The morning after they got back from the Zone was a bit of a blur for Kyle, he had ended up crashing the moment his head hit the pillow and sleeping in far past the time that he would usually get up, not that anyone blamed him.

He was pleased to discover that his father had been asked to take Denzel’s place as the captain of Farholt’s guards by Warren, there were still a few details to work out that would have to wait until a detachment from the Guards’ main headquarters arrived to take Denzel into custody but as far as most people were concerned Jerald already had the job.

Jerald had been less pleased to discover that not only had he been railroaded into taking the position as captain by the other villagers, but his own son had convinced his friends that destroying equipment belonging to the guards was a good idea. Emma had managed to calm him down a little by explaining that she had approved of Warren’s decision but she too was irritated by the amount of damage that had been done to the equipment that Denzel had lent his students for the little ‘tournament’ that Yuliah had started to help her find people suitable to become students at the Adventurers School.

Breastplates and staves like the ones Hal had destroyed were very expensive to replace and with Ben’s spear and Raina’s leather armour in the condition they were in there was little point even trying to fix them.

Of course, Jerald himself had done much more damage to the equipment the guards who had fled with Denzel which basically meant that they would have to get new equipment in along with some new recruits which was not something that Jerald was looking forward to explaining to his future superiors when they arrived.

Kyle only really started paying attention to what was going around him when Yuliah announced that they would be leaving for Greenhearth the following day.

“What!?” Kyle had shouted upon hearing this, much to the amusement of those around him. He had been oddly quiet all morning and even Fi had been surprised when he had reacted as suddenly as that and turned her head to glare reproachfully at him as his voice continued to echo in her ears.

“Sorry Fi,” he apologised to the irritated serpent looking around the room in embarrassment.

“Please continue Yuliah,” he requested as the others struggled to hide their laughter.

“Like I said before, we will be leaving for Greenhearth early tomorrow morning,” Yuliah continued as a smirk threatened to break through her stern expression. “So, I expect all of you to take care of everything you need to today.”

Leaving their parents to work out the details Hal and Kyle headed over to Bernard’s forge, while he had been gone Bernard had made him another chain from another old set of long manacles donated by the guards and had taken the rough one that he had made home with him last night so that he could make it into a proper weapon for his son’s best friend.

“So, what do you think of all this anyway,” Kyle asked as they walked along the street. The village was bustling with activity, after everything that had happened over the past couple of days everyone was understandably on edge. Most of the people in the streets were armed with their weapon of choice, with most of their guards out of action no one wanted to take any chances.

“Of what,” Hal muttered back at his friend. “The armed people walking the streets or our upcoming trip.”

“Either,” Kyle shrugged. “Both; take your pick.”

“I think that they know something we don’t and while I am looking forward to seeing what this school is like, I’m a little nervous,” Hal replied succinctly. “Things are going to be very different in Greenhearth, well maybe apart from the number of weapons you see as you walk down the street.”

Both of them were in complete agreement on this, neither of them had gone far from Farholt in their lives or seen a non-human race like an elf or dwarf so Greenhearth promised to broaden their horizons in ways they had yet to even imagine.

Fi rolled her eyes as the two boys excitedly started talking about the things that they were most looking forward to seeing when they got to Greenhearth and the sensible little serpent made a mental note to tell them not to act this way when they got to Greenhearth. Acting like country bumpkins was a good way to get themselves robbed, beaten up or both. Just because some Adventurers were decent people didn’t mean that there weren’t some who acted little better than simple thugs, using their high Levels to push around weaker people and most of them wouldn’t take kindly to two kids going on about how they had never seen an elf before.

Walking into the blacksmith shop they greeted Bernard cheerfully as the large man waved them into the forge where two lengths of chain awaited them, each one had what looked like a modified bracelet on one end so that Kyle could attach them firmly to his forearms and a weight about the size of Kyle’s fist attached on the other end, unlike the last chain the weights on these ones were shaped more like the hexagonal head of his father’s mace.

Weighted Iron Chain

Item Tier (Rarity): High Quality (Unusual)

Weapon type: Chain

Weapon damage: 8-11 Blunt

Durability: 12/12

A weapon made from an old set of long manacles that were used to chain dangerous prisoners to the wall of their cell. It has been almost completely remade into an item suitable for use in combat.

Crafters: Bernard Guthrie and Hal Guthrie.

Seeing the vastly improved stats that these two blacksmiths could produce even when using the same materials when given a reasonable length of time caused Kyle’s eyes to literally shine with gratitude. Bernard and his family had always treated his well, even when most of the village hated them.

“It’s fine Kyle,” Bernard waved off the thanks that he knew was coming. “This way you can either pick up the Dual Wielding Skill or keep one as a spare weapon as you see fit.”

Kyle nodded at this, last night he had mentioned to Hal that he was considering picking up the Dual Wielding Skill due to the low damage that his chains dealt in comparison to most weapons. If he used a sword instead even without Sword Fighting the minimum base damage was just as high as the maximum damage of these new chains. On the other hand, his chain had lot more reach than a sword, so the trade-off had them both coming out as pretty much even in terms of how useful they were.

