After the commotion from his punch had died down Leah explained to him that the military caravan would be leaving tomorrow for the main base of operations, closer to the front. Raph spent the rest of the day following Leah and asking her questions about the army; she wouldn’t tell him anything specific about the Shepherds just yet. Raph went back to the workshop that night and p;acked up the few things he had including any interesting pieces of metal he found in the workshop just in case. He also wrote a note for Isaac just to explain what had happened and why he’d left at such short notice.

The next morning came around and Raph made his way back to the camp after he locked up the shop. He’d brought with him a small backpack to distract from the fact he was wearing a storage ring. What he found there instead of the mass of tents was around twenty or so carriages being loaded up and preparing to move. Unable to see Leah anywhere, Raph walked up to Commander Whitlock.

“Good morning Commander.” Raph said with a smile.

“Recruit Smith.” Whitlock answered back.

“Ahhh sir, do you perchance know where Leah is?” Raph asked, a little disturbed by the Commander’s greeting.

“Major Raycraft is currently in the castle, she will be back momentarily.” He explained. “And since you aren’t busy, you can pack up this carriage.” He then pointed to all of the supplies on the floor near the carriage, with that he left.

‘Well I guess I’m part of the army now, so I should probably do as he says.’ Raph began packing the specified carriage so they would be ready to go. He had to move boxes and trunks containing all sorts; papers, clothes, potions, and everything in between. It took a while but just after Raph finished Commander Whitlock called everyone together.

“Alright everyone, last checks. We move out in twenty.” He said, after briefing a few of the officers.

Raph didn’t notice when but Leah was now standing in the crowd that the Commander had summoned. He walked over to her intending to get orders.

“Good morning Major.” He said as he got closer.

Leah turned around to face Raph. “Ah, good morning recruit.” She said with a smile. “We are going to stay with the caravan back to the forward base and gather the rest of the Shepherds that are staying there. Then we’ll make our way to the Shepherds forward base. It will take about a week or so, are you ready?”

‘A week? Wow, is this country that large, huh.’ Raph thought as Leah explained. “Yeah, I have all of my things.” He said as Leah gave him a scrutinizing look.

“You really travel light huh.” She said while she looked at his bag.

“Yeah, I guess.” Raph scratched the back of his head.

“Ok, let’s get to our carriage.” Leah said as she led him to the back of the caravan to one of the carriages she would be using. She asked Raph to put his things in the carriage and wait, so he did. Leah came back after a few minutes with a large backpack.

“Here put this one.” She said and gave the bag to Raph.

He picked the bag up with a frown, it had to weigh like four to five hundred kilos.

Leah saw the frown on Raph's face, “you didn’t think I would let you just sit on your ass the whole journey, did you?” She looked at his reaction and continued. “No, you won’t be riding with me, you’ll run with us.”

“Run?” Raph said. “You want me to run for a week? Wearing this?”

“Yes.” Leah said and ignored his protests.

The caravan left a few minutes later with Raph walking/jogging to keep up. The days passed like this with Raph keeping up alongside Leah’s carriage carrying increasingly more weight each day. He gained a few more skill points in End. and Str. by the end of the week. At the end of the seventh day they were travelling through a kind of meadow, with the occasional dotting of trees. They had just crested a hill when Raph saw the main base, it was expansive. The base was centred around some large temporary buildings and it was surrounded by tents of all sizes. When they arrived Leah’s carriage broke off from the caravan and she led him to one of the buildings in the base.

The building was a bunkhouse for those only staying temporarily and it was where the two others that had been accepted into the Shepherds where staying. They found the other two recruits sparring in one of the training rooms, so Raph and Leah let them finish their match. The two other recruits were a man and a woman, they both looked around Raph’s age. The man looked frail and had a skeleton beside him. The woman was short with red hair and was summoning fireballs left and right. The match didn’t last too long with the woman just edging out victory with a well timed fireball. They duo turned to the door to find Leah and Raph watching them so they walked over.

“Major!” They saluted when they saw Leah.

“At ease.” Leah said. “Raph, I’d like to introduce you to Oscar and Sophia. Oscar, Sophia, this is Raph, the last recruit.”

Oscar stuck his hand out and spoke with a voice very uncharacteristic of someone with a skeleton warrior by their side. “A pleasure, Raph.”

Raph returned the handshake and greeting. Sophia merely nodded his way so Raph did the same. After the greetings Leah explained that they would be heading out in around an hour, after she dealt with some things in the main base. She also explained that it would take two days to get to the forward Shepherd base. Leah left the trio in the training room while she attended to her duties.

