After a short conversation with Herald Dante saw his parents walking up and had an idea.

He turned to address the everyone. "Hey guys why don't we adventure together for the day? We will probably go slower but there is a strength to numbers." Dante spoke loud enough for everyone in the two groups to hear him.

He looked to his parents and Califa who simply nodded, fine with the prospect as a temporary arrangement.

James Looked to each of his party members hold a vote.

In the end it was a near unanimous decision to tag along for the day. The only dissenting vote being David before Hannah elbowed him, hurting her funny bone but getting him withdraw his objections in the process.

James stepped forward extending out his hand. "We would be glad to adventure with you and your companions." He said while smiling.

Dante took a step away from Herald to meet James and taking his hand, shaking it. The the blue box arrived.

Party leaders you have chosen to adventure together and as such new information is available to you and your party members! When two or more adventuring parties join forces they become what is called by the system, a legion. Legions are two or more groups of players acting together towards a common goal. As the party leaders would you like to name this Legion?

Dante and James looked to the blue box before them and then each other.

"Should we?" James asked raising an eyebrow. The tone of his voice denoting his amusement.

"Fuck it, why not?" Dante said with a shrug.

After several minutes of group discussion the name chosen came to be...

Congratulations to then new Legion, "Adventures Inc."

Dante was slightly annoyed and mildly amused by the name that had been chosen. It reminded him of both Mystery Inc. from Scooby doo, as well as Acquisitions Inc. an awesome D&D group on YouTube.

"How about we check out the lake? Have any of you guys been to the lake?" Dante asked curiously.

Everyone shook their heads except Califa. "I have its very nice. It reminds me of the lake near my house back home." Califa said with a beaming smile.

Nodding Dante addressed the legion once more. "So do you guys want to make a stop by the lake first or just march towards the edge of the zone?" he asked.

"It would be nice to see the lake before we head out." James pitched in.

"I bet the zone gets harder the farther from this town you get." David interjected.

"We can just backtrack if we get in over our heads. Besides we have three healers." James exclaimed as he motioned towards Hannah, Frank, and Laura.

After another quick vote it was decided to head to the lake for a few minutes before heading out towards the edge of the Zone.

So it was that Adventure's Inc began their journey to wealth and experience.

-------------------------------------------

They arrived to find dozens of people fishing and swimming all over the sizable lake. He even saw a few pedal powered boats going around, it was rather nice to see. The lake was about half a mile in diameter.

The small lake was shallow out to about 50 feet from shore before it began to drop off fast leading to black depths.

'I wonder if there is anything hidden down there? That's one of the places I would hide secret things in a tutorial zone. Note to self learn the spell water breathing, or a similar skill.' he thought with a smile.

Dante patted Herald on the back as he departed from his side and rejoined James at the front.

"Should we ask some of the people fishing if they have got a fishing skill? Maybe we can find out about some interesting skills." Dante spoke to James.

"Not a bad idea. Let's go talk to this guy over here." James said as he motioned towards the middle aged man with a beard, who was wearing a red cap, and sitting in a lawn chair. His pant legs were rolled up and he was bare footed. All the while he held a fishing rod in his hands.

Dante nodded as he turned to everyone. "Ok guys break off and do your own thing for a few minutes while we go chat with some of the people." Dante said much to the joy of several party members, including his parents.

Frank immediately slapped his chest plate causing it to vanish in a flash along with the rest of his armor. This left him in a t-shirt and military black pants. In near perfect sync Dante watched as his parents waved their hands across their faces. When their hands had passed they were both now wearing shades with wide smiles on their faces.

"Show offs." Dante spoke quietly with a look of mild annoyance.

Dante and James looked to the approaching individuals and then to each other before Dante said, "I think they are looking for you! See you later." Grabbing James by the arm he began moving them towards the still seated man.

---------------------

"Excuse us sir! Can we have a moment of your time?" Dante asked the seated man.

"Whatever you're selling I ain't buying! I already have been converted to one of these new religions. Or rather an old one, and I ain't got enough money to buy your bullshit." The bearded man said with a hearty laugh and a smile as he held up a small coin upon a chain necklace.

Focusing for a moment to examine the small gold coin he saw the figure of a woman upon side of the coin he could see.

+1 Per...

"May I have your name good sir and the name of your... lady? I'm assuming she is the one on that coin your wearing?" Dante asked curiously.

"My name is Jack Russell. Like the Dog. As for the name of "My Lady", her name is Fortuna, an old Roman goddess of fortune." Jack said then kissed the small gold coin and placed it back upon his chest. "Anyway, what brings you here? You don't seem to be trying to sell me anything. What are your names?"

"Oh we saw you were fishing and just wondered if you had obtained the fishing skill yet. My name is James and this is Dante." James said before Dante could, causing him to roll his eyes a bit.