Hefting the weapon he noted that the weight had quite a bit more heft to it than the previous one which was probably the factor that had increased the damage so dramatically from the crude one that Bernard had given him before he and Jerald had gone after the guards.

“There’s just one thing I want you to promise me Kyle,” Bernard continued.

“Name it.”

“I want you two to keep supporting each other the way you have,” Bernard said seriously. “Even if Hal never really becomes a true Adventurer, friendship like the one you two have is too important to let go of.”

Kyle blinked as he stared at Bernard in bewilderment, this request had come completely out of the blue and as far as Kyle could see the answer didn’t even require a single thought.

“Of course,” he replied simply causing the large smith to grin happily. Bernard hadn’t doubted what Kyle’s answer would be but it was a relief to hear it nonetheless, he knew full well how powerful the boy would become in the future and even if his son decided that the adventuring life wasn’t for him having a powerful Adventurer as a friend was always a good idea for someone who made weapons for Adventurers and other rough types.

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Taking the chains with them and bidding farewell to Bernard and Herman who had been sleeping in front of the furnace when they walked in but had been woken up by the activity the two boys and Fi left.

“Where should we go now?” Kyle wondered as they stood outside Hal’s home.

“I think Thomas wanted us to pop by, how about we head over to the church?” Hal suggested.

Kyle agreed with this idea, he probably needed to have a talk with Sonia before they left anyway so it made sense for them to do that.

“Alright, but after this I should probably find my parents so that I can go home and pack.”

It wasn’t far to the church which had a small living area in the back where Sonia and Thomas lived and soon the two boys found themselves drinking tea with Sonia and Jess who had been waiting for them to arrive.

Thomas was out preparing whatever it was that he had called them around for, so they sat making light conversation for a while until they heard him return home. Jess still seemed worried about what had happened to Ryan but she was happy for the other three who had decided to leave Farholt behind and she took part in the conversations involving their plans for when they arrived as much as possible and even ended up getting talked into visiting them when Sonia learned enough that she could take part in the shows that the Musician’s Guild put on. She still had no plans to leave Farholt herself but now that Denzel was no longer in charge of the guards she expected that things were going to change a lot around Farholt.

“Ah, you’re here,” Thomas noted as he walked into the room carrying a small bundle in his arms.

“Hey Thomas,” Kyle said. “What’ve you got there?”

The old priest opened the bundle to reveal several small crystal orbs.

“These are Communication Orbs that I made for you guys,” he explained passing them around to the three friends.

“Are you sure Thomas?” Kyle asked. “Aren’t these really expensive to make?”

Communication Orbs were one of the few ways that people could reliably keep in contact with people at a distance, but they were expensive and difficult to make so people usually used the ones that existed for public use. You could link these orbs with other Communication Orbs by simply holding them up against each other.

“Yes, but that doesn’t matter much to me,” Thomas replied with a smile, if he cared about making money he wouldn’t have become a priest in a small village like Farholt after all.

Seeing that he had no intentions of taking them back Kyle and the others thanked Thomas who told them to channel some of their Mana into the orbs to bind them so that no one could use them without their permission.

After they had registered each other’s Communication Orb Kyle took his leave of the other tree explaining that he had to return to the farm to retrieve the rest of his things for the following day promising to meet his friends back at Al’s inn later that night as Sammy had decided that they would be throwing a big party to celebrate three kids from the same village getting invited to the Adventurers School which was a very rare occurrence for a village as small as Farholt.

Smiling at the happy sounds of his friends enjoying themselves together for what may the one of the last times they would be able to for years Kyle walked out of the church.

“Are you sure Kyle?” Fi asked. “Your parents wouldn’t mind taking care of the packing for you.”

“No,” Kyle shook his head, while his friends were naturally very important to him he wanted to see the house he grew up in one last time as it was looking like his parents were going to move into town now that Jerald was taking over Denzel’s job. In fact, other than his and his parents’ friends he didn’t have very many good memories of Farholt though he had to admit that thing had gotten a lot better in recent years.

He found his mother at the outside the local butcher with a box of meat in her arms which he promptly took from her.

“Where are dad and Kelly,” he asked looking around for them.

“Sammy has Kelly and your father is at the guard barracks trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Jerald had been taking the idea of being the new captain of the guards pretty hard, he had spent the past 15 odd years of his life as a farmer and now people wanted him to run an entire barracks worth of guards which as far as he was concerned wasn’t something he was qualified to do.

“He worries too much,” Kyle remarked as they headed in the direction of the guard barracks looking for Jerald. “Everyone else thinks he can do it so why doesn’t he just accept it?”

Emma glanced sideways at her son, she knew that he wanted Jerald to accept the position and she agreed that her husband would do a better job of it than Denzel but in the end the only person who would actually be able to convince Jerald that this was the case was Jerald himself.