“So.” Oscar said with a smile. “Want to spar?”

Raph looked him over, considering the request.

Identify

Oscar ??? -- Necromancer Lv.65

‘I could have guessed as much, the skeleton was a bit of a give away.’

“Yeah why not,” Raph said. “ Weapons and skills?”

“Weapons if you want, but no skills for now. We don't want to wreck the place.” Oscar added.

“Yeah, probably for the best.” Raph said as placed down the bag he had on and pretended to take his hammers out of it. He then made his way to the training area.

Oscar gave him a bit of an odd look when he pulled out the hammers but shook it off.

“Ready?” Oscar asked.

Raph got ready at the edge of the arena and nodded at Oscar.

Oscar's skeleton was pretty basic except for the fact it had a longsword in its hand, Rpah thought he’d have no trouble dealing with it. The skeleton began to push forward towards Raph, sword held in front. Raph decided to feel out the strength of it so he moved to intercept. The skeleton swung its sword in a wide arc, Raph dodged and countered with a hammer strike to its shoulder. The strike rang true and the skeleton’s humerus shattered on impact, now the skeleton only had use of one arm. Raph decided to duck around the skeleton’s next swing and go for Oscar, he moved quickly and came up close to Oscar. Just before he was on top of him. Oscar raised his hand forward, clearly casting a spell. Bone spikes came out of the ground in front of him, trying to impale Raph. He reacted in time and struck both hammers down on the spikes, obliterating them. With the obstacles out of the way Raph closed the distance on Oscar and pretended to strike the unarmed Necromancer.

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“I YIELD!” Oscar shouted, before the strike landed.

“Well fought,” Raph said with a smile.

“You destroyed Keith’s arm!” Oscar sighed.

“Keith?” Raph asked

“Yes, this is Keith. My partner.” Oscar replied again.

‘Keith? I don’t think this guy is quite all there.’ Raph looked at the skeleton. ‘I guess it does kind of look like a Kieth.

“Sorry about that, I just wanted to test his durability. I didn’t think it would destroy the bone.” Raph said.

“Ahh, it’s alright. You hit really hard.” Oscar sighed again.

“Yeah, I kind of do.” Raph said. After the fight they just waited around telling each other about their tests and how they managed to get selected for the shepherds. Oscar got in because apparently necromancers that aren’t evil, are in short supply. Sophia had some specialized fire mage class and she was good at fighting so Leah gave her a chance when the caravan passed through their village.

Leah returned not long after looking exasperated by whatever she had to do. She got them to gather their things and then led the trio to the carriage. It was the same again for the journey to the Shepherds camp, they were running with the carriage. Raph was given by far the heaviest bag with the others only given small packs for the run. They travelled north west up closer to the front line, by the end of the second day they saw the Shepherds base. Situated in a forest grove, the layout was similar to that of the main base except smaller. The buildings were wooden and the whole compound had a wooden wall surrounding it.

When the carriage rolled up to the gate they were stopped by two guards wearing what appeared to be camouflaged combat gear with a ghillie cloak over the top. Which Raph thought was completely badass.

Identify

??? -- Guerilla Lv.108

??? -- Shadow Scout Lv.112

‘Woah, ok. So these are the Shepherds then,’ Raph was impressed.

The guards recognised Leah as she got out of the carriage to speak with them briefly, they then knocked on the gate in a rhythm and it opened to let them in. The base was busy, there were people running around left and right. Leah brought the trio to a building that had basic beds in it and she told them to grab an empty bed and leave their stuff there. Then they were to be placed in squads. As the moved Leah explained the structure of the shepherds was that there were five people to a squad with one of them being the leader. The three of them would be placed in separate squads and they would train together with them.

They ended up in a training area on one side of the base where two men and a woman were waiting.

“Oscar, Veronica, Raph.” Leah began. “These are the captains of your squads.”

Leah walked over to the large man on the right of the three, he was very tall and thin, with a sharp nose and a focused glare. “Captain Fleming, will be your superior Oscar, as part of Squad 15.”

Next, Leah indicated the woman who was standing in the middle, she was rather plain except for her eyes, which were a piercing blue color. “Veronica, you will be stationed with Captain Taylor in Squad 7.”

The final man was older than the other two, well into middle age. He stood laid back with the hair at his temples greying and a rather amused look on his face.

“And finally Captain Fitzgerald, you have the pleasure of taking Raph into Squad 20.” Leah said somewhat sarcastically.

Identify

Cpt. Fitzgerald -- Cursebearer Lv. 142

‘Cursebearer? Huh that sounds... potent, he's pretty strong then I take it.’ Raph walked over to his new commanding officer.

