"Didn't you set the antimagic runes right?"
A dwarf begun to argue with another and a huge rackus begun.
Tris looked at the 22rings that littered the ground, he had only taken with him two rings, one being the anti-sleeping ring and the second being a small storage ring.
Of course she knew why the runes didn't work, what he had used wasn't magic, it was a power granted to heroes, of course what she didn't know was that even his power would not have worked if the range of the runes wasn't so short.
At the moment Christopher travelled far away through his teleportation, blinking into the distance.
Again and again, using the teleportation power onto himself, truth was that he too had made his own preparations in case he was betrayed.
Once he stoped, he took out of his storage ring some clothes, drank some water and then begun to change his appearance bit by bit.
In the end he put on a fake mustach, took out an almost rusted sword and made his travel after inspecting the map he had hidden in his ring.
He didn't have much time, since he had no idea how good the dwarves were at tracking people, but he didn't really care, his destination was already set anyways.
"Miss Tris, we can't track him, he hasn't touched the ground for some time after his teleportation, we had thought that he would teleport underground, but it seems that he took the skies"
The dwarf reported to her.
"What do I care, it's you whom he owes money not me"
Tris said with a smile on her face, a smile that came from seeing someone elses' misfortune.
"Could we maybe borrow your personal guards until our reinforcements arrive?"
The dwarf asked somewhat angrily, they had already burrowed them once ot brock his road without her permission, but this time it was a major problem.
The most important being that they hadn't thought that he could still teleport stuff even inside an antimagic field.
"Well it will cost you a little, but I'm sure that we can negotiate the price at a later date"
Tris said with an even more excited smile, while she handed command of her private army to the dwarf inspectors.
--------------------------------------
In Eolia there was a slight uproar, rumors spread like wildfire.
There was a strange rumor saying that Eolia's emperor is into little girls, although no one knew where it begun, but if someone looked at the king's pet wives, then it was probably right.
Since he was patron to lots of orphans, all of them being children and once they grow up, they are thrown out of the palace and turned into average nobles. Well as average as 4-6th highness nobility can be.
In the past months the four girls had lost all communication with each other, the reason being each having a different class.
Elen was a noble, Viki was an enchantress, Giota was an alchemist and Dina was a warrior.
Strangely enough the one with the greatest level was Elen, She as a noble begun to command all the other bottom highness nobles.
The reason why she was able to was simple, She could bestow them with common titles, this was her cheat power.
Elen had already reached level 100 and all she did was cast some wide range spells that caused negligible damage.
It all however begun when she created the "GLAM club". A club for the coolest youths of the elves to come and hung out. The high elves were rather fachinated by the idea of private gatherings and the rumormonging nature of the place.
People of the bottom nobility were of course acoustomed to intrigues and fanfare, but such events were rather rare. Now with the "GLAM CLUB" they could gather everyday and share information as well as spread it, thus Elen spread a small spiderweb for flies to buzz.
In the beginning the higher nobility found it a nuisance, but as it grew in time they decided to use it for their own purposes.
Elen of course was happy to get their funding. In three months the GLAM CLUB was officialy recognised as a thing and she was even given a large Estate where they could all gather, before that they used to gather in public places like parks or later restaurants.
To begin with Money is of no importance to the high elves, what's importance is ability and Elen was quickly risen to the 4th highness of nobility and was given her own estate, while the others were stuck in their, somewhat large, rooms, except from Giota whom got a house as she rose in nobility as well.
Elen however as she rose in nobility became a total bitch, forgetting her old friends and changing social circle, the GLAM CLUB also changed with her.
In reality the club was sort of a mixed Idea, by Elen,Viki and Giota, but since Elen was their leader, she took most of the benefits onto herself.
Well truth was that without her it would probably be impossible to form the club, since the others lacked her charisma and pride.
A the strange spirit of mediocrity, that said to everyone around her I'm not better than you, but I'm not worse either.
It was a strange sense that made people able to open up to her and be able to become her friends.
Of course she wouldn't get friendly with everyone, but she also wouldn't go irritate others without a good reason.
Her new husband-master/patron was A prince, an 8th higness royalty. whom wanted to use her intelligence and rumor spreading network for himself.
Of course little did he knew that by then the Club had turned into a party gathering, rather than the rumor monging club it used to be, making it completely useless to him.
There was however a reason why he didn't abandon her, in his bad mood he still hoped that she would be of some help to him in the future.
The monsters of Eolia were rather strange in a way, they were called plantan creatures, a sort of intelligent plant that kills people in order to absorb their nutrients.