"Oh? Why yes I have. Basically the second you pick up a fishing rod or anything similar you get a simple quest, catch X amount of fish. X being variable on what tool your using to catch the fish. I picked up the fishing skill and by the looks of it..." He said while pointing to his left to a group of four about 100 feet away. One man was knee deep in the lake stabbing into the water with what seemed to be a harpoon.

"I think there is a harpoon fishing skill. The fishing skill I have basically acts like a sort of lure. The higher it is the more likely fish are to come your way. So you see..." Jack paused for a moment as he yanked his fishing rod.

The end of the poll bent back and forth as Jack fought with the fish he had hooked.

"A little help here!" Jack strained as he fought a losing battle against what seemed like a monstrous fish. Dante stepped forward and grabbed the line before beginning to pull it in hand over hand with relative ease. Jack stood for a moment stunned before he began frantically reeling in the slack line, making sure that it didn't tangle as he reeled it in.

"In addition to the lure effect it gives other minor effects, small bonus to luck, Dex, and Strength. Small increase to the durability of any fishing tool your holding. I suspect the effects increase with higher rarity versions of the skill. Like that boys spearfishing." He said pointing back towards the blonde shirtless man.

A minute later Dante caught a glimpse of the fish that had given Jack such a fight and he laughed.

Dante reached out with his mind and tried using Telekinesis to pull the giant goldfish from the water. Despite his elevated stats he still wasn't very proficient with Telekinesis. So, the best he could do at the moment was use his skill to create a sort of fence around the fish and slowly bring it in.

"Holy Shit! Its the size of a fucking dog!" Jack exclaimed as he watched the fish being slowly pulled into the shallows.

Congratulations! Your skill Telekinesis has leveled up! Lvl. 5->8!...

"Fuck this thing must weigh 30 pounds!" Dante said, as he placed his arms under the massive goldfish and lifted it a bit out of the water to test its weight.

After testing its weight he settled for "fencing" it into a five by five feet circle of water.

"Well at least now we know the fish here won't be murdering anyone." Dante said with a smile motioning for Jack to claim his prize.

Jack handed his fishing rod over to James for a moment as he took a few steps forward towards Dante. "Why isn't it leaving?" Jack asked, confused as he watched the massive goldfish swimming in a sizable circle but not beyond.

"I have a skill called Telekinesis. Moving shit with my mind. It also allows me to build temporary mental constructs. Like fences." Dante said with a small bit of pride.

Jack paused for a moment looking at him before saying, "I won't argue with you about that. It ain't the strangest thing I've seen since the system came. Anyway thanks for helping me catch the thing for my quest."

Dante moved aside as Jack stepped into the small fish kennel. "Quest? Did you have a quest to catch this fish?" Dante asked, a bit confused.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Sure do. Fortuna asked me to and I quote, "Catch a fish of gold." I thought it would be impossible but thought I would try anyway. Now then..." Jack paused as he pulled off his necklace and held onto the fish's spinal fin and pressed the necklace to its forehead. "Fortuna, may you bless this fish of gold." Jack said.

The coin on his necklace began to glow for a moment and they watched as the almost tarnished copper like scales of the Goldfish became immaculate and mirror like golden scales. Jack removed the hook from the fish's mouth and then turned to Dante.

"You can let him go now."

Dante raised an eyebrow but did as he asked allowing the telekinetic fence to drop. What surprised him was that the fish didn't immediately bolt. Instead it swam up to Jack's left leg and almost seemed to rub against him much like how a cat would. It did this four times before it swam back to deeper depths.

"Hell Yeah! +10 Luck that makes 130!" Jack suddenly exclaimed as a blue box appeared before him.

Dante waited a moment but nothing appeared before him.

Jack turned toward Dante smiling. "Thanks to your help not only was I able to finish that quest for +10 luck I also leveled up as a Fisherman. Works well with my lady don't you think?" Jack beamed with joy.

"It does. Anyway, I think we will be going to talk to those guys down there now." Dante said as he extended out his hand to shake Jack's hand.

Jack reached out and shook Dante's hand before saying, "May the blessing of Fortuna carry you through this day."

Dante felt something wash over him before a notice appeared.

+5 Luck till days end...

"Thank you... By the way how many levels have you gained since the system arrived?" Dante asked, honestly curious.

Jack looked at him for a moment before smiling.

"I think I'll keep that little bit to myself!" Jack said, as he gave a small chuckle.

As Dante turned to walk from the lake Jack grabbed his arm and said, "My lady wishes to speak with you if you would permit?"

Jack asked with a surprised and mildly concerned look in his eyes.

For a moment his eyes widened before he slowly nodded.

'A god wants to talk to me?...Well I suppose it wouldn't be the first time...More like the third actually.' He thought a bit of his caution wearing away a the humor of the thought.

