A month passed as the group had finaly crossed the Goblin Klan's lands and entered into Reddor's domain.
Everyone was tired and stressed out, well all but Kiris (Christopher) he found it strangely pleasing when everyone shares the same heavy burden, it felt almost as if they were all equal.
The wagon was now stopped at a crossroad and suddenly Palmer snapped.
"End of the travel, everyone can get out of my wagon now, just head right and you will find a village, you can find food and shelter there"
Of course Palmer's words were spoken with some thrustration and anger, he had even promised himself that after this job he would go back home and start farming.
"Are you crazy, no way in hell am I travelling with them again!"
One of the Noble brothers said as he pointed at Kiris and the assassin couple, whom throughout the journey were the most creepy companions, since one wouldn't sleep like ever and the others slept in shifts.
Palmer however wasn't sympathetic to them.
"Get off my wagon or I will throw you down myself!"
He said seriously, but before he could even end his speech a blade protruded out of his chest, it was one of the adventurer's whom finished him off, namely May.
Of course everyone had been getting tired of his nagging during the journey, Palmer had begun to regret taking them along, but he naively believed that since he was a talented warrior, there would be no one bale to kill him in this bunch since he was a warrior with a rather high physical defense, even though he wasn't wearing any armor.
Reality however gave him a harsh wake up call as the enchanted blade thrust through his heard, leaving him no time to even talk.
"Everyone please get off, the wagon is now ours, if you want to..."
Before she could speak, two shadows jumped from the cart of the wagon and onto the mount, cuting the ropes and rushing away with the horse-like creature.
They could only curse as they saw the elven couple rush away before they could even finish their words, leaving them with a wagon of hay, or what was left of the hay.
The ground under their feet was grey, the grass had a strange grey dust all over as it grew one meter tall, it was hard to imagine what beasts it could hide.
You might think of the adventurers' killing Palmer as a despicable act, but in truth any one of them could have done the same due to him simply pissing them off.
Anger and stress are a rather bad combination and they also had to suffer from two irritating fellows, one being Palmer whom grumbled all the time and the other was Kiris whom seemed to enjoy it seeing them suffer this nightmarish trip.
The only difference was that Kiris wouldn't even let a fly come near him, like a paranoid psychopath, while Palmer would still sleep and loosen his guard on certain occasions, which led to his death.
Of course I'm not trying to say that Kiris' choice was good, since he probably suffered a lot more than all the others, but since they suffered as well it made things easier to withstand.
Now only seven people remained, the three adventurers, the three noble brothers and lastly Kiris.
You can of course understand that human nature commands it that the weakest link be broken first, the six were all glaring at him as if he was their mortal enemy.
"Leave the food behind and you can leave"
Solon said as he drew his expensive sword pointing at him. The others also drew their swords, but what was surprising was not long afterwards another death followed.
"Why?Alec,why?"
The thing that was embeded into his back was not a sword, but a strange dagger with mysterious glyphs on it.
Martin the other brother lifted his sword to avenge his brother, but he met his end at the adventurers' blades instead.
It was an act of treason and self interest, the three adventurers in truth were from the demon cult, the same mages whom Christopher had burrowed in the ground, or at least some of them. Alec had seen first hand how one of them used his brother's body for some ritual that replenished her youth or so she explained to him.
Under the pretext of eternal life and of course inheriting everything he couldn't be more willing to join their cult.
"Kiris we will give you a choice, you can join the Demon God Cult or die"
Mindy said, although in truth she might have been May or Manny, Kiris hadn't really taken the heavy labor of remembering everyone's names, not like he planned to stick with them for long anyways, to their inquiry however his answer was a simple, Whatever.
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In Eolia once more...
Dina was the last high elven hero, she was a warrior with a rather pathetic cheat ability called indestructible staff. Yup a non magical, completely blunt staff, a black staff with its two edges dyed gold.
It was simply useless however to her, since it was shorter than a spear and she had already by the time taken up the bow as a weapon.
You would espect that as a warrior she would at least level up fast, but truth was that she was the lowest level hero in Eolia, with a level of 58.
Dina started hunting late as she was being taught how to use the bow by Nidas, her elven husband. He was an adept archer and liked to fight with both bow and sword, a pity that he was a warrior and not a scout, because then his archery would rise to another level.
