CHAPTER XVI: FIFTY TIMES
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{02:56 LOCAL TIME 13TH MAY 1ME}
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LONG BEACH
PRIME
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< QUEST UPDATE >
{Kill 100 Feral Ghouls (100/100)}
{Find weakness is now Novice 7}
{Legacy Style Melee is now Novice 4}
{Experience until next level 161900/2000}
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“So let me get this straight.” Soto started, and Clyde rolled his eyes. “You teleported to another space and time instead of saving me because of another triggered effect. An effect that you then decide to upgrade. Which will probably trigger it even more often... Why?”
Clyde was going to snap a reply, but then he stopped himself. “I don’t know.” He looked back at the battlefield as the loot globes began to combine with each other. “I had learned a lot of Lore about the game there, and you know how I like Lore.”
“I do know you like that, which is why I thought you would enjoy this game in the first place, even if I didn’t think we wouldn’t be playing it until next year... this year... whatever. But you clearly didn’t think it through.” Soto sighed tiredly. “What happens the next time you disappear? We could get killed. It was pretty close twice for me. If you hadn’t come back when you did I have no doubt that good ole Sergeant Major Soto would have been dead.” He finished sadly.
“I think I was in a time loop because, I thought I was saving you from the original feral ghoul when I tackled the Lesser Ghoul.” Clyde shook his head. “I came back just in time thank Gaia.”
“Did you say Thank Gaia?” Soto rubbed his face. “Gaia had to have been the reason you were sent there in the first place. Bro if she finds out what we know she may come after us.” Soto looked around conspiratorially.
They sat next to Sugar’s prone body.
“I believe that is why the dragon made the LAW swear a Vow or Oath.” Clyde’s eyes react to a movement in his periphery.
It was just a homeless person, possibly the leader of their ragtag group, he looked better dressed than the others, which to be fair isn’t saying much. But it was like they were playing a game of red light, green light. The man froze every time Colonel or Soto looked at him. It was kind of comical so they had been messing with him for the past few minutes.
“This is getting annoying,” Soto said finally.
“We just killed more than fifty ghouls without breaking a sweat. Well except for the mini-boss. So naturally the NPCs will be scared of us. If this game played like a real-world game, I am surprised they aren’t running away from us.” Colonel said.
“Good point. It's like when we cleared that compound in Chattanooga after West Virginia.”
“Damn, I had forgotten about that. I see your memory is still intact.” Colonel replied. “Yeah, those civilians were super shook. Speaking of shook Soto.” Clyde got very serious. “If we are going to win this game we are way behind in power, what I saw in that solar system would put Dragon Ball to shame bro, right now we are at like Pac-Man tier right now.” The game had a subtle hold on him, he could feel it but didn’t want to resist it. He felt like this was the best way to grow. Embrace it.
“I am with you Jake, The job is never finished we just passed it on to the next generation. But now that we can be the best, I intend to be me.” Soto smirked. “If you ain’t Cav.” Soto started the calvary’s unofficial motto.
“You ain’t shit!” Colonel finished with a chuckle, besides everything that going on it was always good to be part of a team that had a motto.
“Well, what else did you do? You are still level two, how come you are this strong? I’m like...” Soto looked at his awaiting prompts.
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< CLASSES LEVEL UP X2 >
{The noble gains +6 to every Attribute except magic, +8 DEX, +2 INT, LUCK, and 2 free. All pools refilled.}
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< CLASS SKILLS LEVEL UP >
Class Skill: FOCUS SHOT(Active): Form a bullseye that both zooms and adds damage to any range weapon.
Zoom: 1.1-2.1. Additional Damage: 18%. Cast time: 5 seconds. Cost: 45 mana. Duration: 1 attack. Cool down: 45 seconds. Requirements: chant, Range weapon.
Class Skill: INSPIRE(Toggle): The Noble can spend mana to buff nearby allies. Remove any fear and prevent fear for 10 seconds. Resistances +18%. Cast Time: Instant. Cost: 5 mana per minute.
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“That is a solid amount of stats for your level at least as far as the knowledge I keep getting from my prompts and tooltip,” Colonel stated unsure how he knew it, but he knew, he knew it was right. “Is that from your titles?”
“Yep.” Soto beamed a smile.
“Yeah, Titles are dope.” Colonel agreed.
“Who you telling check this out.” Soto shared his noble title description and character sheet with him. “Yeah, titles are dope for sure,” Soto said rereading his over as well.