He watched as Jack's eyes became what appeared to be a polished and very reflective gold. The voice that came from his mouth was not the one he had been expecting from lady luck.

It was the voice of an older woman.

"I see you...You whom fate seems to bend around. Upon you the threads of fate are woven into something... more..." The voice paused, as the being seemed to look not only at him but through and around him. As if watching something seen only to them. Slowly they turned their head as if following something with their eyes, until they were looking at the group a hundred feet away. Where the man was still spearfishing and three women were sunbathing on chairs on the beach.

They brought their attention back to Dante and continued.

"I come to you with a favor to ask. If you would grant this old god a chance. Please would you do me the kindness of spreading my name along your travels? I am weakened for the moment so I can only give you so much but I beg you..." Her voice grew more strained as she continued until the body coughed and reflexively a hand came up to his mouth only to come away bloody.

Seeing this Dante called for his parents.

"Mom! Dad! Get over here!" He spun around looking for his parent as he exclaimed. In a moment they were upon him and then they were healing Jack's body.

'He must not be strong enough to hold the part that's talking. It's grinding him down.' The thought dark and frightening.

Even as the body healed, the goddess did not speak she stared at him through eyes not her own, unblinking.

Thoughts raced through Dante's mind as he considered and in the end he saw but one choice.

"I will help you, and one day you shall help another. They shall pay forward that kindness, and the next, and the next and so on down the chain of time. The world will be a little brighter for it." He spoke remembering helping people in college with this or that. Seldom did he ask for something in return instead he asked they simply help another, paying it forward.

Fortuna smiled through Jack and placed his hands upon Dante's. Much to his surprise he felt that door in the back of his mind open up once more and there in his mind he saw a story not unlike his own.

He saw a heartbroken boy, the lone survivor of a car accident that had killed his parents.

Taken in by his immigrant grandmother who hailed from Rome. When he was 16 she gave him the necklace she always wore, the same one he wore now.

Soon after she got sick and after a 5 year battle with cancer she died.

Jack mourned for the last of his family was gone but still he held onto that necklace determined to make it in the world. Never forgetting where he came from.

The door closed and once more he heard her weak voice. No longer from Jack's mouth but a voice on the wind.

Then we have bargain...

The golden mirrors that were Jack's eyes returned to their normal brown. Jack pulled back his hands and looking down Dante found 5 necklaces just like the one that Jack wore. With a thought they were stored away in his inventory.

Quest has arrived!...

Recruitment for Lady Luck! For every person you recruit for the faith of Fortuna the lady of luck you will be granted a small bonus to your luck. 0/5 currently recruited

You have discovered a Chain Quest!...

Complete the quest to unlock the next quest in the series...

Lady luck smiles upon you...

'Hm...seems like a good deal to me. Something repeatable to help increase my luck without spending points.' he thought with a smile.

Dante and Jack nodded to one another before stepping out of the lake.

Even with healing magic it still took him a moment to walk on his own again. When he could walk he went back to his chair and plopped down to rest.

Dante used Purify to clean everyone who had been in the water off over the course of a minute.

He saw his parents speaking to him making sure he was alright before the group moved on.

Dante stepped up and asked a question.

"One more thing. Do you think your ladies luck equals the luck of all her followers combined or something like that?" he asked.

Jack placed a hand on his chin. He looked about ready to answer before he stopped for a moment. A few seconds later he chuckled.

"She says it's something like that."

Dante smiled as he turned to leave in his freshly dried, and magically cleaned boots.

------------------------------------------------

Dante and James walked over to find three Asian women in bathing suits laying back on some beach chairs enjoying the warm sunshine. All the while a well built shirtless blonde Asian man in red trunks was spear fishing in the lake.

He was almost like a male model in how toned his body was.

Dante called out and waved to them as he and James drew near. They did the same and the spear fisherman stepped out of the water waiting to greet them.

The man that stood before them as they approached looked familiar to Dante but he couldn't quite place it. The spear fisherman had flawless skin, his silky blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail with bangs hanging on the left side of his forehead. The man's eyes were orange which struck Dante as a bit odd, but not really something he thought to worry about.

"Hello there I'm Dante and this is James we saw you spear fishing and were wondering if you had gotten the fishing skill or anything like that?" Dante said as he stretched out his hand to shake the man's hand.

The blond man reached out and shook Dante's hand and then James' as he said. "Yeah I have gotten it and the spear fishing skill. High, I'm Motoyasu by the way." He said causing both James and Dante to freeze.

They looked at each other and then all three of them looked as the three girls began laughing at them.

'Even his voice...' Dante thought before he shook off the shock.

"Bullshit! You can't be..." Dante's words were cut off as the man's harpoon glowed for a moment before transforming into a spear. It was only now that he noticed the large red jewel that was part of the spearhead.