In reality however he didn't mind, he liked being strong and fighting with swords more than with the bow, of course the dual swords he kept on his belt were just a hoby, his real weapon was still the bow.
Before she was sought by Viki and Giota for the Sisters Club thingy, Dina and Nidas only trained and went from party to party, since all clubs had jolly gatherings to fish for members.
Nidas had already joined the Dirk Club, better known later as Dirt Club where they enjoyed fighting, Dina only accompanied him there to see him sweat as he fought with others, while exchanging pointers.
After she was invited by the Sisters Club, she had less time to go to such gatherings as she spent most of her time fighting monsters on the first floor, Nidas joined her later as the Dirk Club also wanted to expand to the floors bellow.
When Viki ditched them, Dina felt a little sad, after all Viki was a lot more interesting than Giota, who had straw for brain.
They had a huge breakout with Giota as they didn't agree on the matters of the Club, it was simply a private club for friends to gather, why did they even need to disband it. Of course she had no idea that Viki was trying to Create a public Club with lots of people, she naively thought that the few of them were enough to sate Viki's appetite.
Dina,Elen and Viki were shocked when the message of Giota's death hit their ears. It was a horrible mess, even her bones were drained of all their nutrients and turned into dust under the wild Dryad's plantan tentacles.
If not for the High elves higher ups keeping track on every high elf in the world they would have never even known about it.
The most however shocking thing was that her resurrection was sceduled for 12years in the future, there was a huge line of high elves whom were to be resurrected and the temple would only resurrect one every week and there was no way to push someone in line since bribery wouldn't work with the temple of Ecclesia, especialy when every high elf could offer tons of gold, thus it was even prohibited by law in Eolia. Although there were still some whom practiced it in the dark, but it was too dangerous and not as rewarding, in general the first 100places in the list were fixed, the 101st to 1000th places in the list were hard to move as well only the 1001 and later places were for questioning and even auctioned in dark rooms and underground means.
Of course the first thought was to go ask the help of the heroes in Ecclesia, but the problem was how on earth would they even find them, the continent was huge and they would have to Cross Nivava to enter Ecclesia, but the most problematic matter was that they understood something that they hadn't understood before.
While in Eolia they were considered Noble and Rich, could take practicaly anything they liked without having to pay, in the other continents they were peniless nobodies, even their nobility rank gave them no benefit at all.
That was because all the gold creating alchemists belonged to the Country and not the citizens, it's like saying that all the money belongs to the country but everything inside the country is free to its citizens.
Dina was the only one whom still hadn't made preparations to leave eolia, since Elen and Viki had already made theirs, before hearing about Giota's death they were already just a step from leaving.
Of course non knew how she died, or weren't told, since the way she died would sound moronic to them, in truth she commited suicide just to experience what the ultimate pleasure tasted like, something really stupid, since she could have easily waited until she reached a higher nobility to be able to enjoy it with the other higher nobles.
In general, the higher your nobility the more things are given to you free of charge it's like unlocking more options as you level up, sort of thing.
Giota was put straitforwards foolish, she wanted everything right here and now, she didn't wait for anything and anyone, if the fruit was too high to get she would try climbing the tree, even if there was a chance of falling to her own death, that sort of person.
Dina was the only hero left in Eolia, thus she made a decision to go meet her old friends, Alexxa and Anna in Nivava, simply to see how they were doing, thus she gathered gifts for them, hired some adventurers as escorts and begun her own journey towards Nivava, unknowingly following the trails of Elen and Viki, whom by then were crossing the boarders.
There was a gathering in the Palace of Eolia, the emperor was there, the Highest nobles were also present.
"There has been a word that our heroes have begun to flock back to Nivava"
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The emperor said, his voice missing any hint of emotion.
"Your highness as you might know low Noble Elen has this crazy idea about creating a trend called fashion, young Noble Viki is mediocre and unpredictable and young Noble Dina is the weakest of the three"
A white haired elf said, his words being a report of their own heroes, he didn't even report that Giota had died, not like the Emperor wouldn't have known that.
"Your highness you shouldn't mind, once the girls meet the heroes of Eolia and learn their terrible living conditions they will no doubt return back, not to say that even Nivava's heroes might want to come and join Eolia"
A white haired woman said, she looked as youthful as any elf, only her hair had grown white with only a few black strands remaining.
"So you are saying that they didn't just got afraid of their companion's death and run away"
The emperor stated, making the hall a little colder.