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< TITLE UPDATED >
{TITLE NAME: Dark Nobility
TITLE TIER: Legendary (upgradable)
{DESCRIPTION Dark Nobility is A title granted to the Soto Bloodline.
TITLE EFFECT: Nobility class gained: Dark Nobility class tree
RARE BONUS: Bloodline Stat gain; +3 to all but Magic per level per times Tier
PLATINUM BONUS: Bloodline Ability gain; Hide in shadow
DIAMOND BONUS: Bloodline weapon gain; Dark Head seeker(P)
EPIC BONUS: Defeat an enemy one tier above you. 2 more prerequisites LOCKED
LEGENDARY: Defeat an enemy two tiers above you. LOCKED}
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“Is that why you have two classes?” Clyde asked.
“Yep, I am technically four times your level, how come your stats are just as high as mine?”
“Definitely my titles. Here check them out.” He shared with Soto, then he looked at Soto’s Character sheet instead.
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< CHARACTER SHEET >
{TITLES: Dark Nobility, Retired War Veteran, War Hero, Soul Bound.
PLAYER NAME: CSM Soto
LEVEL: 8/8, EXP to next level [5040/9000]/[5040/9000]
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Noble Patriarch/Dark Ranger
RACE: Half-Human
POOLS:
HP 440/440 regen 126 HP per day
MP 175/175 regen 142 MP per hour
RESISTANCES:
Physical: 0%
Magical: 0%
Willpower: 0%
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:48 Dexterity:82 Constitution:44 Intelligence:60 Magic:1.75 Charisma:45 Luck: 56
Free Attributes:8
Current attribute gain per level:
Class: +3 to all except for magic
Class: +1 DEX, +1 INT, +1 LUCK +1 Free
Title: +3 Dexterity
EFFECTS:
SKILLS LIST:
Spells:
Inspire, Focus Shot
ABILITY LIST:
Title Abilities:
Hide in the shadow(S-9)
ACTIVE QUEST
Quest:
STOP THE OUTBREAK II
End of CS}
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“Dude, you are right your titles are kind of OP?” Soto said after a few seconds.
“They are pretty dope huh?” Colonel smiled.
“Bro, that is an understatement, without your titles, I would have no doubt that your stats would fall way behind my noble class in a few levels for sure.” Soto shook his head. “I don’t know how we get more of them, but they are needed.” He continued. “They are unique to the point that no one can game plan against you.” He was already planning to fight humans which was inevitable in games like this. Player verse player was a staple of this genre no doubt. “Especially in PVP.”
Soto’s eyed the prompt then looked up to the Colonel, then back to the prompts. Something was fishy. “These numbers were not adding up homie,” Soto said with incredulity.
Colonel shared the last two title updates he was keeping as icing on the cake. He sighed and went through his HUD clearing all of his prompts.
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< CONGRATULATIONS >
{For creating your own skill, you have been awarded an upgrade to your War Hero, Retired War Veteran, and Legendary Titles, An item upgrade token(placed in inventory), a choice of a new Bonus for Retired War Veteran title, and +10 to all Attributes expect magic +1 to magic.}
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
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“Don’t hold out me now, let me see those upgrades, come on.” Soto greedily asked Colonel almost giddy, before his jaw hit the floor.
The colonel was too busy going over his own prompts to see the myriad of facial expressions Soto was going through looking at the Upgraded Titles he had gotten, Clyde had leveled up.
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< CLASS LEVEL UP >
{The Legacy gains +7 to every Attribute except Magic, +10 CON, +4 CHA, LUCK. All pools refilled}
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< QUEST UPDATED >
{QUEST NAME: STOP THE OUTBREAK II
QUEST TYPE: Legacy (Legendary Chain)
DESCRIPTION: Something ominous has been unleashed on your local area, investigate for more updates. You have found Feral ghouls that means there is at least a lesser ghoul making the feral ones. After killing the feral ghouls you noticed they are multiplying that can only mean one thing...
Requirements: Find source of undead.
Objective 1: Talk to girl. 0/1
Objective 2: Find and kill 10 lesser ghouls. 10/10
Objective 3: Kill 100 feral ghouls. 100/100
Time limit: 23:59.58
Temporary bonus: Mana Regen is moderately increased.
Rewards: 22000 EXPERIENCE and Legacy boots
Failure penalty: Death, zombified}
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“Is it me, or did the quest experience go up,” Colonel said, but Soto wasn’t paying any attention to him fully engrossed in reading his upgrades.
Colonel shook his head. ‘How quickly he forgets about his surroundings when not in combat. Crazy gamers.’ He wasn’t going to let it happen again.
