Chapter 5

King Johannes Windsoar:

It’s him, finally after 5 years I’ve found Azgarth. For some reason I don’t feel any hate or resentment for him putting me in this predicament that I am in now. Being stuck in this world has been quite enjoyable. Even though in our home world Runa, I was King of Kings, ruler of the known world. Here I’m in a much less favorable position, but the perks of life here make it much more appealing. The aging process reverts to a much more youthful appearance after a few ascensions, even though I just turned 45 recently, I don’t look a day older than 30. It makes me wonder if we stop dying from old age at a certain point in progression.

With Azgarth standing there with a stupid look on his face, I knew instantly he wasn’t who he once was, he must have lost his memory like a few others I have met. Raven who was my spymaster was about to explain.

“I understand he lost his memory, Azgarth wouldn’t willingly walk into my castle without an army behind him, trust me…Raven step out.”

She nodded and left the room.

Azgarth had an uncomfortable look on his face as I examined him. He’s so weak looking. When I last saw him, he was a middle-aged man, so he wasn’t like in his prime of course like when he was in my army slashing down my foes on the front lines, but he still was a fearsome man before the wormhole. His gaunt features on his face was disturbing, he barely had any body fat, his legs were like twigs.

I broke into a smile and walked toward him.

“Brother! So glad to have you back finally!” I pulled him into a hug.

He was stiff, accompanied with a confused face.

“I’m your brother?”

“Of course you are, but not in blood.” I chuckled.

“Ah, ok. So aren’t we enemies or something?”

I paused for a moment, in a way we were, but that was very recent and he doesn’t need to know about it. Even if he remembered I betrayed him, Azgarth understood why. In the words of the old Azgarth, ‘no hard feelings, it’s just business’ I almost let out a chuckle when I thought of how many times he has said that to people he’s about to kill.

“No we’ve never been enemies, after the ten year campaign; there was nothing left to conquer. I had issues I guess you can say with the Lords throughout much of the southern kingdoms. My solution was you, to create a boogeyman to keep those disloyal Lords up at night. They needed a reason for my protection. The reason was you and your band of rebels. When I had issues in a certain area with taxes I’d pull my army from the town, they would think they’ve won in a way, like they succeeded in exiting my empire, until you showed up causing chaos, which is what you do best. Once they realize that they need my support to fight you off, I get my taxes and support, then they get my protection, by then you and your band is already solving some other problem for me. I tell you these Lords were so scared of you that they begged me to send my troops; they’d do anything for it. Best part about it is no one suspected that we were in on it, even our own men didn’t know, it was a secret just me and you. I plan on doing something similar here if you would join me again…brother.”

I held my grin doing my best to convince him, I put out a hand for him to shake. Azgarth could be my solution to these humans from other planets doing their own thing, we need to combine our efforts now if we want to compete against the other elements, most these ‘royals’ don’t believe my reports of seeing them from our scouting missions. However, it is hard to cross into the other borders through the thick forests and mountains flooded with strong monsters. It’s just a matter of time until a path is carved, we’ll have to be ready for them.

Azgarth reluctantly reached out and shook my hand.

“To be honest, I’ve got no direction at the moment, if you show me how to do something I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.” He said.

“Before we do anything yet, you need to get stronger, I can sense someone’s power and you’re a zero at the moment, which is fine. I need to fast track you to ascension 2 for my plans to start working; I have the perfect squad to put you in, for dungeon crawling. It’s the fastest way to progress here. Go to the barracks, Raven will show you and contact Sergeant Major Bartimus. Tell him you are the newest member of Squad 82.”

Azgarth gave a sort of awkward nod then walked away, he was a bit odd before I suppose, but talking to this empty block felt wrong for some reason. He was once the man who made armies flee just hearing that he was on the opposing force, when they saw his masterwork gold armor on the field they would do all they can to stay away from that part. That’s Azgarth the Madman of Stonehelm that I need, not this fool that couldn’t scare a puppy.

I sighed while walking to my desk; I sat down and stretched for a moment.

I’m sure if he’s just a little bit like the old Azgarth then he will be good enough I suppose

*

That went quite well, even though I know he was lying about something. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Walking to the entrance of the Castle I went by the guards that stopped me before, they looked agitated that I was freely able to do what I want, but I didn’t stick around for them to try anything.