The F-rank "Bad seedling" was like a football sized spore with thorns.
All it did was launch onto other creatures, while using its thorns to drink its victim's blood.
You might find it weird as to why, every group of heroes at some point goes its seperate ways only to unite again at some point in the future, of course there is a valid explanation, which is they reach their limit, at some point they find that fighting alone gives them no visible benefits, or discover their own downfalls.
In a way at some point a warrior will find a monster that's immune to physical attacks, meaning that only mages can defeat those.
Others will discover the sweet taste of teamwork, it makes leveling up so much easier, since they won't need an army to defeat a strong monster anymore.
Elen at the moment was surrounded by handsome men and women, she felt like a hollywood star or something, but her life was rather boring as well.
High elves only cared about magic power, even their currency were strange crystals created by solidified magic power.
In general however they did not trade at all and if they wanted anything from the outside they simply sold a jug of elven wine or a magic fruit.
The magic fruit of course was a loot from their dungeon pillar and although they weren't very fond of fighting the higher noblility would still organize hunts and parties in the lower parts of the dungeon tower, a place where lower nobles couldn't even hope to step.
It was even said that Eolia's Emperor lived in the Ninth floor most of his time, thus not many nobles had the chance to even speak to him.
Of course unknown to others at the moment that same emperor was on the surface level.
In her boredom, Elen was once more reading a letter from her ex-friend Viki.
"Dear Elen, I'm writing to you to express my disappointment in you, I can understand that wealth and power can hit someone to his head, but how could you not invite your friends even once to your estate, but we are not angry with you, because today our Sisters Club is opening and we sent this letter as an invitation to you"
Elen of course was not stupid, she knew that if she decided to accept their invitation, it would be as if she blesses it with her presence or something, like how a celebrity would if she/he enters a bar.
Of course she knew that there were other Clubs opening all over Eolia, nobles had begun to form their own clubs with some theme, making her own club lose in comparison, since the glamorous life Club of hers became rather boring, very fast.
There were four clubs that emerged which were the most prominent in the lower noble cicles.
The Gentlemen's Club, which was a men only club.
The Dirt Club, which was a barbarous and dirty club, filled with those that liked to fight, its original name was Dirk Club, but because of Elen it became the Dirt club.
The Magic Club, which was a club for those that liked to dwell deeper into magic, you could call it a specialist convention.
Last was her only rival club the Highness Club. It only accepted those that had cetrain qualities, but those accepted had the authority to invite others to their gatherings, like a closed club.
In reality even her GLAM CLUB was forced to become a branch club of the Highness Club under the Prince whom became her Patron in the end, but they still acted antagonisticaly in order to draw more people to their clubs, it's like having two choices but both of them favouring the same person, something like selling chocolate and vanilla flavoured icecream, whichever you chose the vendor wins.
There were hundreds or thousands of such clubs formed in time and many of them were larger than hers, in a way her parties and gatherings had become so repeated that even she was getting bored of it, there was a need for a change, but non of her new friends could not come with a satisfying idea.
As for herself she was the leader and she had already come with multiple pointless ideas, like introducing fashion, lifestyle and other principles, but that didn't go too well.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
To begin with wearing the same dress as the queen to be in fashion, well which queen.
In reality the royalty didn't give a shit about her and any rumors she brewed about them, they could do whatever they liked and if she was to arrogant they could easily deal with her.
From exile to turning her into a human, everything was in the mix, after all she wasn't exactly some superb hero, all she did was party and her special ability, all it could do was bless their little babies with titles like stong, weak, beautiful, stupid, smart and other common titles that were easily gained if they spent a year in the library or working out.
Of course to bottom nobles like herself those titles were precious, especialy since she would later be able to give two or three such titles to a single person, but right now she could only give one title to a person whom had joined her Club, normaly it was for parties(groups) or people under her control.
But reality showed her that it was an easy exploit, anyone could join her club, take a title and then disapear, many of them even cursed at her because they didn't like the title given to them.
Elen had her own little circle and lots of connection however, before her club faded away into its now somewhat pitiful state she was approached by many and had plenty of new strong friends in high places.
Of course they owed her nothing at the moment, thus she couldn't ask them for favours, but once she leved up some more she would be able to become their equal and then she would be able to return favours. Not that she had any need to ask them for favours right now.
I won't lie and say that she had no fans that were zealeous enough to follow her around everywhere she went, but all of them were of low highness, making them not even worth speaking of, at best in their lives they would reach the 5th higness in the far far future, while she was already a 4th highness nobility.