“Never mind that, let’s just find him and Digby so that we can go home and get your things,” Emma said with a smile. “You want to be back in town for the party, right?”

They found Jerald pacing back and forth in what used to be Denzel’s office, Jerald didn’t even notice them walk in and kept mumbling to himself about something.

“Jerald!” Emma shouted trying to capture her husband’s attention after being ignored for almost a minute attention.

“Hmm?” Jerald looked up from the tracks he was wearing in the floorboards with a look of surprise on his face. “Oh, hey you two.”

“Hey dad, what’s up?”

Jerald stared at his son wondering whether he should finally tell him about what he had found in the forest, but Emma caught his eye and slowly shook her head. Kyle didn’t need to know that the boogieman she had told him stories about when he was a child might be making a move after all these years.

“Oh, you know son just trying to come to terms with my new position is all,” Jerald said chuckling weakly.

“Well anyway, we should head home,” Jerald said attempting to change the subject. “You have to pack for the big move, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well let’s get going then,” Jerald said feeling relieved both because he wanted to get away from Denzel’s office and because of the look his wife had given him when he had considered telling Kyle about his suspicions regarding the empire.

The trip home was a fairly uneventful one, but Ai did decide to hum a little tune from atop Emma’s shoulders as they walked along the road to home making Kyle smile as he remembered the times she had sung him to sleep as a kid. It seemed that Ai was going to miss him more than she would normally care to admit.

Back at the farm they packed up everything that Kyle would need when he was in Greenhearth and put as much as possible into Fi’s Inventory leaving Kyle with a small backpack that held a few clothes and odds and ends.

After they had done this Kyle spent some time just walking around the house that he had grown up in while Jerald went and did some work in the fields with Digby.

“Are you alright Kyle?” Emma asked as he walked into the kitchen with a melancholy look on his face.

“I was just thinking that I’ll probably never come back here,” Kyle sighed. “You guys are planning on moving to town, right?”

“I see, so that’s what this is all about,” Emma laughed. “You’re not even gone yet and you’re already homesick.”

“Uh, yeah,” Kyle blushed at his mother’s words.

“Kyle, dear Adventurers can go their whole lives without ever settling down in one place for longer than a few weeks,” Emma said. “Before we had you that was the life your father and I led.”

“Do you miss it?”

“A little,” Emma nodded. “But if you want to be an Adventurer you have to understand that’s the sort of life you’re going to live.”

Fi nodded in agreement from where she sat on the table, “That’s right Kyle, this is just something you have to get used to.”

“Thanks, you two,” Kyle laughed already feeling much better now that he had talked about what was troubling him. “Well then I suppose we should get going, we’ve got a party to be at!”

Seeing Kyle smiling again Emma and Fi started laughing, nothing could keep Kyle down for long but Emma’s laughter sounded slightly forced, she knew that the life her son had chosen would be a hard one and though she was proud of both the decision he made and the work he had done in the past few years she couldn’t help but worry about him.

“Fi, look after him for me,” she whispered down at the companion as Kyle left.

“Of course,” Fi answered simply.

When they got back to Farholt the inn was full to the brim with celebrating villagers, even those who were still unsure about how they felt regarding the situation with Denzel had decided to put things on hold and celebrate the fact that three of their own had been invited to the Adventurers School in Greenhearth.

Yuliah looked around the room with some amusement, out of the people who were invited to the school only around half would make it in, so she thought that this party was a bit premature but she couldn’t deny that it was likely that Kyle and Hal would get in at the very least and Sonia was soon proving why she was going with them to Greenhearth with a stirring rendition of a famous ballad.

Seeing her sitting by herself Kyle wandered over, “How’s it going?”

“Well, thank you,” she replied looking at the young man standing before her. He seemed quite different from the boy she had met two days ago.

“You Levelled up in the Zone, didn’t you?” she asked, recognising the signs of someone who had been up close and personal with monsters.

“Yeah, saw a rabbit change too,” he said with a shudder as he remembered the event which had led him to his first kill.

Yuliah blanched at this, seeing an innocent animal change into a monster wasn’t a pleasant experience and you never got used to seeing it. Many Adventurers picked up the habit of killing animals in Zones before they were mutated, this didn’t award them with any experience, but they saw it as the humane thing to do.

“Yeah that’s no fun,” she sighed. “But more importantly; are you looking forward to the trip?”

“Yeah,” Kyle answered. “It’s going to be difficult at first, but I think it’s something I need to do.”

That’s a good way to look at it,” Yuliah nodded as someone shouted out Kyle’s name from across the room.

“Your friends are calling you,” she laughed waving the young man away with a laugh.

The party went on late into the night and Kyle could honestly say that this was his fondest memory of Farholt; spending time with his friends and family with no Denzel around to ruin everything. But in the end, he knew that he had to leave tomorrow.

As he bid his tired friends goodnight and walked upstairs the smile that had been on his face all night only widened further. Feeling the same sense of excitement and trepidation that all people felt when leaving home for the first time he got into bed.

As far as he was concerned; morning couldn’t come fast enough.