He scanned the whole area and looked at the map. Then the Homeless guy... who froze again when he saw the colonel looking. Clyde rolled his eyes. “Not my monkey, not my circus.” He looked back to his HUD. His map would alert him if any hostiles were getting close.
He read his updated Character Sheet. He adjusted it to be easier to break down.
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< CHARACTER SHEET >
TITLES:
Legacy(Ru), Retired War Veteran+(D),War Hero+(D), Soul Bound(D), Legendary+(L+) Forger(L)
PLAYER NAME:
Colonel
LEVEL: 2, EXP to next level 0/3000
Free EXP: 161900
CASTE: Legacy. CLASS: Legacy. RACE: Human(Legacy).
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POOLS:
HP 700/700 regen 139HP per day
MP 590/590 regen 133MP per hour
DR: 32/32 regen 1 per second
RESISTANCES:
Physical: 0% Magical: 0% Willpower: 0%
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CULTIVATOR LEVEL(N/A)
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ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:53 Dexterity:53 Constitution:70 Magic:5.9 Intelligence:63 Charisma:69 Luck:65
Free Attributes:66
Current attribute gain per level:
Class: +1 to all except for magic
Title: +6 CON (RWV+), +4 CHA, CON, LUCK(WH+), +6 to all except magic(L+)
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EFFECTS:
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SKILLS LIST:
General(4/13);
Find weakness(N-2),Defensive Stance(S-9),Legacy style melee(N-4),Disassemble(S-0)
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ABILITY LIST:
Combat:
Non Combat:
World map(MAX) Soul Storage(MAX) Analyze(N-7) Speech-craft(MAX):-English(MAX)
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ACTIVE QUEST
Stop the outbreak II
Road to RUNIC
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PROFESSIONS: Choose one!
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End of CS}
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Soto sputtered “Bro, what the fuck?!” He eyed Colonel. “How the hell did I not get the Soul Bound title, seriously? I killed over tens times the amount you have killed.” He said looking at his own blaring prompts. “Seriously bro, your brother is really cheating right now...” He huffed “Now I am mad because he is cheating me.” He looked back through his own Character sheet. “Oh... you know what? It looks like I did get the original Title, I just didn’t look at the Prompt. Okay, so all I need to do is just create a Skill-Set to upgrade my titles more, sounds easy enough since I don’t have any general skills to begin with.” He rolled his eyes looking at Colonel and speaking sarcastically.
“Yeah easy enough. It can be class skills, bonuses, or abilities I think, maybe not abilities.” Clyde responded with an equal amount of snark. But also instinctually knowing as well. His Forger title was feeding him information about the game world constantly.
“Cheats on cheats on cheats. I can’t afford to give up any of those either. You can of course.” He shook his head at the unfairness of it all. “Why is my luck stat so low? On a good note you will be a great guide having all the events and quests on the mini-map is clutch, games stopped doing that a while ago, so I’m glad they brought that back at least as an option, I don’t have it yet, so you will be our wiki.” He pouted.
Colonel knew Soto was right, he was getting a lot for just creating a skill. He academically understood it had perfect synergy, and was a unique skill, or Skill-Set, but for a level two character he was getting pretty powerful bonuses, he liked it. ‘Why complain when you are fortunate, just pay it forward.’ His father used to always say.
”You almost completed the quest. How come you haven’t talked to the girl yet?”
“We were a little bit busy fighting for our lives,” Soto responded. “How many title upgrades did you get man? Your only level... what one?” Then he looked at his Team interface. “Level two now.”
Colonel shrugged. “I told you that I barely looked at them I was caught in some time loop.”
“You’re such a cheat character man, please teach me your cheating ways, I will be a great apprentice I promise.” He pleads reading the next prompt. “Bruh, this ridiculous you are going to be a dope tank now, even without active skills, which is mad crazy to me by the way.” He paused “Where is your Defensive Stance? Oh right, upgrading.”
“Yeah, but it should be finished. Wait a minute, it's been months, how come you haven’t talked to the girl in that time? No way you have been fighting this whole time.”
Soto ignored Colonel completely still dreaming of being an OP character. “I am literally never taking a defensive power. Straight Burst damage for me from now on. Call me the porcelain cannon.” Soto beamed at the prompt as he stood up dusting himself off.
“Are you sure you want to be called that?” Colonel looked at his brother crazily.
“Yes, I am.” He said defiantly.
“You sure, sure?” Clyde verified.
Soto thought for a second, “Yep, I stand by my words for sure.”