“A Pleasure to meet you Captain.” Raph said as he stuck out his hand.

“Kid.” Fitzgerald said as he nodded to Raph when he returned the handshake.

At this moment a messenger ran up to Leah and whispered something in her ear, her face betrayed the shock of the message.

“Raph, before you go off with squad 20, you need to come with me.” Leah said. “Captain, I will have him back to you as soon as possible.”

Fitzgerald just laughed at that. “Go easy on him, Major.”

Leah led Raph away into the main building of the base.

“What’s happening?” Raph asked, confused.

“Bishop is here, and he wants to meet you.” Leah said as serious as can be.

“Bishop?” Raph asked.

“He’s the general in command of the Shepherds.” Leah explained.

“A general huh. Is he strong?” Raph asked jokingly.

Leah stopped in place. “Raph. This is not the time to mess around, Bishop is a legend in the army. He’s not strong, he is the singular reason why the Breawen empire hasn't made a real move in years.”

“Riiight.” Raph strained. “Ok, gotcha. Don’t mess with Bishop.”

“Come on.” She said as they walked through the corridors of the building. They eventually reached a small office, Leah knocked.

“Come in, Major.” A voice spoke from inside the room.

Leah opened the door to a room that didn’t seem fit for a general, it was cramped with files everywhere. The man called Bishop was sitting at the desk, he looked to be around sixty with buzz cut grey hair. As Raph entered the room he locked they locked eyes, he got the same feeling from Bishop as he did from Isaac. Their eyes were filled with experience, and contained a power that lurked beneath their calm exterior.

“Take a seat.” Bishop said, Leah and Raph took the only two seats that were in the office.

“I’m sure you know by now, I’m Bishop, and I am incharge of the Shepherds.” He said. “First off Leah, good job on getting three people for the recruitment. That’s three more than I honestly expected.”

As bishop was talking to Leah, Raph decided he had to try.

Identify

Bishop -- ??? Lv.???

‘I guess that was to be expected, though something tells me he isn’t as strong as Isaac.’ Raph pondered to himself.

Bishop continued. “And now to our little anomaly here.” He turned to focus on Raph as he felt himself get scrutinized. “Raph, could you explain to me why it says on here you are a Paladin.”

“Uhh, I don’t understand sir.” Raph said, a little on edge.

Leah giggled at Bishop’s question, to which he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Well, you clearly aren’t a Paladin.” Bishop said matter-of-factly.

“Umm sir, I…” Raph was lost.

“Just so you know Raph, while you were on the way here I did some digging. You have a very interesting profile I must say.” Bishop went on. “Disregarding Sir Isaac Murphy’s interest in you, to do what you have done in such a short amount of time is nothing short of amazing. Which is why I ask again: why can I not see your class?”

By this point Raph was sweating and Leah was staring at him shocked after the mention of Isaac. “Raph, you can trust us.” She said, trying to comfort him.

Raph took a deep breath. “Did you speak with Director Mitchell from the Guild?”

“Yes, I am informed on what happened there.” Bishop answered.

“Well he couldn’t see my class, so I was put down as a Paladin.” Raph tried to explain.

“He couldn’t see your class either?” Leah blurted out.

Bishop ignored Leah, “So your class can’t be analyzed?”

“Correct, it can’t be analyzed.” Raph paused. “It was something Isaac helped me with. If you need to know I can tell you.”

Bishop pondered for a moment. “Raph, I would like you to tell me. But please rest assured, I will not make a record of this and it will never leave this room. I know Leah feels the same.” He turned to Leah, she nodded.

Raph sighed. “Well I guess that’s fine. My second class Is; Metallurgist of Isaac.”

Leah exclaimed in shock and Bishop’s eyes widened. “Well, I can say with certainty that you are the only person to have that class. That is a surprise, does Isaac know what your class is?”

“I don’t think so.” Raph said somewhat confused.

“Hmmmm.” Bishop was just making thoughtful noises.

“And my first class.” Raph paused. “Is. Well. It’s called; Destroyer”

Leah was intrigued by the name but nothing more. Bishop however upon the reveal was frozen in place and he started breathing heavily. It took him a few moments to calm down.

“I understand now.” Bishop said solemnly as he stared into the distance.

“It’s fine, thank you for telling me,” he continued. “That’s all, Leah please take Raph back to his quad.”

After he spoke he became very quiet, so Leah and Raph left the office.

“That was odd.” Raph said.

“Yes, it was.” Leah replied. “What does that class mean Raph, Destroyer?”

“I honestly don’t know, but it’s powerful.” Raph said.

“Yeah,”