There were of course reasons why she went from 1st to 4th, first being of course her reaching level 100, the second because she founded the Glam Club and the third because of the Prince's support, if she ever loses his support she will automaticaly be demoted by 1 highness.
Her greatest however discovery was her sewing skill, which she had when she first arrived. Crafting skills in Axis were like in the videogames, hiting with a hammer on a metal for it to turn into a sword. combining a bolt of wool with a sewing needle to make a wollen cascol, you could say that they didn't realy make sense, of course to create something really good you would have to have at least three skills of the desired profession, like raw material processing, component production and lastly the production of the product itself.
Of course Elen wasn't bored enough to go get all three, she simply bought the components to create what she wanted.
She wanted to make modern clothes, but jeans and polyester weren't exactly there so she experimented with the materials in hand, making lots of strange clothes.
Of course because of this she wanted to introduce fashion trends, but she failed for two main reasons, first because there was no TV or advertisements and secondly because she was not important enough for people to follow her trends.
"Guys, guys, I think that we're bored to death, I think we should go hunt some monters or something"
One of them said, he was probably bored to death as he floated in the swiming pool like a dead fish in the water.
"Why not going a trip to the dungeon pillar, I've heard there are magic fruits down there"
A female elf said with a cute voice.
"I think we should throw a dancing party, this time the musicians have improved so much you won't recognise them"
Another guy said, he was responsible for the music, which 9/10 times was horrifying, since they tried to replicate modern music with strange instrument like horns and tubes, the lyre and lute were also rather strange, in general all the instruments were enchanted to cause charm and other strange effects, but in a music perspective they were simply awful, the music they played could not even be called music, it was a strange psychedelic thing that filled your mind with illusions and blew your mind, in a bad way.
Don't misunderstand there are musicians in the world of Axis, it's simply the High elves whom don't really understand music, for them if the music doesn't involve magic it's worthless, well anything that doesn't involve magic is worthless.
"I have decided, we will establish ourselves on the 1st floor!"
Elen said, making the others awestruck, they hadn't even thought about it, of course the main reason was because they weren't strong enough to do so in the first place.
Her words were like a human announcing that he will learn to swim in the deep waters, a swim or sink thing that not many would dare.
"So lets do it with Style"
She said as begun to take out her newest creations, they were her best creations and although they were not brands, they were well made for someone whose sewing skill was at the 2nd evolution, they even gave some stats.
The group of 11 people, elen included were now wearing modern clothing with fur and velvet. The problem was that it looked ridiculous to the locals, but they didn't care, because this was GLAM, their clothes were simply sprayed with glowdust all over and they were wearing designed jewelry, by herself, even their hair was all glossy and cut well.
Elen's mother was a hairdresser after all, the same went for Viki's and Giota's. Elen knew a few things in that matter and she made everyone's hair into a form of art.
In this medieval world there were only three types of haircut, strait or natural curly, ponytail and braids.
Elen however introduced hair extensions, hair gel, hair spray, shaved head and other strange and bizzare for them haircuts.
"Lights, firecrackers, music!"
Elen said and it was a rather exagerated kind of walking, with the light magic making their clothes sparkle, firecrackers were small fireworks unlike the real firecrackers that exploded making sound on the ground these exploded around them giving out strange light dying their clothes in shades of blue, green and red as the strange techno music could be heard being generated by a small magic orb that their music expert had prepared beforehand.
To the higher nobles, they looked like a bunch of clowns, but to the young nobles and commoners they looked astounding.
Elen by now knew that she could not make them understand what is fashion, but in time the ignorant elves would feel the full dread of what is called Trendy.
Their glamorous parade lasted until they entered their carriage headed towards the dungeon pillar, it was a rather strange Limo-sized carriage that stretched for quite a distance, inside there was room for 50, but it was occupied by specifistic things like a small card table, a hairdressing set and a closset.
High elves disdained things that weren't magic and the whole thing was not enchanted, but the commoners and young nobles saw it as a magnificent carriage, but in truth is was a piece of shit, it was hard to manouver and easy to topple, even with it's three sets of wheels.
When they arrived at the Pillar outpost of the elves they were rather surprised, because it was mostly empty.
Normaly all hunting was done here at the pillar, but at the moment it was empty.
"Ms Fan Fan, why is the pillar empty?"
Elen asked the elven female they called Fan Fan, she was the one whom knew all the latest goship other than herself of course, but the reason she asked was because their glamorous parate towards the dungeon pillar had been disrupted by the lack of an audience.