Motoyasu chuckled as he watched their expressions shift through several emotions over the course of a few seconds.

"Now this was unexpected..." spoke James.

"How the fuck...?" Dante asked, his voice light and lacking much power.

"I can answer that." Said one of the women sunbathing. The woman in question was thin and about average height. Everything else was also average. Her raven black hair in a bowl cut swayed as she stood and walked over to them.

"Hello my name is Rena Amaku. And yes, Motoyasu isn't this guy's real name." She said as he place a hand on his shoulder

"Hey my name is Motoyasu now! The system recognizes it and everything!" He complained with a pouting face.

"Ok why are you the spitting image of the spear hero from Rising of the Shield hero?" James chimed in having shaken off the immediate shock.

Once more Rena chimed in, "When the system came this guy wasn't...well let's just say ladies looked at him and turned the other way." She spoke as Motoyasu frowned at the bitter memory.

"So he asked the system if it could change his appearance and it said it could for a price. It told him it could convert all the money in his back account into the systems currency to help him pay for it. So he accepted. Then spent every last copper piece he had and then some on making himself look like this." Rena motioned to Motoyasu's entire body as she said that.

'Probably even had his dick size adjusted. I wouldn't doubt the system could do it. I bet a lot of people have probably used that.' Dante thought for a moment before he realized something he should have realized sooner.

'...ah they probably already got that fixed so...moving on...' He thought not wishing to dwell on the thought.

"Ok that explains that. You're a fan of the show Rising of the shield hero?" Dante asked really wanting to know what the fuck was going on.

"Yeah. We all are fans of the show. I wanted to be this guy." Motoyasu said as he indicated towards himself.

"As for the rest of us we like the show because we are all pretty similar to the other hero's." Rena said as she motioned towards the two others still sitting in their long beach chairs.

In the middle of the three chairs was a shorter Asian women with messy shoulder length blonde hair. Her emerald eyes reminiscent of Dante's hazel eyes.

"That's Itsuki Kowasaki, our Bow hero." Rena said to which Itsuki produced a bow from seemingly nowhere. It's appearance is nearly identical to the default form of the bow in the show. A yellow gem there in its middle. Clearly making it incapable of firing real arrows.

Rena held up a hand, "I'm getting there. Next is Naomi Iwatani. She, unlike the shield hero, has three siblings."

On the chair closest to them laid a woman whose height seemed about the same as Rena's. Her hair also raven black was smooth and tied back in a bun. She turned to them revealing her emerald eyes.

Immediately memory flashed across his mind and he knew he had found the right person. But, he could still wait a moment longer.

"She unfortunately doesn't have her legendary weapon like the rest of us do." Rena said eliciting a stare from Dante and motioning for her to keep going from Dante.

Picking up on what he wanted Rena twisted her hand in the air like she was twirling a sword and then she was.

The sword of the Sword hero appeared in her hand, a bright blue gem in the hilt.

"Has anything about the weapons changed or have you not noticed anything? How did you even get them?" Dante asked curiously.

Dante looked over to Motoyasu who was now wearing a white t-shirt and putting on a red open chest jacket.

"When the system came and he changed his appearance we all met up when we arrived and looked up the legendary weapons in the store. We were so hopeful and for a second they weren't there. The system screen fritzed and suddenly they were there. Each of us selected one of the weapons and apparently since we were the first to believe in them, and each of us got one. The only one of us left out was Naomi. None of the Legendary weapons in the store chose her like they did us." Rena paused for a moment taking a breath and allowing for other questions to be asked.

Seeing the weapons Dante pulled out his parrying shield. It was identical to the legendary shield's default form. He had bought it for just that reason. The rest of them looked at him in awe as he stared into the gem. The gem almost seemed to shine for a moment, almost encouraging Dante.

Dante walked over to Naomi and presented her the parrying shield. "He found and bid me to find you." Dante said. Naomi was stunned to speechlessness.

She had given up on having the legendary shield when she couldn't find it in the store. Even as her friends received their items she lost what little faith she had in the shield. She had been so depressed hiding it behind a smiling mask to make her friends feel better. But could things change now?

Naomi reached out for a moment and after a second of hesitation pulled the shield from Dante's grasp and held it tight to her chest.

Everyone was silent as they looked on, hoping to be proven right.

In that moment that she took the shield, she hoped no, she believed, that she had been chosen to be the shield hero. In that moment she felt faith in the shield and was not disappointed.

Everyone else watched in expectation and hoped for what was to come. Dante looked to Naomi now holding her new shield and for but a moment he saw the glimmer of light come from the large green glass crystal that adorned its face. Naomi's eyes went wide for a moment.

For a moment she stood dumbstruck but then her eyes filled with something else, Determination.

"I will!"