"Your highness you can be perfectly sure that it's not because of that, we have inquired young Noble Giota's wife named Lunana, she says that hero Giota had a terrible fight with young noble Dina and disregarded both heroes Elen and Viki calling them traitorous bitches in many occasions"
Another white haired woman said.
"Your highness everything is under control, we have already our own person amongst low noble's Elen's people a merc amongst young noble's Viki's escorts and a few accompanying young noble Dina"
Another white haired man said, making everyone nod in satisfaction.
"Oh, so how have you decided to protect them from the purge happening in Nivava right now, you do know that all High elves in Nivava were cruelly killed under the context of treason due to our previous failure"
The emperor said, his voice cynical and rought.
"Your highness, are you mocking us, even we wouldn't dare kill a hero from another nation, there's no danger for them unless they try hiding their origine as otherworldly heroes, just imagine the impact on every hero if they learn that the Nivava kills the heroes they themselves summoned"
A White haired man said and they all begun laughing simply by imagining what would such a stupid action do to the Nivava kingdom.
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Neassa, the Elven forest.
Joanna and the other girls were rather bored as the elves lived in a strangely organized loop. Each season was connected to the worship of a different element, Earth for Spring, Fire for Summer, Air for Automn and Water for Winter.
Each month had festivities and Rituals, there's no day to have passed that hadn't some activity that had to be done, this was how the elves lived, they of course had a lot of free time in between activities and unless they were children most of their time was free after they did some small work here and there to prepare for the activities.
Joanna was a mage, her cheat power was the water of life, she could conjure a strange magical water that could heal wounds, the problem was that she was stuck at level 10 for months, since she and the others weren't allowed to go out and fight monsters, they were threated as little children and went to school like the other elven children.
They had even begun to think of leaving Neassa and joining some other country, since there was absolutely nothing of interest in Neassa, to begin with they were taught about the yearly traditions, a lesson that would take approximately one year for them to learn and experience, after which they will begin with the second lesson, which would take another whole year, these basic lessons would take them 10years, until the combat and magic lessons would begin.
In general they didn't dislike the safety they felt in Neassa, the warmth they felt from the people and even more so the festivities and the hubub.
You could describe their sircumstances with one phrase.
"In Neassa all is Calm"
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Lastly lets travel to Munnero, the Dwarven mines inside the mountains.
The four dwarven heroes, Kris, Stelio, Dimitri and Mike were each having their own adventures.
Kris had become a rather reknown hero in Munnero.
His class was that of a monk and his main stat was mentality, his cheat power was the Air punch and after having helped to defeat a vampire last time he had experienced a quick rise in fame, making the other three distance themselves from him.
Of course that was only one of the reasons, the second reason being that they didn't know him that well before they were transfered and because of jealousy and his newly found arrogance they left him be.
Kris however didn't fall short to expectations, in those months that passed he had reached a level of 175, the highlight of all heroes in the Axis continent from their school. Of course that had mainly to do with his adventurous spirit and the risks he took challenging greater and greater monsters.
Only problem being that he was deep in debt, if he weren't a hero, he would have long be sent to the mines, but as a Respected hero he was let roam the land slaying monsters, although there were also times when he was given quests like escorting the slave miners safely to their posts, fighting someone in the arena and other quests that he could not reject.
Kris was now at the outpost of the second Floor, the enemies were still undead beings, but they were more powerful than before, On the second floor ghouls were the common F rank monster, while vampires were an A rank monster here, the S rank being The Skeleton Mages also called Necromancers by the dwarves.
Kris was tired, he had been fighting for months, the monsters were only getting stronger and although he could easily crush them the dwarves whom dared to descend to the second floor were too few.
He spent most of his time trying to form a balanced party rather than fighting monsters although he would still go out to hunt near the outpost.
A balanced party needed three scouts, two warriors, a healer and two mages, this was the golden balance.
Scouts were responsible for detecting monsters, carrying the loot and cooking, also were responsible for keeping watch at nights.
Warriors were responsible for keeping the monsters distracted, protecting the wizards and healers of the group and lastly they were to stay behind and die in order to let the others get away.
A healer's work was rather plain, not many healers would dare leave their stores, but the few adventurer healers were treated as VIP in any party since their specialty was healing and of course holy powers that were extremely effective against the undead.