“Okay, porcelain cannon it is. Your alabaster skin does make sense, so I can get behind it. Summertime is going to be rough on you homie.” The black man chuckled at his battle buddy geeking out like a middle schooler, who had not only found out that the sweetest girl in their class was into Dungeon and Dragons, but she was the Dungeon master of the local group and had just invited him to play.
“You know I have no idea what alabaster means so...” Soto gives the universal sign of come on man.
“It's what they made statues out of at least back in the day, around the Mediterranean,” Clyde said, being a decent student of history.
Soto rolled his eyes “Don’t hate, you know I’m tan, I’m Puerto Rican.” He was not tan at all, Soto spent most of his post-military life gaming, and sunlight got in the way of that.
“Super tan.” Clyde blatantly lied with a thumbs up and a head nod.
Ignoring him, Soto continued to read and then looked over to Sugar. “Maybe, eventually she will do damage over time, or heal so we can round out our team. I really think we got lucky.” He winced right after saying it.
He looked around frantically, before knocking on his head with his knuckles, and sighed relaxing.
Clyde looked at his map and saw no red dots, then turned to Soto. “What is wrong with you Sergeant Major?” The Colonel chastised him exasperated. “Are you actually trying to tempt fate here, I want nothing to do with that, the pain in this game is too real. Keep that fucking nonsense out of your mouth.” He chided his blasphemous teammate.
“I know, I know. My bad, we make our own luck, we make our own luck. I have no idea what the hell I was thinking, it just slipped out. I won’t let that happen again... sir!” He smiled sheepishly at the prompts again. “That's what she said.”
Colonel eyed him with a twitching left eyebrow, seriously trying to make him feel his disappointment, but Soto was a master of moving on from his mistakes, even when others were still dwelling on them. “I hate you, you know that right?” Clyde said exhausted.
“No, you don’t.” It honestly was what made him a great player, he was a goldfish, after he did anything bad, he forgot it, and moved on right away. He always turned losses into lessons, Da Bronx way.
Soto looked up at Colonel with a smile. “This Sugar Chick is dope bro. You want to see what a mage class can really do now that she isn’t tired, without support, and running for her life?” Soto showed genuine curiosity.
Clyde looked at his team interface. “Holy shit.” He said surprised
“That is an understatement, Colonel.” Soto said, “She has enough experience to specialize.”
“We do have a quest objective to talk to her, so we can do that before or after she does.”
“I would say before.” A sensual feminine voice said seemingly from next to them.
They were immediately on high alert. Soto readied his bow and nocked a bladed arrow, then fired it in the opposite direction of the voice. He nocked another just as he let the first one fly and fired again.
Colonel wasn’t idle he stood up and looked at an absolutely beautiful dark-skinned... elf. He analyzed her as she just stood there looking... Elfish long pointy ears and all. He put himself between Sugar’s prone body and the newcomer.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Adia
LEVEL: ???
CASTE:? CLASS:? RACE: Desert Elf
POOLS:
HP ?? regen ?HP per day
MP ?? regen ??MP per hour
RESISTANCES
Physical: ?
Magical: ?
Willpower: ?
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:? Dexterity:? Constitution:? Intelligence:?
Magic:? Charisma:? Luck: ?
EFFECTS: Smug}
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She smiled at Colonel’s reaction to his Analyze ability. Colonel was certain they were going to die. But he had to smile back. Which caught the Elf off guard by her reaction. ‘Of course, there’s desert elves.’ He thought with a bigger smile beside himself.
“That’s a good tank there.” Said a voice that can only be called dwarven from any game Soto had ever played, as a short stout dark skin dwarf with reddish dreads and a braided beard. He was holding the arrows in one hand. His full plate mail armor was no more of an impediment than the arrows in his hand. “How did you see me? The dwarf asked Soto.
Colonel spared a glance and analyzed the dwarf, this time he didn’t smile as he shared both prompts with Soto. They were in trouble for sure.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Bour
LEVEL: ???
CASTE:? CLASS:? RACE: Desert Dwarf
POOLS:
HP ?? regen ?HP per day
MP ?? regen ??MP per hour
RESISTANCES
Physical: ?
Magical: ?
Willpower: ?
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:? Dexterity:? Constitution:? Intelligence:?
Magic:? Charisma:? Luck: ?
EFFECTS:?}
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[Seriously sir your Analyze sucks.] Soto on the other hand laughed out loud after reading them. “Bro I just realized that I have never seen a black Elf before one, and two, I didn’t know that black dwarves still sounded like the white ones.”