"Three days ago all the Clubs begun to expand to the other floors, taking many people with them, it was around the time our last fans abandoned the club"
Fan Fan said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Is that so, what has Mr Big to say about the matter?"
Elen asked Eurio, whom she liked to call Mr Big, refering to a certain tv show.
"There's little to say, our marketing is not so good, the only thing we can is wait until our Diva levels up her ability, the others will flood the club once more just to speak to you"
Mr Big whose profession was merchant said, in his mind there was only benefits and loses.
As they descended Elen's mind went into a strange chaos, as the cave was rather dark and gloomy, even the light spell and fireworks didn't make their travel any better.
The most shocking however scene was that when they arrived down they saw Viki, Giota and Dina hanging out with teir Club, it was double her own and they seemed to be having fun right in front of the entrance of the dungeon pillar.
Till then Elen hadn't gone down the dungeon pillar once, but since she hunted weak monsters on the surface her level still grew like crazy.
The others however were already hunting in the pillar's first floor.
"Did you come for our Club's opening, Elen, you came three days late"
Viki said, her tongue dripping poison, metaphoricaly of course.
Of course Elen had no idea that the first Club to open at the first floor was theirs, after that other clubs begun to copy them, she herself thought of it by herself, but the other three girls had united in order to create their own, girls only club.
"Oh, spare me the trouble, how long do you think your club will even last?"
Elen said with a smug face.
"At least we didn't steal our best friend's ideas to create the club and even had the kindness to invite you to our Club's opening ceremony"
Viki retorted in a dramatic fashion.
"Hm, yes whatever, I'm sure I didn't lose anything, seeing as you are wearing rags and all"
Elen said judging by the strange clothes they wore, they looked like swim suits with pieces of metal to protect their chest and bottoms, there were even some stones embeded on them.
"Oh don't tell me you didn't even bring an armor when you decided to come hunting in the pillar?"
Viki said, but in reality they were somewhat jealous of their outfits, the modern style tight jeanwear, the jackets and other accesories made them rather envious of her.
"Hm, whom needs armors to kill some weak pitiful monsters"
Elen said with confidence, she of course confused the low level surface monters with the ones in the pillar's first floor.
Of course they were stronger after all they are spawned with a level of 10 instead of 1, due to the vastness of the pillar they are given the time to grow stronger overtime and lastly there are monsters of rank F to A being sighted, encountering an A rank monster meaning death to anyone whom isn't safely locked inside a fortress.
Some might ask how can an army of level 100 soldiers protect a fort, so
let me explain a thing or two.
There are two ways to kill a monster, one is usings your skills and weapons, which will give you experience, but it also means that you will never be able to defeat a monster of much higher level than yourself or those monsters of higher ranks.
There is however another way, traps, poisons and explosives. This way can do far supperior damage than your level, but you will earn no experience if the enemy dies from the damage cause by the method, thus hunters don't prefer their usage, but soldiers, armies are all into these things.
Even veteran adventurers will most of the time have one or two aces hidden away, in case of the worst case scenario.
Of course the downside of such tricks, other than the experience loss(not gaining any), in case of poison as we have seen before, the meat becomes inedible, in case of traps, they might not kill the creature, like seen with Christopher's pitfalls, where the mages crawled out of the ground like zombies, in case of explosives as seen in Chris' story against the vampire, the explosive might not be strong enough to kill the creature and even worse it might be intercepted in midair and even thrown back.
Snap! Snap!
Elen snapped her fingers as she drove her fancy colorful parade towards the outer wall of the outpost.
There was a large gemstone pillar next to the exit, they could from it decided where their new estate would be built, there were four main lots for estates and of course they would decide to build one next to the Prince's estate.
Outside the now open gates there was a thick jungle, making the colorful parade stop their advance, the gatekeepers were laughing at them inwardly, it was the first time they had seen such a stupid adventuring party. They didn't even bring armor or weapons with them, did they think they were mighty or something, in reality if they hadn't known that the colorful peacocks were nobility they would have died laughing their guts out.
It was like seeing someone going to school in their underpants.
"Our Diva are you sure we shouldn't get some supplies at least?"
Mr Big asked gulping a large mouthful of saliva down his throat.
"I think we should first learn stuff in the outpost, everyone begin socializing!"
Elen said and the colorful group spread out, they begun to talk with anyone they found interesting.
It took them a few hours to gather again, Viki, Giota and Dina were laughing at the stressed out Glam Club.
"Ignore them, what have you found?"
Elen said and inquired.