Lastly the mages or otherwise known as runemages were a must have force if you wanted to travel in the dungeon pillar, they knew dozens of runes, the most important ones being light,water,repair and clean runes, well it might sound stupid, but in the dwarven dungeon pillar there was not even a moon, since the whole dungeon was inside a cave complex.
Kris was becoming desperate as even if he found a few people to form a party with, they would simply disband a week afterwards because they didn't have the patience to wait for more people. Talented Dwarves were a little arrogant, they would even travel in duos and trios, there were tons of dwarves whom left the outpost and never returned.
In the end Kris even had the idea of going solo, simply learning the skills needed for survival and learning them all by himself, but he gave up because he knew full well from games that such balanced characters were useless in the late game when everyone reached their full potentials, only in the early-mid game they could be playable, but they were simply wasted time since no party would want them, thus he was stuck at the outpost, he might be a risk taker, but he wasn't crazy, he knew full well that common adventurers would be less and less useful, thus he tried his best to create a party of his own, but it was all for nothing.
In the past days he had went up to the surface level and down gain, at least four to five times, each time looking if his request at the Adventurers' guild had any impact.
He was looking for a stable party to travel to the 10th floor with, something that was closer to madness than he thought, after all anyone whom was able to reach such places were already working for the military of their respected countries.
Of course his stats were rather strange, since he discovered early on that his mentality skill helped him control the strength put into his attacks and moves, as someone whom liked martial arts he simply could not let it be so.
For example it was rather easy to do an overswing if you could not control your strength, or to destroy a glass potion that you were just holding.
Due to this logic he had put more than 100points in his mentality, of course half of it was due to his dwarven traits, that gave him a double multiplier to strength.
You have to understand that normaly it was the scout's job to administer potions and throw out explosive flasks, since their main stat was that of mentality and not strength.
Kris however wouldn't throw away the ability to hold a potion in exchange for uncontrollable strength. You have to also understand that the greater one's strength the more expensive the weapon you needed to accomodate your strength, for example if your stregnth was 10points higher than the requirements of the weapon you would unwillingly deteriorate the weapon on use in other words each usage would drain the weapon's durability.
Dwarven weapons are rather famous for their endurance, meaning that even the most simple iron sword crafted by the dwarves will be at least two times more durable, of course elves don't care about durability, their craftmanship is targeted towards damage and magic induction.
Since Kris was ind debt he was forced to use the sword he was given when he was first arrived, a low level junk for some time, until he was given a crappy weapon that at least coincided with his strength, a longsword with no rune or special properties, unlike the low level rune sword that he used before.
The armor he used before was no better than cloth for someone of his level and even more unfortunate was that it could easily be ruined if he got hit, thus making it rather pointless wearing it, but he did non the less because of the runes inscribed on them.
Of course having reached so high a level he had already maxed the once known as martial arts skill, the one that raised reflexes. His skill hower was called Wind Energy Mastery, it allowed him to manipulate wind as if he was air bending or something, but the most important thing was that he had both exceptional reflexes to accomodate it, the most however important thing was that his attacks had become extremely fast and the wind barrier no longer affected him, meaning that he could wantonly fly at supersonic speeds if he wanted to, although still unable to see what was going around him if he tried, because although his reflexes were high, he was still a tiny tad slow, what he could see were only blurry forms when moving at such speeds, of course since he had invested a massive amount of stat points in mentality he could at least discern forms, if he hadn't he would be stuck like a blind rat every time he tried to move so fast.
Kris was somewhat slow to understand that the others now disliked him, but what could he do, he naively thought that if he became strong everyone would be happy.
Human's pride however knows no limit, once they see someone better or different than themselves they will begin scheming and acting against you.
His debt might have been astronomical and the reason why many people didn't want to enter his party, but now he could see hope as he looked at the piece of paper in his hand.
"Wanted Deptor Christopher nickname "EmptyPockets", owes billions, wanted dead or alive, warning extremely dangerous, last seen in Nivava, if you want to help go to the closest dwarven bank, your help will be appreciated"
Of course he couldn't tell if the one whom was wanted was his friend Christopher or not, but in a way he didn't really care, Christopher owed a debt, but unlike him he was trying to forsake his debt and escape, that was immoral and irritating, like why do I have to be the only one with a debt.
In all truth he hoped it was his friend, if it was so, then he would simply group up with him and go down the Dungeon, thus he made his own group in the hunt for the "Emptypockets".