“I am actually speaking a completely different language your Adventure’s interface is translating for you, so however I sound is up to your interruption of my voice.” The dwarf said.
“OH,” Soto said turning red. “Wait, am I racist? No, my bias is also audio, that's good to know...”
“Black Elves are a powerful psionic ELDER race they are the ruling caste of the dark elves. I am certainly not one of them.” The woman spoke to Soto. “We mean you no harm, if we had, you would be dead many times over.”
Soto and Colonel knew that, and that was why they were talking in team speak their faces not betraying anything.
[...How can we beat these two?] Colonel asked in mock panic.
[I can’t see how. They are WAY higher level than us. Maybe they will choke on our corpses if they eat us.] Soto answered sarcastically.
[Bro that's a little dark isn’t it?] Colonel replied.
[The world’s a dark place brother. But seriously I think we’re fucked.] Soto retorted.
“Are you having a strategy meeting in team speak? That is really smart.” The dwarf said with a smile. “But like my comrade has said, we don’t mean you any harm. As a matter of fact, we are your allies of sorts. We were sent by our mutual boss, at the Adventurers guild.”
“...we are here to help round out your team and provide knowledge of the GREAT GAME that your narrator or tooltip can’t provide you,” Adia said from right between them as she moved Sugar’s hair out of her face as she slept seemingly peacefully on the ground.
Colonel reacted, he spun on his heels and swung a backhand at Adia trying to get her off of Sugar. Adia easily ducked under the blow and then avoided the follow-up roundhouse kick again, easily. She didn’t even look in his direction as she dodged him until Colonel had over-committed with one of his attacks, he was off balance, and Adia suddenly appeared behind him and pushed him over with a kick.
Soto, who was keeping an eye on Bour when he heard a surprised yelp from Colonel. As soon as he heard it he blinked only to see Bour in between him and Colonel. Soto shot an arrow immediately, and much to his shock and awe Bour caught it just inches off of Soto’s bow.
“Good shot. I had to actually try this time.” Bour said playfully. He didn’t look like he tried at all.
“The teammates were speechless. Their sheer stat difference was astronomical. They both could feel a pressure that they had never felt before. Unbeknownst to Colonel and Soto they are being affected by the sheer Tier disparity of the two adventures.” The narrator said.
Colonel heard the narrator and spared Soto a glance. Who looked at him with a similar expression.
[You heard that?] Colonel asked.
[Well duh, it was loud as hell... wait, they didn’t hear it did they?] Soto answered then noticed the two beings were content with watching them.
“I think we should give them a chance to speak, we do have an adventure’s guild quest,” Colonel said out loud.
“Wait what we do? Since when?” Soto’s eyes unfocused, “Oh shit, I didn’t even see this.”
“Yeah, this one and the Dragon had said he would send mentors.” Colonel finally remembered after the craziness of returning.
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< CHIME >
{CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED A QUEST}
{Quest Name: The Adventurers Guild I
Quest Type: Legendary+(MULTIVERSE)
Description: Adventurers are the players of THE GREAT GAME that live the game as real life. Even when all signs point to the game being real life, adventurers ignore that silly thing called logic, and lean into living in the moment. What is the sense in caring if its real anyway? Its all an Adventure!
Objective: Become a hero(Completed)
Objective: Save 100 or more people(2/100)
Objective: Complete 10 events(0/10)
Objective: Clear 3 Dungeons(0/3)
Objective:Get 3 General powers to expert(0/3)
Time limit:None
Temporary bonus: Multiversal Translator.
Rewards: Adventurers Guild title, signet ring, Salary and four horsemen QUEST line.
Failure: None}
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Adia smiled at Colonel. “At least you didn’t actually try to kill us it wouldn’t have ended well.” She gave a cocky smile.
“Yes lad, well done on defending your teammate even when out-leveled by fifty times.”
“Fifty times?” The teammates say in unison.
“Yes of course we were sent here, and our classes were suppressed, on my home planet I would have been level two hundred and twenty-nine.”
“Almost three hundred for me,” Adia said at their reactions.
Soto turned to Colonel.
[I think we should listen to them.] He said with an awkward look.
[No shit. What choice do we have?] Colonel replied.
“Should we wake this one up, she’s got the hero title as well,” Adia said.
“Casters are not my specialty, best you do it,” Bour said handing Soto back his arrows with a smile.
“I only specialize in killing them.” Adia shrugged as Colonel and Soto tensed. “Oh relax, we are here as mentors. So we won’t hurt any of you...much.” She smirked.