Raven was trying to watch me without me knowing again but failed, I don’t know why I can spot her so easily, it’s like my eyes can’t stop analyzing my surrounding. She was on the fourth floor of a building looking at me through the window. She noticed that I caught her again and looked angry. She opened the window enough for her to climb out and gracefully flipped in the air landing softly on the ground, this caused a lot of attention to the people around us. A fall like that would usually break someone’s legs at least.

“Let’s go…” Raven mumbled.

I followed her a short distance through the streets, the barracks wasn’t very far away. I entered a gate to a large open courtyard full of people training, groups of people were in formations, others being taught where they need to stand in battle. Most of them looked quite clumsy. There was a man sitting on a chair watching all the troops training, he wore quite nice looking plate armor, it seemed he was training quite recently as well because he was sweating. Short blond hair, light skin, and a strong build. He was maybe in his early twenties, but he had a very mature look, he most likely looks young because he has ascended.

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The man made eye contact with me and for a small moment he was still. I grabbed my sword on my back as he had a hand on a hilt of one of his.

He’s going to strike

“Oh stop Bart it! He’s with us now.” Raven said casually, as if we weren’t about to fight to the death.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to have this traitor in our midst. Who authorized this?”

“Oh you know just the man you think is God.” Raven had that devious smile she wore when she was toying with people.

He glared; it was obvious he wasn’t too fond of her antics.

“Also he will be the newest member of Squad 82. They are still tracked to go to the dungeon tomorrow, correct?”

“Yes…They do need a fighter for Team Bravo…If this is what King Johannes wants then I suppose sending him with them wouldn’t be bad, they definitely need one more to complete the maximum number of ten people.”

Bartimus was in conflict with what was transpiring, it was obvious he had ill will toward me, but he couldn’t refuse an order. These type of hardheaded people are the hardest to deal with, but also good if they are receiving your orders.

“Squad 82 is over in the far corner of the courtyard now, might as well meet them now, the Squad Leader Polly can give you all the essentials for tomorrow…Dismissed.” Bartimus said while waving us away.

I headed toward the group on the far side when Raven spoke.

“Hey! I got some things to do, you got stuff handled right? Well anyways good luck, see ya!” She gave my upper arm a punch that almost knocked me down.

“Oh sorry! I must not know my own strength!” she gave a slight wink with that smile of hers and walked off.

The message was clear; she can kill me if she wanted to.

A group of four of them were talking when I walked up; they slowly stopped talking when one with mail armor noticed me.

“Hey how’s it going?” the man also held a spear and shield, he was an average looking man with short brown hair, he held a fake smile when talking to me.

“I’m joining Squad 82…I was told you were them.”

After I spoke they all looked at me, as if sizing me up, it wasn’t long until the expressions on their faces turned sour. In a way I don’t blame them, if I was going to be their comrade in battle I’d be slightly upset that I had someone with my obvious physical deficiency. There was one man with a genuine smile with a bow.

“Right…So it looks like you’re a fighter with that sword. Can you actually use it effectively? It looks heavy.”

I ignored the obvious rude question.

“Who’s in charge? I’m joining Team Bravo.”

“Well that would be me since I’m the Squad Leader. The name is Sergeant Polly. Who the fuck are you?” Polly obviously thought I should give a shit about rank structure since he mentioned his. The question put me in deep thought, I now know this body is named Azgarth, but I’m not Azgarth. Azgarth to me is more like someone I just look like. I don’t think it’d be appropriate to take his name.

I must’ve been thinking about this for awhile, because when I looked at everyone they had confused faces, like ‘does this guy not even know his own name?’ So I said the first thing that came to mind.

“Uhh…Fifty-three…”

This caused even more confusion. The man with the bow started laughing while Polly just closed his eyes and pinched his nose with his fingers, the other two, a man and a woman both wearing white robes just sighed.