"Well the armors the Sisters Club uses are the only thing available for our level with good enough protection and multiple functions"
Mr Big said.
"There are meceneries we can hire as guards for a really cheap price"
Emmanuelle said, she was the most slutty bitch Elen had even met and they quickly became friends.
"It's said that on this floor it's always night, thus we cannot wait for the sun to go out, we will need lots of lights"
Hairdresser said, She was an elf whom fell in love with hair styling and has ruined dozens of people's heads.
"I heard that the estate plot is as dangerous as being outside the outpost, there are no soldiers to guard it, we will have to guard it ourselves"
Stylist said, he was a handsom elf, whom had a strange inclination to make his look as glamourous as possible.
If there were elf homos then he probably was one.
"I found out that there are zones of danger, they say that we can inspect them from the information stone(pillar at the gates), but they weren't 100% accurate"
Designer said, he was of course in love with clothing and wanted to one day recreate what Elen called a fashion show.
"I found out that there are lots of parties travelling towards the lots, we can join one heading to our designated area, that's probably exactly what the Sisters Club is doing"
The Dance Master said, of course as you might have already figured out, she was hooked on modern dancing, especialy the freestyler and other extreme stuff.
"I found out that most of the monsters can't be eaten, but any tree or vegetables grown in this floor will grow faster even though there is no sunlight"
Masterchef said, he was of course engrossed with modern food and the idea that males could become the greatest cooks in the world.
"I have found out that we can sell the corpses of monsters to alchemists, although their products are shitty"
Ms Fan Fan said, she was of course a mindless fan of the club and the only one left till the end.
"I have been gathering supplies, drawn a map for the best route to take and hired some escorts for us"
Mr Smart said, he was the intellectual of the group and the strongest mage in the group, but he had a great a great defect. He fell for Elen, making him a pawn of hers, in truth he was already a 3rd highness Noble and would be her equal if not for her being under the Prince's wing.
"I found out that it's not worth it, we should go back, there's nothing great about this place"
DJ said, he was their specialist in music, he was so into what Elen called pop culture that he had begun trying to replicate the songs he saw in her mind(memory orb), a pity that he was a tiny bit of a coward.
"I say we should stay here and await for another group to go out, we will then accompany them and build some momentum"
Elen decided, not really waiting for the other's opinions. Although what followed were the words of flattery and asskissing.
Mr Smart could only curse their stupidity, but he wouldn't let them simply go and humiliate themselves, since they probably didn't understand a few things, in reality the groups that travelled together were noble groups whose leaders knew one another, they didn't simply chit chat for a few minutes and then trust them with their back.
The next few days were wasted loitering around the outpost, the other three heroes had already left.
In the end they weren't waiting for an escort, they waited for a merchant to sell their loot. Cause although High elves have no need for money, money was still useful when dealing with outher races.
Merchants of other races liked to go to the High elves for trading, especialy the forest ogres and elves, whom found the plantan corpses useful and the prices so low that it was a great bargain, there were even stories where a goblin merchant had traded a pair of dirty socks for 10 plantan corpses, there were many funny stories about what High elves might find valuable, but in general no one knows, in truth that pair of socks was an enchanted artifact, but in the eyes of others it seemed like a pair of common dirty socks.
Of course that doesn't mean that High elves haven't done stupid deals, like giving away all their loot for a kiss or something more intimate.
There are plenty of stories about the high elves' disregard for monetary values.
Nevermind that, the Glam Club were now loitering around the Outpost, learning stuff, making connections with the stronger nobles and some of the merchants.
You might ask why they didn't trade with the merchants from the surface, level, why go down to the floor to trade.
Well generaly monsers on the surface are weaker and their corpses of lower quality, so what's 1-2hours worth if you can easily multiply your profit by at least two times.
Elen was bored to death, the others were also bored, the supplies Mr Smart had brought and the troops were in the end left to rot.
"What's wrong with them, all we asked them was to travel alongside them!"
Elen said irritated.
"I have found out that they didn't like weaklings, I think we should return to the estate or go on a tour to another country"
DJ said with a bored expression.
"What did you say?"
Elen asked him with a rather heavy voice that sounded like she was angry, but it was due to surprised.
"I said nothing"
DJ quickly tried to defend himself.
"Another country, we should go establish fashion in another country!"
Elen said with a happy expression.
"Well sure, why not"
Mr Big said.
"why are you all excited are we leaving?"
Emmanuelle said as she just popped out from god knows where.
"DJ is a genious!"
Ms Fan Fan said.