“Alright Fifty-three, I don’t know if they give you numbered names on your planet or something, but it’s really strange. I’ve had a long day and I really don’t have time for this shit. Unfortunately, we need you, and without someone out front taking the brunt of the damage, then Bravo won’t survive. You being here makes it so Alpha doesn’t have to babysit this group. There’s a bunk inside the building with a chest, in it are supplies and two bags to put it in, make sure you bring it all, the equipment was originally for a man that was the fighter of this team, but he deserted when he heard the news that we are going to the dungeon. The survival rate for a squad to come back is about 25%. The problem we had was filling the spot, we were prepared to go with nine people, but if you come…I’d say it’s better than to have no one at all…So welcome to the squad. I’ll see you in the morning at the cave entrance.”

Polly walked off muttering to himself, leaving me with the other three that made up Team Bravo.

“My name’s Edward, but you can call me Ed, I’m the only Ranger of our Squad and also the designated scout. I have a sharpshooting skill that lets me shoot with incredible accuracy for 10 seconds, and I can lay firetraps that explode. My animal aspect is a dog, I only have one ability from it. It’s a passive that works all the time; it gives me a greater sense of smell.” He was the man with the genuine smile, he had dark skin and black curly hair with a tall lean body.

“I’m Isabelle, the Cleric. Alpha has one as well, but he doesn’t have the shield ability like I do.” Isabelle had a mace in her hand as she raised it slightly in my direction; a thin layer of energy outlined my skin. She then attacked my forearm with her mace catching me off guard, the energy on my skin shattered, evaporating in the air.

“It’s good for one hit then leaves; people say it’s quite rare to get this ability in the beginning. I even have a light heal ability. My squirrel aspect allows me to climb walls, trees, or whatever fast, and when I activate my tail I can use it to swipe people causing them to fall if they aren’t paying attention, I can’t use it very often though.” She said with a slight cockiness in her voice. She had long brown hair, fair skin, a plain face, short, and flat body. Her eyes were a surprisingly beautiful green.

“I’m Tom and I’m a Mage. I shoot fireballs and I have ability to snare stuff as well. I have the crow aspect, the ability it gives works for ten minutes; it’s a bit hard to explain to someone as yourself. If I had to sum it up it increases the speed I think, and makes me really good at problem solving” Tom’s monotone voice and expression made it clear he didn’t want to be part of this conversation. He was average height with black hair and brown eyes, his skin tone was tan and he had slanted eyes.

The group looked at me as if it was my turn.

“I have the Fighter class, I got a side step ability that allows me to quickly dodge, also a execute that allows me to kill something that is severely injured. I have a bird aspect that allows me to fly for an hour.” I didn’t want to tell them about my regenerative ability, because an instinct told me not to show all the cards I hold to a bunch of strangers, information is power. The vagueness of my aspect seemed to bother Tom, but they all seemed to like that I can fly, it’s quite rare apparently.

They showed me where my bunk was, and they left to their own bunks to go to sleep, it was quite late. I asked where Alpha was and they said they left to go to the tavern, which didn’t seem wise, but they must’ve been real certain in their capabilities.

I opened my chest to see lots of small vials of red and blue stuff, Ed said the red vial heals you instantly a little and the blue your mana which is the source for magic, he said as a Fighter I have no magic abilities, apparently the aspect abilities don’t run on mana. I won’t need the mana potions, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring it to have extras for everyone. There was rope, paper, five canteens, pen, ink, two bags, clothes, and a flint. The flint was somewhat stupid because so many of us have fire abilities.

I looked at the small bags and then all the stuff I was supposed to fit in it. They really didn’t think I could fit everything in this did they? I opened up one of them and to my surprise the mouth of the bag kept expanding up to four feet, even though it was only a foot long length I put my arm inside and I almost had my shoulder completely in when I touched the bottom. This must have been some sort of magical bag.

I placed the vials neatly inside, closing the bag it still looked empty and weightless. I moved the bag around and then opened it, the vials were still neatly inside. The physical portion of the bag must not affect the contents inside. I then put the rest of the supplies inside; I placed my old backpack inside the chest. Where I’m going I won’t need it. The other small bag I didn’t have anything to put in it, but it will be useful to have on me for extra space.

I laid on the bunk and closed my eyes, it was quite possible the most comfortable I’ve ever been, I wasn’t even awake for a minute before I fell asleep.